We just started a new series called “Kingdom Revealed” last week and looked at Genesis Chapter 1. We will take some time this week to emphasize four main ideas before we move on to Genesis Chapter 2. The four ideas are the cosmic temple, cosmology, imagers, and elohim.
We finished up last week with the following passage:
Genesis 2:1-3 (NIV)
Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. 2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
While the address for the passage says Genesis 2, these verses should be included in Genesis Chapter 1. They picture the completion of the cosmic temple developed in Genesis Chapter 1. We said the heart of God was to dwell with us, His imagers, on this planet in a perfect situation. Genesis 1 is a picture of God’s ideal.
To make sense of what is happening in Genesis Chapter 1, it is essential to understand Biblical cosmology. Cosmology is a way of thinking about things. You have a cosmology, as did the people to whom the Bible was first written. We can’t force our 2023 way of thinking on the text in Genesis Chapter 1. It is not a science book or a textbook. It is divinely inspired literature that was written over 2500 years ago. We need to understand Genesis Chapter 1 from the cosmology of the people it was originally written to. Biblical cosmology is not a scientific model for understanding the universe but a theological and symbolic framework. It is less about providing a literal description of physical reality and more about articulating a spiritual, moral, and metaphysical worldview.
We will also deepen our discussion about what it means to be created in the image of God.
Genesis 1:27-28
27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
Human beings were created to be like God. The most helpful way to understand this is to think of the word as a verb. We were created to image God, to be his imagers, to partner with Him and represent Him.
We need to introduce the elohim into our series as well. Before God created us, His human family (imagers), he created a spiritual family. We often think of them as the angels. But this spiritual family is actually more than angels. The Bible calls them “sons of God.”
Job 38:4-7 (NIV)
4 “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. 5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? 6 On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone— 7 while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?
God’s heart is to live with his divine and human family on earth. God wanted the whole earth to be a place where heaven and earth met, where humanity could enjoy the divine, and where the divine could enjoy earth and humanity.
We will look at this and more at Keys Vineyard Church this weekend, so plan to join us in person or online.
Steve Lawes is a Church Consultant and also provides coaching for pastors, churches, ministries and church planters.
