The Nature of God in Creation
The Nature of God in Creation.
“From eternity past, I (Lady Wisdom) was established, well before the world began. Yahweh possessed me before earth got its start. When He staked out earth’s foundation and set in place its pillars, I was right there with him, anointed from the beginning, making sure everything fit. Day after day I was there at His side as His master craftsman, joyfully applauding His efforts. He was filled with delight in me as I playfully rejoiced before Him, enjoying His company. I laughed and played, delighted with the created world of things and creatures, so happy with what He had made, joyfully celebrating the human family and finding my delight in the children of men.” (Proverbs 8:23, 29-31).
The creation of the world was an act of perfect cooperation between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Creation was a joyful enterprise between them, and all took part. Yahweh’s part in this collaboration is not surprising. But it wouldn’t hurt to think about the role of Jesus in creation, and the part of the Holy Spirit as well. The Holy Trinity was in full operation during creation, three acting as one.
In the poetic version of creation as seen in Proverbs 8 above, we see the vital role of wisdom, or as it reads, Lady Wisdom. This was a poetic device in the Hebrew Bible that anticipated the attribute of wisdom being completed in the form of an actual Person. Wisdom as poetically seen as a person was completed in the New Testament in the real Person, Jesus Christ. What was an attribute of God in the Old Testament came to be accepted as a picture of God Himself, Jesus the Son of God, in the New Testament, early church and to the present day. “Christ, who is the Wisdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:24). In Proverbs 8, Wisdom was an intricate part of creation, and Christians have believed ever since that Wisdom was in fact the Person of Christ participating in the creation of the world. “In Him were created all things in heaven and earth. All things were created through Him and for Him.” (Colossians 1:11). “Through Him all things came into being, not one thing came into being except through Him.”” (John 1:3).
We see the Holy Spirit even before the first act of creation. In Genesis 1:1-2 we read, “In the beginning, Elohim created the heavens and the earth. The earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. There was no form, completely void of substance, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God (the Breath of Elohim, the divine Wind) hovered over the watery abyss.” The Holy Spirit was the One who prepared the earth for creation, getting things ready for the Word (John 1). One of the ancient titles given to the Holy Spirit early in Christianity was “the Giver of Life.” And it is obvious in the creation story that the Spirit of God had a big hand in initiating the whole creation project. The Holy Spirit is responsible for life itself, going as far back as the beginning of the world. And the Lord of Life, the Giver of Life, continues to brood like a mother bird, hovering over the world, creating and renewing and bringing new life.
There is an overwhelming sense of delight in Proverbs 8 as the Holy Trinity works together on the creation project. There is joy in the heart of God as the Three-in-One cooperate in creating the world. Isn’t it wonderful to know that our existence, the existence of the world, brings pleasure to our God?
“Yahweh Lord takes pleasure in all He has made!” (Ps. 104:31).
An artist with high standards always delights in his/her masterpiece. A composer always takes great pleasure in his/her best piece of music. An architect is profoundly pleased when the finished product is every bit as excellent as what was in his/her imagination. An author is delighted when his/her written piece exceeded expectations. God created an astounding universe, so complex and beautiful that it is world’s away from human comprehension. And what did Creator God do after His six days of creative work? “Then God looked over all He had made, and He saw that it was very good!” (Genesis 1:31). The Lord took stock of His creation, and was supremely pleased with His handiwork. He took great pleasure in looking it all over when finished. He delighted in the finished product of His efforts. God didn’t say “good enough,” He didn’t even say “good” when He was completed with creation. God said, “Very Good!” In fact, He was so completely satisfied with His creation that He took the next day off to celebrate it.
Many have said that the cosmos is God’s playground. It certainly looks it when God took delightful pleasure with Job when He recounted various aspects of His creation in Job 38-41. God was obviously pleased with His handiwork as He celebrates the cornerstone of the earth, its foundations, and when the morning stars sang together and the angels shouted for joy. Those were precious memories for God as He recounted the initial stages of His creative work.
Job was in awe as God delighted in the boundaries of the seas, and the rising of the dawn. He took pleasure in the origins of light and the hidden storehouse of snow and hail. God was pleased by the source of the east wind, the path of lightning, the tender grass springing up in the parched ground after a satisfying rain.
Job was suitably silenced as God delighted in the movement of the stars and planets, the path of the constellations through the seasons. God celebrated the hunting skill of the lioness, the birthing of wild goats and deer. God took pleasure as He talked about the freedom of the wild donkey and the wild ox.
But God wasn’t done with marveling with joy at some of His creatures. He was pleased at the antics of the ostrich, the strength and courage of the horse. God celebrated the soaring hawk, the majesty of the eagle. God even mentioned some mysterious creatures call the Behemoth and the Leviathan, which could be ancient and powerful monsters of the deep.
Job must have been convinced… God loves his creation, He delights in it, He celebrates it. And there is nothing that could match God’s power and skill and creative genius, an incomparable genius beyond all human genius. God’s creativity is the source of man’s creativity, and comes from a whole different place, an eternal place, a perfect place. God’s creativity is perfectly genius. The fact is that the Lord indeed takes eternal pleasure in all his works. As Augustine said in his Confessions, “The life of God is simultaneously work and rest, because all God does, working and resting, He does with the majestic ease of play.”
Most of the time the way to dive into a mystery is through the imagination. And creation certainly has an element of mystery to it. Here’s a delightful take on creation from the imagination of Anglican priest Robert Farrar Capon: “Let me tell you why God made the world. One afternoon, before anything was made, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost sat around in the unity of their Godhead discussing one of the Father’s fixations. From all eternity, it seems He had had this thing about being. He would keep thinking up all kinds of unnecessary things – new ways of being and new kinds of beings to be. And as they talked, God the Son suddenly said, ‘Really, this is absolutely great stuff. Why don’t I go out and mix us up a batch?’ And God the Holy Ghost said, ‘Terrific, I’ll help you.’ So they all pitched in, and after supper that night, the Son and the Holy Ghost put on this tremendous show of being for the Father. It was full of water and light and frogs; pinecones kept dropping all over the place and crazy fish swam around in the wineglasses. There were mushrooms and grapes, horse radishes and tigers – and men and women everywhere to taste them, to juggle them, to join them and to love them. And God the Father looked at the whole wild party and He said, ‘Wonderful! Just what I had in mind!’ So they laughed for ages and ages, saying things like how great it was for beings to be, and how clever of the Father to think of the idea, and how kind of the Son to go to all that trouble putting it together, and how considerate of the Spirit to spend so much time directing and choreographing… (continued)… Creation is the result of a Trinitarian bash, a divine party, a game of delight. The world is a whole barrelful of the apples of His eye, constantly juggled, relished and exchanged by the Persons of the Trinity. No wonder we love circuses, games and magic; they prove we are in the image of God. The delight of God is the deepest root of the being of everything.” (The Third Peacock, by Robert Farrar Capon, 1971).