When God Speaks

Today we will talk about the subject of god speaking based on the first chapter of the book of Genesis. The subject is of special interest because belief in God is a concern that cannot be wished away. This understanding is key to all of us as members of human race, first to know who we are as humans, and second to appreciate our responsibilities to the world that God’s created. This understanding is important since stories are told for a purpose.

Indeed, bible stories are told for a purpose. The purpose might be to teach, to remind, to correct, to affirm, to rebuke, to cheer and to entertain among other things. In this first chapter of Genesis, the words which God speaks, creates the world as we know it. The story will not end here. It will force the audience and the reader to ask not only what next but also what is our responsibility in response to the narrative? We will think of ways to get involved in God’s mission on the earth and the universe as his stewards and ambassadors.

Whenever God speaks, things are bound to happen. The Genesis story, like stories in other parts of the bible, is a faith story. It embraces the understanding expressed in Psalms 14:1, that it is only a fool who would believe in his heart that there is no God. Consequently, the narrative in Genesis chapter one tells a story of faith through God’s creative work by word. The narrator states that it is God who at the very beginning created the heavens and the earth. The story narrator clarifies that before God performed creation work, it was chaos that had existed which he described as,

 “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep” and that the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” (Gen. 1:1-2).

The word the narrator uses for God in Hebrew language is in plural. It is not in singular. This God is the chief actor in this creation drama. This God is full of majesty. God is in this drama ordering, reorganizing, creating ex nihilo, out of nothing by calling into being things that are formed. God uses words to call into being things that become what He speaks. Before God begins to speak, the earth was formless and void which means it was empty or nothing. There was no earth. What we know as the earth and the center of human interactions and activity did not exist. The state of pre-creation existence for what we know it, is summarized with three words, darkness, void, and formlessness.

The earth did not exist. But one thing that existed was the Spirit of God that hovered over the water. God in this passage is in plural form. When God speaks it will be in the plural form. The narrator also adds the component of what existed at that beginning when God made the heavens and the earth, a key extra information “and Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (Gen.1:2). It is left to our imagination that this Spirit of God hovered like an eagle taking command of the skies above. From this early start of God creating by spoken word, in plural form accompanied by the presence of the Spirit of God, indicators of the creator God as the triune God, the holy Trinity, God is presented as the Father, as the Son and as the Holy Spirit. These three are one God in three persons. This trinity is inseparably one God by whom all things are created out of nothing and out of nowhere when God speaks.

Ruah is the Spirit of God. This Spirit of God gives life. Without the Spirit of God life ceases. This Spirit of God was not only there at the beginning, but He is there today giving life. With the presence of God’s Spirit, the world is called to give attention to what God says when He speaks, because what he commands forms and organizes what we see, hear, touch, smell, taste and imagine. Man must remain attentive to the voice of God in the management of God’s creation.

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