Prayer
Heavenly Father, I praise and thank you for sustaining me through the night, and for giving me the gift of another day of life. I thank you for your tender loving mercies toward me, and for fresh stores of grace in Christ to meet with me this morning. As I lift my eyes to you, Lord please meet me now and feed my soul. My need is great, and without the bread of your word to feed my soul, I will perish and fail today. Please give us this day our daily bread, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. My soul looks up to you, and I pray also that you would meet with and feed your people this day. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
Reading
Isaiah 6 & Revelation 4.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”Genesis 1:1.
Meditation
As we’ve seen, the Pentateuch is a historical narrative, and when we’re reading biblical narrative we need to give attention to the people that the writer to chooses to focus on. In any narrative, historical or fictional, understanding the people or characters in the story is crucial for understanding the story itself. With this in mind, anytime a new person appears in the narrative, we should automatically ask: Who is this person? What’s their role and significance? In Genesis 1:1, we are introduced to the most important person of all when it comes to biblical narrative. We are introduced to God himself. And so before we begin to delve down into the narrative itself, we begin with this question: Who is God? In Genesis 1:1 I believe that we find at least seven key insights into the person and character of God, the first of which is the fact that he is holy – which will be our key meditation in this devotion and the next.
Genesis 1:1, with perfect clarity, reveals this singular transcendent excellence as to the nature and character of God: he is holy. Now maybe you’re thinking: what on earth is he talking about? Genesis 1:1 does not say that God is holy! Well, true enough, it doesn’t use those words, but nevertheless the concept of God’s holiness could not be clearer. Genesis 1:1 is possibly the most elegant and efficient expression of God’s holiness in the entire Bible. But let me explain what I mean by that.
One of first things that Genesis 1:1 teaches us is that there is a categorical difference between God and his creation. I trust that you can see that? On the one hand you’ve got the creation, on the other hand, you’ve got God as the Creator – those are the two key elements in the verse, and they represent a fundamental distinction. In other words, there are two categories: created being (the heavens and the earth) and uncreated being (God). This distinction in the text is basic: created being and uncreated being, God and stuff. In the beginning we have God already in existence, that is to say: he existed before the beginning!
We live in an amazing world. In this vast creation we find birds, trees, animals, fruit, people, creation, stars, suns, and supernovas. But before any of it existed, God existed. In this way we can see that God is actually separate from his creation. He’s distinct from it, he is “other”. God is uncreated, self-existent being. And, in the basic sense, that’s essentially what holiness really is. When we say that “God is holy”, what we’re saying is that he is in a transcendent category of his own. He is uncreated.
Now maybe this is new to you. I think that often when we use the word “holiness” the first thing we think about is moral purity. And while there’s an important insight there, the true essence of God’s holiness is not his moral purity. We actually have another word for God’s moral purity: righteousness. No, God’s holiness certainly includes his moral purity, and since the world fell the moral purity of God as opposed to our moral corruption is a key point of distinction. However, holiness in general is a far bigger idea than mere moral purity. Allow me to explain.
The word holy literally means: “separate”. That’s the root meaning of the word. It means to cut or separate, to make a distinction. To be holy is to be separate. Now, getting back to Genesis 1:1, we clearly see that there is a fundamental separation or distinction, being the separation between the uncreated God and the created universe. God is separate from his creation, he is not of the same order of being. He stands outside of it and is beyond it in every way. This is a key reality that we find represented before us in Genesis 1.
God’s holiness is his transcendent majesty and glory, for he gloriously transcends his creation. This is something we also see very clearly in Isaiah 6:1, a key passage for understanding the holiness of God. Isaiah 6:1 says: “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!””
Now think about this. The Seraphim were not sinful beings, they were morally pure and perfect, but even though they were pure, still they cry out: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts.” The reason for this is not because they are focused on God’s righteousness and moral purity, for the seraphim themselves were righteous and pure. No, they are exalting God as the transcendent, majestic, Creator of all things. They were saying, in effect, worship the Lord, for there is none like him – he is in a category of his own.
We see something similar in Revelation 4:8, which says: “And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come!”” Now there’s something very important I want you to notice in that particular verse. The four living creatures have just declared that God is “Holy, holy, holy”, then notice what comes next: ““Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come!”” Do you see it? They’re actually pointing back to Genesis 1:1! He “was” … and he is, and he is to come.” Genesis 1:1 does highlight God’s holiness. He is incomparable and transcendent, uncreated and majestic in eternal splendour, he is above all his creation, transcendent – God’s holiness is his transcendence.
Be ye doers of the word...
As we read Genesis 1:1, we need to see this one important transcendent truth right away: that God is beyond us. He is in a separate category of existence, and the plain truth is that you cannot get your head around him. Let me ask you this: what would it mean for you to stand outside of the universe? We can’t possibly answer that question can we? It’s utterly beyond our ability to even fathom an answer! But this unfathomable realm is precisely the realm in which our God exists according to Genesis 1:1.
When you almost step on an ant, that ant is not capable of perceiving who you are. That ant does not have the ability to grasp anything about you beyond a basic awareness that you’re big, and perhaps that you’re a potential threat. You’re beyond the faculties of that ant to grasp. In some sense, this image gives us a kind of picture of our relationship to God. We cannot understand him in his fullness, and thus like the seraphim there comes a point where we must bow our tiny intellect before his transcendent majesty, and simply worship and say: “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.”
This is our introduction to God, he is the first and continuing main focus in the narrative of scripture, and as we see him revealed in Genesis 1:1, we are confronted with this singular grand reality: God is holy. By way of application we may say this: God is singularly worthy to be the supreme object of your attention and devotion. There is no higher call in life than this: to know God. In Jeremiah 9:24 we read “let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me”. As you consider your own life, do you find a serious, consistent, devoted effort to know and understand God? If not, now is the time to make a plan and put it into action. Spend time seeking to know God. As one practical way of doing that, I actually have another blog devoted to doing just this, why not sign up for a dose of theology every Thursday?
SDG.
Prayer of Confession & Consecration
Lord God in heaven, you are all glorious and worthy to be praised, honoured and adored. You are infinitely, eternally, and transcendently beyond me. O Lord, please forgive me that I have not feared you as I ought, please forgive me for my lack of reverence before you. Please help me to understand and to sense your majesty, that I may be humbled and moved to worship and obey you in every way. Thank you for your mercies, what is man that you should be mindful of him? And yet you are good and kind to the weak and needy. I praise you Lord, and I pray that your name may be exalted, honoured, and adored more and more by all people, and that in my local church your people may be filled with awe and joy at your presence. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
After note: As a preacher, I usually think of my job like that of a sower. A sower sows seed into the ground wherever he can. The seed is the word of God, and the ground is the hearts of those who hear it. Please consider planting the seed with me by sharing this post with one other person in your life who needs to hear God’s word. The world needs as much sowing of God’s word as we can give it. SDG!
Day 3: In the beginning, God... (Gen 1:1a).