We take an uncommon approach to the Book of Genesis, which is more commonly known as the book of creation. Genesis truly offers great insight to spiritual understanding of things to come. Here are just a few of those insights, may the Spirit open our understanding fully to hear the Lord: In Genesis chapters 1 and 2 we see God creating or calling forth the land, separating the waters, the earth’s atmosphere, plant life, animals, and the birds of the air and finally, He made man on the sixth day. On the seventh day God rested from all His work.
Insight 1. By making man last, God was making a defining statement that man should never be in bondage to anything, all things were to be subservient to man working to bring about God's ultimate purpose. Remember, 'all things work together for...His purpose’ Rom l8:28. Do you see this? Let ‘s look at the cycle provided in this picture. God made the heavens to supply the earth with all that is necessary for reproduction, growth and a healthy environment. The earth in turn supplies what is needful for man's life, i.e., eating, producing and reproducing and comfort. Man would supply what God needed, praise, worship and adoration, yet more than this… a place for His rest. Isa. 66:1.2
Insight 2. God rested for He was satisfied that His plan was fully set in motion. Was He aware of man's inevitable failure? Yes, of course. He was fully at rest for He knew that nothing and no one, not even satan on his best day of trickeries and deceptions, could alter His plan once it was in place. Jesus said ' I will build my Church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.’ Matt 16:18 NASB
Insight 3. Man's first day was on the seventh day. It follows that God's design for man’s life was complete and he was to enter into God’s rest. The Rest here is not one of a physical nature but the ceasing of labor of the soul life (the will, mind and emotions). "The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, Because he trusts in You." Isa 26:3
For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Heb 4: 10
If we are to benefit fully of the provision of God, we have to stop eating from our own table, the thing we have provided for ourselves, and eat from the table provided by the Lord. Jesus said in John 6:57 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. If we are to please or fulfill the purpose of the Father we must eat and live by Christ.
The whole purpose of redemption was to reverse the damaging effect of the fall. It was the soul (mind, will, emotions) that was empowered by the will of satan (the serpent) in the garden of Eden. Genesis 3:6 gives us a clear picture of a soul fully activated and elevated ‘And when the woman saw that the tree [was] good for food, and that it [was] pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make [one] wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.’ In breaking this down some more ‘it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired’ is an act of the emotions; ‘to make one wise’ is an act of the mind; ‘’she took of the fruit therefore, and did eat’ this is an act of the will. The eating of the fruit was symbolic of taking in a forbidden thing, the nature of Satan, filled with rebellion and self-consciousness. You are what you eat. When we read the account of Satan’s rebellion against God in Isaiah 14 we find there a number of ‘I wills’ coming from Lucifer (Satan). When Christ came to earth His whole manner of living was in contrast to this very thing, He would say such words as these “Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does.” “Yet not my will, but yours be done.” This must become the pattern for our lives as well, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” Gal. 2:20. The “I” must die in order that the life of Christ have full reign. Phil. 1:21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
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