Tag Archives: creation

God’s Special Creation

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Genesis chapter 2 God circles back to add some detail about the special part of His creation. The part of creation that is different from all the rest. The part of creation to which He gave very special attention!

Man, God’s Special Creation

Genesis 2:7 “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”

For all the rest of creation God said and there was. God spoke all other parts of creation into existence, but not man. He formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. God was much more intimate with the creation of man. The creation of man was not simply a word. God took time to form man, and the biggest difference between man and the rest of creation, God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. This is not simply life, but the spirit of man was breathed into him. His soul was given to him at this point. This is the part of man that is not shared by the rest of creation, man’s spirit, man’s soul. Man’s spirit is what really sets him apart from all other created creatures. It is the spirit of man that is the image of God.

It is because of this spirit that we are able to commune with God. It is this spirit that gives personality. The spirit that allows us to form abstract thought. To ponder the meaning of life. It is this spirit in fact that gives us meaning of life. It is why when we talk of the deep things of life, we speak of spiritual things. It is on the spiritual level that we meet with God, that we commune with God. The spirit of man is the eternal part of man. The spirit of man is what makes us know that there is more to existence than simply this short life. The spirit of man is eternal, our spirit will always exist!

Man’s Task

God planted a garden, a special place with all the things that Adam would need for life. The garden was planted with all the trees that were pleasant to look at, and all the trees that Adam would need for his life. God Mentions two trees in particular: 1. the tree of life, and 2. the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. These were both in the center of the garden. Man was put in the garden according to vs.15 to “tend and keep it.”

As a bit of a side note, God gives a bit of a geography lesson of the land around the garden, it’s rivers, and where they went. All of this geography is not the same now as it was then. We will look at an event later on that would reshape the face of the earth.

For now we need to know that God had created His master piece of creation, man, and had given to him all that he would need for life.

The Commandment

Adam was given the task of keeping the garden in which he would live. God also gave him one single rule, or commandment.

Vs. 16-17 “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 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.”

Talk about a truly simple life! Adam has everything he needs, and every beautiful plant on earth surrounding him. All he needs to do is tend to the garden, and obey God’s one commandment to not eat that one fruit.

Adams Companion

vs. 18 God said “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”

God would make for Adam a companion like him, to complete him. It is worth noting here that God did not say that He would make a companion to serve him, or who was lesser than he. God said that He would make a companion “comparable to him.” God created them equal, but not the same.

For the remainder of chapter 2 God goes through an exercise with Adam. He made from the ground all the creatures of the earth to have Adam name them, so Adam did. He named all the animals, but vs. 20 says “But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.”

God then went on to take a rib from Adam, and from that rib He would make a companion for Adam. Adam called her woman because she was taken out of man.

She was literally a part of him. Woman was created to be man’s companion, of all the other creatures of creation, there was no other animal that was comparable to man. Because of this when a man and woman are joined in marriage they are considered by God to be one. The bond of marriage cannot be broken in God’s eyes. He sees a husband and wife as one and the same.

In these days of confusion it is also important to note that the God prescribed marriage is one man with one woman for life. To deviate from this plan is to deviate from God’s plan, that is called sin.

God’s Creation Narrative

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The nation of Israel had been held captive for hundreds of years by Egypt. They were slaves forced to do hard labor. All they knew was pain and oppression, and God had decided it was time for them to be brought out of this suffering. Many of them had a vague idea of who God was.

God would introduce Himself to them through His servant Moses. He would also through Moses bring them out of the captivity of Egypt, with the goal of taking them to a land He, God, promised would be a good land, a land of fullness. He promised them He would go before them making the way.

It is during this Exodus of Egypt that God would have Moses write 5 books. These books would introduce God to the people of Israel, and let them know what He expected of them. They would see and experience many great miracles in their journey, as God became very closely involved in their lives.

One of the books Moses would pen is called Genesis, the beginning of all things. The book of Genesis is the history of the world in narrative form from the beginning of all things up to the time of Israel’s move to Egypt.

The Beginning of All Things

God starts Genesis with the words “In the Beginning.” Before this there was nothing. Only God existed and nothing else. No earth, no space, no light, no darkness, no sun, no stars. You get the picture. There was only God!

There are several important ideas to take away from the first chapter of Genesis. The first being that God, the almighty created everything that we see and know. He created the soundness of the earth that we walk on. He created the depth and vastness of space. He created time and the ways that we track time and seasons.

The Creation Timeline

He is also very careful to announce through His narration of the events of creation a time period for each creation event. Each creation event is marked by the phrase, “So the evening and the morning was the first day.” “So the evening and the morning was the second day.” And so on. There is no room for believers in God to accept anything other than God created everything in 6 days. He made sure to explain this very clearly.

God is Plural

We learn another important piece of information about God during this narration. Genesis 1:26 God said “Let us make man in Our own image, according to Our likeness…” God somehow exists in multiple persons! But He, God is one, vs. 27 says “so God created man in His, own image; in the image of God He created them.” God refers to himself in the singular.

Man

It is also important to note that the creation of mankind is different to the creation of all the rest of creation. There is nothing else created according to God in the same way He created mankind. All the other living creatures are simply spoken into existance. For example vs. 20 says “Then God said “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.””

In one statement God created all the creatures that live in all the waters of the earth, in multitudes. The waters teamed with life and the skies were filled with every species of bird. In the creative awesomeness of God His word is enough to bring all of the variety we see in the waters of the earth as well as all the varieties of bird we see covering all the earth.

Man, however is different. Man we see is created in the very image of God. He is also created to have dominion over all of creation. Man is God’s special part of creation!

The Goodness of Creation

Genesis 1:30 says “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.”

God created a perfect work. A thing of beauty. He was very pleased with all that He had created. There was no flaw in it, no disease, no evil… So what happened? Why is our existence now difficult, full of disease and disappointment?

Who Is God? And Why Should I Care?

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Who is God? Is there a God? Why should I care? Three important questions.

Who is God

Here we are sitting and pondering the most important questions of life. Who is God? I suppose we really need to start from a question of, who are we?

These days we find ourselves confused about who or what we are. We are being told that we can be whatever we think we want to be. Is that true? I believe to answer who God is will put into perspective the question of who we are, and what we are.

We are being taught things like there are no genders, that the human species is going to cease to exist because of overpopulation of the earth, that there are no absolutes. We are observing a world where there seems to be no justice. People who are trying to play by the rules seem to be getting squashed. The wealthy seem to be getting more wealthy, and those who are not a part of the wealthy club seem to be struggling more and more to be able to make ends meet.

We are taught that our existence has come about by a great accident and all life, kind of generated itself over billions of years, totally on its own, and by total accident. So because all of life is an accident, there is therefore no god.

The more we accept these thoughts the further into chaos society gets. The more we accept these thoughts, the more confused we get. Each day there are more children who have decided that they should just end their lives, life is not worth living. Why? All of these thoughts are contrary to God and His purpose for our lives! The more we accept the things that are contrary to God the further we get away from normal, the more depressed we get, the more chaos surrounds us. Just what does God expect of us?

According to NASA planet earth is rotating on its axis at a speed of more than 1000 miles per hour. Earth is also at the same time making its trip around the sun at a mind blowing 67,000 miles per hour, that is 87 times the speed of sound. Beyond that our solar system is hurling through space at a mind bending 448,000 miles per hour. They tell us “speed kills,” well our planet is doing some serious speed, and without incident. How is this possible?

How is it possible that we can count on things like the length of our days? We can count on things like the seasonal calendar? We can count on knowing when the next eclipse will occur. The Mayans had predicted the position of constellations a thousand years into the future, and made record of those calculations. None of these things allow for chance, they are all predictable, Why? The answer is pretty simple. There are constants. There are rules that govern our solar system. The whole thing was designed by God, and is governed by Him.

God set about to tell us who He is. He set about to tell us how we got here on planet earth, how the stars came to be, how earth was formed with everything on it. He even took the time to tell us the exact amount of time it took Him to make all this stuff.

Simply look around you at all the wondrous bits and pieces of the world we live on called Earth. All the growing things, the mountains, the seas, the animals and bugs. Look at the way all these things work together. There is no way all of this is an accident. Order never comes from disorder, an accident never produces a new thing, just a mess.

God through His profit Moses introduces Himself to us. Genesis 1:1 says “In the beginning God created…” In the beginning of all things there was only God. Everything else was created, made by Him. He takes the time to lay out briefly how he created the world and universe, and how long it took Him to do it. We will look at God’s account of the beginning of all things to attempt to learn what He would like us to learn from the creation account. Obviously He had it written in order to introduce Himself to us, we, His creation.

Is There A God

I believe all of creation points to God as the maker of all things, as the origin of all things. I believe there has to be a God because it is impossible for anything to exist otherwise. Look at our world hurdling through space at nearly 500,000 thousand miles an hour, without impacting anything else around us. This in itself is impossible. The scientists know this. That is why they spend so much time tracking comets and the like. Just one stray rock impacting earth at these kinds of speeds would be the end of all things, with no way to escape. Those scientists, most of them, would not admit there is a God. Because they don’t believe that there is a God, they stress about the precarious nature of earth moving through space at such ludicrous speed.

If our atmosphere would change in any way, we would probably be poisoned and die. This is why the scientists stress so much about any changes to our climate. They are worried that we will destroy ourselves by changing the climate. Life goes on today as it has for thousands of years, we are living in the very same atmosphere, regardless of the horrible things we have done on this earth. God is the sustain-er of our world, of our atmosphere. This is why life continues on. There is for sure a God! We are not an accident, our world is not an accident.

Why Should I Care If God Exists

Well, if God truly does exist. What does He want from us? Why did He make us? Why are we so different from all the other living things around us?

Why should I care if God really does exist? If God does exist, wouldn’t we do well not to offend Him? If God does exist, would we do well to acknowledge Him, if that is what He wants? If God does exist, what is He going to do with us, with earth?

The mainstream idea now is to erase the idea that God does exist. What if God is offended by that? What if the creator of the world, the universe, decides to deal harshly with those who try to do away with Him? If God is creator of all things doesn’t He have the right to do with all created things what He sees fit to do? If God does exist what kind of arrogance does it take to think we can erase the very thought of God?

If God does exist, I think we had better care! We had better find out what He expects of us. We had better shed our arrogance, and humble ourselves before God, the almighty creator of all things.

God Creates All Things

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God is very specific about the time frame in which all things were created. He specifies the order in which things were made and the the time in which things were made. He is also specific of the fact that He created all things.

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

The Time Line By Day of Creation

  1. Day one God Created Time, Earth and Space, Light and Darkness, Night and Day.
  2. Day two God created the atmosphere of Earth
  3. Day Three God separated the seas from the dry land, He created the grass, herbs, and fruit trees.
  4. Day four God Created the Sun, Moon and Stars. He made them to mark time and seasons.
  5. Day five God created all the sea creatures, mammals, reptilians and fish, and all the birds.
  6. Day six God created all the land based animals, animals of all classes. And He created man like Himself. God put mankind over all the other created things, to rule over them and dominate them.
  7. Day Seven God rested from all that He did. He set the seventh day as special because He rested.

We learn from God’s account of the beginning of all things that He is able to do whatever He wants. He is all powerful, there is no end to his power.

Everything exists because God wants it to exist, His will is final and irrefutable.

Everything that God Created is Good, was perfect and without flaw.

God Created mankind with special attention, with special purpose, and completely different from all the rest of creation.

God The Creator

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God introduces Himself in the first chapters of the book of Genesis as the creator of all things. This includes all that we see and experience around us, including the great expanse of space and all that is in it.

This has several implications.

The first is that before the beginning of the creation that we observe around us, both near and far, only God existed! There was no time, no earth, no life, no space, no stars, not even light or darkness. Just God and God alone.

Everything that exists was made, created by God. So without God there is no life, no matter, no light and no darkness, not even time.

Everything created is His to do with as He wants. He can keep creation as it is with no changes or He can decide to change things up. For example a big subject today is “global warming.” God if He wishes can heat things up, or cool them off, and there is nothing that can be done about it. If God decides to change the temperature of the climate, or anything else for that matter, the result will be God’s desired result. That means that we, mankind, can’t change the workings of creation or destroy it either.

Most of the things created by God were spoken into existence. This is important because there is one part of creation that is different to all the rest. When it comes to mankind, God teaches that He formed him from the dust of the earth and breathed life into him. God made man differently, He made man much more intimately, more personally. We are created differently in order to interact with God, to relate to God. All the rest of creation is created for mankind, while mankind is created for God. This is truly what sets man apart from all the “animal kingdom.” Not thumbs, not upright mobility. We, mankind, are created differently, with a different purpose, that is why we are different.

Because all things are created by God there is design and purpose in all things and beings. There are no accidents, every part of creation is planned and purposed. Things did not accidentally become the way they are, life did not evolve from one lower form to another. God created all things as they are.

God has no need for anything provided by our universe, our world. He exists completely independent of it and from it. The universe and all in it was created by God for God, and He has no need of it at all.

Because everything is created by God, He can and does determine what happens to everything in this created world. Because everything is His design, He has the right to determine how all things should function, how all things should act and react. God has the right to interfere in the daily functioning of all things. He also has the right to end this world when He desires. There is no fairness or unfairness where God’s dealings with His creation is concerned. How can anything that is made, complain to, or, about it’s maker that one thing is fair or unfair? God determines what is right, wrong, fair, or unfair.

Day Seven

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On day seven God rested from all the work He had made.

Did God rest because He needed to? Was He worn out from all the strain of making everything that exists? Why did He rest? Was it for religious purpose? Is it a demand for us to rest?

God does not need the things that we do. He does not tire. The work of creation for Him was no big deal at all, He simply spoke all into existence. The rest was not a religious thing for Him, He is God.

Many things have been made out of God resting on the seventh day! There are those who have concluded that to do anything on the Sabbath is a sin worthy of death. There are those who have concluded that the seventh day is no different from any other day. I would point out at this moment that God did not tell Adam and Eve that the seventh day was any different from any other. The only instructions that God had given to them were:

  1. Have lots of children. (Gen 1:28)
  2. Rule the earth and all it’s moving inhabitants. (Gen 1:28)
  3. Eat and enjoy all the wonderful things that God had made for them. (Gen 1:28-30)
  4. Do not eat this one fruit at the centre of the garden.(Gen 2:17)

I see no mention to them to rest on the seventh day. Is it important then? If it weren’t important then God would not have mentioned it. I think though it is more for our benefit than for Adam and Eve at the time. Their whole life was to be involved with God, they would meet and talk with him all the time, face to face. They had no heavy work load. They were to enjoy God and all He had made for them. That is what God created mankind for.

Later on when God would deliver the Law to Moses, he required that His people rest on the seventh day. This was implemented to give them time to put down their work that consumed them and focus on, and Praise God for the things He had done, for the things He had given them, for the delivery from bondage that He did. Of course in true human fashion we have taken this privilege, to rest, and made it a burden. We set hard fast rules of what we can and can’t do on the seventh day, and then struggle to keep those rules, and struggle to justify why we break them. We get so focused on the rules that we forget to praise God on that day of rest. In fact the head of the Jewish religion in the time of Christ were most offended by the miracles that Jesus did on the seventh day. He broke their rules of the Sabbath, doing things that only God can do.

God rested from the work that He had done. Yes we should too. But rest, don’t make it a burden. God is a liberal God. He gives us all things liberally and He’d like us to rest one day of the week to reflect on His liberality toward us. No more than that. Happy resting!

Day Six

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Day six is the crescendo of creation! God has been putting this world and our universe together over the previous 5 days. He has put into place the laws of physics and time. He has set down laws that all of creation would follow, giving stability to those things He created. Nothing He created would change, there would be no evolution! If things were allowed to change, life would be unstable, uncertain. If allowed to change things we eat today may destroy us tomorrow, He didn’t allow that.

We find all the other animals being created on the sixth day. The full compliment of animals, this includes all those that are now extinct. Yes the dinosaurs too. How do we know? There is evidence of their existence. That’s how we know they existed. The evidence of their existence doesn’t prove evolution. The evidence of their existence doesn’t prove millions of years of life on earth. The evidence simply proves they existed.

So God spoke forth all the creatures that would occupy earth. He also put the limit that they would come after their own kind. They would not over time change into different animals.

Again I’d like to call our attention to the part of this scripture that God thought to be the most important. The creation of mankind. We know this is the most important because He took more time to tell us about the creation of man. When we speak to friends, we do the same thing, we spend the most time talking about the things most important to us. Man is the pinnacle of creation. Man is the focus of creation.

The first thing we notice is God saying to Himself, “let’s make man in our image, and after our likeness.” God had not said this about any other part of creation. That alone sets man apart from the rest of creation. We are made in the image and likeness of God, we are special to Him. This is what sets us apart from the rest of creation, not our thumbs! This is why we are able to invent, build such great things.

The second thing we notice is that God gave to man dominion over all the living things of earth. Yes He made us rulers of the earth. The earth is here to meet the needs of mankind. We are not here to meet the needs of earth.

The third thing we notice is that He created man, male and female. He wanted mankind to continue on. With out male and female there can be no procreation. This is another limit that God has set on this world. We have many groups now calling for same sex this and that. The real problem is that God set us up to be together as man and woman. He established this law from the very beginning. He created us to fit together. On the day that God created man, he created male and female. It’s interesting that God makes a point of mentioning male and female. Why would He do that? It’s important!

The fourth thing to take note of is the food that God provided in the beginning was for all. He provided the fruit and herb for food. This was to be the food for the whole of creation. He created everything to flourish, to be perfect.

God provided everything for life at creation.

He is all powerful, creating everything by His very words.

He is loving providing for the needs of all living things.

He is awesome, making such diversity for our enjoyment.

Day five

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Day five is God’s Creation of sea creatures and bird type creatures.

According to God all the sea life and all the creatures that have feathers were created at the same time. One creature did not come from another. All at once the seas teamed with life, both Mammal and fish in all the diversity that we see. At the same time the air exploded with life. Birds took flight, and I’m sure those land bound birds scurried to and fro.

It is important to note that God put limits on these creatures too. They were brought forth abundantly after their kind. God would bless them and they were to multiply and fill the seas and earth, but after their own kind. Again, they would not become other types of creatures, they would not mix in their breeding. They would multiply after the form that God had given them. The world we live in is highly ordered, there is nothing left to chance. God has planned it out, He has executed creation, and He has set the laws to govern His creation.

God created with such diversity, such beauty, that we are still making discoveries of “new” creatures. How is that possible after the passage of so much time, so many scientific studies? God is great! He is all powerful! As we look to the stars that God simply put in place, the oceans team with animals that we as mankind have not so much as laid our eyes on. It is said by scientists that we know more about space than we know about our own oceans. How interesting! There have been expeditions to depths in the oceans that previously were thought to not possess life. But in these impossible to live in places, life abounds. This shows how much we really do know. All of the wonder and splendour of the ocean God created for mankind! He did not create it so that we would worship it, put it before God or mankind. He created it for our pleasure, and as a testament to His awesome power and grace. He did not have to create so many varieties of creatures. He did so for mankind, so that we can look at it all and say “God is great!”

God is great! God is all powerful! God set the laws that earth and the universe exist by. He is worthy of praise! God made all of these things, He can do with them what He likes.

Day Four

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Day four of God’s creation of the earth deals with Space and time markers.

There are several purposes that God has for the heavenly lights all listed for us. Time markers between day and night, signs, seasons, and days and years.

Time and a rhythm are woven into the fabric of our world. God has set in place time to keep us on track. We in fact do mark days and years, years into seasons. Time doesn’t change. We know that the earth makes it’s full cycle around the sun in 365.25 days. This doesn’t change. That is because God has once again set a limit, a law, a regulation on time so that it is constant.

I’d like us to notice that God spent more effort on letting us know what the lights are for than on the lights themselves. He does speak about the lights but only really in passing. The greater light, the sun to rule the day, the lesser, the moon, to rule the night. I love the fact that God so flippantly says “He made the stars also.” No big deal!

It is also interesting to note that we as human beings fixate on the stars and space. This is again our focus being drawn away from God. We tend to major on the things that God wants us to minor on. Yes the stars that God so simply put there speak of His magnificent glory. They speak of his awesome power. We look deeper and deeper into space only to find it goes on further that we though previously. He is awesome!

It is important to take away from this short passage that God is awesome. He has created all that we see in space to mark time and seasons. To show signs of His greatness. It is in the stars after all, the Wise Men who came to worship Jesus at His birth, saw His sign.

God is great! God has created all things. He has put limits on all things. He has written the laws of time and physics. God can do these things because He is God. It is all his as is mankind. Just as God can do what ever He wants with the creation around us, He can do as He wishes with mankind.

Day Three

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Day three of the week of creation prepares the earth for all the life that God in His wisdom would bring into being.

Again God doesn’t make any kind of big deal out of what He does on day three. He is all powerful! To speak everything into being is no big task for God Almighty.

He made the land to come to the surface of the planet, and the seas he put in their place. He put everything needed to sustain life on earth in it’s place. He created the different types of plants, grasses, grains, fruits… These He put in place for the animal and human life that He would make in the next few days. God has made all of the variety we see for our enjoyment. He could have made one thing for all living things to eat, but He didn’t. He made tremendous variety for our enjoyment. Not only variety in edibles, but variety in colour, and varieties of texture. What a great, kind God.

I think it is important to note that He defined that the things He created would reproduce after their own kind. They would not over time change into different plants or grains. They would remain as He created them. They all have the stuff necessary bring more of their own kind into being. I am happy knowing that when I eat a certain food it will not all of a sudden be toxic, or all of a sudden change it’s flavour profile, or all of a sudden change the way it looks. It would be a bit of a problem if the limits God set on plants were not there. We would not know what to eat from moment to moment. Life would possibly be more dangerous and precarious! God knows whats best for us, much more in fact than we know for ourselves. That is why we should trust Him. Have faith in Him.

God is the one who sets limits on nature. He is the one who has put that laws of nature into place. He is the one who determines boundaries of life. I’m also very happy to know that the earths gravity will not change. It would be a bit of a bummer if in a moments notice our weight fluctuated because the earths gravity did so. Too little and we would loose our atmosphere, too much and we’d be crushed under the weight of the atmosphere or ourselves.

God is great! We can trust Him. He knows whats best for us. He desires the best for us. He made us, He alone can set the boundaries!