Prayer
Heavenly Father, my Sustainer, my Redeemer, and my God. I give you thanks this morning, for all of your goodness to me. I praise you, that you are holy, pure, blameless and good. You do all things well. I lift my eyes to you, help me to be fully satisfied and content with you in every moment. Please feed my soul now as I read your word, lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from the evil one. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
Reading
Psalm 90 & James 4.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1.
Meditation.
Genesis 1:1 is a rich vein of gold in the mine of God’s word. It is the beginning of an artery of theology that flows into the entirety of the rest of scripture. We have begun to see something of that in our meditations already. We do need to move on in to the rest of the Genesis prologue, but it is worth our while to spend at least one more meditation looking down the shaft of this gold mine to catch another glimpse of glory. There are four final things about God we will briefly touch on in this meditation.
First, we see here that God is eternal. “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God” (Ps 90:2). What does it mean to say that God is eternal? In a broad sense, that’s an easy question to answer (or, at least, so it seems to me!). To say that God is eternal is to say that he transcends time. Genesis 1:1 certainly gives us this insight clearly: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”. There you have it! God was there before the beginning, and God established the beginning itself! He is beyond time. Before the beginning of time, although one cannot really call it “before” because time didn’t exist yet, and “before” is a time-marking word… (this is a doctrine that you will find taxing to the mind!). God’s eternal nature is referring to the fact that he transcends time. “God’s eternity is his lordship over time that exalts him above its limitations” (Beeke & Smalley, Systematic Theology Vol 1, p.663). Just take a couple of minutes now and ponder this. God transcends time. Try to get your head around what that actually means, and wonder at the transcendent glory of God.
Second, we see that God is immense. This is the being who formed the cosmos. The thing made is not greater than one who made it, and certainly that is the case with God. This universe, in which we live, is so vast that even with the advantages of modern technology – we cannot span its immensity. And yet, quite simply, God made it. The psalmist reaches in to the immensity of God, and begins to show us his glory:
“O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.”
- Psalm 139:1-12.
Third, we see that God is a spiritual being. In John 4:24 Jesus states this plainly: “God is spirit” and, standing as he does outside of the realm of created matter, we see this to be true in Genesis 1:1. There is much we could say about this, but perhaps most pressingly we may consider one simple thing. The day will come when your body will fail you, and you will depart fully into that realm of which we partake in part now. Our souls will no longer be tethered to the material, and we will stand – unclothed – before our Maker. When you die, you will be at his mercy, a spirit in the presence of the Almighty. How crucial it is, then, that we do business with him now – that we prepare against that day. To those who seek him now through Christ, there will be a refuge for the soul in that day, salvation and deliverance from the judgment that we deserve for the things done in the body.
Fourth, we see that God is sovereign. Many times in our lives we feel as though things are out of control. When some disturbing diagnosis is given to us from a doctor, as age and weakness creeps in on our bodies, as we sail a vessel on the ocean, and the waves and waters rise high. We are small, we are weak, and there is much that is outside of our control. God holds the very universe, with all it’s supernovas and disasters, in the palm of his hand. Nothing is outside of his control, he is Almighty, he made all things, and all things belong to him.
Be ye doers of the word…
Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
and with fear and trembling stand;
ponder nothing earthly minded,
for, with blessing in His hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
our full homage to demand.
Rank on rank the host of heaven
spreads its vanguard on the way,
as the Light of light descendeth
from the realms of endless day,
that the pow'rs of hell may vanish
as the darkness clears away.
At His feet the six-winged seraph,
cherubim with sleepless eye,
veil their faces to the Presence,
as with ceaseless voice they cry,
“Alleluia, alleluia,
alleluia, Lord Most High!”
It is an old hymn, and yet a fitting response to what we have learned. If I can give you one application to take away from this meditation, let it be this: as you read the narratives of scripture, and as you read scripture in all its parts, let this question ever be upon your mind: What can I learn here about God? If this question was the only one that you brought to your reading of scripture, then you would find an endless fountain of glorious refreshment and instruction in it’s pages. Take that question with you, bring it to your readings of the word of God, and pray and ask the Lord that he may increase your knowledge and love of him in the asking. SDG.
Prayer of Confession & Consecration.
Dear Lord, please forgive me for so frequently allowing my mind to drift from you. Please forgive me for occupying my thoughts and affections with created things, which afford at best only a tiny glimpse of your beauty and glory as their Creator. Help me always, Lord, to be turning my eyes upon Jesus, to set my mind on things above not on things below. Please show me continually new sights of your majesty in your word and in your creation, that I might worship you in spirit and in truth. Pardon my iniquities, and my sin, for it is great. Deliver me this day, I pray, from the lies and power of the evil one, and when temptation presses hard again me, cause me to meekly and humbly wait upon you, who is my refuge and my fortress. This I pray also for your people in my local church, that they too may turn their eyes to you, and behold your glory in Christ, that their hearts may be filled with the knowledge of you. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
Day 10: Beginning to know God... (Gen 1:1).