 We have to understand something very important. The Bible begins with a
wedding in a garden and it ends with a wedding in a garden (New Jerusalem). The
Bible opens and closes with this truth. The abandoned heart of God’s love will
never be understood unless you understand what God’s looking for. When you have
a book end to a story, the same truth at the front and the back of a section –
it is the interpretive key for the whole story. Let's look at the book of
Genesis, the first few chapters specifically lay out foundational truths that
give us insight into the Gospel, the nature of God, the purpose of humanity, and
how God will bring redemption to His creation.
Chapter one is focusing on the brooding
presence of the Holy Spirit. God speaks forth all of creation. Now, we know in
Genesis that we have the Spirit brooding over the deep. But we also know from
Colossians and other Scriptures, that Jesus was the very vehicle through which
creation came forth. For all things were created by Him and through Him and for
Him. So we have the Father speaking through the Son by the power of the Holy
Spirit to bring forth creation. The very first thing that is spoken is this –
Let there be light. Now the planets – the sun and the moon – aren’t created for
a few more days.
What is the light in the darkness? God
sends forth revelation light as the most important reality in the human
experience. When revelation strikes our hearts, when light enters our frame,
when the knowledge of God touches us – we’re able to then have relationship with
God. The knowledge of God is the foundational reality for the human
experience. In Genesis 1, we’re introduced to the primary character – God. He
displays His awesome power. He speaks and it’s done.
In verse 26, He now creates the
image-bearers, “Let us make man in Our image, male and female He created
them.” He calls it very good. In chapter 2, God is going to reveal the prize of
all of creation. In chapter 1, He displayed His power - in chapter 2, He’s
going to display His passion. He’s going to introduce us to the darling of
all of creation. His most prized creation. We find out in Genesis 2:7, “And
the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground. And breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being.” God spoke the
rest of creation into existence, but with us He wanted to get His hands in on
it. He wanted to touch this creation. We are intimately connected with God. So
much that He uses His hands to form us. The intricacy of the human frame, the
complexity, the design of one of our eyes baffles us. It’s not just the
complexity of the design – it’s the intimate acquaintance of God with our
design.
Do you know there’s a reason that God
had to rest on the seventh day – He poured His whole self into creating us. We
live like beggars before His Throne, when in actuality, He formed us with His
very own hands. God forms us with His hands and then the next thing that He
does, something unprecedented. The angels must have been aghast at this next
event. God stooped down and breathed into his nostrils, breathed the breath of
life into his nostrils. You see the breath and the life force of God fashioned
and formed the heart of man. God left His indelible mark upon Adam – His holy
breath filling a treasured soul.
Proverbs 8 gives us a glimpse and insight into what happened that day. It
tells us that Jesus as the personification of the wisdom of God was at the right
hand of His Father as a Master Craftsman. The Son of God Himself was rejoicing
in His Father as He was creating us. God was rejoicing and it says that Jesus’
delight was in the sons of men. It says that the angels sang and the morning
star shouted for joy. Beloved, all of creation was made as a trinket of love for
us. That’s why when we fell, creation was subjected to futility. Romans 8 tells
us that creation groans and waits for the unveiling of the sons of God.
When we receive our resurrected bodies, and all things are
made new – you will hear the symphony of God through all of creation as it
rejoices. The rocks will cry out, the trees will clap their hands. We have lived
in unbelief so long that we don’t realize what this world is going to be like.
It is going to be far beyond anything we ever imagined.
We have got to believe again. Jesus
rejoices at His Father’s side and the connecting point of heaven and earth is
found in humanity. The place where God chose for heaven and earth to come
together is humanity, made in His image and filled with His Spirit. In humanity,
God’s nature is reflected and God’s government is implemented to the rest of the
earth. Creation witnesses the character and the power of God through humanity
and in humanity, God receives the highest praises and glory from the created
order.
Father, thank you that you saw me
from the beginning and formed me in my mother’s womb. Teach me, your
prized possession, what it means that You chose me to be called ‘one made in
God’s image’, created in Christ Jesus and set apart for the glorious good works
of God. Fashion in me the hope of Your destiny for me, that I might walk in the
fullness of it.
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