Tag: God as the center
Sunday Rest and Reflection
Sunday, January 18th, 2009
Each Sunday, it’s good just to take time to think back on the week’s reading. It just so happens that we have finished the book of Genesis in the last three weeks since January 1st. Genesis began with God. He is the central figure! He is creating, working and enjoying! It was good! Man placed by God in a Garden, walking with God in the cool of the day! Man made special and in God’s image, male and female. Man ruling over creation and tending it with God’s blessing!
Genesis is so foundational to our worldview as Christians. Without Genesis we wouldn’t understand where the universe, earth, and solar system came from. Without Genesis we wouldn’t know about the serpent and how sin entered along with death. Without Genesis we wouldn’t know about our special creation and purpose on the earth. We wouldn’t understand why the world was flooded and where the rainbow came from and what it testifies about!
We wouldn’t know how we got all the nations or languages either. We would not know where the nation of Israel came from or the special significance of the lands of Israel and the middle East. We would not understand the conflict in the Middle East that pits millions of Arabs and Ishmael’s decendants against the Jews and Christians. We wouldn’t understand the old conflict between the Serpent and the Seed of Woman. We wouldn’t know about faith as God’s way of making men and women righteous again. We would miss all the rich stories of the fathers of faith as they struggled to walk with God, wrestled with Him, and followed Him through famine, imprisonment, threats and their eventual death. The lives of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, Esau, Rachael, Leah, Joseph, Judah, and numerous others are chronicled. We read about their successes and failures; their loves and their quarrels; about births and deaths. They were just like us!
I am thankful for the wonderful record of our origins left for us to read and ponder. I look up at the stars or at the sand on a beach and think of Abraham pondering his offspring and the promises of God! I see a rainbow and I am reminded of God’s mercy to us! I think about Jesus Christ, God’s promised Son, and the one sent ahead to save us from the famine caused by our sins. We are so blessed to read Genesis and have the Holy Spirit revealing truth to us.
“Do not weep! See the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.” Revelation 5:5