Fundamentals of the Fall

December 11, 2014 by Judy

For those of you who may not have noticed it yet, we have begun to fall into something of a pattern during our time here at Stage #1 of God’s One Big Story. First, we have watched and enjoyed each new segment of the Story as it has been presented to us; then, we have paused to analyze each new segment to see what we could take away from it. In effect, what we have been doing is donning two different hats for each of our theatrical outings—the first hat made expressly for the devoted, theatre-going patron who is just out for an evening’s entertainment, while the other is perfectly suited for the questioning, somewhat jaded theatre critic who is searching for the pathos inherent in any new presentation. Well, now that we have finished viewing the third Vignette in our current series—that being Man’s Sin and Fall From Grace—it is time for us to once again remove our Patron’s Cap and change into our Critic’s Cap so that we can search for the deeper meaning hidden within the characters’ actions in this portion of our Story.

I suppose that for us, as critics, there can be no more pathos-producing element within a Story than the introduction of Evil into it—especially when that Evil seems to be so unwarranted and out of place. When you consider that in our Story so far, everything and everyone in it is Good, for…

God is holy, so there’s no way that Evil has any place in Him;
The world God has created is perfect so, as yet, there is place for Evil in it; and,
Our human characters, those beings made in the very image of God, are still both innocent and undefiled.

So, what purpose could possibly be served by the Author of this Story, who is none other than God Himself, in allowing the introduction of Evil into this, His most magnificent opus—especially when He knows better than anyone else the dire consequences which will result from just such an introduction?

Before we can answer this all-important question, however, there are two other questions that will need to be answered first: why was Man created, and how was Man created? And, for the answers to these questions, we only need to refer back to Another Learning Interlude, where we only recently learned that…

Man was created by God for Sonship; and,
Man was created in the image of God, so that he could become a Son of God.
However…

Being created for Sonship…

…would require that the Son be holy, like his Father. Before he could be found to be Holy, though, he would first have to prove to be righteous; and, in order for that to happen, he would have to maintain his innocence in the face of testing.

…would also require that the Son be obedient to His Father, even if he didn’t fully understand the reasons for that obedience.

Being created in the Image of God…

…would mean that the Son would have a will like His Father; a will giving him the power to choose to either obey or disobey—or, to choose to between doing Good or doing Evil. Before he could do any choosing, though, there would first have to be both Good and Evil options from which he could choose.

These requirements, then, bring us to God’s purpose for allowing the introduction of Evil into His Story—a purpose which can be summed up by one nasty, four-letter word (and ordeal) which most of us try to avoid at all costs—and that is a…TEST

You see, Vignette #3 is all about a TEST…

A Test to see if Man would maintain his innocence in the face of temptation, so that he could be found righteous and holy, like His Father; and,
A Test to see if Man would exercise his will to obey His Father, or use it to satisfy his own fleshly desires.

So, here, then—for all of you critical thinkers, are the Fundamentals of the Fall, and of …

The Life Lessons to be learned from the Fall…

Using what we have just learned from the Fundamentals of the Fall, we can now identify some of the important Life Lessons about testing to be found in Vignette #3. Based upon Adam and Eve’s experiences, we say with certainty that…

Everyone will be tested—even Christ was tested (Matt. 4:1-9) but, unlike the first Adam, He put His trust in the Word of God when he was confronted by temptation.
God allows/requires the testing. While Satan tempts us in order to separate us from God, God allows our testing so that we can be drawn closer to Him.
Just like Adam and Eve, we will be tested on the revelation of God’s Word that we have received.
And just as Eve was, we will be tested in three areas: the lust of the flesh (body), the lust of the eyes (soul), and the pride of life (spirit).

There are also some other Life Lessons, relating to the choices that we make and their consequences, to be learned from Adam and Eve’s experiences. They are the hard lessons that…

Everyone will be judged…

…inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes the judgment (Heb. 10:27).
We will reap according to what we have sown…

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life (Gal. 6:7-8), and…everything will reproduce “after its kind” (Gen. 1).
We will be judged according to our works…
The righteous will be judged to determine their rewards, however, these rewards will not be immediate; they will be determined by our good works, all of which will be tested by fire, for…

…each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work (1 Cor. 3:13-14).

But the wicked will be judged to determine their degrees of punishment…

…And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds (Rev. 20:12).

A broken relationship with God can only be restored by an atoning sacrifice for sin; and this sacrifice must be the work of God alone, involve the death of an innocent substitute, and involve the shedding of blood. (Heb. 9:11-14)

…Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ…for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God… (1 Peter 2:18-19, 23).

The Contributions that the Fall makes to the Heavenly Story…

With the introduction of Evil into our Story, a new and altogether unsavory Character joins its Cast. Although this Character has not yet been named and he will, for the present time, remain invisible to us, his presence will surely be felt as He and his nefarious activities continue to wreak havoc among the people of God’s creation. And, it is through his evil actions in this, his first appearance in our Story, that the conflict which propels our Story forward is also introduced.

The Revelations of God to be found in the Story of the Fall…

In as much as it is becoming our practice at this juncture to look for new revelations of God that can be found in the preceding Vignette, let’s once again do that by using the same criteria that we have used during our previous critical pauses:

The names God uses to identify Himself…

In Vignette #3, God is still identified by the name, the Lord God, Jehovah or Yahweh. Although His name remains unchanged, a whole new dimension is added to it in this portion of the Story. Whereas, in Vignette #2, Yahweh was revealed as the immanent personal God, directly involved with Man as his Creator, life-giver, provider, and sustainer; in Vignette #3, Yahweh is revealed as Man’s seeker, his judge, his redeemer, and his restorer.

The Things that God does…

God’s actions in this segment of our Story can best be described as measured and proportional. Having already instructed the Man on what would and would not be acceptable conduct, He then allows him and his partner to have the time and opportunity to choose how they will conduct themselves. When they fail to do what it right, God doesn’t wait for them to come to Him; instead, He seeks them out, giving them a chance to repent, yet still holding them responsible for their actions. As He must, He judges and imposes punishment on them for their sins; but, after doing so, He immediately provides a covering for those sins so that their fellowship with Him can be restored. In addition, He offers them the hope for a brighter future through the promise of a Redeemer who will eventually deliver them from sin’s bondage.

The Way that God relates to His Creation…

When we look closely at God’s actions, just described, it is easy for us to see that He is relating to His Created Beings as any Father would to His Children. For, after providing His Children with love and a wonderful home, He teaches or instructs them in the right way to live, and then lets them choose whether or not they will obey. When they choose wrongly, He must discipline them–but it is always done with love.

What God says about Himself…

Once again, in this portion of our Story, God has nothing to say about Himself; He lets His actions do all the talking–and, as usual, they say quite a bit about the God and Father that we are coming to know and love.

With this, our critical analysis of Vignette #3 comes to a close, making it time for us to move on to Vignette #4, where we will meet Cain and Abel—the two sons of Adam and Eve who will bring a whole new level of drama to our Story. In anticipation of that, we need to take off our Theatre Critic’s Hat and replace it with our Theatre Patron’s Cap, as we prepare to observe how the fruit of the Two Trees will be reproduced in the children of Adam and Eve.

Until then, join the Sidewalk Prophets in their prayer to “Change This Heart”…

Another Learning Interlude

November 25, 2014 by Judy

With Vignette #2 just ending and with Vignette #3 not quite ready to start, we find ourselves here at Stage #1 of God’s One Big Story, once again using this brief interlude between Vignettes to study the Story we have seen so far; looking at it specifically for…

Any Life Lessons that this part of the Story has to teach us;
Any Contributions that this part of the Earthly Story has to make to the Heavenly Story taking place at the same time; and,
Any new Revelations of God that this part of the Story has to offer us.

Life Lessons to Be Learned from Genesis 2

Before we can identify the Life Lessons to be learned from this part of the Story, there are a few very important questions relating to the Creation of Man that must be answered first. They are:

1. Why was Man created?

We learned in Ephesians 1:4-6 that God…”chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him. [That] in love he predestined us (that is, He designed us in advance for a particular destiny) for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace…”; and in Ephesians 2:7, “…so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

Our first Life Lesson, then, is that we were created for the purpose of becoming the Sons and Daughters of God; and that, in His remaking of us from sinners who were bound for destruction into the sanctified Children of God, the greatness of God’s grace and kindness would be made evident for everyone in all ages to see.

2. How was Man created?

Because Man was created to become a Child of God, it was necessary for him to be made in the image and likeness of the God who would become his Father. This meant that he must be spirit, like God; eternal, like God; holy, like God; and volitional, like God. And, in order for him to function as a member of God’s family, he would also have to be relational, like God.

Therefore, when the time came for God to create man, He did so by first fashioning a body for him from the dust of the earth, thereby giving him a temporary physical dwelling place for his soon-to-come spirit. Once this was done, God breathed into man His very own Spirit, and when He did, not only did man come alive both physically and spiritually, but a whole new entity was brought into existence—an entity called the human Soul. This Soul was man’s unique Personality, consisting of his mind, will, and emotions, that was designed to serve as the mediator of or go-between for man’s body and his spirit.

The Order of Communication Before the Fall

The need for such a mediator will become obvious to us when we flash forward to John 3:6, where Jesus boldly states that, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit”; indicating that the fleshly part of man and the spiritual part of man are of such different natures that they will never have a basis for relationship. To bridge the gap between the two, then, the human Soul was brought into being—with the Soul becoming the means by which the Spirit of God would make the will of God known to man. Here is how this system of communication was designed to work:

First, God’s Spirit would speak to man’s spirit, telling him what God wanted him to do; then man’s spirit would pass this information on to the mind part of man’s soul which, in turn, would communicate God’s instructions to his body for its execution. In this way, God’s will would be carried out on the earth through Man.

(For more on this, please refer to The Way We Were Isn’t the Way We Are…)

The second Life Lesson to be learned from this is: —Man was created in the image of God as a spirit living temporarily on earth in a physical body. Man was also created with a Soul or Personality that was charged with the responsibility of keeping man’s spirit connected to his body, and with communicating God’s will to man.

3. How did the way Man was created affect or impact his life, and ours?

The way in which the first man was created profoundly impacted his life then, and continues to affect our lives today, on every level of existence. Being created with a spirit meant that both he and we would be able to relate to the very real yet invisible God; being created with a physical body meant the both he and we would be able to relate to the natural and visible world around us; and, being created with a soul meant that both he and we would be able to relate to people around us on an emotional and intellectual level; plus, it would also provide the completely separate entities of our bodies and spirits with an important point of connection.

Man Was Endowed with a Mind and a Will to Choose

Being created in the image and likeness of God also meant that both the first man and we would be volitional, like God. By that, I mean that we would not only possess a will of our own but we would also have the ability and the authority to exercise that will—either for good or for evil. You see, although it was God’s desire for man to become His child and stay connected to Him through his spirit, in providing man with a soul—that is, with a mind, will, and emotions that could act independently from God—God was actually giving man the ability to choose whether or not he wanted to become a child of God. This was and is both an awesome privilege and a tremendous responsibility; for, as we learned back in Genesis 1, everything in God’s Creation was designed to reproduce “after its own kind.” Choices being no exceptions, this would mean that every choice of the will would bring forth the fruit of or the appropriate consequences for that choice—something which we will learn much more about as our Story progresses.

Our third Life Lesson then is this: because of the way in which we were created, we each have been given the ability and the responsibility to choose if we will go the way of the Spirit or the way of the Flesh. However, in making those choices, we must “…not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life (Galatians 6:7-8).”

4. What was the significance of the Garden?

Because God is Spirit and Man is Flesh, in order for the two to have fellowship together, it was necessary for a place of meeting to be created. For, in much the same way that man’s spirit and his body of flesh needed his soul to be a place of mediation between those two disparate entities, God and Man also needed a place—something like a Sanctuary, a Tabernacle, or a Temple—where they, too, could meet together. This, then, is what the Garden represented.

Life Before the Fall

Even though the world that God had created was beautiful enough in itself, when it came to creating the Sanctuary of the Garden, located in the region known as Eden (or Paradise), God pulled out all of the stops. He filled this Sanctuary with everything that was beautiful to behold and to enjoy. The Garden was well-watered by a river flowing up from underground springs, and filled with every tree that was good for food. In addition, the areas surrounding the Garden were also well-watered and filled with gold and precious stones! Then, when this special Sanctuary was completed, God took the man that He had created and placed him in the Garden, charging him with the responsibility of caring for it.

From this creation of a special Garden for man, we now know our fourth Life Lesson to be:

The Garden was the meeting place between God and man, the place where they could have fellowship with one another;
The Garden was a gift of God’s grace—man had nothing to do its creation;
The Garden was designed to be a source of nourishment for the man;
The Garden required effort on man’s part to “tend and keep” it;
The Garden (and therefore man’s fellowship with God) could be lost through disobedience.

5. What was the significance of Eve’s special creation?

Up until the Creation of Woman, all of the work that God had done had been judged by Him to be “good.” It wasn’t until Adam had been created, and he had spent enough time alone to realize that he was lonely, that God judged something to be “not good.” There are at least three reasons that I can think of why Adam’s singleness was “not good:”

As a single person, although Adam could relate spiritually to God and physically to the world in which he lived, there was still no one to whom he could relate equally on an intellectual and emotional level;
Without a mate, he could not fulfill the mandate from God to multiply and fill the earth; and,
Without a female counterpart in the world, God’s image on the earth remained incomplete.

To understand what I mean by this, we have only to refer back to Genesis 1:27, where we learned that “…God created man in his own image, in the image of God [first] he created him; [then] male and female he created them.

In other words, when God created Adam, He endowed him with the characteristics that we tend to associate with “masculinity”–characteristics such as strength, power, assertiveness, provision, protection, and leadership. Since Adam was created in the image of God, this would mean that he would be a reflection of this “masculine” image of God on the earth for all to see. However, these characteristics by themselves were not enough to provide the world with an accurate, well rounded image of God. For, not only is God strong, powerful, assertive, a provider, a protector, and a leader, He is also loving, kind, patient, tender, compassionate, and merciful—a creative giver and nurturer of life. So, in order for the more “feminine” aspects of God’s nature to be reflected on the earth for all to see, God created woman and endowed her with these particular characteristics of Himself.

In finding the answer to this question, we have found our fifth Life Lesson to be this: when God created Man and Woman and placed them on the earth, He was actually providing the world with a visible image of Himself to behold. Thus, when men and women are in right relationship with God and with each other, all of the masculine and feminine characteristics that they manifest will become earthly reflections of the very divine image of God.

The Contributions Genesis 2 Makes to the Heavenly Story

Because it was God’s desire and plan from eternity past to bring into existence a Spiritual Family whom He could love, and with whom He could share His riches and glory forever, the Creation of Man and Woman marked the Earthly Beginnings of God’s long-planned and greatly anticipated Family; for, it would be through them and their descendants that the whole Family of Man would be derived. As they fulfilled God’s commission to multiply and fill the earth, they would soon grow into families, clans, tribes, and then nations—the nations from which God would eventually chose a Wife, when He took Israel to be His own. It would be through the Nation of Israel that God would one day send His Son into the World to redeem the World; providing forgiveness for all the sinners in the world, and thus making it possible for them to be adopted into the Family of God.

The Creation of this First Adam and his wife, Eve, also provides us with a prophetic or spiritual picture of the Son and Second Adam, Jesus Christ, and the creation of His Bride, the Church. For, in Adam’s deep sleep, and in the helper created for him from the rib taken from his wounded side, we see a prefiguring of Jesus, from whom a figurative rib—the disciples—was taken from His wounded side, as He going into the sleep of death, and around which God fashioned a Bride uniquely suited to be His Helper and Companion forever. Just as in Adam’s case, the creation of Jesus’ Bride would require…

That a part of Him be used in her creation;
A wound in His side as He “slept;”
The shedding of His blood; and,
That she become one with Him, as a part of His Body.

Revelations of God found in Genesis 2

As we learned in Between the Vignettes, when looking for any new Revelations of God, we will do so by examining…

1. The Names God Uses to Identify Himself

In Vignette #1, we were introduced to God by His name, Elohim—the Creator God who is Plural in Purpose but singular in purpose. However, in Vignette #2, we are given a new name for God—that of, the Lord God or Yahweh. As Yahweh, God shows us a completely different side of Himself; for, instead of the God who is transcendent, or over and above all that He has created, He reveals Himself as the God who is immanent, or present and personally involved with His Creation.

2. The Things that God Does

Unlike the seemingly remote Elohim, who spoke most of Creation into existence from afar, Yahweh demonstrates His loving care by taking a hands-on approach in His creation of Man; carefully fashioning him from the dust of the earth with His own hands and then giving him life by sharing some of His own Life and Spirit with him. In anticipation of His new creation’s every need, Yahweh provides Man with a lavish new home in the Garden in Eden, and then, through His special creation of Woman, He provides him with the mate and companion that he needs for life.

3. The Ways that God Relates to His Creation

As evidenced in His creation of Man and Woman, God’s desire and plan was to be, from the very beginning, intimately involved with them through a personal relationship. As a demonstration of His commitment to this kind of relationship, He created a special Garden where they could meet together for fellowship on a daily basis.

4. The Things that God Says about Himself

Once again, here God says nothing about Himself. He trusts that His name, the things that He does, and the way that He relates to His Creation will do the talking for Him; and allows these things to reveal an ever-expanding, more multi-dimensional portrait of who He is.

“Children of the Living God” join with Fernando Ortega in giving Him praise!

The Capstone of God’s Creation

November 17, 2014 by Judy

As we wait for the curtains to re-open for Vignette #2, here at Stage #1 of God’s One Big Story, let’s take a moment to recall where we were in the Story when these very same curtains were closed so abruptly on Vignette #1—The Creation of the World. At the time, we had just witnessed the most astounding display of power, wisdom, order, and creativity ever, as God in three Persons created, out of nothing, the cosmos and everything in it—everything, that is, except the human life which had been His ultimate objective from eternity past. It was at this pivotal moment, when everything else in God’s created order was in place, that a light shone on the Stage and God, in His Tri-unity, announced plans for the imminent creation of a Capstone—that is, a crowning achievement, point, element, or event, for all of His work, by saying…

…Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
(Gen. 1:26)

It was with this pronouncement that the curtains closed temporarily on the Creation Story; leaving us somewhat bewildered and confused as to why the Story would come to a screeching halt right at this particular point. The reason for this seemingly inconvenient and unnecessary delay will become clearer to us, though, if we think back to Here at Last, at Stage #1…, where we were, for the sake of improving our scriptural navigation skills, introduced to the concept of Surfing our way through Genesis. As we learned then, Surfing through Scripture is very much like going to a website and then clicking on one link after another, until we finally get to the information we are looking for—which, in this instance, means going to Genesis 1, and looking for the most important piece of information contained there. This information, in verse form, will then provide us with the link needed to connect us with the action that will be taking place in next chapter. In Chapter 1, this connecting link is found in verse 27, the Creation of Man—the very place where the curtains closed on us before.

You see, quite often when people are reading through Genesis 1 and 2, they make the mistake of thinking that there are two separate Creation Stories being recounted when, in fact, the Story that is being presented in Chapter 1 is an overview, a big picture, or a master shot of this one particular scene—while that which is taking place in Chapter 2 is the close-up of the very same scene. This is exactly where we find ourselves now, as Vignette #2 begins—we are flashing forward to view the close-up of the Creation of Man, the Capstone on all of God’s Creation!

So, with the lights in the theatre dimmed again, and with the curtains parting once more, here is the paradisaical setting that we find on the Stage before us…

The Paradise of the Early Earth

The pristine beauty of this scene serves up a such a visual feast that it is almost too much for our eyes to fully savor; and yet, almost immediately after the curtains part, our other senses are pushed to the brink of overload as the sound of a heavenly choir, somewhere off-stage, begins singing praises to God for bringing all of this splendor into existence. Suddenly, we are so overcome by all of the majestic sights and sounds we are experiencing, that we find ourselves singing along with them…

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!
For your steadfast love is great to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!
(Psalm 57: 5, 10-11)

[For] The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.
(Psalm 19: 1-4)

Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights!
Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his hosts!
Praise him sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars!
Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens!
Let them praise the name of the Lord! For he commanded and they were created. And he established them forever and ever; he gave a decree, and it shall not pass away.
Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all deeps…mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars! Beasts and all livestock, creeping things and flying birds!
Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his majesty is above earth and heaven.
(Psalm 148: 1-6, 7,9,10,13)

[For] Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.
(Revelation 4:11)

Enraptured as we all are in the wonder and worship of the moment, not one of us is giving a single thought to what things looked like just six days prior to this; and yet, it is to very these things that the off-stage Narrator now redirects us, as he summarizes the events leading up to this all-important moment…

These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens…[in that day] when no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground …(Gen. 2:4-6)

As soon as these words are spoken, the bright light we had seen previously in Vignette #1 reappears, and begins shining again on the same insignificant looking piece of ground that it had illuminated before. With our attention now riveted on this spot, we hear the Narrator describe that action that is taking place on the Stage, when he says…

Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature [soul]. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Gen. 2:7-9)

Our Narrator pauses for a moment in an effort to give us with a little more information about the richness and expansiveness of this Garden, by telling us that…

A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. (Gen. 2: 10-14)

…before returning to the action of the Story, where we learn that…

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Gen. 2:15-17)

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” (Gen. 2:18)

Adam Surveying His Dominion

Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him (Gen. 2:19-20).

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and the woman were both naked and were not ashamed (Gen.2:21-25).

With this, we now flash back to what we heard from behind the curtain at the end of Vignette #1, as our Narrator then announced…

“It is not good that man should be alone…”

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “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…Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food. (Gen. 1:27-30)

Satisfied that this, the Capstone of His Creation, is not just good but very good, God brings His work on this sixth day of Creation to an end. With the heavens and the earth thus completed…

…on the seventh day, God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. (Gen. 2:1-3)

As the curtain closes on Vignette #2, we are once again treated to the sound of the heavenly choir as it praises God…

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is you name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens…
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the star, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
Yet you have made him little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
(Psalm 8)

“…And it was very good.”

And to this, all that we can add is…Amen!

Let’s continue the worship of our Wonderful Creator with Susan Boyle’s rendition of “How Great Thou Art”

…Where It Is Showtime for God’s One Big Story!

October 14, 2014 by Judy

Our journey to the Land of Revelation Knowledge has brought us here, to Stage #1, where Vignette #1: The Creation of the World is about to begin. As the action of God’s One Big Story starts to unfold, we need to keep in mind that the events we will be witnessing here have been designed to serve more than one purpose. Not only will they be teaching us important Life Lessons through the actions of the characters on the Earthly Stage before us, they will also be contributing to the story-behind-the-story taking place simultaneously on the Heavenly Stage above us. More importantly, though, they will be providing us with priceless clues or insights into the very Person and Nature of God. Now, with that being said, it is finally “Showtime” here at Stage #1—where it is time for our Earthly Story to get under way!

It’s Showtime for God’s One Big Story

As the curtains open on the first part of our Story, we find ourselves viewing a stage that is completely and eerily dark. Not only is the stage shrouded in darkness, so is the rest of the theatre; a situation which gives rise to several minutes of uneasiness for us as we wait anxiously for something to happen. Suddenly, the blinding darkness, along with its accompanying deafening silence, is shattered by the sound of the deep, resonant Voice of an off-stage Narrator uttering Ten of the most powerful, revealing, and important Words ever spoken…

…In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Time, Space, and Matter all Come Into Being at the Word of God

With these Ten Words, God—identified here as Elohim, the God who is Plural in Person but Singular in Purpose—steps out of eternity to create what will become the Stage for all Human History. Offering no explanation for who He is or where He came from, He immediately begins to demonstrate His Presence, His Power, His Wisdom, and His Sovereignty by laying out Time, intersecting it with Space, and then creating Matter, all out of nothing!

While these telling Words are still reverberating throughout our darkened theatre, our attention is suddenly captured by the roar of a mighty wind. We soon learn that this wind is none other than the Spirit of God Himself, hovering over, stirring up, and activating waters that are still invisible to us due to the all-pervasive darkness. In His hovering, we somehow sense that the Spirit is poised, prepared, and waiting with anticipation for that which He knows is just about to occur.

Then, like the sound of a million thunder claps, we hear the Voice of God speaking forth the first of another set of Ten Words—His Ten Words of Creation, which begin with…

…Let there be light!

“Let there be light…”

And, because “…the unfolding of [His] words gives light (Ps. 119:130),” light does appear; light that is diffused throughout the Stage, revealing what can only be described as a massive, formless, and useless watery Deep.

We soon learn, though, that merely bringing Light into existence isn’t the only work that God intends to do; for as soon as He has spoken it onto the Stage, He proceeds to:

See or assess it—that is, He makes a moral judgment of it by declaring it to be good;
Separate it from the darkness—making a division or distinction between the two entities;
Demonstrate His authority over it by naming it Day, and the darkness Night; and,
Establish it, and the darkness, as fixed measures of time—or, as the Morning and Evening that will, throughout all of time, constitute one Day.

As the First Day of Creation comes to a close, the Stage we are looking upon is still a place of chaos and confusion; however, the Darkness is now contained and we have enough Light to see the Works of God that are yet to come. Although we still cannot see Him, because of what He has done, we now know that God is, that God is Everywhere, that God is All-Powerful, that God is All-Knowing, that God is a Moral Being as well as a Judge, and, that God is Triune in His Person—or, in other words, He is God, He is the Word, and He is the Spirit—all of which is quite a lot for us to have learned in so short a period of time.

As the darkness of the First Evening passes and the light of the Second Day takes its place, God resumes the work that He began on Day One. Because there is still a massive, formless, and aqueous Deep occupying our Stage, He begins by transforming it into something more productive through the pronouncement of His Second Word of Creation…

…Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.

“Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters…”

At once, we see the waters part as an expanse or a firmament—otherwise known as an atmosphere or sky—is inserted in between them; an act creating a vapor canopy above the expanse, while leaving the waters beneath it in their original amorphous state. After God’s designation of this expanse as Heaven, the work of Day Two comes to an end and its Evening begins.

Because the reformation of the primordial waters is still only half complete, as the Third Day of Creation commences, God begins transforming the waters remaining beneath the Heavens. Once again, He does this through the power of His Word—His Third Word of Creation…

…Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together in one place and let the dry land appear.

“Let the dry land appear…”

In obedience to this command, the waters immediately begin to come together, while a mass of dry ground rises up and out from among them. Again, God separates and divides, assesses what He has done and declares it to be good, and again, exercises His authority as Creator by naming the dry land Earth, and the waters Seas.

“Let the earth bring forth vegetation…”

Although the formation of the Seas and the Earth has been quite an undertaking, the work of this Day is by no means over; for, no sooner than the Earth is given its name, God speaks His Fourth Word of Creation when He commands it to produce vegetation in the form of plants, shrubs, and trees; the first of the living things to come forth from the Earth, containing seeds within themselves that will enable each of them to reproduce “after its own kind.” This design principle is so important that it is repeated eleven times throughout the remainder of the Creation Story; not only establishing the basic physical law of reproduction for everything in God’s material creation, but also becoming a picture to us of God’s spiritual law of reproduction, as it is later spelled out for us in Galatians 6:7-8:

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life.

At this, Day Three comes to a close, and as it does, we need to pause for a moment to consider what God has accomplished so far. He has, through the giving of His Word and the empowerment by His Spirit…

Brought Light into a world of Darkness, and created Realms or Kingdoms of Light and Darkness by making a division or separation between the two;
Divided and refashioned the chaotic primordial waters into the two distinct Realms or Kingdoms of the Sky and the Sea; and,
Separated the dry land from the remaining waters, thus creating the Realm or Kingdom of the Earth—then filling it with the vegetation that will later be used for food.

In other words, from nothing, He has progressively and systematically created realms of existence within the natural world that are now standing in the need of their Rulers.

In response to this need, and with the arrival of Day 4, God sets about the task of making Lights to rule over the kingdoms of the Day and Night by speaking His Fifth Word of Creation…

“Let there be lights…to separate the day from the night…”

…Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth. And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens…And God saw that it was good.

At the end of Day 4, and having received their Rulers, the Kingdoms of the Day and Night are now complete. However, because the two remaining kingdoms are still without their designated lords, as Day 5 begins, God proceeds to remedy that situation as He speaks His Sixth Word of Creation…

…Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.

“Let the waters swarm with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth…”

Once this Word goes forth, God Himself begins creating the very things that He has just called into being—that is, every form of fish and fowl, according to its kind, that will rule over the seas and the skies. Upon His completion of this task, and following His assessment of His work to be good, God then goes one step further, by speaking a Seventh Word of Creation, a Blessing upon all of those things that He has just created…

…Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the Earth.

And, with the Rulers of the Seas and the Skies so blessed, the Fifth Day of Creation comes to a close.

“Let the earth bring forth living creatures…”

Since the Earth still in need of its Rulers, at the onset of Day Six, God speaks yet another Word of Creation—His Eighth—saying…

…Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.

As this Word is still echoing throughout the atmosphere, God begins fashioning the Creatures that will soon be making the Earth their home. Like all of the other things that He has so recently brought into existence, each of these Creatures is designed to reproduce “after its own kind”—and to Rule over its respective sphere on the Earth. Once again, when He is finished, God pronounces this work to be good.

At this point in the production, as we sit awestruck and overwhelmed by the magnitude of the sights, sounds, and changes that have taken place on the Stage before us, it is hard for us to imagine that God could or would do anything more spectacular, or add anything more significant, to that which has already been done. And yet, as we very quickly learn, He has more work—a special work—planned for this, the Sixth Day of Creation.

“X” Marks the Spot

We get our first indication of this when a spotlight suddenly begins to shine on the Stage from overhead, focusing on what seems to us to be a rather non-descript plot of land. Once our gaze has been directed to this particular patch of ground, we hear the Voice of God again as He speaks His Ninth Word of Creation…

…Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

At this pronouncement, we all move to the edges of our seats, where we wait expectantly with wonder and excitement for the unveiling of this new work by God; instead, we are stunned to see the curtain suddenly drawn across the Stage. Although we can see nothing, we hear once more—amid all the gasps and groans of disappointment from the audience—the Voice of the Narrator, as he boldly yet reverently proclaims…

…So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Then, immediately after this, we hear the Voice of God speaking His Tenth and Final Word of Creation, in the form of another Blessing, saying…

…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.

At this, all sounds cease to emanate from the Stage, the lights in the theatre go up, and we begin to realize that Vignette #1 is now over; and that this—the most important part of God’s Creation Story—will have to wait until the start of Vignette #2. As disappointed as we are by what seems to be an unnecessary delay in the telling of the Story, this time between Vignettes will actually provide us with some much-needed time to reflect on all that we have experienced and learned so far.

As we prepare to do that though, let’s first join with Carman in rejoicing that “There is a God”…

Creation images courtesy of http://freebibleimages.org.

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Tag Archives: Creation Story

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…Where It Is Showtime for God’s One Big Story!