*2021 NEW YEAR SERVICE*


TOPIC:

*2021: A BEGINNING OF INCREASE*


Text:

Genesis 1:1-2

Isaiah 43:19-21

John 1:1-4


Topic verse:

*"Then He who sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said to me, Write, for these words are true and faithful"*

Revelation 21:5


In Genesis chapter 1, the focus is on the creation of the material world - the heavens and the earth.

*God*: This standard Hebrew term for deity, *Elohim*, is in the form called the plural of majesty of the plural of intensity. In contrast to the ordinary plural (gods), this plural means "the fullness of deity" or "God-very God". Even though the word for God is plural, the verb for *created* is singular. It means "to fashion anew". This off-used word in the Bible always has God as its subject. Here it means that God renewed what was in a chaotic state. *God changed chaos into cosmos, disorder into order, emptiness into fullness*


The two words *without form ...void* express one concept -chaos. The earth had been reduced to this state (Jeremiah 4:23); it was not the way God had first created it (Isaiah 45:18).

*Darkness* is a potent biblical symbol of evil and wrong (Job 3:5; Psalms 143:3; Isaiah 8:22; John 3:19).

The *deep* is a term for the secret places of the waters (Genesis 7:11); this term sounds enough like the name of the Babylonian goddess Tiamat to remind the ancient reader of the Babylonian story of creation to which this story stands in dramatic contrast. All these images together portray chaos, disaster and devastation. From this portrait of the utter ruin, God brought an orderly creation.

*The Spirit of God was hovering* like a mother stork might hover over her nest - a portent of life to come from the dark, munky depths of the chaos below (the Spirit is described as a dove in Matthew 3:16).


"New" suggests freshness, not just a second beginning. *Life is not said to have been created; life existed in Christ*

(John 5:26; 6:57; 10:10; 11:25; 14:6; 17:3; 20:31).

Humans are dependent on God for life.


*Copyright 2021*

*The Ecumenican Church Nigeria*

Instagram: *@ecumenicanchurch*

WhatsApp: *+2348052366039*

Email: *johnifesanya@gmail.com*

*www.johnifesanya.blogspot.com*

*#TEC#*

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