God’s Word and Wisdom in Genesis: Understanding the Meaning of Creation

I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies. (Gen 22:17)

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Gen 1:1). This profound opening to the Bible sets the stage for the most beautiful drama ever written, a story of redemption built into the very fabric of reality. One question that arises from this verse is, why did God create two environments, one for stars and one for dust? Why didn’t he just create the earth as the stage for human redemption? Pattern theology offers an answer to this question based on the nature of God, through the belief that God exists as two persons who are one, the Word and Wisdom (Holy Spirit) of God.

In this article, we’ll develop an answer by first examining how the heavens and the earth relate to redemptive history. Then we’ll look at the Word and Wisdom of God, to see if their distinction of roles can explain God’s decision to create the heavens and the earth.

God’s crowning work in Genesis 1 was the creation of mankind, Adam and his wife Eve. These were formed out of the dust of the earth, and were given authority over the earth, and all earthly creatures (Gen 1:26-28). Because of our elevated position, many people mistakenly believe that we naturally possess authority over all creation. However, a careful reading of Genesis 1 shows that we only have dominion over the earth and its atmosphere, not the higher heavens, apart from Christ. So heavenly beings, such as angels and cherubim etc., were not initially under our authority. David reinforces this in one of his Psalms,

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.

You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! (Psa 8:3-9)

Taken alone, verse six seems to indicate that everything in existence has been put under man’s dominion — and that is true when this psalm is taken in a prophetic sense (see Paul’s application to the new heavens and earth, below). But in the ordinary sense of David’s words, as applied to the current heavens and earth, a careful reading of this psalm shows that he was speaking only of dominion over the creatures of the earth, and the “earthly heavens” (the sky / atmosphere). Heavenly beings such as stars and angels occupy the second and third heavens, so David recognizes that according to our earthly nature, mankind is lower in rank than the angels.

Through Christ however, mankind has received authority over the heavens and the earth (Mat 28:18-20, Rev 5:1-5), heaven being ruled by a son of man seated on the throne of God (Dan 7:13-14). And through our union with him in death and resurrection, those who are in Christ receive an elevated nature and status in the kingdom of heaven, which is greater than even the highest position we might achieve in the kingdom(s) of earth (Mat 11:11).

For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere, “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.” Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. (Heb 2:5-8)

Thus in our fall, death and resurrection, God is doing more than simply restoring us to our pre-fall condition. Rather, he is giving mankind a higher authority and status than Adam. This “upgrade” given to Christians is seen even in our nature; the resurrected bodies we receive are patterned after a heavenly man, rather than an earthly man.

The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. (1Co 15:47-49)

This elevation of man from a lower to a higher state tells us something about the relationship between heaven and earth, namely that heaven is “higher” in some sense than the earth.

• From earth’s perspective, it’s certainly higher geographically; scripture always refers to heaven as being “up,” whether it’s speaking of the sky, space, or the spiritual realm.
• Heaven is also greater in authority. Whoever possesses the throne of heaven has authority over the earth. As the passages cited above indicate, Jesus presently has authority over both the heavens and the earth, due to his ascension to the throne of God. But he doesn’t presently sit on the throne of his earthly father David (2Sa 7:12-16, Luk 1:31-33). So he has authority over Jerusalem, and all the Gentile kingdoms of the world, by virtue of his higher throne in heaven. But other rulers, usually rebels, occupy the seats of power on the earth. Hence Paul’s words, “At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.” The earth belongs to Christ by authority, but not yet by actual submission to his will.
• Heaven has a greater temple, priesthood, sacrifice, city, covenant and law. The earthly tabernacle/temple, for example, was patterned after the heavenly (Heb 8:5-6, 9:11), and it was there that Jesus’ greater sacrifice provided a greater atonement, one which could take away sins (Heb 10:1-5). The earth and its covenants therefore are merely a shadow of the heavenly (Heb 10:1). In a sense, the earth is created in the image of heaven, making heaven the dominant force.

Despite our lower natural status, God still highly values the inhabitants of earth, because we are in his image and likeness. He therefore protects us from abuse — not only from our fellow men and subordinate creatures (Gen 9:5-6), but even from our superiors (Jude 1:6). Thus being lower doesn’t in any way diminish the value of mankind; it just means that we serve with a different level of authority, and serve a different role in the kingdom of heaven. I have to imagine we make better food than angels, anyway (Num 11:6 :-)).

The above overview of heaven and earth helps us to see that God’s creation of the two environments is more than an incidental detail in Genesis; it seems to be central to his design of creation. Why is this? As mentioned above, one good explanation from a patternist view is that these two environments are patterned after the two persons in the godhead, the Word and Wisdom of God.

Both the Word and Wisdom are featured in creation narratives written by John and Solomon respectively. Let’s begin by taking a look at these, before considering how they weigh in on the Genesis account.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it… The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (Jhn 1:1-5, 9-14)

In this passage, we see that the divine person of the Word is credited with creating everything in the universe; there is nothing that wasn’t made by him. This correlates with what we see in Genesis 1, where God speaks, and various things are created, separated, or otherwise organized.

As we discussed in the last article, the Word is closely associated with the concept of truth, being the source of all true information. Both the Word and Wisdom communicate truth, but Jesus is the truth incarnate (Jhn 14:6), whereas the Spirit communicates what he hears from Jesus / the Word.

I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. (Jhn 16:12-15)

So the Word is the source of truth, and the Spirit guides us into greater and greater understanding of the truth.

The Word in John 1 is also described as the source of life. In the last article I associated life principally with the Spirit, but John 1 would seem to make it an intrinsic property of the Word, which again fits well with John 14:6. So my view may need some nuancing or correction. A lot of it really comes down to understanding what the Bible means by the term “life,” and whether or not that concept is always used the same way throughout scripture.

As best I can tell, “life” in the biblical sense appears to be any biological creature other than plants. There are physical vs spiritual versions of life, but in all cases it would seem to apply to the inhabitants of the environments created in Genesis 1, rather than the environment itself. Because plants are seen as part of the earth, being created on the same day that God brought forth the dry land, they aren’t considered alive by God’s usage of the term, despite being biological. Or, perhaps, the planet as a whole is considered to be alive in a different sense, through its plant life.

In any case, biology is a union of matter, energy and information. Both the Word and Wisdom contribute to this creation of life, and the role filled by the Word appears to be the production of new information which Wisdom then extrapolates. This is one of the major flaws in the theory of evolution, the unproven belief that information can be spontaneously generated without a designer, without a mind. God’s word says that it was his mind; his Word and Wisdom that produced the genetic code, and organized matter and energy into the various forms of life we see today.

So I think that both the Word and Wisdom are required to produce life. But in terms of the “life” that’s a property of the Word, it’s the creation of new information that’s in view here, both in biblical revelation and in genetic engineering. The Spirit on the other hand takes what the Word has provided and extrapolates it to logical conclusions, as well as providing designs for sustained reproduction of the design.

In the case of man’s spiritual life, according to what Jesus said above, we know that the Spirit’s work will never produce new revelation without first being prompted by the Word. To be clear, I am a continuationist; I do believe in things like prophecy through the Spirit. But this would always be initiated by the Word, and communicated through the Spirit. In practice, prophecy today only seems to be useful in a limited sense, not something addressed to the whole Church like what we see in the apostolic age. So in terms of accepted, universal revelation, the departure of the Word (and his direct disciples) from the world matches well the closure of the canon; we have no real reason to expect further legitimate scripture to be written prior to his return. But we can continue to derive new truth from existing revelation through the work of the Spirit, through Wisdom as we study, systematize, and weed error from our understanding of the Bible.

In the case of man’s biological life, we likewise don’t expect new revelation prior to the return of Christ, and the ensuing resurrection. Man’s genetic code was defined once, by the Word and Wisdom, at the beginning of creation. Because of the reproductive elements in our design, we create new instances of humankind, down through history. But this involves new configurations of existing information from Adam and Eve’s original DNA. No new information should be expected in man’s genetic code until the Word redesigns us into the image of the man from heaven, rather than the man of dust.

Like the Word, Wisdom has a creation narrative, with many similarities to the Word, but with some noticeable differences. Before citing the passage, it’s important to admit a few things.

1. The language in Proverbs 8 is highly poetic. That doesn’t mean that it isn’t true; it just means that you can’t necessarily take it literally. For example, it personifies Wisdom as a woman who is effectively “street preaching” to foolish men being tempted by her rival, the adulterous woman. No one is to expect that God came to earth in the form of a woman who literally cried out to a bunch of foolish men; this is clearly poetic language. With that said, John 1 and Genesis 1 also possess poetic elements (to a lesser degree), yet we’re still able to clearly derive many literal details. So I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. The account of creation described in Proverbs 8 matches many other creation accounts in scripture, and it becomes difficult to interpret the passage without accepting some sort of literal divine person called (poetically) “Wisdom.”
2. Because of this, many throughout Church history believed that Jesus / the Word is the person in view here. I disagree, but if you’re willing to accept the poetic feminization of Jesus, then I don’t see any major problem with this view.
3. Many really weird groups throughout history have leveraged this passage to twist scripture into support for a female deity named Sophia (wisdom). That isn’t my goal. But the fact that I disagree with the trinity, that I associate femininity with one of the persons of the godhead, and that my viewpoint has some unusual elements to it, will probably mean that my use of this passage will be somewhat triggering for a few trinitarians. My ask would be that the patternist interpretation of Proverbs 8 be evaluated independently and fairly. We don’t put a lot of weight on it, but it’s worth at least looking at to see how we would interpret it.

My view is that Wisdom here is speaking of the person of the Holy Spirit, who provided a supporting role in creation (Gen 1:2). I think that some of the details better match the Spirit than the Word; but even if this is a poetic representation of the Word, it doesn’t undermine the pattern. Applying this passage to the Holy Spirit supports my view, but it is hardly the foundation, or the only support.

Does not wisdom call? Does not understanding raise her voice? On the heights beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand; beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries aloud: “To you, O men, I call, and my cry is to the children of man. O simple ones, learn prudence; O fools, learn sense. Hear, for I will speak noble things, and from my lips will come what is right, for my mouth will utter truth; wickedness is an abomination to my lips… My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold, and my yield than choice silver…

“The LORD possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth, before he had made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world.

“When he established the heavens, I was there; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man.

“And now, O sons, listen to me: blessed are those who keep my ways… For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD, but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death.” (Pro 8:1-7, 19, 22-32, 35-36)

The purpose of this creation narrative is to lend credibility to wisdom as an important attribute for men to pursue, as they would pursue a wife. Because wisdom was present and active in the creation of the world, men should value it highly as an asset that will protect them from destroying their lives.

Concerning the personification of Wisdom, I won’t make too much of this passage, due to its controversial nature. But a few points are worth noting.

First, granting the poetic language, this appears to be speaking of an uncreated being. Wisdom is portrayed as existing before Genesis 1:1, saying, “I was there when he established the heavens.” So if she is a real person, Wisdom must exist outside of this universe, since she came before it ever existed.

Second, Wisdom is portrayed as a real, distinct person from Yahweh, similar to the Word (cf. Pro 8:22, Jhn 1). A lot of the language could be explained away as simple personification, taking God’s attribute of wisdom, and assigning it personality for poetic purposes. But as Solomon begins to describe Wisdom’s emotional reactions to what God created (with her help), it almost comes across as more than what was needed to establish the purposes of this passage. If Wisdom is merely a valuable tool for mankind to live a healthy life, then portraying her as a “master workman” would suffice. But the inclusion of details concerning her distinct emotional reactions to Yahweh’s work, such as her delight in his creation, is less necessary to establish Wisdom’s value. To me, it comes across as Solomon, through the inspiration of the Spirit, describing the well-rounded experiences of a real person who was present and active in the beginning of the universe. And he uses those experiences to show her value in everyday life, as someone who helped to create us.

This, together with the parallel between John 1:1 and Proverbs 8:22 suggests to me that the Word and Wisdom were both real persons present and active in creation. Many trinitarians view this parallel as describing the same person, both names referring to the divine nature of Christ. But the roles of the Word and Wisdom in creation seem to be different. John 1 attributes the creation of everything to the Word, such that he receives credit for it. In Proverbs 8 on the other hand, Wisdom is constantly speaking about what Yahweh created, not what she created. She views herself as a helper, a master workman standing by his side and participating in the work that he is doing.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. (Jhn 1:1-3)

When he established the heavens, I was there; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always. (Pro 8:27-30)

Because of this difference, such that Wisdom gives credit to another person for creation, it seems difficult to claim that she and the Word are the same. If Proverbs 8 truly does parallel John 1, describing the work of a real, active participant in creation, then it seems best to interpret it as describing a similar person, not the same person. Thus we can suggest that while she is a different person, Wisdom is similar in nature to the Word, as a suitable helper for him.

In my last article, I mentioned an important nuance that comes into play here. Patternists are not claiming that the Word and Wisdom are inherently male and female, or married in the same sense that we are. Rather, the concept of male and female are patterned after the Word and Wisdom, along with other things in creation that are genderless (such as the heavens and the earth). So the description in Proverbs 8 may not be evidence that Wisdom / the Spirit is necessarily feminine. But it should at least give us permission to look into the nature of God to explain things like marriage and sexuality.

One interesting thing about Wisdom in Proverbs 8 is that she is almost described in terms of creation, despite preceding the heavens and the earth.

The LORD possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.

This has been used historically to justify errors like arianism, which claimed that the Word and Wisdom (referring to the same person, Jesus) was a created being. Alexander and Athanasius (early defenders of the trinity) argued against this, claiming that it instead refers to an eternal generation of the Son from the Father.

He is then by nature an Offspring, perfect from the Perfect, begotten before all the hills (Proverbs 8:25), that is before every rational and intelligent essence, as Paul also in another place calls Him ‘first-born of all creation’ (Colossians 1:15). But by calling Him First-born, He shows that He is not a Creature, but Offspring of the Father…

For if God were giving a command to the things that were to be, He must have said, ” Be made, heaven, and be made, earth, and come forth, green herb, and be created, O man. ” But in fact He did not do so; but He gives the command thus: ” Let us make man, ” and ” let the green herb come forth. ” By which God is proved to be speaking about them to some one at hand: it follows then that some one was with Him to Whom He spoke when He made all things. Who then could it be, save His Word? For to whom could God be said to speak, except His Word? Or who was with Him when He made all created Existence, except His Wisdom, which says (Proverbs 8:27): “When He was making the heaven and the earth I was present with Him?”

— The Complete Works of Saint Athanasius

In this early argumentation, two important points come to the surface. First, early defenders of the trinity affirmed the divinity (and it seems personhood) of the Holy Spirit, but rarely thought about him in their rhetoric or understanding of the Word. When Athanasius asks, “For to whom could God be said to speak, except His Word,” a modern trinitarian could easily reply, “Well, he could be speaking to his Holy Spirit.” The focus on the Spirit came later in church history.

Second, whatever person is in view in Proverbs 8, early trinitarians were highly concerned with demonstrating that this person was not created in the same sense as the rest of the universe. They were combatting arianism, which also assumed that the Word and Wisdom were the same, and thereby used this passage in Proverbs to bolster the idea that Jesus was not truly divine, but was just a highly exalted creature.

We’ve already discussed why I believe the Spirit makes a better candidate for Wisdom than the Word, so I’ll disregard the early trinitarians’ and arians’ assumption that the Word and Wisdom are the same. But it is worth affirming that Wisdom, though described in somewhat creative terms, can be helpfully viewed as an eternal generation of some sort, similar to what trinitarians think about the Word. While I disagree with many of the passages that they use to justify eternal generation (see e.g. my discussion on Hebrews 1), I do believe that some trinitarian arguments in this regard sufficiently establish the point, that the Word and Spirit are both eternally proceeding from the Father in some sense. So I won’t make the argument here.

This eternal generation of Wisdom may explain God’s creation of Eve from Adam’s side (Gen 2:21-24), and the creation of the Church from Christ’s side (Jhn 19:30-34). Woman being taken out of man may parallel an eternal separation of Wisdom from the “side” of the Father, such that she and the Word together form the composite person of the Father. For this reason she stands by his side as a helper in his work of creation, as “the first of his acts of old,” from eternity past.

One might object that the parallel breaks, in that both Adam and Christ worked before their respective brides were drawn from their sides. Adam named the animals, and Jesus did lots of things. But I think what this parallel gives us is that Wisdom, Eve and the Church are the first “creative” works. Adam and Eve would create many things on Earth, reflecting the image of God (Gen 3:7), and ultimately create children, reflecting the image of God (Gen 4:1-2). But the creation of Eve happened first. Similarly Jesus would create many things in heaven, but according to his human nature (the parallel between him and Adam), he only did this after the Church was taken out of his side (Jhn 14:3, 16:7, Dan 7).

In the same way, Wisdom being described as the first of God’s works may refer to an eternal separation of the Word and Wisdom into two persons. Notably, death and separation seem to be closely linked in scripture, such that physical death is separation of the soul and body, whereas spiritual death is separation of the human and divine spirits (we were designed to be temples of God’s Spirit). If separation exists as a concept in the godhead, Wisdom being separated from the Word in eternity, this may explain why Eve is drawn from Adam through putting Adam into a deep sleep (a picture of death, 1Th 4:14), and the Church is brought into existence through Jesus’ death and resurrection. And it may explain why separation of materials and environments is central in God’s account of creation in Genesis.

And God separated the light from the darkness. (Gen 1:4)

And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” (Gen 1:6)

And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” (Gen 1:9)

This leads us to finally address the question of this article — Why did God separate creation into two primary environments? Why did God create the heavens and the earth?

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. (Gen 1:1-3)

In the opening three verses, we see the Holy Spirit hovering over the formless earth. Throughout the rest of the chapter, God will bring order to this formless earth (and the surrounding heavens) through speech, through his Word.

The formlessness of Earth parallels the formlessness of the Spirit, apart from the Word. As we discussed in the last article, “Spirit” can be interpreted as the word “Breath,” which in humankind is formless; it doesn’t accomplish anything apart from the tongue that gives it shape and creates words. This is like earth that doesn’t bear fruit until a seed falls upon it, or like the womb which remains childless until the seed of a man is planted within her. In the same way, the earth and Spirit in creation are formless and void, until the Word begins to speak.

The Spirit’s distinction from the speaker in Genesis 1 further affirms that Wisdom should be seen as the Holy Spirit in Proverbs 8. Because the Word is credited with the creation of the world, and Wisdom is credited as a helper, the Holy Spirit’s initial separation from the Word in Genesis would better match the description we see in Proverbs.

Additionally, the Spirit’s association with the earth helps to bolster the correlation with femininity, as women are also viewed as a picture of formless earth in childbearing.

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb… My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. (Psa 139:13,15-16)

A child comes from a single, unfertilized cell that in all respects is formless and indistinct. But when a man’s seed joins with that cell, bringing to her womb nothing but information, the newly conceived child begins to grow. Over time, distinctions between cell types, tissues, and organs etc. begin to form, as the child is woven together with unsearchable wisdom, “in the depths of the earth.” Finally, the earth miraculously gives birth to a new child of mankind.

This is what we see in Genesis. The Word speaks, and the Spirit brings forth what was commanded. The Word and Wisdom together brought order and life into the heavens and the earth, until finally a new child was born, Adam the son of God (Luk 3:38), an image-bearer of the Word and Wisdom of God.

The discussion thus far is certainly subjective; many verses I’ve cited make perfect sense in a trinitarian model of the godhead. The goal here is not to prove the pattern, or demonstrate problems in the trinitarian model; that work has already been done in previous articles. The purpose here is to show that if the pattern is true — if God really exists as two persons who are one — then there are many passages and concepts in scripture that become rich with meaning and explanation.

So why are there two environments? Certainly it could just be a decision that God made for reasons that go beyond what scripture tells us. But if we affirm the pattern, that God created many things in the world after his own internal structure, then we can suggest that two persons in the godhead explain two environments. As we’ve seen, the Holy Spirit seems to be associated with the earth in Genesis 1, and also by virtue of its seeming relationship to femininity, a parallel that will be made stronger in later articles. By parallel, we could therefore suggest that Heaven correlates to the Word.

Notably, there are two strains of humanity described in scripture, one that descends from Adam, and one from Christ. Each strain relates to one of the two environments, earth and heaven respectively. We saw this in the Corinthians passage cited earlier,

The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. (1Co 15:47-49)

Adam was from the dust of the earth, and Christ was from heaven. Adam was created as a temple of the Holy Spirit (Gen 2:7,  1Co 6:19), and Jesus is a temple of the Word (Jhn 1:14, 2:19). Much more needs to be said on this point (e.g. Christians in the image of Christ do not receive the Word in the resurrection), but for the sake of space we can simply note that there may be a parallel between the Word and heaven, since the temple of the Word is from Heaven.

Furthermore, prophetic revelation is attributed to the work of angels, messengers who deliver God’s word to men (Heb 2:2-3). Angels are known as the “hosts of heaven” who carry and carry out God’s word throughout his dominion (1Ki 22:19-23, Psa 103:19-22, Luk 2:10-15). They interact with mankind on earth, since we are under the dominion of heaven but heaven seems to be their natural habitat. We’ll look at angels in-depth in their own article, but the general association of angels with the Word and with heaven bolsters the idea that the Word and Wisdom, in the ideal, pre-fall condition, are generally associated with the heavens and the earth, respectively.

There are many mysteries in the first few chapters of Genesis. I have studied it for years, and still feel like I am only scratching the surface in my understanding of it. I am continually impressed by the depth and meaning that it manifests in its description of God’s creative work.

Hopefully this article has provided you with some helpful thoughts on the meaning of creation, how God’s Word and Wisdom explain many of the phenomenal details that read in Genesis. Next we’ll look at the new birth, how we become a new creation in Christ through the Word and the Spirit bringing forth a new child of God.