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.