God created the world in a specific order.
Genesis 1: 1-10 clearly maps out creation in this order:
- Heavens and earth (covered in water)
- Light
- Day and Night
- Firmanent dividing water from water
- The firmament is called heaven
- The separated water creates a bubble - Dry land
Our paper, Genesis Chapter 1, illustrates this. A simplified version has been created below, however you can click on the link above for the “pretty” version:
(water)
(water) ---firmanent--- (water)
(water/land) --- firmanent --- (water)
The creation of the earth is symbolic of the Holy Trinity.
How?
- (water): This is God.
- (water) ---firmanent--- (water): God separates himself thus creating Jesus. Confused? Think of a glass of water. Dump half the glass into another glass. Which one is water? BOTH. Same with God and Jesus.
- (water/land) ---firmanent--- (water): Adam is formed of the earth (land). The water is NEXT TO the land and is LEFT WITH man. Why? For baptism – both water and fire. This is symbolic of the Holy Spirit
Simplified:
GOD (water)
JESUS (water) ---firmanent--- (water)
HOLY SPIRIT (water/land) --- firmanent --- (water)
God simply is. Jesus passes through the sky (or firmament or heaven). The Holy Spirit stays next to man so that man can be baptized.
There was a man named Abraham.
God made a promise to Abraham.
Genesis 22:17
I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore.
Matthew 20:16
For many are called, but few chosen.
Sand is an irritant, which is symbolic of mankind. Some of the sand will come into the water. This is referring to the water left on earth (the Holy Spirit) which is left next to man. The sand that comes into this water are those who hear the gospel message.
Even fewer will come into an oyster. Think of the oyster as Jesus. The grains of sand that come into that oyster are still an irritant. It is the oyster that coats the sand with a substance that smooths out the edges of sand and makes the irritating sand into a pearl. Jesus coats the irritating (sinful) man with the Holy Spirit, forming a pearl.
There was a traveler who found a hidden treasure – a pearl of great price.
Matthew 13:44 – The Parable of the Hidden Treasure
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Matthew 13:45-46 – Pearl of Great Price
45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls,
46 who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Point #1: The man who finds the treasure hidden in a field is the same man who found a pearl of great price.
Point #2: The hidden treasure is the pearl of great price.
Point #3: The man went away and sold everything he had in order to buy that field that has the pearl in it.
Point #4: When the traveler returns to the field, he will pick up that pearl and take it to his father’s house, where it will shine like a star in heaven.
Deeper Point #1:
The man who finds the treasure hidden in a field is the same man who found a pearl of great price.
***The man is Jesus. The field is the world.
Deeper Point #2:
The hidden treasure is the pearl of great price.
***This is mankind coated with the Holy Spirit
***The great price is the payment for sin by the death of Jesus
Deeper Point #3:
The man went away
***Jesus left heaven to live on earth,
and sold everything he had
***then gave up his life
in order to buy that field that has the pearl in it.
***to pay the sins of the world
Deeper Point #4:
When the traveler returns to the field
***With the second coming of Jesus
he will pick up that pearl
***the sand that went into the oyster
and take it to his father’s house
***heaven
where it will shine like a star in heaven
Final Note: Abraham was promised that his descendants would be like sands on the shore, for many are invited. His descendants would outnumber the stars in the heavens, for few are chosen. There are more grains of sand than stars in heaven. Being a descendant of Abraham invites you, but doesn’t make you chosen. AND it is said, “and for the strangers who dwell among you and who bear children among you…shall be to you as native-born among the children of Israel; they shall have an inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel” (Ezekiel 47:22). So after Jesus, any man (irritant) who hears the gospel message (enters the water), believes Jesus (enters the oyster), and receives the Holy Spirit (coated by the oyster) is a descendant of Abraham.
Labels: bible study, COMMENTARY, intelligent design
Book of Hebrews Chapter 12 PODCAST
