1/3/18
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.
Our Old Testament reading for this week is from Genesis 1:1-5. In this opening passage of the Bible, we find that God is the eternal creator. He was present for the beginning. Before him, there was nothing. We also find that God was able to make things quite easily. There’s no mention of labor, no effort, no material needed to create the heavens and the earth. In verse 3 we see that God is able to create by his command. What God says actually happens. We also find that God is the God of order, not of chaos. While in nature, things tend to devolve, breaking down rather than assembling in an orderly manner, God takes something which is formless. He then organizes it, dividing light and darkness. He defines the idea of a day and the clock begins counting at that time.
When we compare this passage with our reading from Psalm 29 we realize that the Lord who is able to call all things into being by his powerful word is also able to use his creative power for the good of his people. What he has decreed is going to be good.
The commands of God are all valuable. They all make sense. Every last one of them has something to do with God accomplishing his purpose in this world.
Our culture typically considers “light” and “day” as positive things, while we consider “dark” and “night” generally negatively. It isn’t hard to picture people sneaking about under cover of darkness to do bad things. While the dark time, night, is also a time of rest, refreshment, growth, and recovery, we can easily categorize different activities by their time of day.
The Bible normally pictures day as a time of blessing and action, but night as a time of rest or the time when evil happens. May we have grace to be people of the day, living in the light of God.
If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.
Our Old Testament reading for this week is from Genesis 1:1-5. In this opening passage of the Bible, we find that God is the eternal creator. He was present for the beginning. Before him, there was nothing. We also find that God was able to make things quite easily. There’s no mention of labor, no effort, no material needed to create the heavens and the earth. In verse 3 we see that God is able to create by his command. What God says actually happens. We also find that God is the God of order, not of chaos. While in nature, things tend to devolve, breaking down rather than assembling in an orderly manner, God takes something which is formless. He then organizes it, dividing light and darkness. He defines the idea of a day and the clock begins counting at that time.
When we compare this passage with our reading from Psalm 29 we realize that the Lord who is able to call all things into being by his powerful word is also able to use his creative power for the good of his people. What he has decreed is going to be good.
The commands of God are all valuable. They all make sense. Every last one of them has something to do with God accomplishing his purpose in this world.
Our culture typically considers “light” and “day” as positive things, while we consider “dark” and “night” generally negatively. It isn’t hard to picture people sneaking about under cover of darkness to do bad things. While the dark time, night, is also a time of rest, refreshment, growth, and recovery, we can easily categorize different activities by their time of day.
The Bible normally pictures day as a time of blessing and action, but night as a time of rest or the time when evil happens. May we have grace to be people of the day, living in the light of God.
If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.
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