Can Beauty Come From Judgment?
Gen 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
As some of you know my wife and I took a recent vacation to Colorado and then on to the Grand Canyon and back home to the great state of Texas. When we first announced this many people told us of the beauty of both places and the how they love to see the majesty of God in those places.
I do not know at times if it is a blessing or curse, but I tend to think a bit differently then some folks. I am not a mountain man as I abhor snow. I do not even like to see it on a postcard. Hills and such with trees on them speak life to me whereas the highest peaks are normally bare rock sometimes buried under snow and that speaks death to me. The Grand Canyon is just a big hole in the ground. I guess having been in Europe and Asia and around the country has me to where a lake is a lake, a river is a river, a mountain is a mountain. The grandeur or wonder is gone for me.
The trouble is that we have all grown up living in a garbage can and we have found things in the pile that like crows we find shiny. You say, “Hey, God created this world! It is beautiful!” Well, yes and no. This is not the world and universe that God created. We are now in the world and universe that sin created. He does not say anymore that it is very good because it is very bad.
Keith Green once said during one of his concerts that “If God created the earth in six days and it is taking Him two thousand years to create our homes in Heaven, we're livin' in a garbage can, Man!” He is right in two ways. Indeed, six days versus two thousand years should mean some awesome construction going on. Yet again, it may well have been completed long ago. He is waiting for the last resident of Heaven in this age to be saved so the time may not be about construction but of salvation.
He is also right because of the Fall and especially the Flood, we are living in a garbage can that has been kicked over and spilled all over the universe.
Isa 55:
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
These verses have many applications in our lives, but what does God see when He looks at the earth and universe? He sees sin, death and destruction. None of that was in the universe He created. Indeed, nothing here is like what He created. It may be similar, but in a mutated, weakened, and dying form.
Even our blue sky is thought to have been pink before the Flood. A fellow in Glen Rose, TX has done experiments with pink light. Insects in a pink light atmosphere actually grow larger and live longer. So God is not a Tar Heel fan because the sky He created was not Carolina blue. Oxygen levels and other atmospheric conditions were far different than now.
Imagine what creatures looked like if they lived longer and grew larger. The Komodo dragon lives 20 years and grows a foot a year. What if it lived one or two hundred years before the Flood? I do not want to meet the 20 foot version let alone the two hundred foot model.
If the sky was pink, was the water blue? What other plants might be a different color under a pink sky? Nutrients in the earth were greater. How tall did the redwoods grow? Was your favorite bush a tree? The changes are noticeable in the fossil record for many creatures are extinct and yet some have remained almost the same through the millenniums. Dragonflies are nice to look at now, but ones with wingspans of two feet might be menacing.
What did people look like? What was considered beautiful back then? Beauty standards have been extremely different over the centuries by the numerous cultures. What did Adam and Eve look like? Were they fit and trim as we see it? Did they look like bodybuilders? We know their were groups of people who were quite tall and mighty. Too bad, there was no FaceBook back then.
Gen 7:20 Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.
The flood waters were 22.5 feet above the mountains. We do not know how tall mountains were before the flood, but with the breaking up of the earth to allow the subterranean waters to come up and the crashing down of the ice barrier above the earth there had to be violent upheavals and changes in tides as well as volcanic action and buckling of the crust which certainly increased the size of mountains and the depth of valleys and canyons. The erosion factor is mind boggling.
Indeed, we are a world in decay as the Second Law of Thermodynamics clearly shows. If God did not say He was going to step in before the world fell completely apart or before mankind causes its own extinction there would be no hope. Evolutionists agree that the universe is dying, but they have no hope because they do not understand its cause nor understand a Creator who intervenes in what man and sin has done to His Creation to bless as well as to judge.
Isa_61:3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.
God put a beautiful bow in sky after judgment to give us hope in this world that is dying and is desolate in comparison to it original state. He could have made it so we could no longer see color and live in a sin dark and death gray world. Yet, as much color as we see, how much more did we see before the Fall? We have bad eyes. Still, as He promised to those in Zion to give beauty for ashes, He also allowed some beauty after the His wrath judged the wickedness of the people.
You may say, “How can I really enjoy the world now that you told me how messed up it is?” It might be a good thing if the world loses its allure now that it is obvious that we are not clear in our eyes, thoughts or ways compared to God. We might be less tied to it and its illusions. We might be less distracted as we are drawn more to our eternal home and loosen our tent stakes here. He gave us some grace and beauty to help us through the nasty now and now, but knowing that the our life and eternal joy is not here should make Him and it more compelling to dwell on.
Remember, that eye hath not seen not ear has heard all that the Lord has prepared for those who love Him. We are so messed up with our thinking and definitions of beauty that we are really not doing it justice when we imagine and often adamantly decide what Heaven looks like. You are looking at the aftermath of cataclysmic destruction and calling it beautiful. Do you really feel qualified to even make a stab at what Heaven looks like?
I do not put stock in near death experiences of either Heaven or Hell for reasons I cannot go into here as this message is already lengthy. I do not believe anyone has seen either and returned.
I do want to make some applications here for those who are feeling like this old earth. You feel broken up and tossed about. You feel like you have endured a flood of failures, pains and griefs. You look at yourself as not beautiful and maybe even God forsaken or you have been spewed out of a volcano. You may feel bashed and mashed or tossed upon in a violent sea.
The good news is that just as God has not walked away from the mess this world is in and will recreate His universe wiping away all the mess, He can and will do the same for you if you come to Him. If you have never received Christ as Savior, now is the time and all things will become new as you will become a new creation. Old things will pass away.
Maybe you are a believer and you have screwed up your life royally through sin or other failures. You may have been burned by lava of some carnal Christian's or tare's mouth. You look at your life and it looks like Nagasaki or Hiroshima after the nuke hit and you have no idea what piece of debris to pick up first.
Rom 11:29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
You can run like Jonah. You can fail like David and many others, but if God called you and gifted you then it is time to stop running. It is time to seek forgiveness and receive it and your restoration and renewal and get to where God called you to be and do what He called you to do. All is not lost.
Joel 2:25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.
God is the ultimate renovator and restorer. He can make the rest of your life far more fruitful than all of the years that have passed. You just need to come, confess and receive the love and forgiveness He has for you.
What will the saints think of you? Well, if they are right with God themselves they will rejoice over the prodigal that came home and will receive you in love as they were received when they were saved and when they failed.
1Ch_16:29 Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness
Once you are saved or restored, you can walk in the beauty of holiness and He can give you new eyes and ears to see and hear far differently than you have ever seen or heard before. There is beauty after judgment. Maranatha!!!
