It's not Good to be Alone

18 And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” 19 Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.

21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 22 Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.

23 And Adam said:

“This is now bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man.”

24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

In Genesis 2:18, we find the first mention of "not good." Throughout the entirety of Genesis 1, we read about the first day, and God says it is good. The second day, God says it is good. The third day, God says it is good. All the way through to the seventh day, God says, "It is very good." Now we reach the first time that God says, "It is not good..." Isn't it fascinating that the first thing God says is not good is loneliness? 

Notice that God does not say it is sin. It is not sin to be alone, or to feel alone. Loneliness is something that we have all experienced at some time. The Hebrew word is bad (bawd). It has the implication of a branch severed from the tree, a body part disconnected. This is not mere isolation, but a disconnect from the whole. 

God's response to this loneliness is to "make a helper." The Hebrew word is etser, which comes from the root atsar - to surround. Etser means "one who helps," but seems like the implications are companionship and camaraderie, not service or assistance. It is also more than someone to talk to and be around. This suitable helper is supposed to be one that can come alongside and fill out the areas in life that are incomplete. 

We have in verses 19-20 the scene of Adam naming the animals. This has two implications. First, it implies hierarchy. Adam was "over" the animals in that he names them; they don't name themselves. In Daniel 1, Daniel and his three companions are given new names. The king of Babylon does this to show he has ownership over those young men. He named them; he owns them. The second implication is found in what a name represents. The Hebrew word shem (pronounced shame) means character. Adam would have deeply searched the soul of those animals to name them precisely as they are. Their name is the essence of their being. It takes intimacy with that other being in order to name them. You have to know them in their deeps and see what the animal truly is.

We come to verse 21 and God puts Adam in a deep sleep. The Hebrew word is tardemah. It means a trance, or a deep sleep (as if dead). The Greek equivalent is used in Revelation 1 when John sees Jesus and falls down before Him as if dead. Daniel sees a vision in Daniel 10, and falls down on his face into a "deep sleep." This is the same thing. It's the idea of being unconscious or in a coma or something. It makes me think of Paul when he said, "Whether in the body or out of the body, I don't know..." 

This idea of Adam being brought into a deep unconscious slumber, as if dead, is all the more amplified by the verb in the following phrase. Yashen means physical relaxation/being languid, but figuratively implies death. God took a rib out of Adam and from that rib made a woman. She was called such because when Adam awoke, he said, "Woah, man..." (That was a pathetic attempt at a joke). 

In the wording, "bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh," we actually have an idiom. To understand what this means, it is actually a comparison of bone and flesh. Whereas bone is hard, flesh is soft. Where I am weak, she is strong, but where I am strong, she is weak. We complete one another. This is the helper that Adam needed. This is the kind of relationship that was needed in order to not be "alone." In the case of Adam, it was a wife that was necessary. In the case of many people in our world today, it is not necessarily a wife or a husband. The implications of what it means for them to be a wife or husband is found prominently in the next couple verses.

Before we get to that point, lets further investigate this scene. The Hebrew for rib is tselath. It means side, but can be used in anatomy, architecture, or figuratively. Depending on the context, we would call it a beam, side, rib, plank, etc. It comes from the Hebrew tsala, which means "to limp." Tsala is used in Genesis 32:22-32 when Jacob wrestled the angel and walked away limping. For Adam to be put into a deep sleep, as though dead, and then a rib taken from his side, we're looking at a metaphor for resurrection. Just as Jacob transformed from Jacob to Israel, so Adam is transforming from man to humanity. It was male and female - He made them in God's image. There is something about man and woman uniting to bring forth the image of God.

The Hebrew for woman is ishah; the Hebrew for man being ish. The woman has a hey at the end of ishah. The man has a yod in the middle of ish. When you bring together the yod with the hey, you have yah, which is the name of God. To be truly united, we bring Christ in us to one another, the God that He invested inside of you. When I as a male bring the image of God in me to my wife, and she brings the image of God in her to me, we make a complete yah, and therefore have a three chord strand that is not easily broken. 

To build a relationship upon Christ instead of upon "I love her" is completely different. Notice in verse 23 that Adam never named the woman. There isn't a hierarchy. Adam is not over the woman. Paul notes that the woman was created for man, not visa versa. What's going on here? Paul cannot be saying that man is over the woman. Thus, it must mean that woman is to serve God with man, not as a lesser, but not alone either. The reason for this is because of what I've already mentioned the "bone of my bone" idiom stands for. In the ways of God, He has purposed that woman should serve Him alongside of man. We'll dive into this a little more deeply in a minute.

The word for one used in verse 24 is echad. Echad is used many times in the Old Testament to mean one. It does not mean a multiplicity of ones. I've heard the argument that it is like one bundle of sticks compared to one stick. The truth is, echad would be used to describe both the bundle as well as the single stick. But here is what we do know: Adam and Eve would not have ended up somehow mutating together to become one being. They were still two distinct entities: male and female. Never does Adam become one with Eve in the sense of a merging of the flesh to become one person instead of two. So echad, even though it means one, is being used figuratively to make a point.

When we read in the shema, we read that the word echad is used at the end (the Lord your God is one). Jesus prayed in John 17:21 that we would be one as He and the Father are one. In Ephesians 5:31-32, Paul says that this is a mystery that is speaking of Christ and His Church. The very words in Genesis 2:24 are somehow now being related to Christ and His Church. 

I said previously that for Adam, the loneliness was cured by a wife. But for we in the twenty first century, it isn't necessarily marriage that cures loneliness. It comes from two sources, both being related inseparably. We are to be married to Christ, which is to say that we are to be one with Christ. That sounds nice and all, but what does that look like and actually mean? The ironic thing is that this is where the second implication comes in. To be one with Christ is to be one with one another. When we are willing to be intimate with one another, to the degree that you cannot tell where the one begins and the other ends, we are now being united with Christ.

It is beholding in one another's faces that we move from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:17-18). We're given a clue in Genesis 2:25 as to what it would mean to be one with one another. They were naked and felt no shame. Nakedness is not simply stripping down. There is a stripping that is not of clothing. There is a nakedness that does not involve nudity. Nakedness is transparency. We read in James 5:16 to confess our faults one to another and to pray for one another. Paul says to carry each other's burdens, for when one part of the Body hurts, the whole Body hurts. That kind of openness of confession to one another, and that kind of love to pray for one another instead of lording over one another is completely other worldly. 

In openness and honesty and nakedness, there was no shame for faults and failures. In all things, man was innocent. Could you imagine what it would be like to be that kind of person to someone else? Are you able to conceive what it would mean to be able to unload your heart to someone, and instead of judging or condemning, they embrace you and say with heartfelt tears, "Me too?" We've all failed in one place, and even if I've never committed adultery, I'm no better than the one who has. I've done things that the adulterer or murderer would never conceive of. The visions in my mind sometimes are so perverted and evil that to confess it would be to expose myself. I'm not a good person.

Yet, it is in the midst of that kind of relationship to one another that we find healing and freedom. We find healing from our sins, and we find innocence because we're not looking to hide or deceive. To be united one to another, so that we are no longer male and female, Jew or Gentile, black or white, slave or free, but are all one in Christ requires that we would be transparent before one another. The cure to loneliness is not to be around other people. The cure to loneliness is confession.

When we're united to a Body of believers that is naked before one another, shame is not felt. Adam and Eve were naked and felt no shame. This kind of innocence has been lost to us, but we can understand it and be a part of it through Christ. Honesty and transparency is being more naked than nudity would require. We don't like the idea of being that open and bare. We like to clothe ourselves and hide behind our fig leaves. It takes the Spirit of Christ itself to even get us to consider opening up and being real. 

The heck of it is that to be united to the Body here and now is actually more than just being united to the Body here and now. There is an unbroken continuum of saints that stretch back to Adam being a son of God, Abel offering a sacrifice that God accepted, Seth's descendants being the first mention of "At that time men began to call upon the name of the Lord", Enoch entering into eternity by faith, and all the other amazing saints that we're in line with throughout all ages. This is called the invisible cloud of witnesses. 

We are interwoven with this invisible cloud. Even when you feel alone, you are not alone. The others that have gone before you are ever and always about you. When we enter into the Body of Christ, we enter an eternal Body that spans from everlasting to everlasting. Before the foundations of the world, Jesus was the eternal Son of God. To enter into His Body is to enter into Him. To enter into Him is to enter into the Triune God. As the Bride of Christ, we are more than human. Divinity and humanity have been married, and in being united one to another, we are actually a fourth aspect of the Godhead. That isn't to say that we are divine as individuals, but to say that the marrying of Israel and the Church, Spirit and flesh, Heaven and Earth, and God and man brings us into an exalted place. We are somehow more than human, and even exalted above the angels, but not on par with Christ.

Just as the woman was created to serve God alongside of man, the Bride of Christ is to rule and reign alongside of Christ. The woman is not less than man, nor is she under man. She is not to be "ruled over", nor is she to be the head of the house. There is no "head" but Christ. When man and woman have been made equal and serve God together - one alongside of the other - we are displaying a mystery of how God has made the Bride to rule and reign with Christ in equality to Christ, and not in subjectivity or "underneath" Christ. 

Oh the depths and riches of our God! The tender mercies that would make man a little lower than the angels, but to be raised up unto Him as Sons and Daughters - co-heirs with Christ. Who is like the Lord? And who has been His counselor? To Him be glory in the Bride, forever and ever, amen.

When Darkness is Upon the Face of the Deep - Genesis 2:16-17

16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”


In these two trees, we have the whole of the Gospel. Before looking at these two trees and what they symbolize, I would like to go back and take another look at Genesis 1:2. "Now the earth was formless and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God hovered over the waters." What we have in Genesis 1:2 is a chiastic structure. A chiastic structure is a form in literature where two things are being compared to one another. In the case of Genesis 1:2, we have the face of the deep being compared with the waters, and the darkness being compared with the ruach (Spirit). The question to ask is this: are they being likened to one another, or opposites?

Simple logic would say that the deeps are being likened to the waters, therefore the darkness is being likened to the Spirit of God. Now, lets take a moment and break down this Hebrew phrase ruach elohim merachepheth. The verb is merachepheth. It is a piel participle of rachaph. Rachaph means to relax, the piel conjugation simply meaning that we intensify the verb. This particular verb is only found in the piel participle one other time in Scripture: Deuteronomy 32:11. "Like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions..." Notice here that the verb is being compared with a stirring up of the young.

The verb, scholars say, denotes an intense vibration. However, lets not lose the fact that it comes from the root rachaph, which means "to relax." There is something about the Spirit of God being at rest that caused for an intense vibration. My question is this: what was vibrating? Is it possible that the vibrations weren't from the Spirit, but instead from the creation? Obviously the verb is supposed to be describing the Spirit, but what if this is a better description of what the Hebrew word ruach is? Ruach is used in relationship to God, and only God. It is His Spirit, but it is sometimes translated as breath or wind. This movement of air, whether by breath or wind, might actually give us a clue.

I find it much more satisfying to translate this passage as "the Divine Essence (Spirit) stirred up the waters." Now, I want you to remember the whole verse. "Darkness was upon the face of the deep." So, what is being compared is still the Spirit with darkness. That isn't to say that God is darkness, but to say that there is a positive relationship between God and darkness. I think we've all felt formlessness, emptiness, and darkness. We've all felt the sensation of, "If God exists, then why would He allow this?"

It is precisely in those moments that we find the "Spirit stirs up the creation." What is being spoken here is an intense poetry. Every Christian can give their testimony of how God has helped them through even the darkest and most chaotic moments in life. This is the positive relationship between God and darkness. Even though He cloaks Himself in darkness, and speaks out of the cloud of thick darkness, He doesn't leave us there without stirring up those deeps and saying from the inside out, "Let there be..."

Now, when we get to Genesis 2:16-17, we need to keep in mind that those two trees represent the two opposites mentioned in Genesis 1:2. Though darkness and the Spirit are being likened to one another, God is still light. In Him there is no darkness. In order for God to have fellowship with His creation, He has had to clothe Himself in darkness. We cannot see Him in full unadulterated splendor and live. But the darkness is not permanent. In Revelation 21-22, we find that there is no darkness. So there is a glory still to come where we will see God as He is, and we will not be harmed.

These two trees represent the clash between choosing to serve in that final Kingdom without darkness, and desiring to have our own thoughts and opinions outside of God. To take of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is to say, "I can decide this on my own. I have freewill, and God gave me a good enough mind to come to my own conclusions." At the center of what these two trees represent, we find the heart of all of our disputes in Christendom. Do we come to conclusions because of philosophy, intellect, or some other form? Or do we wait until Divine inspiration inserts the correct understanding into our hearts?

I know a lot of information. I have a good understanding of what the Bible says. But I could not tell you what my opinion is on whether we ought to follow the Law. My wife tells me all the time what it means to observe the Law, and how much we're required to keep, and that if I really want to know, I should just look to the words of Jesus. But there is a difference between mental ascent and revelation. I can mentally go through the doctrine and Scriptures and come to a pretty good conclusion. In fact, I have done that. But there is knowing and knowing. There is taking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and thus having an opinion and an understanding. Then there is taking of the tree of life, and because of the revelation of Christ, I am changed in the deepest parts of who I am.

What is it that you are content with? Are you content with a knowledge simply because you took a class, got a degree, studied it out for yourself, etc? Or is there something in you that says "deep calls unto deep," and until I know deeply, I don't truly know? This one thing alone will actually set you free from almost every deception. There is a phrase in the New Testament that actually expresses this concept perfectly: "A love of the truth." In 2 Thessalonians 2:10, we read that the only thing to keep us from deception and strong delusion is a love of the truth. That love is something deeper than a respect. We don't subscribe to doctrines, but desire the reality in the inner parts of who we are.

These two trees are two value systems. What do you desire more? Do you desire intimacy with God, or knowledge about God? Do you desire life or knowledge? The latter will come, but it only comes when God has shared His knowledge. If God doesn't share, and instead hides from us this or that understanding, we don't go to seek understanding on our own, but we rest in the fact that we aren't required to at this time know and understand. When that serpent comes to say, "I know something you don't know!" we respond with, "So?"

It isn't for me to know everything, and I thank God for it. The darkness upon the face of the deep is something that is difficult to wade through, but I'm not alone. I might not understand it now, but when I get through it, I'll be able to look back and see that God has been redeeming every moment.

Humanity's Ultimate Purpose - Genesis 2:4-15

4 This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LordGod made the earth and the heavens, 5 before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; 6 but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.

7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

8 The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.9 And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10 Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. 11 The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.

15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.
Genesis 2:4-15

What is humanity's ultimate purpose? We find the solution in the very beginning of the Bible I'd like to take the time to digest some of what is happening here in the Garden of Eden.

In Genesis 1, elohim is the name given to God. But in chapter two, it is jehova elohim (LORD God). Elohim is a suggestive pronoun. It denotes power, specifically the one that holds all power (or at least more power than anyone or anything else). Jehova is our English way of saying Yahweh, which is another English way of saying the YHWH. We aren't entirely sure how to say this name, so we gave it a label: the tetragrammaton. It is usually suggested that this name is from the verb hayah, which would give the interpretation "I am/exist." When we have two Hebrew nouns together, we place the word "of" in between them. So the Lord God is being titled, "I AM of Mighty Power." 

It is supposed from Genesis 2:6 that mankind was given the purpose to till the ground. We'll talk about problems with this later. Instead, I want to skip to verse 7. I this verse, we find Adam consisted of both heaven and earth, thus becoming a living creature. The Hebrew word used for the breath of God is not the same word used in Genesis 1:2, ruach, but instead nephesh (to blow).

Jesus, in John 20:22 blew on His disciples and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit..." There is a hermeneutic principle that says when you see the first time a word or phrase is used, mark it down. We can learn what that word or phrase means from that first instance it is used. For example, I mentioned the word ruach. Ruach is translated spirit, breath, or wind. But there is a thing to note about ruach: it is God's Spirit. Ruach, to me, is much more properly defined as the energy (Spirit) of God that causes the creation to stir. This is why it is also sometimes denoted as wind or breath: the Spirit itself causes for the creation to stir when it is present. 

So, when we see in Genesis 2:7 that the Lord God breathed into Adam, we need to identify this. This is the God that breathes life. When John points out that Jesus blew on His disciples, John is making the statement that Jesus is not a mere man. He is the tetragrammaton in the flesh. This would also fit with the Holy Spirit being the ruach haqodesh (Spirit of holiness). The ruach is the presence of God that stirs up the creation. Why does it denote breath? Because it is a part of the God that gives life, or breath, to mankind. In order for God to transmute life and breath into Adam, He must be both living and breathing. This is a fascinating idea to think of a God that is both living and breathing, unlike the gods of stone, wood, money, and television.

In Genesis 2:8, we read of this living God as one who plants... Some have said that this is actually a contradiction in the Bible because God plants the Garden after He made man. But in Genesis 1, God made the trees, fish, birds, and animals before He made man. The solution is really quite simple that it's pathetic. Genesis 1:1-2:3 is a story of the seven days of creation. The author wasn't trying to give the intimate details of each day, but instead giving the overall summary of each day. Then, the author goes in and gives the details of day six when Adam and Eve were created. That is what we're reading about. There were trees, animals, birds, etc outside of the Garden of Eden, but God made this Garden specifically for Adam and Eve. 

Eden is the Hebrew word for delight. Because the Lord God had planted this Garden, and it was to be enjoyed and delighted in, we cannot then say that Adam was given the charge to "till the land." The only thing that Adam would have needed to till would have possibly been outside of the Garden. There is even a Jewish tradition that suggests maybe some of the trees in the Garden were bread trees. Adam wouldn't have even needed to made dough and bake the bread, because it would have already grown on the trees pre-baked and ready to eat. 

We know the story, so we know that Adam did get kicked out of the Garden. Obviously, then, this Garden does not cover the whole Earth. The Hebrew word used in Genesis 2:8 to say that Adam was placed in the Garden is sum (soom). It has absolutely no connotation to any effort on Adam's part, and complete connotation that God is the one doing the work. 

Out of the entire Garden, there are two trees named in verse 9: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the tree of life. What was the first command given to Adam? The first command is in verse 16, which I didn't put here. It is that Adam is to eat of every tree of the Garden. The command to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is actually the second command given to Adam. The first is to eat and enjoy all of the trees of the Garden. So, when we think back on the story and point out that God put a limit on Adam and told Him, "Don't do this," we actually misunderstand the story. The whole thing is pointing to the fact that God made Adam and put him in the Garden so that Adam could enjoy the creation. 

Now, we read in verses 10-14 about these four rivers. Pishon means to increase. Gihon means to burst forth. Hiddekel means rapid. Euphrates means fruitfulness. 

In verse 15, we have the Hebrew word yanach used to mean "put." So, in verse 8 we read that man was put (sum) in the Garden, and in verse 15 we read that he was put (yanach) in the Garden. What is the difference between these two words? Yanach is a synonym of nuach, which means rest. The definition of yanach is "to deposit," or "to allow to stay." 

Note the translation of working in the Garden. "Tend and keep it." It was already tilled and cultivated and worked by God. The Hebrew is le'abdah welesamrah. Abad means to serve, and is sometimes used in relation to being a bond-servant. Samar means to protect, or to hedge about. Samar is the word used in the Ten Commandments, "keep my commands" (Exodus 20:6). To keep is to protect, or to guard. 

Something else to note is that the Hebrew does not agree in gender to suggest this is Adam's purpose in respect to the Garden. This must be an abstract view unrelated to the Garden. Adam was made to serve and protect God/God's words. That is the ultimate purpose of humanity. We aren't called to somehow toil and work and struggle, but instead to be in rest and leisure. Out of that rest we are to fulfill our primary role and calling in life: to protect the words of God. We are to be in service to God, worshiping and adoring He who has given us such a place as the Garden of Eden.

But what about us today? We are far from the Garden of Eden. In the book of Genesis we find a Garden, but in the book of Revelation (chapters 21-22) we find a City. In the Garden there was a river that split into four different directions. In the City there is a river that comes out from the throne of God. In the Garden there are two trees mentioned. In the City there is one tree mentioned (tree of life) twice (one on either side of the river). The Garden of Eden and the New Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven are both related. These are the ultimate intentions of God for humanity. 

We have this strange thought that the New Jerusalem will be some future time that we can't understand anything about it now, but Paul speaks of it in Galatians 4:25-26. "Now, Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother." Do you understand? We are currently seated with Christ in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6). We are currently called to be a part of that Holy City. But if we are thinking that we have to wait until that city is a literal reality in the New Heaven and New Earth, then we aren't ever going to strive to live according to that New Jerusalem. That New Jerusalem is free. It is free from fear, free from works of the Law, free from sin, and free from death. 

Upon our salvation, we are "placed" in that City. We are then bidden to stay in that City, to serve and protect the Lamb. Our protecting is to keep His commands, which is done by loving one another. Anyone who loves as Christ loved is protecting Him. To know His words and to know His commands, we only must love one another as Christ as loved us. This is the Law and the Prophets summed up: love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. That is our high calling. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less. We are all simply bid to come and enjoy, rest and serve. 

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.