The Alpha and Omega of Creation
Genesis 1:1-5; Revelation 21:1-6
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
1. Genesis and Revelation contrasted. The Book of Genesis is commonly known as the Book of beginnings. It is there that everything takes its form, and comes into being. The Book of Revelation has been called Palin-genesis, that is, the beginning again. Revelation gives us the finality of everything that was created and made.
Genesis is creation; Revelation is the re-creation, or, the consummation of creation. Over Genesis one, two, and three we may write our word Alpha; over Revelation twenty-one and twenty-two we may write Omega, applying these two words, for the time, to God's creation. We understand, of course, that God, the Holy Trinity, lay back of creation in the eternal ages past; and that He also lies beyond creation, in the eternal ages to come. The story of Genesis is merely a story of beginnings, and not of completions.
If one would learn the whole story of anything which has its beginning in Genesis, he must read everything that lies between Genesis and Revelation. Genesis gives the foundation, Revelation gives the capstone of a great building; the rest of the Bible gives the detailed structure of the building itself.
2. The parallelisms between Genesis and Revelation, a marvelous mark of inspiration. The inspiration of the Scriptures stands forth in glowing colors, when one grasps the significance of the first Book of the Bible, as the complement of the Bible's last Book, The Bible is formed of sixty-six Books, and yet the Bible is but one great whole. With the loss of any part of the Bible, the message of the Bible would remain forever incomplete. With any man-made addition to the Bible, the message would become unseemly, and overstated. There is a unity in the Bible which becomes more and more striking as its continuity is grasped.
All that we have just said is magnified by the marvelous manner in which the early statements of Scripture dove-tail with its final statements. Revelation, in its final Chapter s, is so plainly the counterpart and the culmination of Genesis, in its early Chapter s, that one stands amazed as he views their correlation.
The glory of this correlation, and its deeper meaning, will grip us the more as we develop the themes as given in the following diagram:
Follow this diagram with care:
a. The first creation. Genesis 1:1
b. The earth despoiled.Genesis 1:2; Genesis 1:2
c. The earth renewed and blessed Genesis 1:2, l.c.
d. Light before the sun. Genesis 1:3
e. The tree of life. Genesis 2:9
f. The Edenic river. Genesis 2:10
g. Gold and precious stones.Genesis 2:11; Genesis 2:11; Genesis 2:12
h. The bride Adam's wife Genesis 2:21; Genesis 2:22
i. Satan enters in.Genesis 3:1; Genesis 3:1
j. Man driven out.Genesis 3:24; Genesis 3:24
k. Sorrow, suffering, death enters in.Genesis 3:16-19; Genesis 3:16-19
k. Sorrow, suffering, death forever pass away.Revelation 21:4; Revelation 21:4
j. Man enters in.Revelation 22:14; Revelation 22:14
i. Satan cast out.Revelation 20:1-3; Revelation 20:1-3; Revelation 20:10
h. The Bride Christ's wife. Revelation 21:2
g. Gold and precious stones. Revelation 21:18-21
f. The river of Water of Life. Revelation 22:1; Revelation 22:2
e. The Tree of Life. Revelation 22:14, f.c.
d. Light before the sun. Revelation 21:23-25
c. The earth renewed and blessed. Revelation 21:24
b. The earth despoiled it passes away. Revelation 20:11
a. The last creation. Revelation 21:1
I. THE TWO CREATIONS COMPARED (Read the Scriptures as to Diagram)
We have been assigned the a, b, and c of the diagram. This covers that part referring to the physical earth.
1. The first creation compared with the last creation. Genesis 1:1 tells us that, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." In Revelation 21:1 we read, "I saw a new heaven and a new earth." There has been quite a discussion as to whether the new heaven and the new earth is the same as the first heaven and the first earth. We may get some light upon this subject by following our chart.
2. The two earths despoiled. There must be an indeterminable lapse of time between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2, We do not know when the "beginning" was, in which God created the heaven and the earth. It may have been millions of years past. In the Bible it is spoken of only as "In the beginning." Of this, however, we may assure ourselves that when God created the heaven and the earth, it was not created as it Is described in the second verse of the Bible. A cataclysmic and catastrophic judgment must have taken place between the "creation" of Genesis 1:1 and the "waste and void" of Genesis 2:2
In Revelation 20:11, we find that the earth is once more despoiled. It passes away. Peter tells us that it is melted with fervent heat. This despoiling of the earth reminds us of that which took place far back in the eternity of God concerning the first heaven and earth.
3. The earth renewed and blessed, as it is contrasted in Genesis and Revelation. Genesis describes the renewal, under these words, "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." The words which follow detail how God in six days made the earth and the heaven a fit place for the habitation of man.
In contrast with this, we find in Revelation 21:24, the new heaven and the new earth renewed and blessed. The nations of them who are saved, will inhabit the earth, and its kings will bring their glory and honor into the new and Heavenly Jerusalem.
The physical earth of the first creation, is the same physical earth that was despoiled, and made waste and void. The same earth was, afterward, renewed and blessed, It is that earth, upon which we now live. It may be that the second despoiling of the earth, when it passes away with a great noise; and when it melts with fervent heat, will be the same earth which God will renew and bless, and call, "A new heaven and a new earth." This is immaterial to us. We do know, however, that there will be a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
II. THE LIGHT CONTRASTED (Genesis 1:3; Revelation 21:23-25)
1. The third verse of the Bible carries a significant statement concerning light. "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light." Light came on the first day, while the creation of the sun, and the moon, and the stars, followed on the fourth day. There are some who use this fact as an argument against the accuracy of Scripture. Such an argument, is utterly foolish. God, Himself is Light, and the very fact that God's Spirit moved upon the face of the waters is sufficient to know that light was about to break through the darkness.
Along this line it is interesting to note that the sun and the moon and the stars were set in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night; to divide the light from the darkness. If it were not for these heavenly bodies, there would be no division between light and darkness. It would either be all dark through the absence of God's personal presence, or all light through His continued presence.
It is very vital to observe the Scriptures in reference to the new heaven and the new earth as set forth in Revelation 21:23-25. Nor is that all, for the very nations themselves, who dwell upon the new earth, walk in the effulgence of the light of the city.
If God can get along throughout a long eternity without the sun or the moon to give light upon the new earth, He could certainly have managed to give light to the first heaven and the first earth during the three days prior to the placing of the sun and the moon in the firmament of heaven. There will be no night there.
2. The fourth verse, of Genesis 1:1-31, carries this statement concerning light and darkness. "And God divided the light from the darkness." There is a tremendous message set forth in the quotation above. It is the message of "separation." God has said, "What communion hath light with darkness? * * or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?" The call of God which begins in Genesis 1:4 continues throughout the Bible, until we come into Revelation 21:23-24, inasmuch as in the new heaven and the new earth there will be no night, and no darkness. There will, likewise, be no sin, and no sinners, from which saints must separate themselves.
III. THE TREE OF LIFE AND THE EDENIC RIVER OF GENESIS CONTRASTED WITH THOSE OF REVELATION (Genesis 2:9-10, with Revelation 22:1-2; Revelation 22:14)
1. The Tree of Life. We do not know very much about these trees, but we know that they were the central trees, positionally, in the Garden of Eden. Every tree that grew was pleasant to the sight, and good for food, and of them our first parents had the right to eat freely; "But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the Garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall, ye touch it, lest ye die."
After Eve, and Adam with her, had sinned and had eaten of the tree, God drove them out from the garden (Genesis 3:24).
How glorious, then, is the promise that redeemed man, according to Revelation 22:14, shall have right to the Tree of Life.
The Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden was debarred to man. The Tree of Life in the New Jerusalem is reserved for man.
2. The two rivers. The Bible story of this first river is very striking. One division of the river compassed the land of Havilah, where there is gold, and Bdellium and the onyx stone. The second division of the river was Gihon. The third was Hiddekel, and the fourth Euphrates.
There will be a wonderful river during the reign of Christ upon the earth. This river will issue from the throne of Christ which will be set up in Jerusalem, and it will press its way toward the east, Whithersoever the river flows it will carry blessing. It will issue out toward the east country and go down into the desert, and into the sea. Whithersoever the river flows there shall be multitudes of fishes, and on either side of the river shall all trees grow for meat. The leaves of the trees shall not fade, neither shall the fruit be consumed.
There is a third river described in Revelation 22:1; Revelation 22:2. This river is a pure river of Water of Life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. It is on the banks of the river that the Tree of Life will grow. It will bear twelve manner of fruit, and yield her fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree will be for the health of the nations.
IV. THE BRIDE OF ADAM AND OF CHRIST CONTRASTED (Genesis 2:21-22, with Revelation 21:2)
1. The bride of Adam. After God had finished the creation of the physical earth, and had filled it full with all things necessary for the sustenance and pleasures of life, He created man. Before this man, whom God had created in His own image, God brought every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, to see what Adam would call them.
It must have been a memorable hour, as Adam tamed all the living creatures, and God found among them no helpmeet for Adam. Then God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and God took one of Adam's ribs, "And closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made He a woman, and brought her unto the man."
When Adam beheld his wife, he said, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."
2. The Bride of Christ. It is not until we get over into the fifth chapter of Ephesians that the full beauty of this marriage is Scripturally revealed. It is there that God quotes from the words which Adam spoke in the Garden of Eden, saying, "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh."
This was a great mystery, but God was speaking of Christ and the Church. He speaks of the wife as the man's own flesh, and of the Church as the Lord's own Body. He speaks of the presentation of the Church to Christ as a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but as being holy and without blemish.
In the Book of Revelation, the culminating picture is given concerning the Bride of Christ. First of all the marriage is described as taking place. In chapter Revelation 19:7 we read. "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His Wife hath made Herself ready." In Revelation 21:9-10 we have the picture of the Bride, the Lamb's Wife, and of the delightful Home in which she dwells. John beheld the great City, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of Heaven from God, having the glory of God. This was the Spirit's vision of the Lamb's Wife.
V. SATAN AND HIS WRECKAGE CONTRASTED WITH CHRIST AND HIS REDEMPTION (Genesis 3:1; Revelation 20:1-3; Revelation 20:10)
1. Satan's entrance and exit. The whole history of Satan we may not now detail. Suffice it to say that the devil entered Eden intent upon the fall and subjugation of the happy pair to whom God had placed in charge the "keeping" and the "guarding" of the Garden. The success of the devil's deadly intent we all well know, inasmuch, as we. ourselves, have been drawn, by line of descent from Adam, into the bane of Adam's fall.
Unto this hour Satan is the "god of this world," the prince of the power of the air. Satan, however, will not always be left in control of the world and its peoples. First of all, at the Lord's Second Coming, Satan will be chained and cast into the pit of the abyss, where he will be held during the thousand year reign of Christ; finally Satan will be cast into the Lake of Fire, where the beast and the false prophet are.
2. Sorrow, suffering and death; their entrance and exit. In Genesis the curse is pronounced against Adam and Eve; against the devil, and against the serpent. The literalness and fierceness of the results of that curse we all well know. We, ourselves, have all felt the pain and the bane of our sins. The physical earth is still under the throes of its subjection to vanity. Shall these things ever be thus? Thank God, no.
Satan has no promised redemption. For man there is offered redemption from sin now, upon the basis of Christ's atoning work. However, man's full fruition of redemption awaits the advent of the new Heaven and the new earth. It is only when man reaches that blest estate, that the very presence of sin and of its wreckage will have forever passed from view. In the New Jerusalem there will be no more sorrow, nor pain, nor crying, nor death, for the former things will have passed away.
The animal world and the physical creation will enter into their deliverance, after Satan is bound and Christ returns to reign. The Millennium will find the earth restored to much of its Edenic glory; but the perfection of bliss and beauty must await, as we have suggested, the day of the new Heaven and the new earth.
3. Man's exit and entrance. In Genesis we see man driven out of the Garden, and out from the Tree of Life. In Revelation we see man entering into the glory of God. with full access and right to the Tree of Life. Bless God, the former things will pass away, and God will make all things new.
AN ILLUSTRATION
"Some things about Heaven have been made reasonably plain, but a full knowledge of what we shall be has not been made manifest but 'We shall be like Him.' We shall be free from all environments and limitations of our earthly bodies. It matters not what becomes of them. There will be moral activity in Heaven. One-third of the human family die before reaching the age of moral accountability. Gladstone, the grandest man of his time, lived to a ripe old age. Perfection is not attained at the gate of Heaven; this is not God's way. There will be progress in Heaven. All life is a growth an unfolding, a development. Life in Heaven will be no exception. There will be service there; 'Therefore are they before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His Temple.' Service will not be labor; it will be the highest pleasure, the source of unspeakable joy. Heaven will be a social place. I cannot explain the Trinity the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But where there is a father and a son there will be social enjoyment. Heaven is a real Home, beautiful, lovely, a most delightful place to live in not eternally the same, but ever growing more beautiful, more lovely. Heaven is a place prepared for those who are prepared for it. " W. C. Bitting, D.D.