This is where the history of heaven and earth begins. From now on there is time, and the clock of world history has started. Yet the Lord was always there as the eternal God. In fact, before the foundation of the world, the triune God chose his people in Christ (see Ephesians 1:4). God was always there and will always be there. He is the eternal God, without beginning or end. He is beyond our understanding. It teaches us to worship him.

In the first verse the Lord places a caption that covers the entire history of creation. This inscription is also a concise summary of all of God’s creative work. It is God who made the beginning. Without him nothing could come into being.

The language in which God’s work of creation is described in Genesis 1:1–31 is not poetry but prose. The style of this prose is one of awe and wonder, which makes it sound rather lofty. The language expresses that the most exalted God is at work here.

The word beginning is at the start of the hebrew sentence, emphasizing this fact. The Lord shows that nothing has come into being without him. This is the work of the triune God. Among other texts, we should keep John 1:1–3 in mind here: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was not any thing made that was made (see also Colossians 1:15–17).