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God is the Author (Gen 2:4-7).
Prayer
O Lord, my soul clings to the dust, revive me according to your word. You have shown us that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from your mouth, O God. In this vale of death, I feel death’s cold touch constantly seeking to make inroads into me – body and soul. And I have not the power to resist or undo it’s power. My hope is in you alone. Forgive me, O Lord, for my many sins. My sins have overtaken me, I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, my heart fails within me. Be pleased O Lord to save me, O Lord come quickly to help me, give me life according to your word. Give us this day our daily bread. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
Reading
Genesis 2:4-7.
“These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”
Meditation
When you read Genesis 2:5-7, what do you notice? Go ahead and read it again if you like. I’ll tell you what Moses wanted us to notice when he wrote. He wanted us to notice that in this big story that we call history, it’s God who writes it. Notice that it is God who sets the scene, it is God who takes the initiative. God is the hero of the story. He is the hero of every story! Verse 5 points out that no bushes or small plants had yet grown. Why is that? It is because God had not yet provided rain, and he had not yet made man. As we live our lives in this story, in God’s world, there is something of fundamental importance that we must understand: everything depends on God.
Verses 5 and 6 give us a picture of undeveloped potential, and it is only as God moves that that potential begins to unfold. Verse 5 points out that God had not yet sent rain, verse 6 tells us that water was rising up from the ground. In other words: life was coming. Plants, as everyone knows, need water to grow and live. Water is a picture of life. Keep that in mind, it’s important. So God begins watering the ground in verse 6, he provides water, but the ground also needed a man to work it according to our text, and so what does God do in verse 7? He provides a man. The central truth remains very clear in all of this is, again, that God is the author.
Be ye doers of the word…
How ought we to benefit from what we have learned here? Firstly, consider this: youu are not the originator of your life. You are not in control of your environment. You are living in God’s world, you are breathing his air, you have been granted residence in his body. Psalm 24:1 tells us that the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. Now consider this a little further: if God gave you your life, just as he gave Adam life on day six, at what point do you get to take charge and do things your way? As we’re going to see in chapter three, that’s exactly where the problems began, Adam and eve did things their way. But our lives are not designed for us to do things our way, they’re designed for us to learn, enjoy, and grow in God’s ways. God alone gives us purpose and direction.
The point of application here is simple enough: live life God’s way. Is that how we strive, in dependence on God’s grace, to live our lives? In total dependence on the God who made us and all the world around us? Being totally submissive to the Father’s will? That’s how Christ lived. That’s how he taught us to pray: “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We need to get serious about the way that we’re conducting ourselves in the few short years that we have to live here. We need to be living out our time out in the fear of God. So consider the question again: Where are you looking in life for your purpose? What is it that’s setting your direction? God is the designer of your life, he alone gives you purpose. To step outside of that design is to invite death (we will get to that lesson in more detail when we arrive at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil). Seek to live your life, in all things, by God’s revealed purposes and design. SDG.
Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe
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By Reformed devotions from all of scripture.Prayer
O Lord, my soul clings to the dust, revive me according to your word. You have shown us that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from your mouth, O God. In this vale of death, I feel death’s cold touch constantly seeking to make inroads into me – body and soul. And I have not the power to resist or undo it’s power. My hope is in you alone. Forgive me, O Lord, for my many sins. My sins have overtaken me, I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, my heart fails within me. Be pleased O Lord to save me, O Lord come quickly to help me, give me life according to your word. Give us this day our daily bread. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
Reading
Genesis 2:4-7.
“These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”
Meditation
When you read Genesis 2:5-7, what do you notice? Go ahead and read it again if you like. I’ll tell you what Moses wanted us to notice when he wrote. He wanted us to notice that in this big story that we call history, it’s God who writes it. Notice that it is God who sets the scene, it is God who takes the initiative. God is the hero of the story. He is the hero of every story! Verse 5 points out that no bushes or small plants had yet grown. Why is that? It is because God had not yet provided rain, and he had not yet made man. As we live our lives in this story, in God’s world, there is something of fundamental importance that we must understand: everything depends on God.
Verses 5 and 6 give us a picture of undeveloped potential, and it is only as God moves that that potential begins to unfold. Verse 5 points out that God had not yet sent rain, verse 6 tells us that water was rising up from the ground. In other words: life was coming. Plants, as everyone knows, need water to grow and live. Water is a picture of life. Keep that in mind, it’s important. So God begins watering the ground in verse 6, he provides water, but the ground also needed a man to work it according to our text, and so what does God do in verse 7? He provides a man. The central truth remains very clear in all of this is, again, that God is the author.
Be ye doers of the word…
How ought we to benefit from what we have learned here? Firstly, consider this: youu are not the originator of your life. You are not in control of your environment. You are living in God’s world, you are breathing his air, you have been granted residence in his body. Psalm 24:1 tells us that the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. Now consider this a little further: if God gave you your life, just as he gave Adam life on day six, at what point do you get to take charge and do things your way? As we’re going to see in chapter three, that’s exactly where the problems began, Adam and eve did things their way. But our lives are not designed for us to do things our way, they’re designed for us to learn, enjoy, and grow in God’s ways. God alone gives us purpose and direction.
The point of application here is simple enough: live life God’s way. Is that how we strive, in dependence on God’s grace, to live our lives? In total dependence on the God who made us and all the world around us? Being totally submissive to the Father’s will? That’s how Christ lived. That’s how he taught us to pray: “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We need to get serious about the way that we’re conducting ourselves in the few short years that we have to live here. We need to be living out our time out in the fear of God. So consider the question again: Where are you looking in life for your purpose? What is it that’s setting your direction? God is the designer of your life, he alone gives you purpose. To step outside of that design is to invite death (we will get to that lesson in more detail when we arrive at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil). Seek to live your life, in all things, by God’s revealed purposes and design. SDG.
Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe