David Pawson - Genesis 3

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THOUGHTFUL THOUGHTS  14.8.26 BY JOHN DUNNING. 

GENESIS PART 3;- “SHALOM”.

PROLOGUE - The genesis of Genesis…

“Shalom” means far more than just “peace”. It has a much deeper meaning of completeness, wholeness, well-being, and harmony. I say that because before the fall, creation had “Shalom”. Jesus believed in the Genesis account being factual and historical.

Jesus asks: “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?” (Matthew 19:4-5).

In the Garden of Eden there was harmony in creation itself, between God and man,  and all of His creation with each other, even to the point where God would come into the Garden of Eden to communicate with Adam. That harmony was heaven on earth, called “Shalom” in Hebrew!

INTRODUCTION - PARADISE…

The first couple of chapters of Genesis summarises creation before it was ruined by disobedience, when creation was still perfect. Genesis shows us what we have missed out on. It explains how we got here, and how things were before our disobedience ruined everything. We wouldn’t know how it happened without the book of Genesis. 

The Hebrew word for this kind of perfect, peaceful, harmonious order is summed up in “Shalom”. It was enjoyed by creation to the point where Genesis 1:29 tells us that man was originally a vegetarian, and the next verse tells us that even animals were as well. Even the lion didn’t eat the lamb back then!

Harmony… The genesis of Genesis

My sister is a dog-trainer and her Standard Poodle “Harmony” has won many prizes for obedience. Harmony’s obedience does not come from a fear of punishment, but from a relationship of complete trust. 

Harmony accepts the pecking order that she has, because she obeys her master, my sister. Harmony trusts my sister to look after her, and in that pecking order she finds security.

The harmony just after the world was created, was like the relationship between my sister and her dog. Man was given the common sense to look after the creatures God made, and when man’s heart was perfect, it worked perfectly. Now, that harmonious order is what God put into His creation. God offers to reconcile us with Himself. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me”; (John 14:6). Jesus said to Nicodemus, John 3:3 “...no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” 

When Peter was asked “What must we do to be saved?”,  Peter replied;- “Repent (turn), be immersed (be baptised), and receive the Holy Spirit”; (Acts 2:38).

a). Mankind is a creature because we have a Creator.

We are told that man was made in the image of God in 1:27, and God breathed life into him; 2:7. That extra comment is not made about any other creature God made. The literal translation of the Hebrew word for that is that God “breathed the soul of life”.

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b). When God made woman she was made from a man’s rib, and not from dust. All creatures EXCEPT woman, were made from the dust of the earth, including man. The woman was made from the superior ingredient of a spare rib! So, God cloned the first woman from a man’s rib.

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c). Man was created to be a vegetarian.

Man (Genesis 1:29) and animals were made to be vegetarians, (Gen.1:30).

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d). God gave the vegetarian man the job of taking care of His creation. 

At the time that man was put in charge he was still perfect and managed creation benevolently, in the way we do for pets. When the vertical harmony between God and man was right, there was also harmony between man and creation itself. And the name for it was, “The Garden of Eden”! Google “Christian the lion” video for interest, as it shows that even today lions can be at peace with man! 

EPILOGUE - Shalom again! That’ll be heaven!

If you want to see what paradise will look like again one day, read Revelation 21. You can see what God is going to do in future! It will be bigger and better than the Garden of Eden and inhabited by people who made a choice to become one of God’s obedient people. 

God’s family will experience what it could have been like to live in harmony, when they live in God’s “paradise regained”, called “The New Jerusalem”, a brand new Garden of Eden, (mark 2). There, God will walk again with His people, and harmony will be restored, and you can be part of it!

Rev. 21:1 “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband”.

Read Acts 2:38 to see how to start a relationship with God. Become like the Recabites in Jeremiah 35:18-19, who were gentiles who decided to become part of God’s people through obedience to God, which caused Him to love them too. (In Jeremiah 35 we learn God loved the obedience of the “Recabites” so much that these one-time gentiles, who had chosen to become Jews, were given a very privileged position by God, (v.19). God loved them for their obedience (18) and He compared their obedience to the disobedient Israelites, that He had been having to put up with, and who He was about to punish, by sending into exile.

Next time we look at “Paradise Lost” - when man chose to disobey God.

If you would like to know how to find peace with God, listen to the podcasts at this link…

https://www.inspirational.org.nz/pages/johns-devotionals-podcast

Do share this study with your friends…

This is John Dunning signing off from “Thoughtful Thoughts” for another week.

PS. To help pray for the ‘suffering church’ see;- https://barnabasfund.org/nz/pray/daily-prayer/#previous-dates

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For a message on Hearing God, called “The Cost of Discipleship”, 

visit this podcast link https://share.transistor.fm/s/1263bbab

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