Image: Courtesy of NASA-JPL-Caltech-PIA15416_modest.psd
“In the beginning God…”
Analyzing sentences has its benefits. True, diagramming sentences may be out of vogue, however, many mysteries are uncovered whenever we closely study words. Take for example, the opening phrase above in Genesis, the first book of the Bible: “In the beginning God….”. Pretty straight forward, and clear cut. What’s not to understand? God was, then, at, and “in the beginning…”
Among questions that might follow is: What was God doing?Genesis 1:1 tells us that He “created the heavens and the earth”. Then, it continues on with the details.
Over all, the course of Creation took seven days, after which time God rested. As you read the account of Creation, from Genesis 1 to Genesis 2:3, and glean answers to the questions of “Who, What, When, Where, and Why?”, the following summary emerges:
On Day 1 – God created Day and Night
On Day 2 – God created the Sky (Firmament/Heaven)
On Day 3 – God created Land and Seas, with the Land bringing forth grass, herbs, yielding seeds, and trees, yielding fruit.
On Day 4 – God created the Sun, Moon, and Stars
On Day 5 – God created the Fish of the sea and Birds of the air
On Day 6 – God created Animals and Living Creatures, followed by creating Man in His image, (Male and Female), giving them dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air and all living creatures. (Genesis 1:26)
On Day 7 – God rested.
And the good news is that God said all this was good.
I don’t doubt that you’ve heard the phrase that “words matter”, perhaps more times than you can count. But as you stop and think about it, they matter tremendously, wherever or whenever they are used. And particularly, when reading God’s “Word”.
So, consider this little tour the beginning of a journey into Scripture, as you open God’s “Word” to us! It will be well worth the time of every teachable student.
If you would like to revisit the account of Creation again on a simple self-guided tour, worksheets to use, along the way, can be found on one of the following links: here: Level 1 , here: Level 2 , and here: LEVEL 3.
God's Word To Us 