HEBREW – Create

 

bārā’

 

Having considered several synonyms for Scripture, nothing could be more appropriate than examining the second truth—God’s existence is the first—that Scripture declares: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen_1:1; also Isa_45:12). “Created” (or create) is the Hebrew bārā’ (H1254), a word that appears some fifty-three times and is used of God alone.

 

Unlike other words that speak of making something, bārā’ speaks of creating from nothing. The word yāsar (H3335), for example, means “to form, fashion, or shape,” as a potter makes a vessel (Isa_29:16) and as God made man from dust (Gen_2:7). Similarly, ‘āśāh (H6213) means “to do, to make, to accomplish,” as in constructing something with existing materials (Gen_13:4). There is also kûn (H3559), which means “to set up, to make firm, to establish,” as in founding a city (Hab_2:12). Amazingly, all four words appear together in Isa_45:18 : “God himself . . . formed [yāsar] the earth and made [‘āśāh] it; he hath established [kûn] it, he created [bārā’] it not in vain.”

 

Bārā’ is, therefore, unique. While the potter needs clay and the builder needs materials, God needs nothing. He merely speaks into existence whatever He chooses, as we repeatedly read “And God said” in Genesis 1. Further, God will also create the New Heavens and New Earth (Isa_65:17; Rev_21:1-5).

 

So in Genesis 1, we see the creation of all three basic elements of the physical universe: space (“heavens”), matter (“heavens and earth”), and time (“beginning”). God did it all, and any compromise with the idea of “millions of years” is a denial of God’s unique, finished work of Creation and is the result of the brainwashing of people’s minds by ungodly men.

 

Another particularly intriguing appearance of bārā’ occurs in Psa_51:10, where David, after his terrible sin, pleads, “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” We are reminded here of Eph_2:10, which declares that the believer is “created in Christ Jesus.” “Created” is ktizō (G2936), the word often used in the Septuagint to translate bārā’. God created the believer from nothing. Before Christ came into our lives, each of us was a worthless lump of clay, dead in trespasses and sins (Eph_2:1-3). But then God created us! And to what were we created? “Unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph_2:10).

 

Scriptures for Study: What is the purpose of God’s creation of man in Isa_43:7? What should be our response to that creation (Psa_148:5)?