Episode Details

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 downand 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 morningand 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 spirit