Devotionals

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“Firsts” are very important to us. Although we can easily forget many things in life, we often remember our first love, first pet, first car, first day at school, first arrest, etc. From early childhood, we have an insatiable desire to be first: first in line, first place in competition, first in the hearts of our countrymen, etc.

We ponder beginnings. I’ve often wondered who was the first person to eat a snail, or who first decided to stick burning leaves in his mouth. Who first touched the wet paint to see if the sign was true?

There are far weightier questions than these to answer. Every episode of the ’60s show Ben Casey began with “Man—Woman. Birth—Death. Infinity . . . ” These topics raise the questions of beginnings and ends. Philosophers, psychologists, scientists, kings, and poets have sought the answers for thousands of years. It has been said that if we don’t know where we came from or where we are going, it doesn’t matter how we get there because life is ultimately meaningless anyway. Anything goes.

Where are the answers? Do they matter? Are our beginnings and destinies of any real import? Should we just be nice to each other and hope for the best?

Philosophers and scientists and psychologists and mystics and others can’t all be right, because they all tend to disagree, and often change their views. There are so many different theories that it’s hard to pick just one and live by it. What we need is an infallible expert.

Deep down inside, even the most hardened atheist believes in God. King Solomon said, “[God] has also set eternity in the hearts of men” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). The Apostle Paul taught that “Since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). There is no one, no matter how adamantly he may protest, who doesn’t believe in God. If the devil himself believes (James 2:19), how can mortal man not believe?

The Bible begins with God: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). In fact, there’s the beginning of everything: Man, Woman, Birth, Death, Infinity. In fact, the first book of the Bible, Genesis, relates the important firsts of life.

God, the Creator, is the Infallible Expert, Who never contradicts Himself. His Word is without error. “As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him” (Psalm 18:30). What He says about anything is settled and unchanging. He alone was there when everything began. Here is what He says about some firsts:

First man: Adam (Genesis 1:26, 27; 2:7)
First woman: Eve (Genesis 1:27; 2:21–23)
First birth: Cain (Genesis 4:1)
First death: Abel (Genesis 4:8)
First mention of eternity: Genesis 3:22
First marriage: Adam and Eve (Genesis 2:24)
First sin: eating forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:6)
First punishment: suffering and death (Genesis 3:14–19)
First appearance of Satan: the serpent (Genesis 3:1)
First mention of the Savior: seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15)
First government: Noah’s offspring (Genesis 9:5, 6)
First Jew: Abraham (Genesis 12)
First Israelites: Jacob’s sons (Genesis 32:28 & ff)

No branch of science or philosophy has ever improved upon or disproved the Bible. It tells us all we need to know to understand origins and endings and what’s beyond the end.

Admitting there is a Creator means we must admit that there is Someone to Whom we are responsible, and Who has the right to do with us as He will. When rebuking the rebellious Israelites, Moses said, “Is this the way you repay the LORD, O foolish and unwise people? Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you?” (Deuteronomy 32:6). Isaiah warns of the futility of arguing with God: “Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘He has no hands’?” (Isaiah 45:9).

We are all responsible to our Creator, whether we like to admit it or not. But in His love, He will create a new heavens and earth for our pleasure. “‘As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,’ declares the Lord, ‘so will your name and descendants endure’” (Isaiah 66:22). Jesus said, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End” (Revelation 21:6). If we put First Things First, God will take care of the last things and everything in between.

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