Bible Study with Paige, Part 1 Genesis 1.1

Thoughts on Genesis 1:1

In the beginning God…I love this phrase, for to me it says that God exists always.  He had no beginning and no ending.  He is Alpha and Omega!  There would be no beginning to creation without God.   How cool is that.  From the German I gather that Am Anfang, (In the beginning) means beginning and opening.  I thought opening is rather a fresh idea.  In the opening/creation of the world, there was God.  He not only began the world, but He opened it up for us, like something fresh and new.

Created…To create in the Hebrew according to Strongs concordance means to shape or form.  I think of it as making something out of nothing.  When my children were little and I wanted them to grasp just what this meant, I sat them down at an empty table.  It had nothing on it, no scissors, tape, glue, paper, or crayons, and I said, “Create a beautiful card for Daddy as a surprise.”  They looked at me as if I had rocks in my head.  “How can we, we don’t have anything to make one with?”  “We need paper, glue, and scissors and stuff,” came the cry of another.  Then I said, “What is on the table?”  After they said nothing, I said, “God created the world out of nothing. It wasn’t a long process of time, and there wasn’t already something there.  He did it out of nothing.”  They had a keener understanding after that.  In German the word is “schuf” to literally means to bring into being.  In the beginning God brought into being, what a wondrous thought, isn’t it? 

The heaven and the earth…God started at the beginning and made the heaven and the earth.  The air we breathe and the land we walk upon all made by him in the beginning.  I know some other translations say the heavens and the earth.   I know the Bible talks about Paul going up the third heaven, the place where God dwells.  The first heaven being the air we breathe overhead, where the birds fly, and the second heaven being space where the space shuttle is, all made by God.  I don’t see how I can say from this verse exactly what heaven God created.  Perhaps it was all of it, but I guess I always thought the Heaven where God lives has always been.  Anyway, in German Himmel is heaven, and oddly enough it also means canopy.  I thought this to be a rather neat way of thinking of it, especially since creation scientists think there was a canopy in the heavens (sky) that sent a mist upon the earth to water the plants.  Not until the flood did this canopy burst and brought forth the flood of Noah.  So, I thought canopy was in interesting way of understanding that.  Earth is where God put man, not Mars, or Venus, or any other planet, but earth.  This is where man dwells, made especially for us by God. 

In case you wanted to know in German Genesis 1.1 says, “Am Angang schuf Gott Himmel und Erde.”  In German,  all nouns are capitalized.  This makes it easy to spot a noun!

 

 Thoughts on Psalm 119.1

Blessed are the undefiled in the way…Blessed means happy, happy are the undefiled, and in German,  Blessed can be  translated happy and to be sure or without doubt, and this made me think of it as without doubt we, who are believers, are happy.  Undefiled gave me cause for lots of thought.    In Hebrew undefiled means sound, without spot, whole, without blemish. (8548 in Strong’s Concordance) In the Lutheran church, we are taught the Law and the Gospel are both important, because the Law shows us how much we miss the mark, and the Gospel shows us how much Christ does for us for He fulfills the Law for us. None of us are blameless, all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God.  We cannot possibly be undefiled without Christ.  His blood cleanses us from all sin.  When God the Father, looks upon us, He sees us clothed in the righteousness of Christ.  This is an awesome thought.  So we need to be in the way in order to be undefiled.  We cannot be undefiled on our own.  I studied French in college and taught French to my children, so I looked up this verse in French and the translation would read, Blessed are those who are in the way.  In German the word for way also translates to converted, so blessed are those who are converted.  Awesome thoughts again. 

Who walk in the law of the LORD…Believers love the law of the LORD, even though we cannot truly follow the law perfectly.  We know Christ did and this brings comfort to our hearts.  LORD all in caps this is Jesus, The one who brings Salvation to us.  I love the law the of the LORD.  I love the Word of the LORD and what joy in knowing that the Lord so loves me that He gave me His Word, His Law, that might know Him.  Oh the deep, deep love of Jesus!