So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Genesis 1:27
I am excited and count it a joy to be able to start through the Bible again, today Genesis 1. I hope you will be committed to faithfully studying each chapter as the days unfold. Even on the days, I don’t write I make it a point to at least read the chapter. Let’s begin with the most relevant point of context in all of Scripture: “God created the heavens and the earth.” I have chosen the New King James Study Bible as the text I will be reading from, although I may quote from any of the versions.
Although the Bible does not contradict true science, neither does it pretend to be a book of science. The point of the Bible is that there is one God who created heaven and earth and He sent His son to redeem His creation. The sovereign nature of God is made clear in the Hebrew language when the word for “God” is written in the plural, referencing for the Jews, the unsurpassed greatness of God, and for Christians His triune nature. But then the word “create” is singular which lets us know that this great triune God acted as the one and only true God with singular purpose and power to bring into being all that is.
From the beginning, Satan has always offered a parallel narrative to the truth, a false narrative disguised in a collection of half-truths and realities void of anything to do with God. This is secularism, the prevailing narrative of this world, led and guided by the god of this world, the devil, that ancient serpent who first offered the human race a false alternative to the truth.
Always, without exception, the false narrative will sound good and right, so much so that unsuspecting people will not notice, or not care, that God is not included in the equation. There is perhaps no better example than the ecology of our secular society. In the ecology of the day, humanity carries all the responsibility for the management of the earth and its resources. On the other hand, humanity is no more important than the smallest and weakest of creatures. Some would even say that when it comes to the ruin of the natural world, humans are the problem.
There is some truth in the fact that humans are the problem. For sure, we sinned and threw the whole creation into demise, and in our sinfulness, we tend to consume the resources of creation for our own indulgence. But from God’s point of view, we were created to be representative of Him in creation, given authority and the assignment to manage creation after the will and heart of God. It is His world and we are His image-bearers. We are part of His creation but we are the crowning glory of His creation, given authority over it for the benefit of creation and the glory of God. Biblical ecology understands that God is God and we are not.
My prayer for you today
is that you will be the best ecologist possible given your assignment
to have dominion over your small part of creation.