TEXT: Genesis 1:1-2

SUBJECT: Henry on Genesis 1 #1

Tonight, with the Lord’s help, we’ll begin a new Puritan study called Matthew Henry on Genesis 1. The man is best known for his great commentary on the whole Bible. Charles Spurgeon—who knew a lot about books—called it—

This is the book we’re going to use. If you have the commentary, you can read along—or ahead. It’s short, easy-to-read, and full of true and edifying thoughts. Speaking to young preachers, Spurgeon said,

He’s right. One of the striking things you find in reading Matthew Henry is that he saw things in the Bible that you didn’t! He did it without turning the Word of God into an allegory or a parable. The doctrines he finds in the Bible are really there. Henry had the eyes to see them; if we read him more, we might see them too.

If you’ve read the Bible at all, you’ve read Genesis 1 and have a pretty good idea of what it’s about. The problem with reading it today, of course, is that we tend to read it defensively. We read it to disprove evolution. It does that, of course—but that’s not why it’s in the Bible. Its goal is worship! It makes us want to celebrate the Lord who made us and to admire His power, wisdom, and love. And to humbly yield ourselves to His service, knowing that it is our true freedom.

If it doesn’t have this effect on us, we’ve not read it very well. We got the information—maybe—but we missed the point. We heard the story, but we lost the moral.

Matthew Henry was a fine scholar and preacher, but before either one, he was a man of God. That shines in every word he wrote on Genesis 1.

Henry starts off by giving the big idea of vv.1-2.

"Epitome" means a summary. If you have a long story to tell, but little time to tell it, what do you do? You give the short version. That’s an epitome. Instead of rehearsing the whole story of the Lord Jesus Christ (which is found in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), Paul sums it up by saying,

That’s good enough. This is what we have here in Genesis 1—an epitome or the short version of a very long and detailed story.

This means Genesis 1 will not answer all your questions about creation. Good men have tried to turn it into a scientific textbook. But that’s not what it is—and doesn’t try to be. Science demands a detail the chapter does not give. We must read Genesis 1 for what it is—a brief sketch of what God did "in the beginning".

Henry’s second term is "embryo".

Kids, do you know what an embryo is? It’s kind of like a baby—though not quite. When you’re first in your mom’s belly, you’re not a baby with arms and legs and hair. You’re an embryo—a teeny, tiny spot. It’s so small, that it takes a microscope to see it. But that tiny spot is you. You’re not grown up at all, but it’s you. It’s hard to believe that you once didn’t have arms or legs or even a head. But it’s true—you didn’t. These things grew out of the embryo you once were.

The first two verses in Genesis don’t show the world as grown-up, but as something like an undeveloped baby. All the things are there to make the universe, but they’re not yet put in order.

That’s the outline of Matthew Henry’s take on the verses.

He starts with the summary. The first thing to notice about the verses—he says—is not creation, but the Creator,

In the controversies about creation—whether it occurred in six literal days or whether the days stand for long ages, and so on, we’re prone to forget the staggering fact that there is a Creator.

And not just ‘a creator’—some unnamed force or higher power. But "God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth".

The word, Father (as used in the Apostles’ Creed) does not refer to His Fatherhood of us. Rather, it means the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! The moment you say that, you begin to see God as a Person, with nameable traits and definite likes and dislikes. Since the Father is seen perfectly in the Son, you know the Creator of the world is a holy God, a righteous God, a God who burns against sin and will punish sinners. Yet He’s also the God who loves the sinner and—through the work of Christ—saves His people from their sins.

In the work of creation, Henry sees seven things about the Lord.

The first is great goodness.

We could live on a gray earth, with gray skies, a gray sun, a gray moon, gray grass, gray tomatoes. Our skin and hair could be gray, and gray food would sustain life as well as any other kind.

But the Lord has not made everything gray! He’s not made everything smooth or big or quiet or fast or anything else. He made grass green, the sky blue, tomatoes red, hair black, brown, blonde, and red. He made cheetahs fast and turtles slow and thunder loud and breezes quiet.

God varied things because He likes them that way. But not only does He like them that way, but we do too! The colors and textures and temperatures of creation prove the great goodness of our Maker.

The second thing creation tells us about God is His great beauty.

Painters paint what they see. They interpret what they see of course—otherwise it’s like a photograph, which is not art, it seems to me. When God created the world, what did He have to go by? Only Himself. The beauties of creation, therefore, are but hints of God’s beauty.

When you read the Westminster Shorter Catechism or the standard works of Theology, you find God described in many ways: good, holy, powerful, loving, etc. But I cannot remember ever seeing the word, beautiful, in any of the books. It should be there! Created beauty is but derived from the Beauty that is Uncreated.

The next time you see something beautiful—a sunset, a flower, a face—remember that it’s but a glimpse of the Beauty of the Lord.

Do you know the poet, Dante? He wrote the Divine Comedy in three parts—Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. He was inspired to write poetry by seeing a nine-year old girl named Beatrice. He only saw her three times in his whole life, but he was so captured with her beauty that he became the greatest poet of his time.

Some think he worshiped the girl or at least her beauty. But he didn’t. In fact, he worshiped God, Whose beauty he first saw in the face of this little girl. To Dante, it was a revelation of God’s beauty. It made him worship the Lord

In the third place, we have His great exactness and accuracy.

Some things look good from a distance, but the closer you look, the worse they seem. The flashy car is, in fact, an old junker, nicely waxed. The beautiful, fresh-faced girl—under harsh lighting—is the old hag wearing too much makeup.

But in looking at creation, the opposite is true: the closer you look, the more you have to admire. A spider is a little black spot. But put it under a magnifying glass, and you’re amazed at its complexity and the fineness of its workmanship. Here—in a little bug—we have the most complex design and delicate work. No computer could create a spider; no machine could manufacture an ant that is half as interesting as the real thing. God designed the bugs to show His attention to detail. Henry says,

There’s a lesson in this for us: I didn’t dream it up, but found it in the Bible.

How much thought must God have put into designing a blade of grass! But if He thinks that much about grass, why do you doubt that He thinks about you? No, the same exacting, accurate Mind that created all things is now thinking about you, your problems--and your salvation!

In the fourth place, we have His great power.

Humans have the power to take life. Cain took Abel’s life—with a knife or a club, I suppose. Now we have weapons to kill millions with one strike. But no one has the power to give life. Doctors pretend they do—but, in fact, all they do is help preserve the life that is already there. A liver transplant may save a sick man’s life, but put it in a dead man and what have you got? A dead man.

What kind of power does it take to change non-life into life? To turn water—apparently—into living fish and birds? To make cattle out of the ground? And, most of all, to make people out of the dust of the earth? An artist could take clay and form a statue of a man. But he can’t give the statue life! Geppetto did it for Pinocchio in a story. But God really did it!

This shows His great power. And not only the greatness of His power, but also the goodness of His power. He didn’t use His power to destroy, but to create; and not to create ugly, deformed things, but all things bright and beautiful.

Though the Lord rested on the Seventh Day, it’s not because He was tired. Thus, the power He first exercised on the Day of Creation, He still has. All of it, I mean. He uses it for our good. When we get into a pickle no human can get us out of, we can cry out to God for help. And, if it’s according to His will, He can and will get us out of the pickle. Jeremiah saw the power of creation as a present help,

In the fifth place, creation testifies to God’s great wisdom.

If a car runs well, you have to assume the engineer who designed it and the men who built it must have known what they were doing. Yet creation is far more complex than any car and has lasted quite a bit longer! Yet the best designed, best built car won’t stand up to reckless driving and bad maintenance. Yet, look a the earth: despite the evil work of men in polluting the world, cutting down too many trees, digging too many mines, wiping out too many animals, and leaving too much garbage behind, the world is still in good running order. Not perfect (because of sin), but still good.

This says something about the great wisdom of God. How wonderful it must be to create a universe so sturdy that even the rebellion of angels and men cannot wreck it!

The wisdom of God seen in creation helps us in the here and now. When we don’t know what to do about family life or work or other decisions, we can

…And get what we need and when we need it.

Finally, the creation shows God’s great mystery.

A hundred years ago, the scientific community was hugely arrogant thinking it had solved nearly every mystery in the universe. But today, it knows better. The popular scientists (like Carl Sagan) come across as know-it-alls, but the real scientists know better. Francis Schaeffer once noted the large number of astrophysicists who are Christians (compared to other scientists).

Creation is knowable—that is we can know what’s out there, to some degree. Creation, though is not comprehensible—that is, we cannot know anything through-and-through: not insects, not the weather, and especially not men.

And if bugs cannot be fully known, what fools we are to think we can figure our God and His way! This was the sin of Job's Three Friends! Much of what they said was true—God is just, holy, wise, and so on. But, in becoming know-it-alls, they became fools!

This means a couple of things to us: (1) We should study the mysteries of the Bible, think hard about them and pray for understanding. But we must be careful of thinking we’ve got the whole thing down—the last word on the subject. (2) We must beware of interpreting Providence too dogmatically. Did the girl’s baby die because she wasn’t married? Some would be quick to say yes, but they don’t know that—no one but God does.

At the beginning of my talk, I told you what riches you could find in reading Matthew Henry. But I underestimated the man. I intended to get through the whole section, but made it through less than half! And our time is up.

Thus, let me remind you of what creation says about it’s Creator: (1) That He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that He is (2) good, (3) beautiful, (4) accurate, (5) powerful, (6) wise, and (7) mysterious.

Meditate on these thing this week, and, with God’s blessing, you’ll be better for it.

God bless you everyone. Amen.