LESSONS ON THE OLD TESTAMENT. LESSON I. THE CREATION.- GENESIS, CHAP. I. THE object of this sublime account of the creation was to teach the great truth which lies at the foundation of all true religion, that there is but one God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and by whom and through whom all things subsist. At the time when Moses wrote, the true God was almost unknown. The world was filled with superstitions, and had gone astray after false gods. The Israelites could hardly be restrained from worshipping a golden calf, as if it were a god. The Egyptians worshipped animals, such as the bull, the crocodile, the snake, and the ibis; nor these only, but they regarded different plants as sacred. Throughout the Eastern world, the sun and moon were thought to be gods, or the abode of gods. One of the principal cities of Egypt was sacred to the sun. Among the Eastern nations, there were those who considered light and darkness as gods. The air, the sea, the groves, had their peculiar deities. Idolatry prevailed throughout the world, and not only did men offer to their false gods flocks and herds and the fruits of the field, but there was scarcely a people on earth which did not at times sacrifice human beings, as the most acceptable of all offerings. There could be no true religion till these superstitions were removed. And hence the first object of Moses was to give just ideas of God. It was not his purpose to describe how the several parts of the world were created, - this was left to the astronomer and geologist of after times, but to teach man by whom they were created. He was a teacher of religion, and not of astronomy. The heavens and the earth, he taught, were created by Jehovah. The light, and the sun, and the stars were not gods, but were created by Jehovah. The animals and plants on the earth owed their origin to Him. And, finally, man was the workmanship of His hand. Not only were the gods whom the heathen worshipped no gods at all, but those objects which so many nations fancied to be gods were created by Him. This truth appears to us to be so simple, that it seems impossible that it should not have always been received. But men have never been able to attain to a satisfactory faith in it unaided by revelation, and its universal reception among us, and our freedom from doubt, are probably owing very much to the manner in which it was taught by Moses. Many of the worst evils of heathenism grew out of the fact that different races of men were supposed to have a different origin, and to be under the protection of different, and often of conflicting, deities. The strifes of men seemed thus to have a Divine sanction. Moses, on the contrary, taught that there was but one Supreme God, to whom all men, of all lands, must look as their original Creator. In this great doctrine of the unity of God, and the unity of mankind as owing their existence to him, Moses struck at the foundation of the worst evils that have afflicted the world. He prepared the way for the teaching of Christ, that the Creator of all is also the Father of all, and that all men are brethren, and equally dependent on the same God. Q. By whom were the heavens and the earth created? A. Gen. i. 1. |