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Biblical
commentaries – a collection of sermons, bible
studies, books & radio messages, along with some original
contributions from me.
Old Testament -
General
Genesis
Note
the difference in the creation story in Chapter 1 (v 27) versus that in
Chapter 2 (v21-22).
In chapter 1, the implication
is of co-equal creation, rather than the familiar Adam, then Eve order
in chapter 2.
In the Talmud (ancient Hebrew
commentaries), the rabbis say this first woman is
‘Lilith’.
But she became
wicked and was removed by God. This Lilith is the origin of
the ‘Lilith Fair’ women artist concert series.
Chapter 1
20090122 Thoughts on Creation: I
really do struggle over the young-earth vs. old-earth creation argument. I
believe the bible is literal truth. All of it. So now I'm faced with
the six-day creation time sequence. I know God is capable of creating the
earth in six days. He's capable of doing it in the blink of an eye.
I also know He's not a God of deception. So I have trouble reconciling the
appearance of an old earth with the biblical account that seems to indicate a
young earth. I am aware of the possibility that the word 'yom', translated
'day' is possibly referring to a non-24 hour period. But that doesn't seem
likely. I also really believe that scientific investigation leads to
illumination of God's hand in creation [Xref to myPage]. The more we look,
the more we see God in it.
So what to do? Here's a possibility: I am forming a mental picture of the computer application Winamp. When I open up a song, it starts to play at the beginning, with a little horizontal scroll bar that shows progress of the song. At the end of the scroll bar I see displayed the total playing time of the song. I can also see where the current play-pointer is relative to the beginning and end of the song. Thus I see the song played out in time, from zero to, let's say, 13.8 minutes. If I leave all alone, the song will play from time=0 to time=13.8 in exactly 13.8 minutes. Thus playing time = song duration. However, I have the capability of manipulating the song's play-pointer to any point from 0 to 13.8. So I could, say, run it forward from 0 to 5 minutes. This movement of the play-pointer would take one second, but five minutes of play time would be forwarded through. If I repeated that process five more times I may end up as follows:
play-pointer current position: 13.79 minutes; elapsed time six seconds.
From that point, the song would continue to play through the remaining 0.01 seconds of song-time in 0.01 seconds of elapsed time. I hope you can see where I'm taking this mental picture. Is it not possible that God could have "fast-forwarded" the universe through the first 13.7-something billion years of time in just six days?
Let's take a step back. We already know that God's time is not the same as our time (Peter, for example). We also know that God's purpose in Creating the universe is to glorify himself. We also know that God is apart from time. We know that time, as man understands it, began at the moment of creation and runs forward up to the present moment. In this metaphor, time is the song-time: 13.8 billion years. But God hasn't been around for 13.8 billion years. He was, he is, he will be. God is unchanging, the very definition of out of time. So now how is it that God would be glorified during the 13.7 billion years or so prior to the arrival of man in the Universe? By the angels, of course. But not by his crowning creation, man. Back to my song metaphor: sometimes I have a favorite song where I like the end best. I may start it playing in Winamp, then slide the play-pointer forward a bit, listen, and slide it forward more.
So I can imagine God doing this: creating the universe, sliding the play-pointer forward a few billion years (in one day), then saying to himself "Good". He fast forwards through the course of a second day, and in that day the universe-time is advanced another few billion years. Again he says "Good". This is repeated for five days until on the sixth he creates man, says "Very Good" and lets the universe-time pointer progress on its own, with elapsed time now running concurrent with universe-time. Why would God do this? I've already said he's not a God of deception. Well in this case he's not deceiving. The universe is 13.8 billion years old, it's just that God fast-forwarded through most of that time in six days. All for his own Glory, as it should be.
Psalms
Psalms deal with life honestly. They are relentlessly hopeful.
Psalm
16
Derived from a Matt Ballard sermon at Perimeter Church,
July 13, 2008
So much of life is a pursuit of either Security or Satisfaction.
The one leads us to isolation, the other to hedonism. But
the reality is that these two desires are real, God-inspired and can
only be fully met in Him. We're designed to want security and
satisfaction. We're designed to seek them out, to pursue them.
In God we need not choose either Security or Satisfaction, but we
can find both.
Relying on God to provide [for our
security] is passive. This is what we often call Faith. But
remember James: Faith without deeds is dead. Our Faith
requies also action. It requires a single-minded pursuit of God
(again, see James for a description of the double-minded man).
Acting on our Faith leads to an active pursuit of God for our
satisfaction. Single-mindedness implies having no doubt.
Faith
is not an insurance policy against the off-chance possibility that
maybe this god-thing & hell is real. Faith leads to action,
or it is not faith at all (James 2:17).
©2007-2009
Chris Jamison
