In our previous post, I shared that a perfect world described in Genesis 1 is the exact opposite of chaos. In this post, I would like to add two more insights that describe God’s perfect world:
Secondly, we learn that God’s perfect world is a result of His creative act, Genesis 1:3-31.
Both the Spirit of God and the word of God are active in the creation of the perfect world.
In Genesis 1:2, Moses describes the Spirit of God as hovering over a formless and empty world. Moses also repeatedly used the phrase "And God said." These facts show that the perfect world is an outcome of the activities of the Spirit of God and his powerful word. God's word brought order and fullness to a formless and empty world.
During the first three days, God made the light, and sky, and separated land and seas. In other versions, “sky” is called “dome” or “expanse”. By this act of creation, God created order out of formlessness.
Beginning days four to six, God made the sun, moon, stars, birds, sea creatures, animals, and man to bring fullness to an empty world. That's how God made a cosmos out of chaos.
Relevance to Moses' Time
Again, this message was so important in Moses' time. By showing that God created the perfect world out of chaos, Moses wanted his generation to believe that their deliverance from Egypt was a call of God to freedom from a life of chaos characterized by oppression and slavery.
Furthermore, their possession of the Promised Land was an act on the part of God for them to experience order and fullness. This is the reason why the Promised Land is a picture of abundance and fertility, a land flowing with milk and honey. In a way, we can say that the Promised Land reminded the Jews of life in paradise. And all of these happened because God visited them through his word.
Application for Our Time
God too has a glorious destiny for his people in Jesus. Christ's first coming was not just an ordinary event. From the side of God, the coming of His Son was a kind of putting a chaotic world into order. A world destroyed by sin and meaningless and empty lives can now experience order and fullness in Christ. This is simply because when Christ came into this world, God dwelt among men. And living with God is the essence of life in paradise.
Jesus opened the way back to paradise, to the perfect world simply because he is The Way. But men and women refused to believe in him and repent of their sins thereby depriving themselves of such an opportunity to live in a perfect world.
The apostle Paul said:
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
In other words, in Jesus, God was setting the world free from chaos, from the darkness of sin and death. In Jesus, anyone who believes in him will become part of a new realm, a new creation, a perfect world!
Finally, God’s perfect world ends in rest, Genesis 2:1-3.
In Genesis 1:2, we see here a world that is formless and empty. But the Spirit of God was there.
During the first six days, the Spirit of God created order out of formlessness and fullness out of emptiness. God was pleased with the perfect world that he made. And then he rested on the seventh day and called it the "Sabbath."
The Sabbath was an indication that God was finished and satisfied with his creation. It was also an indication that nothing was lacking in his work, meaning it was perfect. And so, the perfect world of God and the Sabbath are closely connected.
Old Testament Application
The day of rest or the Sabbath was very important for the Jews of Moses' time. We read in Exodus 20:8-11 the reason for the keeping of the Sabbath. And the reason given was the fact of God's creation.
However, there is another section in the Bible that talks about keeping the Sabbath day holy. You can read it in Deuteronomy 5:12-15. This time, the reason mentioned by Moses for the Jews to keep the Sabbath day holy was their slavery in Egypt.
This message was very important for them in their journey from Egypt to the wilderness, and finally into the land of promise. For the Jews, Sabbath could only be fully enjoyed through the possession of the Promised Land. It is as if Moses was saying that just as God had brought the world from chaos to the Sabbath, he was also bringing Israel from a chaotic life in Egypt to rest in the Promised Land. That's why Moses told them:
But you will cross the Jordan and settle in the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and he will give you rest from all your enemies around you so that you will live in safety (Deuteronomy 12:10).
New Testament Application
In the New Testament, the author of Hebrews tells us about Gospel rest:
There remains, then a Sabbath rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his work, just as God did from his (4: 9-10).
And people who can enjoy this gospel rest are those who stop relying on their works to earn the favor of God. Instead, these people have given their full trust in what God did by sending Jesus to die for our sins. And such redeeming work of God is perfect. It is complete, and there is nothing more we can do to add to it.
Only by relying on the finished work of Christ on the Cross, can a man find this kind of rest that the Gospel freely provides.
However, this gospel rest does not mean you can do anything you like. No, it is not like that. Enjoying this rest in the gospel is to live a life of obedience to the law of God. Without obedience, the person denies that he has already entered this rest in Jesus.
The word "rest" is strange to many people today. There was a website a few years ago that made this infographic showing where nations are known for being number one. South Korea is considered number one in terms of “work”. Japan is number 1 in robotics. How about the Philippines? We are number one in social media.
Returning to work. All work without rest is wrong for it is a violation of God's command. The Bible says "Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest." All work without rest makes you restless. Such a mindset is characterized by too much dependence on human work without leaving time for worship, prayer, play, and contemplation.
On the other hand, all rest without work is laziness. This will make you poor. God does not want both.
God showed us the path to living our lives by creating for us a perfect world. This world is the exact opposite of chaos, a product of God's act, and leads to rest. Many people in this world still live in chaos, a life that is disorderly and meaningless, a life that defies the law of God, and a life that does not know how to rest. Only in Jesus people can find order, meaning, fullness, and rest. The Gospel of Jesus – his death, and resurrection - is the only hope for our time.
Grace and peace!
Note: Thanks to @hivewatchers for calling my attention to the article I wrote in 2014. I know that I got careless by not referencing the past article I published on WordPress. It's my first time to be suspected of plagiarism due to my failure to give credit to my own work.