God Provides For His Creation

02Jan15
Genesis 1:27-2:3
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.  God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.  Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."  Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it.  They will be yours for food.  And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground--everything that has the breath of life in it--I give every green plant for food."  And it was so.  God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.  And there was evening, and there was morning--the sixth day.  Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.  By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.  And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

The idea that God was tired is perhaps the most amusing interpretation of on the seventh day He rested.  A better excerpt would be he rested from all His work, to show he came to completion and made an end of it.  Out of the many definitions of rest, one includes the idea of contemplative repose.  The idea that God surveyed what he had made and gave it some thought is consistent with the magnitude of his work.

The direct and repetitive statement that God made both male and female may seem obvious, but it is well to remember that people are very much part of God's deliberate plan.  We are more completely set up for further reading by the encouraging concept that human existence is no accident.  Regardless of how God makes it come about, both men and women are in the plan from the beginning.  (And BTW, so is making babies)

Two mysterious ideas come up here in the early parts of creation.  One is dominion, as God directs his people to subdue the earth and rule over the creatures.  There is no explanation, but it is clear that the people God made are at at the head of the table, so to speak.  They are important.

The other is the introduction of the word "holy", as God makes the seventh day special.  For a very long time I thought a holy thing was in some way charged up supernaturally.  This idea is found in my beloved King Arthur tales, what with the holy grail and such, but God is probably not being so mysterious.  A holy thing is something that is dedicated; the more holy, the more dedicated, (as in don't touch, or that's not for you).  We will see this again and again in the Bible.  For now, it seems that God has set up the dedication of one out of every seven days for some reason he does not completely explain.

I suppose there could be a debate about when man begins to eat meat, but there is no mention here.  At least we can know that God has provided for his creatures, and for his people.  Again, it is clear that God has made a world (universe) according to a plan, and so he has also provided for the needs of His world.  If we turn around the word order, we can say that God did not rest until he provided for his creation.