Year 1, Week 1, Day 1

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Genesis 1-2.

As I read the truest account of the origin of the world (the Bible), I am struck by the pure power, but also the great goodness of God. In six days, God created all that exists—simply by speaking it into existence. Everything was arranged and put into place by God’s verbal decree. The pure power of God is seen in the fact that He speaks and it exists: “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.” (Psalm 33:6). The power and authority—the Kingly power and authority of God is shown in the manner of creation, for a King needs to simply speak and it is. The manner of creation, by the mere spoken Word from God, also demonstrates God’s right to rule over all that He has made: “For the LORD, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth.” (Psalm 47:2).

As we read the second chapter of Genesis, we move to the particulars of God’s work of creating mankind; that is male and female, in His image, and placing them in a garden. In the act of creation, we are shown the great goodness of God. The God who made all things is a good God. He makes good things. As a summary of each day’s creative work, God’s assessment of what He made was that it was good. The sixth day’s assessment bumps that assessment up a notch: “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” (Genesis 1:31). As man’s life in the garden is described, it cannot be described as anything but good. God places man in a good garden where all good things are given to man to enjoy and the only thing that man is restricted from is because it would not be good from man to have 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.” (Genesis 2:16-17). Even the companionship and partnership between man and woman is rooted in God’s goodness: “Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him…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.” (Genesis 2:21-22).

The opening two chapters of the Bible immediately begin instructing us on the power and goodness of the God who made us. The starting place for coming to grips with reality is knowing the one true God who is great and good. These realities are meant to shape how we think, feel, act, and relate to each other. We are living in a world that has been personally crafted by a God who is great and good. And while sin has affected how we grasp God and experience the full import of His greatness and goodness (I’m getting a bit ahead of things in talking about sin); the truth remains that a great and good God made you, and everything around you. He has granted you the good privilege of living in His good universe.

So, while we must wise about sin’s distortion of how we experience life, it still remains that the goodness of what God made can still be experienced: “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.” (1 Timothy 4:1-4).

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe

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Journey through the Scriptures