God Said: by JI Packer

Genesis 1:1–3 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

We meet the word of God in its various relations in the first three chapters of the Bible. Look first at the story of creation in Genesis 1.  Part of the purpose of this chapter is to assure us that every item in our natural environment has been set there by God. The opening verse states the theme which the rest of the chapter is to expound—“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The second verse pictures the state of affairs in terms of which the detailed analysis of God’s work is to be given:  it is a state in which the earth was lying waste, empty of life, dark and completely waterlogged. Then verse 3 tells us how amid this chaos and sterility God spoke. “And God said, ‘Let there be light.’” What happened?

Immediately “there was light.” Seven times more (vv. 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26) God’s creative word “let there be . . .” was spoken, and step by step things sprang into being and order. Day and night (v. 5), sky and sea (v. 6), sea and land (v. 9), were separated out; green vegetation (v. 12), heavenly bodies (v. 14), fish and fowl (v. 20), insects and animals (v. 24), and finally man himself (v. 26), made their appearance. All was done by the word of God (compare Ps 33:6, 9; Heb 11:3; 2 Pet 3:5).

But now the story carries us on a further stage. God speaks to the man and woman whom he has made. “God . . . said to them . . .” (v. 28). Here is God addressing human beings directly; thus fellowship between God and them is inaugurated. Note the categories into which God’s utterances to them in the rest of the story fall. God’s first word to Adam and Eve is a word of command, summoning them to fulfill humankind’s vocation of ruling the created order. (“Be fruitful . . . and have dominion . . . ,” v. 28.)

Here, within the compass of these three short chapters, we see the word of God in all the relations in which it stands to the world, and to man within it—on the one hand, fixing man’s circumstances and environment, on the other, commanding man’s obedience, inviting his trust, and opening to him the mind of his Maker. The rest of the Bible sets before us many new utterances of God, but no further categories of relationship between God’s word and his creatures. Instead, the presentation of the word of God in Genesis 1–3 is reiterated and confirmed.