TEXT: Genesis 1:1-2

SUBJECT: Henry on Genesis 1 #3

Tonight, with the Lord’s blessing, we’ll continue the study we began two weeks ago. It’s called Matthew Henry on Genesis 1. The book we’re using is Henry’s great Commentary on the Whole Bible.

What’s the first chapter of the Bible about? Most would say creation. But Henry says otherwise. To his way of thinking, Genesis 1 is about God. What’s it tell us about the Lord? Four things, so far.

• His identity. The universe was not created by a Higher Power, a Divine Force, or a Prime Mover, but by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

• His nature. The word for "God" is Elohim which is plural in number and hints at the Trinity. According to the Bible, there is one God in Three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

• His attributes. God is good, powerful, wise, beautiful, and mysterious.

• His claim on us. If God is the Creator, He must be believed in, submitted to, trusted, and praised.

Having read all this in Henry, it’s no wonder Spurgeon called him

Now we move on to verse two. It says

Henry divides the verse into two parts: the first matter and the First Mover.

What was the world like when God first made it? Henry says it was

Everything in the universe was made on the First Day. But it was a big mess because nothing was separated from anything else. Think of a fine meal—appetizer, bread, soup, salad, entrée, dessert—put in a blender and turned into a slop. The world was something like that before God set things in order.

Why did He do this? Henry says

God had the wisdom and the power to create an orderly universe with one Word—or even one thought. He didn’t have to think things through or see what worked best. He could have done it all at once.

But He didn’t do that. He worked for Six Days. Henry knows why:

In other words, God was teaching us a lesson. In respect to Himself, He was training us to "Wait on the Lord", to not demand a quick answer or to assume that—if He doesn’t act right now—it’s because He cannot or He will not.

It also teaches us to stick with it. According to the Ten Commandments, the creation week set an example for us. If God works slowly and patiently in making the world, we should be willing to work hard and long at school or on the job. The number one reason for failure is quitting. When something is hard to do, most people will give up trying. But if God sticks with it, you should too.

William Carey was the father of modern missions. All by himself—and under hard conditions—he translated the Bible into a dozen languages or more. When asked the secret of his success, I wish he had said, "I’m brilliant, of course!" But he didn’t say that. What he said is,

Many of us won’t do that. But we should. If God sticks with it we should too.

What’s true of God’s Providence is also true of His grace. When the Lord saves a sinner, He doesn’t finish the job the same day He started it. No, He justifies us all at once, but that’s not the end of salvation. It’s followed by sanctification which is a slow, lifelong process (with many setbacks). This is followed by the Christian’s death, when his spirit goes to heaven and his body into the earth. Many years may pass then—centuries, even millennia, maybe, till finally the Resurrection comes and then—and only then—the work He began in us is completed.

When God saved me, why didn’t He zap away every sin and zap into me every grace? He could have, but He chose not to. Because in salvation—like creation—God is in no hurry.

In the void of this new world, Henry sees a hint of man’s soul without grace.

Just think of a universe in which everything is blended into one: darkness and light, land and sea, sky and space, even man and beast—all one, and therefore, nothing. What kind of power, wisdom, and grace are needed to put things in order? Almighty power, wisdom, and grace. And that’s what God exercised in the First Week.

What a mess the sinner is in! His thinking is wrong, his emotions are wrong, his will is wrong, even his body is wrong. Nothing can set him straight but the Infinite Grace of the Living God.

What an encouragement this is to people who are all messed up! Maybe you’ve made a mess of your life, your marriage, your kids, your career, or something else. You’ve tried to sort things out, you’ve read the books, you’ve got counsel, but you’re still a mess. You’re tempted to despair, but don’t.

The first matter, then, is the world in chaos, but also under the watchful eye of God who will soon make all things right.

This leads to Henry’s second point, which is…

The world is in chaos, but God is not. He looks at the mess before Him and does something about it. Henry says,

The world was not only confused, it was also dead. On the first day, there was plenty of matter, but there was no life—no plants, no animals, no men. There was no living thing on earth—not even a fly or a germ.

But that was no problem for God who is the Source and Giver of Life. He took dead matter and made it teem with life—human, animal, vegetable—all life comes from the Prince of Life. Including eternal life, which He gives to whomever He wants to have it.

This last part should spur us to evangelism and believing prayer. All sinners are "dead in trespasses and sins", but some of them seem dead, buried, and rotted! How stout they are in their opposition to the Gospel, how stubbornly they refuse the life God offers them and how hell-bent they are on eternal death! Death is daunting to us—we can’t do a thing about it. But God can. If He gave life to dead matter, why do you wonder if He can give life to a dead soul?

Not only does it encourage us to evangelize the lost and to patiently pray for them, but—Henry says—it also makes our resurrection sure.

The Greeks laughed at the resurrection. How could bodies long dead and rotted be recalled to life? Their dust had mixed with the dust of other dead bodies and was nothing but dirt!

If they had known the story of creation, they would have had no problem with it. Paul asked Herod Agrippa,

After all, if He made dirt come alive way back then, He can still do it. And at the end of time, He will do it.

So what have we got? We’ve got a world of chaos and death, but we’ve also got the Spirit of God hovering over it—brooding the King James says—as a hen broods over her young.

What starts in confusion, ends in order. What starts in death, ends in life. That’s the history of salvation in a verse. And the believer’s hope in a nutshell.

How thankful we ought to be to God for setting the natural world in order. If He hadn’t, life would not be possible.

How thankful we ought to be to God for setting our spiritual lives in order. For replacing the confusion with clarity and the death with life.

How thankful we ought to be to God for the promise: "He who has begun a good work in you will continue it till the Day of Jesus Christ".