Devotional No.4

Scripture：Genesis 1:11-31

1.           Prayer

2.           Reading

3.           Meditation

My meditation: The third point that attracts my attention in today's Scripture is that God created man in their image. What matters is not only the plurality of God (Elohiym) but also the IMAGE of God. We have reason to believe that people are indeed looking like God even physically. Of course, the Bible also said that no man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him. (John 1:18; KJV). Fortunately, the Lord Jesus Christ did come in flesh to us so that we can see that God really looks like a man. A person’s name and hence his image is kind of equivalent to the person as someone’s name is the conduit of someone’s soul energy (liveliness) in Orthodox Judaism. Just as Christ is the visible image of God the Father, Adam was the representative of God in His creation. In fact, we can see that man is God's delegate over His creation according to Genesis (1:28). This representation gives human beings both special rights as well as solemn obligations. Yes, rights and obligations are inseparable.

On the contrary, we can ask, “How much difference would it make if no man in the image of God is made? Here are some of the possibilities I think of:

Ø   There are no people to manage the Earth and the living things. Of course, God can select another living creature to look after His creation. Nevertheless, such an arrangement might lead to "equality" issues.

Ø   Unless there are other non-human creatures to be made after the human personality and characteristics, the universe may become mechanical and dull as "fun and the human emotions" will not exist in the unmanned universe!

Of course, you can think of other possibilities as well. However, you may arrive at a similar conclusion as mine, that is, there will be a shortfall if no one were made in God’s image in His creation. One of the reasons will be read in subsequent Biblical verses which tells us that the spirit of man is coming from the breath of God. Thus, man is a living soul. Remembering that God is a Spirit, only a spiritual man can communicate with God spiritually. Indeed, human beings partake God’s divine personality and nature (2 Pet 1:4) which reveals the importance of spirituality. The aforesaid also brings out the concept of the Earth as the spiritual center of the universe.

Question:

If God did NOT create human beings, how would His Creation be different?

Howard

中譯

Devotional No.3

Scripture： Genesis 1:11-31

1.   Prayer

2.   Reading

3.  Meditation

 

My meditation:

Today’s scripture tells us that God begins to create the living things starting from Day 3. The order of which is:

Day 3: grasses, vegetables and trees are created

Day 4: the sun, moon and stars are created

Day 5: fishes and birds are created

Day 6: cattle, insects, beasts and human beings are created.

God's creation was finished on the 6th day and there are 3 things that attracted my attention. As God made plants on the 3rd day and yet the sun and the stars had yet to appear. We know that plants cannot carry out photosynthesis without light. How can there be plants without the sun? Well, we’d remember that God had already installed the pro-living environment already, namely, the combination of light, water and land. Hence, there was light even though it was not from the sun or the stars.  Where did it come from? God is definitely the answer. As the creation is basically physical in nature, light coming not from the stars was then shining. This phenomenon is a mystery and very fascinating. I have no answer to what exactly is the light in question even though I have my views.

Let me share with you the first two things that have drawn my attention

There were evenings and mornings since the first day. Thus, the light should be coming from one direction rather than coming from all directions in order to produce the night and morning phenomenon. If it is so, how light can exist before the stars were created? We shall leave it to the scientists to solve this mystery. Of course, there are other possible explanations besides the above speculation.

The second thing is that the "Earth" was the center of Creation. Though it is not explicitly mentioned, the Earth appears to be the center of the universe. Such a view doesn’t fit in well with today’s scientific discovery as the Earth is found to be only a small planet in a solar system. How can it be the center of the universe? This question could be answered easily be presuming that the Creation story is purely a fictional one. Thus, Genesis is basically a mythical composition. However, such an interpretation would mean that the biblical record is not necessarily factual. If this is the case, it will be difficult to ascertain that the Bible is composed of eternal truths. It will be even more difficult to convince people that the miracles in the Scripture are true (such as Jesus' resurrection).

On the other hand, we cannot rule out that the earth is really the center of the universe arising from God’s omnipotence. Yet, how can we explain the idea of an earth-centered universe? Obviously, a possible suggestion is that the Earth is really  the physical center of the universe such as the explosion centre in the Big Bang theory. Another possible explanation is that from the spiritual perspective, namely, all spirituality is focused on the Earth. We shall explore this possibility tomorrow.

Question：

What are the implications of an Earth-centered universe?

Howard

 

Chinese Translation