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(Part Two)
BOOK THREE
THIS WORLD OF OURS…
For all its horrors and mistakes the human race is one with purpose. Man is ever in an upward search for God. This is the most unique thing about mankind; the belief in the existence of God and the search for Him.
God created mankind out of love. God created mankind to love Him to the end that man would one day be united to Him in spiritual marriage.
The fall of mankind form grace did not take God by surprise for even before He began to create, God had already seen the end of eternity. You may ask: “He knew that it would come to this and He went ahead with creation? Why?”
Now we shall see the reason why. We shall see the beginning of life in this world of ours, the fall from grace of man, and the plan of God for the redemption of man. We shall see the call, the justification, the glorification and the light of the love of God in His gift of eternal life to all who would come to Him through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. Even in this world of ours.
CHAPTER ONE:
THE EARTH
“And the earth was without form, and void;
and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the surface
of the waters.”
- (Genesis 1:2)
Here we see the earth being spoken about. The earth was without form. For an object to be without form means that the object is shapeless or that it is without a definite shape. The earth here and up to this point was without shape. Another key attribute of the earth at this stage was that it was without life. The Bible describes it as void. Now God was yet to infuse life into it. He was perhaps more content to keep heaven and control the rebellion.
Now this same earth was also the home of Satan. It was the place to which Satan was thrown after the war in heaven (Revelation 12:7-9) and it was suffused with his darkness (Genesis 1:2). The earth was formless and shapeless and lifeless, full of earth soil, water, rocks, minerals and fire. The earth was not created to be this. But when God cast down the devil and his angels, he cast them into the earth. Darkness did not only come upon him when he ceased to radiate light, but also began to radiate from him. So that he ceased to be Lucifer, angel of light and became Satan, angel of Darkness, opposer of God.
Let us understand that this darkness was deep, black, eternal and all-defiling. Whereas hell the pit of fire was the real home of Satan, earth was his temporary home.
So now we understand why Isaiah 14:15 and Revelation 12:9 seem to contradict. They actually are saying the same thing. The devil was cast into the earth and into hell. He was the king in hell and since the earth was without form and was void and had not been put to the use for which God intended it, the devil was king over it as well. And in his evil reign, he extinguished whatever was of God on the earth, filling it with great darkness, evil, chaos and mayhem.
This darkness mentioned in this scripture (Genesis 1:2) is not the “physical” darkness with which we are familiar. It is not the darkness brought about by the absence of sun light on one part of the earth which we also call night. This darkness is the spirit which is Sin. It is the perverted light of God. The perverted righteousness of God.
When Satan was cast down into the earth, he fell with all his loyal angels. At this point he was no longer the angel of light but not was filled with darkness. All that he had in God was turned into their opposites. Light became darkness. Wisdom became foolishness. Beauty became ugliness. He came down with all these characteristics to the earth. They were now his inheritance given to him by Sin in the same way in which all good things had once been given to him by God.
In this we see why the earth, despite all the spiritual light it has known, is still functioning in great darkness. Darkness has always been in the earth since after the war in heaven. All the earth was saturated with great deep solid darkness. It was a darkness that could rub off on any who came in contact with it like soot rubs off on he who must climb through the chimney. It was all-killing and all-corrupting. And here, like in his kingdom the devil reigned, with his fallen angels, with an everlasting sovereignty and diabolic supremacy.
It is sad to note, that unless the earth is totally and ultimately destroyed, there is little that one can do to stop darkness. Darkness existed here before light and darkness will continue long after light is gone. We shall deal with this further as we go on.
Let us pick up that last sentence of the second verse in the first chapter of Genesis again.
“…And the Spirit of God moved upon the
face of the waters.”
- (Genesis 2:28)
The God mentioned in the first verse of Genesis is God the Father, the Holy Silence, the I Am That I Am. In the beginning, this God who is the supreme Person of the Godhead created the heaven and the earth. Let us understand that at this point there was no spoken Word of God. At this point the only mention of God was of God Himself and the Spirit of God which is the Holy Spirit.
This Spirit which is described by Saint John the divine as the Spirit that bears witness and he defended this by saying that the Spirit is the Witness because He is the Truth (I John 5:6). The Spirit of God is like a mirror of perfect reflection. And we all know that a perfect mirror of reflection is the truest witness of that which it beholds. It does not distort the image either for better or for worse. It reflects whatsoever image it beholds so perfectly, that such an image could not be differentiated from that which faces the mirror.
The Holy Spirit is perfect and true. There is no falsehood, pity or flexibility about it. He is rigid and without regards for circumstantial dispositions. He says only what He sees. He is the Eye and He sees and He records that which He sees. He is the Witness because He is true. He is the perfect mirror of God.
Now this Spirit of God which bears witness was moving on the face of the waters. Upon the face of the deep. Darkness was upon the face of the deep. The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the deep. The Witness moved upon the face of the deep bearing witness. He was actually bearing witness of the darkness which was upon the face of the deep where He was moving. The Spirit of God was sent by God to inspect the earth and give Him a report. The Spirit obeyed and moved upon the face of the waters which was full of Darkness! (I may have to use a capital letter ‘D’ for darkness from this point in order to differentiate between the darkness which is simply the absence of light and that which is Sin.)
At this point it is evident that God was about to begin His creation of earth. God was now content with the peace established in heaven and decide to begin the creation of the earth system which was His main reason for beginning creation in the first place. God was about to begin the new era. A new order of creatures as He had planned from the beginning. And so He sent His spirit to go into the earth and bear witness of how badly the devil Satan had corrupted it.
And so the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters amid the evil; bearing witness and reflecting all that He saw back to God in His perfect and rigid style.
And God saw the earth that He had created, that it was full of Darkness and was corrupt to the core. God knew that should He begin any creation upon the earth immediately the Darkness and corruption would fill it and make it satanic. Satan was still competing with and daring God. It was impossible for any new creature to pass through the Darkness and remain untarnished by its corruption, sin and Darkness.
We must realise that the earth was full of Darkness before the advent of man. And till the end nothing can change the basic nature of the Earth. The earth will remain a paradox of light and Darkness forever and ever. In all our communications and interactions with the Earth, let us bear in mind that nothing good is of this world and just as the earth and not the water is the true home of the mosquito, so is the new earth our true home and not this earth. Yet even as without the water the mosquito cannot develop so as to survive in the world, so we cannot, without the world, be redeemed by the blood of Jesus and be reconciled unto our true relationship with God in heaven.
There are only two options; serve God and become a part of His family, or serve Sin and by destroyed by it. There is no neutrality. No middle path. This is the beginning of life and it is true life, which otherwise could be said to be the end of death.
And God saw the state of the earth.
CHAPTER TWO:
THE RELEASE OF THE WORD
“ And God said: Let there be light: And
there was light.”
- (Genesis 1:3)
God the Almighty, God the Father, God the creator of the heaven and the earth said: “Let there be light” and there was light. Look very closely at this verse for in it you’ll find the full embodiment of the Word of God. Let us examine the first three words of the sentence.
“And God said”
God decided to speak for the first time in creation. It is His property to remain silent forever amid such repugnant Darkness and corruption. The “And” at the beginning of the sentence describes the decision, not only to speak but also to create a new world.
The Spirit had reflected the truth back to God. And the truth was this; Darkness was upon the face of the deep. The Spirit of God does not act independently of God. The Spirit is truth. He waited in silence and in that silence God made His decision. What was this great decision? Condemn the earth? No! God saw something and that something was to create a new world apart and different from heaven in which many of His expressions would live and exist according to His pleasure. A world in which an order of Spirits would live whom, he would love.
God wanted a world where things would be different from heaven. Firstly, He wanted a world of lesser quality than heaven. Secondly He desired that of the creatures in this world there be a leader separate and apart in power and glory from the other animals. He desired that He still remained the one and only unchanging God. Note that this desire is so similar to the pre-rebellion heaven. God is God of all creatures in heaven, and the angels are their leaders. His intention was to begin a love affair. His wish was for a world where the only law and order was love. His desire was that His new creatures would obey Him not out of enforcement but out of love.
God decided to create a world where all would have joy. Yet among those all, there would be one leader, who would have godhood bestowed upon him and would lead the world. Who would have power and glory and would be independent. Yet in him shall dwell the life of God and the Godhead. He shall embody the God head and be God’s temple. This new creature shall be man – the leader of the world of earth. And so God was happy to let this romance begin.
Yet God was not naive to believe that He alone had plans for the earth. He knew that Satan was king of Darkness and that Darkness ruled earth. He could have dispelled Satan from the earth but He knew that the love would be perfect only when man had the option to choose between God (and the truthfulness and kindness and righteousness of God), and Sin and all its vileness and corruption. God’s intention was to create man with all the God-qualities necessary to overcome the devil and his deceit. God imposed trust upon man to believe Him only, love Him only and worship Him only. Though man would have a choice, yet he would of his own accord discard this choice, and put himself under subjection to God. And he would do this because he loved God. And God would love him and be his Father, his Bridegroom and his Love. And they would dwell in this state forever in the mysteries of eternity.
And so God decided to create the new world and subsequently He sent down His Spirit to survey the state of the earth and report back to Him. And the Spirit of God, better and more perfect and more everlasting and more unchanging than any camera, computer, photocopier or mirror in the world today, sent out the perfect reflection to God. And God decided. The “And” at the beginning of Genesis chapter one verse three shows the second decision of God. The first was to create; the second was to create despite the darkness.
“And God said: Let there be light.”
Now let us study the third word in the third verse of the first chapter of Genesis. The word is “Said”. This “Said” is both a verb, and a Noun.
“Said” is a verb because by saying God not only carried out an action, but also broke silence which up to this point had not been broken by God. And this “Said” led to creation. The “Said” led to a release. The “birth” of the Word. The “Said” led to the end of one era and shot up another into existence. The “Said” is the last we see of the seeming “Two in One”. For up to this point there was only God the Almighty (with the creative Person of Jesus still within Him as part of Him, not a separate personality) Father and Creator of the heaven and earth and God the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of God, the Truth and the Witness in independent personality within the Godhead. The Word had not yet been spoken. The “Said” is a Noun because it is the Word of God. By saying, God spoke and spoke His Word. Without breaking silence God’s Word could not have been released. God dwells in silence, deep silence. And it is clear as we see throughout the Bible, that He was breaking silence for the first time. He spoke and His Word came out from His month. He “said” and the Word was begotten. This Word is Jesus Christ. This Word is that which never changes. By speaking this Word, Christ came into independent activity. Let us look at the Bible.
“ In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God. All
things were made by Him; and without Him
was not anything made that was made.”
- (John 1:1-3)
The “Said” is the name of the Word, for simply by saying the Word came forth and became God the Son. The Word had always been “in” God, and without that “said,” that saying, that breaking of silence into words, could not the Son have come forth separate in Person from the Father, yet one with Him. God could have chosen to just groan or to rumble. But instead God said.
The Word came out quick (alive) and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword (Hebrews 4:12). The Word of God came forth in perfect Godhood and God endowed glory. That is why Christ prayed:
“ And now, O Father, glorify thou me with
thine own self with the glory which I had
with thee before the world was.”
- (John 17:5)
Christ was released with the full God-glory. He came out not wasting time in any majestic contemplation but assumed His responsibility at once as Creator of the new world.
Christ came forth with certain characteristics which we must not fail to observe in our knowledge of the Person of God.
Christ came possessing life. “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.” (John 1:4). He had the power of life which previously was in God the Father. Note that He said:
“…I am come that they might have life, and
that they might have it more abundantly”
- (John 10:10b)
He came forth as Creator bearing in Him life. God the Father saw His Son which was up to this point a part of Him become the new individual Creator, the great expected third Person and God went on straight to instruct Him. Remember that all power belongs to Jesus (Matthew 28:18). He has all power. That brings us to the second quality of the Word. Power!
The Word had power to permit anything to be created or not to be. He had power to give life and to withhold life. Power is the second quality that radiated from the awesome Son of God as He came forth in that mystical “said” that separated the third Person of God and brought to being the Trinity and the Godhead as Three in One, even as man was not created as one trinity but was first made in the spirit (Genesis 1:27) and then in the body (Genesis 2:7a) and finally the soul (Genesis 2:7b) so that he could be a perfect image of God. This is the perfection of the Godhead. He was first the Father and from Him proceeded the Spirit (which is represented in the human trinity by the human body) and finally the Word (which in man is the soul). God the Father recognized this power in the Son when He gave His first command; “Let.”
To let is to permit or allow. It could also mean to desist from restraining. For God to have said “Let” to the Son shows that the Son had power to restrain. Jesus Christ has the power to permit anything and the power to restrain any occurrence. Now let us observe something good.
The third quality of Jesus was deep, loyal, mystically indescribable humility, and total subjection to the will of His Father. Though He was God, He recognized God’s superiority as a Father over Him. Paul said of Christ:
“ Who, being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God: But
made Himself of no reputation, and took
upon Him the form of a servant, and was
made in the likeness of men”
- (Philippians 2:6)
Christ is God and could as well have made Himself equal to God. This was all Lucifer had been fighting for. And here was Jesus throwing it all away. He had a will to choose, but He, from the very beginning even at the point of the “said”, gave up His will and took upon Himself God’s will. He had the right to say: “No Father I will not let.”
But He did not even wait a second before obeying. He did not even wait a second before relinquishing all the will of His Person over to God and putting Himself under God’s will. That is why He is God. So many false doctrines would have us believe that He is no more than a great prophet. Yet not even a mad prophet would say “I and my Father are one”. How was He able to see the danger in being under self-governance? By being God! Lucifer was not and could never have been God. He was only a created duality. In all his wisdom he was unable to see the danger of being self-governed. Jesus is the perfect example of humility. This is God’s will for us. That at birth we’d put our wills to Him and say:
“ Have thine own way O God. Do with me
what You will. My will I give to you. I subject
all my person to Your governance and control.
I am ready to put aside everything to do
Your will. I am subject to Your will forever.”
What a prayer of total surrender. This is the secret. This is the romance and love life which God intended for us. Christ did not even wait to be released before He turned over His will to the Father. He knew what damage it had already done to possess a will outside God’s will. He was always with God, always in God, always God (John 1:1). He saw how mightily Lucifer had fallen to destruction because he willed against God’s will. This is God’s will for us.
That all may know Him, and submit to Him, and love Him completely. Forever.
CHAPTER THREE:
THE CREATION
“ And God said, Let there be light; and there
was light.”
- (Genesis 1:3)
Now we can examine the first instruction of God to His Son. God instructed Jesus Christ to permit that light which was within the life that Jesus possessed, to spring forth and light the earth. God saw that there could be no creation without Light (from this point on I would use the capital letter ’L’ to distinguish between that light which is merely the presence of the rays of the sun and that which is the righteousness of God.) and so He instructed Christ to permit the light to address the earth. It would help to look closely at these lines. Christ had life as His property and this life was light. This is the simple reason why He said:
“ I am the Light of the world: He that
followeth me shall not walk in darkness,
but shall have the light of life.”
- (John 8:12)
It is important to note that Christ in this statement recognized two of the principal properties of His person: Light and Life. He did not just promise that His followers would not walk in the corruption of Sin; He explicitly declares that they shall have that very Light which belongs to Life (John 1:4). They shall not just walk in this Light but they shall possess and radiate this Light. Christ was too certain about this for He knew that the only Light that existed on earth, that separated the Darkness and corruption from the righteousness of God, was from Him. We hear Him crying out in this divine confidence:
“ As long as I am in the world, I am the
light of the world!”
- (John 9:5)
He knew, with perfect and absolute confidence that without Him was no Light. He knew that all the Light and righteousness radiated from within Him and dispelled darkness.
And so in this confidence He released, in complete obedience to God, that which He possessed. He released Light into the world and the world became filled with good amid the evil of Darkness. There was a great chaos as Light and Darkness intermingled and so it was difficult to differentiate between the Light and Darkness. Righteousness and unrighteousness became one.
Christ did not question this. He only waited for God to give Him further instructions. From this point on it is important to note that ‘God’ spoken about in the creation is the Godhead consisting of the Trinity. Yet because Jesus is the Word of God, all the actual act of creating was done by Him. This is true because the Bible tells us that the Word created all things in the world and without Him was nothing made that was made. This Word abides ever with the Father in the Godhead. But in the world He is the Light of Men and the Light of the world. Paul in his letter to the Hebrews said:
“ God… hath in these last days spoken unto us
by His Son whom He hath appointed heir of all
things, by whom also He made the worlds; who
being the brightness of His glory, and the
express image of His person, and upholding all
things by the Word of His power.” - (Hebrew 2:2-3)
See how many times it is emphasized by the writers of the Bible that Christ made the world. He made this world and He is found in the image and glory of God, and He is UPHOLDING ALL THINGS BY THE WORD OF HIS POWER!
It is incredible that some people still find it difficult to comprehend this even after so many places in the Bible (from the beginning of the Bible to its end) have explained it to them. Paul states this creation story over and over. For without a deeper understanding of the creation story the whole of mankind would exist without focus and vision. Only when a man understands the creation story does he begin to get a fuller knowledge of God. Only with a complete understanding of the creation story can lead a man to come to God in love and submission. Without doubt the creation story is the most important background for the preaching of the gospel. For without a good understanding of how the fall occurred how can we tell people that they are fallen? How do we call them back to God in exercising our ministry of reconciliation? How can people understand the gospel of reconciliation without understanding the only story that details their alienation from God? Creation is the strongest foundation of the gospel. Gospel without creation is incomplete. That is the reason why so many people come to God for every other reason except the one for which He is calling them. Some come to Him to avoid hell; others draw near to Him in times of sickness, others for protection from their enemies, and most draw to Him simply for the things which they can get from Him. It is as bad as people turning God into a mega investment house where they invest and reap a handsome dividend by the perversion of the sowing and reaping doctrine.
But Paul seeing the danger of this hammered continually on the creation story to get His message out to the people. In his letter to the Colossians he wrote:
“ Who is the image of the invisible God, the first
born of every creature: For by Him were ALL
THINGS CREATION, that are in heaven and
that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether
they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities,
or powers: ALL THINGS were CREATED BY
HIM, AND FOR HIM!”
- (Colossians 1:15-16)
Paul was explaining to the Colossians that Christ created the world and all in it. Mystically we see God the father addressing Jesus as creator the book of Hebrews:
“ AND, THOU, LORD, IN THE BEGINNING
HAST LAID THE FOUNDATION OF THE
EARTH; AND THE HEAVENS ARE THE
WORKS OF THINE HANDS:”
- (Hebrews 1:10)
Now enough of this talk on the creation rights of Christ and let us go onto the rest of the creation itself.
“ And God saw the light that it was good:
and God divided the light from the darkness.
And God called the light day, and the
darkness He called night
- (Genesis 1:4-5)
I want us to eat up every morsel of the creation story so that some of the wondrous things we read in the Bible would hang on us wherever we go.
We see here that God was pleased with the Light of Life and saw it as good. But there were serious consequences for the actions of Christ. By entering the Darkness He had encountered Sin and was condemned to judgment and death. This was it. The world was ready to take off. Light had saturated the world and had mixed with the Darkness. Yet though Light was in the world and had made the world good, it lacked that basic dividing line which is the property of Light.
Light does not debate with Darkness. You can try and see if the deepest physical darkness can quench even the mildest light. Yet this was not physical light but spiritual Light. This was righteousness and good, and it was mixed up with unrighteousness and evil. Remember that all the Light which previously had been in Lucifer turned into when he became corrupt. And suddenly he whose property it was to control Light could no longer retain it. He could only transform from time to time into an angel of Light in order to deceive men (II Corinthians 11:14)
God decided to perfect this imperfect situation. As it wasn’t His will to annihilated Darkness, He decided to let the Light abide with Darkness but as two opposing forces. He divided the Light from the Darkness and set out the Light apart as separate entity which He called Day and the same He did to the Darkness which He called Night. Now His plan could go on and He would have a world that would have the right to choose either Light and be saved, or Darkness and be condemned. This activity ended the first day.
Please do not be among those ignorant multitudes that imagine that the Light called forth on the first day is the sun. How terribly ignorant! If so what was created on the fourth day? Or do you imagine that there was no spirituality about creation? Please do not make this error. The first day consisted only of what the Bible has shown to you; the “said” that released the Word, that went ahead to release the Light He possessed, the division of this Light from the Darkness of Satan, and the naming of this Light as Day and the Darkness as Night. The ‘Day’ at the beginning of verse five is the name of the Light and the “day” at the end of that same verse is ordinary measurement of time between the beginning of the first command and the completion of its response.
One fact which many people take for granted is the fact that the measurement of the days of creation where not the same with these days of ours. The measurement was probably very much longer. Each day may have been as long as a million years or as short as an hour or a minute. These days were not the twenty-four hours of our present day – except of cause by coincidence. Why? Why should we believe this? Simple. There was no sun from the first day of creation.
God began to create without the sun. The sun is not the life giver we think it is. God created the earth, the firmaments, the seas, earth and plants before creating the sun. So plants themselves are may have been entirely dependent on the sun for life. For plants existed before the sun.
The sun is that by which we measure the day. A complete spin of the earth makes a day. And without the sun it would be impossible to know when the earth has taken a complete spin. Indeed without the sun it is impossible for the earth to orbit. But these are deep spiritual issues that we should not go into.
God sustained the earth and plants before the sun came to receive its light, for He is the light of life. The days of creation may have taken a second, an hour, a day, a year, thousand years, a million years or billions of years to materialize. God is not restricted by time for time proceeds from Him. He is the Beginning and the End. This shows that time proceeded from Him. I know this argument gives science the benefit of a doubt especially as it believes that the earth has been around for billions of years and claims that certain plant and animal fossils have existed for millions or hundreds of millions of years.
This claim by science may be true. The earth itself may have materialized by a gradual process. I have not said that it evolved from nothing. No. The Darwinian theory of evolution is a farce. But the timelessness of the days of creation gives a strong possibility that God’s Word was spoken and these things happened over an unmeasured period of time. There was no sun, no modern day. The evening and morning of the first three days of creation took place in darkness (without sunlight). But darkness to us is not darkness to God. God is Light. He introduced the sun for us to see what He looks like. But He is the invisible Light.
The claim of science may be true but their concept of evolution is false. No animal evolved into man. God is not a liar. Would it not give Him glory to admit to evolution in the Bible like every other thing Him admits to? Why would God conceal evolution if it is true? Do they not see that they make God a liar by hanging onto Darwin’s fantasies? God did not develop us from animals. And as He has revealed, animals are dualities, not trinities. So God could not have made animals into human beings.
Also the claim of science may be false for the days of creation may have even been a few seconds, minutes or hours. We cannot tell, even though the odd seem to prove that they are right. All we know is that those ‘days’ were not what we call days today. It is not dangerous to believe that creation has existed for millions of years. But let this belief not blind you to the fact that mankind has been around for only a few thousands of years and did not in any way evolve from apes. This is the point.
It is to the superior Day which is Light that Paul referred when he wrote to the Thessalonians:
“ Ye are all the children of light and the
children of the day: we are not of the night,
nor of darkness.”
- (I Thessalonians 5:5)
In the Second day, God created the firmament in the midst of the waters to divide the waters from the waters (Genesis 1:6).
He created again by the Word using the same divine instruction, “LET”. Permit. Do not restrain from occurrence. “LET there be… in the midst of the waters, and LET it divide the waters from the waters.” And once again Christ obeyed and did not restrain. He did not just stop there; He also created that which God had asked Him to permit. That “LET” always indicated, permit and create. And Christ created the firmament, and divided the waters that was under the firmament from the waters that was above the firmament (Genesis 1:7).
This creation separated water and put some above the firmament and some below. And this firmament was named Heaven. The Heaven which is space and into which He placed all stars, planets and galaxies, and also the sun and the moon. This was the creation of the second day. This Heaven is space. It is the second heaven. And so on the second day space was created. And all things created including space are not being held by a force of mystery force of gravity or cosmic energy. Paul tells us (and when we note that the world, the heaven and the earth were created before space and all its forces, we see its great truth) that Christ is upholding ALL THINGS by the WORD OF HIS Power! (Hebrew 1:3). Let us note that He is not said to have upheld, but Paul uses the word “upholding” as a verb-continuous. In this is science made foolish. The Word is true. The Word (Jesus) set up all the planets in space and motion on that second day.
This upholding is everlasting, up to the point where Christ shall fold up the Heavens and the earth, after they have waxed old as a garment. And as a vesture shall Christ fold them up. (Hebrews 1:10-12). So we see that our Lord Jesus Christ is still maintaining and sustaining the world by His grace which is the power of His Word. This is a verb that continues!
“ And God said: Let the waters under the
heaven be gathered for gather unto one place,
and let the dry land appear: and it was so.”
- (Genesis 1:9)
Before the third day the earth was a mixture of water and soil and minerals and rocks. Yet from the second verse of the first chapter of Genesis, we can clearly depict that the water covered all the earth. This is because the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters and Darkness was upon the face of the deep. All that was seen was water. And the creation of the first day was to divide the Light of righteousness that was permitted to saturate the earth from the Darkness that had saturated the earth before the advent of the Light and which the Light was not permitted to completely annihilate. The creation of the second day saw God dividing this same deep that covered the earth into two. One He put above the earth, the other He left on the earth. Still this water left covered the earth and no dry land was visible.
On the third day God separated the remaining water into one place so that the dry land could appear. This land, which by the implication of this statement had previously been beneath the water, was at last LET (permitted) to appear.
On this third day also did God create all plants and trees and seeds. He commanded and these plants came forth from the earth and sprang up into life. And He saw that it was good. Once again let us note the double ‘LET’ and the immediate obedience of the Creator; “And it was so.” God then called the dry land Earth.
The fourth day of creation is the most controversial day of creation for most people who are unable to differentiate between the Light of the first day and the lights of the fourth day. But as I have explained earlier, the Light on the first day is a spiritual Light, which is righteousness and perfection.
On the fourth day, God said:
“ Let there be light in the firmaments of the
heavens to divide the day from the night and
let them be for signs and for seasons, and for
days, and years: And let them be for lights
in the firmament of heaven to give light
upon the earth: and it was so”.
- (Genesis 1:14-15)
Dear friends, study these verses deeply. This was the only day in creation where the divine “LET” was mentioned thrice except on the sixth day when man was created. The creation on the fourth day was so peculiar and so explicit and so dynamic that the “LET” command had to appear three times.
The first “LET” permitted material lights in space to divide the day from the night. As such, at this point, material darkness, which is simply the absence of material light, was upon the earth. There was no material (sun) light on the earth and it was impossible to see anything with the human eyes. Yet there was Light (righteousness) and Darkness (unrighteousness). This shows the whole mystery of the world at creation. Note how systematically creation unfolded. Nothing came before it was needed. Everything was created according to the order of priority. Up to this point there was no need for material light upon the earth. Everywhere was pitch black yet creation took place and God was present. Other matters were more important and took priority before physical lights.
The second “LET” was to permit the psychological and sociological reason for the presence of these lights. There are four of these reasons. The first says that the lights should exist for signs. We see today that stars exist for signs both righteous and unrighteous. Some astrologers and diviners use them for signs ungodly. The three wise men saw the star of the king of the Jews. Signs and wonders are usually read from stars and their placing.
The second reason was for seasons. The moon is used to depict seasons all over the world. The third is for days. The sun is used to count the days. A complete spin of the earth is known as a day and is measured as twenty-four hours. The fourth purpose of these lights is for years. And we all know that years are counted using the sun as the center piece around which the earth must rotate.
The third “LET” in the sentence was for permission for the lights to express their material purpose. To illuminate materially, the earth by day and also by night (the sun gives the moon its light) through the moon. This illumination was to transcend from space which is the firmament onto the earth.
And so God made two great lights, the sun and the moon. The greater light to rule the day (the sun) and the lesser light to rule the night (the moon), and He made the stars also. Then He set them in space to give light upon the earth and to divide (note that the earth began its orbit of the sun at this point) the light from the darkness. And He saw this that like others it was good. Had He found it bad, God would not have hesitated to destroy it. But He saw that it was good. And this ended the sensational creations of the fourth day.
On the fifth day, God created the creatures of the sea and the birds of the air. All the multitudes of species did God create. And He blessed them, the first beasts upon His new world and said to them:
“ Be fruitful, and multiply and fill the waters
in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.”
- (Genesis 1:22)
And at this charge the creatures of the sea and the birds of the air multiply abundantly and filled the earth. And seeing His goodness in them God finished for the day. This was the fifth day. The falsehood of the Darwinian belief of birds evolving from fish is made clear here. While Darwin says the bird is a relation of the fish, the Bible tells us that both were created out of water. Both theories seem close enough but Darwin’s is false. There was no such evolution. If there was all fishes world have evolved into birds. The scientific closeness of the both creation as not strange as both proceed from the same source – water.
On the sixth day God decided to introduce all the beasts of the earth. All the beasts and insects and worms and creatures of the earth did God bring into existence. This was the first LET command for the sixth day.
“ Let the earth bring forth the living creature
after his kind, cattle, and creeping they, and
beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so”
- (Genesis 1:24)
At this point the principal dream of God for this His new world of love came to pass.
“ And God said: Let us make man in our
image, after our likeness: and let them have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over
the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and
over all the earth, and over every creeping
thing that creepeth upon the earth.”
- (Genesis 1:26)
We shall study the words or terms; US, MAN, IMAGE, LIKENESS, DOMINION, AND CREEPING THINGS.
First of all, the “US”. It is important to remember that all these six days the creation was being done by God the Son at the instruction of the Father and the silent witnessing of the Holy Spirit. All creation up to the sixth day was done by God the Son who came forth from the mouth of the Father as a separate Personality within the same Being and the last arrival in the Trinity bearing as His properties life, light, love, perfect humility, servanthood, subjection to the will of the Father, power and sonship.
Yet at the time when it came for man to be created, God the Father changed His instruction. Yes, the divine “LET” thundered once again but this time there was a great change. The permission He asked Christ for was not just to refrain from resisting and to create, but for the first time He introduces the word “make” into His command and says; “Let Us make”. Let Us, the Godhead, the Trinity; make man in our image. Let Us as one force and not just you Jesus, create man in our image, not my image, or yours Christ or yours Holy Ghost, but in OUR image!
The image of God is the basic nature and life and character of God. It is the Trinity which differentiates man from angels. It is the Person of God Himself. The fact that man was created in the image of God shows that he has a portion of godhood imputed in him.
The image of God is the full embodiment of the Godhead. It dwells in every man whom God has created. This has always been a point of friction for many who feel that God dwells only in a Christian. God did not create man then create Christians. At creation the idea was of a being that would love God though he had the will not to.
“ Let us make man in our image. Let us create a dynamic being that would love us and be our son. Let us make our temple in Him so that our image would dwell in him, and we with him shall be together, forever, in love. Let us impute our entire selves even as flames into every one of this creature we would create.”
This was the supreme order for even Christ was said to be the express image of God’s Person (Hebrews 1:3).
The fourth study would dwell on the word “Likeness”. Now, there are many who claim that man was only built to have God-like characteristics, that no one had seen the likeness of God and that God’s appearance cannot be like the physical appearance of man. But let us examine the scriptures.
“ And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne as, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it… This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heared a voice of one that spake.”
- (Ezekiel 1:26-28)
“ And in the midst of the seven candle sticks, one like unto the son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and His hairs were white like wool, as eyes were as a flame of fire; and His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and His voice as the sound of many waters. And He had in His right hand seven stars: and out of His mouth went a sharp two edged sword: and His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet dead. And He laid His hand upon me, saying unto me; “Fear not; I am the first and the last.”
- (Revelation 1:13-17)
Scripture has shown that God, as He appeared to men, is also like man in appearance. Note that John saw Him as having the appearance of a man with head, hair, eyes, feet, voice, hands, mouth, and a face that shone like the sun! All these were in the likeness of man. If they were not, John would have explained what they resembled even as he explained what the beasts looked like, and even as he defined the likeness of every feature he saw in God from the looks of God’s head to the sound of His voice, to the content of His hand and the flare of His face.
Man was not only created in the image of God but also in His likeness. The two are expressly different from each other. So although man is not an exact physical representation of God’s appearance, yet he is alike in physical formulation.
Dominion is the ability to rule and lead. It is to be superior in command and nature and to exert that superiority over another. We know that man was to have dominion over all the other creatures God had made, and all the earth. This was the license from God to man to make him a god upon the earth. And endowed with this power man became master and leader of the world and God his only superior.
Lastly we must note that God referred to all the creatures that crept as “Thing”. This shows a level of inferiority to all the other creatures that were either beasts or fowls or fish.
“ And so God made the man in His own image,
in the image of God created He him; male and
Female created He them. And God blessed
them, and God said unto them; “Be fruitful, and
multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it:
and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and
over the fowl of the air, and over every living
thing that moveth upon the earth.”
- (Genesis 1:27-28)
Finally after the creation of man, (and note, god created both male man which is known as man, and female man which is called woman) God blessed them and saw that all was good. And then creation came to an end. And on the seventh day, God rested.
CHAPTER FOUR:
THE REST
The rest of God is silence. It is beauty. Imagine how it felt like after creation and all the sounds that accompanied creation. All the monstrous giant roaring raging sounds. The work and the commands. The complete and unwavering obedience. Peace. Silence. Silence. Hush.
“ Peace I leave with you. My peace I give
unto you: not as the world giveth, give I
unto you.”
- (John 14:27)
“Peace. Peace I give. Peace so secure and so silent. So ethereal yet so real. Like a shadow of love. Peace. Silence. Rest.” Have we ever thought about God’s love then? Such a wonderful, blissful love! And God so much in need of that silence which He had been breaking ever so often since the beginning of creation decided to take a much deserved rest. Silence. Rest. His Rest.
“ And God blessed the seventh day, and
sanctified it: because that in it He had rested
from all His work which God created and made.”
- (Genesis 2:3)
Rest. Silence. Silence as the brooks poured forth and the seas sang with its everlasting abundance. Peace. Peace. Silence. And God rested. And God blessed His rest. This rest was His Sabbath. And God blessed it, and sanctified it. And His wish towards man concerning His rest is this:
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shall thou labour and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shall not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man servant, nor they maid servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it. - (Exodus 20:8-11)
The rest of God is Holy. It is the secret deepest place of God. When God rested He sanctified His rest to show us several things. The first is the need for rest. No meditation of sound value has ever been done without rest. Never has the peace of God been felt in a state of self imposed turmoil and unrest. The receiver must at least be in a receptive mood spiritually. The spirit must be calm and attentive, ready to hear and imbibe the word of God. Ready to hear the Son of God speak to his soul.
Yet we must be careful to note what this rest means exactly and what the implications are for Christians. Rest is a state of peace. It is a silent rebuilding of that which is spent. A man might be as silent as death without experiencing rest, for rest is in the Spirit and the Spirit must be calm and at peace to experience rest. And so a quiet man whose mind is noisy and ever moving is incapable of experiencing that quiet which ushers in divine rest.
The rest of God is a mighty place of renewal of lost energy. Not physical energy but spiritual energy. God showed us an example of the importance of rest. Both physical and spiritual for, closely looked at, there is nothing physical which is not spiritually sustained. Even Christ while on earth rested and advised His followers to do like wise. (Mark 6:31). Throughout the gospel of John, we see Jesus departing from all men and seeking solitude either on a mountain or in a desert (John 6:15. 8:1. 12:36)
In the Old Testament God commanded the Israelites to remember the Sabbath day and to hallow it. He commanded that they used six days for all their work and labour, but that they rested on the seventh to commemorate the day in which He rested. This day was to be observed in rest and for the filling of the Spirit of God. So though the Israelites may not have known it, God was filling them with His Spirit, replenishing all the lost contact between their spirits and His. For six days did they work, bargain, sell, cheat, quarrel, haggle, shout, labour, chat, chatter and do all the usual things men do when they work or earn a living. For six days little by little, bit by bit, their lives moved from the perfect balance between materiality and spirituality, into a precariously unbalanced ratio to the detriment of the spiritual. More and more they lost focus of their spiritual identities and entered into the system of the world which has always been and would always be at disparity to the will of God. And so on the seventh day they rested from the work of the world and the way of the world and hallowed the day and kept that day holy. And God filled them, and blessed them.
But typical of this fetish world, the very people who were commanded to observe this Sabbath and keep it holy were the one’s who resorted to fanatism, appearing holy and acting holy on this seventh day. But whose hearts were as riotous and unstable as a sea in the grip of a storm. And to this did Christ put them to shame. They were such who would eagerly rescue a beast from a pit on the Sabbath day, but who would refuse to help a fellow man in need of help because it is Sabbath. They profaned the Sabbath using it for hypocritical purposes instead of the holy peaceful rest which God intended.
“What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep and if it fall into a pit on a sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it and lift it out? How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days”
- (Matthew 12:11-12)
Note that from verse two to eight of this same chapter, Christ defended His action when accused of breaking the norms of the Sabbath.
Hypocrisy is the twin brother of self-deceit, and bears the some perfect ugliness. There is nothing as blinding and destructive as hypocrisy, and Christ picked upon the Pharisees and Sadducees for their hypocrisy as today He would have picked on the Christians.
Do not be surprised that in the world today there are more hypocrites among the Christians than are found in any other creed in the world. This is because God is Light and man has chosen that which seems easier to him, Darkness, instead of light.
“ And this is the condemnation, that Light is come into the world, and men loved Darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”
- (John 3:19)
Let this not bother you. Let it not affect your decision to be of Christ and to be reconciled. For many are called but few are chosen. Strive yourself then to enter into the Kingdom, through the narrow gate. Though the majority may go through the broad gate, strive that you may enter in through the narrow gate. Always make sure you are following Christ. Read the Bible and decide what you must do. Always do what you find in the Bible, in Christ’s teaching. For in His teachings alone must you balance your spirituality.
We must strive to enter the rest. The pact. The original state. We must strive to enter into the silent hidden place of God.
“ Let us therefore fear, last, a promise being left as of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.”
- (Hebrews 4:1)
Let us be mindful of this and be at rest. In Christ we are at rest. For He said:
“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me: for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
- (Matthew 11: 28-30)
CHAPTER FIVE:
AFTER THE BEGINNING
In this Chapter we shall study the second phase of the creation story. The focus here is of life on the earth before, the so called fall of man (For man had fallen at his creation by retaining his self-governance and even before creation in the mind of God).
In the second chapter of Genesis, the Bible make us to understand, that although God had created man, plants, beasts and all creatures that would dwell upon the dry land, these creatures were not yet present in the physical realm. They were only present in spirit having been made and created but not having been introduced into the earth physically. The fifth verse of this same chapter makes us to understand that plants had not grown because God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no man to till the ground. So although all life had been created, bodies had not yet been created for the spirits to assume. Without the bodies, no creature that had life could begin its travel on earth.
Yet the story goes on to say that a mist arising from the earth itself went out and watered the entire face of the ground as it went up. And now the ground was soft enough to permit the plants to grow. And the trees and all that was in the ground.
After this mist which was sent up to water the earth, the Bible tells us that God then made the body for man to live upon the earth. He created this body from the dust of the ground. That is why after a man’s spirit leaves the body so that it stops breathing, the body begins to decompose and finally turns into dust. Dust to dust, as it is said.
Then God breathed into Mans nostrils, the breath of life. Christ the Creator breathed into the nostril of man, the breath of life. Christ who is the author of life and who has the right to permit or restrain the outflow of that fire, breathed into man, and man became a living soul. (Genesis 2:7, John 1:4)
The living soul here refers to man’s mind and person. Man’s individuality and integrity. That which is you and me. Your will and person, and my will and person. That which at birth we must all hand over immediately to the Father and take up His will and His will alone His will alone. For even Christ did not hesitate to do this.
And so it would suffice to ask at this point if you, my dear reader have given your soul to God and subjected yourself to His soul and His will. Have you done that which you must first do as soon as you become born again? There is nothing scary about this or incarcerating. The only thing scary about this is not doing it. Look what happened to Lucifer and others as we would soon find out, when they decided not to be subject to the will of God. This is a pact of love not slavery. We would deal more closely with this when we get to the topic Reconciliation.
At this point the story of intense love began to unfold. Love of a God for the creature He created. Love for a God by the creature whom He gave life. God went out to the eastern part of the earth, in a place called Eden, and there He planted a beautiful garden into which He put the man He had formed out of the ground (Genesis 2:8). This love affair continued to wax greater when:
“Out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food.”
- (Genesis 2:9)
I want you to note very carefully that this garden was not the whole earth. It was only a part of Eden which is a part of the earth. Plants and trees were all over the earth, but on the garden of Eden, God caused to grow only such trees as were pleasant to the eyes and good for food. No poisons tree or inedible plant grew in the garden. And there was no ugly tree in this garden. All was so perfect and beautiful that God decided that it was fit to be the home of His new creature man. Imagine such love! God did not plan for ugliness, imperfection or hunger. When He blessed man in Genesis chapter one verse twenty-nine, He said:
“Every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of the earth and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed: To you it shall be for meat.”
The love between God and man grew stronger and deeper. In the garden of Eden did God put the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:9). And then a river went forth from Eden into the garden to water it. And from the garden the river split into four heads. These four rivers went from the garden to encompass the lands of Havilah, Ethiopia and Assyria. And God put man in this garden to dress it and to keep it.
To dress and keep a garden is to keep it free of weeds, from the overgrown plants, manage the irrigational facilities and make the beauty of the garden flow more fiercely. Man had the duty to do this, to keep the perfection of God’s creation, to prevent corruption from over taking the Garden of Eden. But God gave man a command.
“Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shall not eat of it: For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17)
And thus was creation completed. And the life and love of God filled the earth. And all was perfect because God made all and sustained all by the Word of His power. Shalom!
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