Category: Spiritual

Genesis 2:16-17; 3:1-7

From the beginning God’s plan for man included the principle of work. Man’s   first task was of ruling over and caring for the rest of God’s creation. Then God gave him the responsibility to tend and keep the garden that He had prepared for man and placed him in. His command to Adam was “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat (2:16); 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 (2:17).”

Scripture gives no indication as to how long Adam and Eve were naked and without shame. However, in Genesis 3:1-6 Satan, disguised as a serpent, targeted Eve and came to tempt her. He questioned God’s Word (v.1) – the Truth and nothing but the Truth. He was “the most cunning of all the beasts of the field that the Lord God had made.” (3:1a). Satan blatantly called God a liar, denying God’s Word (v.4), telling the woman, “You will not surely die” as God had declared in 2:17.  There’s no shame in Satan’s game. Whatever fiery darts he can hurl our way, he will if it causes us to accept his lies and reject God’s Truth (v.5). He’s a deceiver and a liar and will get into our mind, disputing the word of God. Our mind is very important as creatures made in the image of God. What’s Satan doing? He’s creating doubt to get us to accept him over our all-knowing and loving Father. “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).

^“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant, literally a desirable thing, to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate (v.6). Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings” (v.7). Disobedience is yielding to temptation, and our first parents disobeyed God’s command, falling  from grace, causing us all to be born sinners.    

Genesis 2:18-24 (NKJV)

In the second part of the sixth day of His work, God purposefully “created man in His own image.” God loves all His creation, but we are uniquely different from all the other living creatures. We are human, and as His earthly representatives, we are to show love through our relationship with Him and others as a reflection of His glory. Through daily worship, we are to allow Him to manifest in our life. We are blessed by God and commanded to “be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the rest of God’s living creatures” (1:28) and take care of His earth (15) – the home He created with us in mind.

Adam’s first act of authority was to name all other living creatures. God brought them to Adam, and whatever Adam called each creature, that was its name. However, none of them were suitable for the purpose for which God had created Adam. And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him” (18).

The Lord God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep, and while he slept, God took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place (21). God took Adam’s rib and literally built it into a woman, and He brought her to the man (22). Oh, what a precious gift! And Adam called her “Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (23). Therefore, man is responsible for her care and protection in the sanctity of their covenant relationship – marriage – in the same way God had shown His love and care for all of His creation. God does all things in decency and in order with purpose. Eve was the suitable helper for Adam. She was important to the beginning of God’s institution of marriage and family for the fulfillment of His plan of procreation and worship of Him for all He has done. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined, or literally cling, to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (24).

Genesis 1:14-2:3

In verses 14-19 God continued His creative work. He spoke lights: the sun, moon, and the stars to give light to the earth, to govern and to separate the day and the night. These would also serve as signs to mark seasons, days, and years. God saw that it was good, and the evening and the morning made the fourth day.

Then God commanded the seas to bring forth abundantly all moving living creatures, the great whales and every bird that has wings. God saw that it was good and blessed them, saying, be fruitful, multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. The evening and the morning were the fifth day (20-25).

Finally God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. He made man in his own image – male and female.” This was not an afterthought because God was purposeful in His work. He blessed them, telling them to be fruitful, and multiply, and He gave them dominion over all His creation. (26-28). He made provision of food also for all of His creation (29-30). God saw everything that he had made, and declared it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day (31).

In six days of creative work, God took the dark, formless, and empty earth and from nothing created His universe and filled it with the living and the nonliving to declare His glory. He appraised all His creation as good, but man, the culmination and crown of His creation, was appraised as “very good” (1:31). “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them” (2:1).

On the seventh day God rested from all his work which he had made. He blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made” (2:2-3). We are a part of the marvelous works of creation. Give God glory for all He has done in your life.

Genesis 1:1-13

God the Father and Creator is a man of purpose who has a plan for all of His creation. He wasted no time in “beginning” (meaning of Genesis) His work – the creation of the world to accomplish His purpose of redeeming mankind. Remember, He is omniscient and knew man would fall from grace. He began His work, creating the heavens and the earth (v.1). The earth was dark, formless and empty, and “the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (v.2). “The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity, who exercises the power of the Father and the Son in the work of Creation and redemption” (Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary). How beautiful it is to know that the Spirit of God was actively involved in creation! He continues His divine work, speaking light into existence (v.3). Seeing that it was good, He separated the light, calling it Day, from the darkness, calling it Night (v.4). And there was evening and there was morning – hence, the first day (v.5).

God does all things in decency, in order, and certainly with purpose. Verses 6-8 make up God’s work of the second day: He spoke a firmament (a dome or canopy) He called Heaven in the midst of the waters to divide the waters from the waters (v.6). He divided the waters under the firmament from the waters above the firmament (v.7).

Verses 9-13 make up the third day of God’s creative work: the land, the sea, and vegetation. He spoke and it was so that the waters under the heaven were gathered together into one place. The dry land He called Earth; the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good (v.9-10). Then He spoke, commanding the earth to bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree. It was so, and God saw that it was good (v.11-12).

Throughout this act of creation, Almighty God purposefully and effectively demonstrated the power of His spoken word in Creation and initiated the move from chaos to order. In like manner He can speak with the same authority today and bring back order to this confused world.

(Colossians 2:6-7)

 False teachers had entered the church, and Paul didn’t want the church to be deceived with doctrine that sounded good but were clearly words of deception (v.4). His desire was that believers have all the blessings of Christ – the all-sufficient One. “⁶Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk you in Him. It is imperative that believers walk in Him as when we first received Him. According to Scripture, “We live by faith, not by sight.” Because you have accepted the crucified and resurrected Christ by faith as your Savior and Lord, you are redeemed. You are brought into a personal relationship with Christ and are now a new creature in Him. Therefore, we are to live in union with Him and dedicate ourselves to the same mind, purpose, and life as Christ. Paul continues in verse seven to set forth four more ways we must continue in Christ. We must be (1) rooted in Him, (2) built up in Him, (3) established in the faith, and (4) abounding in the faith.

We are trees of righteousness and must be firmly planted and rooted in Christ (v.7), daily trusting Him – that sure foundation who anchors and sustains us unto eternal salvation. Also, believers must be built up in Him (v.7). There are a variety of careers in which people train others to build up their physical bodies. Okay, so most of us have vanity about our outer appearance, but believers must focus on the spiritual man. We are buildings that must be built up but not by man’s hands because “no flesh may be able to boast in the presence of God” (1 Corinthians 1:29, AMP).  In Christ, Who increasingly strengthens and builds us up spiritually, are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge regarding the word and purposes of God (v.3). Then Paul affirmed that believers must be established in the faith (v.7) and abounding in it with thanksgiving as we’ve been taught (v.7). A personal relationship in Christ stabilizes us and confirms who we are as we abound and overflow with gratitude in the faith (v.7). Therefore, continue steadfastly walking in the all-sufficient Christ. He is the truth and nothing but the gospel truth.