How did Moses learn about the creation? There was no man living when the heavens and earth were created, so he could not have learned the story from man.
Those who assume that he compiled the narrative from various existing documents, do not help the matter at all, for no man who lived before Moses had any better chance to learn about creation than he had. Even Adam had no more personal knowledge of the facts of creation than Moses had; for creation was complete when Adam first saw the light. He saw nothing of the process himself.
Then how did Moses know what to write? Did he imagine it? Not at all; he wrote just what he knew, because the Lord God told him. He who created the heavens and the earth "made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel," (Psalm 103:7) for the Lord spoke to him mouth to mouth. "With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold: wherefore then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" (Numbers 12:8)
This is the way the entire Bible was written: "For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men spoke from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit." (2 Peter 1:21, RV)
Not an Allegory
Some people like to strike a happy mean between the idea that the first chapters of Genesis are actual history, and the theory that they are pure fiction, by claiming that they are allegorical. Of all such it may be said: "They know not what they do." (Luke 23:34)
They do not realize that any view other than that those chapters describe actual occurrences is a denial of the whole Bible, and of the very Gospel.
The 3rd chapter of Genesis tells how sin came into the world, and contains the first promise of the Saviour who should die for the sin. To deny the literalness of that account is to deny the story of the cross.
Upon the 1st and 2nd chapters of Genesis the fourth commandment is based. If they were not literal history, the Sabbath would be gone. This indeed is why those chapters are discredited. But they who discredit the story of creation, and the Sabbath, do not realize that in so doing they are denying sanctification. God says: "I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them." (Ezekiel 20:12)
Without the knowledge of creation and the Sabbath there can be no knowledge of perfect sanctification. "Your word is true from the beginning." (Psalm 119:160)
It is all "profitable for doctrine, for reproof for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
Creation and the Cross
The eternal power of God is clearly seen in the things that he has made. "For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse." (Romans 1:20)
Creation is the measure of God's power. Not that any one save God can measure it, because it is infinite; but the power manifested in creation is the same power that saves men from sin. "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith." (Romans 1:16-17)
So that the Gospel is simply creative power applied to sinful men. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:10) "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17)
But the preaching of the cross is also the power of God. "For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. ... But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God." (1 Corinthians 1:17-18,23-24)
Christ crucified is the power and the wisdom of God, and so it is the Gospel. On the cross Christ shed His blood to reconcile us to God, in the forgiveness of our sins. "In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins." (Colossians 1:14) "Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." (Romans 5:9-10)
The blood is the life: "For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul. ... For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, You shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh: for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof: whosoever eats it shall be cut off." (Leviticus 17:11,14)
So that it is the taking of the life of Christ that reconciles us to God. But we have redemption through His blood, because in Him were all things created. "In whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; For in Him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through Him, and unto Him." (Colossians 1:14-16)
He is the source of the creation: "And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These things says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God." (Revelation 3:14)
All created things sprang from His life. So that the power of the cross, by which we are saved, is the power by which the worlds were made. Thus it is that if any man be in Christ he is a new creature, or a new creation. Only as we consider the power of God as manifested in creation, can we learn the wonderful power of the cross.
David said: "For You, Lord, have made me glad through your work, I will triumph in the works of your hands." (Psalm 92:4)
And Paul wrote" "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Galatians 6:14)
And both of them gloried and triumphed in the same thing.
For a Time of Need
If we do not grasp that which we profess to believe, and lay hold upon it for deliverance from sin in time of temptation, it shows that we do not understand that thing about which we talk. Every word of God may be laid hold of in time of temptation, and it is deliverance. We are to lay hold of the life that is in the word; for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus makes us free. "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death." (Romans 8:2)
We are to find life and godliness in every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.--Present Truth, March 22, 1894--Numbers 12:8
E.J. Waggoner