Every now and again I
go to the Old Testament and start reading. Granted, I have read it many times
but I believe by experience that as I grow older and gain more knowledge I see
something in the word that I had not noticed before; and this holds true for all
66 books of the bible. I remind myself to no longer depend only on what I have
been taught by man, but to depend on Holy Spirit to counsel me, teach me, and
remind me of His word as Jesus explained to the disciples before He ascended up
to heaven. With that said, I start reading about God’s mighty power shown
through creation. As I come near to the end of Genesis chapter one and the
first seven verses of chapter two, I have an “aha” moment; I have a revelation.
I hope I can explain this properly as I get excited and tend to veer off, so
here it goes:
In the book of Genesis
from verse one to verse 23, we read that God created the heavens and the earth;
trees and herbs; grass, the universe, the all living creatures in the water and
the creature in the sky. This all took place during the first 5 days of
creation. The 6th day starts at verses 24; in this verse as well as
verse 25 we learn about the cattle on the earth, beast of the earth and all
according to its kind as God had commanded regarding procreation [be fruitful
and multiply]. Now, still on day 6 starting
at verse 26 to 31:
“Then
God said, let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them
have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the
cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the
earth.; So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created
him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them and said unto them
“be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it……””. In verses 28
to 31God continues to tell them what they have dominion over and what was
available for them to eat. The last verse, 31, states the end of the 6th
day. Ok Susan, some might say; what’s the big revelation? There’s nothing new
here. My revelation didn’t hit until I started reading chapter 2.
Moses writes in the
second chapter that on the 7th day God rested from all He had done.
He had blessed the 7th day and sanctified it because He rested from
all His work. Moses continues to say in verses 4 and 5 that “This is the history of the heavens and the
earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and
the heavens, before any plant of the field had grown. For the Lord God had not
caused it to rain on the earth and there was no man to till the ground;
but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground”. Did
you see it? In chapter 1 verses 26 and 27 is when God created man in His own
image and likeness; this was on the 6th day. Yet in Chapter 2 during
the 7th day Moses states that there was no man to till the ground. So
what happens next? In chapter 2 and verse 7 [still the seventh day], “The Lord God formed man of the dust
of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became
a living being”. If he “became” a living being, it would stand to
reason that there was not a living being prior to the forming of a man from the
ground and after man was created in God’s image and likeness. So a quick recap;
day 6 God created man in His image and His likeness. On day 7 there was no man
to till the ground and so God formed a man and breathed life into the man and
then the man became a living being; interesting isn’t it? So now what?
Well, according to the
scripture God made man in His image and likeness. What is His image and
likeness? Jesus tells us that God is Spirit (Nelson, 1997, p. John 4:24) . So when God made
man in His image and His likeness, it would stand to reason that He made spirit
first, both male and female; giving them dominion over the earth. He told them
to fill the earth and subdue it (Nelson, 1997, p. Genesis 1:28) . God made the spirit
man before he formed the living man. “The
Hebrew words that “made” and “formed” are translated from are two completely
different words with two completely different definitions! The term “made” is
translated from Hebrew word #6212, which basically means “to prepare”
and the word “formed” is translated from Hebrew word #3335 which means to “form,
fashion, frame”. In other words, God “prepared” every living thing in Genesis
1, but did not actually bring it into physical form until Genesis 2” (Randy Lee, 2014) , (James Strong,
2001) .
What do we do with this
information? Personally, I praise God even more than I had before coming to
this realization. The creation story is not just Moses telling us that God made
the universe or Adam and Eve, but it’s about the omnipotence of God. It’s about
the great power and might of our God. The beauty and awe in His work; in His
power; and to know that this is the same God that loves us today. What an
absolute blessing. A little over twenty years ago I started to study the word
of God and I did so based on that which was taught to me by men and women of
God. About eight or nine years ago I really started to dig deeper in my
studies. I decided to no longer depend solely on man to teach me God’s word,
but to solely trust in Jesus’ promises and know that Holy Spirit will teach me
and guide me in the right direction. That meant I had to stop being religious
and start working on my relationship with God and start learning how to put
faith into action. God has opened my eyes to His word and I am just so excited
about it. I’ll be sharing more about the things that have come to light for me.
James Strong, J. R. (2001). The Strongest
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of The Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
Nelson, T. (1997). The Nelson Study Bible.
Nashville.
Randy Lee, R. A. (2014, January). The Controvercy
between Genesis 1 & 2. Retrieved from Devoted to Truth:
www.ecclesia.org/truth/1-2.html
No comments:
Post a Comment