Rabbi Schneider - How Can God Bring Light Out of Darkness?

The first several chapters of the book of Genesis, that we call in Hebrew Bereshit, are so fundamental and so foundational to discovering who we are and why we're here. Everybody needs to understand their purpose. And the world today is looking for purpose in so many ways, whether it be in looks, in money, in job position, in fame, in athleticism, in beauty, so many ways that people are looking for identity and purpose. But I want you to hear me, the purpose that you and I need to discover to truly bring form into our life, to bring our destiny into clarity, to bring true vision for our purpose in being here, is found in the first chapter of the Bible. Doesn't that make sense? If indeed you were created by God the Creator, doesn't it make sense that He holds the key for your purpose?

And in fact church, He revealed that purpose to us in the first chapter of the Bible. Doesn't that make a lot of sense? The first chapter of the Bible that describes creation, would contain within it the reason for the Creator's putting us here. Until you and I take a hold of Hashem, which is a Hebrew word of saying God. Until you and I take a hold of our Creator, understanding why we're here, what His purpose for putting us here is, until we understand that and live in that, we're never gonna find fulfillment and our lives will never make a difference. And so I'm excited to be digging deep into the pages of scripture here with you, to discover our purpose for being here. Once again, we're gonna be looking at some of the nuts and bolts of the process of creation and then following that, we're gonna look more specifically as to why the Creator, why Father God, put us here, through His Son Yeshua, through Jesus.

Now on last, the last episode in this series, I began to talk about the beginning. I'm not gonna all over that today, but to simply say in verse 1 of Genesis 1, when the Lord says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," we're not talking about obviously the beginning of God. I'm not gonna go all over this again, God is infinite. He's beyond knowing fully, because there's always more of Him. He's incomprehensible. We know Him, we're gonna know Him more and more. He is so far beyond us however church, we'll always be discovering Him. We'll never know Him fully. I want you to get last week's teaching. I'm telling you what, it's perhaps one of the most important teachings you'll ever hear in your life. Please get last week's teaching.

Now, in the beginning God, or if you're watching through a five days script through television it will be yesterday's teaching, whatever. Just get the first episode in this series. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth". I also focused on the last episode, that the word here in the Hebrew for God is Elohim, which is God plural. El is God singular Elohim is God plural. And I began to discuss this, why does it say God plural? Why doesn't it just say, "In the beginning El," God singular created the heavens and the earth? Why does it say, "In the beginning Elohim", God plural, "created the heavens and the earth"? And why does it say in the 27th verse of this same chapter, the Lord saying there, "Let us," God said. Why didn't He say, "I'm gonna make man in My image"? Rather He said, "I'm gonna make man," He said, "in Our image". "Let us," He said, us plural, "make man in our," plural, "image". Why that plural type of persona? Why that plural communication? Because within God there's a multi dimensional nature. In other words, He has relationship within Himself.

The scripture tells us for example, that the Son, Yeshua, has always been, Jesus has always been in the bosom of the Father. And there's this love relationship between the Father and the Son. So within God there's a multi dimensional nature and so He says, "Elohim, let Us make man in Our image". In fact we read in the book of John, the Gospel of John, as the Lord is speaking of creation, we read this, "In the beginning was the Word," listen. "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God," get it now, "and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God and all things came into being through Him and apart from Him nothing has come into being has come into being". Then in the 14th verse of John 1 we read, "And the Word became flesh". Who is the Word flesh? It's the Son. And so inside God there is relationship and so He said, "Let us make man in our image". Elohim, in the beginning Elohim, God plural. There's one God, Sh'ma Yisra'eil Adonai Eloheinu Adonai echad, echad. Hear O Israel the Lord our God, the Lord is one. One, one God, but yet within Him is a multi dimensional nature.

You say, "I can't understand that. It doesn't make sense". And it doesn't make sense beloved, because God is spirit. He's above the natural. Just like it doesn't make sense, as I said in the last episode, how God could have always been. Where did He come from? He didn't come from anywhere. Does that make sense, that God has no beginning? Does that make sense? It makes no sense. We can't grasp it, so don't expect to grasp it.

Again, that's review from last week. I'm gonna continue on. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth". Now let's go to verse number 2. "The earth was formless and void". Come with me now. "The earth was formless and void". Now the Hebrew that we get these words formless and void, also carry the concept of the earth, listen now, get it, was empty and a wasteland. In other words, there was no life to it yet. It was, it had no clear boundaries yet. It was formless. It was void. It was empty and it was like a wasteland. It had not yet come into being yet. All there was, was chaos. Look with me again please at verse number 2. "The earth was formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters".

When we study the Torah, when we study the first four books of our Bible, the ancient Jewish sages tell us this; there's four levels of meaning. There's the surface meaning and then there are three other deeper meanings that we need to be looking for to fully get the revelation that God our Creator wants us to receive through the text. So obviously we see the surface meaning here. "The earth was formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep". But I want to take you to a deeper concept now. We often times call this a midrash in Hebrew. It's looking at the deeper meaning, taking the root, the surface meaning and then extrapolating from it deeper realities.

Now you will recall, those of you that have studied the Bible a little bit, that when the Lord made man He made man, we read in Genesis chapter 2 verse 7, from the dust. Why I'm telling you this now, is because I want you to see the earth's creation has application for your life, because in a sense that which God did in the earth He does in you and I as well; because listen, we're made from the dust of the earth. That which the earth is made from is what we're made from and so even as we study the earth's history and can extrapolate meanings when we look at the earth's history, those same meanings can be applied to each one of us personally; because we derived from the dust of the earth.

Genesis 2:7 says this, "Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground". And Genesis 3:19, after the fall God said this to Adam, "You are dust and to dust you shall return". So I want you to see here a parallel between the creation of the earth and your own history and God's involvement in your personal life. So in the beginning the earth was formless and void. It was empty. It was like a wasteland and darkness was over the surface of the deep. Again, the formless and void speaks of emptiness and a void there. Darkness was over it. Get this, before God said, "Let there be light" there was darkness. Hear me, darkness was there before the light.

Now there's something here for you. Once again, darkness existed before the light. Let me say it again, in the very beginning we don't see the light yet. We see that the earth was formless and empty and void like a wasteland, that there was darkness, but not light yet. And this is applicable for our lives today, because God saves us, listen now, out of the darkness. The scripture tells us that we've been, "chosen as a royal priesthood and a holy nation to proclaim the excellencies," get it now, "of Him that called us out of darkness into His marvelous light". So we came out of darkness into the light, even as the earth came out of darkness into the light. And no matter where you're at in your life right now, no matter what deep darkness that you're in, I don't want you to be afraid. I don't want you to have no hope, because even as in the beginning all there was, was darkness, emptiness and void and God spoke and created something beautiful out of it, the earth. So too in your life regardless of what darkness you're going through, God is just waiting for you to reach out to Him by faith so that He can speak His word into your life and bring forth from that darkness something beautiful in your life.

Beloved, God has a purpose for everybody and there's nowhere that we can go, nothing that we'll ever do, that puts us outside of Him being able to reach us with the light. Listen again, "The earth was formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep". This concept of the darkness being over the surface of the deep, it speaks of the fact that this darkness like the depth of an ocean, was chaotic and it was deep. And the point is that no matter how broken your life is, no matter what miserable circumstances you might have come from; Some of you came from very dysfunctional, broken homes, divorce. Some of you even had parents that were drug addicts or criminals. Some of you have just been through tremendous hardship in your life. I want you to know, no matter how deep is the darkness that you're in or are coming out of, be confident; because even as God spoke light into the formation of the universe and caused the darkness to bring forth light, so too in your life regardless of how dark it is, how disturbing your situation is, how hopeless it seems, God is right there.

Let's continue on, "The earth was formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep". Listen now. "And," I want you to get that and, because not only was the darkness there, but there was an and. "And the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters". Now this word moving also carries the concept of hovering. So once again, we have the waters, listen, the earth was formless and void, empty wasteland, the darkness was over it. Speaks of the deep chaos of the darkness and just everything was all over the place, in a dark place. Darkness was over the surface of the deep. It was a deep darkness, but the Spirit of God was just waiting to act. But, "The Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters".

God, listen now, He is just hovering over our lives right now, waiting on us, waiting for us to reach out to Him, listen, with emunah. emunah is the Hebrew word for faith. God is just waiting to break in. He's just waiting to breath light into our life. He's just waiting to deliver us out of the darkness, to deliver us from the deep chaos. He's just waiting to take our lives and our chaotic and breathe life into them, so that our lives take on form and purpose and destiny and beauty. And all it takes beloved, is you and I reaching out to Him in faith. Just like that woman of old that had the hemorrhage and she said, "If I just touch Him I know I'll be made whole". And by faith her body was all in chaos, she couldn't solve the problem, the doctors couldn't solve the problem. But by faith she touched Jesus and when she touched Him, immediately His light and life came into her body and she was instantly made whole and the same is true for you and I.

So once again, "The earth was formless and void, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, 'Let there be light.' And there was light'". Beloved ones, I want to encourage you today. God's got a purpose and a destiny for you. And the deeper the darkness that you're in the more glorious your victory can be. Jesus said to the woman that had been forgiven much sin, that was anointing His feet with her tears and the oil, Jesus said when they marveled at what is she doing? Why did she waste that costly vial of perfume? Jesus said, "He that's been forgiven much loves much".

In other words, Jesus transformed her darkness into great light and the same is true for you. The Spirit of God is hovering over your life right now. He's hovering over you. He's just waiting for you to call upon Him and to connect yourself to Him by faith. Listen, God your Creator delights in you and on the next broadcast in the series we're gonna go deeper into the book of Genesis to discover the reason that Elohim our Creator created us. Listen, this message and this series will set your life on a purpose. It's gonna put you on track. It's gonna bring clarity to you, so that you can wake up every day knowing why you're here and better understanding what to do. This is Rabbi Schneider saying I love you and God bless you.