Genesis 3:8,9 - Where are you?

3:8

So sin has changed how a person views themselves, and how we view each other. It also changes, even destroys, our relationship with the Lord. They heard the Lord  God as He was walking in the garden. Instead of running to be with Him, which is how things should be, they hid from the Lord. Again we see these things in our own society. There is distrust of each other, our relationship with ourselves can be deeply conflicted (gender identity disorder is only one example of this), our relationships with each other can be deeply problematic. And we view God as someone to be avoided.

3:9

So man has destroyed his relationship with God by his own sinful actions, but God has not given up on us. “The Lord called out to the man,’Where are you?’”. Sometimes people talk of man’s search for God. This gets it totally the wrong way round, verse 8 and 9 get it the right way about. Man hides from God, it is God who calls after us.

Revelation 22:7-9 - I am coming soon

22:7

The words in this verse are highlighted in red in “red letter Bibles”, indicating that they are the words of Jesus. “Look, I am coming soon! Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy written in the scroll”. It is now almost two thousand years since these words were given, so Christ’s return does not seem to be “soon”. In an eternal context it is soon. We live for seventy to eighty or more years on this earth. In the context of eternity this is nothing. Keeping these words means remaining faithful to Christ, trusting in HIm, even in the face of severe opposition.

22:8,9

The main part of the vision has now finished. John confirms that he has seen and heard the things that he has recounted. After he had heard them he fell down at the feet of the angel who had been showing him these things, but the angel rebuked him. The angels are “fellow servants” with us. There are two primary errors we can make with angels (as there is with demons). One is to place too much emphasis on them (eg Col 2:18), the other is to ignore them. Angels are real, they were created by God, and they form an important part of God’s economy. They are fellow servants with all of us who “keep the words of this scroll”. So we should worship God! 

Genesis 3:6,7 - Then the eyes of both were opened

3:6

As noted in my comments on Gen 2:9, the fact that the fruit was “pleasing to the eye” was not the problem. The problem was the disobedience to God's command. In Romans 8 Paul talks at length about living by the flesh and living by the Spirit. Living by the flesh, the mind set on the flesh, is death. The mind set on the spirit leads to life. So the woman saw that the fruit was good for food, a delight to the eyes and desirable for gaining wisdom, so she ate some of it. She was living by the flesh. There had been a clear command from God and if she had obeyed that there would have been no problem. All our problems stem ultimately from our failure to obey God. She also gave some to her husband, and he ate it too.

3:7

When we sin it changes us, you can never be the same again. Now we all sin from day to day in what we might call relatively minor ways and we don’t notice anything much. But if a person commits a “big sin” they will notice a fairly immediate change and there will be no going back. Before the sin the man and the woman were innocent, but now they had experienced sin, they knew what sin was. Now everything looked different. They realised they were naked. They had always been naked, but before it had never been a problem. Now it was because of the loss of innocence.

Revelation 22:5,6 - These words are trustworthy and true

22:5

“There will be no more night”. Night is when danger often comes, and when evil deeds are often carried out. There will be no night in the new Jerusalem. Lamps will not be needed, even the sun is not needed, for the Lord God is our source of light. “And they will reign for ever and ever”. We will reign! This is what God created us for in the beginning. Sin messed it up, Christ restores the proper order of things. And this is an eternal state.

22:6

“These words are trustworthy and true”. The picture painted by the vision of Revelation could easily have seemed to be unbelievable, but the angel assures John and his readers and us that words are “trustworthy and true”. They knew that the prophets of the Old Testament were reliable and had been sent by God, inspired by Him. It was the same God who had sent the angel to give this message to John. “These things must soon take place”. The vision described how things were working out.

Genesis 3:2-5 - You will not surely die

3:2,3

The woman replies partially correctly. Yes God did tell them that they could eat the fruit of any tree in the garden, but when she comes to the restriction she does not quite get things right.  The tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil were both in the midst of the garden. It was only the latter tree that had the forbidden fruit. “Lest you die” (ESV) and even “you will die” (NIV) are less strong than the actual command, “you will certainly die”. 

3:4,5

The serpent now tries to cast doubt in the woman’s mind. First he directly contradicts God’s word, “you will not surely die”. When the serpent directly contradicts God’s word there really should be no question in our mind. Sadly much of the church seems to think otherwise, especially when it comes to matters of sexual morality. The serpent then offers a promise, “you will be like God, knowing good and evil”. Just see how similar that is to what is going on in our society. We think we can be like God, deciding what is good and what is evil (and usually coming with laws contrary to God’s laws). Nothing much has changed in this aspect since the Fall!

Revelation 22:3,4 - They will see His face

22:3

After the fall the Lord cursed the ground and other aspects of life (Gen 3:16-19). In the new Jerusalem there will be no more curse. A good working definition of “curse” is “God’s judgement on man’s sin”. The judgement is removed completely. The “throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city”. After Adam and Eve sinned they hid from God. This is the effect of sin. God is meant to be at the centre of our lives. “And His servants will serve Him”. We are sons of God, and we are servants of God.

22:4

“They will see His face”. Moses was not allowed to see the face of God (Ex 33:20,23). We will see God face to face! “And His name will be on their foreheads”. Our dedication will be completely to the Lord. We should note that the talk in Revelation about marks on foreheads etc is not about having chips implanted, or any such thing. It is about our heart attitude, the orientation of our lives. Is it toward God or is it toward the devil. 

Genesis 3:1 - Did God actually say?

3:1

So far we have had God’s creation and purpose in creation, with mankind being at the centre of God’s plans. We now come to the Fall, man’s sin against God and the subsequent punishment. The final outcome of all this, which is hinted at in this chapter, is that God’s plans and purposes will be fulfilled, despite man’s sin. How can this be? The rest of the Bible is about “how can this be?”, how can man’s sin and its consequences be overcome? The answer is found entirely in Jesus Christ.

There is the question of whether the description that we have of the fall is a literal description of what happened or is an allegorical telling. I have to say that the Fall itself reads like an allegory, and in practical terms, even if we assume it is literal, we interpret and apply it as if it was allegory. No one expects to encounter a talking snake today urging us to eat some particular fruit. We may well encounter temptations to lust, lying, pride, etc etc.

The incident starts with the serpent. We tend to associate the serpent with Satan, this is largely because of Rev 20:2. However, in Jewish teaching this was not so. Also here the serpent is presented as just another created beast, albeit one who was more crafty than any other beast. If we take the incident as literal then it is actually quite difficult to square Rev 20:2 with Gen 3:1. But if we take this as allegory there is no such problem. 

Some of you may think we are doubting the Bible if we take it as allegory. Let me say I have no problem at all with a snake speaking, God can do anything He likes. My reasons for taking this chapter as allegory are that it seems to me that to do so is actually more consistent with the Bible as a whole. I could be wrong, but this is what I think.

Why use allegory? Because it makes the fundamental aspects of the Fall more generally applicable. If it was actually about a particular sin, then we would be prone to thinking that the lessons that come from this were limited to that area of sin, when in fact they apply to the whole of life.

The serpent spoke to the woman “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”. Well the answer is no, God did not say that at all. He did say “You can eat of any tree, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”. The serpent has lied and is seeking to cast doubt in the woman’s heart. This is a common trick of the devil. God had actually given them enormous freedom, with only one restriction, and that for our common good.

Revelation 22:1,2 - For the healing of the nations

22:1

We are now in the final chapter. There are references to living water in the Old Testament prophets, notably Zechariah (Zech 14:8) and most notably Ezekiel (Ezek 47). This water was “as clear as crystal”. This signifies the purity of the water. In this world everything, even the best, is tainted to some degree. Everything we have will eventually wear out and break down. This living water is perfect, and it flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb. It is significant that the Lamb is so often mentioned together with God. 

22:2

The living water flows down the middle of the “great street of the city”. The city of God derives everything from the Lord. It is perfect because it is dependent upon God. Our world is terribly imperfect because of our rebellion against God. We were created by God. Without God there is nothing, no universe, no life within that universe. So when we live in rebellion against God we are living a lie. In Gen 2:9 the tree of life is mentioned, and in Gen 3:22,24 man is stopped from accessing the tree of life after his fall. Now man has access to the tree of life again. It yields its fruit every month, there is a perpetual supply. “And the leaves are for the healing of the nations”. One might wonder why this is needed as the sin is banished from the city, but the individuals and societies are wounded by sin, even when the sin itself has gone. There will be complete healing. As examples Germany needed healing from the effects of Nazisim, Russia and Eastern Europe needed healing from the effects of communism. South Africa and Zimbabwe needed healing from the effects of apardheid. In some cases good progress has been made, but in others there are still many lingering effects. In God’s city there will be perfect and complete healing.

Genesis 2:21-25 - They were both naked and were not ashamed

2:21,22

Again there is the question of whether to take this literally or allegorically. I honestly don’t think it matters. No one is created that way anymore, what counts are the lessons we can learn from the account here. The most important thing is the unity and diversity. Men and women are different but equal. Also God deliberately created the woman, and deliberately created her as a companion for the man. Trans ideology is utterly ungodly and should be rejected. Now this equality and diversity does not mean that every societal norm about the differences between men and women is good. Sometimes societies prohibit, or make difficult, some roles or tasks in societies for one gender or the other. Sometimes this is neutral, sometimes it is good, sometimes it is harmful. 

God made the woman out of part of the man that He had removed. We are incomplete without each other. Now we need a bit of common sense in applying this. It does not mean that anyone who is single is necessarily incomplete or lacking. Jesus, and Paul,  spoke positively of those who willingly forego marriage for the sake of the kingdom. We should also avoid the other extreme of seeing singleness as being superior. Society needs marriages, and societies where marriage is breaking down are societies that are breaking down.  Also, it is not just about marriage! Society needs men and women in a multitude of ways.

2:23-25

We now get verses specifically about marriage. God brought the woman to the man and he declared that she was “bone of my bone” and “flesh of my flesh”. They were made for each other. It teaches us that sex is for one man and one woman united in marriage, committed to each other. This is the teaching that Jesus endorsed (Matt 19:4-6). In every other context sexual relations will lead to disaster, as frequently happens, and Genesis will have its fair share of disasters in later chapters. “And they were not ashamed”. In our fallen world sex is often a subject of shame, and society’s ways are at least partly responsible for this.

Revelation 21:24-27 - Nations will walk by its light

21:24

“The nations will walk by its light”. Jerusalem was meant to be a light to the world, if only the people of Israel had lived according to the Law. But they did not and could not do so. But there will come a time when the perfect Jerusalem is made, and we are made perfect, then we will be the light to the world, for the light of Christ will truly shine through us. “The kings of the earth will bring their splendour into it”. One might wonder why this is necessary, but a little thought will show why. It is not that God is lacking in splendour and so needs a top up from us! Rather it is that man is meant to achieve things and then give glory to God. Instead, since the fall, man has claimed glory for himself. These days will come to an end and the proper order will be established.

21:25-27

Gates are closed at night because it is dark and it is easier for evildoers to do their worst. So gates are locked for protection. But this is all part of the fallen world order, and the New Jerusalem is part of the eternal world order, a godly world order. So there will be no night. Everything will give honour to the Lord, including the nations. The old Jerusalem was full of impurity, as the prophets testified again and again, but not so with the new Jerusalem. Nothing impure will enter it, nor anyone who does shameful or deceitful things. It is only those whose names are written in the “Lamb’s book of life” who will be allowed in. So when the world puts enormous pressure on Christians, we need to remember that the world system is a kingdom that is founded on evil, and is destined for destruction. God’s kingdom is founded on all that is good and is eternal. We must make the right choice!

Genesis 2:20 - For Adam no suitable helper was found

2:20

Around this point our translations change from “man” to “Adam”. The Hebrew words are the same and in some ways the change is a little arbitrary. At least part of the reason for the change is that we now start to deal with things on a specific person level. We then come to the vexed question of were we all literally descended from one man, or is this allegorical or metaphorical? One of the arguments for the literal approach is that Paul’s theology, especially in Romans, is said to require there to have been a literal Adam. I.e. when he speaks of death coming into the world through the sin of one man, and paralleling this to life coming into the world through the one righteous man Christ (e.g. Rom 5:12). I have to admit I don’t see any problem with Rom 5:12 if Genesis is just talking about man in general, and is now personalising the creation plan. Also when we actually apply the lessons of Genesis 2 and 3 we effectively treat it as if it is talking about man in general. The lessons that we learn from the one man talked about here apply to all of mankind. So let’s move on and see what general lessons we can learn from the narrative here.

Adam had named all the animals and birds but no suitable helper was found for him. Remember from Gen 2:18 part of God’s purpose was for man to have a suitable helper. One thing we can learn from this is that we will not find fulfilment in nature alone. Nature is good, but we must not make an idol out of it. Some new age types and some environmentalists are prone to do this.

Revelation 21:22,23 - The Lord God and the Lamb are its temple

21:22

There was no temple in the city. Why? Because the Lord God Himself and the Lamb were its temple. The Old Testament temple, along with the Law, were a shadow of the reality that was to come. We need to recognise what is temporal and what is eternal, and it is always the best that is eternal. God dwells with man. John 14:23 says that God the Father and the Son will make their home with us.

21:23

Just as the city did not need a temple, it did not need the sun or the moon. For the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.Everything emanates from God. Some people worship the sun, worship the created, but this is a very silly thing to do. The sun only exists because God created it, and it only gives light because God created it so. 

Genesis 2:18,19 - I will make helper fit for him

2:18

We now come to God’s plans for the social side of man. Note “The Lord God said”, all that we read about in this section is God’s idea, it is His plans being fulfilled. “It is not good for man to be alone”. We were not created to be alone. This does not mean we never have times of being alone, Jesus sought solitude to spend time in prayer, but we were created as social beings. “I will make a helper fit for him”. It is interesting that we do not then immediately move on to woman, but there is the process of Adam meeting the animals to go through first. 

2:19

Man had been formed out of the dust of the ground (Gen 2:7), and all the animals and birds were also formed out of the ground. As noted before, there is a commonality between mankind and other animals. There is also a unique difference. All the animals and birds are brought to man by God for the man to name them.  Now “name” in Hebrew thinking has a much deeper meaning than simply a label. So it seems fair to assume that this means much more than simply giving a label to each creature. We could see this as a God given mandate for man’s scientific endeavour (and other forms of exploration).

To me this verse also seems to weigh heavily against the six literal days approach. If the man was to name all the birds and animals it would have been one ultra busy day! The commonality between man and the animals also seems to imply that there is no need to react against the idea of common descent (this doesn’t mean that we are descended from animals, just that there is no theological problem if we are). By the way, I don’t “believe” in evolution. A summary of my position is I reject six day creationism on Biblical grounds, and I reject evolution on scientific grounds. (This doesn’t mean evolution is complete nonsense, just that we have made an idol out of it, largely because some see it as a way of avoiding the need for God.)

Revelation 21:12-21 - The twelve gates were twelve pearls

21:12-14

Twelve signifies government in the Old Testament. There were twelve gates, each with an angel. The names of the twelve tribes of Israel were written on the gates. The city had twelve foundations, each with the names of the twelve apostles. So there is heavenly rulership, and the twelve tribes of Israel are not irrelevant. Yes, Israel sinned against God again and again (just like the whole of mankind), but she will be saved through Christ. And the teachings of the apostles are foundational to the new Jerusalem.

21:15-21

In the vision in Zechariah 2:1-5 the man with the measuring rod is told to stop for it won’t be needed. Here a “measuring rod of gold” is used to measure the city. This is a warning not to over interpret visions. The imagery used should be understood within its immediate context, and probably no further! The city is enormous. The numbers are essentially representing the perfection of the place. The city is like nothing anyone has ever seen.

Genesis 2:10-17 - You shall not eat of it

2:10-14

The garden was watered by a river flowing from Eden. This river divided into four. The Euphrates and Tigris are known, the other two are not known with any certainty. There are also precious metals and stones. Identifying precious stones in the Bible is problematic.

2:15-17

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” It doesn’t say where God took the man from. The key point is that the garden had been created specifically with man in mind. And man’s purpose was to work and keep the garden. God then gives explicit commands to the man. He could eat from every tree in the garden but one. It is useful to note that the extent of this command was to give enormous freedom to the man. He could eat from any tree, but one. The one tree he was not allowed to eat from was the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil”. Here I think the metaphorical interpretation makes the most sense, and enables us to get the most out of the Scriptures. So what is the “knowledge of good and evil”? Knowing can be much deeper than simply knowing a fact. A man and woman having sexual relations was referred to as “knowing” each other. It is one thing to know something is right or wrong. If one then does the thing that is known to be wrong one knows that it is wrong in a whole different way. Someone may know that adultery is wrong, but if that person commits adultery then it will have a very deep effect on them. Likewise, one may know that it is wrong to take drugs, but if one actually does take drugs it can have a profound effect. Sin kills us! So I would take “eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” as actually sinning, doing something that God has forbidden. And God warns the man that if he does sin he will die. This does not necessarily imply immediate physical death, Adam lived many years after the fall, but spiritual death comes at once.

Revelation 21:10,11 - It shone with the glory of God

21:10

The angel carried John away to a great and high mountain. From this vantage point he showed John “the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God”. Babylon came from the beast, out of the pit. Jerusalem comes from God, out of heaven. There is a stark contrast between the two.

21:11

The new Jerusalem is so different from the old Jerusalem, the new earth is so different from the old earth. The Jerusalem we read of in the Old Testament is a place full of idolatry, injustice, bloodshed, sexual immorality and every other kind of sin. The new Jerusalem will “shine with the glory of God”. It will be a place of great brilliance. Likeness to various precious stones are used to demonstrate the point.

Genesis 2:8,9 - The tree of life was in the midst of the garden

2:8

“The Lord God planted a garden”. And He placed the man in the garden.  One of the problems in reading Genesis 1-3 is deciding what is “picture language”, and what is specific, with the biggest debating point being whether Adam and Eve were real people, or are merely used as representative figures. The “in Eden, in the east” does indicate a specific place. 

2:9

The Lord made the trees spring out of the ground (presumably this applies to vegetables and other plants as well). These were “pleasing to the eye” and “good for food”. The Lord was making a place suitable for man to live in. The whole picture of creation is of a designed process (this does not mean that what to us seems like randomness could not have been used as part of the process). We should also note that something “pleasing to the eye” is bad. Later on we will read about the fall and sometimes a lot is made of the fruit being “pleasing to the eye”. Something being pleasing to the eye is not the problem, as here it is used in a positive sense. “The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”. There are some who see this as a single tree, but that is a rather silly suggestion, and there being two trees is the natural reading, and the more sensible one. A more pertinent question is whether these are literal trees or figurative. Personally I think the metaphorical interpretation makes the most sense and will fit better (in my opinion) with what we will encounter in chapter 3. Even if they are literal trees it is what they represent that counts. The problem with the metaphorical line is that the immediate context favours a literal interpretation.

Revelation 21:8,9 - This is the second death

21:8

“But the ...”. This is also part of the gospel! And it is a part that Jesus was not shy to talk about. There is a wonderful and terrible choice to be made, a wonderful and terrible division. If we repent and follow Christ there is a fantastic life, both starting now and in the future. But to persist in rebellion brings a terrible price. When society persecutes the church there are always those who give in, who go along with the world. In the West we witness this with the sin-affirming parts of the church. They are adopting a very foolish road. By the way, “cowardly” is the correct translation here, KJV has “fearful”, that can give a very wrong impression of what it is saying. We need to realise how high the stakes are. Following Christ or not is a matter of avoiding the second death, or not.

21:9

The angel who will show John “the bride, the wife of the Lamb” is identified as one of the angels who had the seven bowls full of the last seven plagues. We so often see the wrath of God and the love of God as being opposites, somehow contradictory. This is not true and is not a Biblical picture. The wrath and the love go together. The sin of the world is utterly destructive, harming many people, ruining and destroying any lives. This sin has to be destroyed. People have a choice, they can either repent, in which case we receive mercy. Or we can persist in our rebellion, in which case we receive judgement.

Genesis 2:5-7 - God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life

2:5,6

The earth was uncultivated. Why not? Because the Lord God had not caused it to rain, and  there was no man to cultivate it. Notice the close connection between what God does and man’s role in things. God created the world with the intention that man should look after it. 

In the Hebrew the term Lord God is used repeatedly, which translates “Yahweh Elohim”, so God is kind of given a double name. This is almost unique in the Hebrew Bible. In our English translations the term “Lord God” appears many times, but is usually translating “the Lord Yahweh”.

2:7

“Then the Lord God formed the man”. Man was made both in a natural and in a spiritual sense. He was formed from the dust of the earth, and the breath of life was breathed into him by the Lord God. We are body and spirit. One of the key features of the Bible is that both body and spirit are seen as crucial to who and what we are. In God's plan they are meant to be in harmony, it is sin that has produced the disharmony between the two. Nancy Pearcey has written an excellent book called “Love Thy Body” where the key thesis of the book is that under God’s ways our bodies and who we are work together, under the world’s ideas on sexuality and other issues there is disharmony. 

This being created from the dust and having life breathed into us could be seen as allowing for evolution. Personally I don’t think evolution can explain anything like all the things it is purported to explain, but the dust-breath creation does allow for physical processes of some sort to play a part in creation.

Revelation 21:6, 7 - I will be their God and they will be my children

21:6

Right back at the beginning of Revelation God introduces Himself as the alpha and omega. Here He reminds us that this is who He is. God is the beginning and the end. There are many pretensions that set themselves up against the knowledge of God, but these are all liars and they will all pass away (2 Cor 10:5). Indeed we have a part to play in this! Is 55:1 urges us to come to God to purchase water from Him without cost. God is the “spring of the water of life”.

21:7

“Those who are victorious ...” The seven letters at the start of Revelation made promises to those who overcome. Here we are told that those who overcome will “inherit all this”. Giving is a fundamental part of who God is, and He creates things for our benefit. This is why rebellion is so tragic, and why so-called prosperity teaching is such a travesty of the truth. There is enormous reward in being faithful to Christ. “I will be their God and they will be my children”. There is a wonderful relationship to be had with the Lord! 

Genesis 2:4 - These are the generations of the heavens and the earth

2:4

There are some who see the rest of chapter 2 as a second creation account, or even as being in contradiction to the material in chapter 1. Such ideas are simply dumb. Chapters 1 and 2 fit perfectly together. Chapter 1 has looked at the whole of creation, the earth, the stars, all forms of life. As the chapter progressed the focus came ever upon mankind. Chapter 2 now focuses on mankind, as does the rest of the Bible! And the emphasis is on mankind’s relation to God. “These are the generations” is a phrase that occurs several times (e.g. 5:4, 6:9, 10:1 etc) and marks the introduction to a new section.

Genesis is unashamedly geocentric (earth focused). Every so often there are news items about life in other parts of the universe. The simple fact is that we have absolutely no idea whether we are the only inhabited part of the universe, or whether the universe is teeming with life. Scientifically either is possible, the only scientific certainty is that we don’t know. If anyone says there is bound to be life elsewhere in the universe then they are talking nonsense, no matter what qualifications they may have. We do not know what the conditions are for life coming into existence. We do not know how life comes into existence. And we do not know the probability for these unknown conditions to exist. We do not know. Theologically we do not know whether there is life elsewhere in the universe either. Arguments could be made for either possibility.

Note also that it says "generations of the heavens and the earth". Heaven and earth are closely linked!

Revelation 21:4,5 - I am making everything new

21:4

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away”. There is a complete transformation. And this includes dealing with all the pain and mourning that there is in the world. It is hard for us to comprehend the extent of this, for a world of pain is the only world that we know of. Whatever it is that we might be going through we can be sure that there is a day when it will come to an end. And this is no temporary reprieve, but a permanent end to it.

21:5

God now speaks directly, “I am making all things new”. Our God is a God of transformation. Isaiah 42:9 and 43:19 speak of God doing a new thing. God changes things! We probably all have some experience of this in our lives, but here we are looking at a time when everything is made new. This is the complete transformation of the world. It is difficult to envisage such a massive change, but the words of God are “trustworthy and true”, and John is to write them down.

Genesis 2:1-3 - He rested on the seventh day

2:1

Creation was complete. This includes the “heavens and the earth” and “all the host of them”, i.e. it includes everything. Now this does not mean everything came to a halt, for God had work for man to do, as subsequent verses will reveal. The emphasis is on completion and perfection. 

2:2

God now rested from His work. This does not mean He has been idle ever since! The watchmaker picture of the universe, i.e. that God created everything then left it to its own devices, is a totally inaccurate picture. So far all that had been done had been done without man. Man had been created, but hadn’t done anything at this stage. But man was created with a purpose. The word for rest is sabat, which is where Sabbath comes from. 

2:3

However, the rest was not just for God alone, but for all mankind. Jesus said that God made the sabbath for man (Mark 2:27). Here we read that God blessed the Sabbath, indicating that it exists for all mankind. Rest is part of God’s gift to us. Have you noticed that tyrants will allow people no rest? When we are full of anxiety or worry we can find no rest? Lack of rest is a sure sign that something is far wrong.

Revelation 21:2,3 - God's dwelling is now among the people

21:2

The new Jerusalem comes down out from heaven. We should not restrict our understanding of this just to the physical Jerusalem. The old Jerusalem was meant to demonstrate to the world what a Godly city and people were like. As we know it did the exact opposite. The new Jerusalem is a people living in perfect harmony with God. “Prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband”. The church is Christ’s bride. Our goal is to be what Christ wants. All self-centred forms of “Christianity” are badly mistaken and are perversions of what we are meant to be. 

21:3

“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people”. In many ways this is the crux of the matter. Oftentimes in the Old Testament prophets we come across the phrase “I will be their God and they will be my people”. Through Christ this is finally fulfilled. We are transformed, and so we can dwell with God perfectly. This is what it is all about, achieving this is what the Bible is all about. Sin was the problem preventing this being the case, and Christ is God’s solution. We need to appreciate how strong is God’s desire and purpose that we should be with Him in a relationship.

Genesis 1:28-31 - And it was very good

1:28

“God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful ...’” The first part is like the blessing on the birds and fish (1:22). We were created to be fruitful. Also note that we live under a blessing. We will see in chapter 3 that because of sin we also live under a curse. As with gender, fruitfulness is also under attack, and has been for some time. China had its infamous one child policy, which it is now having to relax. And there are many who think we should have far fewer children. The Bible does not think so! And low birth rate is causing problems in many western countries, Japan and Italy perhaps being the most severe examples. 

We are also commanded to “fill the earth and subdue it” and to “rule over the fish ....” We are different. Human exceptionalism is the term that describes this. We are meant to have dominion, but in a godly way. Because of sin, man having dominion and ruling often has very detrimental results. The world’s answer to this is to say man is just another animal, or even that the environment would be better off without us. God’s way is to say we need to repent and be born again, i.e. the gospel way.

1:29-31

The plants and fruit were given to man for food. It is missing the point if we see this verse as support for vegetarianism, especially as later they are explicitly allowed to eat meat. The purpose of the text is that the plants were provided for food, everything was planned and purposeful. Food was also provided for the animals. At the end of the other days we are told that God saw that it was good, on this day He saw that it was very good, possibly because He is now looking at the whole plan. So what we have is a picture of a world created on purpose and for a purpose, everything carried out according to a plan, and man at the pinnacle of creation. We were created male and female, in the image of God, and with a God given purpose.

Revelation 21:1 - A new heaven and a new earth

21:1

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth”. In 20:11 we read that “the earth and the heavens fled from His presence”, so a new heaven and earth is needed! Now we can easily understand why a new earth is needed, for there is so much wrong with the present one! It is harder to understand why a new heaven is needed. The answer is probably that we are talking about a complete transformation of earth and the relationship between heaven and earth, reflecting the new relationship between God and man. We are talking about a radical and permanent change. Later verses will speak about pavements of gold and pearl gates. We should take this as symbolic. However, we must not go too far in separating spiritual and material. Our bodies and the physical world matter (no pun intended!). Christ was raised with a resurrection body, but it was also a very real body. One of the unique features of Christian doctrine compared to many other religions is the importance of the material world. Our resurrection will not just be spiritual, but physical as well. Now there will be an eternal spiritual transformation as well, and that is absolutely crucial, but the physical remains as well. In fact one of the key features of these last two chapters is the importance of the earth. We do not just “go to heaven”, it is more a matter of heaven and earth being in perfect harmony.

Genesis 1:26,27 - Male and female He created them

1:26

We now come to the creation of man. The Hebrew word for man is “adam” and later becomes his name.  This part is referring to the whole of mankind. In my comments on the previous two verses I focused on the similarities between man and the other creatures, here we focus on the differences. Man is made in God’s image, this alone makes us unique from all other creatures. In the understanding of the day, the image of a god contained the essence of the god that it represented. “Likeness” indicates a resemblance in substance. We are not gods, and a large part of the human problem is that we like to live as if we are gods, but we do resemble God in some way, and have something of the character of God. Because of sin this image is badly distorted and corrupted, but if we want to see what we are meant to be like, then we should look at Jesus. One key characteristic is that we were created to rule over the rest of creation. Now we can jar at this. Why? Again because of sin. Because of sin we see numerous examples of evil rule of varying degrees, so we associate ruling with selfishness and exploitation of others. This is not what godly rule is like, and, as always, Jesus shows us what godly rule is meant to be like.

1:27

“Male and female He created them”. This is so important, especially in our day when society seems to be denying any real difference between male and female, denying the importance of biology. Male and female were created equal but different, and in God’s creation they complement each other perfectly. In a fallen world we complement each other with a number of difficulties! Yet we do still complement each other. And see how our male and femaleness is so closely tied in with our being made in the image of God. That is probably the prime reason why there is such an attack on this. There have always been attacks on this. In the past it usually came in the form of men exploiting or oppressing women, instead of treating them as equals. Today it comes in the form of trans-ideology.

Revelation 20:13-15 - The lake of fire is the second death

20:13

All who had died were given up to face the judgement of God, whether they had died at sea or whatever. Sometimes people think death is an escape, but this is not true if one is hoping to escape judgement for our sins. All will have to give an account to God for what they have done.

20:14,15

Death and Hades were then thrown into the lake of fire. So Death and Hades will be no more. This is the second death, the final death. And all those whose name was not found in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. So there is an escape from being thrown into the lake of fire, and that is to have one’s name written in the book of life. So we must never deny Christ. The consequences of maintaining our faith in Christ maybe very severe, but the cost of not holding fast to Christ are much, much greater. And the consequences for those who persecute Christians is far worse than anything they can inflict on believers.

Genesis 1:20-25 - Let the land produce living creatures

1:20-23

On the fifth day life appears. On this day it is the creatures that live in the water, and birds flying in the sky. Actually the word translated “birds” can be “flying things”, so could well include insects. “So God created the great creatures of the sea ...”. This is almost certainly polemical. “Great creatures” could be translated as “sea monsters”, and for the Canaanites they represented powers that opposed their god Baal. Absolutely everything was created by the Lord including the things that people fear. The water was teeming with life. And everything was good. God blessed the creatures both of the water and the air, and commanded them to “be fruitful and increase”. 

1:24,25

We now come to the famous sixth day. It is interesting that a single day is used to cover the creation of the animals and of man, rather than having a separate day purely for the creation of man. Instead they share a day, but man is clearly the pinnacle of God’s creation and does receive special treatment. It is also interesting that the term “living creatures”, both here and in 1:20 is the same term used in 2:7 of man. So we see a degree of commonality between man and animals, but also an enormously important distinction as well. Some people seem to think it theologically essential that man was created completely separate from the other animals, and so react against common descent. Now I don’t know for sure that there is common descent, but I do not fear the concept, because I do not see it as in any way working against our uniqueness. The next few verses will highlight man’s unique place in creation, as will 2:7. I do not see the Bible as saying common descent is out of the question. 

Revelation 20:11,12 - Another book was opened

20:11

We now come to the last judgement. John saw a great white throne and Him who was seated on it. To the original readers it would seem that the Roman Empire was all powerful and decided everything. In the West today it can seem that secular and “woke” society are completely dominant. The Roman Empire was not all powerful, and “woke” society is not completely dominant. All are ultimately accountable to God, whether they acknowledge this or not. “The earth and the heavens fled from His presence, and there was no place for them”. Things will be radically different, we will see the new heavens and earth in the next chapter.

20:12

Then the books were opened. We often worry about living in a surveillance society. Everything we do and think is known by God and is recorded by God. Man should not do this because he cannot be trusted with such knowledge, only God can handle it properly.  John saw the great and small standing before the throne. All are accountable. No one can escape. There is one law for the rich and another for the poor. There is another book, the book of life. There have been previous mentions of the book of life (Rev 3:5; 13:8; 17:8). Anyone whose name was not in the book of life was judged according to what they had done. The judgement will be completely fair.

Genesis 1:14-19 - Let their be lights in the vault of the sky

1:14-19

We now come to the fourth day. On this day the stars, sun and moon are introduced. All of this chapter takes a very geocentric view, i.e. it focuses on the earth. It is clearly quite at odds with the scientific view. The most common approaches to dealing with this situation are: (i) discount Genesis as a load of nonsense; (ii) discount modern science as a load of nonsense; (iii) try and manipulate what Genesis “is saying” (assuming it is giving a scientific, or partly scientific explanation) and what science says. I have given a very broad brush description here, and I do realise that the approaches are more subtle than this. However, I do think that the answer is that God is not giving a scientific explanation in the way that we think of science, but that the whole emphasis is on purpose and order. Genesis 1 and 2 has sometimes been described as being polemical, i.e. countering the prevailing view in the culture of the time, which was essentially one of the world coming out of chaos and wars between gods. The chapter also counters the tendency to look at the stars, sun and moon from an astrological viewpoint. I.e. the stars determined our future. The truth is that they were put there by God, and they do help mark off the seasons.

Revelation 20:7-10 - Satan will go out to deceive the nations

20:7,8

After the thousand years are over Satan will be released. He will have learnt nothing, and will continue his work of deceiving the nations. Rev 19:19 has already spoken of the beast gathering armies together. Gog and Magog are talked about in Ezek 38 and 39. They are also used in many Jewish texts to represent the forces of evil. Anyway, Satan will gather together a vast army.

20:9,10

This vast army will march upon the people of God. However, there isn’t much of a battle! Fire comes down from heaven and devours them. In Zech 2:5 God declares that He will be a wall of fire protecting the city of His people, for the city is a city without walls. As we see here, this protection from God is far more effective than any physical wall. A physical wall means a long and painful siege. We naturally prefer a protection that we can see, rather than having to trust in God. The truth is that God’s protection is far better. The devil was then thrown into the lake of burning sulphur where, along with the beast and the false prophet, he is tormented for ever and ever. This stresses the permanence of the defeat of evil.

Genesis 1:6-13 - God saw that it was good

1:6-8

“Let there be a vault” (NIV), of “Let there be an expanse” (ESV), “between the waters to separate water from water”. The two waters are the waters of the earth, and the waters in the clouds. A common theme in Genesis 1 is distinction and separation. In v6 we have “God said, let there be ...” and then in v7 “So God made”. The twenty four thing really isn’t the point of all this, rather it is the order and purpose. This went against the myths of the time, and goes against the myths of our day. The “God said” and “God made” could imply that when God says something, there can be a process after this through which God enacts the thing that He has decreed. This is actually the pattern we see repeated again and again in the Bible.

1:9-13

Next we have the water and the land being separated, so that there were land masses, and seas. The land masses are not accidents. Then we move onto the production of life, in the first instance plant life. So plants are made, and fruit bearing trees are made. Each plant or tree produced seed according to its kind. So again we see that there is an order to everything. Let me just say something about chance and creation. There are some who say “God would not use chance”, statements such as this demonstrate a lack of understanding. Purposeful processes can involve a significant element of randomness, yet they will still produce a directed outcome. In mathematics there are two main types of optimisation methods. One class is gradient methods, these are what we think of as directed.  Newton- Raphson methods, which some of you may have heard of, are of this type. In some instances these work extremely well, but in others they do not.  The second class of methods include genetic algorithms. These include a significant amount of randomness. However, there is also structure in the methods, and in some problems where they are far superior to gradient methods, and they will achieve a desired outcome. So randomness can be included as part of a purposeful process. Then there is quantum mechanics, where randomness is inherent. So we need to be careful in saying things like “God would not use chance”, such a statement is not necessarily true.

“And there was evening and there was morning”. There is an ordered pattern to creation, and to life.

Revelation 20:4-6 - Reigned with Christ for a thousand years

20:4

We must always remember that this was given to a people experiencing severe persecution, or for whom the prospect of persecution was very real. The power of the state (the Roman Empire) seemed overwhelming. The vision now shows “those who had been given authority to judge”. The world does not have the power that it claims to have. John then sees the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony. When they were beheaded it seemed as if the enemy had won, just as it looked as if the enemy had won when Christ was crucified. The exact opposite was the case. These martyred souls were the ones who had refused to worship the beast or its image, and had not received the mark of the beast. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 

20:5,6

It seems that the martyrs are given special treatment, the rest of believers who died in faith will rise at the end of the thousand years. “Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection”. This resurrection is not like that of Lazarus, who went on to die of something else later, but the second death has no power over them. They will be “priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years”. There is a great reward for those who are martyred. 

Genesis 1:3-5 - Let there be light

1:3

“And God said “Let there be light”, and there was light”. There is a beautiful simplicity to this. God said, and there was. I must admit I get annoyed with those who get so obsessed with whether the days are twenty four hour days, or epochs, or whatever. The reason I get annoyed is that I just think “you are missing the point”. Now, I could be wrong in my approach as well, and it is almost certainly true that I do not fully appreciate all of what is going on in Genesis (but there again, neither do you!). 

1:4,5

“God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from darkness”. It is worth noting that the sun and moon have not been created at this point in the account. Now at the end of Revelation we read that there will be no need for the sun and moon because the Lord Himself will be our light. “The light was good”. On every day we see that things were good. God created a good universe. When we look at the world we still see many things that are good, that are absolutely wonderful, but not everything. It is our sin that has led to some things not being good.

“There was evening and there was morning -  the first day”. Some people go into great detail about the meaning of the word “day”. I’ll be quite honest, I don’t give a monkeys, again because it seems to be missing the point. There is such a grandeur to Genesis 1 and 2 which we so easily seem to miss. 

Revelation 20:1-3 - He threw him into the Abyss

20:1,2

We now come to one of the most contentious passages in the book, the millenium. There are three main views of this, though there are numerous variations within each one of the main lines of interpretation. These three views are: pre-millennial, post-millennial, and amillennial. Pre-millennial sees the return of Christ and the resurrection of the believers who have died. Those Christians who are still alive will be caught up with Christ (1 Thess 4:17). They will then reign with Christ on earth for a thousand years. In all interpretations “thousand years” may be literal or symbolic. Postmillennialists see Christ returning at the end of the thousand years. The thousand years could be the triumph of the gospel during the church age, or a period at the end of time. Amillennialists do not think that there is a literal thousand year period, but see the millennium as being the church age, i.e. the time between the first and second coming of Christ. Each of the views has problems! Morris also makes the significant observation that the chapter itself shows no interest in the return of Christ at this point! So we should beware of getting hung up or obsessed with any one theory! Instead we should focus on what the text actually says. The purpose of the text is not to prove one of our theories, but to glorify Christ and to strengthen the persecuted church.

So Satan is bound for a thousand years. It is an angel that binds him, not Christ. This puts him in his place. The devil is given all four of his “names”, the dragon, the serpent, the devil and Satan. 

20:3

Why is Satan bound? So that he cannot deceive the nations anymore. It would seem that Satan has been doing lots of deceiving over the last two thousand years, which does seem to rather argue against the amillennial approach. After the thousand years he will be released for a short time. So why is this happening? One of the arguments often produced is that if only God had made His presence more obvious, if only there had not been so much deception, humans would have all been very nice and good. I.e. Everything is determined by our environment. So there will be a time when there is a perfectly good environment, and there will be no deception. So everyone will have had the chance to experience the perfect kingdom of God. After this period Satan will be released again and many will follow him. This will demonstrate the inherent sinfulness of man.