In the Beginning

 

 

Eternity is a challenging concept. For me, continuing forever into the future can be imagined. I have more trouble with the past having no BEGINNING, but this is because I’m trying to figure it out in relation to time. Eternity is not about time; it is more about everything being now.

Yet God relates His realm in terms that are intended to help us ‘get it’ and for that, uses “in the beginning” to describe what we have not yet experienced. In the OT, these passages describe a unique event: God began creation. He did this ex nihilo, or out of nothing, by the sheer power of His word.

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

Isaiah 46:9–10. “Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.’ ”

Psalm 33:6. “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.”

The NT says in Hebrews 11:3 that “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.”

Creation was not the only event established in the beginning; wisdom also began even before that . . .

Proverbs 8:22–23. “The Lord possessed me (wisdom) at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.”

To possess this eternal wisdom requires an eternal relationship with Him. Proverbs 1:7 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction” and Psalm 111:10 says this same fear is “the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding.”

The idea of eternity is not foreign because God “put eternity into man’s heart” even though His OT people struggled to understand it and struggled to understand the nature of this eternal God. For this reason (and for our redemption) God sent Jesus . . .

John 1:1–2. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.”

Colossians 1:17–20. “And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”

1 John 2:24–25. “Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us — eternal life.”

God’s spoke the universe into existence and this Word became a man! That God-man revealed the nature of His Father that we might know Him. What a wonder! Yet at that, we remain stuck in time, aware of a beginning and unsure about the ending. He did reveal much, such as: “Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” and He gave this mandate to all believers: “Repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”

As for the end of time, Jesus gives clues, like Matthew 24:7–8 that “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains” and this summary of what He has done and will do from Hebrews 1:10–12.

“You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.”

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. I could spend days in speculation over what happens next, examining the clues and trying to know dates and times, but the One who said, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” also said, “For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.” While knowing the details of the beginning and end appeal to a curious mind, God’s command to love one another is of greater urgency, particularly in a world of lost sinners who need the redeeming power of God to start over and begin a new life.