As I was reading today’s passages, I was struck by two things.
There are, of course a bazillion things that are significant in these chapters, but what really stood out to me this time was the reason God created the stars.
If Genesis 1:15 it says God created all the different lights of the night sky “to give light upon the earth.” God does everything for his glory, so creating the universe as big as He did very clearly testifies to how big God is, first and foremost. But the stars are also created for us. To help us mark the days and seasons; to give light at night. He created all those billions and billions of stars for us.
Scientists have pondered for years where all this came from and what other life might be out there. Many of them cannot even fathom that all of that was created for God’s glory and for our good. All of it… just for us. That is thrilling and humbling all at the same time. It magnifies God in all his resplendent glory and it exults in us, his highest creation.
What a way to start the new year!!!
The other thing I was struck by is how quickly the biblical narrative moves to our fall. I mean out of the 1,189 chapters in the Bible it only takes 3 to get to our demise. This HUGE universe God created only receives a few verses to describe it before the pinnacle of God’s creation messes it all up. I think this testifies that WE are the central part of this story; not the universe. Modern thinking tries to tell us that we are just one, small speck in the vastness of all that is and that we should live accordingly. It sometimes sounds like the rainforest is more important than unborn babies. But that is not how the Bible unfolds our story.
I have no idea how much time went by between God’s creation of Adam and Eve and their first sin. I suppose it could be a hundred years or it could have been on the same week. But the point is that the Bible is about God’s glory; his glory in creating us and then redeeming us.
But it it not just a generic glory that God is after. It is a very specific glory. He wants to magnify the glory of his mercy and grace through his obedient Son. That is why I think it is so cool that we read Matthew 1 today. We read about our creation and fall in Genesis along with God’s seed of promise in Genesis 3:15. Then we read about the beginning of the fulfillment of that promise in Matthew 1, “you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
THAT… is awesome.
Well, this has been a great day of reading, and it is only the first day!!! I can’t wait till tomorrow!!!
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