Lumley 1 -- Gen. 1:26-31

Garden of Gethsemane — “Not my will but yours be done”

Will you pray for me?

What does the Bible say about ______________?

What is God’s will for my life?

Those are the 3 questions most frequently posed to me.

Perhaps the better, and potentially more frightening question, is this question:

What is God’s will?

This question shifts from application in the first question to implication in the second.

Because if we can discern, discover, decipher God’s will, then maybe we can come to some insights by implication first, rather than by application first.

On Mother’s Day, we come to the first essential passage of the Summer in this series, Lumley’s 12.

This passage offers great clarity and insights around the question:

What is God’s will?

Genesis 1:26–31 ESV

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Gen 1:

This passage, the summary of Day 6 of creation, offers enormous clarity as to God’s will as it related and relates to God’s GOOD CREATION in God’s GOOD WORLD.

God wants the male and female to be GOOD STEWARDS OVER GOD’S GOOD CREATION. (1.26)

God is a “work through humans” kind of God.

Psalm 8 ESV

To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of David. 1 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. 2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. 3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? 5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, 7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. 9 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

God gives us tasks:

Create a good environment for the animals

Create an environment of justice and mercy as God is just and merciful.

Expand and multiply other males and females on the earth.

While this observation certainly includes some looking back on my part, the sense I get from this essential passage is that God wants to come and dwell within this world God has created… and this becomes a more powerful option for God in light of 1.27.

Genesis 1:27 ESV

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

What does this mean? To be created in the image of God — male and female — God created them in God’s image.

It may mean: creates, speaks, stewards, reigns...

“We do that as God does that...”

But what if there is another way of considering what is happening in this verse that actually clarifies the implications of the text?

The Bible and numbers… 12, 40, 1000...

The first culminating number we come to in the Bible is the number 7. We see it through the Bible in a number of places.

For example: and we see the Temple being dedicated. The Temple took how long to build?

7 years.

It was dedicated in the 7th month.

In the ancient world, as you read stories of temples being built to the many deities of the ancient world, you will find those temples built… you guessed it… in 7 days.

In the 7th month of the 7th year, God takes up residence in the Temple constructed for Him to dwell.

1 Kings 8:10–13 ESV

10 And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, a cloud filled the house of the Lord, 11 so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. 12 Then Solomon said, “The Lord has said that he would dwell in thick darkness. 13 I have indeed built you an exalted house, a place for you to dwell in forever.”

We see something similar — and I am arguing identical — in .

Genesis 2:1–3 ESV

1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

Resting isn’t napping… it is ruling, inhabinting, and enjoying.

When you buy a house and set it up, you don’t do that to nap in it… you do it to inhabit it!

Would you like to take a guess at what happens in the ancient world on day 6 in the construction of temples?

The image of the deity is placed in the temple.

Man made and man constructed and man placed...

What if the temples of the ancient world took their cues from the one true and great story of the creative work of God?

What if it is not only appropriate, but necessary, for us to read the creation narrative of — not primarily through the lens of God creating a world in which his Temple will one day sit — but that this world that God created is the FIRST Temple God created… that on day 7 He comes to REST and DWELL and REIGN… and on day 6… on day 6… well...

God installs within his temple… God’s image.

NOT made by man with their hands from wood or gold or stubble.

God places in His Temple of creation those in whom and with whom God will dwell… and by whom God will be worshipped… and through whom God will be glorified.

So whoever you marry… wherever you work… whatever house you buy… whatever car you drive… however you confront your neighbor… however you raise your kids… whether you stay in the marriage… whether you tell the truth, consider adultery, want what your friend has… THE GUIDING IMPLICATION IS THIS:

YOU AND I ARE THE IMAGE OF GOD, PLACED IN THE TEMPLE OF GOD, TO DISPLAY THE GLORY OF GOD AS WE ENJOY AND LONG FOR THE COMING OF GOD TO MAKE GOD’S DWELLING WITH US.

On that last page of the Bible… as the final and new Temple of God is constructed,

Rev 21:1

Revelation 21:1–7 ESV

1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” 5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.