"Word", "thing" and Christ -- Part 1: The word materializes

I'm going to split this into a three part series, all based on a Hebrew root, 'dbr'. It is related to speaking and can both be a verb (to talk, speak) or a noun (a word or a speech). When used as a noun, it can also be translated into "thing" or "matter". I find this dual meaning word/thing interesting.

For instance, the well-known statement,

Is any thing too hard for the LORD? (Genesis 18:14),

challenging Sarah's skepticism when Abraham gets the news that she will bear a son, is using this root. ("Is any word/promise too hard for the Lord"). In Moses 4:30, we learn something important about God's words.

For as I, the Lord God, liveth, even so my words cannot return void, for as they go forth out of my mouth they must be fulfilled.

God's words must turn into a "thing"/fulfillment, like the promise to Abraham. They cannot return void, it's simply not possible. 

There have been several posts recently on Moroni 7 and "every good thing" and I proposed that this is a reference to the creation account among other things. Lord Wilmore provides several other examples here. A closer look at the creation account in the Book of Moses, illustrates this word/thing duality. There is a lot of focus on speaking and "the word" in the creation account. To the frustration of those who would really like to know the scientific details related to the creation, it is apparently sufficient for God to inform us that he simply spoke and the world was created. His word turned into things/matter, even the whole world.

Each day of creation starts with "And I, God, said". In between we get a lot of emphasis on "the word" and "speak". For instance:

And I, God, called the light Day; and the darkness, I called Night; and this I did by the word of my power, and it was done as I spake; and the evening and the morning were the first day (Moses 2:5)

"The word of my power" is a curious phrase. But reading the preface to the creation account in Moses 1, makes the reference clear.

And by the word of my power, have I created them, which is mine Only Begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth. (Moses 1:32)

This is not the only place in the scriptures where Christ is equated with "the word". See for instance John 1:14 where "the Word was made flesh" or Alma 38:9.

The word-thing transition is a transition from the invisible to the visible. In LDS theology, there is a spiritual and a physical creation. When God creates by his Only Begotten, the spiritual/invisible word  turns into things, the physical, material world. This is clearly expressed in D&C 38:3

I am the same which spake, and the world was made, and all things came by me.

We see the same pattern when Christ comes to earth and "the Word was made flesh". King Benjamin expresses it this way:

For behold, the time cometh, and is not far distant, that with power, the Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay, and shall go forth amongst men... (Mosiah 3:5)

Here we also have the term, "power", showing up again. Through Christ, the power to bring the invisible (to the natural eye) into the visible is manifest. It is beautifully illustrated in this verse. There is a blue part involving the invisible eternities and heaven. Then there is a transition into the green part, the "come down...among the children of men" and the visible and earthly "tabernacle of clay". In part 3 of this series, we shall also see that the opposite is true: Through Christ, the power to transform the visible and temporal into the invisible and eternal is also manifest!

I love the concept of God speaking and his word materializing. His words cannot return void. This means that the same God who spoke and the world came into existence, is a God that will always fulfill his promises and has the power to do so. No word/thing is too hard for the Lord, he already demonstrated that in the creation. Just as he fulfilled his covenant promises to Abraham, we can have absolute confidence that He will fulfill His promises to us.

Edit: I just read these verses in Mormon 9 a few days after posting this, and realized that it perfectly summarizes the last paragraph.

11 But behold, I will show unto you a God of miracles, even the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and it is that same God who created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are...

17 Who shall say that it was not a miracle that by his word the heaven and the earth should be

By his word, God created the heavens and the earth. This is the same God as the God of the Abrahamic covenant, i.e. the God who always keeps his word and has the power to do so.