What was God doing before He created the universe?

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Scripture draws back the curtain on eternity past just far enough to reveal three great realities: the mutual delight of the Father and the Son, the eternal counsels of God's heart, and the love that already had us in view before a single thing was made. The most vivid glimpse of "before creation" comes from Proverbs 8, where Wisdom — understood as the Son — speaks of His presence with the Father before anything was made. J. A. Von Poseck writes: The eighth chapter of the book of Proverbs … affords us a glimpse of what that blessed One "Himself" was, in the sight, and to the heart of the Father, when "the Word was with God," before the foundations of this world had been laid by Him. He was daily His Father's delight: "Then I was by him, as one brought up with him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him." J. A. Von Poseck H. J. Vine expands on this scene of mutual joy: Now it is He, surely, Who speaks in Proverbs 8, "The Lord possessed Me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old … I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him rejoicing in the habitable parts of the earth: and my delights were with the sons of men." Not angels but men! This is exceedingly precious, for it reveals to us the fact that before ever a thought concerning Him entered our darkened minds, He thought of us with delight. H. J. Vine W. H. Westcott draws the same truth from John 1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Suppose you could get right back behind everything, and find the point where everything that had a beginning began, there the Word was. And in verse 3 it says, "All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made." So that when things did have a beginning, they had their beginning from Him. But then He had no beginning, because in the beginning He was there to create. W. H. Westcott Before creation, God was not idle — He was purposing. His heart was planning the glory of His Son and the blessing of a people to share in it. J. A. Trench, in a paper titled Eternal Counsels, writes: In Ephesians 1 God carries us back into the eternal counsels of His own heart, and, wonderful to find, He has not been only meeting my need, but the need of His own heart — He had need of me. In Proverbs, where we might least expect to find it, we find the delight of the Father in the Son. What communion of divine joy! And here in this wondrous scene we find the direction and tendency of their thoughts — "Rejoicing in the habitable parts of the earth; and my delights were with the sons of men." Before the second verse of Genesis 1, or even the first verse, the heart of God was going out into the habitable parts of the earth. J. A. Trench Hamilton Smith puts it with striking clarity: The Church was no after-thought with God. Creation was first in point of time, but the Church was first in the counsels of God, as we may surely gather from Ephesians 3, where we read, that God "created all things by Jesus Christ to the intent that now to the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." Hamilton Smith Part of what God was "doing" before creation was choosing a people in Christ for Himself. F. B. Hole writes: If we consider things from the standpoint of God's purpose, He never had any but the Second before Him. We never were chosen in Adam in any sense whatever. God has "chosen us in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world" (Eph. 1:4). F. B. Hole H. J. Vine puts it beautifully: God chose us in Christ before the world's foundations were laid, and He has taken us into favour in His beloved One, through the redeeming blood, to the praise of the glory of His grace. … To have escaped hell and got into heaven would have been enough for us, but God could not be satisfied with that, so great is His joy in His Son that He must share that joy with others. H. J. Vine F. B. Hole sounds a reverent note of caution: After all, these are matters which lie beyond the reach of finite minds. Is it likely that God would reveal to us such secrets of His high and eternal counsels as must lie on the plane of infinity? If He did, should we be any the wiser? No! It is well for us to call a halt here and say with the Psalmist, "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me: it is high, I cannot attain to it" (Ps. 139:6). F. B. Hole Scripture does not satisfy idle curiosity about "what happened before creation" — but it draws back the veil just enough to reveal something far more wonderful than any speculative answer. Before anything was made, the Father and the Son dwelt in a communion of infinite mutual delight (Proverbs 8; John 17:24). And within that communion, God was forming eternal counsels — plans not merely to create a universe, but to bring a people into the very joy He shared with His Son. We were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4), not as an afterthought to remedy the Fall, but as the original and deepest purpose of God's love.

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