MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS, I hope to write you a letter, please God, each month, on one of the beautiful stories of God’s Word, and, at the end of each letter, I shall ask you questions, to which, I hope, you will send me answers. I trust that this employment of a few spare moments may lead you to search your Bibles for yourselves, and that thereby, like Timothy of old, you may from your childhood know the Holy Scriptures, which when received by divinely given faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, will make you wise unto salvation. What the apostle says of Timothy’s knowledge of the Bible gives us the true answer to the question, Why did God write us a book? It was to make His dear Son known to us, that by faith in Him we sinners might be saved, and not to educate us, or to make us clever and scientific.
We will, therefore, begin with Genesis, the first book in the Bible, which teaches us that God created everything out of nothing; and that He made the heavens and the earth, and all things therein, and put man as head over all things on the earth, in infinite wisdom and goodness. The meaning of the word Genesis, is origin or birth, and we may call this beautiful book the seed plot of the Bible, for like a little plot of ground in a garden, where the gardener rears the seedlings that afterward fill the beds and borders of his garden with sweetness and beauty, so in Genesis we shall find in lovely little stories and pictures all the truths that appear in the remaining pages of the Bible. How kind and condescending of God to stoop to teach us His will in this simple and interesting manner, as your parents taught you to read in pretty toy books, with words and pictures side by side, so that your little minds were led on in this pleasant path of learning, before you saw difficult books, in which there are pages crowded with black letters, and long, hard sentences.
But why has God written a book for us and not for the angels? The answer to this question, no little boy or girl really believes, until God opens the eyes of the heart, yet I doubt not, you can say with your heads if not with your hearts, “Because we are sinners, and have departed from God.” Yes, dear children, the holy angels have not disobeyed their Creator, and they do not need His Word to call them back to Him. If a man have two sons, and one of them runs away to sea, and the other remains a dutiful boy at home, the father will seek the lost boy, and when he discovers where he is, he will write him a letter, entreating him to repent, and return to his father’s home. He does not write a letter to the good boy. Now, God has not to say to angels, “Remember your Creator.” They have never forgotten Him, but ever do His commandments, hearkening to the voice of His word; but for you, dear children, is this word written, “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.” How wicked must the heart be to forget a Creator so good and kind, from whom we receive every good gift which we enjoy, and how good is God to write His holy word to call sinners back to Himself.
If you think, you will understand the difference between the two words, “create,” and “make,” which we find in the first chapter of Genesis. A girl may make a frock for her doll, but she uses materials which she has already. A boy may make a box for his tools, but he has the wood to work with―he does not make that. Now, in the beginning God created, out of nothing, the heavens and the earth. Gen. 1:11In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (Genesis 1:1). He does not tell us any particulars about the creation of the heavens or the angels, but from the second verse God gives us the history of the earth, as in six days He finished making it, until He saw all was very good, and rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. The first verse in the Bible takes us back thousands of years to the beginning of God’s creation; then in the second verse we behold the earth in darkness and confusion, and in six days God reduces it to order, and fills it with life and beauty. He first caused light to dispel the darkness on the face of the waters, and divided the light from the darkness. This was the first day to this earth. And therein we have the first Bible picture, which the apostle teaches us is a gospel lesson for our hearts. 2 Cor. 4:66For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6). “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Has God called you, my dear young friends, out of the darkness of sin into His marvelous light?
The second day God made the firmament, the beautiful blue sky, which He called heaven. Until God’s light shines into our dark hearts, heaven has no reality in our minds―we live on as though we were mere animals, and knew not the God of heaven.
The third day God bade the earth appear, and clothed it with verdure. It is not until we are in the light of God, and have been brought up out of the waters of darkness, like the earth, that we can bring forth any works that God can call good.
On the fourth day, God made the sun and moon to shine in the blue sky, and He set them there to divide the light from the darkness, “And God said...Let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth.” Gen. 1:14,1514And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: 15And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. (Genesis 1:14‑15). The sun is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, one of whose names is “the Sun of Righteousness.” When God reveals His Son in a sinner’s heart, darkness flies before the light, and heaven becomes a dear home, where the blessed Saviour shines for evermore in all His love and glory.
On the fifth day we read again of God creating. The first four days God makes, and orders, and arranges what He had created in the beginning, but now He fills the waters and the air with living creatures, and on the sixth day He fills the earth with animal life. Each creature finds its home and its food already made for its use and enjoyment, before its creation, all bearing witness to the wisdom and goodness of the Creator, as we read in Psa. 104:24, 2524O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches. 25So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. (Psalm 104:24‑25). “O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them all: the earth is full of Thy riches. So is this great and wide sea wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts.”
And now that everything is finished, and God sees that it is good, we hear of God taking counsel. “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” Gen. 1:2626And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. (Genesis 1:26). This is one of the precious seeds of Genesis, a germ-truth, which blossoms throughout the Bible. To whom is God speaking, and saying, “Let us make man?” And, Who is God’s image? This scripture teaches us that the Triune God counseled and planned our creation, and made us in the image of God’s Son. If you read our chapter attentively you will see that on each day, “God spake,” and “God made,” and “God saw” that His workmanship was good. We have in this the mystery of the Trinity. God the Son speaks, God the Spirit works, and God the Father sees that it is good.
Dear children, in this beautiful creation what a wonderful place was ours. God set man over all the works of His hands, and when man was created, God was satisfied. He saw all completed according to His mind, and He pronounced everything to be very good, and then God rested from His work, and man entered into his place of dominion over the works of God’s hands, the only creature upon earth that knew his Creator, and the responsible head over all the earthly creation, to serve and represent his Maker, and to offer up the thanksgivings and praises of a blest and happy earth. And God blessed the seventh day, and rested from all His works that He had made.
In my next letter I hope to insert the question and the good answers of my young friends on God being our Creator.
Your affectionate friend,
UNCLE R.