The Eternal God

In its opening statement, the Bible addresses the most basic issue of human existence by declaring that the something or someone who has always existed is God.

Nothing.
No thing.

No light, no color, no shape or sound.
Really nothing at all around.
It isn’t hot, it isn’t cold,
Really—if I may be so bold—
There’s nothing positive to see,
But negative also cannot be.

Before the mountains or the seas,
Before the flowers and the trees,
Before the sky, the stars, the sun—
Before existed even one
Of what we call “person, place or thing”
Or little birds began to sing—

Spirit-being—no body there
About to speak into (no) air
The self-existing Mighty One
Who, self-sufficient, needs no one,
No thing. Don’t think it odd,
In the beginning, God . . .

It’s hard for us to imagine, but at one time nothing existed. There was nothing to see or hear. That means you couldn’t go to the beach and swim, or climb a mountain, hear the roar of a waterfall, or even listen to a tiny bird sing. Nothing existed and there was nothing to do. But no one minded, because there weren’t any people either!

Back then, before time began, only God existed. Imagine what that would be like for you—being the only one around. No one to talk to, except yourself. No one with whom you can take a walk. No one to play games with—you are the only one! How would you like that?

Well, God didn’t mind. You see, He is self-sufficient. What does that mean? It means that He didn’t (and He still doesn’t) need anyone. He is perfect and perfectly complete in Himself. He can be at peace, content, confident, secure, and fulfilled just by existing. Now that is perfection.

God is also self-existent. The dictionary says that self-existent means “existing independently of any cause” or “having an independent existence.” We can’t say that about ourselves. Without our parents, we wouldn’t be here. No one did anything to bring about God’s existence. He had no parents, no creator.

Who is this God? In the very beginning of the Bible we see that He is called Elohim. That’s the plural form of god in Hebrew used in its ordinary sense, but it is specifically used in the plural with singular verbs to refer to the supreme God. Elohim is clearly someone special—more than special. He is so singularly special that one has to use the plural to refer to Him.

As we continue to read, we see that He is spirit. He doesn’t have a body. Since He doesn’t have a body, He is not limited by time and space and matter.

In another part of the Bible we see—but wait. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We want to learn God’s story starting from the beginning and going right through to the end. Let’s learn more about God (Elohim) bit by bit as He reveals Himself in the Bible. For now, we’ll be satisfied knowing that Elohim, powerful, self-existent, never-created God, was around before anything else.

In the beginning, God . . .