Tinkering in the Scripture - Pt 2

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. (Genesis 1:27-31 ESV). It is always best to begin at the beginning. I was given a new rifle recently. It was a very exciting moment for me. Of course, the first thing I had to do was to take it apart and clean it properly, making it ready for shooting. They are always shipped with a heavy coating of oil to protect the metal. This is particularly true of the inside of the barrel. The “grease” affects accuracy. Oh, you can shoot it without cleaning; it’s just not as good. While cleaning the barrel, I also wanted to see how it was designed and put together. So, spread out on the table, I began my work. Mary was not fond of her dining room table becoming my workbench for a few hours! However, now that it is done, I can be confident I know what I need to know and have a very safe, functioning weapon. I began at the beginning. So, let’s begin our study here at the beginning. God makes his first appearance as King in the first chapters of the Bible. There, we find him first exercising his creative authority and then delegating it. He begins by separating light from darkness, sky from sea, and land from water. Then, he provides rulers for each realm, climaxing in humankind, who are given authority over all of creation. They must “fill the earth and subdue it,” joyfully continuing the creative process in accordance with God’s will. When a king delegates authority over a territory to a governor, he expects the governor to faithfully represent and execute his will. But what if the governor refuses to submit to the king? The king has two clear choices: either surrender the territory, or replace that governor with another. God found a third way of dealing with his failed, rebellious human “governors” of earth: he became one of them and then ruled faithfully on their behalf. When a certain man traveled about first-century Israel proclaiming that God was personally taking charge again, and then rode into Jerusalem past cheering crowds as if he were about to claim the throne. That was precisely what was happening! Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem was a declaration of the final work necessary to bring all things back to the original status of “very good.” Only the King could do that; and he did. It is the basis of the good news. That which was rendered bad (or whatever modifier you choose to describe the death that entered our race) now became good. This was a part of this glorious message Jesus proclaimed. The Kingdom of God had come to man. I like good a lot better than bad. Don’t you?