The
second chapter of Genesis begins with a magnificent picture, “By
the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing, so on
the seventh day He rested from all His work. And God blessed the
seventh day and made it holy“.
Erroneously, God is sometimes pictured as an old man, it is
critically important to understand, He did not rest because He was
tired. He rested to give us a symbol and a gift. We find rest in
the presence of God, and I believe we were created with a need to
spiritually renew ourselves on a regular basis. Sometimes we get so
caught up in the projects and deadlines of life that we neglect our
spiritual needs. Understand, God does not take the Sabbath off, he
simply sanctifies it, sets it apart from the other days. If you feel
worse on Monday than you do on Friday- chances are you are not
setting the Sabbath apart as a day to spiritually renew yourself. As
Christians we can find rest in Christ everyday, ask Him today for a
His peace because He is faithful.
Next
we read there was no rain on the earth, “but
streams came up from the ground“.
It appears earth’s ecosystem was very different in this lush Garden.
We are told, “the
Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being“.
Only God can create life! With all our scientific knowledge and
self importance, we can lose sight of that fact. Life is God-given.
Anyone that has witnessed the birth of a child can attest to the
miracle surrounding a new life. The Hebrew word for Breath is Rauch,
which is the same word used for Spirit. God breathed life into Adam
as He filled him with His spirit. We are also told, “The
Lord took man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to
take care of it“.
It is at this time that God explains the rules to Adam, “You
are free to eat from any tree of the garden, but you must not eat of
the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you
will surely die“.
God created Adam with a free will, the option to choose to obey God
out of loving obligation, or to choose to disobey God. Without that
choice man can not really express his love for God, he can neither
choose to obey or rebel. What an uplifting feeling it is when
someone chooses to express their love to us! You could program your
computer to send you messages all day about how wonderful you are,
but you know the computer is just responding to a program, when your
spouse, or child, or friend SHOWS you how much they love you in their
actions, you know it is real.
Fellas,
we were made to work. We often find we get tremendous satisfaction
from work, but listen to what God notices, “It
is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for
him“.
This is the first thing God says is NOT good. I heard someone say
once that the women’s role in a man’s life is to civilize him- that
may be true, but God created her for companionship. “God
made a women from the rib He had taken out of man and He brought her
to man“.
I can’t help but notice it was a rib, close to his heart so she can
stand at his side. Finally, God gives us a foundational statement
about the marriage He created, “For
this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be united to
his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife
were both naked, and they felt no shame“.
The married couple is new and independent and united. And the
beautiful result, is permanence and intimacy. The marriage picture
is a symbol God uses to express His relationship with us, may you
know permanence and intimacy with Almighty God in a new way today.