Today is the first day of a New Year. It is all shiny and new. It is a new beginning. How appropriate it is to start reading the bible from the beginning.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.”
(Genesis 1:1-4 ESV)
God calls the light out of the darkness and so begins the shaping of the world. After the six days of creation the world was all shiny and new. It was pure uncorrupted and undamaged, kind of like the year seems to us as the calendar turns from December 31 to January 1.
As I read this morning the first three chapters of Genesis, I wanted to luxuriate myself in the Creation Story and the newly God created earth. I really struggled to start reading chapter 3 of Genesis. I wanted to read more about what it was like to live in Eden and to be able to walk in the garden with God, to live in the newness of the world.
I am always surprised how quickly the fall comes in the Bible. It seems that as soon as man was created we fell. First two chapters talking about God creating the world and mankind, the very next thing is our pride got better of us. It seems that paradise wasn’t enough for us.
The same will happen with our shiny New Year. Suffering, tragedy and sin will start invading and corrupting our new year, if it hasn’t already started happening.
If I ended here this would be a very depressing blog post…
Genesis is the beginning of the Bible, but not necessarily the beginning of the story. The story begins in eternity past with an all knowing, sovereign God knowing full well, what will happen when he created the earth, and created man in His image. This sovereign God knowing exactly what he is going to do.
The fall is not the ending of the story, but the beginning. The fall is one of the most important events of the Bible, but in some ways it is just the back story of what is to come both in the Bible and the world. The fall is the beginning point of a story of How God is going to save and redeem His people and His creation.
The world may seem like it is in chaos and completely out of control, but there is a God who is in perfect control of everything. This year as I read through the Bible I pray that I will get to know more of who God is (Exodus 34:6) and be assured by both the things he has done and the things (John 3:16*) he has promised to do (Micah 7:8-9*)
*There are numerous examples of who God is, what God has done, and what he has promised. I just chose the ones in my thoughts today.
Entries (RSS)