Today’s prayer, or your own
Lord, we thank you for speaking to us through your Word. We are grateful that you cared enough to give us your written word as a guide to all things important to our lives. We ask you now for the wisdom you promised if we would just ask. Show us your mighty works and help us to understand them. Help us to appreciate your great love for us and let today’s reading reveal something special to each of us. We give you thanks and praise in the name of our Saviour, Jesus. Amen.
The verse
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1 · NKJV
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1 · ESV
With the Hebrew notations
In the beginning H7225 God H430 created H1254 the heavens H8064 and the earth H776.
The small gold numbers are Strong’s numbers. They point at the original Hebrew word so you can look it up — tap one to open the lexicon entry. On the older site they were printed in red. Red on this edition is kept for the words of Jesus, so the two never get confused.
The words
In the beginning
The very first thing
Means the start — the creation — of all things we can see or know about. The beginning of time as we know it. Before this verse, the dimension of time did not exist. Neither did the universe, nor our planet earth.
God
Elohim
God’s name is plural and means the Supreme God — a divine Being. Plural, not because there is more than one God, but because He exists as a triune God: three persons in One. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is the first appearance of Jesus in the Old Testament. Neh 9:6, John 17:5
Created
Hebrew bara
The Hebrew verb “bara” is used exclusively for divine activity. Creation is an act of God alone. Heb 1:10
the heavens
Represents the sky, outer space, and the spiritual realm. It encompasses all that is above the earth. Ps 90:2
and the earth
Refers to the physical world, the planet on which we live.
What we learned
Everything starts here. This verse is telling us that God exists outside of time and has no beginning or end. Time, as we know it, began with Genesis 1:1.
God is not a single person as we know human persons. He is three persons in one: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is all-powerful, all-knowing, and present everywhere. He is so awesome that we will never be able to fully comprehend Him until we meet Him.
It also means that the universe as we know it came into being as a mature creation. It did not take light-years for the light from the stars to reach earth. It was instantaneous. The universe may be continuing to grow and change, but it started with the beginning of time as stated here.
Our faith has a definite beginning. Evolution does not. Evolution explains things by saying it started sometime billions of years ago, in an attempt to explain how everything we know came into being. The theory is: given enough time, you can explain anything by chance. For example, they say “given enough time, a room full of monkeys with a room full of typewriters will eventually create the complete works of Shakespeare.”
We also learned
Jesus is the Word of God and was in the beginning. He was also with God and is God, and all things were created by Him. Jesus is God and is present throughout the whole Bible, not just the New Testament. Col 1:17-18, Eph 3:9, Heb 13:8
This is the first time we see Jesus in the Bible. He is not a New Testament creation. He is found throughout the Old Testament, proving He is who He said He is. John 8:56-58
Also see the topic Prophecies about Jesus for many more.
Verse 1:1, paraphrased
In the beginning God created time, the earth, and the entire universe.