Lesson on YouTube: https://youtu.be/srBvwd5fzbw
In this series so far we’ve seen how we’ve gone from a state of being null and void. Call this “day zero.” In the Biblical account of the re-creation of the Earth it is implied that God created the Earth, then “something” happened to get it into this state. We learn in Isaiah that Lucifer through pride developed the transgression that God found in Him, and seeking to be “like God” rebelled, deceived a third of the angels, warred and was cast out of Heaven and down to the Earth. We should understand this, because pride has this same effect in ourselves, follows a similar pattern, and seeing that we are created in the image of God, casts us down from how God made us into defilement.
We can see the use of metonymy at work through all of this as God calls things out by the characteristics He is drawing attention to. This literary design is interesting and complex. And as we study the Word of God individually, it allows God to reveal through His Spirit things that resonate in our own lives. That point is one takeaway of this series, and is applicable to so much of the Scripture and our own study of the Bible.
Day 1 God creates light, or as we’ve seen, is when we receive His divine Light within us. In the New Covenant that happens when we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
Day 2 we learn to acknowledge God for who He is. This comes from realizing who we are. For many, receiving Jesus on Day 1 required a “coming to our own end,” or a realization that we are unable to manage our own lives, a point that Jeremiah makes in 10:23 of his book. Others grew up in the church and feel as though they have “always believed.” Regardless of our personal path to Jesus, it is critical that we recognize that God is Great and Good, and most importantly Holy. And by contrast, we are not, and we are desperate for Him, need to learn from Him, and make steps toward Him through prayer and prayer in tongues, praise and worship, study of the Bible.
Day 3 God responds by separating the waters from the land. Here we see Him setting up the proper ecosystem for the eternal resource of learning about His Nature. This involves pulling the things we’ve established in our own lives off of the land - imagine a torrent of water with all its power eroding dirt, buildings, cars, people, and anything in its path to completely resurface the land. God is exposing the fertile ground. In the natural, water evaporates, gathers as clouds, falls as rain on the land, and brings forth new growth. So many things in the natural world are models of the spiritual world, and in this case God repetitively gives this as an example of His teaching. The rain is teaching from God that falls on us, and within us God causes new life to grow.
Day 4. Today we talk about our development as a result of our regular practice of what we learn from God.
#Bible, #Creation, #OurCreation, #GodsPlan, #Disciples, #GodsCharacter, #GodsNature, #ChristianDevelopment, #HCJC, #HCJCministries
Kick off Video:
Bible Project: Heart: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS4iM6KpPYo
Lesson on YouTube: https://youtu.be/srBvwd5fzbw
Our path to Re-Creation - Day 4
Genesis 1:1-19 (MSG)
Heaven and Earth
1 1-2 First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—all you see, all you don’t see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God’s Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss.
3-5 God spoke: “Light!”
And light appeared.
God saw that light was good
and separated light from dark.
God named the light Day,
he named the dark Night.
It was evening, it was morning—
Day One.
6-8 God spoke: “Sky! In the middle of the waters;
separate water from water!”
God made sky.
He separated the water under sky
from the water above sky.
And there it was:
he named sky the Heavens;
It was evening, it was morning—
Day Two.
9-10 God spoke: “Separate!
Water-beneath-Heaven, gather into one place;
Land, appear!”
And there it was.
God named the land Earth.
He named the pooled water Ocean.
God saw that it was good.
11-13 God spoke: “Earth, green up! Grow all varieties
of seed-bearing plants,
Every sort of fruit-bearing tree.”
And there it was.
Earth produced green seed-bearing plants,
all varieties,
And fruit-bearing trees of all sorts.
God saw that it was good.
It was evening, it was morning—
Day Three.
14-15 God spoke: “Lights! Come out!
Shine in Heaven’s sky!
Separate Day from Night.
Mark seasons and days and years,
Lights in Heaven’s sky to give light to Earth.”
And there it was.
16-19 God made two big lights, the larger
to take charge of Day,
The smaller to be in charge of Night;
and he made the stars.
God placed them in the heavenly sky
to light up Earth
And oversee Day and Night,
to separate light and dark.
God saw that it was good.
It was evening, it was morning—
Day Four.
Genesis 1:14-19 (ESV)
14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons,[a] and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
Application of Symbols - Use of Metonymy
1. Lights in the heavens
God isn’t creating light again. He did that on Day 1.
He is separating day from night.
Even in secular terms we see good vs. evil, right vs. wrong…
There is an innate sense of this that humans have.
Romans 2:14-16 (MSG)
14-16 When outsiders who have never heard of God’s law follow it more or less by instinct, they confirm its truth by their obedience. They show that God’s law is not something alien, imposed on us from without, but woven into the very fabric of our creation. There is something deep within them that echoes God’s yes and no, right and wrong. Their response to God’s yes and no will become public knowledge on the day God makes his final decision about every man and woman. The Message from God that I proclaim through Jesus Christ takes into account all these differences.
2. God THEN creates and sets in place the sun and the moon
Isn’t this backwards?
If there was light in the heavens before the sun, where did it come from?
The voice of God spoke it into existence
Within us we begin to “see” with the eyes and ears of our heart what is true
We see this in what Paul was talking about in Romans 2:14-15
EVEN WITHOUT the sun, or Son, the knowledge of Light or God’s truth, is evident
Then God develops us further by setting
3. Sun - Gaining God’s Discernment
As we study the Word of God, we are personally developed
A key attribute of this is discernment
With the Son, we gain clarity about what God calls right and wrong
Remember, we have a sense of this, but we are terrible at it - we aren’t good at being god
4. Moon - the lesser
There are a few ways we can look at this:
God only makes good things
So what is good about the moon?
It reflects the light of the sun, just as we reflect the light of Jesus
Psalm 23:4, even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death… OR, even in the night we know the truth of God reflected within us
We are “the lesser”
If we interpret this as ourselves, we are “the lesser”
This is something we learned on Day 2, and it helps us understand our position in relation to Jesus, and our Heavenly Father
Thus, He is “the greater”
The moon rules the night
Lucifer reflected God’s Glory to Heaven. This metaphor is carried with the moon reflecting the sun
The “night” or “dark” or “shadows” are metaphors for evil. So ruling over these we can see a metaphor for the devil
Moon gods, worship of the moon is not worship of the True God
Many associations with false religions. Islam is a great example:
Allah is not Jehova - a lie that has gained sympathy. Muhammad actually incorporated several pre-existing pagan rituals such as circling the Kaaba seven times and running between the two small hills Safa and Marwa.
Jesus prophesied against false teachers, and some believe Muhammad directly when he said in Matthew 24:26 “Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do not go out; or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it.
Muslims believe Jesus, or “Isa” will be their judge on judgement day. If He tells you Muhammad is a false teacher, how then will you be judged?
It is a demonic religion, because it CLAIMS to be the true God, but it isn’t. By comparison, Satanists straight worship the devil This deception of Islam is demonic
5. The stars
In previous studies we’ve seen that the stars can represent “spiritual beings”
The heavenly or divine council for instance, which is a group we first learn about on Day 6.
Note that SOME angels serve God directly. If you see them, that means God is there.
The angels represented here are created by God as intermediaries between God and humanity:
Are messengers (see the book of Daniel for instance)
Sent to protect us (two get Lot and family out of Sodom and Gomorrah.
They teach us as ministering spirits (see Hebrews 1:14)
The Purpose - Giving Light to Earth
1. This all creates the model
Let’s consider this from the perspective of the New Covenant:
A) The Son is the Light and Glory of God (Truth) shown to the world (Us)
B) It shows us how we are below and the Son is above us
C) God divides truth from deceit, as He divides the Light from Dark, day from night
This exists eternally, as it emanates from El Elohim directly
D) God creates the Son and the moon
Demonstrating our position as we reflect the Light of God to the world
Showing that we should worship or reflect the light of God, NOT the moon itself
How placing ourselves or any other thing before God is false
Just as the moon does not create light, it ONLY reflects (or is allowed by) God
E) The stars represent the heavenly beings God has ordained as intermediaries between Heaven and Earth
Note that there are two camps of angles
The first are obedient to God and do His work. Just as God has made us higher than the angels, when we are metaphorically in the position of the moon reflecting the Light of God, we also rule over these angels as co-heirs to the Kingdom through Jesus Christ.
The second are in rebellion against God, and are ruled by Lucifer. These fallen angels are within these fallen ranks, command demonic spirits, and work to divide us from the True God.
2. It teaches us how to discern Who God is and apply it.
A) Understanding and applying this model, we can use it as a filter.
B) As we understand the Nature or Character of God, by receiving His rain (Day 3)
C) Doing this allows Him to teach us directly about our true reality through:
D) Teaching from reading the Word of God
E) Teaching from the Holy Spirit, in perfect alignment with Jesus and the Father
F) Learning from other believers, as iron sharpens iron, as guided by the Holy Spirit
And with discernment about what does and does not align
He disambiguates and corrects human confusions and misinterpretations
The best way to do this is by ensuring that everything align with the Word of God
3. Discernment is a critical skill as we learn and develop
A) In other areas of our life we can see how discernment is important.
B) Playing notes on an instrument for instance aren’t “right or wrong,” but when notes harmonize they sound “good” and when they are out of key or out of tune they sound “bad.”
C) When we learn Who God is, by learning His Nature from His Word, then we can apply that to all situations around us.
Days of our Re-Creation
0. In our fallen nature we are without form and void
We become a new person
We learn to acknowledge God - Jehovah Jesus
We learn to learn from His Word
Then we must practice what the Word teaches
Being led by the values of our Father. Evidence of His Character alive and at work within us, as demonstrated by “our character” or His Character IN us
Grow our faith or letting His faith grows in us
Resting in Peace with God
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