Messianic Viewpoint

Guest (Male): The Bible is the only book where we find God, where we find the will, where we find the thoughts of God. God is real. He has a personality and in Genesis we find his first words to us. And they are again so powerful.

Guest (Female): Genesis is not a book of science, nor is it a historical book. While Genesis contains both science and history, it should be primarily looked at as a book of faith.

Guest (Male): Science has pushed faith to the side and many creationists are ridiculed today by the science world because for them, faith is not an acceptable, repeatable, and dependable criteria. But God is a rational God, and God is a God of order.

But we need to ask ourselves whose authority do we take for the account of creation? The Bible claims to be the eyewitness of the very beginnings of the heavens and the earth, while science can only presuppose what happened.

Guest (Male): Personally, as I view the consistent errors made by humans over the years, the wars, the political and social development, and their often fatal downfalls, I ask myself is it even logical and reasonable to assume that man is the ultimate declarer of all truth? When it comes to truth, Genesis and the Bible's primary concern is the soul of the individual, yours and mine.

Guest (Male): And even in the book of Genesis we have an incredible revelation of God's personality as the affectionate and caring and nurturing father. It's a story about hope and love, and it's a story about how we, mankind, have a special meaningful relationship with God. From the very beginning in Genesis God chose to reveal himself to us because he wants to be known to us.

Guest (Male): As we begin this book of Genesis today with Messianic Leader Jacques Isaac Gabizon, let's share in the joys and in the victories and in the losses and in the hope, because all of this is part of life and God is the author of life.

Science looks for things dependable. Our God is the most dependable personality we can trust because he is the author of life. Welcome to Shalom Ariel as we begin this study in the book of Genesis with Messianic Leader Jacques Isaac Gabizon. Be blessed as you listen in and Shalom.

Jacques Isaac Gabizon: Are you ready for a new beginning? So, let's open up our scriptures to Genesis 1, today's my favorite book. I don't know why you're laughing all the time. It's true, every time we start a book I say it's my favorite book, but it is true that it is my favorite book. Every book that you start, you know there's so much in it.

So today we're starting a new book of the Bible, the first one, Genesis, the door to the scriptures. You know opening this book is like looking at the night sky with a powerful telescope and seeing millions of stars, but which do you choose to begin with? From Genesis extend roots whose influences reaches to the book of Revelation to eternity. There you will find the beginning, the foundation of the teachings that fills our Bibles.

The name Genesis is from the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Toledoth, which means history, record of the past. There you find the origin of man, the origins of the nations, of Israel, the origin of sin and of salvation. Genesis will tell us how sin entered our world. It will give us the autonomy of sin, and this book will show us how God provided salvation so graciously and so fast so that we do not fall deeper into the eternal darkness of sin.

In Genesis we find ourselves. There we will recognize our deep-seated selves. The Hebrew title is Bereshit, which means beginning, in the beginning, there we are. Looking at our past, our origins will give us a great understanding of the present world and of ourselves as well. As far past is Genesis in time, it is yet so close. Its wars are alive and powerful, and its truth as frozen in time for us.

But beyond the origin of man and of this world, it is in this book where God reveals himself in such a mighty way. We heard of him. We sensed him, we sensed his presence. Our heart, our minds tell us that he exists, but it is in the scriptures where he reveals himself. The Bible is the only book where we find God, where we find the will, where we find the thoughts of God. God is real. He has a personality and in Genesis we find his first words to us. And they are again so powerful.

Genesis is not a book of science, it is not a historical book, it is his book, it is the book of God. While it contains true and important information about all sciences, it is not one of its textbook. For the believer this book is a great refuge, a holy place to go and contemplate our Father at work. And he is so caring and he is so open to us that as you read the creation account again and again, you will begin to believe that actually he created the whole thing for you, and I believe he did.

Beyond the astounding and immeasurable power behind the creation of the heavens and the earth lies God, a sensitive and affectionate father. This is what I would like to bring to you from this great book Genesis. Genesis is a book of faith and faith is the posting one at the door of the Bible. We will speak about astronomy and history and archaeology and science, but above all things we will see our God as he reveals himself to us.

Let us begin to read the first verse. This one may be the most loaded of them all. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. In the beginning God. But who is God? Why is it that we have no explanation about who God is? When I buy a book the first thing I do is to read about the author, who he is, where does he come from, what are his qualifications? But the Bible does not. Why?

There's a simple reason behind the absence of this explanation. The reason is that you know him. I'm talking to all men, the atheist, the Buddhist, the Muslims, the agnostics, the scientist. God knows that you know him. So in the beginning behold your God. That is quite an assertion isn't it? As far as the Bible is concerned all man know God. One may have decided not to believe in him anymore, and another may have decided to replace him with another God, another idea. In all the cases they all know him and this is the starting point of the scriptures.

The first verse reaches to the depth of our soul and challenges us to look again at God. The Greek and the Romans tried to evade him. They made him their own, they made their own belief and religion, one that looks so much like the Bible with their gods coming down to Mount Olympus and manifesting themselves. But the spirit of God spoke to them in Romans 1:19 and he says because what may be known of God is manifest where? In them. For God has showed it to them.

In them, that is in their inner being because they know and the writers of Ecclesiastes said to the Jews that he has put eternity in our hearts. Eternity is a knowledge of the everlasting, of the eternity past, present and future. We know, we know there's hereafter, we know there's a past. A plant doesn't know, a dog doesn't know, but we know. Again don't fool yourself in saying that you do not know God.

In fact the Bible goes further in saying that if you deny him, it is because you do not, not because you do not know him, it is because you repressed his knowledge from your heart. Romans 1:18 says it clearly. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth. This is what God says to the atheists, the agnostics, and the great scholars who deny him and his word. Have we then suppressed the truth of God from our hearts?

But know that God has not suppressed anyone yet. He is still standing at the door of his book with his open arms for anyone who desire to rediscover God. At the judgment day the same God will be there. It is then preferable to recognize him at the beginning of his revelation, later it's not advisable. So then in the beginning God. See your creator, recognize him. He is there right at the outset of the scriptures to welcome you.

You know there's the story of this little girl who grew up in an atheistic home where no one ever spoke of God. Once she questioned her father about the origin of the world and asked who is God? Where does God come from? Her father replied with a discourse about evolution and how we came from monkeys. It was a discourse that was materialistic in nature. Then he added however there are those who say that all this comes from a very powerful being and they call him God.

At this point the little girl began to run like a whirlwind around the room in a burst of joy and said I know him, I know him, I knew you weren't telling me the truth. Yes it is him, children know about God right? It is him, he is the one we are all looking for and perhaps we don't know we're looking for him. He is the only one who can satisfy our constant quest, our constant nostalgia of a better world, of a better time. It's all in God.

And that God is standing right at the door of his book is an invitation but it's also a reminder, it's also a warning. Many enter the scriptures by bypassing its author. Many go in there to find what they want without a thought of God. At times it is better to stay outside. Can anyone enter the scriptures by bypassing the author? Yes anyone can. But they will have a hard time understanding the scriptures.

They would have a hard time. They will finally when they finally think that they found a fault, a mistake, an error, it will be like what Isaiah said, he says when a hungry man dreams and looks and eats, he awakes, his soul is still empty. There are no faults, no errors in the Bible. But there are bumps, there are firewalls everywhere, protective apparent contradictions fencing it all around. All to tell us that the message of the Bible cannot be grasped without the revelation of the author himself.

Yes the Bible is one of the best seller but perhaps the least read and understood book. Yet it is not a secret book. You just need to ask God to reveal its content to you. You just need to recognize him as the author. It is written in Hebrews chapter 11: For he who comes to God must believe that he is, that he is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

So the first step to approach Genesis is to recognize him and diligently seek him and he will reward you with the knowledge of great truth, things you had no idea actually existed. In the same chapter of Hebrews as we're going to look at the creation. There it says through faith, through faith, not through science, not through archaeology or anything like this, through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the words of God.

You can come with all the scientific theories but understand that it is through faith, it is through revelation of God, direct revelation, he will give it to you. And we know that he is so willing to give and give as much faith and wisdom we can take. It is then my prayer that as we're going to read the account of the creation that we approach him with an open heart, with sincerity because God said in Jeremiah if you remember, and you will seek me and find me when you search me with all your heart. Yes we're going to find him.

Let us go back to Genesis 1:1 but let's read just read the first five words. In the beginning God created. You know it's not completely true that this passage does not tell us anything about God himself. While it does not explain who he is, there is yet something in there that speaks of his very nature. Can you see it?

Guest (Female): As we wind up for the second part of our program today, we would like to remind our listeners how blessed and privileged we feel to be part of your radio day. We pray that the messages you hear will instruct you, edify you, and encourage you to love the Lord more and follow him into obedience in even greater ways.

We are all changed by the challenges and transformed by the trials of life and as we walk them together, we keep looking up to him who is mighty to break down the walls of Jericho that stand before us and to hand over to us the spiritual victories in life. Yeshua has broken down the greatest barrier, the greatest wall that has separated us from God the Father.

Thank you listeners for joining us in prayer and in financial support for this ministry. If you have it on your heart to give to this ministry then you can by logging on to our congregation website at bethariel.ca, B-E-T-H-A-R-I-E-L dot ca. And if God leads you to contribute from the treasures that God has blessed you with for the continuation of this radio ministry. Shalom, Shalom as we begin part two of today's program.

Jacques Isaac Gabizon: What we have here is a great revelation of the nature of our God and this is right at the threshold of the Bible because if one is going to understand anything about the book, he needs to know about an important aspect of the nature of the author. How then are we going to approach this plurality?

Guest (Female): Genesis 1:1 holds nothing back, right from the start, from the first verse itself, we have before us a clearly stated fact. The Hebrew word God is in its plural form, Elohim. Now if I were to read an English translation it would say, in the beginning, Gods created the heavens and the earth. But we know there is only one God.

So begins our challenge. How do we deal with passages such as these when Jacob said, I have seen God face to face, but my life has been spared? No one can see God face to face and live. So who did Jacob see? And of course this issue is not exclusive to the Hebrew scriptures.

For many Jews the plurality of the Godhead is a Christian invention, but even in the Zohar, which is a set of books on the mystical aspects of the Torah and the nature of God, it speaks of the plurality of the Godhead when it said, quote, "the ancient one who is described as being three, but how can three names be one?" end of quote. We will never understand in our finite state the nature of the plurality of God. So let's instead appreciate the magnitude of his majesty in the plurality of his perfection.

Welcome to Shalom Ariel and welcome to this new study we have just begun on Genesis with Messianic Leader Jacques Isaac Gabizon. Be blessed as you listen in and Shalom.

Jacques Isaac Gabizon: Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the words of God. You can come with all the scientific theories but understand that it is through faith, it is through revelation of God, direct revelation he will give it to you. And we know that he is so willing to give and give as much faith and wisdom we can take.

It is then my prayer that as we're going to read the account of the creation that we approach him with an open heart, with sincerity because God said in Jeremiah if you remember, and you will seek me and find me when you search me with all your heart. Yes we're going to find him.

Let us go back to Genesis 1:1 but let's read just read the first five words. In the beginning God created. You know it's not completely true that this passage does not tell us anything about God himself. While it does not explain who he is, there is yet something in there that speaks of his very nature. Can you see it? There is a tremendous amount of knowledge to be drawn just from the name used for God here. We are told that God has 300 names in the Bible, each of these represents a facet of his infinite nature.

So why is the name used here? Why is it used here? And what is it? The name God in Genesis 1:1 is the Hebrew Elohim, but it is plural. It is plural. Why? And there's a grammatical inconsistency, the name being plural, the verbs which follows is singular. God plural, created singular. How can you have a plural and a singular? What is the message here? And this is the name of God used throughout the creation, throughout all of chapter one. What does that tell us?

Some have said or tried to resolve this problem and spoke of the plural of majesty, but there's no example in the Bible or in rabbinical literature of such a plural of majesty. This is a fairly modern way of speaking. Others appeal to God's love and care for the angels in heaven and included them in his work, so that they would not feel left out. But they themselves are created being and they were not created then because in the beginning God, the creation comes after, they were not there.

What we have here is a great revelation of the nature of our God and this is right at the threshold of the Bible because if one is going to understand anything about the book, he needs to know about an important aspect of the nature of the author. How then are we going to approach this plurality? You know that the Bible interprets itself. Looking elsewhere in the scriptures we find that another book begins with the same words. And what it says complements and explains Genesis 1:1.

The first beginning is here, Genesis 1:1, in the beginning God. The second is John 1:1. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. There the plurality is explained for us, the Messiah was there. And here the Messiah emerges right in the first verse of the scriptures because all of the scriptures speaks of him just like he told the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. The Elohim is the word who is God.

And when John wrote this famous phrase of John 1:1, he wrapped up all that we know of God in the Hebrew scriptures. He expressed this dilemma that the Jews had at the time when they considered the nature of God who was at time so far and at time so close, they couldn't make it up. And he plainly presents the problem by saying that in the beginning was the word was God, that is the same as God, and he was with God, that is apart from God, just like who the Messiah is.

And so the book begins with the words 'in the beginning Elohim.' And as God is about to proceed to create in Genesis, in the gospel of John the first thing that the spirit tells us about the word is that he's the creator as well. This is what it says in verse three of John 1:3. All things were created through him and without him nothing was made that was made and so that brings us right to Genesis 1:1 and we know it is the same.

These two passages explain for us this predicament that not only the rabbis of the time had, but even the men of God in the scriptures actually had. Do you remember when Solomon dedicated a temple and he said behold the heaven of the heavens cannot contain you, how much less this temple that I built for you? How can you dwell in my house that I just built and none of the heavens can contain you?

And Jacob had a bigger problem. He had a bigger problem when he met God, when he spoke to God, when he touched him actually when he wrestled with him. And he said at the end for I have seen God face to face and I did not die. How could that be? Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1 together answer this difficulty. This is all explained by these first verses, in the beginning was the word and the word was with Elohim and the word was Elohim in the beginning Elohim.

And the point of it all is that this mighty God can come to you, to your place, to your dwelling and like Jacob you can actually speak to him. You can wrestle with him if you want. This I believe is the primary aim of this book. It's not given to us just as an information. God wants you to know that he wants to get closer and closer to you.

And so this is the first indication of the plurality of the divinity slowly this chapter and especially the next one will reveal more of his great nature. Now let us read the whole verse one again. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. In the Hebrew this verse is exactly seven words. Seven is the number of spiritual perfection as the creation was originally made completely perfect.

And there is a beautiful symmetry in this chapter involving different numbers. As for the number seven it completes the creation. Like the seventh day God rested it becomes the Shabbat. Like the seventh year was a sabbatical year for the land, for the creation itself. And furthermore the 49th year, seven times seven, mark the year of Jubilee. And the presence of this number in the first verse show us that the creation at first was complete and it was perfect in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth we stop here.

But verse one also tells us something else. By the words God created we understand that God is not the creation, he is outside of his creation, he is outside of matter, he is outside of time. He is not mother earth, he is not father tree, he is apart, separated from the material creation and not part of it. He is not the God sun, he is not the God moon, he cannot be confined to a picture or an object or an idea or a thought. He's too infinite.

God is spirit. Realizing this fact will save us from falling into any form of idolatry. In the beginning God then the creation. Because at time he was and there was no creation. We don't know what happened then, but he was without the creation, he doesn't need the creation, he just did it later. One can paint for your beautiful painting but he is not the painting, he is the painter.

We can pair this idea with the first commandment, you shall not make for yourself any carved image or any likeness of anything that is in the heaven above, don't do anything because it's not it. Showing that the creation is just a work in itself and God is above it all. Let us go further and read the first two verses because after the creation of the heaven and the earth something happened. Something whose force, whose force in the Hebrew words brought many rabbis actually to be baffled.

It says in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, the earth was without form and void and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. This is a first difficulty we're faced with, the correlation between the first and second verse of the Bible, it didn't take long. God is not about to just tell us how things were created, he wants us to work.

The first verse speaks of God's perfect creation but the second verse you have words like darkness, like confusion, emptiness, what happened in between? How can we understand this? Some have said that verse one explains the creation and verse two speaks of the matter, the material God used to create. They say that God created the heavens and the earth out of what is called darkness, out of what is called confusion emptiness, to them the rabbis have a word.

It is written in Genesis Rabbah, commentary on Genesis from the time of the Talmud, the time of Jesus. He says to liken God to a king who has built his palace on a garbage dump is to arrogantly censure his majesty. Thus whoever comes and say that this world was created out of a Tohu-va-Bohu and darkness does not in the end impair God's glory? I agree.

While this idea that God created from darkness everything existed in the first century, it is today a very prevalent theory. They argue and insist that the Hebrew word Tohu-va-Bohu just mean empty and for those that I read they rarely mention the word darkness. And many of these rabbis who knew their Hebrew well, this dilemma between the first and second verse was a great problem for them. They could not make sense of the creation and then the devastation, why they asked.

In the 13th century they were still asking the question in the Zohar. They say how could God create the worlds and destroy them? And they still asking the question today. They clearly understood and this is important for us, they clearly understood that something drastic happened between verse one and two of Genesis but they did not know what. So what happened in between? Shalom, Shalom.