Wednesday 23rd October 2019 Prayer Devotion
Scripture Reading:- Genesis 1:1-31
Topic:- Why God’s Creations Is Good [1]
Text:- Genesis 1:31
1. Humans Are Made In The Image Of God To Have Dominion:
Genesis 1 begins with the creation of the heavens and the earth, but then narrows in to a particular garden called “Eden.”
This garden is where God dwells with His people on earth. In the Ancient Near East, the home of a god was a temple, and Eden is presented in these terms. But it is a temple with a difference. It is not a static, lifeless building but a growing garden. God is not a lifeless statue within this temple, but He walks and talks within the garden. See Genesis 3:8.
The images in the temple are not made of wood or stone, but are human flesh and blood named Adam and Eve. See Genesis 1:26-27.
All later tabernacles and temples within the history of the people of Israel are a reflection of Eden. The Garden of Eden is the exemplar of what it looks like when heaven and earth meet.
God’s image bearers are given a purpose within the temple. They are bestowed with vice-regal authority to manage the development in God’s world, to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” This is why humans were created. It goes to the core of our reason for existence. See Genesis 1:28.
2. God Has Entered Into An Eternal Covenant With Creation:
It sounds strange in English to enter into a covenant with creation. How do animals, trees, and rocks respond? But God declares: “And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the creeping things of the ground.” See Hosea 2:18.
We think of a covenant in contractual terms, between two informed, consenting parties. But the Hebrew word berith (covenant) can often mean a one-sided pledge. When God cuts a covenant with Abram, Abram was asleep. See Genesis 15:12.
The successive covenants in Scripture, talk of an everlasting covenant (berith ‘olam) made with creation. This reference is seen in the covenants with Noah See Genesis 9:16; Abraham Genesis 17:7; Moses Exodus 1:16; Leviticus 4:8; David 2 Samuel 23:5; and with Israel after the Babylonian exile, Isaiah 24:5, 6; 55:3; 61:8; Jeremiah 32:40; 50:5; Ezekiel 16:60; 37:26.
In short, God is committed to His creation. The successive covenants He makes find their basis in His prior pledge to all He has made. Creation and new creation are the bookends of the Bible. God is concerned for the renewal of this earth.
3. The Destruction Of The Earth Does Not Mean Its Obliteration:
The Bible talks of the total destruction of the earth twice: once in the flood in the days of Noah and the other in the final destruction of the earth by fire. Both of these events are mentioned in 2 Peter 3,
A chapter of the Bible that is sometimes cited as proof that all will be destroyed. But this raises the question, What do we mean by destroyed? The flood in Noah’s time certainly destroyed the world, but it did not obliterate it. See 2 Peter 3:10.
The image is that of a purifying fire which removes the dross of imperfections. The dross of sin will be removed and the purity of the gold will be exposed. What we do on earth matters.
4. The Holy Land Expands To Be A Holy Earth:
God’s intentions for one land, Israel, have ramifications for the future of the whole earth. Within an understanding of God’s ownership of the entire earth, God elected one nation, Israel, to be his chosen people. They were to live in a Promised Land. See Exodus 3:8, 17; 13:5; 33:3.
That is compared with the Garden of Eden. As then the Old Testament closes, the people of Israel had returned from the Babylonian captivity and were reestablishing themselves in the land, but they were still awaiting a messiah who would accomplish God’s purposes. See Isaiah 51:3; Ezekiel 36:35.
As the New Testament opens we are introduced to this Messiah. Jesus fulfills all the promises of God. God’s purpose in the choosing of one nation was that all the nations of the earth would be blessed. God’s purpose in choosing one land was that all the earth would be blessed.
In the wake of Jesus’s fulfillment of all that Israel stood for, the New Testament begins the transition from a holy land to a holy earth, from Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, to the ends of the earth. See Acts 1:8.
The ultimate realization of this will be seen in “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” See 2 Peter 3:13.
Prayer Point:- I thank You oh Lord God, for I am fearfully and wonderfully created, help me to be faithful unto You and fulfilling Your mandate for me in life, in the name of Jesus Christ.
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