God's Paradise

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

GOD'S PARADISE

Gen 2:8-17

8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground — trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12(The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush.   14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. 15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

NIV

The first truth is that man's attempt, as intellectual as they think they are, is only a feeble attempt at best to discover the location of the Garden of Eden, and the current names, if in fact they are relevant, of the four rivers. This place and its rivers will never be found, just as the ark of the covenant. The garden in the east, Eden, was a specific place created by God for the express purpose of placing the man he formed in a paradise that supplied all his needs. We should consider the future paradise that Jesus has prepared for those who follow him, those who are born again. There will be another physical place created by God, the Son, which will come down from heaven. It is the new city of Jerusalem that will rest on the new earth. Just as there are many opinions about where the garden was, there are just as many about what this new city looks like. Ours is just that, an opinion, but we cannot help but think because God appeared to Moses on Mt Sinai, referred to as the Mountain of God, this new city will be a Mountain of God, only its base will be fifteen hundred miles long and wide, and just as high, with a great high and wide wall around it. The point is that it is a paradise where God will place his people, where every need will be met. From the description, there will be many trees of life, bearing fruit that will never perish. However, there will be no tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We know what happened to Adam and his helpmate Eve, as they were deceived by the serpent through the influence of Satan. This is the choice every person must make in their life. To eat from the tree of life, representing the influence of Jesus in their lives, and live, or eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, representing the influence of Satan in their lives, and surely they will die. Of course, there is the question of believers accepting the influence of Jesus in our lives; we are constantly faced with temptations by Satan, but that is all they are, attempts to draw us away from Jesus. Sure, we are not perfect beings, as God intended Adam to be; his fall, his disobedience, his sin is upon us all, yet Jesus came to give us a fresh start, a new life, so we live under his influence. Let us live so that we will be in God's paradise. 

The Breath of Life

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

THE BREATH OF LIFE

Gen 2:4-7

4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created.

When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens —  5 and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground, 6 but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground —  7 the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

NIV

We cannot tell for certain, but from all this account of what the earth, or ground, or land was like before any rain, we must only ponder what the face of the earth was like.  Because there was only a mist, which is a more accurate translation of the Hebrew, there would have been no soil erosion from the mountains. We are not told if there were rivers, raging waters, like the Colorado, that would have eroded the Grand Canyon, or if God formed it just for his own pleasure, just as when he formed the great peaks of the Himalayas. But now he formed man. Interestingly, the Hebrew word for man is 'adam, which is also the name of the first man, Adam.  Because God formed man from the dust of the earth, what makes it so wonderful is that the Hebrew word for dust, or ground, is 'adamah, which then makes 'adam a form of 'adamah. This brings to mind what Solomon wrote about the fact that we were made from the dust and will return to dust, it is the cycle of life, that we are no different or have any advantage over the animals, that all with the breath of life experience the same end. However, God has another thought regarding what will happen to the man he formed from the ground. Because he formed us in his own image, we are different from all other living things. We are the only creation of God that is aware of itself, or sentient. We might want to make certain species of the animal kingdom aware of themselves, but they all function on the instincts God instilled in them. Man is the only one who was formed from the dust of the ground into their own image. We can see that as a triune form, Spirit, soul, and body, or we can see that as we are the only ones who are sentient, aware of how we were formed by the hand of God and how he breathed his breath into our nostrils, giving us life. This means every breath we take is the breath of God. Some have said that the sound of our inhales and exhales is the word, Yahweh. Whatever it sounds like, we know without a doubt that God breathed life into us. 

Rest

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

REST

 

Gen 2:1-3

2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. 2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

NIV

God had finished all that he had determined he would do regarding everything he had created. There was nothing else to create, so he stopped, or rested from all his work. This is the Hebrew word Shabath, which literally means "to desist from exertion, to cease from labor." It is often translated to mean that you should rest from what you are doing. The Jews celebrate Shabbat and use the phrase Shalom Shabbat, meaning a perfect Shabbat. It is a holy day of rest observed from the evening of Saturday to sunset of Friday. Some of the orthodox persuasion have taken a rest from work to the extent that they will not push a button to turn a light on or off or to summon an elevator. God made it very clear in the Law recorded in Leviticus what the rules for the Sabbath are. God made the seventh day clean, sanctified, holy. We, believers, have changed the Jewish custom of observing Shabath on the seventh day to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on the first day of the week. We might say that Sunday is a holy day, with some Christians believing that it is the day of rest God intended for us to desist from all work. But Sunday has nothing to do with the seventh day when God rested from all his work. We have made Sunday whatever we want it to mean; however, it is, in the purest sense, the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. We serve a risen Savior, He's in the world today, we know that He is living, no matter what men might say. You ask us how we know He lives. He lives within our hearts. Yet, because God made the seventh day holy, we have taken that to mean that Sunday is our holy day. Yet, we do not follow the Law for the Jews regarding Shabath. Instead, we have developed our own set of rules to govern the first day of the week. Because of our culture, some are required to work on Sunday, but that does not preclude them from celebrating Jesus' resurrection in their hearts and minds. Many of us have set the rule of attending church for one hour on that day of celebration. Does that fulfill our sense of obligation, or keep our Sabbath holy? Since in the truest sense of the day,  because God rested from all his work, we should enter into God's rest, as the author of Hebrews clarifies that we should cease from our work. That might apply to our labor for wages, or our employment-type work, but it can also apply to the work of good deeds. If we have entered God's rest, then we rest in the work of God, his redemptive work, his provisional and protective work. We can rest assured of his faithfulness to his word and that we will experience resurrection. What work can we do to secure our position in the resurrection of believers? We can rest in God. 

The Natural Order

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

THE NATURAL ORDER

 

Gen 1:26-31

26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." 29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground — everything that has the breath of life in it — I give every green plant for food." And it was so. 31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning — the sixth day.

NIV

We are still on the 6th day, and God has made man and woman in his image. We will soon be at a place where more details about how God made man, and then woman, but within this first part of the creation moments, or the first six days, God did everything that was going to be done, with further details to follow. What is important about this text is that he blessed the male and the female, telling them to be fruitful and multiply. This is the establishment of God, one male and one female with the combined ability of reproducing an offspring, just as all the rest of living things that have the breath of life in them. That is the natural order of God. It wasn't long before mankind moved to an unnatural order. Throughout history, including our present culture, there has been a decay of God's natural order to an unhealthy, unnatural, ungodly order. Our culture has degraded so much from what God established that we do not want to spend time enumerating its variations. There is another truth about how God established the first order by which all life was sustained. Everything that has the breath of life, livestock, every creature that moves along the ground, which today we call the wild kingdom, and man, have green plants for food. That would mean lions, tigers, and all the present meat-eating animals initially ate green plants; in other words, the lamb lay down with the lion. Man was given charge to rule over all living things. The Hebrew word translated as rule means to subjugate, tread down, be completely in charge of all the fish, birds, and every creature that moves on the ground. Over the years, we have moved from rulers to caretakers, almost as if we think it is our responsibility to serve creation rather than to rule it. It seems mankind has lost its way, gone astray from what God established. The question that confronts us is whether we, the church, have strayed from God's initial intent. It's not that we have engaged in the wickedness the world has evolved into or approve of its bad behavior, but are we worshipping our creator as we should? Are we, in all reality, walking and talking with him, in perfect fellowship, as God intended with Adam? Of course, we are fallen people, still plagued by sin, but God has reestablished perfect harmony and fellowship with us through Jesus.  God wants to walk with us, talk with us, and tell us that we are his own, and the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.  

Image of God

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

IMAGE OF GOD

Gen 1:24-31

24 And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." 29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground — everything that has the breath of life in it — I give every green plant for food." And it was so. 31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning — the sixth day.

NIV

God was really busy on the sixth day in compassion with the first five days. Day one, he created light, day two, the expanse, day three, land and all vegetation, day four, the universe, day five, all that swim in the sea and fly in the air. But now it is day six, and all kinds of animals according to their kind. All the livestock that will serve his crowning creation, man, and all the wild beasts, and how thankful we are for all of them. But now it was time for God to make the one living being who would be an image of himself. How we mirror the image of God, or are an image of God, is beyond our full comprehension. When we consider the qualities or attributes of God, how is it possible that we could be his image? Certainly, we are nothing like God in the sense of his character, of who he is. Yet, what does it mean to be made in his image? He used two words to describe what we are. First, the Hebrew word translated as image means "to shade," a phantom, i.e., an illusion, a resemblance, and hence a representative figure. Second, the word translated as "likeness" carries the meanings of "model," "shape," "like," and "resemblance." Then we have to come to grips with how his grace influences our hearts and how we reflect him in our lives. He formed us to be like him, in form and likeness of being. Adam was formed to be an eternal being like God. However, sin brought man to the same level as all the rest of creation that has the breath of life in it. However, God did not leave his man alone, for he sent his Son to buy us back, redeem us, and make us into the original form, an eternal being. This is only the beginning of our pondering on our being made in the image of God. We'll need another day or so on this truth. But for now, we wonder how well we are being as a representation of God. When we think of His image, how good are we at being an image of God?

Blessed By God

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

BLESSED BY GOD

Gen 1:20-23

20 And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth." 23 And there was evening, and there was morning — the fifth day.

NIV

Perhaps we should consider for a moment that all sea life, every living creature that lives in the water, which we could not possibly even attempt to determine the number or the kinds, exists because of God. We think the whole point of those who believe in a theory of evolution is to discredit creation, in fact, to disregard creation as having any validity at all, which then gives them a self-generated belief that there is no God, or that if there is, he had no hand in the beginning of life in some premortal substance. However, we merely need to observe the great variety of life in the seas and of the birds that take flight in the air to know that only God could have spoken them into being. Then when we ponder on all of the sea creatures and birds and that God blessed them and told them, spoke to them to be fruitful and increase in number, for them to do so would mean they understood him. Because of his greatness and authority over all that he created, he gave them the ability to hear and understand him. That boggles our mind and gives us a different view of all life on this earth. If all the living things in the water and all the birds of the air are aware of their creator, how much more should we be, for we are made in God's image, and are of only one variety, with some slight differences in our physical appearance. Of course, all the birds of the air have similarities; sea life has great differences: some are mammals, others fish, and still others are neither, but all of them exist from the voice of God. That gives way to our lives, which we will explore in much detail on the sixth day, but in the meantime, we should know that the purpose of all the life in the sea and the birds in the air is all for the pleasure of God, which then means so are we. We have life for the pleasure of God. If God blessed all the life in the sea, and all the birds of the air, how much more does he bless us? All life is blessed by God. 

His Pleasure

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

HIS PLEASURE

Gen 1:14-19

14 And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. 16 God made two great lights — the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the Earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning — the fourth day.

NIV

The Sun, the Moon, and the whole universe came into being on the fourth day of creation just because God spoke. We know the ancients, like Moses, did not understand the universe as mankind does today. The Ancients could have thought the Sun traveled across Earth's sky, then returned at night, while the moon traveled across to return the next day, and that this process repeated. They did not understand the total complexity of the Earth being set at a precise distance and in an orbit around the Sun, which God spoke into existence, to give both light and heat to the surface of the Earth. Everything about our solar system is in perfect order; nothing is out of place. The Earth spins perfectly at just the right angle to give everything on it just the right amount of light, warmth, and seasonality for a precise reason.  God left nothing out, or by chance, for he created a perfect environment for man, who would be his crowning glory of creation.  Although we are new earthers, believing God created all that is created in six days, and that, from the genealogy of man, it is evident the Earth is somewhere between six and seven thousand years old, no matter what some might believe that it is millions of years old. Still, for the Sun to shine, to burn gases, or flares of gas for thousands of years, never diminishing or expanding, but remaining constant, can only be due to the absolute authority of God. This holds true in his creation of the moon at its perfect distance from the Earth to affect the tides of the waters, while reflecting the light of the Sun at night, as it rotates around the Earth. This could not have happened by chance, but only by the divine will of God. Everything he did, even though he created this perfect environment for us, was for his own pleasure. All the Earth, the Sun, Moon, the stars, the whole expanse of the universe is for his pleasure. Which brings us to ourselves. Although we are still ahead in the process of creation, we are here for his pleasure. All of creation is for the pleasure of God; he would not need or do anything, for he is enough because he is God. Creation was for his pleasure.