THE DESIGN OF GOD
Genesis 2
INTRODUCTION:
1. Life can be like a puzzle. In searching for purpose we find pieces we recognize and connect them with one another. Boundaries are the easiest to discover and then pieces that fill in the details. When completed, there is a planned picture. The pieces in a jigsaw puzzle must be assembled the way they were designed in order for the picture to emerge complete and without distortion.
2. God Has A Plan For Your Life.
In 1976 a family in Calgary was renovating an old garage and found partially mouldy drawings behind a wall board. They were passed along to the University of Calgary, where their historical significance was immediately recognized.
The drawings?--plans put forward in 1914 by English architect-planner Thomas Mawson for Calgary’s future. They showed a blueprint for the city of 43,000 and its expected rapid expansion.
The drawings, depicting a classic Calgary with a civic centre, abundant space for performing arts and esthetically accommodated river banks, are fine examples of Edwardian taste in architecture.
“It would have been the only city in North America with that formal a design,” said Calgary planning director George Steber in a recent interview (as in The Calgary Herald, January 20, 1979).
The blueprint, if it had been adopted, would have made Calgary “the Paris of the Prairies.” But for some reason, whether the outbreak of World War II or the high cost involved, the blueprint was never approved and consequently Calgary grew without the master plan being followed. Commented Bob Blakey, Herald staff writer, “Calgary, with its dusty, turn-of-the-century streets newly vibrating with the brazen horseless carriage, might have emerged from the bald prairie as a sandstone monument to European architecture.”
Over how many lives could the words, “It might have been,” be written! God has a blueprint for each life. That plan includes a all the details. What is needed on our part is a willingness to accept that plan and submit our lives to God’s building program.
But how often we get distracted--our attention is turned to something else, and God’s plan never becomes a reality. It gets stacked away in some corner of our existence, neglected if not rejected. Or we shrink back from the cost involved. God demands a total commitment if His plan is to be initiated and implemented.
“It might have been”--sad word, indeed. May we resolve to fall in line with God’s blueprint and begin to see our lives taking shape according to His plan. (192) #14-21
PROP: GOD’S PLANS ARE STILL THE BEST PLANS.
TRANS: Genesis 2 inspires many thoughts but here I limit myself to one thought about the design of God. In the beginning God had a plan. Things were made according to His design. Out of this one thought we can examine three original plans of God.
I. GOD’S PLAN FOR A SPECIAL DAY (Genesis 2:3).
A. God “rested” from His creative work. What He did on day seven brought all other things to conclusion. Actually, the other things were complete by the end of day six, but He completely set aside day seven for other things. We are told that He sanctified and blessed the seventh day. This day was made special. It was part of God’s plan in the beginning.
B. Today Christians worship on the first day of the week. The seventh day was commemorated as a completion of creation. We commemorate the first day of the week as the day of Redemption’s beginning. The tomb of Christ was found empty on the first day of the week. We worship corporately on the first day.
Isaiah 40:28
God needs no rest.
C. The Sabbath of Exodus 20:11 is not the same as the seventh day in Genesis 2:3. The Sabbath is patterned after the seventh day of creation. The creation completion was the reason for the Sabbath rest. The seventh day which God blessed in Eden was the first day of human life and not the seventh. -Pulpit Commentary 222.11/PC
D. God blessed man’s first day of life when He completed His work of physical creation. It is no surprise then to find the first day of spiritual re-creation remembered and observed by Christians. The Sabbath was given as part of the Law patterned after God’s example at creation. The Law and Sabbath observance were fulfilled in Christ. Christ renewed each command for us except the fourth. Today we observe the first day for different reasons.
II. GOD’S PLAN FOR ONENESS WITH CREATION (Genesis 2:5).
A. In the created environment there was not a man to till the ground (vs 5). This reveals part of man’s purpose: to till the ground. Man was formed from the dust of the ground - the very same components which comprise all the rest of the universe. Man, in this sense, has a oneness with creation. He is distinct in that he bears God’s image and is commissioned to care for and oversee the rest of the created order. He represents His creator among the rest of creation. But those activities which get back to the original plan of God will probably be the most satisfying. Man was put in a garden to till it and keep it (Genesis 2:8,15). He was also to exercise dominion over animals (Genesis 1:26-28).
B. God gave man a great deal of freedom in executing the charge given to him. However, there is a right and wrong way to go about doing the job given to us by God. In Genesis 2:17, man was also charged with responsibility. Obedient service will always acknowledge the directives of God. In this case God said, “Thou may” (vs 16) and “Thou shalt not” (vs 17). Man has always been a creature charged with moral responsibility. From the beginning he was asked to obey and acknowledge God. NEGLECTING RESPONSIBILITY AND DISOBEYING THE FATHER IS WHAT LED TO DEATH, A SEPARATION FROM GOD AND DENIAL OF ACCESS TO THE TREE OF LIFE.
C. One woman recently mentioned the fact that farming was in her husband’s blood. Many have said that very thing. Perhaps the farmer senses a fulfilling quality about farming. Perhaps it meets and fulfills a God-given purpose. We were formed from the ground’s dust and were charged to be responsible over other exponents of the dust. No wonder farming gets in your blood. No wonder cattlemen and shepherds can feel a sense of oneness with creation. No wonder camping helps unite families. No wonder that getting into the outdoors is among the most relaxing of activities. It is that such activities get us closer to things made by God and to fulfilling His purpose for us. A bedrock of God’s design is the way man relates to the rest of creation.
III. GOD’S PLAN FOR RELATIONS BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN (Genesis 2:24-25).
A. As was mentioned, God gave man a position to fulfill and then some liberty in fulfilling it. Responsibility and authority must go hand in hand. Note that God brought animals to Adam in verse 19. Whatever name was given to the animal by Adam became the name. Adam made DECISIONS THAT STAND.
B. Think of Adam’s excitement as, for the very first time, he examined the animals and saw so many new things. In the wonder of an exploring child he experienced the DELIGHT THAT EXCITES (vs 20).
C. In the process of naming the animals Adam also made a discovery. All the animals were formed in pairs but he was not. He was alone. There was not a helper suitable for doing the job he was given (vs 20). This is the only thing God said was not good about creation so far (vs 18). God prepared Adam for the surgical procedure of Vs 21 by letting him make the DISCOVERY THAT TEACHES (vs 20-21).
Joy of Discovery (556) #14-37
With his handmade observatory and telescope Gert de Groot of Lethbridge, Alberta, spends hours peering into the heavens. During the winter he has to dress up warmly because of the cold. “It’s pretty cold out there in the winter, but that’s when you get your best view,” he claims, adding that the joy of discovery transcends any discomforts. De Groot recalls seeing the Ring Nebula, a shell of gas around a central hot blue star. “I remember jumping up and down the first time I saw it” (The Calgary Herald, Jan. 26).
When was the last time you jumped up and down because of a discovery in God’s Word? When was the last time you had the joy of discovery? Vital Bible study is demanding but is rewarding.
D. God had brought all of the animals to Adam for renaming. Adam was excited and delighted. Think of his reaction when his eyes first beheld the beautiful creature who like him bore God’s image, and yet was so much different than he. If he was excited by animals, imagine the DRAMA THAT CAPTIVATES (vs 22) as he met his wife.
E. In His design for the way men and women relate to each other, God first taught man of his need for woman. Then He provided details of marriage and His plan for it. In verses 23-25 we are given four DETAILS THAT FULFILL.
1. A separate family unit is to be started (Leave father and mother).
2. A covenant is to be enjoined (cleave to wife).
3. There is to be a sexual consummation (be one flesh).
4. There should be unembarrassed exposure (Naked and unashamed). *Acceptance
F. Marriage by Mark Littleton
When God made light, the angels drew near to let the refractions roll over their faces like a symphony.
When God made earth, they poked their fingers into its moistness; they put a fleck to their nose and smiled.
When God made the sea, they kicked at the foam and sat in its cool till their bones laughed.
When God made a rose, they parted its petals and passed it among themselves, saying, “So fragile, yet how it grasps the soul.”
When God made a giraffe, they touched the strange hide and murmured to themselves that God was up to something magnificent.
When God made man, each one retired to his chamber and peered into the writings, looking for some clue to the mystery.
When God made woman, they came back out of their chambers and gazed, their jaws slack with awe.
When God joined man to woman and said, “Let them become one flesh,” everything suddenly made sense. The cheering still shakes the galaxies. (32)93.38
CONCLUSION:
1. By His own design God had a plan for a special day, oneness with creation, and relations between men and women.
2. When mankind redesigns God’s plans, damage is certain--if not immediately, inevitably.
3. God has a plan for you. We find it in Jesus Christ.
CHRIST’S PLAN FOR ME
When I stand at the judgment seat of Christ,
And He shows me His plan for me,
The plan of my life as it might have been
Had He had His way, I see
How I blocked Him here, and I checked Him there,
And I would not yield my will.
Will there be grief in my Saviour’s eyes--
Grief, though He loves me still?
He would have me rich, and I stand there poor,
Stripped of all but His grace,
While memory runs like a hunted thing
Down the paths I cannot retrace.
Then my desolate heart will well nigh break
With tears that I cannot shed;
I shall cover my face with my empty hands;
I shall bow my uncrowned head.
Lord of the years that are left to me,
I give them to Thy hand.
Take me and break me, mould me now
To the pattern Thou hast planned!
-Martha Snell Nicholson (452) #14-35
