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Before I talk about this week’s parasha, Beresheet, In The Beginning, I want to talk about what happened before the beginning. The Word of God reveals that important things happened before the beginning, things we should know about.

Before the beginning, the Father and the Son enjoyed an eternal relationship of love and glory. At His last Passover Seder, Messiah said to His Father: “I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. Now, Father, bring me into the glory we shared before the world began.” And also: “Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began.” The Father shared His glory with the Son, and the two enjoyed a relationship of love before the world began.

Before the beginning, God created the angels. The Lord asked Job: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the Earth … when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” The morning stars and the sons of God are angels. To witness the creation of the Earth, they had to have been created before it. A third of them later rebelled against God – which also took place before the beginning.

The Lord knew that Adam and Eve would join that rebellion, so He had a plan to redeem a chosen remnant of humanity through the death of His Son. In his first letter, Peter wrote: “We weren’t redeemed with gold or silver, but with the precious blood of Messiah, the sinless spotless Lamb of God. For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world. God chose him as your ransom long before the world began.”

Rabbi Paul taught the same truth in Ephesians: “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Messiah to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Messiah Yeshua.”

Before the beginning, God prepared a kingdom for His sons and daughters to inherit. Yeshua told us that when He returns, He will sit on His glorious throne and judge the nations. He will say to the righteous, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world.”

So, before the beginning, there was the eternal love and glory shared by the Father and the Son, the creation and rebellion of the angels, God’s knowledge of those who would be redeemed, His plan to save His chosen ones through the death of Messiah and an eternal Kingdom prepared for them. Very cool.

Now, on to Beresheet. It starts with: In the beginning, God created. The Hebrew word for God, Elohim, is a plural noun followed by a singular verb, giving us a hint of the plural yet singular nature of God.

God started with a dark, empty and formless Earth covered with water. The Spirit of God hovered over the surface, bringing His presence, power and wisdom to His creation. Over the next six days, God brought light and form and filling to that which was dark, formless and empty. He did so by speaking. So we have God, the Word of God and the Spirit of God, a hint of the three‑in‑one nature of God.

Darkness came before light, which is why God’s days begin with the evening. God continued speaking, separating the light from the darkness, the waters above from the waters below and the land from the sea. He filled the Earth with plants and animals, the oceans with living creatures, the sky with birds and the heavens with the sun, moon and stars, which not only give light and beauty but also serve as signs marking days, seasons and years.

Finally, God made the highest of His creation: “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.” Notice the plurals, us and our, another hint of God’s singular yet plural nature.

To be made in the image of God means we can think, reason, choose, create, speak and love. We have moral awareness and spiritual capacity, which enable us to know God and have a close relationship with Him. Every human being, regardless of gender, ethnicity or ability, has divine dignity and inherent worth.

God created humanity male and female, distinct yet complementary, together displaying the fullness of His image. In our generation, this truth is under attack, yet Genesis remains true: the male‑female distinction is a divine design. To embrace that design is to live in harmony with the Creator’s intent, resulting in blessing. To reject it is to rebel against His will, resulting in harm.

God created the universe in six literal days. The universe was complete: order, beauty and goodness filled every part of it. On the seventh day, the Lord rested, not from tiredness but in satisfaction and contemplation. He blessed the Sabbath and set it apart, a weekly reminder that life is not about constant striving but communion with the One who creates and provides. Ultimately, the Sabbath is fulfilled in Yeshua, the Lord of the Sabbath, who gives spiritual rest to those who are united to Him. He completed the work of redemption and invites us into His rest.

God entrusted humanity with governing the Earth: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the Earth and subdue it.” Under God’s rule, we govern the Earth well, and it prospers; in rebellion, our management becomes destructive, and the world suffers.

In chapter two, Moses focuses on the creation of man. The Lord formed Adam from the dust of the ground and breathed into him the breath of life. Man’s body is physical, but man is more than physical; he has a nonphysical part, a soul and a spirit.

The Lord planted a garden in Eden, meaning pleasure or delight, and placed Adam there to care for it. He put two special trees in the garden, the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God is eternal, and He made it possible for those made in His image to live forever with Him by providing the Tree of Life. Knowing we can live forever with the eternal God keeps us sane, happy, hopeful and moral.

The Tree of Life teaches us that we are not born with immortal souls. We need something outside ourselves to live forever. Adam and Eve had to eat from the Tree of Life to live forever. For us today, we must believe the truth about Messiah Yeshua and become loyal to Him to live forever.

Adam was physically mature but morally and spiritually inexperienced. He was given a precious gift, free will, but needed to learn how to use it, to know what is good and what is evil and to choose accordingly. As part of his moral and spiritual education, the Lord commanded Adam not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, warning him that the consequences would be catastrophic: mot tamut, “dying you will die,” meaning “you will surely die.”

If Adam trusted God and obeyed His command not to eat the fruit, he would learn that trusting and obeying God’s Word is the essence of good, and distrust and disobedience are the essence of evil. If he disobeyed, he would also learn about good and evil, but from the perspective of falling into evil and experiencing the harm it brings, which is what happened and what the Lord knew would happen.

Moses also records the first marriage, from which we learn the principles for a successful one. Marriage is between a man and a woman. It’s for those who are equally yoked; Adam and Eve shared the same beliefs. A successful marriage also requires independence from parents and union – spiritual, emotional, financial and physical. Sex is designed by God to bond a couple, keep them in a lifelong covenant and produce children who bear God’s image and can live forever with Him. Sexual activity before or outside marriage is against the Creator’s will.

In chapter three, Moses teaches us about the Fall of Man, the curse, the first prophecy of redemption, God’s provision of a temporary and limited atonement and the exile from Eden.

Even though the world was new and free from sin, Satan, already fallen, was allowed access to the Earth. He appeared to Eve through a snake, spoke to her, tempted her and undermined her faith in God’s Word. He told her she wouldn’t die if she ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and that God’s real reason for forbidding this was to keep her from becoming like Him by knowing good and evil.

Eve believed that lie and ate the forbidden fruit. Then she gave some to Adam, who also ate. This act of faithlessness, rebellion and disobedience brought sin, misery and death into the world.

Everything immediately changed. Their emotional condition changed. They felt shame because of their nakedness and sewed fig leaves to cover themselves. Their nature changed. They now had a nature that was in rebellion against God. Their relationship with God changed. Instead of coming to Him when they heard Him walking in the garden, they hid. That alienation was passed on to all their descendants. We are estranged from God, avoiding Him and hiding from Him.

The Lord pronounced judgment on the snake, the fallen angel speaking through the snake, and Adam and Eve, with punishments fitting their crimes.

The snake was humiliated, crawling on its belly and groveling in the dust.

The Lord promised Satan’s defeat through the seed of the woman, a descendant of Eve who is the Messiah. The Messiah would defeat the Adversary and reverse the damage he caused. However, the Redeemer Himself would be wounded in the conflict, a reference to Messiah’s death. This is the first Messianic prophecy and the main theme of the rest of the Bible: redemption through Messiah.

The Lord promised Eve pain in childbirth, but in spite of that, she would desire her husband, who would rule over her. That husband‑wife relationship, with the man as head of the family, has never changed.

Adam was punished by the Earth being cursed. Life would include hard work, pain and suffering, followed by death.

The Lord was tough with Adam and Eve, but He was also merciful. Instead of the inadequate fig‑leaf coverings they had made for themselves, He made clothes for them from animal skins. The first animals were killed, their blood was shed and their skins were used to provide a better covering.

But this covering was only temporary and limited. The death of animals, which are of lesser value than man, could never fully atone for human sin. Full and final atonement required the death of the Son of God, whose value is infinitely greater than ours. His sacrifice provided the atonement that the animal sacrifices could only foreshadow, covering the sins of the righteous throughout the ages until Messiah came.

Adam and Eve could not be allowed to eat from the Tree of Life and live forever in their fallen condition, so the Lord exiled them from Eden and stationed angels at its entrance to prevent their return. The good news is that those who end their part in the rebellion and transfer their loyalty to the Father and Son will be allowed to eat from the Tree of Life and live forever.

In chapter four, Moses records the consequences of the Fall. Cain and Abel were born to Adam and Eve. Abel, a shepherd, understood the truths about atonement his parents had learned and sacrificed some of the first and best animals from his flocks; both he and his offering were accepted. Cain ignored those truths and offered some of his crops, a bloodless offering; both he and his offering were rejected.

Cain was angry and depressed, and the Lord warned him to turn from the dangerous direction he was headed or be overpowered by sin. Instead, Cain yielded to his anger and killed his brother. The Lord exiled him from his land and cursed the ground so he could no longer grow crops anywhere he went.

Over the next several generations, humanity multiplied and advanced, learning to build cities, work with metals, raise animals and create music and poetry, while at the same time deteriorating morally and spiritually. Most did not fear God; the one‑man, one‑woman principle was ignored as men began taking multiple wives, and violence spread. Meanwhile, a minority through Seth and Enosh remained faithful. God always has His faithful remnant.

In chapter five, Moses lists the ten generations between Adam and Noah, all living far longer than we do today, all having children and all dying, except Enoch, who walked with God and did what was right. Instead of dying, the Lord took him, letting us know there is another place where the faithful remnant will be taken.

In chapter six, Moses tells us that the “sons of God” had sexual relationships with human women. I believe these were fallen angels who took on human form. Moses also tells us that the Nephilim, the “fallen ones,” were alive in those days, mighty and famous men. I believe they were the offspring of this unnatural and unholy union between fallen angels and human women. This corruption of God’s created order contributed to the increasing wickedness and violence that filled the Earth.

By the tenth generation from Adam, humanity was so corrupt, rebellious and violent that the Lord was sorry He had made us and decided to destroy humanity with a worldwide flood. But a faithful remnant, Noah, his wife, their three sons and their wives, would survive the judgment by building an ark. God’s plan to redeem a chosen remnant who would become His beloved and eternal sons and daughters would continue.

Let’s pray:

Father, we praise You for the great things You did before the beginning: the eternal love and glory shared between You and Your Son, the creation of the angels and Your plan to redeem a chosen remnant through the death of Messiah. Thank You for knowing us, loving us and choosing us to be Your holy and blameless children before the beginning.

Thank You for creating the heavens and the Earth, for making us in Your image, for providing a covering and a promise of redemption. Keep us part of Your faithful remnant until Messiah returns and we enter the rest, fellowship and Kingdom You prepared for us from the foundation of the world. Amen.