The DoveSample

In the Beginning

The Bible is a work of art. A sixty-six-book library that makes up one coherent narrative, with over forty authors, written across millennia: it is a miraculous work. It was only possible because its contents, whether written by shepherds or kings, doctors or poets, were all divinely inspired and God-breathed, documenting the work of God: it was a work of the Holy Spirit.

We believe in a triune God, and evidence of the Holy Spirit is throughout Scripture.

Genesis 1, at the very beginning, gives us the first glimpse of the Trinity: ‘In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters’ (‭‭Genesis‬ ‭1‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭NIVUK)‬‬.

At the dawn of creation, over the chaos of the untamed waters and above the recesses of the deep, the Spirit of God hovered – or a possible translation of the word ra.chaph is that the Spirit of God ‘fluttered’ over the waters. The word for the ‘Spirit of God’ is ruach, which could also be translated as wind. At the very beginning, there is therefore a wind-like blowing descriptively coupled with a bird-like motion, like wings stirring the waves, a fluttering resulting in a creation called ‘good’.

God mandates Adam and Eve with a mission: be fruitful and rule over – steward – creation. Humanity was created in love and commissioned to be fruitful.

But we know how the story goes – things go wrong. Horribly wrong. With snake and snare, sin enters the world, and the plan goes awry. Whereas we would have given up, God doesn’t. He already has a plan; a son of theirs will crush the snake’s head, even as it strikes his heel. God would put things right, make things new and make untrue the sadness wrought by sin. He would re-make his good-gone-bad creation and, one day, our longing for Eden-goodness will come to pass.