Virtual Devotions

“Now the earth was formless and empty….” – Genesis 1:2a

Dear Friends,

Before I go further in my discussion of Genesis, I want us to pause and consider the beginning of God’s rebuke to the self-righteousness of Job, “Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?  Tell me, if you understand” (Job 38:4).  With this verse in mind, who’s understanding are we to trust; man’s or God’s?

Man’s understanding goes something like this.  All the energy in the universe was compressed into a little ball, which spontaneously exploded and spread throughout space and over time settled into an orderly system of stars and planets, etc.  After billions of years, life came into being from inanimate substances by an astronomically improbable accident.  Over billions of more years, life became more and more advanced until we have what we have today.

Unfortunately, this theory flies in the face of man’s understanding of the physical world.  The second law of thermodynamics is called the law of entropy.  Simply stated, all physical systems move toward a state of equilibrium.  For example, a glass of cold water will warm if left at room temperature.  The water comes into equilibrium with its surroundings.  If this is a true physical law, then the Big Bang should never have happened.  Why would a system that is in apparent equilibrium suddenly explode into chaos?  Along the same lines, why did life start in the first place and why does it advance into more complex forms?  This is a specific move away from equilibrium.

Seeing that this was a problem, in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, right on the heals of the Enlightenment when men first began to remove God from our understanding and instead look for natural explanations for all things, scientists came up with various proposed fourth laws of thermodynamics.  These fourth laws have never been universally accepted, but they did attempt to explain away the problems with the second law and creation by saying that on the micro level there can be a movement away from equilibrium if at the macro level there is an overall movement toward equilibrium.

If this is beginning to hurt your head, then let’s turn to the alternative.  Accepting that there is a God (we’ll tackle that one later), the Bible tells us that He was there in the beginning, that He was not only a witness to the event of creation, but the cause, that He spoke all things into being and the order of creation is held together by Him.  His eyewitness account is given to us in His Holy Word, the Bible, which I believe was written under His direct inspiration and therefore is trustworthy.

To trust in either man’s understanding or God’s understanding is a matter of faith.  Theories such as the Big Bang and evolution are neither observable nor repeatable consequently they are not true science.  So if you are intellectually honest with yourself, you will accept that these are two faith-based systems; one with faith in man and one with faith in God.  The question is which one will you choose to believe?

In Christ,

David

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” – Genesis 1:1

Dear Friends,

Last week we discussed the infinite power and nature of God as interpreted from the first half of the opening sentence to Genesis.  Today, I want to tackle the second half starting with the Hebrew word for created, bara.

Again, translations don’t do justice to the underlying meaning of the verb bara.  Bara is used 44 times in the Old Testament and it is only used in reference to God’s activity.  You will never find the word bara used in conjunction with human activity.  Why?  Because bara means to create something from nothing, known theologically as creatio ex nihilo.  God didn’t have a swirl of cosmic dust or any other material to work with.  He didn’t even have time or space.  Everything that exists, He created, which leads us to “the heavens and the earth.”

We must first consider verse one as a whole and in context.  We are being told that an all-powerful God created everything out of nothing.  Then, in the subsequent verses, we see a day-by-day account of the order in which He did it.   Because of this and in keeping with ancient Hebrew literary form, I believe this first verse is meant to be read like a headline of a newspaper.  It’s the big, eye-catching statement that leads you on to read more detail.  Consequently, when we read “heavens and earth,” I’d suggest it is all inclusive of creation.

Additionally, there is the question of heavens.  Why is it plural?  Isn’t there just one heaven?  Yes, but what we find in Genesis is the word heaven used in three different ways.  As we read on it is used as the sky or atmosphere where the birds fly (Gen 1:9, 20), outer space where the sun, moon and stars are (Gen 1:14, 16), and as our common understanding of the place where God dwells (Gen 28:12).  This understanding also explains Paul’s comment in 2 Corinthians 12 where he speaks of “the third heaven.”

So that is the first verse, the big headline enticing us to read onward.  I hope that you continue to read onward with me and we get into the first day of creation next week.

In Christ,

David

“In the beginning God created...” – Genesis 1:1a

Dear Friends,

It’s been weighing on my heart to do a series on the creation story and the fall of man so I am kicking it off today with the first verse of the Bible.  There is so much packed into this first verse and it is so easily passed over as we continue to read into the full creation story.  So I am going to stop here and unpack it a little bit.

Let’s start with breshit, the Hebrew word for “In the beginning.”  What makes this distinctive is that it introduces the concept of time.  In eternity, there is no beginning or end, but there is with time.  So when we read “In the beginning,” I believe we should take this as the creation of time.  Yet already present at the beginning of time was God.  God is eternal, not temporal.  He was already there when time began. 

Unfortunately, the English language loses much of the meaning of the original Hebrew word used here for God, Elohim.  Elohim is significant.  First, it is one of the many Hebrew words for God, but this one characterizes the majesty, greatness and power of God.  This is something we would expect considering we need a God of great power to fulfill the rest of the story of redemptive history.

Second, and along similar lines, it is presumptive.  There’s no discussion of how God came to be or why God is there in the first place.  It’s the basic presupposition of the Bible.  There is a God.  It requires no further explanation.

Third, the word itself is a bit of a paradox.  It comes from the Hebrew word, Eloah, which is the Hebrew name of God, but it has a plural ending to make it Elohim.  The writer gives us a word that is plural in form, but singular in meaning.  We know that it is singular in meaning because the Hebrew word for created, bara, is singular.

Let me step out and explain this briefly.  In many languages, verbs have both gender and number.  In English, we say, “He ran, she ran, we ran.”  The verb ran has neither gender nor number.  It can be used with the masculine, he, the feminine, she, or the plural, we.

But bara is masculine singular.  And the grammatical rule is that the verb must agree with the subject.  It can only be used with a singular, masculine subject.  Consequently, the noun, Elohim, represents one God who is masculine in nature.  That’s why He is referred to as Father.

So just in these first three words breshit bara Elohim, we are introduced to an eternal, majestic, mighty, creator God who has both plurality and singularity and is masculine in nature.  As the revelation of the Bible unfolds, we will learn that these first three words introduce us to a God who is three in one (plurality and singularity), Father, Son (masculine) and Holy Spirit thousands of years before anyone ever uses the term Trinity.

In Christ,

David

“Were you a slave when you were called? Don't let it trouble you—although if you can gain your freedom, do so.” – 1 Corinthians 7:20

Dear Friends,

I’m going to tackle an issue that seems to raise its head every once in a while.  Does the Bible condone slavery?  200 years ago, people used the Bible as evidence that slavery was acceptable by pointing to verses such as the one that says that slaves should obey their masters.   But today, I believe all of us would agree that slavery is wrong.

However, the same scripture is used today not to condone slavery, but to attack the validity of the Bible.  There is still a preconception that the Bible condones slavery and if it does, then certainly we can dismiss those verses.  And if we can dismiss one piece, we can dismiss others and the entire authority of the Bible begins to come apart.

So let’s hit this head-on.  Good Bible study always looks at context.  When Peter said that slaves should submit to their masters, why did he say that?  Simply, he was encouraging believers to be good representatives of Christ.  By doing so, they may “silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.”  Christians were being persecuted.  Horrible rumors about them were being spread.  In an effort to show the world that Christianity was not a threat, the apostles encouraged people to live quiet and peaceful lives and to obey all authorities.

It also helps to put this into a historical perspective.  Slavery in the first century Palestine was not slavery in 18^th and 19^th century America.  In the first century, slavery was much more like employment than slavery.  Many jobs that we would consider “white collar” were slave jobs.  True, a slave on a galley or a salt-mine experienced the worst of slavery, but in general slaves were in an employee relationship with their masters.  Slaves basically ran the households and businesses of their masters.

But if anyone wants a verse to prove that the Bible does not condone slavery, just take Paul’s writing from 1 Corinthians 7:20.  In this passage, Paul is telling the readers not to be concerned about there temporal state.  Whatever you were doing when God called you, continue to do that.  There’s no need to change your situation in this life because you now have eternal life through Christ.  Instead, use the position you are currently in to further the kingdom.  But within this, Paul does say that if you can gain your freedom from slavery go ahead and do it.

I hope that wasn’t too quick, but please be assured that the Bible does not condone slavery and if someone tells you it does (and therefore we can dismiss portions of it), have them show you where it says so, and then show them the context and 1 Corinthians 7.

In Christ,

David