Devotional - 98-10-03 - In The Beginning

The Genesis Series, Part 5

All scripture quoted is from the 1901 AMerican Standard Version of the Bible

Looking through the course of the first few chapters of Genesis I see so much I could probably write on just those three chapters, for the rest of my life. From my own horticulturist's point of view the garden that was planted eastward in Eden was paradise. Most of my life I have worked with plant materials and gardens of all kinds. By the time the seventh day of God making things from the things He had already created, rolled and out, God finished and rested

Genesis 2:2 And on the seventh day God finished his work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all his work which He had made.

In that 7-day period the Lord created on the earth, the animal, vegetable, reptile, and human kingdoms and then He did something extraordinary. God planted a garden. God is a farmer. I find that so cool! I know from a few verses that the knowledge of farming originally came to man through the Almighty. I also think it was really great that God gave Adam a job in the garden. He planted and he set up the principle of law and a full blessing for obedience to God's law. Within that garden there was but one command not to eat of one tree and after that rule or law or command was broken the full blessing mankind was to have was never realized.

Genesis 2:8 And Jehovah God planted a garden eastward, in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

Isaiah 28:21-29 For Jehovah will rise up as in Mount Perazim, He will be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon; that He may do his work, His strange work, and bring to pass His act, His strange act. Now therefore be ye not scoffers, lest your bonds be made strong; for a decree of destruction have I heard from the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, upon the whole earth. Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech. Doth he that ploweth to sow plow continually? doth he continually open and harrow his ground? When he hath levelled the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and put in the wheat in rows, and the barley in the appointed place, and the spelt in the border thereof? For his God doth instruct him aright, and doth teach him. For the fitches are not threshed with a sharp threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod. Bread grain is ground; for he will not be always threshing it: and though the wheel of his cart and his horses scatter it, he doth not grind it. This also cometh forth from Jehovah of hosts, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in wisdom

Genesis 2:15 -2:17 And Jehovah God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Many a person has wondered what would have happened had God's command never been broken? How would man have grown and what would his full blessings have been had he not been removed from Eden. One can but wonder. On the other hand one does not have to wonder when mankind will one day enjoy paradise such as this again. In fact the Lord God Almighty immediately began to share His plan which is revealed (in context) through the pages of the Bible and He started sharing that hope with man in this passage.

Genesis 3:15 and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

One does not have to look very far to find some interesting information on this verse. Almost any conservative scholar will describe for you the Messianic meaning of the verse. It speaks of two groups of people: one whose offspring has his heel bruised and the other who has his head crushed. The one with a bruised heel would be the Lord Jesus Christ (the cross) and the offspring of the serpent will have his head crushed (defeat of antichrist literally Habbakuk chapter 3). It is true Satan has been defeated at the cross yet is also true he has yet to be totaly restrained. I would like to share with you a passage of scripture that discusses a number of things: the salvation of Israel, the return of Jesus Christ, and the defeat of Satan.

Habbakuk 3:3-14 God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the Heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. And His brightness was as the light; He had rays coming forth from his hand; and there was the hiding of His power. Before Him went the pestilence, and fiery bolts went forth at His feet. He stood, and measured the earth; He beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the eternal mountains were scattered; the everlasting hills did bow; His goings were as of old. I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction; the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. Was Jehovah displeased with the rivers? Was thine anger against the rivers, or thy wrath against the sea, that thou didst ride upon thy horses, upon thy chariots of salvation? Thy bow was made quite bare; the oaths to the tribes were a sure word. Selah. Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers. The mountains saw Thee, and were afraid; The tempest of waters passed by; the deep uttered its voice, and lifted up its hands on high. The sun and moon stood still in their habitation, at the light of thine arrows as they went, at the shining of thy glittering spear. Thou didst march though the land in indignation; Thou didst thresh the nations in anger. Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, for the salvation of thine anointed; Thou woundest the head out of the house of the wicked man, laying bare the foundation even unto the neck. Selah. Thou didst pierce with his own staves the head of his warriors: They came as a whirlwind to scatter me; Their rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly.

In Jesus 'day, many Jews looked for a deliverer that would fulfill the prophecies that only had to do with the second coming. Like the one above written by the Jew Habbakuk they longed for the culmination of the entire redemptive career of the Messiah. These same Jews looked for salvation from their enemies and the restoration of what was brought to the Jewish Apostles rememberance in the first church council by the Lords' brother James.

Acts 15:13-18 And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, brethren, hearken unto me: Symeon hath rehearsed how first God visited the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, after these things I will return, and I will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen; And I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: That the residue of men may seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who maketh these things known from of old.

The Jewish people knew a few things. One of them was:

Amos 3:7 Surely the Lord Jehovah will do nothing, except he reveal his secret unto his servants the prophets.

It was unfortuante that many Jews mistakenly overlooked the prophecies regarding the Messiah suffering and his heel being bruised and many of the other details filled in over a great length of time by a great number of Jewish prophets. It kind of reminds me of how today so many in the church overlook the second coming and just try to teach about the first coming and the cross and overlook the rest. Some Jews in fact did understand Salvation and the imputed righteousness we have now through Jesus Christ, yet as James the Lord's brother said after these things (referring to the age of grace we live in now) then will come a day like mankind has never known. A day where every Jew and Gentile (Jesus was a Jew, remember) will realize things like the end of Anti-semitism -sudden infant death syndrome would be no more - terrorism will cease and desist - farming will be abundant in blessing and even the beasts will not quarrel as it is still today.

Isaiah 65:17-25 For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create; for, behold, I create Jerusalem rejoicing, and her people, a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people; and there shall be heard in her no more the voice of weeping and the voice of crying. There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days; for the child shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed. And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree shall be the days of my people, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for calamity; for they are the seed of the blessed of Jehovah, and their offspring with them. And it shall come to pass that, before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith Jehovah.

Today I am very happy to be saved. Yet I truly long for the day the Jewish prophets saw. I long for the day the Apostles spoke of at that first church council. I want for all to see what Isaiah saw. I am happy to be saved but I will be more happy when I no longer have to live in the land that is cursed but will live in a land where things are truly right for everyone. And so there are a few things I always keep in mind as I see the foundations of truth from Genesis and the beginning of God's revelation to man.

II Peter 2:19 And we have the word of prophecy made more sure; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts: knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of private interpretation. For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit.

Psalm122:6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:They shall prosper that love thee.

Isaiah 62:6-7 I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem; they shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that are Jehovah's remembrancers, take ye no rest,and give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

I know that there are very few who truly take heed to God's words and grow in deeper understanding and prayerful commitment to cooperate with Him with His plans and purposes. I pray that you set your goal honestly in your study to be God's Will ,nothing more nothing less and nothing else!

Give diligence to present thyself approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, handling aright the word of truth

Rick