Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends, on this special day.
Why is today special? Because today we formally begin “The Grand Narrative”, a several month journey through the Bible. Why? We’re seeking to understand the story God has been writing since before time began. A story God is still writing today, and He is including you and me in His story! So here we go, looking at the very first page of the Bible, the only book in the world written by God!
Do you see the first words in your Bible are “In the beginning God created…” (Genesis 1:1) This past week we looked closely at what God was doing BEFORE Genesis 1:1, in eternity past, in what I call “God Time”. This first chapter in the Bible shows us that whatever God does He accomplishes with intentionality. Clearly God had been designing the universe and everything in it for a long time because as God spoke the various elements into existence, do you notice this phrase “And God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:10,12,18,21,25) Not once did God say “oopps”! God did not have to make even the slightest adjustment to anything He created either big or small. Not a planet or a plant, not the sun or a piece of sand. Everything was good!
Each thing God created was perfect from the moment it came into existence because God is perfect, God’s designs are perfect, God’s creative power is perfect. And whatever God does is always ‘GOOD’... it’s good because God is holy and Perfect, thus what God does reflects God’s glory to all who see it. (Ps. 19:1-4) It’s good because whatever God makes works according to God’s design and accomplishes the purpose for which God made it. (Ps. 33:11)
After 5 days of God creating a perfect universe God then said, “Let US make mankind in OUR image, in OUR likeness, so that they may rule over…” (Gen. 1:26) It sounds like a committee meeting, doesn’t it? The plural here is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, speaking to each other about their final creative act, the creation of mankind.
‘Elohim’ is the name of God which reflects His singularity, One God (Deut. 6:4); and His Tri-Unity, Father, Son and Spirit. You’ll notice after God created mankind, His declaration in evaluating what then existed: “God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.” (Gen. 1:31) At that moment in history, everything was perfect!
Genesis 2 begins with an important God action: “Blessed the seventh day and made it holy.” (Gen. 2:3) God later called this weekly day of rest and spiritual refreshment “SABBATH”. (Exodus 20:8-11) This day is especially essential to God’s design of the human race, made in His image, because God made mankind to be responsible for all God had created and that requires work… and work requires rest! (Gen. 1:26; 2:15)
Another important part of Mankind’s unique design is our WILL, our ability to think, reason and choose – our free will in our choosing and our accountability before God for our choices! “The LORD God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” (Gen. 2:16,17) That brief conversation was a defining moment for all creation. Remember everything on planet earth, including Adam, was perfect when God spoke this to Adam. Death had never happened.
Gen. 2:18 is an extremely important declaration God made, but the accomplishment of this statement was not achieved for some time: “The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable helper for him.” In the perfect world God had created, God knew what Adam could not yet possibly imagine... loneliness and that only a woman could be the perfect, suitable partner, God’s answer to man’s loneliness.
Adam was busy in his perfect utopia discovering and naming the animals, exploring his world and finally God made the first woman from one of Adam’s ribs. (Gen. 2:19-22) Why his rib? Why not his toe or eyebrow or earlobe? Equality and content companionship. Adam understood that and declared it as he named her: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman for she was taken out of man.” (Gen. 2:23)
As Genesis 2 concludes all is perfect on planet earth and in God’s created universe! Adam and Eve are living in shameless delight, (Gen. 2:24) surrounded by a perfect utopia, the Garden of Eden. There is a gap of time between Genesis 2:25 & Genesis 3:1. How long, only God knows. In that perfect eon of time nothing aged, nothing deteriorated, nothing malfunctioned in God’s perfect world, and the wonderful relationship between Adam, Eve and God was the perfection God had intended for humanity and God together.
Sadly, it did not last forever, as we’ll see tomorrow in Genesis 3. But for today, let’s celebrate that for that eon of time our world was all God had designed it to be, including the two original people, made in God’s image, Adam and Eve!
The worship song I’ve chosen for today has no audible words…because sometimes a picture is worth thousands of words. Let the majesty of God’s creation lift your heart in praise as you watch this remarkable view of our world which God created for His glory! It’s the beginning of God’s “Grand Narrative”, and I’ll see you right back here tomorrow.
Today’s Scripture: Genesis 1 & 2.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Genesis 2
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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