The following is an edited version of the lecture given on May 27th, 2006 in the series entitled "In the Beginning."   And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.    (Genesis 2:7)   A Mist Went up from the Earth and Watered the Whole Face of the GroundFrom Genesis chapter 2 verse 4, we find a review of what appears in chapter 1. If we try to match the content of chapter 2 from verse 4 with the order of events in chapter 1, it may result in misunderstandings because the two are not the same chronologically. When we are considering Genesis, we must be sure to remember that it was not recorded by Adam, but by Moses. Since these scriptures were received from God and recorded by Moses several thousand years after the time of the creation, Moses wrote as a person who was looking back on the past. Let's turn to chapter Genesis 2 and read from verse 4.   This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.  (Verses 4-6)   Here it says, "The Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth." Through this short verse, we can engrave in our hearts the fact that it did not rain on the earth before Noah's flood. So how was the person who wrote about events that occurred before Noah's flood able to talk about rain? It is because it was only after all these events had occurred that Moses was moved by God to write this account. In verse 5 it says, "Before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown." What did we read in Genesis chapter 1?   Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so.  (Genesis 1:11)   In Genesis chapter 1 it says, "And it was so," but in chapter 2 it says, "Before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown."We have already examined First Corinthians chapter 15 before. We took the words, "And it was so," and compared them with the truth that has arisen within our hearts. There was a time when we submitted to God's word and had the experience of being born again. God's word fell into our hearts. Through the matter of the resurrection of the dead, we examined just how great the power of the seed of God's word is when it falls into our hearts. But the seed of the word that God plants in our hearts is such that it also has the power to be able to transform our mortal flesh in the future. In the eyes of God, who is completely beyond the bound of time and space, the words, "And it was so," have already been accomplished in our hearts. For the present, however, our flesh grows older, and there are times when we become weary and sad at heart. The storms of life send their waves crashing against our hearts and we feel that we would like to be able to depart from our flesh. There is one point, however, that we definitely need to keep engraved in our minds: just because it says in Genesis chapter 2 that no plants or herbs were visible, this does not mean that they did not exist at all. Just as it says in chapter 1, "And it was so," in God's eyes, everything had been prepared in order that the seed would come alive and grow. Similarly, all of us who are born again, having received the word of God in our hearts, are living our lives encased in our flesh, but the day will come when we and all the brothers and sisters are taken up and meet the Lord in the air. At that time, God's words, "And it was so," will be revealed in our flesh. That is when we will receive the tremendous blessing of resurrection once more.Let's go back to Genesis. In chapter 2 verse 6 it says, "But a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground." In the Korean Bible the word used here is "mist" and the English Bible uses the same word. In the Hebrew Bible, too, the word "mist" is used, but the way this is expressed is slightly different. It says, "mist," but the Hebrew word includes the meaning of "overflowing with water." The word for "mist" in Hebrew indicates that the earth was thoroughly soaked in water.We need to read verses like this in association with the verses that come after them. After this, we find a passage that talks about the rivers that had their source in the Garden of Eden. It talks about the waters that God put around this earth. We find these waters referred to again later at the time of Noah's flood. Also, in the writings of Peter, we find that it says, "By which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water" (2 Peter 3:6). Thus we come to see that all these passages are interrelated. One matter that we can be sure of is that there was a layer of water above the firmament, like the amniotic fluid surrounding the fetus in the mother's womb. We can see this through the story of Noah's Flood, and also through Genesis chapter 1. When it says, "But a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground," you might imagine a scene of great clouds of smoke rising up in the air something like you might see in a room that is full of people smoking, but this scene must have been tremendously beautiful. If you go under the water in a swimming pool and look up at the sky from down there, it will look very beautiful. The opaque view that you get of the sun like this from below the water is really extremely beautiful. In the Garden of Eden, there were no cars driving around as there are today, and there were no factories spurting out toxic fumes, but the Bible says that at that time, there was an abundance of mist. The surface of the ground was soaked in moisture, and the whole of nature was full of life and ready to burst forth in accordance with God's word. If you could have looked up at the sky from there, you would have seen a huge layer of water and the sun would have been shining through that layer of water. It must have been tremendously beautiful. I tried to imagine this as I was sitting on my own. It seems that the people who lived before the flood were able to look up at that beautiful scene and live their lives without any great concerns. They wouldn't have needed to wear any shoes, and they only needed to wear enough clothes to cover their embarrassment. There would have been an abundance of fruits on the trees, and one person who lived a long life reached the age of 969.If the world was so very beautiful at that time, imagine how beautiful it will be at the time of the true Sabbath that we will enjoy in the future. If the world before the flood-in which no one reached the age of one thousand-was that beautiful, what about the time of the one-thousand-year kingdom, which God has granted to the Israelites as an image of the true Sabbath? Such an amazingly magnificent scene will be opened out in front of us. When we talk about the kingdom of heaven, or the kingdom of God, or just heaven, we tend to think merely of the New Jerusalem that will come down from heaven. Some day, however, when Jesus Christ returns to this earth, and, for one thousand years, sets man free from the power of sin, this earth that we have ruined and destroyed, this earth that we pollute and trample on will also be restored in a tremendously beautiful way.In the Bible it says, "Then the land shall enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies' land; then the land shall rest and enjoy its Sabbaths" (Leviticus 26:34). These words were addressed to the Israelites and refer to the matter of the Sabbath. Historically, while the Israelites were wandering and scattered across the world, the land of Israel was actually just like desert. However, as the Israelites have been returning to their land continually over about the past sixty years, their land has been coming alive again. The vast expanse of land in the Middle East surrounding the land of Israel is all covered in desert. Nevertheless, that land is resting under the sun as it says in the Bible: "the land shall enjoy its Sabbath." When Jesus returns to Israel, that region and the rest of this world will revert back to a tremendously beautiful paradise. The tree of life that we find in Genesis chapter 2 was lost to man in the course of the events described in chapter 3 when Adam sinned. At that time, however, this tree of life will appear before us once more.When we consider these matters, living as we do within this history that God has created and of which He has control, we need to ask ourselves if we are satisfied to live our lives simply within this environment. In the future a kingdom will be established on this earth on which we now walk, a kingdom much more beautiful than even the most beautiful scenery in our world in which we are now living. We live our lives at this present time, looking forward to that true Sabbath rest. So when, in the course of fellowship, we try to take care of the land that was cursed as a result of Adam disobeying God's word, it is somewhat different from the way that the people of the world go about this. Through this work, we come to understand God's word in more depth, and in the process, we come to know God's power and what is in the heart of God who created the heavens and the earth.God Breathed into His Nostrils the Breath of Life, and Man Became a Living Being And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.  (Genesis 2:7)   The word "dust" can take on various meanings. The original Hebrew word is "adamah," and it means "earth." "Adamah" is the feminine form of the name Adam. So the name of the first man and the name of the dust of the ground from which God formed that man both appear to have the same origin. When the Bible says that God formed man of the dust of the ground, it is easy for us to imagine a sculptor kneading some clay with his hands to form some kind of object. Our body is made up of tiny cells and it contains the blood that circulates in our bodies, and the DNA. These are extremely small units that people can nevertheless see and verify for themselves with theirs own eyes. The dust of the ground with which God made man, however, goes much further than that. This is talking about matters on a much higher level. Naturally, this includes the fact that man was formed using physical materials that we can now calculate using microtechnology and nanotechnology. One point we need to understand clearly here, however, is that when God formed man's physical body, He used materials that no scientists in this world can discover. Man was formed by the hand of God, who sees even all extremely elaborate materials in our flesh. This is expressed in this short verse here where it says, "the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground." When a medical doctor introduces himself, he may say quite simply that he is a doctor, and the people around him will acknowledge that he is a doctor and think nothing more of it. They will have no idea of the tremendous volume of studying that this person has been through in order to become a doctor. The same is true of this short sentence from God's word. When reading the verse, "[T]he LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground," some of us probaly think that God just waved some kind of magic wand and made man as the magicians did in the fairy tales. However, one of the writers of the Psalms wrote, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalm 139:14), and "For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb" (Psalm 139:13). God has formed everything in our bodies?the blood that flows through our veins, the cells, the capillaries, the red blood cells, and the white blood cells, etc. God made all these amazing features of our bodies. Since this tremendous process of creation is expressed so simply here, even though we read it, we tend to overlook it without being particularly thankful. We acknowledge that God created man, but we imagine that man just appeared at nothing more than a click of God's fingers and so we tend not to be particularly careful about our bodies either. There are even people who think, "What does it matter if we breathe in a few fumes from a car exhaust?" And there are people who will accept food that has been prepared by someone who had been handling money just before making the food. They just take it and eat it without thinking about whether it is sanitary or not. People who do not consider how precious these bodies are that God has given to them do not know how precious the words of the Bible are either. W

정회원으로 가입하시면 전체기사와 사진(동영상)을 보실수 있습니다.