Before The Beginning

October 17, 2012 — by Dave Branon

Our Daily Bread Radio is hosted by Les Lamborn

O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. —John 17:5

When he was a teenager, my son asked me one of those questions that make you earn your pay as a parent. “Dad,” Steve inquired, “if God has existed for eternity, what was He doing before He created the universe?”
So, what was happening in the eons before “God created the heavens and the earth”? (Gen. 1:1). For one thing, we know that there was “wisdom” before creation itself, which came from God’s character. Wisdom, personified in Proverbs 8:23, said, “I have been established from everlasting, from the beginning, before there was ever an earth.”
Also, we know that God’s salvation plan of grace was in the works before the world was hung in its place. In 2 Timothy 1:9, we read that grace “was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.” Likewise, Titus 1:2 says that eternal life was promised “before time began.” We also know that Jesus was glorified and loved in God’s presence “before the world was” (John 17:5; see also v.24).
These tiny glimpses of God before He created the earth help us see a little of the essence and magnitude of our awesome, eternal God. We see His majesty and greatness. Amazing, isn’t it? We worship a God who existed from the beginning . . . and beyond.

Great God of the universe, we stand amazed that
You are the Alpha and Omega—the Beginning
and the End—and so much more. Thank You
that we can worship and magnify You.

The created world is but a small parenthesis in eternity.
—Sir Thomas Browne