CREATIVE ORDER

“In the beginning GOD CREATED the heavens and the earth” – Genesis 1:1

In order to better appreciate the need for Divine Order in our lives, we must understand CREATIVE ORDER: “In the beginning GOD CREATED the heavens and the earth” (Gen.1:1). We see God speaking order into chaos: “When God began creating the heavens and the earth, the earth was a shapeless, chaotic mass, with the Spirit of God brooding over the dark vapors. Then God said, “Let there be light.” And light appeared (Gen.1:1-3, Living Bible). Through divine intervention, the dark, shapeless, chaotic mass took on Form and Order. The creation story is an excellent demonstration and glorious display of Divine Order. Nothing was haphazard. Order was part of God’s Plan from the very beginning.

Think of this: Each of us began life as an infant, largely unaware of what was going on around us or what the world was like. As we grew older to become toddlers, children, and teenagers, we began to take note of the creative order in the world – the flowers and fields, the trees, the animals, the birds, the winds, the sea and all of life around us. As we became aware of the world, we inevitably asked critical questions about it. Those questions are the ones answered for us in brief compass in the opening words of Genesis. We ask ourselves questions from diverse perspectives.

First is the question: What is all this? Driven by an avid curiosity, humans have been attempting to answer this question from antiquity, seeking to explore the universe and the world in which they live. Then, we inquire: How did it begin? This question is the emphasis of science. We go further to query: When did it all start? How long has the world been going on like this? Finally, we ponder on the great philosophical question: Who is behind it? Is there an Original Designer and Initiator of the unique order and remarkable processes? The Book of Beginnings provides tangible answers to these and other questions, thus serving as a marvellous introduction to and foundation for many of the great themes pf the Bible.

The overwhelming evidence of Order attests to the truth that God is the Greatest Scientist. Genesis 1:1 is the beginning of true science, because a fundamental part of the task of science is to observe and classify all that is apparent in the world of nature. The most basic order is that there are two great classes of things – the heavens and the earth! The rest of the chapter reads like an early attempt at classification. First, God created light, day and night (v.3-5). This was followed by a firmament to separate the sea above and beneath (vv.6-8). Next was the dry land and vegetation (vv’9-13). The fifth day saw the creation of the lights – the sun, moon, and stars – and the Order of Times and Seasons (vv.14-19). Creatures in the sea, sky, and land came on the fifth day (vv.20-25). Human creation culminated the process on the sixth day (vv.26-31).

In many ways, the Bible is consistent with Science. For example, it was the Bible that first revealed and declared that the number of the stars is beyond computation, and that God stretched out the heavens into limitless expanse that can never be measured by human means, and filled it with stars that are as numerous as the sands upon the seashore (Gen.22:17; Isa.51:13). Modern science has now confirmed and established this to be true. The Bible also says the earth is suspended over nothing: “He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth on nothing” (Job 26:7). This poetically describes the mysterious force of gravity long before Newton discovered the laws.

Order is God’s Design. To further buttress Creative Order, the Bible states that what is seen was not made out of what was visible (Heb.11:3). This truth predated by many centuries the scientific discoveries by Albert Einstein, that finally recognized that all matter is made up of invisible energy and that matter and energy are interchangeable. Nothing is by chance. We serve the God of Order; the Creator, Designer, Detailer, and Sustainer of all things – including Me!