Genesis, Creation, Fall, Flood, Nation
Written by Elinor Montgomery – em*********@****co.ca
November 18, 2000
Then God formed one nation and her name was called Israel. The Word begins with creation, but creation is really re-creation in an existing world that started in the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth. In Eden we see a pre-existing territory. Though the earth was covered in water with darkness over the face of the deep, the world existed from the beginning and will exist throughout eternity. There will be no end to it. God separated the waters of the deep and divided the dry land from the water. In this process He said first let there be light, for there was only day and no night in the garden, just greater and lesser light, but no darkness or night. For this creation was in an eternal state in relationship with the light of God which is Jesus who is the light of the world. Jesus was present in the garden.
There was no death, but darkness was in the waters of the deep. Darkness is always equated with the prince of this world who is Satan. Nothing had life until the mist from the earth went up, leaving the earth dry and free of the dark waters in which the spirits of Satan dwelled. God had to remove the waters from the earth in order to create a dry dust, from which He created His perfect man, free of sin and in God’s image. God used only the purified waters with the Spirit breathed into man to bring him into being. All of nature was watered by the living water or cleansed mist that went up from the face of the earth, and returned purified by God.
The fall of man, when he chose to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, caused creation to be polluted with sin by Satan himself, the prince of darkness. This fall led to the escalation of sin in the world until God decided to destroy it all with a flood, all except Noah, one righteous man and his family, along with two of every species of animal and bird. Noah’s sons sinned after him, and again sin abounds in the earth as man began building a tower to God at Babel. God confused their language and divided men in order to prevent them from continuing on the route which they had chosen, and thus began the separation of peoples and the formation of nations.
This led to God’s choosing one nation, which He called Israel. This was to be a nation that honored and worshipped only Him, the living God, and they would be His people and He would be their God. This was about a relationship between man and God, calling His people to respond to His commands in faith and obedience with the reward of a promised land. This nation was to be a light to all the other nations of the world known as the gentile nations. God was setting up with Israel the patterns, principles and precepts as a guide for spiritual Israel, the church. He was preparing the way for the bride of Christ to dwell in the New Jerusalem one day, when the Lord Jesus Christ Himself would be seated on the throne beside the Father and would rule with His bride over all the nations of the saved. This is the final destination of man to the Kingdom of God, where church and state become one in Jesus. It is the coming together of the priestly line and the kingly line. The two will be in perfect harmony. Added to that harmony, the bride will be at the side of her bridegroom and the chosen nation Israel will be in place with the bride and Jesus.