Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Genesis 1:1-3 | Date: July 11, 2021 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Introduction

All right, are we 9:30? All right, let’s begin with prayer.

Our Father, what a treat to open Your word together, to hear from You and to marvel together at the greatness of our God. We have just begun this study in Genesis, the beginning of all things. We have been struck already with Your greatness. We pray that You’ll deepen our understanding further today. Help us through this to become better worshipers. We ask in Jesus’ name, amen.

All right, Genesis chapter one. The title of the lesson today is The Purpose of God in Creation. We’re still just barely getting going in Genesis 1. I promise we will make progress, but I do also have to warn you that I think Genesis 1 and 2 will probably be another—well, at least another couple months. We’re going to take our time here a little bit. The rest of Genesis will not take that long, but these first two and three chapters require more attention.

Genesis chapter 1, verses 1 to 3: “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.”

All right, in our previous two studies, we looked at the God of creation, and we saw how the creation account is intended to strike us with the greatness of God, and last time we saw it with regard, that is in contrast to the gods of the surrounding nations. But Moses’ point here is transparently to show us the greatness of God as our Creator. Well, today I want to expand on that a bit and deal with, first of all, the identity of this God who is our Creator, and then also His purpose in creating.

The Identity

All right, first, the identity. Who is this God? If we talk about the God of creation, at least from a whole Bible perspective and further revelation that we receive after Genesis chapter 1, we have to say that there is an emphasis on creation as the work of the triune God. This is the triune God who is active in creation. This is, if ever there were a distinctive doctrine of Christianity, it’s the Trinity. God is one, and yet God is three in person.

And I say this, I think, every time just to remind you that when we come to the doctrine of the Trinity, God is three and God is one, but God is not three and one in the same sense. That would be nonsense. That would be self-contradictory. He is one in terms of His essence; He is whatever it is to be God, there’s just one of them. But God is three in person. There are three persons—Father, Son, and Spirit—who share in the single essence of what it is to be God. And the way that happens without multiplying gods and having three different gods, we found in the doctrine of eternal generation, doctrine of the procession of the Spirit, and so on. But those were the earlier lessons.

But the emphasis throughout the Bible is that this is—creation is not just a work of God, but specifically it’s a work of the triune God. I’ll just mention quickly that that’s an important point for Christian apologists. Christian apologists like to try to answer the problem of the one and the many. You never knew that the one and the many was a problem, but Christian apologists like to deal with that. That is, the universe is transparently one. The systems work together in a cohesive whole, and yet it’s diverse in so many ways. And so philosophers and apologists like to take up the question: how do you account for the one and the many? It’s distinctly one, and yet it’s very diverse.

In fact, that’s the meaning of the word universe. There is a oneness to it (uni), and then there’s diversity to it. It’s actually the thinking behind the word university. There is a capital G, Truth, and all of these other disciplines work around that truth and cohere together and so on. Anymore today, that’s a problem with postmodernism because truth is diverse and it’s individual and all of that. That’s another subject. But the universe obviously is one, and yet it’s diverse. And so Christian apologists love to look at it and say, “Well, there is no way to answer that apart from the triune God, one God in three persons manifesting self in the created order.” Well, you can decide for yourself how powerful that argument is.

But there are hints, I think, of the Trinity in Genesis chapter 1. There’s something that’s been something of a puzzle with regard to the name, to the word God in Hebrew, Elohim. The I-M ending on the end is plural in Hebrew. Elohim, so “gods.” And if you were to read later in the Old Testament about the gods of the neighbors, it would say Elohim, same word, plural, gods. And yet it’s clearly used as the one God. And in fact, in Genesis 1:1, it’s a singular verb. “In the beginning, Elohim, He created,” so it’s a singular verb. He created the heavens and the earth.

How do you deal with that? Many Christian scholars and theologians have been slow to say, “Well, that’s a hint of the Trinity.” It’s just too little, too soon. And okay, so what else is it? So various ideas have come up. How do you account for this plurality and singularity in God in the Old Testament where the triunity of God is not yet fully revealed? How do you account for that? And so they have what some have called the plurality of majesty. The plural is used to indicate the majesty of God or something like that. I don’t know of any clear examples of that. That’s a theory.

I do think that this is some early—the word is adumbration—some prospective hint, at least, of the doctrine of the Trinity. It’s not enough to ground the Trinity yet, but there is some hint of it. And in fact, we have it later in chapter one in verse 26, where God says, “Let us make man in our image,” our (plural), image (singular). Again, we have something of a hint of it. And in our (plural), likeness (singular). What do you do with all of that? Well, I think it’s a hint toward what we find in later biblical revelation of the doctrine of the Trinity.

Some of the early church theologians in particular found hints of the Trinity back in verses one to three that I just read. And so you have “In the beginning, God,” there’s the Father, “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.” So now we have God the Father, God the Spirit, and then verse three, “God said,” and there’s God the Son who is the Word of God. That’s thin, thin evidence, but perhaps they’re onto something.

Well, again, I think it’s short of proof of it, but it’s certainly a revelation that we have throughout the scriptures later, that all three of the persons of the Godhead are active in creation. A couple of samples of that here: Revelation chapter four, we have that wonderful scene of God on His throne being worshiped, and then chapter five, giving the scroll to the Lamb, to God the Son. In chapter four, we have that wonderful verse, verse 11: “Worthy are you, O Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.” If you’re taking notes and you want, you can also scratch down Ephesians chapter 3, verses 14 and 15, where Paul says something of the same. And if you want more, I got a string of verses here I can give you another time. God the Father obviously involved in the work of creation.

God the Son as well. And maybe it’d be good to look at John chapter one here together. John chapter one. I think what we have in John 1 verses 1 to 3 is a theological commentary on Genesis 1:1. John chapter 1 and verse 1: “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 anything made that was made.”

Now notice here we have the Word in the beginning; that starts just like Genesis 1, verse 1. “In the beginning was”—not became—”the Word.” Who is this Word? Well, we know from reading the rest of it that he’s talking about the Son of God. That’s clarified for us, but at least by the time we get to verse 14, “the Word was made flesh, dwelt among us, we beheld his glory,” and so on. So in the beginning, the Word was, just like God in the beginning was. We talked about His eternality and His self-existence. It’s the same with this other who is the Word.

Okay, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God. Distinct from God in some respect—he’s with Him, he’s accompanying Him. So there’s a distinction made between the two of them. And yet the next phrase: “the Word was God.” So how do you put all that together except to say that there’s some kind of complexity or plurality in the one God here—the Father and the Son, or as He’s called here, the Father, God, and the Word? And it specifies here that all things were made through Him, the Word, the one that was with God forever, eternally.

Now verse two then actually restates what we find in verse one, and that is that he was in the beginning with God. So at the beginning of time, beginning of history, the Word was there with God, and yet he himself is God, and he’s the one who does the creating, verse three. And here we have the past tense of the word to become. “All things came into being through him.” So he was from ever, with God and God himself, and now through him, whatever is, came into being. So here’s one who is himself God eternally, and yet he is with God, and so some distinction’s in view, and it is through him all things are made.

Well, now, now that’s sounding a lot more like what the early theologians used to see in Genesis 1:1 to 3. We have God, the Spirit, and “God said”—there’s God’s Word. That might be what John is picking up on here. There are other passages that specify the Son as involved in the work of creation. If you’d like, 1 Corinthians 8, verses 5 and 6: “For us, there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, for whom we exist, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we exist,” so both specified as the Creator. Fascinating passage that we can’t sit and park on. Do that another time.

Colossians 1, verses 15 to 17 is another one that’s important in this regard, talking about Christ, the Son. All things were created by Him. By Him, all things are created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. Hebrews 1, verse 2: “Long ago at many times in many ways, God spoke to us by the fathers through the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he created the world.” So there it is again, the Son, the active agent in creation.

But to make it more complex for us, the Spirit also. We have that stated explicitly in Genesis 1:2. The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters, ready to bring about God’s purpose in creation. Now, if you can think back to when we did our studies in Colossians and we took that little jaunt on the Christian creeds, trying to articulate the doctrine of the Trinity and so on, we saw that there is one God, three persons who are God. The three are distinct from one another, and yet the three are the one God who is.

We saw that within these three, there is an ordering. Remember that? An ordering of relations. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit. So the Father—what is it that distinguishes these three persons? The Father, what distinguishes him is fatherhood. What distinguishes the Son is he’s begotten. He’s a son. And what distinguishes the Spirit from the Father and the Son is that he proceeds from both the Father and the Son. There’s always this ordering of relation. It’s never the other direction. So the Son is from the Father. He is begotten from the Father. The Son is the Word of the Father. The Father is never the Word of the Son. The Son is the Word of the Father. The Son is the image of the Father. We always have this “fromness” direction teaching. There’s an ordering in relations.

And yet, it’s always been that way. And so you have to come up with theological terminology to capture it all. And so you come up with doctrines that we call eternal generation. Generation sounds like something beginning in time. No, no, no, it’s eternal generation. This is the relation that subsists between them eternally. Well, all of that, then, to say that the roles of the Father, Son, and Spirit may differ somewhat in creation. The Father is the first cause, the Son is the one by whom He created, and yet the Spirit is the imminent cause of life in bringing about the created order. He’s spoken of often as the agent of the Trinity.

There’s another doctrine very essential to the doctrine of the Trinity called inseparable operations. That is, whatever God does, all three persons of the Godhead are involved in. You don’t ever have one person of the Godhead working out on his own. But whatever God does, all three are involved in, and that’s true in creation, it’s true of redemption, it’s true in providence. But we see that here in the doctrine of creation. So all of that to say, we should keep it in mind when we read Genesis chapter one, verse one. Particularly when we read verses one to three, we must think in terms of the fuller revelation: the eternal triune God active in creation.

His Purpose In Creating

All right, now, once we say that—well, let’s turn to Revelation chapter four. Once we say that, God the Father, God the Son, the Spirit, the work of the triune God in creation. Once we say that, we have to ask the question, well, then why did He create? What was His purpose in creation?

So Revelation 4 in verse 11. I’ve quoted this before already in this series, and we’ll do it again. It’s an important verse in this regard. “Worthy are you, O Lord and God.” Now remember the scene. This is the God on His throne in majesty and all of creation worshiping before the throne, Revelation chapter 4. And they cry, “Worthy are you, O Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power.” Why? “For you created all things and by your will, they existed and were created.”

So a few things emphasized here. God is the maker of all things. Number two, because God is the maker of all things, He’s worthy of our praise. The third thing is that creation then is the outworking of His purpose and His plan. By Your will, they existed and were created. Now, once we see that, then, we have to go back and understand Genesis 1:1 as the outworking, then, of God’s eternal decree.

Now, God’s eternal decree, that’s the language we use to describe His plan or His purpose, whereby before the foundation of the world, God purposed to bring about all that would come to pass—an all-inclusive decree of God to bring about all that comes to pass. To use our church statement of faith, the London Baptist Confession: “God has decreed in himself from all eternity by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably, all things whatsoever come to pass.”

And of course, we have plenty of verses in the Bible that speak of this, even into the minutia: that the lot is cast into the lap, disposing of it is of the Lord—even down to those kinds of minutia. Proverbs 16:4: “The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.” Familiar verse, Ephesians 1, verse 11: God works all things according to the counsel of His own will. Plenty of verses that talk about this, even in regard to our own lives. There’s that famous verse in Psalm 139, verse 16, where it tells us that God wrote the script for our lives before we were even born. That’s a paraphrase, but that’s what the verse is clearly saying.

So God has a decree that purposed all that would come to pass. And so we see creation now then as the beginning point of the outworking of God’s purpose. The initiating of His plan in time. So from the beginning, God had the whole picture in mind—the whole flow of history, creation, how it would work, all of that. And now Genesis 1, He’s setting all of that in order. God is a personal God. One of the attributes of personhood is that you act always according to purpose. And here, God acts according to His purpose in creation.

Now, there’s a hint of that back in Genesis 1 as well. In verse 2, we read that—well, Genesis 1, God created the heavens and the earth. That’s its initial state. Verse two: “the earth was without form and void.” So it’s formless now, it’s empty. Darkness is over the face of the deep. But then we have verse two at the end, God’s active presence over the new creation. “The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” And then verses three and following, we have the obvious earth-centeredness of all of the narrative, where it develops for us and provides the continuance of all the dimensions of creation, appoints man to oversee it and all of that, and what that is then is an outworking of God’s purpose.

So God creates the world; its first instance, it’s without form, it’s void, but now the Spirit of God is hovering over it to form that earth to be and to function according to God’s purpose. So then we understand Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” We understand that in connection with, one, God’s eternal decree. God—creation is the initiating of God’s plan in time. The created order is the theater in which He will bring about His purpose.

So we understand Genesis 1:1 in connection with God’s eternal decree, and then also in relation to God’s providence. God’s providence is simply the outworking of His eternal decree. Benjamin Warfield has a statement of this, if I can just come up with it: “Providence is predestination in its execution. Predestination is God’s providence in its intention.” So the two terms are related. God determines what He will do. And now in providence, He brings it to pass. In creation, we have the initiating of that plan. So God’s creative work was purposeful. Creation and history are the outworking of that purpose.

Now, for the rest of the time, let’s ask the question: what then was God’s purpose in creating the world? Why did He do it? So here, the question is creation in larger perspective. What could be larger than creation? Well, what’s larger than creation is God’s purpose for creation.

Now, the answer to that—why did God create?—the answer to that is not, it is not that God created out of some sense of need. We’ve already seen that as an implicate of Genesis 1:1, right? In the beginning, God. Here we have the eternal self-existing God who exists, Father, Son, and Spirit, in eternal happiness without need, self-existing, not dependent on anything. So He doesn’t create out of some sense of need. There’s no sense of loneliness because He has the fellowship of the three persons of the triune Godhead.

In fact, theologians like to emphasize that when they deal with the doctrine of creation, that it was a “free”—that’s the big word they use—the “free act of God.” That’s the important word. That is, He didn’t create out of obligation. He didn’t create out of need. There was no need or sense of lack, either outside of Himself or inside of Himself internally. It was a free act. It’s not something He had to do.

So then why? Well, Revelation 4:11 that we just read tells us it was for His own will. By His own will they exist, so we have to say that somehow He created for His own glory. Well, let’s get a little more specific than that. Why did God create for His glory, or how did He intend for creation to redound to His glory?

At least part of the answer lies in those passages that describe for us the divine life of God before creation. So think back now, God and His three persons existing eternally—why did they determine, in God’s determination, did God create? Well, what I want to do then is look at some of these verses that reflect some divine life in eternity, the fellowship of the Godhead, and then, more specifically, some statements as to why that God created.

In Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth.” Already, it’s assumed that the self-existing God creates with a purpose. John 17 in verse 5—why don’t we take time to look at some of these. John chapter 17 in verse 5. You’ll remember this is Christ’s high priestly prayer. This is the night before His crucifixion. Marvelous prayer where He prays concerning people that God has given Him, that He has come to save. And now in verse 5, beginning of the prayer, He says, “Now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”

So here we have a brief reflection of the eternal existence of these two persons of the Godhead. Father and the Son enjoying glory eternally together. Skip down to verse 24. “Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.” So here we have an eternally shared glory and an eternally shared love between Father and Son, way back before the beginning. So this predates Genesis 1:1. Before the beginning, there’s an eternally shared glory and an eternally shared love of Father and Son.

Now we also have here in verse 24, another factor that tells us about God’s purpose in creation. He has a chosen people. That is, “those whom you have given me.” Remember, we saw this some weeks ago in the study on redemption accomplished, where God the Father sends His Son on this mission of mercy to secure redemption, and He gives the Son a people to save, and the Son, repeatedly through the Gospel of John, Jesus speaks of “those whom you have given me, those whom you have given me.” He sometimes calls them His sheep that have been given to Him.

So here we find that He has this chosen people and His coming and His work is with the intention—and there’s this goal—that they “be with me where I am and see me in my glory.” So here comes the Son on His saving mission. He returns to the glory that He had with the Father from all eternity, and He prays to the Father—here’s the goal of it—that these whom You’ve given me will see me in my glory and be with me where I am. That’s got wonderful implications. Well, I just can’t stop. There’s His one goal that is stated: the Son was sent to secure these people for shared glory.

Ephesians chapter one, let’s look at that. Ephesians chapter one, verse 3. I’m sorry, Ephesians 1:3. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” All right, here’s another verse that reaches back to a time that pre-time—I guess that’s not quite the right word either, but something before Genesis 1:1, before time. In eternity past, he said that we were chosen before the foundation of the world. So before Genesis 1:1, God had determined a people whom He would save. Put that together with John 17 that we’ve just seen, and God sent His Son to save them.

All right, 2 Timothy 1, verse 9. So we have the life of God in eternity, God determining to save a people. 2 Timothy 1:9 tells us the same: “who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.” Again, an eternal saving purpose that is now going to define God’s purpose in creation.

Titus chapter 1 verse 2, over just a page or two. Titus 1:2: “in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began.” Again, all of this before Genesis chapter 1. And maybe one more, 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 18 to 20. “You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things, silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was”—here it is again—”foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you.”

So here we find that God has decreed not only the end, but the means to the end. He has decreed not only the salvation of sinners, but he’s decreed the means to that, and that is through the sacrifice of Christ. All of that was determined before the foundation of the world. So all of this that we’ve seen then points us to a plan of God that, one, precedes creation and that in some sense defines the purpose of creation. And that evidently is to display His glory in the salvation of sinners. You put all that together, and I think that’s what we’re left with.

Now there is one other possible connection, and I’ll have you look at it. Ephesians chapter 3 is kind of a curious thing, and I don’t think I can give you a definitive answer here, but it’s suggestive of something. Ephesians 3, verses 8 to 11. Now we’ve already seen that God has a purpose that precedes and defines creation. It has to do with the salvation of sinners for His glory.

Now Ephesians 3 in verse 8: “To me, though I am least of all saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things.” The implication there is He created all things to carry out that purpose that’s been now revealed. “So that through the church”—and here’s the verse—”so that,” here’s why He created, “so that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might be made known.”

Now, if we stop there, that’s what we’ve already seen. God created to show His glory in the salvation of sinners. But notice it gets more specific. “So that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in heavenly places. This was according to the purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Now that expression, “the rulers and authorities,” is consistently in the New Testament a reference to the demonic world, at least the angelic world.

So God has devised a plan, a purpose, to glorify Himself in history through the redemption of sinners specifically to show it to the demonic world. What do you do with that? Now, this is where I say I don’t know if I can be really definitive for you, but it seems to suggest that somehow in the creation of humanity and the purpose to save, God has a purpose—can we say to silence the angels? The demonic realms who have perhaps—maybe these are those who have been condemned with Satan. They say God isn’t merciful or something, and God says, “I’ll show you mercy.” I don’t know, I’m just suggesting all of that. But in some way, He has proposed to show His glory, not just to us and not just to an enjoyed himself, but here it’s specifically with reference to the demonic realm. Well, there’s an interest on God’s part then to make known to the demonic world the greatness of His mercy in saving sinners.

All that fits in just with a little more specifics, but it does fit in with what we’ve seen already. God’s purpose in creation was to glorify Himself in the salvation of sinners. I read a minute ago from the London Baptist Confession 1689, which is our church statement of faith. And all of this is kind of reflected in that statement of faith in the ordering of the chapters.

Here are the first six chapters of the London Confession:
Chapter 1: Of the Holy Scriptures. This is where we learn everything that we’re going to talk about, so we start there.
Chapter 2: Of God and of the Holy Trinity. That’s next in order, logically, to deal with anything else.
Chapter 3: Of God’s Decree, dealing with predestination and so on.

And all of that—of Holy Scriptures, of God the Holy Trinity, and of God’s decree—precedes Chapter 4, which is Of Creation, and then Chapter 5, Of Divine Providence, and then Chapter 6, Of the Fall of Man, Of Sin, and of the Punishment Thereof, beginning of sin, and so on.

Well, that’s—we see then defining: why did God create? He has a purpose to glorify Himself in the salvation of sinners. It is a purpose that He decreed before the world began. And now at Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1, we see the beginnings of the outworking of that purpose. So as we read Genesis 1, we keep the bigger picture in mind. This is a big picture already in Genesis 1. It’s creation, after all. But the bigger picture in mind is that God’s here is setting out on His great purpose of grace. He’ll glorify Himself before the whole world, before the spirit world, before all creation by the gracious rescue of sinners that He’s chosen for Himself.

And what a marvelous exercise of grace it will be. Chosen sinners to save; to save them He sends His Son into the state of humiliation, climaxing in the cross to make us sons of God. That’s the intended goal of creation, and that’s the intended goal of history then as well.

There’s—a couple of minutes here, I’ll mention it. There’s a word that has begun to be used in theology over the last couple of generations: the word “protology.” You know what the word “eschatology” is? Eschatos means the last or last things. So eschatology is the doctrine of last things; it points to the future. Protology points back to the beginning. And the idea of it is that what God established at the beginning was a picture of what God would realize in our experience in the end. Protology pointing forward to eschatology.

Well, that’s the big words they use. And so you find that in Genesis—and we’ll see some of it—creation pointing ahead to the new creation. We’ll find the rest in Genesis chapter two verses one to three pointing forward to the rest that we’ll enjoy forever in the new heavens and the new earth. The Sabbath, Eden itself being something that’ll be realized.

In the last chapters, Revelation 21 and 22, last chapters of Revelation, you have so many references back to Genesis chapters one and two. You have the sea and you have the tree and the river and the tree of life yielding its fruit every month and you’ve got the river and you’ve got no more curse and no more sin and all of these references back to Eden. And so the message of the end of the book of Revelation seems pretty clearly to be: we’ve come back to Eden, but not just back to Eden. We’re back to Eden and beyond. This is pointing forward to the perfections of what will come.

And so in Revelation, you have statements like God saying, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.” And then you have references back to creation like, “Behold, I make all things new.” And there’s this new creation coming about. You have a new marriage in Revelation, echoing back to Genesis. You have the precious stones in the new heaven and new earth. You have, well, various hints like that through the last chapters of Revelation telling us that we’re back to Eden and beyond.

So you can look at Genesis 1 and Revelation 21 and 22 as sort of bookends, not just literarily, but thematically as well. Here God sets out on His purpose to glorify Himself, the redemption of sinners, and then the bookends telling us He’s done just that. I think it’s fascinating to view all of history from God’s perspective that way, from creation to consummation. And all throughout then, God working out His purpose in providence to bring about what He intended with His created order. And that is glorifying Himself in the salvation of sinners.

What that means, of course, is that you and I have been caught up into something really, really big. God has, through us, going to glorify Himself even to the demonic world. “So here’s what I do in glory through my Son.”

All right, broad picture stuff this morning. Soon we will get into more of the text of Genesis 1. Any questions before we close? Yes?