The Messiah in Moses and the Prophets

by Eleazar Lord

In the beginning He created the heavens and the earth. Gen. i. He was in the beginning; all things were made by him. John i. In the beginning he laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of his hands. Heb. i. In six days he made the heavens and the earth. Exodus xx. But if the phrase “in the beginning,” so frequently employed in this connection, marks the epoch of the creation of the heavens, it refers that of the earth to the same epoch. The “all things” doubtless include the invisible as well as the visible worlds, and the foundations of the earth were laid in the beginning. “Thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all things that are therein, the sea and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.” Neh. ix. 7. “The heaven and the heaven of heavens is Jehovah’s, the earth also with all that therein is.” Deut. x. 14. In these and all similar connections, as Gen. i. 1: Exod. xx. 11, where the Hebrew word is in the plural form, heavens, the universe of worlds visible and invisible is meant. To preclude all doubt of this comprehensive reference, Moses and Nehemiah, both having occasion to guard against the pretensions of idolatry, employ the phrase, heaven of heavens.

Accordingly, wherever the work of creation is mentioned, whether distinctively as the work of Jehovah, or historically, as including all worlds, the plural word, the heavens, is employed, and put in contrast with the earth. “Thus,” at the close of the six days, “the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.” Gen. ii. 1. “These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.” Gen. ii. 4. “Thus saith God the Lord, he that created the heavens and stretched them out, he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it.” Isaiah xlii. 5. “Thus saith the Lord thy Redeemer, and he that formed thee: I am the Lord that maketh all things, that stretcheth forth the heavens alone, that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself.” Isaiah xliv. 24. “Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his maker, ... I have made the earth and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched forth the heavens, and all their hosts have I commanded.” Ibid. xlv. 12. “Thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord, and there is none else.” Ibid. xlv. 18. “The Lord thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth.” Ibid. li. 13. “The Lord is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting King.... The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.... He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.” Jer. x. 10, &c., also Psalm xcvi. 5; cii. 25, &c., &c.

In these and similar passages, where, in the most comprehensive and unequivocal manner, the creation of all things is asserted, the simultaneous creation of all is clearly indicated in the collocation of the words the heavens and the earth, the latter being sometimes placed before and sometimes after the former.

The same plural word is employed in other connections: “Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possessor of the heavens and the earth.... I have lifted up my hand unto the Lord, the Most High God, possessor of the heavens and the earth.” Gen. xiv. “Is not God in the height of the heavens?” Job xxii. “Look down from thy holy habitation, from the heavens, and bless thy people.” Deut. xxvi. “O God, look down from the heavens and behold.” Psalm lxxx. “The Lord he is God in the heavens above and upon the earth.” Deut. iv. “Praise ye the Lord from the heavens.... Praise ye him, all his angels; praise ye him, all his hosts. Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light. Praise him, ye heavens of heavens.... Let them praise the name of Jehovah: for he commanded, and they were created. He hath also established them for ever and ever, he hath made a decree which shall not pass.” Psalm cxlviii.

The Scriptures speak of one creation only; and of that, directly and incidentally, in such terms as to leave no room for the supposition that any portion of the material universe was called into existence prior to the Mosaic epoch. They exhibit nothing from which an inference can be derived that all were not created at one epoch. The contrary supposition is not founded on any authority of inspiration, but upon conjecture or assumption. It is by some assumed that by the heavens Moses meant the orbs of our solar system only, or at most, the stars visible in the firmament to the unassisted eye. They think it unreasonable to suppose that in all past eternity nothing was created more than about six thousand years ago. They cannot imagine what the Creator was doing, if he did not exercise his power in creating worlds. But the same supposition might with equal reason be made with respect to any earlier conceivable epoch. For at any such earlier epoch there had been a past eternity, a duration without beginning. The terms of the supposition are solecistical and absurd, so far as relates to the Creator, and with respect to the little mind of man, they are of no significance, unless the invisible worlds are eternal.

It is more obvious than necessary to suggest an astronomical argument against the supposition of successive creations of suns and systems. It is a doctrine of astronomy that our sun with its dependent system revolves round a central orb, as our planets revolve around the sun; but in an orbit of such immense extent as to require near two millions of years, at the rate of thirty millions of miles a year, to accomplish one revolution. From the observations and facts which verify this doctrine, it is legitimate to infer that there is a like revolution of all other suns and systems, and that the laws which govern those vast and complicated movements were established at the creation. With these considerations in view, we may confidently infer that the infinite Creator did not call into existence and establish the relations, motions, and revolutions of a portion of the celestial orbs at one epoch, and another portion at a later epoch, so as to derange all that had been perfected, and require new adjustments, new relations, new movements, new velocities, and peradventure enlarged forces of attraction and gravitation throughout the realms of space.

To judge of the force of this argument, one must, in view of the harmony of the existing material system under the well-known laws which govern it, consider what would be the necessary and inevitable effects of adding to that system new stars equal in number and dimensions to those visible from the earth, or even one other solar system, equal to that to which the earth belongs. Undoubtedly, if our mathematics, our inductive philosophy, and our astronomy are to be relied on, the addition to the existing orbs of one globe like the earth would more or less disturb and derange the whole, or require an infinite miracle to prevent disturbance.

Closely connected with the supposition of worlds created longer ago than the earth, is that of successive creations of plants and animals to supply the defect of new or remote continents and islands. Many who, conformably to the Scriptures, hold to the identity of the human race as descended from one primitive pair, though distributed over all the continents and islands, and exhibiting in many respects extreme diversity, profess nevertheless to believe that there have been many successive creations of brute animals since, if not prior to the deluge. Though pairs of the inferior races as well as of the human race were preserved in the ark, and for the same reason—“to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth,” and though no greater obstacles existed, so far as we know, to the dispersion of the inferior animals to all quarters of the globe than to that of man, they indulge the notion, without any authority from Scripture, or any demonstrable necessity, or any better reason than the exigency of a geological theory, that the Creator of the universe, in the course of his providence over this apostate and blighted world, has, from time to time, exercised his power in creating races of brutes to be subject to the conditions of those who shared in the consequences of the apostasy of man.

Such a notion seems in every view incongruous and preposterous, without reason or necessity, inconsistent with the law of creation in respect to man, and unworthy of the perfections and of the moral purposes and administration of the Creator. It seems to imply the further notion, that the same providence which dispersed and preserved the human race in all quarters and climates of the world, was inadequate to the same results in the case of the lower animals, and that it was of such moment to keep every locality stocked with savage and carnivorous beasts as to call, from time to time, for the interposition of creative power.

The object of the works of creation, as the scene of the moral and providential administration of the Creator, would, in harmony with the announcements of Scripture, seem to imply that they were brought into existence at one epoch. That administration had a beginning: at the beginning he created the scene and subjects of it. It extends to all worlds. It is one comprehensive, universal, perfect system, involving the rights and prerogatives of the Supreme Ruler, which are founded on the fact of his being the Creator of all; and the obligations and duties of intelligent creatures, which arise from the fact of their owing their existence to him.