The never-ending experiment… (pt 3)
Updated in July to walk with you further.
The foundation is central to our core being because it is what we cannot see, but know it’s there. Understand this: your life is far beyond what you can physically see, and that’s why it’s vital to your existence that you rest on a foundation that is unchanging because it gives stability and peace, remaining the same yesterday, today, and forever, regardless of what’s happening in the ever-changing world. To know this unchanging foundation, we’ll need to acknowledge who created it along with understanding the divine order of creation and the purpose for which you were created.
This unchanging foundation is revealed in the Holy Bible, which is divinely inspired, not a product of human wisdom, but is breathed out by God, the Creator of all. The divine order of creation is told in Genesis 1 and 2:1-3.
In the beginning, God spoke everything into existence over six days, declaring each act of creation "good." He created light and separated day from night, formed the sky and seas, and brought forth dry land and vegetation. He made the sun and moon to mark time, filled the skies and waters with creatures, and finally, created humanity. On the seventh day, God rested —not out of weariness from labor, but we learn from Scripture that He finished the work He had done (Genesis 2:2). From this foundational account alone, I want to highlight two things:
1) Divine Order: God created everything in a precise order that involves structure and purpose, allowing humanity, His image bearers, to live in His blessing. Genesis 1:28 speaks to this blessing, stating, “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.” This divine order reflects God’s wisdom and power and His governance of all events according to His will.
2) Inherent Goodness and Image: God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Genesis 1:26a) and then, “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). Humanity is set apart and made like God in a way that the other creatures are not. Having a body, spirit, and soul—there’s a pattern for the design of the body, in which God had also taken on bodily form. In addition to morality and being capable of obedience to moral law while also having a conscious, dominion over the animals, and intended by God for fellowship.
This account reveals the Creator and the created. God is sovereign and perfect, operating in a divine order. Everything made points to His existence.
Genesis 2 gives us a more detailed look at the creation of humanity. God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, making him a living being. He placed him in the Garden of Eden to work and maintain it. The man was surrounded by every tree that was pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the midst of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There, God gave man his first command:
16 "…you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die" (Genesis 2:16-17).
God then acknowledged it wasn’t good for the man to be alone and thus needed a suitable helper. After Adam gave names to all of the living creatures, there was no living creature found suitable to him. So God put the man to sleep, took one of his ribs, and using that rib, He formed the woman. The man and the woman became one under God’s authority.
This historical account is important because it makes clear of the foundation of the true living God and His divine order and purpose for creation: to glorify Him—humanity is created in God’s image and likeness to bring Him honor and glory; for intimate relationship—the very essence of our being comes from God, so true wholeness is found only through our connection to Him. The world was created as His dwelling place, a place for His presence to be manifested among His creation; and to steward well all that He has provided, including to care for and manage wisely the animals and land.
Morgan