In harmony with the fact that this purpose is redemptive in character,

various companies of the redeemed during the ages, have been associated with

this word `fulness', even the earth itself and its fulness being linked with

the glory of the Lord (Isa. 6:3 margin).  The outworking of the purpose of

the ages, therefore, can be represented, very crudely it is true, thus:

The purpose of the ages opens with Genesis 1:1 in the creation of the

heavens and the earth, but between the attainment of the purpose for which

heaven and earth were created `in the beginning', and the day when God shall

be `all in all' lies a great gulf, a gulf caused by a moral catastrophe and

not merely by a physical land -slide, a gap that is `filled' by a series of

wheels within wheels, Adam and his world, Noah and his world, Israel and

their inheritance, and at last that church which is itself `the fulness of

Him that filleth all in all'.

The two extremes, therefore, of the purpose are found in the following

passages which are themselves separated in the sacred volume by the rest of

the Scriptures and by the Age -Times.

`In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth' (Gen. 1:1).

`Then cometh the End' (1 Cor. 15:24-28).

The `gap' in the outworking of the purpose is expressed in Genesis 1:2,

`The earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the

deep', and in Revelation 21:1 by the added words:

`For the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there

was no more sea'.

Let us consider in fuller detail some of the terms that are here

employed to set before us this opening and closing feature of the purpose of

the ages.

`In the beginning'.  Hebrew b're -shith, Septuagint Greek en arche.

While the fact must not be unduly stressed, it should be observed that

neither in the Hebrew nor in the Greek is the article `the' actually used.

Moreover, it is certain that b're -shith denotes the commencement at a point

of time as Jeremiah 26:1; 27:1 and 28:1 will show.  But it is also very

certain that the selfsame word denotes something more than a point of

departure in time, for it is used by Jeremiah in 2:3 for `the firstfruits',

even as it is used in Leviticus 2:12 and 23:10 which are `beginnings' in that

they anticipate the harvest at the end, `the fulness of seasons' (Eph. 1:10).

The `beginning' of Genesis 1:1 purposely looks to the end; it is more than a

note of time.

The same can be said of the Greek arche.  While it most certainly means

`beginning', it is noteworthy that in Genesis 1:16 where the next occurrences

are found (in the LXX) it means `rule' even as in Ephesians 1:21; 3:10 and

6:12 arche in the plural is translated `principalities' while in Philippians

4:15 it is used once again in its ordinary time sense.

While God knows the end from the beginning, and nothing which He has

caused to be written for our learning can ever be anything but the truth, we

must nevertheless be prepared to find that much truth is veiled in the Old

Testament until in the wisdom of God, the time was ripe for fuller teaching.