When God fashioned the world, he created something initially that was formless and void, or a vast wasteland. Then, God brought order to all of that primordial stuff. After creating the firmament, he place stars, the sun, and the moon in it. He said it was for signs, seasons, and years. He also said the greater and lesser lights were to "govern" or "have dominion" the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness.
When God created man, he instructs that man is also to have dominion. But man's dominion is to be over the sea, the things the fly in the sky, and the things that roam on the earth. As the functionaries in the firmament bring order, beauty, and goodness there, so men, God's functionaries on the earth, is to bring order, beauty, and goodness on the earth by exercising dominion over the earth.
Some have pulled an ecological message out of this, understanding that we need to be caretakers of the earths' resources and its wildlife. In exploiting the earth's resources, we need to do so responsibly and with care. While there seems to be some of this in inherent in God's design, it doesn't seem to be the main thrust of what "dominion" means to man. The next chapter and the remainder of the Bible is focused on man, not the environment. The next chapter shows how God instituted the very first social institution, which is marriage and family. It seems that governing, or exercising dominion has to do not mainly with ecological order, but with social order. Whether it is marriage, family, governance, social contracts, exchange of goods, etc., there is a design for governance from the designer. When that design is honored, things tend to work well to his glory. When that design is ignored, disorder, ugliness, violence, and death usually follow.
When I look up, and consider the sun, moon, and stars, I will be reminded of these things. The sun faithfully governs the day as the moon does the nights. The stars twinkle in the heavens and give guidance to travelers. The seasons faithfully come and go. These functionaries in the heavens provide order, beauty, and goodness as they faithfully perform their governing functions to the glory of God.
How do we, as God's functionary on the earth, perform our governing function? Unlike what we see giving it's light in the heavens, we give a different kind of light. The text says that we have been created in the image of God. Our light is not for seasons, years, day and night, but for a different kind of order and beauty. Our light illuminates the beauty of righteousness, virtue, holiness, and love. These things are designed by God to be part of the foundation for our marriages, our families, and our social institutions. As the heavens submit to God's design for their governance and bring goodness and beauty to the heavens, so we, when we submit to God's design in our governance here on earth, bring goodness and beauty to the earth that God has created for his glory.
Prayer: Lord, may our hearts be humble and submissive. May we look to your instructions and commandments in ordering our lives. May we truly understand true beauty, goodness, and holiness from you, our creator and designer. May we be reminded that all of this belongs to you, and that we are here to serve your purposes. May we be submissive to you, holy, righteous, virtuous, loving, and kind. Please forgive us when we, in our pride, forget all of this. Please pardon our sins according to the grace you have shown in Jesus, our crucified and risen Lord. In his name…AMEN.
Last year, I read a news story about a sheep that had been lost.
The story reported that: An Australian champion sheep shearer has set a new record after clipping a sheep that had become so overgrown its life was endangered. The gigantic sheep, now named “Chris”, could barely walk when it was found. Shearer Ian Elkins volunteered to shear the mammoth creature after the royal society for the prevention of cruelty to animals in Australia contacted him. The sheep had to be sedated throughout the haircut. It took 45 minutes to remove the 18-inch fleece, which weighed about 88-pounds. It easily beat the 60-pound fleece previously shorn from a New Zealand sheep, known as “Shrek”. The RSPCA said sheep like Chris need to be shorn regularly. Otherwise, they can develop serious medical issues.
From what I now understand, an unshorn sheep can eventually develop infections and other issues that stem from being able to relieve himself. They will eventually die from the complications.
This reminds me of some of the 23rd Psalm, that begins with the familiar words, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want." I typically hear those words at funerals. For a long time, I did not realize that this is not actually a funeral Psalm. It is not about the Lord being my shepherd after I die, but when I am in danger. The comfort of the Psalmist comes from the nearness of God. Left to himself, he would be pursued by his enemies who would overtake him.
Instead, the Psalmist declares that it is goodness and mercy that follows him all the days of his life, not his enemies. The shepherd watches over his sheep, he protects them, examines them, binds up wounds, leads them to clean water and good pastures where there is plenty of food.
If a sheep wanders away from the fold, he is in trouble even if there are no predators. What happens when there is no shepherd to shear his wool? The article I read about the lost sheep included a couple of pictures. The before picture was pitiful. After the sheep was finally shorn, it is almost as if the sheep has a look of relief and peace on his face.
Jesus said in John 10 that he is the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. He has come to give us abundant life. In Matthew 18, he points out how the shepherd will leave the 99 sheep and go out in search of one lost sheep, and when he finds it, he rejoices and brings the lost sheep back home.
I can imagine the lost sheep pictured in the photo was so glad to have been found, and especially when all of that matted wool was sheared off so he could be healthy again. If this sheep had remained lost, he would have died. Thank God that Jesus the good shepherd came after us and began the process of making our hearts healthy and whole again. He laid down his life for us, and rose from the grave, and because of this, he has the power to save us when we are lost.
This sheep was lost for some
time. If he hadn't been found, he would have died due to the overgrowth
of wool which had caused infection.
Happy to be found, the sheep is now regaining his health
As Larry West was leading us in the communion meditation during a campaign a few years ago, I was reminded of what kind of God we have. Larry explained the ancient concept of a covenant by going step by step through a typical Hittite suzerain-vassal treaty. We see different parts of a typical "covenant" in some of the covenants that God makes with us in scripture. I remember studying this sort of thing in graduate school in books by Jon D. Levenson and other scholars.
But Sunday, it really hit me what kind of God we have. These covenantal forms do not appear to have been invented by God. There were already in use by humans in their dealings with each other when God descended and entered into a "covenant" with humans. In today's time, it might be like God coming down, sitting across a table from us, and signing his name on the dotted line next to the "X" on a contract with us! As I understand it though, the ancient "covenant" was something much more intense than signing on a dotted line today. God is above all of this. This is something that human beings have invented. And yet, God comes down, and enters into an agreement with people using their forms and ways of making agreements!
Theologians have recognized that God "condescends" to us and meets us where we are. How amazing is it that God, using our man-made forms of treaties, would relate to us with them to demonstrate his faithfulness to us! He was not obligated to do so, but he chose to do so for our sakes. It is like the book of Hebrews says in chapter 6, he gave an oath to us so that we can have strong assurance. This is the God that "inclines" his ear to us when we pray. This is the God that delights in us as a groom delights in his bride. This is the God that went so far as to meet us in the flesh . . . literally. How amazing is that?
God loves passionately, with his whole self. God "IS" love. If God loves passionately, doesn't it make sense that his anger would also be passionate when that love is spurned? If one is indifferent, there would be no anger. If there is no anger, cant there really be love. God is a jealous God, which is a pure jealousy in the same way a man wants his spouse for himself and not for other men. The source of God's intense anger is from his passionate love. At the end of the day, love is what wins. The story does not end with God destroying mankind, but with him offering adulterous mankind a way back through the sacrifice of the cross.
When one gives his personal name as God did, "I AM", or "Yahweh," one initiates a relationship with someone else. This is what God did when he gave his name. When you initiate a relationship, you make yourself vulnerable to someone else. You make yourself susceptible to their needs. You make yourself susceptible to being disappointed or even hurt by them. Yet, this is what God does. He allowed himself to be "hurt" by us because of his intense, loyal, and faithful love for us. Even though he was "grieved" that he made man on the earth, he had a plan to redeem us through self sacrifice. God put it all out there for us. Angry? Wrath? I would expect no less from a God who went to these lengths to demonstrate his love and faithfulness to win us back to himself.
Truly, God "Is" love. Love is at the center of his nature. His faithfulness and anger are both expressions of his love. How amazing is the God we serve!
