Tony Evans - Elohim: The All Powerful Creator (05/13/2017)
In the first verse of Genesis, God reveals Himself by the name Elohim, which signifies His eternal, creative power that transcends time, space, and matter. Dr. Tony Evans teaches that Elohim not only creates from nothing and restores what is broken but has also prepared a finished, "sanctified rest" for His people, which we enter by faith and obedience rather than by our own striving.
The First Name of God: Elohim
Today I want to introduce to you again, for the first time, the first name of God given to us in Scripture. It is in the book of the beginnings, the Book of Genesis, and we're introduced to it in the first verse: "In the beginning, Elohim created the heavens and the earth." That is our introduction to God.
The problem is that the word "God" is used for many of His names, and without the Hebrew language—the Old Testament language—you wouldn't know it. You just may see "God" or you may see "Lord," but the particular word in a particular case is not the same, although it's referring to the same person. God will vary which Hebrew word He uses to define Himself in light of what He wants you to learn about His name.
We're introduced in chapter 1, verse 1, to God's name Elohim. We can learn a whole bunch about God in verse one: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." What does God want us to know about Him in verse one about the name Elohim?
Elohim: Beyond Time, Space, and Matter
The first thing you need to know from verse one is that God, Elohim, is distinct from time because it says, "in the beginning God created." God created the beginning; that is, God created time. Not only is God Elohim transcended in time, He is transcended in space because it says, "in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." In other words, He predated His creation, so space.
God sits outside of all you and I know: the heavens and the earth. We don't know anything beyond the heavens and the earth 'cause that space. God existed when space did not exist. So God predated time, God predated space, and therefore God also predated matter. You see, everything that we know about is tied to matter, that is the substance of all things that we have.
In 1997, the Hubble telescope looked out and through this powerful lens discovered that there are a staggering amount of other galaxies. Now, poor Earth is just in this one galaxy, the Milky Way, this little disc-shaped spiral that you see of light. That's our galaxy. Little, little Earth and the Sun and the Moon, you know. We got our little, little spot, you know, in the eight planets—they threw out Pluto, so you know—but we got this little thing.
And they discovered we're just one little tiny galaxy, and there are other arrangements out there of planets and suns. Then they said, and each of these galaxies have up to 100 billion stars in them. Remember, "He created the worlds" (plural), so you got a whole bunch of others. They said millions of galaxies, and each galaxy could have up to 100 billion stars in it.
One of the close galaxies that the Hubble satellite could see was Andromeda. That's a galaxy near us. Andromeda is 2.2 million light years from us, and that's a close one, okay? Andromeda is 2.2 million light years. Light travels at 186,000 miles a second, okay? And Andromeda is 2.2 million light years from here, and light travels 186,000 miles a second.
That means if you had a homeboy or girl living on Andromeda and you sent them a message at the speed of a radio wave—and radio waves travel around the earth seven times a second; you can send a radio wave and it'll flip the earth seven times in one second—with that much speed covering 2.2 million light years, for your homeboy or home girl to reply to your message would take 4.4 million years for you to get the word back from the message you sent. And that's a nearby galaxy.
And guess what? All God did was say something. 'Cause all He did was say, "little something something," and it came into existence. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," and it is staggering in its implication. God wants, through the word in the name Elohim, for you to understand His creative power.
Elohim the Restorer
But not only His creative power, look at verse two: "The earth was formless and void, and darkness was upon the surface of the deep." Something's not right here. The Hebrew word for "formless and void" is pronounced *tohu wabohu*. *Tohu* basically means a waste or garbage dump. It was uninhabitable; it was without form, and it was void of life. Life couldn't live here.
Now the question is, why? Because Isaiah 45:18 says, "God who creates does not create waste." Isaiah 45:18 says God can't create a waste; when He does it, He does it right. In other words, yet in verse two we have a wasteland. No life can live here; it's void of existence; it's empty. That's what we see in verse two.
But God doesn't create that kind of thing. Like we would say, "God doesn't create any mess." So why do we have a wasteland in verse two? 'Cause somewhere between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2, Satan falls. Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14 says Satan rebelled against God, and he was kicked to planet Earth.
So the reason why you've got this emptiness and garbage dump on planet Earth is because garbage lives here. Satan and his demons were cast down to the planet, and so the planet became a wasteland. And of course, that's what Satan does through sin. What he does is turn our lives into a wasteland.
But guess what? The Bible says God the Holy Spirit—Elohim in His plurality—the Holy Spirit began to brood over, hover over, this wasteland, and life popped up. Guess what God did? Elohim. It says, "God said, 'Let there be light.'" Guess what happened? There was light. God said, "Let there be an expanse in the water," verse 6, "and let us separate the waters from the waters."
So now you have seas and oceans being separated from land, 'cause when land and water is mixed, that's a swamp, that's a marsh. But now God made earth livable. Watch this: God came into something Satan had messed up and restores it. So what do we learn about Elohim? Not only can Elohim create out of nothing, He can take something the devil has junked up and fix it up so He can make it right.
The first time, then when the devil gets in and messes it up and makes it death rather than life, God's Holy Spirit can come and turn that which Satan has killed and make it alive again. And that should be hope for somebody who needs to know a God who can turn a mess into a miracle. By the way, His name is Elohim.
Elohim's Masterpiece: Man in His Image
So God creates—watch this now, it's getting good—He turns darkness into light, He makes the desolate inhabitable, and then He creates His main attraction. Verse 26: "Let us make man in our image." Now watch this: an image is a mirror. You go to the mirror in the morning, and you see your image flash back at you from the mirror. It is an image.
The flowers weren't asked to do this, weren't created this way. The beasts weren't created this way. The fish weren't created this way. Only man was created with a capacity to mirror God. Everything else is a validation of God, but only man, male and female, were created to mirror God.
So powerful is this principle that the Bible calls God's saints "little Elohim." The Scriptures refer to you and me as "elohim" with a small 'e,' 'cause we're supposed to mirror the big Elohim. We are Elohim Jr. That's why He made you a tripod being—body, soul, and spirit. You're supposed to, I'm supposed to, mirror the Divine in history.
We're not God the big 'E'—that's to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think—no. But we are "little e" Elohim. We're supposed to mirror the Divine as part of His born-again new creation. We're supposed to mirror Him because we have His image stamped on us. We have the capacity, as part of the new creation, to mirror Him.
The Completed Work and the Sanctified Rest
Now you might be asking, "Okay, that's nice. I have now I know a Hebrew word. I can go to work and tell 'em I learned about Elohim. I know He creates, predating time, space, and matter. I know that He can restore that which the devil has made lifeless and brought death to. Okay, that's nice to know. But what's that got to do with me going home today and hearing noisy kids and fighting with my mate and being a single Christian and my money is funny and my health's not good? Okay, I know His name, but so what?"
Look at chapter two: "Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed"—Elohim completed—"His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then Elohim God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made."
Day one: God created, "let there be," and it was so. Day two: "let there be," and it was so. Day three, day four, day five, day six, God created and it was so. And every day He said, "that's good, that's good, that's good." On day number six, He makes man in His own image because He spent the first five days getting the creation ready for His masterpiece.
The reason why man wasn't created the first day is 'cause then he would have had to live in darkness for six more days. The reason why man wasn't created the other days: there would have been no beauty; there would have been no flowers; he would have stood in a marsh rather than on land if God hadn't already separated the waters from the land.
So God is setting stuff up for Elohim Jr. He's setting up this world for junior to be able to operate on. He doesn't create man till the sixth day because after He creates man, He finishes, 'cause everything was created for man. On the seventh day, He looks out and He sees all that He has done, and He says, "this is very good." Now up until that time it was good, but until He created man and finished the masterpiece and looked back over the whole painting, He said, "now this is very good."
And then He did something: He rested. Now He's not resting because He's tired, 'cause He didn't work that hard. He had completed what He had designed to do. Now watch this—now stick with me—it says, "and the seventh day He sanctified it." To sanctify means to set apart as unique or special.
He said Saturday is not like Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. That is a unique day, and it's a unique day 'cause it's My rest day. He didn't sanctify the day when He was doing all this stuff and getting everything ready and making it and talking the stuff and bringing it into existence. He said the day I'm gonna make special is the day I'm finished. Yeah, that's My quit day. That's My day off.
Entering God's Pre-Planned Rest
He worked this thing through all the Old Testament. Not only did He say, "remember the Sabbath to keep it holy," He said every seventh year will be a sabbatical year, 'cause I'm going to give you enough in year six to cover year seven. Turn your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 4.
God lays out the Sabbath principle, links it to creation, or the work of Elohim. Let's start with verse four: "For He is said somewhere concerning the seventh day"—that takes us back to creation—"and God rested on the seventh day from all His works." We just saw that's what Elohim did on the seventh day.
"And again in this passage, 'they shall not enter His rest.' Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience..." Verse nine: "for there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God." All right, so whatever this means, if you're a Christian, it applies to you because you're part of this new creation.
Verse 10: "For the one who had entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore let us be diligent to enter the rest, so that no one will fall through following the same example of disobedience." All right, watch this now.
When God finished everything He needed to do and was supposed to do, He could chill, 'cause God only had to create once. He didn't create and recreate and recreate and recreate. When He created the one time, He put into the one-time creation the solution for millions of years later.
He's not creating new kids except through an old process. He's not creating new flowers except through the seeds that come from the old flowers. He's not creating new fish except as fish procreate. In other words, when He created, He built into the creation the self-perpetuating power to keep the thing going that He got started a long time ago.
In Hebrews 4, He told Israel, "I have a rest for you. I have already set it up for you, even though you're still in Egypt. But if you will follow me through the wilderness and you will keep doing what I say do, I have the rest already for you, 'cause I've already taken care of it in advance. It's already been covered by my creative plan and program."
There is a rest for the people of God. If you belong to Jesus Christ today, you're part of the people of God, which means God has a Sabbath rest for you. And it's a sanctified rest, which means it's already been finished. You're not trying to make God do something; you should be resting in what God has already done, because whatever He's done is already self-perpetuating and is already designed to work things out.
That's why Ephesians 2:10 says, "we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which He hath already prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." Whatever God's going to do for you, He's already done. Whatever God has planned for you has already been planned. Whatever God has purposed for you has already been purposed.
Walking in the Finished Work
Your job is not to try to make God do something. "What can I do to get God to do something? Get God to do something?" No, no, no. He says, "I've already done whatever I'm going to do, and it's self-perpetuating. What I need you to do is fulfill your obedience to me so that you can enter the rest that I've already pre-planned for you when I created you."
You don't have to create it; you have to walk in it so that you fall into the rest, because the rest has already been sanctified. It's already been set apart with your name on it. Your purpose has your name on it. Your peace has your name on it. Your provision has your name on it. Your well-being has your name on it. God has already written your name on His purposes.
But Israel did not enter His rest because they wanted to quit on day three rather than finish on day six. They wanted to go their own way and not do God's thing, so they never wind up in the rest that God had prepared. Don't miss what Elohim has already created a long time ago for you to walk in, because you won't go through all six days and complete the obedience that He has called you to so that you can enter the rest that has already been sanctified and already been prepared for you, and all you've got to do is walk in it.
I love that Scripture says that "He gives to His beloved even while they're sleeping." You're working on your rest day. You're working on your day off, trying to make overtime, make something happen. And God said, "If you would just do what I said do the way I said do it, you could go to sleep at night 'cause I'm gonna be up working while you're snoring. I'm gonna be up taking care of business while you're sleeping." Because Elohim can take a nothing and bring up something, and when He gets something, let it perpetuate itself even when it looks like nothing is happening. I'm trying to tell you, this name Elohim will blow your mind.