Bible Interpretation By Loquacious Expositor

God Knows How We Are!

2008-06-09T10:24:00.000-07:00

Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" He said, "I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?" And the LORD said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth." Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me." Then the LORD said to him, "Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold." And the LORD put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him. Then Cain went away from the presence of the LORD and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Genesis 4:9-16

God is now calling Cain to account for the murder of his brother. What is Cain's reaction when God asks the question of Abel's whereabouts? Cain denies any knowledge or responsibility for knowing where his brother is! I really have a difficult time understanding how it is that Cain believes this answer will do. Doesn't he understand that God really knows all about it anyway? Maybe he doesn't, and just believes if he denies his sin, he will somehow get by with it. I look at this attitude with astonishment...until I realize I do much the same thing.

I struggle with sin, sometimes particular sins, on a daily basis. However, there are those times when I ignore my sin in the vain hope that it will simply go away. Or I fail in my struggle at some point in a day, and I tell myself that the failure is 'natural', and because I am a 'sinner' it is 'understandable.' Thus I try to justify or 'get by' with my sin in the presence of a holy God. This is even more foolish than Cain, for I have knowledge of God that Cain did not, the knowledge of a grace-filled and forgiving God who also asks for purity. Out of nothing more than sheer love and gratefulness I should never fall into Cain's trap of denial. Yet it does happen, though I hope more seldom than in the past.

Lord, help me to live face-front and open to You.

Your Joyfully Loquacious Expositor,
LEE

"Murder Most Foul"

2008-05-19T05:43:00.000-07:00

Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, "I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD." And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. The LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it." Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.
Genesis 4:1-8

I've have had difficulty with parts of this passage. The trouble hasn't been with the understanding. I grasp the plain meaning well enough. One of the aspects of this passage that has concerned me in the past was the fact that God had favor upon Abel's offering but rejected Cain's offering. After all, there were no rules or standards in place for the proper presentation of offerings. Why should Abel's offering be considered better than Cain's? It was not in the fact that one was animal and the other plant life. Later in Scripture, when standards and laws for proper offerings to God were set, both types of offerings were allowed for. What, then, was the problem? We find that Cain's offering was given without his heart behind it, while Abel gave his with his heartfelt love for God. We can see that because of the fact that Abel gave of the FIRST and BEST that he had, while Cain did not.

Cain's anger was bourne of jealousy. Why he was jealous is somewhat confusing because Cain did not seem to hold the same fervor of love for God as Abel. Why should he care if his offering was accepted or not? Probably because Cain also knew this meant that he would not have God's favor if his offering was not accepted. Cain must have believed that this showed that God "liked" Abel better than himself, and also that some blessings or benefits from God would be denied him as a result.

I find verses 6 and 7 very interesting as well. God is warning Cain about his unjust anger and cautions him about this becoming a vehicle for sin to enter. We should note that God takes note of our emotions, both joyful and angry, both for good or ill. He is concerned about Cain and wants Cain to understand that anger and jealousy are not only wrong, but they are unnecessary. If you do "well" for the Lord, you are accepted in fellowship with Him. If one falls short of that, then sin is "at the door."

The nature of sin is to desire a hold on the sinful person. "It's desire is for you," God warns Cain. God's counsel, "you must rule over it." The emphasis in this phrase to me is the word MUST. God is not giving one of many options here. He is telling Cain the only way out is to master the sin at the door. Sin had to be handled BEFORE it got into the "door" of the heart. How was he to do that? Cain had to somehow get to the place where he, like Abel, "did well" for the Lord. That meant at least that repentance, a total change of life direction, was involved.

Today the case is the same for us. Sin in our lives approaches in much the same way, through circumstances that we handle in a bad way. We may feel bad emotions such as anger without just cause. I say without just cause because there is a type of righteous anger which is biblically correct, i.e. anger at sin and evil. Far more often our anger is of a personal sort that is targeting another person, and will lead to grave sin if we do not turn around to the right way of the Lord. If we do not repent, and turn to God in our heart, we can fall as easily as Cain.

It was this step which Cain was unwilling to take. Instead, he committed the first murder, and that of his own brother! This was indeed "murder most foul". God's punishment for this seemed milder than I would have expected. However, that is a topic for next time.

Your joyfully loquacious believer,
LEE

Thank God we were kicked out!

2008-05-12T03:09:00.000-07:00

The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever--" therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. Genesis 3:20-24
We finish this tragic chapter with God's act of kicking the man and woman out of Eden. Humankind was no longer fit to exist among the perfection all around them. The innocent heart necessary was corrupted with sin and a flawed creature was now given the ability to "know good and evil." Why did God do this? He did it, at least in part, because the gift of living forever in the flesh would have unleashed devils uncounted upon this world. It would be like having Satan multiplied twice over, with the potential to multiply forever! Just look at our world today. If we are able, within our own short lifetimes, to cause such enormous damage and perpetrate such tremendous amounts and depths of evil in this world, imagine the literal hell on earth we would all live in if we were somehow immortal in our flesh! That possibility makes me grateful we were excluded from the Tree of Life.

Your Joyfully Loquacious Expositor
LEE

The "Curse" of the Ground

2008-04-19T09:05:00.000-07:00

"...cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return." Gen. 3:17b-19

It is interesting to note here that the curse pronounced at this time is not directly upon the man himself. It is instead a curse upon the ground which the man will have to work and sweat over in order to produce his food. As has been mentioned before, we should not confuse this with a curse of work. It is a myth that work was a curse given to man because of sin. As we see here the curse is the fact that work now becomes hard labor which produces a small gain, as opposed to the pleasure of work tending a beautiful and bountiful garden which generously supplied all that man needed or desired.

The line, "by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread..." is certainly familiar to anyone who has tried to grow food on a farm or in a garden. Even with modern technology, long, hard hours of work are required and there are no guarantees of a good return. The curse of the ground in reality is the curse of the entire environment of the earth. Precarious weather patterns such as flood or draught, damaging hail, tornadoes, even earthquakes and hurricanes all are a part of this curse of the ground. Our sin, from the very beginning of man to now, is the cause of these kind of difficulties for without a sinful beginning, we would never experience the corrupt creation we are a part of now. (see Romans 8:19-21)

Finally, the sentence of death is given in that our bodies will die and decay and become a part of the very earth that we are doomed to scratch out a living from. We all, one way or another, will "return to the ground." At least, that is the fate of our bodies. Our spiritual selves await another fate which we will talk of in detail at a later point.

Your joyfully loquacious expositor
LEE

Adam's Mistake

2008-04-13T18:43:00.000-07:00

And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;" Gen 3:17

Here is all we who are husbands need to be a bit careful! It would be very easy for us to use this passage as an excuse to tell our wives we should never listen to them! However, that would not only be a mistake, it would also be using an incorrect interpretation of the passage.

This verse tells us about the specific 'curse' that the male of the species received from God as a result of his disobedience. The disobedience itself involved two actions. One was when Adam "listened" to his wife's suggestion. Two was when he followed the suggestion and ate the fruit. What does this tell us about sin and Adam's sin in particular?

One of the important teachings we can gather here is that sin begins before the physical action takes place. Here it was a suggestion planted in the mind of Adam that he chose to listen to. It was not simply hearing the voice of his wife that was sinful, it was entertaining the thought of actually taking the fruit. That is the difference between temptation and sin. Once a thought of sin becomes more than passing, the danger of sin is present. Adam's mistake was that he did not recognize and resist the thought of sin at this point. If we can recognize and then resist at the point of the thought of sin, we have a better chance of not committing the sin.

Of course, the question arises, "How can we recognize and then resist sin?" The answer is, only with the help of the Lord. We can only get that kind of help if we know the Lord as our Savior, and if we call upon Him for help in the time of temptation. Adam knew the Lord God intimately, yet he did not turn to God when temptation hit. That was his mistake, but it need not be ours.

Your Joyfully Loquacious Expositor,
LEE

Cursed Blessings

2008-03-31T03:47:00.000-07:00

To the woman he said, "I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you." Genesis 3:16

The LORD pronounces the punishment for the woman because of her sin. The punishment consists of three parts, two of which have to do with her role as a mother and the third having to do with her role as a wife.

We shouldn't miss the fact that these punishments did not change the fact that the woman would become a mother and is a wife. These punishments did change how those life roles would work. We can assume that had the woman not sinned, childbearing and child raising and marriage would have been far less of a struggle.

In the case of motherhood, God's judgment was that the act of carrying and giving birth to a child was going to be a painful experience, as we know that it is. We could even say that the act of raising the child after birth would have pain as well. However, this is not to say that there is no blessing or joy that goes with the pain. Every mother knows that the immense joy of bringing new life into the world is great compensation for the pains of sickness and labor. And what joy there is in seeing the little grow and experience life and become a person under the loving gaze of the mother. God's punishment was not so heartless that motherhood would become something to be dreaded and feared. He gave the blessing of life to go with the pain, and thus give value to the struggles of motherhood.

In the marital relationship, we see that the punishment is truly tailored to fit the crime. Because the woman took the lead in sin, and in convincing her husband to follow, she is now given the role of submission to her husband's desire. Some have thought that this means sexual desire mainly or only. However, that doesn't seem to fit the context of the rest of Scriptural teaching on the subject (see. 1 Timothy 2:13ff as one example).

Finally, we should also notice carefully that God's pronouncements here are not for applying outside of the marriage relationship. God specifically mentions the words "husband" and "wife" in these verses. God does not intend that this be understood as applying in any way to every woman's relationship to every other man. Women and men in general are not addressed here, and it should not be implied that God considers men to be rulers over women or superior to women in any way. That is not the meaning here, nor is it the issue God is addressing, nor do we have the right to interpret it so.

Your Joyfully Loquacious Expositor
LEE

The First Gospel

2008-02-26T07:59:00.000-08:00

He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" The man said, "The woman whom you gave me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate." The the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." Genesis 3:11-15

Adam is caught in his sin, as is Eve and the serpent. So, the game of blame begins. It is interesting to note that a quick glance appears to have Adam blaming Eve for his failure. But that is not really the case. At best, Eve is only a secondary source of blame. In fact, Adam focuses his blame shot at God for giving him the woman in the first place. It's almost as if Adam says to God, "If you hadn't made this woman for me, I would still be alright." Eve points her blame for her actions directly toward the serpent. The serpent doesn't even get a chance to reply to God, and he would not have an effective target for blame anyway. As we shall see next time, God doesn't buy these excuses and blaming games. He holds each person responsible. As far as the serpent is concerned, it is here where something unique happens.

Along with the punishment pronounced for the serpent himself, God proceeds to make His first prophetic statement, as well as the first clue about His provision for salvation from sin and sin's consequences. Genesis 3:15 is known as the protoevangelium, or first gospel. The "offspring" the the LORD mentions represent two others. The offspring of the woman (notice that it is not the offspring of the man and the woman, only the woman) is the Lord Jesus Christ, born of the virgin with no human father. The offspring of the serpent represents those who end up putting Jesus to death. In a larger sense, the offspring of the serpent represent all of humankind apart from Christ. The "bruising of the heel" of the offspring of the woman is referring to the crucifixion of Jesus. The "bruising of the head" of the serpent's offspring refers to the defeat of Satan's plans to keep humanity away from God's forgiveness. Even then, God had you and I in mind. He was preparing in His heart the sacrifice of Jesus for the sin which entered the world on this most terrible of days! God the Son, the Christ, Lord of all creation and with the Father even here was ready for the sacrifice of His life for ours! We were not yet fully prepared, for we needed the covenant of the Law to come first. But this day set in motion the history of salvation from the heart of our loving God.

Your joyfully loquacious believer,
LEE

Blame and Shame

2008-02-05T07:53:00.000-08:00

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?" And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself." Genesis 3:6-10

There is a lot that could be made here. One point that I always find interesting is the fact that we see Adam here with Eve. Where was he at all this time? Was he listening to the serpent with Eve? We have no indication of that. If he was, why didn't he object to the whole conversation? If he wasn't, how is it he shows up now, and why doesn't he object now? No matter how you look at the situation, Adam fails to stand up to temptation, and evil, and his own wife! Much is made of Eve's failure by being the first to sin. But the sin here is just as much, in fact even more, Adam's responsibility. He was the one who could have prevented Eve from even getting to this point. In fact, the scriptural witness is that death entered the world through Adam (1 Cor. 15:22). In addition, it should be noted is that God held Adam responsible. God calls to him. God expects Adam to answer when God calls. Adam himself knows that God is going to hold him responsible at least with equal weight to Eve. It was Adam who was afraid of God and therefore hid himself, along with Eve.

Notice also the immediate result of eating the fruit. Before this, both of them were naked and not ashamed. Now, true shame enters the picture once they "knew that they were naked." Now, they see the condition of nakedness as one of shame that needs to be covered. It is a condition that will continue with every sin from now on and with every human being. It produces today what Adam and Eve felt then, a need to hide the sin from God, to cover it up somehow.

Finally, notice God's first action. It was not asking Adam "Where are you?" His first action was to seek out Adam, to reach out to him, to go looking for the man. By the way, God wasn't asking for Adam's location when He said "Where are you?" He was lamenting the fact that the Adam He knew was no longer "there." God was not asking WHERE are you. Rather He was saying "Where are YOU, Adam?" Yes, God knew what was happening, indeed He knew that it would happen beforehand. But He also was in mourning for the entry of sin into paradise. He was sad because Adam and Eve were no longer pure and would suffer as a result. And it may be that God was also saddened because of what would have to happen for humanity to become free from the consequences of sin. As we shall see later, those consequences are huge and grave indeed.

Your Joyfully Loquacious Believer,
LEE

To Be Like God

2008-01-29T12:49:00.000-08:00

And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.' " Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Genesis 3:2-5

"You will be like God..." Isn't that the ultimate of temptations? Perhaps you might object and say something like, "I don't want to be like God. I just want things to go well, or to be good for me and those I love." However, for that to happen, you would have to have god-like power. You would have to be able to control time and chance, sickness and sin, peace and conflict. In fact, to guarantee a positive outcome, you and I would have to go beyond even what God is willing to do. We would have to usurp human free will. We would have to make choices, or insure that choices are made which we believe would be good, even if the person we were choosing for didn't desire the choice we would make! The danger inherent here is incalculable. In order to do all this just for ourselves, we would in fact have to be God Himself! And there is only room for One of those. Only God can handle being like god. And though we may think we are only trying to be like god for a small slice of existence, we just aren't equipped to handle it.

If nothing else proves that we have no business with such power, the history of those people who have held some kind of power bordering on god-like throughout the ages is one of nothing but unrestrained evil. With few exceptions, the tyrants of so-called absolute power have succeeded only in spreading misery and death. The few very good rulers in the world's stage have invariably been those who truly served God and the people, and in this way gave up power for mercy and grace. These kind of leaders realized that all real authority is God's alone, and they serve at His whim. That should be how each of our lives are lived as well.

Your Joyfully Loquacious Believer,
LEE

A Small Doubt

2008-01-22T06:36:00.000-08:00

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?' " (Gen. 3:1)

Here is how it starts. It is rather amazing that the method of temptation used here is essentially the same method that our adversary Satan uses even to this day. It begins with doubt about what it is that God says. He plants doubt by twisting what the Word actually is. In this case, the serpent, who is Satan's mouthpiece, both questions what God said and distorts what the actual command was. The command was that the man and woman may eat of any tree except one. The serpent knew full well that he was not quoting God correctly. But he also knew that he was quoting God closely. That is how we also get set up for temptation. The enemy started out by casting doubt upon God and His Word. In point of fact, Satan was also casting doubt upon God's goodness and His care for the man and woman. We have the same kind of doubt thrown at us. Doubt that says "God isn't really there." Or we hear the whisper, "If God is there, He doesn't care about you." Or perhaps this one, "God may be there, and He may even care, but He can't do anything about your pain and hurt and sin and guilt." All of those falsehoods and lies are cast our way, but they all start with a slight doubt in the form of "Did God really say...?"

Your Joyfully Loquacious Believer,
LEE

Being "not ashamed."

2008-01-15T05:22:00.000-08:00

Then the man said, "This one at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called 'woman' for she was taken out of man." That is why a man leaves his father and mother and unites with his wife, and they become a new family. The man and his wife were both naked, but they were not ashamed. Genesis 2:23-25 (NET Bible)

A marriage with no baggage and no shame! This is a singular event, one which has not been repeated since. Even in those rare occasions (rare for our time and place) when two people unite who have had no relations with any other, there is still the baggage of human sin to consider. That was not the case here. Thus it is virtually impossible for us to understand this marriage in comparison with any marriage we know of.

What we can do is hope for the future when there will be the elimination of sin and we who know the Lord Jesus as Savior will experience true sinlessness. As it was for a short while at the creation, so it will be for eternity at the re-creation (Rev. 21-22).

This passage is also unusual in that it is an instance where having no shame was a good thing. Much of the scriptures teach that being ashamed, or having shame, is a good thing because there is abundant sin for which we all should be ashamed! In fact, in the few cases where a person or group of people were not ashamed, the scriptures declare that this is a sinful thing (Jer. 3:3; 6:15; 8:12). Having shame for us is not something that should haunt us night and day. However, the effort to artificially declare us shameless, or guiltless, is a dangerous one. No matter how much we try in our culture to avoid feeling shame or guilt (on the false premise this is good for our psyche), we will always have plenty to feel shame about. It is akin to declaring that an electrified fence is not really there, and then trying to climb over it without getting shocked! The electricity in the fence is like the sin in our soul. As long as the electricity is on, touching the fence will produce shock. If we were somehow able to eliminate the sensation of being 'shocked', the electricity would still exist and would still damage us. As long as sin is present in us, indulging in it will produce negative consequences, the first of which should be shame. Should we succeed in turning off the shame, the sin will still be present and further negative consequences, including a repeat of the sin, will occur. Shame is not something we should discourage, as long as it is shame for the reason of actually offending God by sin, and not the manufactured shame of culture. It is before God alone that the full measure of our shame is shown, for it is ultimately God against whom we sin (Ps. 51). So, we should bring our own shame to God first and foremost. Let Him heal us and make us able to show others the real Truth of Christ who bore our sin and shame upon the cross.

Finally, there is one area for which we should never be ashamed. Mark 8:38 puts it this way, "For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels."
Paul mentioned the same thing in Romans 1:16 concerning the gospel. Those things sent from God through His Word and His Son and in the Holy Spirit are the pure things. These are the things of which we do not have to be ashamed, and in these we can alone experience the feeling of Adam and Eve standing naked before God and standing without shame!

Your Joyfully Loquacious Believer,
LEE

The Completion of Man

2008-01-08T05:24:00.000-08:00

The 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 2:18, 21-22

It is noteworthy to see that here we have the first time that God says "It is not good..." God says that the state of the man being alone, as a man, is not the "good" state. It will only be good when God completes the task of creating man as mankind. This is what happens when the female is created. God says, in part, that the creation is not truly finished until the woman comes to be. It is true in more ways than we know that 'woman completes man.' The very special creation of the human woman is unique to all of creation. ONLY woman is created from material that at least was living tissue. ONLY woman was not created either from 'the dust' or from nothing that existed previously. Woman was the ONLY female of any other created 'kinds' or 'species' created at a separate time from the male.

A note of explanation: I omitted verses 19 and 20 for two reasons. One was for space saving. A second was to avoid confusion between the naming of the animals and God's creation of woman. Some commentators have wrongly concluded that the purpose of bringing Adam the animals was to show him the possibilities for a "helper" from that animal world. At least one of God's purposes was to show Adam himself that he was indeed 'alone' in the world and impress upon Adam that this was indeed 'not good.' It was to show Adam that he was not yet complete. Thus God prepared Adam for what God was about to do.

Your Joyfully Loquacious Believer,
LEE

The First Test

2007-12-17T08:00:00.000-08:00

Then the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat fruit from every tree of the orchard, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will surely die.” Genesis 2:16,17

What a simple command. This wasn't an entire tablet of laws. It was but one requirement that God laid upon man at the beginning. It wasn't too complicated to understand nor was it too difficult to accomplish. One thing alone was necessary. Make no mistake, it was necessary and it was a definite command. There was no "wiggle room" here. There was no exception to the rule. Nor were there circumstances that could be imagined where a "greater good" would be served by disobeying the command.

However, this was also far more than a command given directly by God the Creator. It was also a test of wills. The question being tested here was this; Would man obey His Creator God simply on the basis of God's say so? Would, man accept God's Word as the authority, or would man instead evaluate the command as to whether or not it would benefit him, or restrict him too much, or whether or not he believed God had a good enough reason to command this? Would man accept God's Word as authority over his own will?

God was generous in this command. He did not restrict man in any other area of life. Freedom was virtually unlimited. The man was given permission to dine from any other tree in the entire garden or "orchard." Every fruit in unheard of abundance was available.

In addition, however, a warning was given. Should man choose to defy God, there would be consequences to pay. So we have both a positive aspect to the command (all else than this was open) and a negative aspect (severe punishment would follow disobedience). The decision is left with man.

Is that not how it is even today? We are given abundance of choices of good, and usually presented with alternate bad choices as well. The decision is left with us whether or not we will do what we know is right, submit to God, or follow our own will. From the moment we awake in the morning to when we lay down to sleep, this is our challenge of life.

Your Joyfully Loquacious Believer,
LEE

The "Curse" of Work?

2007-12-04T10:00:00.000-08:00

The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. Genesis 2:15

Many people question the idea that heaven would be a "good" place because they believe it would be "boring" to sit around on clouds playing harps for eternity. First of all, heaven is never described that way in the Bible. It is one of many cultural myths about Christianity which exist among the biblically illiterate. In this verse, I hope we can dispense with another such myth, the myth that work was part of God's punishment for sin.

This verse is clear. Work was God's idea for the better health of His prize creation, man. Man was given specific duties to work the garden. The word used meant work in a general sense, but here it meant to "dress" the garden or even to "serve" the needs of the garden. God planted the garden. It was man's duty to both work it, and to "keep" it. The word translated to "keep" meant generally to "protect" or "attend to" the garden itself. He was to be a tender of those plants for both the sake of their existence and for his continued existence. The first man was to be the grand gardener in the most spectacular of gardens. Flowers, trees, fruits and vegetables of untold beauty and productiveness. It was the man's work to "keep" what God had begun by the creation of the Garden of Eden. Man was to be the "caretaker" of the piece of God's creation where he lived. That is how it was to be then. That is still how it is today.

Your joyfully loquacious believer
LEE

God Will Provide

2007-11-30T13:33:00.001-08:00

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. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. Genesis 2:8-10

God is now providing everything necessary for His creation to be able to survive and thrive as a living being. The garden of Eden was a real, physical place at this time. It was literally a paradise on earth. In fact, the word for this garden in the Greek version of the Old Testament is paradeison, the word we get our English word paradise from. God made sure that all the senses of man were going to be engaged in wonderful sensing in this place. Notice how the trees were not only "good for food," but also were made, "pleasant to the sight." And not just one or two or three trees were provided, but "every tree" that could bear incredibly edible fruit! He also saw to it that the man would never have to worry about devising and maintaining irrigation. God created the irrigation of one large water source which divided into four rivers to provide abundant water for this special garden.

The love of God is shown to His finest and highest creation with this perfect provision for the physical part of man. He will provide later for the emotional and spiritual parts of man as well, but that is for another piece. Know here that God is beginning a work that He has never stopped. He is making sure that man has the best provisions available to himself.

Your Joyfully Loquacious Believer,
LEE

The Great Potter forms His Clay

2007-11-25T07:19:00.000-08:00

Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed unto his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. Gen. 2:7

In this passage we will find it useful to look at the original language so that we can get a more accurate picture of what is being given to us by God here. The word that is translated ,"dust" is a Hebrew word which does mean dust, but it also can mean "clay, earth, or mud." This gives us a better picture of what the word "formed" means, because it is strongly suggested that God is acting as a potter shaping His clay into the form He desires. Thus, man is not created as solidified sand, as a hardened form that is unchangeable. He is molded as clay that God, and God alone, can remold into a person of new life, as the New Testament speaks of. God is sovereign over the form of every person, physically as well as mentally and spiritually. In fact, the spiritual "molding" of the Great Potter is far more significant in our lives than anything else. That is what God does when we are re-created by His grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

It says here also that God "breathed" into man "the breath of life, and the man became a living creature." God's breath is the breath of the Spirit. In the NT, when we come to Jesus by faith that He died to pay the penalty for our sin, rose again from the dead and is coming again, we become a "new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17). God makes us into a new "living creature," which will live forever in soul, and eventually will have a newly formed and perfected body after Christ's return (1 Corinthians 15:35 ff.).

At this point, the man is first created just as God wants, and the man is in a sinless state. He is directly from God's hand, and there is no blot in him. Now we must understand that the man is not perfect and complete, as we shall see later. It simply means that the man is clean and pure of body and heart and soul. We need to understand this, because this is also what happens to the new believer in Christ. He or she is not made perfect, but that one is made pure and clean of heart and soul. And just like the first man, the ability to choose to sin is intact in the new believer as well. God understands this and provides, just as we will see He provided for the first human beings as well. For now, we see that the Potter has formed man from His clay, and molded him and made him alive. Each of us has our starting point with God's "molding" and making us alive with His "breath".

Your Joyfully Loquacious Believer,
LEE

Preparing a Place for Us

2007-11-12T06:39:00.000-08:00

Genesis 2:4-6 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. 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

Here we have the beginning of what some have called a "second" account of creation. However, though there are sharp differences from Genesis 1:1-2:3, these verses from 2:4 and through the beginning of chapter 3, nowhere contradict the "first" account. The idea that these are two mutually exclusive accounts of creation is the fruit of a liberal view that denies the Word of God came from God at all. It is the rejection of a truly Christian, faith-based, biblical worldview, and instead the acceptance of a humanist, critical, liberal worldview which believes the first duty of a biblical interpreter is to question the text rather than to search for meaning. What is happening here is no more complicated than God giving a more detailed account of creation that centers on the creation of human beings.

One of the things that we see here is the preparation of a place that God would prepare especially for His creation. When, in verses 5 and 6, it is described that there was "no bush of the field yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up..." the entire earth was not being described. It was instead, as the context will show, that God was describing the place He would establish as the ultimate paradise on earth for human beings to live in.

Your joyfully loquacious believer,
LEE

Day Seven - The First "Holiday"

2007-11-10T08:29:00.000-08:00

Gen, 2:1-3 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work He 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.

This day of rest can easily be misunderstood. It certainly isn't the case that God needed to rest because He was weary. He does not tire nor is His power ever exhausted. If we simply take the text on its face, we see no mention of God being tired or needing the restful seventh day to recuperate. So, if the reason was not that God needed rest, what was the reason?

God doesn't leave us wondering. The passage tells us that God "blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all the work that He had done in creation." The reason for the seventh day rest period was so that a day could be set aside as "blessed" by God Himself, and as we see later (i.e. Exodus 20:8) set aside for men to reflect on and worship God the Creator of all. It was a day that God defined from the very start as a "holy" day. Those two words together form a combination that we now speak as one word, the word "holiday." It should give us pause to understand that what we often think of as days made for us to engage in often questionable recreational pursuits were designed instead to be days of remembrance, reflection, and reverence of the very One who gives us all that we have to enjoy in the first place. I hope that the next time a "holiday" comes around, you will try at least in some way to make it a "holy" day as well.

Your joyfully loquacious believer,
LEE

Day Six - "It was very good."

2007-11-05T04:39:00.000-08:00

Gen 1:31 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.

The third unique aspect of day six is that God pronounces it "very good." Upon the completion of every other day, God has labeled it as "good." Here, it is more than that. Why? The truth is, we don't fully know, we can only guess. It could be that the day itself was special because it was the day when all the work was done, and thus "very good" was an expression of completion. It could be that the phrase "everything that He had made" refers to everything made on that day, and not necessarily to everything made on all the other days as well. If that is the case, then the addition of human beings to the mix as God's crowning achievement might be what causes this to be "very good." It could be that God saw His beautiful creation perfectly expressing His loving heart and, for the moment at least, pure and holy and innocent and that was worthy of being deemed "very good." Whatever the case may be, this is the first and only time that expression is used with God as the source in the entire Bible. If we turn to the original language we find that the expression means that this was "exceptionally" or "especially, or "exceedingly" good. It was good to the greatest degree, and "in the widest sense," according to Strong's Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries. The universe had never seen this kind of goodness, nor would it be seen again. Nothing was corrupted, nothing was incomplete, no provision from God was missing. It was uniquely perfect at the end of day six. It was indeed "very good."

Your joyfully loquacious believer,

LEE

The Dominance Factor

2007-11-03T08:36:00.000-07:00

Day six is so remarkable and unique that it warrants a second look. In fact, we will spend one more post on day six next time. I want to look at another unique aspect of the creation of human beings on day six, what I call the "dominance factor."

God said to His newly created male and female human in Genesis 1:28, "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."

God the Creator specifically gave our ancestors dominance over all else that He created. That doesn't mean that we, as inheritors of this dominance factor, own what God created. Our dominance is not inherent, that is, we are not dominant over the rest of creation simply because we are human beings. The "dominance factor" is a gift granted to us by the Creator! What authority we exercise we possess only because God has granted it to us. It is a secondary authority, a bit like the authority that a property manager has over the property of his employer. We are stewards, managers, and caretakers of God's estate. Therefore we are responsible to care for the creation as best we can for the good of ourselves and the good of the rest of creation.

In today's world, there seem to be two opposite errors that are made concerning care for the creation. One is to elevate the creation itself to "godlike" status and engage in the popular liberal pastime of hyper-environmentalism. This position not only dishonors God, it ends up destructive of the very thing that it seeks to elevate. The second error is to believe that our authority over creation is a license to abuse God's creatures and created environment.

We should view our dominance as a privilege that we take seriously enough to truly care for God's created order. We should manage for the good of the environment and all that reside on this earth, which includes human beings as well. Yes, we have dominance gifted to us. We have the authority to use the resources of the natural world. We do not have the right to worship it, or to abuse the privilege God has graciously given to us from the very beginning.

Day Six - Kinds and Images

2007-10-19T20:58:00.000-07:00

Hi! I'm back after a long hiatus and I hope to be posting far more frequently from now on. Now, to the Scripture.

Gen 1:24-31 (ESV) And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds--livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds." And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Then 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 birds of the heavens and over the livestock and 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. 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." And God said, "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." And it was so. 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.

Here we have the most unique of all the creation days, for here God creates all types of land animal life but doesn't stop there. Instead, the Creator God embarks on the creation of the pinnacle of His creatures, man himself. It just goes to show that God's power was not limited to one type of miracle in a day! Not only that, but God also shows that He creates the land animals and human beings in a different manner as well. Note that these animals were created "according to their kinds." However, man is made "in our image, after our likeness." Two things stand out here. First, man is not created in the same way that all other life was created; man is fashioned in the image and likeness of his Creator! Second, the word our is being applied to God. What are we to make of that? God is clearly a single entity. The entire focus of the Old and New Testament teaches that God is ONE and not many. Yet the singular God is referred to in plural terms here. This is one of the ways we can see that the nature of God is the nature of a being, a being that exists as three-in-one.

What an incredible privilege it is to understand that the human race was originally designed to exist in the image and likeness of the Holy Creator of the Universe! Contemplate that the next time you feel downgraded and depressed by circumstances or because of the judgments of others. The very image of God exists within each person, and it can become fully realized when you become one with Christ. As we will see, our original parents failed to grasp the grace of God and made the choice of sin. Jesus came to reverse that curse upon mankind through His sacrifice on the cross. If we take hold of the offer of grace made possible by the cross, we can begin to truly understand the original design and purpose of God who created us in His image and likeness. I pray that you know that in your heart today.

Your joyfully loquacious believer,
LEE

Day Five - The Blessing of Multiplication

2007-08-07T10:42:00.001-07:00

Gen 1:20 -23 (ESV) And God said, "Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens."
So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth."
And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

Here is a picture of the true abundance of life that God intended. He doesn't just make a few creatures to populate the seas, He declares that the waters must "swarm with swarms of living creatures." Furthermore, God blesses both the sea life and the birds of the air with the command to "be fruitful and multiply." This is the first time we hear of that blessing and command, but it won't be the last. The earth was created to be filled with all sorts of living creatures. Life is considered to be a blessing that must be spread throughout the earth. From the very beginning, God intended life to be abundant all around us.

It might be said today that we as human beings have spoiled God's intention for abundance. Perhaps that is true in some ways. However, for those who really look beyond their own cares and worries, there is still a great deal of wondrous and abundant life and beauty in the world. If you haven't seen some of it lately, get out and take a good look at the trees and mountains and the oceans and the life that fills them. Let us remember that God is still in the business of blessing fruitfulness and multiplication. If we will care for what He has blessed each of us with, and seek to "be fruitful and multiply" His love to those around us, we will know His blessings first hand.

Your Joyfully Loquacious Believer,
LEE

Day Four and Faith

2007-07-02T11:01:00.000-07:00

Genesis 1:14-19 (ESV)
And God said, "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, [15] and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth." And it was so. [16] And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. [17] And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, [18] to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. [19] And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

Day four gives us a very interesting phenomenon, one that current scientific explanations concerning life would never give credence to. What we are given through revelation is the creation of the sun and moon and stars after He has created plant life. In other words, we have plants created and growing on the third day without the benefit of sunlight! This is an amazing thing, one which biologists would scoff at. If you have a basic knowledge of life science, you should know that, at least with green plants, sunlight is necessary for them to grow, flower and produce seed and fruit. As far as we know, it has always been that way.

However, what we need to understand is the meaning of that little phrase, "as far as we know." It means that we only know anything at all up to a certain point. Scientific knowledge is always limited knowledge, and one of the hallmarks of science is that what we know is always open to revision. Time and time again we have seen this to be true in any number of ways, and any truly honest scientist will admit this as a fact. In the case of the origins of the universe, we reach our limit of scientific knowledge far quicker than most scientists in this area would admit. That doesn't mean that there are not a lot of theories running around, some masquerading as facts, the most prominent among them being Darwinism. It is in these areas where science actually begins to engage in something that religion is more famous for, as exercise in faith.

The truth is this: we all have to engage in exercising faith no matter what we believe to be true. That is true of the most rigorous scientific experimentation, as well as interpreting the Bible. We have to have a basic level of faith that certain things are true. We have to believe that what we are seeing and observing in an experiment is true. We have to trust that the instruments we use are accurate and that what they are recording is actually happening. We have to have faith that past experiments have not been tainted by human error.

This is not to say that our knowledge of how plants grow and live is incorrect. It is to say that this really tells us nothing about how plants came into being in the first place! Just the same is true about origins in general. Most scientific interpretations of how the universe originated rely on present-day observations to interpret what happened in the very remote past. We need to understand this is a faith statement, because no human being was there to observe and record the events of the origin of the universe.

In the same way, we must accept by faith that what God reveals is true. After all, He was there! He was the One creating and sustaining in the order he tells us in the Scripture. The obvious question one might have is, "How do we know that this writing in the Bible, or even just the book of Genesis, is really from God?" I won't go into that in detail yet. For now, I will ask that you have faith [;). We can be far more sure than most people know that God did reveal this to us, and thus we can trust the truth of these words.

Your Joyfully Loquacious Believer,
LEE

Life on Day Three and a Trustworthy God

2007-06-04T01:42:00.000-07:00

Gen 1:9 And God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." And it was so.
Gen 1:10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:11 And God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth." And it was so.
Gen 1:12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

Day three of the six days of creation sees the creation of the first living things, the plants. After God moves the land upwards so that what we call continents become a reality, He then creates plant life with some specifics. It seems that general vegetation is first made, then "plants yielding seed," and then "fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed." It would appear that the general vegetation did not reproduce by seed, which is the case with the simpler forms of plant life today. The more complex forms follow the pattern that God lays out here. That is, seed-bearing plants, i.e grasses, flowers and so on, are more complex than non-seed bearers. And, plants that produce fruit "in which is their seed," are very complex forms of plant life. In other words, the general facts of science here agree with the Word of God in the descriptions or classification of plant life.

It is useful to point out here that this is one small example of a larger principle. When we deal in truth and actual facts, not the ever-changing world of theory and hypothesis, God's Word and science agree. God can be trusted, even with your very soul. Won't you seek Him out today?

Your joyfully loquacious believer,
LEE

The 'Expanse' of Heaven

2007-05-15T05:45:00.000-07:00

Gen 1:7 And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so.
Gen 1:8 And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

God is working with the matter of the earth in the form of the waters that cover it. What is described here is the creation of a watery curtain above and surrounding the earth, as if the earth were constantly under a heavy cloud cover, yet not of the kind we would be familiar with. We can only speculate what this might have been like. Why wouldn't it be the kind of cloud cover we are familiar with? Because these 'clouds' of water were not rain clouds, at least not yet, as we will see in chapter 2.

Perhaps even more interesting than this is the creation of the "expanse" that God calls "Heaven." If this is the same heaven which is written of throughout the Scriptures, then it would appear that 'Heaven' is an actual created place with a physical nature of sorts. Much has been written and discussed about a place called 'Heaven' outside of the Bible as well. Most of that kind of discussion has been skeptical of its existence.

Of course, it could also mean simply the concept of the heavens as the sky itself. Heaven could by only a physical place where we look to see the moon and stars. There are many verses in the Bible that describe heaven, or the heavens in that way.

It seems to me that the Word of God throughout describes heaven in both physical and spiritual ways indicating that heaven is a place that exists as both physical and spiritual. It is both the home of physical objects, i.e. the stars and the moon, and the home of spiritual beings, God and angels.

The good news here is that heaven is not simply the sky, and it is not just a dream. It is a real place that will one day be recreated along with the earth to provide an eternal home for those who faithfully know and trust in Christ as Lord and Savior. Is that your good news today?

Your Joyfully Loquacious Believer,
LEE

A Day Like Today?

2007-04-09T12:37:00.000-07:00

Genesis 1:5 (ESV)
God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

In this verse we have the completion of the first "day" of creation. There is a controversy among interpreters of the Bible about whether or not these "days" are what they appear to be at first glance, which is of course, literal 24 hour days.

The idea that many modern interpreters are in favor of is that the "day" mentioned here and the rest of chapter one is not really a literal day, but an unspecified long period of time. Some of those same people will use some other references in the Bible which talk about a "day" in such a way. Perhaps the most famous of these is found in the New testament book of 2 Peter, chapter 3, verse 8.
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

The reason this kind of interpretation is attempted for Genesis is because of the supposed "scientific" evidence which "proves" that the earth could not have been created in only six days. I won't go into all the reasons why this is not true. If you want to investigate, I strongly suggest you go to either the website for the Institute for Creation Research or to Answers in Genesis (which I have a link to below).

I know that there are many well-meaning people who believe this way. However, the fact is their method of interpretation begins outside of the Scriptures and imposes a system from the world onto the Bible. I am choosing not to do that, but rather to let the Bible speak for itself. Therefore, I begin from the Bible and note first of all that the accounts in Genesis are historical in nature. God is telling us, through the human writer, just what He did when He created the "heavens and the earth," and after all, He was actually around at the time, and we humans weren't.

When I start with the Bible I find two points from the Bible that tell me these days are indeed literal, 24 hour time periods. First is the fact that each time the word "day" is used in this list of creation, it is used with a number value, i.e. "first day", "second day" and so on. The evidence from the Old Testament is that every time a number value is used with the Hebrew word for "day", it always means a literal, 24 hour day. There are hundreds and hundreds of these references in the Old Testament, and there is no biblical reason to treat the ones in Genesis 1 any different.

Second is the fact that in each case where the reference is made to a numbered day in chapter one, we also have the phrase, "There was evening and there was morning." An unspecified long period of time would not be described as an "evening" and a "morning."

It is clear to me, and I hope I have made it clear to you, that if we believe that God gave us a true account, the best interpretation is the simple one. We can take comfort in knowing that God is trustworthy here, and in everything He teaches us in His Word.

Your Joyfully Loquacious Believer,
LEE

Light! It's a good thing!

2007-03-26T10:19:00.000-07:00

Gen 1:4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.

Here is the first time anything is called good in the Bible. I think that most all human beings would agree with God that light is good. At least, we believe that light is better than the alternative, darkness. Physical light lets us recognize what is there around us at any moment. So, the light gives us the knowledge we would not have otherwise. The darkness does not give us any knowledge; in fact, darkness represents something frightening because it is unknown. Think about it. You don't see films that are supposed to be frightening have their scary scenes in well-lit rooms.

The light of God's creation is more than just physical light, however. It is also the light of wisdom, the light of knowledge, the light of love, and the light of life. It is most of all the light of His revelation to us. God reveals Himself to us through the light that is good.

God also separates light from darkness here as well. What is good cannot exist at the same time and in the same space as what is not good. It has been that way from this moment when God separated light from darkness. There can be light and darkness in a certain amount of space, but the two do not mix together.

It has been said, and I don't know if this is accurate, that a single lit candle in the darkness can be seen from over a mile away. If you have ever been in a dark place, lost and alone, then you know that time and space lose their meaning. Every second in the dark seems a lot longer than it really is. But if there is a light; if there is a light no matter how small, everything seems more hopeful.

I know that the world can sometimes seem like a very dark and unfriendly place. If you need some real light (and who of us doesn't?) remember that the New Testament book of 1 John, chapter 1 and verse 5 states that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. God is ready and able to push away the darkness of the world with His light, the light of Jesus who died for you. Come to the Light of the Lord. He's waiting for you.

Your joyfully loquacious believer
LEE

Light in the Darkness

2007-03-19T11:08:00.000-07:00

Genesis 1:3 - Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.

We now venture into the part of the text that describes how God went about creating. The pattern which begins with this verse is a simple one. God spoke and it happened. More details of the process will be told to us in later verses, but each part of creation from here on begins with the Word of God speaking it into existence.

We should notice that light is also the first element of creation that comes in an order or a sequence. The word then tells us that light was created after the heavens and the earth were made. In verse one we are told that God made the heavens and the earth, but we are not told which was made first. We might assume the heavens were made first, but that is not what is written. In fact, time, as well as space and matter, all came into existence in verse one. It may very well have been that the heavens and the earth (space and matter) and time all came at once. The fact is, we don't know and God doesn't tell us.

However, with light we do know at least that it was made after the heavens and the earth, and this means that time must have been in place as well, otherwise the word then would have no meaning! Again, from here on out, there is an order of events that we need to pay attention to for reasons that we will see more clearly later on.

What is most interesting to me is that light is created here without any physical source. The light comes directly from God. He is the source of the first light! It is by the will of God that light came into being in the middle of the darkness and chaos of the creation. The reality of it all is that God has never stopped being the true source of light, whether that light is physical or the light that can shine in the darkness of our lives. God can bring the light we need into our darkest situations, if we will turn to Him through Jesus Christ. Jesus is called "the Light of the world," and the "light of life" in the New testament book of John, chapter 8, verse 12.

If you see darkness in your life, I urge you to look at the Creator of light for your light. Believe and trust that Jesus came and lived and died to bring you from darkness to light. Talk to God in prayer about this, and find someone who you know is a real follower of Jesus to help if you can. You don't need to know any fancy language, you just need to be honest with God and really give yourself to Him. He wants to speak 'light' into your life right now.

Your joyfully loquacious believer,
LEE

"It was a dark and stormy night..."

2007-03-12T11:04:00.000-07:00

Gen 1:2 - The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep water. The Spirit of God was hovering over the water.

The second verse of the Bible is one shrouded in mystery. An earth exists, but it is an earth with which we are completely unfamiliar, and one that we could barely imagine. What we are told here paints a pretty bleak picture of darkness. I can tell you also that the water (which seems to be the only real matter of the earth at this point), can be described by the wording of the original language as a "surging mass of water." It was not a scene of calmness!

It was also an earth completely without life or light. The Spirit of God is described as "hovering" here, but other versions state that the Spirit was "moving" or "moving gently" over these stormy waters. The contrast is clear between a violent, dark, lifeless world and a serene and gently moving God.

If you have ever been in a violent storm, on land or especially at sea, you may recognize that it is very difficult to remain calm. One of the reasons this is true is because of the unpredictability of the power being unleashed. If you are on a boat that seems about to capsize because of a storm, you can't predict whether or not it will stay afloat, or if sinks whether you will survive, or if you do survive at first whether there will be any rescue, and so on.

It is the same when we are facing storms that come in life as well. A financial disaster; a loved one ill or hurt; the loss of a dream; or any number of dark and seemingly hopeless "storms" can come on any of us. It is also very hard to remain calm in those circumstances for mainly the same reasons of unpredictability. During life's storms, we rarely know how we will survive and what the future will bring if we do.

If, however, we know that God is not worried at all, and that, as in this verse, He is hovering around you and "moving gently" through your circumstances, we can face a dark and stormy time with assurance that the light is just ahead. Our God is the Creator King of the universe, and He is definitely in control during the darkest, bleakest, and stormiest parts of existence; the earth's and our own.

Your joyfully loquacious believer,
LEE

He Did It All!

2007-03-05T13:06:00.000-08:00

It's time to look at the last half of the first verse of the Bible. Genesis 1:1 states "In the beginning, God made the heavens and the earth." We have already checked out the "In the beginning, God" part (see below). Now we'll look at the claim that God "made the heavens and the earth."

Two separate claims are being made here. FIRST is the claim that God "made the heavens." This literally means that God made all of the universe except the earth. I know that the popular scientific "explanation" for the origin of the universe is the so-called "Big-Bang Theory." The theory could be stated non-scientifically, but accurately, like this - In the beginning was a very compressed ball of matter that exploded with so much force that it sent all kinds of 'stuff' flying outwards from the point of the explosion. Eventually, as the speed of this stuff slowed down enough, the stuff began to become organized into galaxies, solar systems, planets and moons, and the rest is history! Let's say, for the moment, that this claim is accurate. One of my first questions would be this, "Where did this ball of stuff come from?" The answer can really only be one of two things. Either this stuff was always there, or it just appeared out of nothing! If the stuff was always there, it means the universe is eternal, and the explosion just happened, or God caused the explosion to happen. Either way, we are facing the same problem I noted before. The "beginning" is not really the beginning at all. An eternal universe, whether in the current form or not, means that there can never be a real beginning!

If the stuff just appeared out of nothing, we are looking at magic without a magician again! That is, unless you say that there is a magician, God, who started it all by at least creating the ball of stuff. Some people believe this and say that is what the Bible means in Genesis 1:1 and the verses that follow. But, the Bible itself doesn't state that at all. As we will see in the later verses, the Big Bang theory is not what the bible describes here.

The SECOND claim is that God "made the earth." How God did this is explained later. I think it is easy to see if it is true that God made the heavens, it should be easy to believe that God made the earth as well.

What all of verse one means then, is that God did it all; He made all that there is and, as we will see, He did it for His grand purpose as a loving God.

Next time we will move to verse 2, finally ;), and begin to see what God's method of creation was according to the Bible.

Your Joyfully Loquacious Believer,
LEE

He's Been There All Along!

2007-02-26T07:42:00.000-08:00

We continue to examine the first verse of the Bible, Genesis 1:1. Last time I mentioned that we needed to understand that at least four things are taught by "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." We're going to look at the first two of these in this edition of B.I.B.L.E., There was a beginning and God was already there.

The claim that there was a beginning is not that controversial today. Most scientists who study cosmology (the science of the origin and structure of the universe) agree that the universe does have a beginning and use the Big Bang theory to explain the beginning of the universe. This means that the universe is not eternal, that is, the universe has not always been here. It has existed for a very long time, but not forever. The question really is this, "What was there before the beginning?" Science doesn't have an answer. The Bible does, and that is where the claim that God was already there comes in.

The claim God was already there at the beginning is controversial. However, that claim is what the Bible teaches. If this claim is true, it means that God must be eternal. It can't mean that God is just a little older than the universe, otherwise the beginning would not really be the beginning! If God is just older than everything else, it would mean that at some time before the beginning God came to exist from nothing! It would literally mean that one moment there was nothing and then the next moment, poof!, there was God! I would say that this sounds a lot more like magic than anything else, but even magic requires somebody to perform it! I don't know about you, but that sounds just plain silly to me.

Next time we will look at the claims from the second part of Genesis 1:1, God made the "heavens" i.e. all of the universe except the earth, and God made the earth.

Your Joyfully Loquacious Believer,
LEE

Trust is a MUST

2007-02-19T13:09:00.001-08:00

We are looking at the very first verse of the Bible for the third blog in a row. Some who read this may begin to wonder why so much ink is being spent here, so I will try to explain it. In "LEE's Keys" to biblical interpretation (see right) I state that one of the keys is to "BELIEVE to RECEIVE." If you are going to really "get" the Bible, you must trust that it is the Word of God to us without error. The basic fact of the matter is this: If you can't trust the very first sentence of the Bible, how can you be expected to trust any other part of it?

Genesis 1:1 is the basis upon which the rest of the Bible is built. It is foundational to understanding the Bible that we understand at least four things that are taught by "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."

FIRST: There was a beginning

SECOND: God was already there

THIRD: God made the "heavens" i.e. all of the universe except earth

FOURTH: God made the earth

We will look at these four in closer detail next time.

Your Joyfully Loquacious Believer,
LEE

Positive versus Negative Beginnings

2007-02-12T12:25:00.000-08:00

In my last post, I exposed the choice that the beginning of the Bible presents to us. That is, “either God is the Creator of all, or God is not.” Of course, if one does not believe in the truth of the Bible at all, then a myriad of other possibilities present themselves, no matter how ludicrous they might seem. For the moment, however, I am simply endeavoring to interpret the Bible in an accurate manner in order that others might realize the relevance of the Bible for our lives and culture. At some other point in the near future I will take up the question of whether or not the Bible is to be trusted.
At the beginning of the Bible, Genesis 1:1, it is stated, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” That is an extremely positive statement. It means that at the beginning of all things, there existed a Being who moved according to His will to exercise His power and create from nothing the entire content of the universe! A Being of that kind of unimaginable power and intelligence would not embark on such a project without a grand purpose. If all creation was made with a grand purpose, then the various parts of creation also have purpose. This means that human beings have a purpose in life that somehow relates to the purpose of the Creator. If this is true, as I contend, then we as human beings are living a life that is meant to have purpose. A purposeful life can give us a positive life.
The other side of the coin would be to ask the question, “What are the consequences of denying that “God created the heavens and earth”? The first thing we should acknowledge is that what I call “creation,” cannot be labeled as such. It must simply be called “the universe.” If the universe was not created, how did it get here? There are two possibilities. ONE, the universe has always been here, that is, the universe is eternal. TWO, the universe came into being through some naturalistic process on its own. We can dispense with possibility number one, for the simple reason that the only evidence which exists argues against an eternal universe. That leaves possibility number two, which is what the majority of scientists believe today. I will save the refutation of that position for a later time (sorry, I can't post everything in a day!). For now, I want to examine the consequences of believing that the universe came into being through some naturalistic process.
Perhaps the most pertinent consequence is that the universe simply exists without any purpose whatsoever. As a part of the matter in the universe, it also means that human beings simply exist without any purpose. That is an extremely negative statement. Without any purpose, life is absurd at best. Self-preservation can perhaps serve as a purpose of sorts, but what a joyless concept that is. As I mentioned in my footnote to the last post, one could object that one could believe in something or someone other than God as Creator and still live a positive life. That may very well be true, but it would mean that you are living a fairy-tale existence as well. It would be an attitude without any foundation upon which to sustain it. It would be akin to believing that one could walk upon a wisp of fog. So, you could live without purpose and know it, and thus without real hope, or you could live without purpose and not know it, and thus live in delusion. The embracing of a negative beginning without purpose will produce a life with a negative or a falsely positive attitude.
The upshot of all of this is that you must choose which alternative you will embrace and live by. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,” is not just a biblical statement, it is a challenge to live with or without a greater purpose for life.
Your Joyfully Loquacious Believer,LEE

Do Beginnings Matter?

2007-02-05T11:02:00.000-08:00

This is the beginning.... of this blog that is! Obviously having a beginning matters here because no future is possible without it. The same is true in every endeavor and in every life. Where you and I began is important, though we seem to spend very little time thinking about it.

The beginning in the Bible is also extremely important if for no other reason than the staggering claims that are made about the beginning of all that is. Of course, a lot of people do not see such ancient texts and their claims as important or even relevant to their lives. If that describes you, then I hope to persuade you otherwise. If you are already convinced that beginnings in the Bible matter for life, bear with me (or bear without me somewhere else!) for the next few lines.

The basic claim that the Bible makes at it's beginning is this - all that exists was created by God. The basic question many would ask is "So what?" This is expressed in the form of other questions such as "How does this help me with my everyday problems... my bills, my kids, my parents, my job, my house, my car, etc.?" Day to day living can make everything seem irrelevant beyond the present moment's tensions.

However, as many psychologists will attest, the attitude with which one approaches day to day living and it's difficulties does in fact effect how one deals with life. I submit that one's attitude is shaped by ones faith. What it is that you believe is ultimately true will shape how you live in one way or another. It may not be a conscious factor, but it is a factor nonetheless, and your faith is usually much more of a factor than you know.

"But LEE," you protest, "I don't have any faith. I don't believe in God at all." The fact that you may not believe in God does not mean that you have no faith, it just means that you place your "faith" in something else. It might be faith in human potential, or in scientific knowledge, or your local newspaper, or what your Uncle Al taught you. But rest assured, you have some kind of faith in something, even if it is yourself, and that does affect your attitude toward life and living.

The biblical claims concerning beginnings allows only two choices. Either God is the Creator of all or God is not. The fact is if you embrace that claim as true, you are much more likely to face the day to day challenges of life, as well as the larger concerns and crises, with a positive attitude for the future. If you deny the truth of God as Creator, your attitude is more likely to be negative.* Belief in a universe created by God won't pay your bills, but it will make it more likely that you will have hope for the future even if your bills aren't getting paid, and having hope always matters.

Your Joyfully Loquacious Believer,
LEE

*There is the objection that one could believe in something or someone other than God as Creator to be positive in life. I will address that in the next post.