God
Teaches Us Logic and Order
[Before
addressing the title topic I’d like to recommend that all Bible students have
access to a very important tool to aid in their study. That tool / resource is the New
Strong’s Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, by Thomas Nelson
Publishers, Nashville, TN, 2010. Just as students learning the English language
would be well-advised to have access to a quality reference dictionary, Bible
students really need this reference resource.
Enough said.]
The logic and
order of the Bible scriptures serve a definitive purpose. They carefully guide
the reader through the story of mankind with our Creator, even as God maintains
secrets / mysteries over thousands of years until He is ready to reveal them.
(Deuteronomy 29: 29; 2 Peter 3: 15-18) Understanding the fine distinctions of
each part of the message is critical to following the full message. Sometimes
the Bible shares the message using the literal meaning of the words, but
other times it gives greater insight by using the figurative / symbolic meaning of those words. Below are examples from the early Scripture.
But first, let’s look at how the platform is set to introduce our Lord and
Savior Jesus.
In Genesis
1:1, the Scripture reads: “In the beginning God created
the heaven and the Earth.” From the outset we are introduced to the concept of
“God” as the Creator. Our Strong’s
Concordance shows that our English word “God” is the translation of the
Hebrew / Jewish word “Elohiym”, which is a plural word. That means it applies to more than one member
/ component. As we continue in our reading we understand that this is the
beginning of the presentation of the Christian concept of our “Triune
/Three-part Godhead’ consisting of God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy
Spirit. Note: This concept of plurality was reinforced in Verse Two, where the
Scripture identifies one member of the Godhead, the Spirit that “moved
upon the face of the waters.”
Further, in
Verse 26, note when “God said, Let us make man in our image,
after our likeness:” (Emphasis added to show plurality.) By
presenting that concept early in the Scripture, God is preparing the reader to better
understand the roles and relationships He will have with mankind in the
following chapters and Books of the Bible. Logically this is the first of such
references.
Next, to
fully understand our make-up as human beings, we must first understand the make-up
of God because we are in His image and likeness. The Bible tells us that God is
an invisible eternal Spirit; therefore man is an invisible eternal spirit. (Psalm
90:2, 102: 25-27; John 1: 18, 4: 24).
Later in the Bible we learned that our Lord Jesus is not only the
image of the invisible God, but also that He was that member of the
Godhead who actually accomplished the Creation in Genesis Chapter One. (Colossians
1: 15-17; John 1: 1-3) With that understanding
of Jesus, the Son of God as the Creator, we can then better appreciate man’s
relationship to and with Him. In looking back on man’s history we can see in
the remainder of Genesis Chapter One how God / Jesus was preparing the heaven
and the Earth for mankind.
The logic and
order of the sequence of the Creation is also very noteworthy. God started with water (Verse 2) which would prove to
be an essential factor for nutrition; an environment for plants, fish and other
sea creatures, etc. and for otherwise maintaining life. God then called for light (Verses 3-5),
which became another essential factor by providing energy / heat for plant
growth for food; temperature control for the seas and land; etc. Next in order, God called for the “firmament
Heaven” (Verses 6-8) to provide an atmosphere / air / sky division between
the waters on the planet (seas) from the waters above it (clouds).
Then God revealed
the existence of the “dry land Earth” that had been hidden under the
waters in Verse 2. (Verses 9-12) He
gathered the waters under the firmament of the heaven into one place so that
the existing dry land would not only appear but also bring forth the grasses,
seeds and fruit trees. That vegetation would
provide food / nutrition; replenish oxygen levels; etc. for future animal life.
I encourage
you to re-review the remainder of this key chapter to continue to follow the
logic and order of God’s Creation. I believe it was an introduction designed to
show us that there is a pattern in the remaining Bible Scripture that should
make sense and that we can learn from it. (2 Timothy 3: 16-17)
Genesis
Chapter Two introduces the terminology of “LORD God”, which from
our Strong’s Concordance is the English translation of the Hebrew / Jewish name
of “Jehovah”. (Exodus 6: 2-3) It was
this same LORD God Jehovah / (Jesus) who “formed man of the dust of
the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a
living soul.” (Genesis 2: 7) Based
on what we have shown above, that “breath of life” was the “spirit” (image and likeness of God) being
infused into the newly-formed body of the man, making man a “living soul”. (Genesis 1: 26-27) In that same manner, each of us became a “living
soul” after our first breath at birth when we obtained these physical bodies
which are our temporary “earthly houses”. (2 Corinthians 5: 1)
Also in that same
manner man’s spirit and soul became so interconnected that only the “word of
God” can separate them. (John 1: 1-4; Hebrews 4: 12)
I’m stressing
these details to emphasize the importance of reading carefully what the Bible
actually says, as opposed to what many think it should have said. Also, I’m trying to stress the importance of
how God is following His logical order in introducing these important concepts
at the very outset of His message to us. He continues to build on them as the
narrative progresses.
Now I’d like
to return to the point I addressed briefly in the second paragraph above. That
is, in being able to read the Scripture we sometimes fail to recognize that the
literal meaning of the words can mask a deeper, figurative
concept. However, both the literal and figurative meanings add to the order and
logic of God’s message to us. Here is an
example also from the Book of Genesis, brought to my attention by another of my
teachers. (Ron Carpenter Ministries)
As you
recall, in Genesis Chapter Three, the Bible tells of Adam’s failure to obey the
LORD God’s command that he not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and
evil. Remember, the LORD God had said the penalty for Adam’s disobedience would
be death. Therefore Adam’s physical body began to die…a very slow
process of irreversible changes that would eventually return it to the dust of
the ground from which God had formed it, as noted above. (Genesis 2: 16-17; 5: 1-5)
However, the narrative
of the Scripture tells us that the initial impact of that disobedience sensed
by Adam and Eve was their realization that they were ‘naked”. They then sought
to hide both their “nakedness” and their physical presence from the LORD God. (Genesis 3: 6-7)
Most importantly, Adam’s “death” had resulted in
the immediate separation of his spirit / soul from his Creator. [How
the LORD God repaired that “separation” was addressed in another earlier post
to this blog.] After the sequence of events in the paragraph above, the Scripture
described the scene as Adam and Eve “were hiding”: “And they heard the
voice of the LORD God walking in the cool of the day…And the LORD God
called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?” (Genesis 3: 8-9) (Bold
emphasis added)
The literal
words “in the cool of the day” are self-explanatory for the reader
to understand the climate / environment during which the dialogue took place.
However, the figurative meaning is less obvious.
The word “cool”
is the English translation of the original Hebrew word “ruwach” (Strong’s
Concordance # 07307) meaning “spirit”…the same word used in defining the
“Holy Spirit” as noted above in Genesis Chapter One. Further, the word “day” is the English
translation of the Hebrew word “yowm” (Strong’s Concordance # 03117) meaning “a
space of time defined by an associated term”. When these two concepts are placed together,
we are informed that while in the Garden of Eden, the LORD God / Jesus was in His
Pre-incarnate Spirit form as the
member of the Godhead. He was not “walking” as we usually perceive it, as Adam
and Eve were in their physical bodies. Further,
this concept would introduce later appearances He would make in the Old
Testament in Spirit-form, in a vision, or otherwise…such as in a theophany. (https://www.gotquestions.org/theophany-Christophany.html )
There is both
logic and order to this introduction to our Lord Jesus and His relationship to and
with His special creation Man.
Dr. W. A.
(Bill) Robinson
No comments:
Post a Comment