Rest, Restatement of Creation, and No Rain?
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Intro:
Intro:
Good morning.
I want you to imagine a world vastly different than our own.
A world where it doesn’t rain; rather, a midst comes up from the ground to water the earth.
A world where massive creatures live (much larger than current species), but right alongside human beings, for which there is plenty of archaeological evidence.
A peaceful world wherein there’s no such thing as a carnivore, because everything eats plants only (according to the teaching in Genesis 9:3).
A world that is totally peaceful because SIN has not yet crept into it …
And that’s the world you will read about if you read Genesis chapter 2!
This morning, as we continue gleaning different things from the first 11 chapters of Genesis, I want us to hone in on three things from chapter 2:
The fact that God rested on the 7th day.
The fact that Genesis chapter 2 is a restatement of creation, not a recreation.
And finally, we’ll think about (just briefly) the pre-flood environment of the first few chapters of Genesis and what that might have looked like, and what it might explain.
God Rested on the 7th Day:
God Rested on the 7th Day:
Gen. 2:1-3
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.
There is an important principle found herein.
Have you ever thought about why God rested?
Does an all-powerful God in heaven actually NEED rest?
Or, could it be that the reason God does this is actually more about setting a PRECEDENT for mankind to realize that he is going to need to set aside time for REST?
And the answer is — the second one!
God is setting a precedent for mankind that he is going to need to set aside time for rest!
It’s interesting, in fact, that God actually MANDATED a day of rest for the Jews under the Old Covenant, according to Exo. 20:8-11, and He directly ties that commandment BACK to what we just read here in Genesis chapter 2!
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
Now, while it is true that the fourth commandment to remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy is not reinstated in the new covenant … (And that’s where our Sabbatarian [7th Day Adventist] friends go wrong) …
Col. 2:16-17 says …
So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
We find in Acts 20:7 that the day for Christian worship is the FIRST day of the week …
Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.
Still, we have to ask ourselves if rest is still important?
And of course, the answer is, “Yes.”
Here, God sets a precedent for the importance of REST.
Rest is very important.
And just me personally, I think Chick-fil-A gets it right!
What am I talking about, their chicken sandwiches? (No, but those are pretty good, too!) :D
No, I’m talking about the fact that Chick-fil-A still closes their doors on Sundays, to give their employees and opportunity to worship, and to REST.
And don’t underestimate the impact that has on that particular establishment.
You look at revenues, and number of locations, and the DRIVE THROUGH LINE, and Chick-fil-A is one of the most successful business models out there!
Why?
Well, I would say it has something to do with the fact that they try to honor God and His ways! (And it is their pleasure to do so!) :D
You know, it wasn’t too terribly long ago that you had “blue laws” in this country.
What did those “blue laws” say?
They required a lot of businesses to be closed on Sunday, out of respect for God and also the general need for people to rest!
Today? We live in a society wherein everything is much more RUSHED, many do not take ample time to rest, and apparently Sunday is the favorite day to go grocery shopping (Pro tip: Don’t go to Walmart on Sunday, by the way! Busiest I’ve seen it!)
The Bible has plenty to say about the importance of REST:
In Mark 6:31, we read a situation wherein Jesus’ apostles were SO RUSHED, they didn’t even have time to eat!
And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.
In the verse prior, the apostles had been giving Jesus a report about their activities.
“Both what they had done, and what they had taught.”
Well, evidently this was a full plate on their part, because that’s when Jesus tells them in the next verse to come away in a deserted place and rest a while.
So that’s their plan — Well, they try to get away by boat to do that, and STILL, multitudes of people followed them, and they end up feeding the 5000!
I think to another time in Jesus’ ministry:
John 4:6 says that Jesus was WEARIED from a long journey, and SAT by a well (presumably, to rest!)
Matt. 14:13, after Jesus found about the death of John the Baptist, He went by boat to a deserted place by Himself.
Before Jesus appointed His apostles, He went out to a mountain to pray, and He continued ALL NIGHT in prayer to God (Luke 6:12).
And in Luke 5:15-16, we read that the multitudes were coming to Jesus to hear Him and to be healed, and “so He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.”
Psalm 46:10 we read:
Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!
Sometimes, we need to just BE STILL and know God, and how can we do that … if we never take time to REST? (Like God did, Gen. 2:1-3)
Let’s talk about ...
The Restatement of Creation Found in This Chapter:
The Restatement of Creation Found in This Chapter:
Gen. 2:4-7
This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, 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; but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. 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.
This is not an incident of “God created everything” in chapter 1, something happens, and then God “RE-creates” everything again in chapter 2.
No, that’s not what is going on here.
What’s going on is this is a RETELLING of chapter 1, filling in some extra details — An “instant replay,” we might say!
Notice, verse 4 says — “This is the HISTORY of the heavens and the earth when they were created.”
This is a retelling of the events of chapter 1, honing in on the details of the pre-flood garden of Eden environment, as well as the creation of man, and the institution of marriage.
Thus, we find out here in verses 5-6:
“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, but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.”
Have you ever studied much in the realm of apologetics about what Creationist scientist think the pre-flood world looked like?
The possibilities are fascinating!
For one, it is my opinion that this “no rain world” continued to exist up until the point of the flood.
That seems to be the indication when it says later in Gen. 7:11 “the windows of heaven were opened.”
The implication seems to be that that was the very first rain the world had ever seen, and rain it was!
(40 days and 40 nights worth!)
Can you imagine living in a world where it had never rained?
And then Noah comes along preaching, “Repent, the flood is coming!”
Very fascinating to think about.
I think it is also fascinating to think about the greater proportions of animals in the pre-flood world.
We have our theories as to why this was the case.
Archaeology confirms the existence of GIANT insects and other animals, giant dinosaurs of course as well.
To me, the best theory is this — The pre-flood atmosphere (firmament) must have been drastically different!
Where did all the water come from when the windows of heaven were opened? (The firmament/the atmosphere)!
So I agree with Creationist scientists that when the flood came, that huge water dome over the earth fell down as rain, and was never the same after that.
Well, what will that do? (A lot!)
Two main things:
A lot of UV light that would have been much more greatly filtered by that water dome would have made its way to earth’s surface, greatly increasing the effect of aging (and thus, after the flood, lifespans go way down).
Decreasing the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere, which would have decreased the size of animals because you need a lot of oxygen to oxygenate a larger animal’s blood more properly.
Anyways, I’ve always found that to be really interesting.
What we are reading about here in Genesis 2, though, is a vastly different earth then what we currently see today — It would have to have been!
Well, in this “play-by-play” review of creation, if you will, we are going to read in the rest of Genesis 2 God’s first interactions with man, leading up to chapter 3 and the FALL of man.
I think I want to get into that a little more next Sunday.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
By way of preview, next week we are going to be looking at God creating the garden of Eden, placing man within it and putting man to work tending the garden.
He is going to give man free will, and we will talk about the importance of that.
And then He is going to institute marriage by giving Adam a help meet.
So maybe you can get a jump on studying those themes from the rest of chapter 2 here as we head toward next Sunday. (Offer Invitation).