Daniel pt 3

           Continuing through Daniel, we reach chapter 3. In chapter 3, we see these three men of Daniel’s companions stand in opposition to an entire faulted system. The system is that the king orders, and the king gets what he orders. He has the power, and he will exercise this power without humility. There is no need or reason to be humble. You listen to him because you are the peon in the pew, and he is the pastor. You are the peasant in the plain; he is the president in the palace. You are the plodder; he is the professional. Got the picture?

            This stems directly to how we’re taught to think about ourselves. We’re worth more than what we have. We’re taught that we deserve the best in life. We’re taught that we deserve the Hollywood lifestyle, even if we’re making a few percent (or in my case, not even that) of what Hollywood makes. We’re taught that it’s ours for the taking. This mindset of the king’s isn’t some peculiarity or an anomaly. It is what the principalities and powers preach. It is what every person feels, even if only slightly.

            In this chapter we have King Nebuchadnezzar make the law that when trumpets and flutes and all kinds of music start playing, you are to bow down to the statue. How else might I express this? This is the same kind of system that says if you will bow down and play by the rules, then you will be exulted. This is the system that says you just have to work hard, and if you continue to work and be faithful, then you will be promoted. Yet what actually happens? The guy who has the connections gets the promotion (not always, but you get my point).

            Nebuchadnezzar here is a representation of Satan himself. Satan lies and manipulates. You can have fame and stardom if you sell your soul to get on television. You can have money (all of it in the world) if you will only obey his rules and his authority. In fact, the music industry and hollywood is known to force people to sign their names in blood and promote Satanism. 

            This is a story about the end of the age. It's message might be the single most important teaching for our day and age. If you will submit your life to the powers that be, then you find yourself in a place of easement. But if you can see through the wisdom of the age, and that it is faulty through and through (for it has Satanic principles at its origin), then you will be fiercely opposed. If you decide to go against being the way of self promotion, self exultation, self relieving, self pity, self worth, self preservation (get the point with all the selfs?), and live as one who is dead to this world and alive in Jesus Christ, then you will be absolutely ridiculed in everything you do.

            This system cannot simply be something that you work for. You will either be vehemently opposed, or you will be tolerated. We live and work in the system that says, "Me first; if I don't take care of myself, then who will?" It can only happen one of two ways. Either we will reflect the system in our own lives, or we will be opposed in even our work environment because we reflect something greater. In this way, we show how the king is a symbol of every human being. This life is all we have, so we might as well live it up. We don't know whether we'll be around tomorrow, so lets get drunk, have sex, manipulate and steal our way to the top, care about no one and nothing else, and and "live life" big while we do it.

            The King has spoken, and you must listen. He has said that you shall worship this statue when the trumpets and horns and music start playing. And Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego continue to stand and neglect the worship of this statue. It is a stance against an entire governmental system that describes the last days and even these days here and now. These men defy something deeper than a government official. They defy the very spiritual powers behind that governmental figure.

            This is how you must read the Scriptures. When they are cast into the fiery furnace, it is because they have gone against the ways of the world. They have stood in opposition to something that everyone held to be “the way it is.” They stood against those dark powers that bind men to death and keep them bound, and offered the world resurrection by saying in their disobedience, “You don’t have to live like this.” They stand in the gap and tell the world all about the lie that society so preaches, and we in the Church have so believed. These three men came against a system that says, “If you’re ever going to have a house, you’ll need a loan.” Then I don’t need a house. I don’t need a car. I don’t need the supermarket. I’ll buy and sell in my own way. I find my own employment without having to support a system built by Satan. I’ll plant my own garden, and from it shall I eat.

            I believe that this is the answer to a question that I’ve heard quite a bit. If at the end of the times we cannot buy, sell, or trade, then how will we live? We will live by growing our own crop and taking care of each other. As it was at the first, where they sold everything and shared with one another, so it shall be at the end.

            That is why they were tossed into the furnace. The false humility of the king is also presented in that he offers them their lives if they will bow down to the statue of gold. Doesn’t this story just sound like all of the kid’s movies we’ve watched? The hero stands against all that is evil, and just when it looks like it might be the end, the evil doer gives one last chance to surrender to the dark side…

            They don’t. In fact, they insult the king. “Even if our God doesn’t deliver us, we’re still not bowing down to your stupid statue that doesn’t even talk, and that you built with your own hands. It is not a god, and it doesn’t deserve humanity to even acknowledge it.” It is no wonder why the king turned the heat up to the maximum.

            What does it say? How does the story end? These three men, our heroes, those who are within our cloud of witnesses walk in the furnace with a fourth man. And the fourth man looks like a son of the gods… There are obvious theological implications we can take from this. I’m sure you’ve either heard or thought about how Jesus walks with us through our fiery furnaces. What I want to glean is not the fourth person with them, but that they don’t smell like smoke, and they aren’t even singed. There is simply no evidence that they were even tossed into the flame.

            Where, oh grave, is your victory? And where, oh death, is your sting?

            Martyrdom isn’t something that is optional. It is a necessity. And because it is a necessity, it isn’t something that happens at the end of your life. Martyrdom is the style of living in opposition to these principalities and powers. You know persecution will come. You know death is an option. You live in opposition anyway. You bump against the grain anyway. Even when they threaten you with death, you say, “Our God will deliver us. But even if He doesn’t, we still won’t bow the knee.”

            That is martyrdom. We count it as blessing to walk through the fire of the furnace, whether it means life or death. Suffering isn’t something we fear. The displeasure of men (or our parents) isn’t something that we fear. We wrestle not with flesh and blood…

            All of this brings me to the story of Stephen. I have recently been convicted of having anger in my heart towards a fellow brother. I know it is true that God is offended at his behavior. Yet, I was not able to let it go and say, “Father, forgive him. He doesn’t know what he is doing.” What is it about Jesus’ character and Stephen’s character that caused them to say such things while they were at the verge of death?

            I believe, now, that it is an understanding of the powers behind such systems. When the religious system came against them, they were able to see that it wasn’t the people doing it. It was the powers that were ruling them. I had it wrong. This man is a brother. He is supposed to know better. He is supposed to know that this kind of action and unwillingness toward God is unacceptable. Yet, though he has no excuse, it wasn’t my place to judge him. I am to judge the angels.

            It is my place to stand in the gap for him, and to condemn the powers behind him that blind him. There was something in me of authenticity that stood against whatever was in him. Though it is true that it is evil in him, it doesn’t mean that he is evil. The opposition between the two of us was not noticed.

            He didn’t realize what was happening. And those people I gave that message to didn’t realize that when truth went forth, they didn’t have the capacity of truth in their own lives to receive it. So they rejected it by rejecting the messenger. It wasn’t that they are evil, it was that they are bound by Satan. And they need someone to be able to pray, “Father, forgive them. They do not know what they are doing.”

            There has to be a generation who is able to stand against the powers, and at the same time offer to even the rulers and the kings and priests and prophets and all of those who oppose us freedom. We are to in one sense stretch out a hand in opposition, and with the other hand stretch out relief and freedom. With one hand we hold back the powers of darkness and with the other we offer hope. We wrestle not with flesh and blood, and this is how we can be a Daniel generation.

            This kind of thing doesn’t come with prayer and fasting. These things help, but they must come with wrestling. We have to wrestle with the Scriptures and with theology and with our community and with God Himself. We must be willing to truly pray. This kind of prayer that wrestles until the blessing comes is the only thing that will suffice. That is why this is only the introduction. We need to examine the character of God in order to understand better what details we need to pay attention to.

            At the heart of everything we do and say and believe is our perception of who God is. God’s one strike against Israel in the Psalms is “You thought I was one like yourself.” It was in the wrong understanding of God that the people Israel did wickedness. The same is true for us. It is in our wrong understanding of the character of God that we wrestle with flesh and blood instead of the principalities and powers.

            I believe that this is why the prophecies of Daniel don't come until after the stories of Daniel. The point is being pressed: you cannot understand this unless you understand God. You cannot gain wisdom without being open to whatever that wisdom might direct you toward. God might completely challenge your entire theology and the way you view the Scriptures. Are you willing to drink from that cup?
            There are some really challenging stories presented in the book of Daniel. They are the preliminary. God does not grant this kind of knowledge and wisdom to anyone. We must be a Daniel people. We must be able to wrestle as Daniel and his friends wrestled. We must be able to believe in God as they believed. This is no longer an option.
            I am becoming more and more convinced that the closer we are brought to Christ's return, the clearer it will become as to who is apostate and who is apostolic. The gray space will disappear. As the day grows closer, we won't be able to be casual. I would rather be in a mode of living in God's glory now so that when that day comes I won't have to change my lifestyle and heart and attitude. That's what it is all about, right? "To God be glory forever..."

Daniel pt 2

Daniel 2 is a chapter about how King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream that he wants interpreted. He doesn't tell the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, diviners, astrologers, wise men (you get the point) counsel the content of his dream. I've heard it posed that the king forgot what his dream was about. That isn't hinted at in the Scripture. The king doesn't tell these men his dream and expects them to give both the content of the dream and its interpretation to insure that it is the true interpretation of the dream. He doesn't want to be tricked.

It is then said by the sages of Babylon that no man possesses such power as the king asks, and that the only way that the kings request can be answered is by that of the gods.

So the stage is set.

Does God speak with mortal men? Does God give wisdom and understanding to mere flesh? The sorcerers of the Chaldeans didn't think so. Of course, we know that their gods were only wood carvings overlaid with gold. We know and they knew that the gods were ultimately just these carved images that don't say or do anything.

But there is a man in Babylon by the name of Daniel. And there is a God of the Hebrews (from whom Daniel comes from). And this God does speak. He does give wisdom. He does reveal mysteries.

So even though it is impossible for man, nothing is impossible with God.

Lets just take a look at this dream and interpretation:

Daniel 2:31: “You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

Daniel 2:36: “This was the dream. Now we will tell the king its interpretation. You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory, and into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over them all—you are the head of gold. Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things. And like iron that crushes, it shall break and crush all these. And as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.”

Here is the framework for the End Times. Every vision in the book of Daniel gives more and more detail to build upon, but this is the very bare foundation. God gave a dream to the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar.

In this dream, the king saw a statue. The interpretation is pretty obvious when you read how Daniel has interpreted it. The head was said to be Nebuchadnezzar. After him will come another king from another nation to destroy his kingdom. We know that this was Medo-Persia. Both history and the Biblical Scriptures attest to that. After the Medo-Persian Empire comes another nation to rule the world: Greece. Then a kingdom called Rome will conquer Greece.

Keep in mind that God is revealing only the foundation. We will find later that there are hints in the book of Daniel as to who these kings are. For now, it is only the natures that are given. However, I want to draw you attention to two things: this is one statue, and each metal is weaker than the last.

Each nation that rises up against the last is weaker in strength than the last kingdom. Silver is lesser to gold, bronze is lesser to silver, and iron is lesser to bronze. The feet on the statue are made of iron and clay. The question with most scholars about these feet is whether they are past or future. I believe that if I understand the interpretation, these feet are both. In the dream the iron represents Rome. Rome was run by a consul for a long time. Just before the turn of the millennium (from BCE to AD), Caesar Augustus took his throne.

Caesar Julius is well known as the first Caesar, but he was not the first authoritative emperor of Rome. Julius died and a strange star was seen in the heavens. This strange star is recorded in both history books as legend and also in the Bible as the star that led the Magi to Jesus. The Roman magicians and astrologers claimed that this star was Caesar Julius ascending to the right hand of the father god Zeus. Julius then claimed, “If my father was a god, then I am the son of god.” So it was declared that the emperors of Rome (the Caesars) were gods in the flesh. This started a new age in Rome.

I believe that this is a hint of what the feet might have been.

The feet could very well, and probably are, future as well. This doesn’t diminish the first interpretation at all. There was indeed the stone cut out of the mountain without human hands that came and established the kingdom of God on the earth. His name was Jesus. But there is a yet future demonstration of this because the statue has not been crushed and blown away. The nations of the earth still exist.

This is where I need to talk a little bit about it being one statue. The fact that it is one statue and not many statues is a representation that they are all ruled by one person: Satan. Though there are different rulers and different gods being worshipped and different nations and different practices, they are all under the guidance and dictation of Satan by being the very representation of his character.

The nations rage and conspire against each other. There is cheating and manipulation. Many of these pagan nations are very immoral.

In that very aspect of them being ruled by the mindset and value system of the devil, they forfeit their freedom to be governed and ruled over by the devil. This is why at the very end of it, all the parts of the statue are crushed and blown away by the wind. When Christ came, He died upon the cross and resurrected. He took the authority from the devil. He now has all authority of everything.

But if Jesus is the one who has all authority (Matthew 28:18), then why are there still kingdoms that aren’t under His rule and authority?

This is where the second interpretation comes in. There is a fulfillment of the dream in a sense with Rome. But here is where it wasn’t fulfilled. The dream ends with the Kingdom of God being in place on this earth. So that kingdom of iron and clay must be something yet future. This is will come up again and again. Follow me because many times translators and commentators alike will purposefully make the statement that this kingdom that must be future happened in the past.

The Book of Daniel pt 1

            The story of Daniel doesn’t start in the book of Daniel. There is a long drawn out history of Israel that needs to be fully understood. The thing that is most often misconceived is that Israel never followed God. This isn’t true. Before Israel was Abraham. It was to Abraham that the promise was given.

            God promised Abraham that he would be a nation, and that his offspring would be as countless as the stars. This wasn’t odd. In these times, cities and nations were named after real people. Real people had children, who then had children, who then had children. Five generations later, the family is now about 50 or 60 people. That’s enough to start a small town or city. The town or city continues to grow, and is named after the patriarch. God promises Abraham something that he has heard of, and has seen happen. Indeed, father Abraham had many sons; and many sons had father Abraham; I am one of them, and so are you… So lets just praise the Lord.

            It was all because of a simple belief. Abraham took God at His word. This started the continuation of a people who would take God at His word. When God speaks, the servant listens. Abraham’s son followed in Abrahams trust. And his son, Israel, also lived like Abraham. And then we get to the tribes of Israel. There were twelve sons. Everyone had their flaws, including Abraham. It wasn’t about that, though.

            There is a story in Genesis about how God makes a covenant with Abraham. God visits in the form of three people. They all travel to Abraham, and talk and discuss. Abraham has such hospitality that he doesn’t find it enough to open his door. He runs to the travelers (whom he doesn’t know is God), and begs them to stay with him. This speaks of the heart of Abraham, by the way.

            After this discourse, God makes a covenant with Abraham. The way that you would typically make a covenant is that each party gives offerings, and they lay out the offerings in a line. Each party then walks the line toward the middle to finalize the covenant. It’s like a handshake, but more symbolism.

            This isn’t what happens though. Abraham prepares all of the offerings. After preparing all of the sacrifices, he doesn’t get the opportunity to walk through. God walks through the whole thing to Abraham. The symbolism is that Abraham has nothing that he has to do. There isn’t an “Abraham’s side of the bargain.” It is all upon God and upon His faithfulness. God’s promises and covenants aren’t based on us.

            So when we get to the book of Exodus, and we see Israel the nation and the way they act and treat God, we have to understand that there is something bigger behind the story. The story is in itself a piece of a story. The exodus brings the people out of Egypt, which is out of bondage. The whole of the relationship between Israel and God is that God is the deliverer. It is a statement of that first covenant. God brings them out because of His faithfulness, not because Israel upholds their side of the bargain.

            Then the commandments are given. This isn’t what we think. In our Gentile minds, we see the giving of the Ten Commandments as being something that any god would do. I am God, you are not, so here is a do’s and don’ts list. That is not the heart of God. God longs to be with His people.

            The Ten Commandments were given in a wedding language. Ancient Jewish culture reveals that it is a groom who would give their requirements of their bride before they wed. The bride also gives her requirements, so each know what the other party expects. After the document has been made, they sign it, and they uphold their end of the deal. God is giving Israel His requirements. Interesting fact: there is what’s called a chuppa in traditional Jewish weddings which is a symbol of God being a “cloud” over the two being married (I wonder where they get the idea of God being a cloud over them…) This is why the prophets always refer to Israel in marriage language. This is why Israel “plays the harlot” instead of a prostitute. It isn’t that Israel is selling herself short by embracing other gods; Israel is cheating on her God.

            The story of Israel has its ups and downs. There are the good times and there are the bad times. You find the same thing with study of church history.

            The story takes us to a time in Israel’s history that I don’t believe anyone enjoys learning about. There was a shift between the tribes of Israel that caused for some to believe they were better than others, and others to actually believe that they were less. Because of this shift, the Kingdom split into two kingdoms: northern Israel and southern Judah. Judah was not only the tribe of Judah. They had the tribe of Benjamin, Manasseh, and a handful from all the tribes. The Levitical priesthood also remained in Judah.

            This split in the Kingdom only furthered the prejudice and hatred between tribes. Israel never had a good king. They were only always evil. Judah had some good kings, and wicked kings as well. There was a last good king of Judah. His name was Josiah. Josiah was very young (possibly in his early teens) when he became king. The priests found a copy of the Torah (possibly Talmud), and read it in the hearing of the king.

            Josiah was so broken over how far Judah had fallen away from the original intent of God that he rent his clothes and wept. He took all of the altars that were built to foreign gods and tore them down. As if that wasn’t enough, he then took bones and scattered them over the used-to-be-altars to defile them and ensure no one could ever use them again. There was a major reformation of Judah in the time of Josiah.

            Then he passed away… The next generation was the generation of Jeremiah. There is a story in the book of Jeremiah of how these priests and prophets bound Jeremiah up with intentions to kill him. In all of the commotion, some of the nobles and royalty came down from the palace and intervened. Of these youth who came down, some of them could have been Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. You probably recognize the first name (there is a book of the Bible named after him). The other three you also know. Their Babylonian names are Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego.

            Now here is where it gets interesting. It isn’t for certain, but it is very plausible that these four young men were some of them who went down from the palace to save Jeremiah. The reason this is so interesting is that it seems like the same men who would have defended the prophet before exile are the same men whom God promotes and protects while in exile.

            Do you see the question rising? How do we, in the world we live in now, live as a Daniel generation? We are in the generation after Josiah. If you don’t think so, then you’re severely mistaken. You’ll see what I mean.

            This is a decent question. The book of Daniel helps us to understand better as to what this looks like. In the very first chapter, you see the renowned men of Judah being brought before the king’s table to be taught with the Chaldeans. They learn in the school of Babylon, they learn how to divine, they learn how to be magicians, and they learn how to be good counselors for the king. The whole thing reeks of sin.

            But what do we read? “Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and asked the chief official permission not to defile himself in this way,” Daniel 1:8. There was something of a prophetic stature in Daniel to be able to see that this food and drink was not of God. When everyone else seemed to indulge and, I have to assume, count it as God’s provision, Daniel and his three friends stand up and say, “I would rather die than eat that.”

            There is more going on here. This kind of seeing doesn’t come into existence simply because we read our bibles and know that it says in Leviticus that we shouldn’t eat these meats… Every Jew was taught in the local synagogue to have the Torah (first five books of the Bible) memorized through and through by the time they would graduate elementary school. This takes sensitivity to the Spirit of God that is only formed by extreme devotion to the Lord. It is only built by our relationship with God.

            Daniel proves that age doesn’t matter. There are teenagers who understand deeper spiritual truths than 50-year-old pastors who have walked with the Lord for 35 years. It isn’t about how long; it is about how much. Your spirituality is measured by your devotion. Your devotion is measured by willingness.

            It says of Jesus that the Spirit was given to Him without measure (John 3:34). I don’t believe that this can happen to you and I unless we are devoted and willing without measure. Every stop sign that we decide to come up to, slow down, look both ways, then drive through is a negation of truth. It is in the details. There are thousands of examples from both everyday life and from the general path of life.

            Every time we cut someone off because we aren’t sure if we’ll ever have opportunity to pull out of the parking lot is detriment to our spirit. Did you pull out because you don’t trust the Lord to provide instance? What if you were supposed to stay longer for some reason the Lord had ordained? Yet we pull out and cut people off in hopes of getting to the next destination out of selfishness and pride.

            My wife and I don’t drive the highway. It promotes in people a mentality of “I have to get there now.” It diminishes patience. It takes away from our ability to wait on the Lord. It builds in us the kind of character that would cut people off. It builds in us the kind of character that would want instant gratification. It is of the flesh, and ultimately of the devil. The highway, fast food restaurants, processed foods, and anything promoting “instant” are traps and snares that develop mindsets that we don’t even realize they are developing until they have already entered in.

            Every time we bow the knee to Baal and we take a loan is cutting away from that which God has placed in us. Who is your provider? God? The bank? Your job? All of the above? You cannot serve two masters. If you can’t buy it outright, then you don’t need it. God will provide for your every need. If He uses your employment, then praise Him. If he uses your community, then praise Him. Do not go and get a loan when you don’t have money to afford that car, or that house, or that matching furniture. Everything in society is designed to be bought out of debt. Debt is spoken against through the entire Bible. I believe the deeper spiritual aspect is that debt is directly related to Baal.

            It is in these little things that we forfeit the Spirit of God. There are thousands of them a day. When we are willing to ignore the little details, we are willing to ignore the God of those details. We will not have the ability to discern the difference between the clean and the unclean, the precious and the vile. There will be gray area that the king’s meat will fall into where we’re unsure. There will be others who won’t even have the gray area of uncertainty. They will joyfully eat of it without remorse.

            Our spiritual testimony to the world hinges upon this. If we eat the food and drink the wine, we’re just like everyone else and our words have no power. To abstain from it, we will find fierce opposition (like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah). They were thrown into a fiery furnace. Daniel was put into a lion’s den. The gods of this world hate it when we oppose the system that they have placed in effect.

            It is our opposition to them that will cause for persecution. We won’t need to go searching. It isn’t about our prayer being neglected and our churches are full of lazy people. The real issue is that without the proper attention to these details, the kingdom of darkness is able to say to us, “Jesus we know, and Paul we know, but who are you?”

In the Beginning pt 9

Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

What is the Sabbath?

We find in Isaiah a strange passage about the Sabbath:

Thus says the Lord:

“Keep justice, and do righteousness,
For My salvation is about to come,
And My righteousness to be revealed.
 Blessed is the man who does this,
And the son of man who lays hold on it;
Who keeps from defiling the Sabbath,
And keeps his hand from doing any evil.”

We start with keeping justice and doing righteousness because salvation is about to come. This is obviously a passage for the first and second coming of Christ. This might also be one of the passages that the Pharisees had employed. They thought that if we could just get holy enough, then the Messiah would come and deliver Israel from the Romans.

But if we just read this passage, we find that it connects keeping justice and doing righteousness with the Sabbath...

Why?

In the beginning, God rested, and that was considered as the Sabbath. I've always been taught that sabbath means rest, and so to keep the Sabbath is to rest all day. What is this parallel with justice and righteousness and the Sabbath?

Lets look at the life of Jesus. Time and time again Jesus is healing on the Sabbath. It is mentioned that at least one time, Jesus asks the question, "Is it better to do good or evil on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?" There wasn't a response. Why? Well we can see that it is obviously better to save life and do good. The point isn't about resting... or is it?

What about all those times where Jesus gets yelled at because He is "doing that which is unlawful on the Sabbath?" He is working, right? That is what healing is, anyway... Or is it?

Jesus continually seems to give these explanations and return questions that when you look into it, it seems like Jesus is saying, "I'm not working. My Father is the one who is working. I just lay hands on people and speak a word. That doesn't take any effort. God is the one who does the healing."

Wait a second...

So Jesus claims that His teachings, healings, miracles, and everything else that He does on the Sabbath isn't done by His own strength?

Remember when we learned that the word "hovered" in Genesis 1:2 was the Piel participle of the verb "to relax?" When you use the Piel, you change the verb (it intensifies). What does it mean if you intensely run? You sprint. It is the same verb, but intensified. The participle means that you use this verb as an adjective: "the sprinting man..."

So when we read the Spirit of God hovered, it could also be written as "The resting Spirit of God..."

If God created everything from this state of rest, then what does it mean that He rested on the Sabbath?

How is it that God can be at rest while creating, and yet it says that He rested from His work on the seventh day?

The difference is the verbs.

The verb for "rest" in Hebrew is ShBTh (shaw-Bawt). The Sabbath is different in one major particular: this rest brings about regeneration.

This isn't about renewing strength or sleep or not doing. This is about edifying your spirit. This word is about doing that which renews your soul and spirit. The Sabbath is about doing that which brings you pleasure. It is about doing that which brings your soul peace and joy.

If gardening is refreshing to your soul, then garden. If you really enjoy studying this or that topic, then study. What is it that you can say, "If I'm able to do this forever, that would be Heaven?" It's different for everybody.

What it is not is sitting in front of the television and relaxing.

It is not filling your mind and soul with things that are damaging to the Spirit of God.

It is not spending the day on the internet watching videos that use language, violence, or any other form of corruption (like sexual imagery).

It is not reading blog posts about who is wrong and for what reason.

Things that rile up emotions like anger, bitterness, wrath, hatred, strife, lewdness, selfishness, outbursts, jealousy, envy, contentions, and division are unacceptable for the Sabbath.

The reason is because the Sabbath isn't about relaxing. We have misinterpreted this entirely. We think that relaxing is resting. But there is a difference between Genesis 1:2 and Genesis 2:2. The verbs are very different. Genesis 2:2 speaks of a rest that revitalizes your spirit. You don't dwell on the controversies of the world. You don't worry. You don't spend time searching out things that are going to cause you to get upset and retaliate (in any form).

The Sabbath is about refreshing your spirit, therefore it isn't something that is wrapped in time. It isn't about a point in time. It is an eternal moment. It stretches beyond time and is something that should transform us deeply.

I would suggest reading Abraham Joshua Heschel's book on the Sabbath (its actually titled The Sabbath). He probes the depth of what it means for the Sabbath to be timeless and eternal.

As for me, I struggle enough with just trying to remember that the Sabbath isn't about relaxing, but about rest. Is my soul at rest? What do I need to do to create life in myself? What do I need to do to help create life in those around me? I might actually have to work. But that isn't the point of the Sabbath (working or not working). The point is that whatever you do, it generates rest and life and peace and causes those around you to be able to say, "This is very good." 

In the Beginning pt 8

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, 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. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so. Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

I've probably heard the same thing that everyone else has heard regarding what it means to be an image bearer. I've heard people say that to be an image bearer means that we were given special things that other animals and creatures haven't been given. Usually it is something about how we have the ability to create, and we have intelligence that is different from the animals.

I've also heard that we have an ability to have relationships. We have emotions.

I don't want to take away from these things, but I'd like to try and present something that maybe you haven't heard.

We've seen how over and over again Genesis 1 seems to speak about how God was making Himself a temple. Now God creates humanity as priests. We're given a special charge. Our charge is that we are to have dominion. I think that this is one of those times where being an image bearer is to have a priestly ministry.

We were created in God's image so that we could be that intermediary between God and the creation. We conduct the worship of Creation upward to God, and conduct the love, care, and stewardship of God outward to the world around us. If God needs to speak something to His creation, He speaks through His people. We are like mirrors that display the character of God and the words of God outward to everything we come in contact with.

Think of the implications.

The closer our relationship with Christ, the more we can impact the world around us. But this isn't one of those weird evangelical "you have to be going out and doing" versus "you have to be before you go" things. This is about our righteousness actually affecting the animals. This is about our being in tune with the Spirit, and it actually causes an effect in nature.

What is our spiritual warfare?

Our spiritual warfare is simply to display that light of God (which is the character of God) to every one and everything that we come in contact to. Sometimes the word that needs to be spoken is a harsh word. Sometimes the way that you prune a fruit tree is by cutting it way back. It depends on what is necessary for this particular need.

But how do we know the need?

We learn the needs by learning God. The more we can discover God as He actually is (and not how we desire Him to be, or how others teach us He is), the more we can reflect His character. It takes actually getting to know God. This takes cultivating our relationships with Him to learn His heart, spirit, and character. John tells us in his first epistle that we need to test the spirits at all times.

How do we test the spirits?

To an extent, it is true what many pastors tell us. They use the analogy of bankers. Bankers learn what the authentic looks like, feels like, and smells like. They spend so much time with the truth that when the false comes around, they know its a fake.

This is pretty much exactly how we can interpret and discern the spirits. Beyonce when asked about her performance for the Super Bowl half time, she responded with "I lifted my eyes to heaven, and lifted my arms up, and it was the first time that I felt something come into me. I'm usually really reserved. The Beyonce that you see performing isn't me. That is someone else."

Why is it that so many Christians who watched the Super Bowl didn't have anything to say against her performance? Maybe they thought her outfit was a bit risque.... but other than that, they didn't have anything wrong with the performance or the spirit brought forth from that performance.

Was it the Holy Spirit that came into her? Does the Holy Spirit possess people?

If we don't think that it was the Holy Spirit, then it can only leave one other place that the spirit could come from: darkness.

How many Christians found this to be entertaining?

Yet, John tells us to discern the spirits.

If they can't discern the spirits there when they should be most on their guard, the what about when they're in church? If we can't discern at that time, then who is to say that our discernment is right when we're in church? How much of our "worship" is man made atmosphere? How much of it is a projection of soul and not spirit? How much of our prayer doesn't ever actually go beyond carnality or soul?

This is just something to ponder.

It is easy to check you heart and spirit. Jesus called the Holy Spirit "the Spirit of Truth" and said it will lead us into all truth. And that truth will set you free.

In the Beginning pt 7

Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.” So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, 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.” So the evening and the morning were the fifth day. Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

Alrighty. Last post we looked at how God is casting the darkness out of our world. We are in the midst of God's movement and progression forward. Even though darkness continues to put up a fight, God is allowing it to come to its full. Think of the story of Abram. Abram is told by God that the fourth generation of his descendants will come back to Canaan. Why can't he possess the land now an let his descendants live there with him? "The sin of the Amorites has not reached its full measure."

So for those of us who are seeing a lot of the corruption of the world (which I must say I know a lot more than I should...), it is comforting to know that even in the midst of that, there is hope. God has always paved the way for hope. God has always provided for His chosen (even feeding them by ravens). But this isn't what I'm wanting to talk about necessarily today.

Last time we looked at how on the fourth day, God created the stars, the sun, and the moon. Here we read on the fifth day, God creates the bird and the fish. On the sixth day, God creates the animals. I assume that my reader has a little knowledge of the Bible (at least), so I would assume that you would also know that humanity was created on the sixth day.

So lets backtrack even further.

On the first day, God creates the heavens and the earth. On the second day, God creates an expanse in the heavens and calls it "sky." On the third day, God parts the seas and creates land.

Did you catch it?

How about it put it like this:
On the first day, God creates the heavens and the earth. On the fourth day, God fills the heavens with stars, the sun, and the moon. On the second day, God creates the skies. On the fifth day, God fills the skies and the seas with birds and fish. On the third day, God created the dry land. On the sixth day, God fills the land with animals and people.

So the first 3 days God is creating something, and the next 3 days God is filling that which He had created.

Isn't it interesting that God spends 3 days creating and 3 days filling? What else comes up in threes?

We know that God is displayed as creator, spirit, and light. He is 3, but He is 1 elohim (god).

The word bara is used as the verb meaning "create." The word bara appears 3 times in Genesis 1, and on the 3rd time, it happens 3 times. 

The phrase "evening and morning" occurs 6 times (2 times 3).

But that isn't all for number games that are happening here.

There are also sevens.

The first verse has 7 words in Hebrew.

The second verse has 14 (2 times 7) words in Hebrew.

The seventh paragraph has 35 word (5 times 7).

The word Earth appears 21 times (3 times 7).

The word God appears 35 times (5 times 7).

The phrase "It was so" appears 7 times.

The phrase "And God saw" appears 7 times.

With the usage of threes and the usage of sevens, I must then ask the question: got any tens?

"To make" appears 10 times.

"According to their kind" appears 10 times.

"And God said" appears 10 times. 3 times in relation to people; 7 times in relation to other creations.

"Let there be" appears 10 times. 3 times for the heavens; 7 times for the Earth...

After a while you start to wonder if the author had some help...

This first chapter of Genesis brings all sorts of strange things with it. The number 3 represents wholeness. The Hebrew word for wholeness is shalom. For any of your educated people, you might know that shalom is translated as peace. I remind you that Hebrew doesn't have abstracts without connecting it to some sort of tangible concrete. Shalom is the idea of completion and wholeness. It is the idea of nothing lacking. It isn't the idea of completion like "done." It is the idea of nothing lacking.

The number 7 is usually represented as completion. This time, I wish people wouldn't use the word completion at all. The number 7 is better understood as perfection. The idea isn't that God's creation was done in 6 days and on the seventh He rested, and that is where we get our idea of a 7 day week. It isn't about completion at all, really. It is that on the seventh day God rested because everything was "good." There was nothing that needed to be tinkered with to try and get it just right. 7 is the number of perfection, and many times in the Bible it goes hand in hand with the number 14. 

The number 10 brings with it the idea of divine perfection. They get this because of the 10 Commandments. However, I disagree slightly. I think that it is a representation of God. It is a reflection of all that He is and exactly as He is. There were 10 plagues on Egypt. This doesn't represent divine perfection, but seems to represent divine judgment. So I think that the number 10 is best described as the all encompassing nature of God. It is "God as He is."

So this number game in Genesis 1 seems to bring with it the idea of the wholeness of creation (number 3) and the perfection of it (number 7) comes from relationship with God (number 10).

This is exactly what the Hebrews knew to be the Gospel message. This is the concept of the Gospel from the Old Testament. Correct relationship with God, as He is, brings forth wholeness and perfection in the individual. The fact that this is available to us is what we call "the good news."

How interesting is it that the number game in Genesis not only seems to give this message, but even characterizes the creation itself with it? All is not right in creation unless God is present in it. This is another reason why I believe that Genesis 1 is a representation of God building Himself a Temple to dwell in. He formed the heavens and earth so that He might dwell within them.

Next time we'll get into humanity being created, and what does it mean to be image bearers?

In the Beginning pt 6

Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

As promised before, I want to look at the darkness being "judged" in the creation of the world.

I feel like I've been looking at this a lot lately. Remember from the first 5 verses of Genesis that God separated the light from the darkness. He now puts over the darkness "rulers" called the sun and the moon. God first restrains the darkness to only being allowed to occupy the night, and here He then further contains the darkness by putting rulers over it.

But we know a little bit further into the story, don't we? We know about Genesis chapter 3. We know that Satan tempted Even (which, if Adam is the head, then why didn't he tempt Adam?) and Eve took the fruit and ate. She then gave some to her husband (which, if he was the spiritual authority, why did he trust her judgment beyond his own?) and he ate it too. Their eyes were thus opened.

What happened in that disobedience?

We'll further examine this scene later, but for now I want to bring up the point that in this darkness was brought into the creation. By disobedience (sin), darkness was allowed to rule over the day, night, and have its limits were thus taken away. The fall in the Garden wasn't about the depravity of man. It is a cosmic fall. Since everything is interconnected, Adam's sin brings darkness into the creation. Maybe this is why we see in Isaiah 24 that the moon shall be confounded and the sun will be ashamed.

They were supposed to be rulers over the darkness. Yet when we read the whole of the Bible, we see that there is to be an Antichrist who Paul calls "the man of sin." I am becoming increasingly more convinced that this man of sin is Satan in the flesh. This is a man so possessed by Satan that you cannot see the one without the other any longer. Obviously, it isn't Satan, because we read in Revelation that the Antichrist and his False Prophet are thrown into the fire before Satan is. There is a distinction made. However, I can't help but come to the conclusion that this man of sin is the full form of sin. He is corruption through and through.

The sun and moon were supposed to keep that from happening. They were supposed to be rulers over the darkness. Yet we read that this abomination will happen.

Darkness has infiltrated our world. It has seeped in through the cracks of sin. But this isn't how it will always be.

We can read the end of the Bible. We find in Revelation 21 and 22 that it is mentioned there is neither sun, nor moon. There are no stars. There is no darkness. God is the light. The Lamb is the light. There is no temple. God is the Temple. The Lamb is the Temple.

Isaiah also prophesied of this. He also claimed there would be a day that darkness would exist no more. One of the problems with the way that a lot of people read the Bible is that they think of night time. It is written in an ancient language: Hebrew. Darkness is no more night time than the sun is day time. They are related, yes. But when we talk about darkness we talk about chaos. We talk about sin. We talk about struggle. We talk about wars. We talk about devastation. We talk about destruction. We talk about the work of the devil. Satan's kingdom is even called the kingdom of darkness.

So when we read that there is no more darkness in the age to come, we must understand that it is saying a lot more than it will be day time all the time.

Notice that I mentioned that there is no more temple. Why? When we read the Bible, and we look at history itself, we find that the temple is a symbol of something. The temple symbolizes where God lives. In order to communicate with the gods, you must go to their temples and consult their priests. If you want a good harvest, you offer a sacrifice to the god of prosperity. In order to know what to sacrifice, you need to go to the temple and consult the priests.

After thousands of years, the temple started to bring a negative connotation with it. If you offer to the gods and you end up doing well, you need to offer more to the gods next year. You don't want to offend the gods. And what if you don't end up with a good harvest? You now need to offer more to appease the gods. So whether you are blessed or cursed, you need to continue to offer more and more and more.

Are the gods angry?

Do we know whether they have accepted our sacrifices?

Then this revolutionary book called Leviticus came around.

Leviticus tells us what to offer, how much to offer, and then says, "That is all." Once you have offered what you need to offer, you're done. You don't have to worry about whether God is angry or not. You don't need to worry about whether God accepts your sacrifice. If you follow what He lays out in Leviticus, then you will be recognized as atoned for.

And so there was a Temple in Israel. But even that became to be abused. There was one point in Israel's history that they were bringing unacceptable offerings to the Temple. They continued with business as usual. They treated God as though He is like all the other gods of the nations. They are just blocks of wood or gold that have been crafted with human hands. So what does it care if we offer a lame or blind goat instead of a pure and spotless lamb?

So plagues came upon Israel.

And after thousands of years of human history offering to the gods, there became a deep rooted animosity. Are the gods angry? Am I okay with the gods?

How many people have you heard say, "If I went into a church building, it would catch on fire." Or what about this one: "If (insert religious phrase here), then I would be struck by lightning."

Really?

Where does that come from?

The gods are angry.

And so we see in the end that there is no temple.

Why?

Because God isn't like that. Everywhere in Scripture He points to a different character than that. He never has been like that. He has never demanded more and more and more. He has never required that pastors should have to give up their "secular" lives to be ministers. He has never said that if He loves you then you would be wealthy. He has never said that He wants you to have the best the world has to offer. That is the lie of Satan.

God accepts us where we're at.

He sees us where we are and says, "You don't have to live like that."

You don't have to live like that...

God embraces us where we are. He calls out to us from wherever we are, no matter how dark that place might be. Remember that He hovered over that darkness in the beginning? He isn't afraid to get in the muck and crap with you. He isn't ashamed of you.

And that is what makes this so powerful.

God is with us.

That is the Christmas message, right?

Emmanuel: God with us.

And at the end of everything, we read that the main point of heaven is that God is with us. We don't find darkness to oppress us: God is there. We don't find a temple to burden us: God is there.

And that is the point that has been proclaimed from the start. God doesn't just love you, He actually likes you. He actually wants to spend time with you. He actually created this world so that He could dwell with us on it. This world wasn't made to be far off from Him, and we have to somehow invoke the name of God and call upon Him for Him to hear us. He was supposed to be right here next to us.

But the real kicker isn't that it is still somewhere else for another time.

It is for here and now.

"For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord," Romans 6:5-11.

May the God of Heaven and Earth grant you this kind of resurrection - freedom from sin and darkness.

Grace and peace.

In the Beginning pt 5

Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day. Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the third day.

My focus now turns toward the land appearing. God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind..." Notice that God doesn't say, "Let there be..."

This is a distinction that is noteworthy for a simple reason. When God creates the animals and people and birds and fish, He says, "Let there be..." Here, God isn't the one who creates the vegetation. The Earth itself brings forth the vegetation. God does direct it and speak it forth, but God does not create it directly. God creates it indirectly.

Whats the point?

There is the complication of what did Adam eat? We can see that God tells Him in the second chapter to be vegetarian. The first time we see God say that humanity is allowed to eat meat is after the flood. If Adam ate vegetation, and vegetation is living, was there death before sin?

I am not going to say that trees, grass, and herbs are not living. We can see that they have cells that are very alive and active. If Adam cuts down some herbs to let them dry, is he killing them?

This is somewhat important. The real debate is about evolution. In order for there to be evolution, death has to exist before sin. Well, I'm not going to get into the evolution debate at this time. I simply want to pose the argument that for Adam to eat the vegetation, it is not death.

Think ahead a little bit to Genesis 4. Cain killed his brother Abel. The blood from the ground cried out to God.

That doesn't happen in the Garden.

So there isn't any sign of bloodshed at all before sin.

I think that this is the point. "The life is in the blood." It isn't that plants are not living, but that Hebrew word for "life" can be translated as breathe. God breathed into Adam, and Adam became a living being. It's the same idea. The breathe of life is in the blood.

So, it isn't that plants are not living. What is more important is that God has not breathed the breath of life into them.

Next thing to ponder: the first three days are building.

Remember that first entry about Genesis 1:1? It appears like God is building a Temple for Himself to dwell in. What does that mean for these first three days and what is done within them?

There is a premium placed on that which God chooses to do and how He chooses to do it.

Remember in 1 Kings when Solomon built the Temple? He built 3 parts to the Temple. The outer court was where sacrifices would be made to God. The sacrifices in this context would be the gathering of the praises of the creation. The heavens declare the glory of God. The earth moans and groans.

The inner court was where the priests ministered unto the Lord by prayer and worship. There was no light from the outside in this area. The only light received was from a menorah. Remember what happened on the second day? God separated the waters to build the inner court (if you will). He made the atmosphere and blocked off the outer court from the inner court with a layer of water.

What about this day three?

The third place in the Temple was the Holiest Place, or the Holy of Holies. This was where God Himself said to Moses "I will meet with you face to face." Here in the deepest part of the Temple (for Moses it was the Tabernacle) where the ark of the covenant was found is where God promised to speak. This room was completely cut off from all light. 

There is something to know about the ark of the covenant. It was built out of wood, and overlaid with gold. In it was the Testimony (the 10 Commandments). On top of it was what the King James translators called the mercy seat. In the Hebrew, the wording used for mercy seat is lid. So where did they get mercy seat?

Mercy seat comes from the New Testament, but it is not a wrong interpretation. The idea is that these two cherubs that sit opposite to one another and look down to the ark and forward to one another stretch their wings up and over their heads to touch one another. God says in between them He will speak to Moses. But they're touching. There isn't room between them. And that is the point. It is possible that these cherubs were placed on the side of the lid so their wings went up along the back to form the back of a throne. The lid then would make the ark look like a throne upon which God would sit.

This is why it was called the mercy seat: mercy triumphs over judgment. God says that in between the cherubs we will speak with Him. But the cherub wings touch one another. It is in our lives together and the interconnectedness of all things that God meets with us. It is on our being outside and one with creation that we can find God more than when we're locked in the house and barely see the sunshine.

The people I know who claim there is no god are the very people who go day after day after day being inside, sucking the air that has been adapted to either be warm in the winter or cold in the summer, disconnecting themselves from the creation around, and then claim that when they sit in their homes they can't see God anywhere around them.

Duh.

The point of the third day and what God is creating here is that He is found in the everything. When we sit outside in the fresh air and learn to just enjoy the beauty that we see, we find it much easier to find God. It is much easier to find God when we live on a farm than when we live in a school building always behind a computer. God is in His creation, and if we can't be one with His creation, then we can't be one with Him.

In Hebrew, the word for wilderness is attached to the word for word. Davar means word. The idea is that it is an order of letters to create a word. These letters formed in this way mean something. Devarah (Deborah) means bee. The idea of the bee is that it has a hive full of order (from the way the bees act and interact to the very precise way of building honeycomb). The word for wilderness is midvar. Midvar comes from the idea that when you leave nature to itself, it will take care of itself. It is at complete harmony and order by itself. It is when mankind comes in and starts trying to take care of it and adapt it that we find destruction and pollution. The wilderness is a place of order - and order comes from God.

So the idea of the Garden (or the third day of forestry being made) is a direct link to the Holy of Holies. God is found there. He is in the ordered place. God is building a Temple for Himself in Genesis 1, and we have the choice to either be a part of that Temple or to destroy that Temple.