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It’s said that those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it. I believe this is a true statement. People are people. Human nature is human nature. People in the present will make similar mistakes others made before them, mistakes that could be avoided if they had studied history. The divinely inspired Word of God gives us history – true history, beginning with the creation of the world. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth – the universe and everything in it. The Lord created human beings, made in His image, male and female, and placed them in a delightful garden in the Middle East and warned them not to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The woman was tempted by the Satanic Adversary and disobeyed the word of God by eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The man joined her. Because of that act of disobedience, humanity joined the rebellion of the fallen angels. Satan became the god of this world. Satan and the demons, sin and the sin nature, and death took control of us. The Lord is gracious, merciful and compassionate and provided temporary atonement for Adam and Eve by means of the death of innocent animals. Along with that temporary atonement, He promised them perfect, ultimate, eternal atonement. The Seed of the Woman, a very special human being, would be born and defeat the Adversary and undo all the damage that the Evil One had caused; but in the process of bringing redemption, the Seed of the Woman would be wounded – a reference to Messiah’s death. We know that the early generations advanced technologically but worsened morally and spiritually – much like today. We know that things got so bad that the Lord destroyed that first civilization with a worldwide flood, but spared Noah and his family, whose descendants began to repopulate the Earth. We know that there was a rebellion against God at the tower of Babel, and God divided humanity into various nations with different languages. We know that God created a special nation that would be a light to the other nations, and be the nation through which the Seed of the Woman would come. This is the early history of the world. It’s important we know this history and learn from it, or we will make the same disastrous mistakes so many have made before us. This is real history, crucial-to-know history, very old history. But did you know there is even older history that precedes the creation of the heavens and the Earth? The Word of God reveals that very important events happened before the beginning. It’s important to know that history too.

Before the beginning, the Father and the Son enjoyed a relationship characterized by love and glory. At His last Passover Seder, Messiah prayed: Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was (John 17:5). Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am, and to see My glory, the glory You have given Me because You loved Me before the creation of the world (John 17:24). Before the world was created, love and glory were shared between the Father and the Son. God the Father, who is great and honorable and glorious beyond human comprehension, shared that greatness and glory and honor with His Son, whom He loved from all eternity. God the Father and God the Son share the same glorious nature – divine, eternal, uncreated, and full of love – but they are distinct Persons. The Father is distinct and separate from the Son. The Son is distinct and separate from the Father. From all eternity, the Father was distinct and separate from the Son, and the Son was distinct and separate from the Father. From all eternity, the Father and the Son enjoyed a relationship, a fellowship characterized by a sharing of eternal love and glory.

The heavenly host was created before the universe was made: God asked Job: Where were you when I founded the Earth … when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 38:4-7). The morning stars and the sons of God refer to angels. The angels witnessed the creation of the Earth, and were thrilled by God’s wisdom and creative power. To witness the creation, they had to have been created before God founded the Earth.

Not only were the angels in existence before the foundation of the Earth, but a third of them had already rebelled against the High King of Heaven, and His Son, King Messiah: Satan, the leader of the fallen angels, was already evil when he appeared to Eve in Genesis 3. Therefore the rebellion of the angels had to have taken place before then. The angels were the ones who introduced evil into the universe. Mankind would join the rebellion of the fallen angels and add to their evil – which God knew would happen before it happened. And so, before God made the universe, a plan was put in place to redeem a chosen remnant of human beings: In Peter’s great sermon on the day of Shavuot, he proclaimed that Yeshua was delivered up by the predetermined plan (a plan that was determined in advance) and foreknowledge of God (Acts 2:23). Before He created the universe, God knew that mankind would join the rebellion of the fallen angels. And God the Father knew that His Son would come into this world, be rejected by human beings and be delivered up to death – in order to redeem an elect remnant of human beings. God had a predetermined plan to redeem us involving the death of the Seed of the Woman – the Messiah. In his first letter, Simon Peter taught us the same truth: We weren’t redeemed with gold or silver, but something far more precious, with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Messiah. For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:18-20). Before the first day, God the Father knew that His Son would become the redeemer of fallen humanity. The Father knew that our redemption from the control of Satan and the demons, sin and the sin nature, and death would be accomplished by means of Messiah’s incarnation, His perfect life and His sacrificial death. In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, the great rabbi teaches us the same truth: God the Father chose those of us who are in Messiah, who are united to the Messiah, before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us, He determined in advance, to adoption as sons, that we would be His children, through Yeshua the Messiah (Ephesians 1:4-5). Before the first atom came into being, God had a plan to create and redeem a select group of human beings, human beings who would be ruined by the Fall, and be unholy, sinful and corrupt. Those chosen ones will be united to the Messiah and become the holy and blameless and beloved sons and daughters of God. And, there is no higher honor, no greater thing, than being a child of God. In Romans 8, the Lord’s Representative revealed that those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. Christians and Messianic Jews were known by God before they came into being, before the universe was made. Again, God the Father determined in advance that He would create and then redeem oftlinesome, not all, human beings, and when He was finished with them, they would be like His Son – glorious and wise and good and holy and eternal, fit companions for the glorious and wise and holy God. In his second letter to Timothy, the divinely inspired rabbi stated this truth in another way: God has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted to those of us who are in, who are united to Yeshua the Messiah from all eternity. From all eternity, before the ages began, God had a purpose. It was a purpose that flowed from His grace. He would graciously create human beings, who would rebel against Him and become unholy, but He would save some of them by uniting them to the Messiah.

In addition to God’s plan to redeem human beings though the Messiah, a plan that was put in place before the creation of the universe, the names of chosen human beings were written in a very special book: In the book of Revelation, John, Messiah’s beloved Representative, informed us that before the foundation of the world, a very special book existed – the Lamb’s Book of Life – and the names of those chosen human beings were written in that book (13:8, 17:8). Those people whose names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life will live forever because of the Messiah who sacrificed Himself for us, who willingly died to give us life.

Before the beginning, God prepared a kingdom for His chosen ones to inherit: Yeshua revealed that when He returns to Earth in His glory, and all the good angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the righteous on His right, in the place of honor, and the damned on His left. Then He will say to those on His right, “Come, you who are blessed by My Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.” Before the creation of the world, God had a plan to create and redeem select, elect, chosen human beings. He had their names written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. And He prepared a kingdom for them to inherit, a kingdom for them to have a part of, a kingdom they will live in and enjoy forever and ever! And why are these blessed ones allowed to live in that kingdom that was prepared for them before the universe was made? They showed that they truly were united to Messiah by caring for His persecuted and suffering brothers. When Messiah’s brothers were hungry and thirsty, the righteous gave them something to eat and drink. When Messiah’s brothers needed clothing and shelter and care, they provided it. When Messiah’s brothers were persecuted and imprisoned, the righteous visited them. May the Lord help us to do the things that prove we are among the righteous! Rabbi Paul revealed something similar in his letter to the Corinthians: we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory (1 Corinthians 2:7). God had a wise, hidden plan, determined before the beginning of time, which would result in our glory – turning us into glorious creatures, fit companions for the glorious God to enjoy forever. How fantastic is that?

Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it. It’s valuable to know history, starting with Genesis 1, and also the history that precedes the beginning. What is that history? Before the creation of the universe, the Father and the Son enjoyed an eternal relationship with each other characterized by love and glory. Before the creation of the universe, the heavenly host was made. Before the creation of the universe, a third of them, following the leadership of the greatest of them, rebelled against the High King of Heaven, and His Son, King Messiah. Before the creation of the universe, God knew that mankind would join the rebellion of the fallen angels and be ruined by the Fall and become unholy, evil and corrupt. And so, God made a plan to redeem a remnant of human beings. That plan involved the Son of God’s incarnation, His perfect life and His sacrificial death. Those chosen ones will be united to the Messiah and become the holy and blameless sons and daughters of God, glorious and wise and good and holy, fit companions for the eternal glorious God. In agreement with that plan, the names of those human beings were written in a very special book, the book belonging to the Messiah, who sacrificed Himself for us. And as part of that plan, God prepared a kingdom for His chosen ones to inherit. They have ownership of that kingdom, and live in that kingdom and enjoy that kingdom forever and ever.

This is deep. This is wonderful. If we are Christians and Messianic Jews, we are amazingly special, amazingly favored, amazingly chosen, amazingly privileged, amazingly blessed! What should our response be to God’s gracious purpose to create us, redeem us, enrich us and glorify us from all eternity? To be holy. To live in such a way that our lives reflect our calling as the glorious sons and daughters of God. And our response should be worship. After considering these deep truths, Erich Sauer wrote: “These mighty words stand in the Scripture not for the satisfaction of curious inquisitiveness, nor even for the intellectual completion of our picture of the history of the world’s salvation, but in order to show us the greatness of the Divine love. Even before all the ages of time, the Highest concerned Himself with your glory and with mine. Before the sea raged and swelled, before the earth was built or its foundations were sunk, yea, before those morning stars exulted and those sons of God shouted for joy, God, the Almighty, even then had thoughts on me. On me, the worm of the earth, who have given Him so much trouble and labor with all my sins; on me, He Who is God, the Ancient of days. Truly these are depths not to be fathomed, and which the heart of every man despairs of being able to describe in words. Here we can only bow and worship, and lay our life at the feet of Him, the All-loving.”