Purpose In A Spoken Word

“And God said…” (Genesis 1:3)

Do you ever stop to consider why God spoke the world into motion when no one was there to listen? Do you ever wonder why he cared to voice audible words when a thought or motion could have been sufficient?

I prompted these questions to my kids one summer afternoon as we embarked on a hike up the Great Smoky Mountains. Sun beating on our shoulders and green vegetation nearly suffocating us, they were quick to respond. “So Jesus could hear!” “Because he wanted to?” “I don’t know, Mom, tell us!”

I encouraged them to think about it as we walked, attempting to stir up a wonder and curiosity about the Lord. The questions seemed to escape their minds almost immediately as they cheerfully caved to the distractions surrounding us, but they didn’t escape mine. 

While the familiarity of Genesis can wash over us quickly, any author knows – the way you start a story matters. And here, right at the beginning of the beginning, we learn of a God who speaks and a created order that responds to his voice. But if we sit with it for a little, perhaps we see a bit more that resonates with our daily lives, even all these years later. In the creating, we are shown a God who is relational, a God who loves what he is making, and a power in what is audible.

God is relational 
We know what the experts say: the key to a relationship is communication. And I’m sure we know from our own experiences, communication is key. We talk to people we love. And our relationships need that correspondence to thrive.

What a beautiful introduction we receive with the Word of God. The God who creates is also a God who speaks. He is the author and initiator of language, yielding an immediate relationship between the Creator and the created. He speaks to the earth, and we learn from the Scripture – the earth responds in worship. “The mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands” (Isaiah 55:12). 

For us, the Lord has given us mouths. He has given us ears, language, and minds to comprehend and respond. He commands that we pray and absorbs our words like fragrance. He’s created us to sing and gives our hearts melodies. The correspondence never stops. 

God loves what he is making
One at a time, God calls out each piece of creation into being, as though he’s so excited to give each detail its place. “Light, you come first. There now, yes. Vault, your turn. You go here. Water, gather together, and dry ground – there you are.” We envision him sitting back and smiling to himself, nonverbally this time, to observe it is good.

We sense his nearness and are filled in with details about his proximity through books like Psalms and Proverbs. God forms with his hands as he is speaking existence to every feature. 

Some scholars and teachers even affirm a poetic voice to Genesis 1, describing it as a song. C.S. Lewis depicts this idea in his book, The Magician’s Nephew, the first in The Chronicles of Narnia series. “In the darkness something was happening at last. A voice had begun to sing… It was, beyond comparison, the most beautiful noise he had ever heard… (The colors) made you feel excited; until you saw the Singer himself, and then you forgot everything else”.

Whether singing or speaking poetically, the Lord was delighted to create.

There is power in what’s audible
When God speaks, his word is fulfilled. The earth responds, a garden is born, and life itself is initiated. Order replaces chaos, light triumphs darkness, and peace covers fear. The Lord says, and it is so.

We can learn to trust with complete confidence every single detail of what the Lord has promised, because we have already seen its authority. “So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11). His word will prevail. And we know, the Word already has.

When the Word became flesh and lived among man, he taught with his mouth, he listened with his ears, and he dined with his people. Jesus lived relationally, joyfully, and powerfully around them. And when the time came for his ultimate purpose to be fulfilled, he didn’t hang mute on the cross. Beaten, weary, and at utter depletion, “Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them for they know not what they do’” (Luke 23:34). 

And it was so.

The final say 
Shockingly, my kids never resurfaced my questions about why God spoke when no one was there to listen, even though we had plenty of time to ponder while we hiked. Maybe someday they will ask. And while I won’t be able to answer with certainty, I will be able to show them a God who is friend, a God who loves, and a God who holds all authority. But even if they never ask, I can still point them again and again to the God who took their place, whose kingdom will forever reign, and whose word will forever endure.