We understand that God created the heavens and the earth and, according to Hebrews 11, it was by His Word. We also understand that, according to the Parable of the Sower, the Word of God is likened to a seed. Based on these facts, I want to suggest that, when God created the heavens and the earth, He planted a seed. And just like any other seed that is planted, this seed contained everything needed to bring His purpose to fruition. When you plant an apple seed, everything — including the roots, trunk, leaves and fruit — is contained within the seed you plant. Likewise, everything that materialized on the six days of Creation were contained in the seed God planted “in the beginning.”
“And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep: And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:2)
Some people have interpreted this verse to mean that, in the very beginning, something must have gone wrong. Specifically, there is a theory that suggests something catastrophic happened between verse one and verse two. Did something happen to cause God’s perfect creation to fall into chaos or it be interpreted to mean that, at that point and time, Creation was not in its completed form. If God “planted a seed,” the seed had not yet sprouted and begun to grow. A seed has to wait for all the proper conditions to come together before it germinates and develops into fruition — it takes time. So, just because the earth is described as being without form in Genesis 1:2, doesn’t mean that it was chaotic and lifeless.
When a husband and a wife come together, biblically, the objective is to be “fruitful and multiply” — to produce offspring. For that to happen, the male seed must impregnate the female’s egg. When these two meet, conception occurs and life begins. Were we to look into the mother’s womb at that instant, in the beginning of this process, we couldn’t count ten fingers and toes — we would see a formless being. It’s living but it’s formless. As it matures and develops in its mother’s womb, surrounded by water just as the earth was in Genesis 1:2, it begins to form and takes its shape. But God doesn’t add arms and legs, fingers and toes. No, those parts of the body develop and and form because everything was in the seed. Everything needed for this child to develop into the man or woman God intended them to be was there, in the beginning!
Likewise, everything that God had ordained for Creation and for all time was there when He spoke the world into existence. I recommend that Genesis 1 describes for us the process whereby Creation developed and took on its final form. Even when it was formless, it was not lifeless — it had everything it needed to become what God intended.
This is important to us for many reasons, chief among them is the concept as it applies to us. The Psalmist wrote that we were all shaped in iniquity (Psalm 51:5) because we were conceived with the corruptible seed that we inherited from our father, Adam. Thus, the sons of the first Adam had to be born again of the incorruptible seed, the Messiah (1 Peter 1:23). When we were born again, we received the Word of God personified — the Incorruptible Seed, the Messiah — and consequently had everything we needed to become the sons of God (John 1:12). According to John’s Gospel, “to as many as received Him,” we have the ability, the right and the power to become the sons of God. But in the beginning of this process, when we were first born again, we may have been formless, as it were, but we weren’t lifeless.
Everything we needed in order to become what He ordained to be was present, in the beginning, when the Incorruptible Seed impregnated our hearts. If it is sown in good soil, it will bring forth its fruit. When we were born again, God didn’t have to add something later on in order for us to become what He intended us to be. Those things that have developed in our lives that have caused us to mature in Him were not because of something we did. It came about because the Seed is Incorruptible. It came about because His Spirit breathed upon us and led us to walk in the fulness of His Word. The fruit was already in the seed and that’s why we are being conformed to image of the son of God and, one day, will be like Him (1 John 3:2).
It is our inclination as people that, as we mature and come to better understand spiritual things, we insist that every one else should do what we’re doing the way we’re doing it. When they don’t respond, we’re baffled as to why. Please remember that if someone is truly born-again, everything they need to become what God wants them to be is in the seed. Like a natural seed or like a baby growing in its mother’s womb, all the proper conditions have to be in place for that seed to sprout and mature into its final form. In other words, it doesn’t require us to add to or take away from what God is doing in their lives — leave Him to His work. On the other hand, if good and abundant fruit is being produced in our life, then more seed will be propagated in the lives of others.
Our prayer, today, is that we might continue to develop and be conformed to the image of the Son of God. May He cause us to become everything that He’s called us to be. And may He hasten the day when all He has purposed in us comes to fruition and we are like Him.
Shalom.
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