Through the book of Exodus in the Old Testament, we are able to take a look back over our lives and see an image of ourselves as we live in this world under the guise of “religion.” When we read the Bible carefully, however, we find there is a certain process to be seen as we move on from Genesis to Exodus. It is not simply that Genesis comes to an end and Exodus begins; at the end of Genesis, the Israelites go down to Egypt through Joseph, and the account continues on into the book of Exodus. Also, if you look carefully at the process by which Moses is introduced, you can see that it has a very close connection with the birth of Jesus Christ.
The earth orbits the sun, while the moon receives the light from from the sun and reflects it onto the earth as it orbits the earth. As we walk this earth and look up to the skies, we see the sun repeatedly rising in one place and setting in another. Also, we do not know where the wind comes from, but it continues to blow, and no matter how much wind may arise in this world, it remains on this earth. Then, due to the heat from the sun’s rays that shine on the earth, water evaporates, and the vapour that gathers in the air falls to the ground as rain in another location; this cycle continues indefinitely.
All these natural phenomena are telling us something. One wise king of Israel said, “The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it arose. The wind goes toward the south, and turns around to the north; the wind whirls about continually, and comes again on its circuit. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; to the place from which the rivers come, there they return again” (Ecclesiastes 1:5-7).
One point we need to consider here is that the sun is at the center of everything that happens to us—everything we see and feel. Everything always comes back to the sun, and there is no getting away from it. We can understand this through what it says in the Bible.
Many people appear in the Bible and many incidents are recorded there. Yet, all these people and incidents point continually to one Man by the name of Jesus who called Himself the Son of God. We need to be aware of this fact. God is at the center of everything: the process by which the Bible was recorded; the process by which we were born as individuals; the way in which this world was made; and even the lives we live in this world. Proverbs chapter 8 tells us that God the Son was with Him at that time: “Then I was beside Him as a master craftsman; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him” (verse 30).
Second Peter chapter 3, however, tells us that in the last days some people will ask, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation”. (see verses 3-4) In other words, they will say that the world is just the same as it has always been, and history continues to unfold as it has always done. To this the Bible responds with, “For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water” (verse 5). People make a wilful effort to forget these things.
In the verse above this it says that the earth was standing out of water. Our physical bodies were also floating in water in our mother’s womb before we came out into the world. And the Bible says that our flesh will someday return to the dust of the ground. (see Genesis 3:19) The history of mankind and the earth on which we live also share the same destiny as the life of man.
If you understand this principle, you will find the questions as to why God made the tree of the knowledge of good and evil only for man to stumble, and why man is born with the nature of sin, automatically disappear. God has a program planned out and, as individuals, we are living lives that are like a shadow of all these things.
In other words, there is a connection between the world of God and the earth on which man is living. There is also a connection between the world in which we are living and each of us individually. Some scientists say that our physical bodies bear many resemblances to the earth. Will that have come about by chance? Is it also by chance that we must take from the ground the food that we eat?
He Drew a Circular Horizon on the Face of the Waters, at the Boundary of Light and Darkness
If we read through the book of Psalms carefully from the beginning, we come across many passages that we cannot understand. It may seem that we can just read these passages and continue on, and yet they are talking about the world of God, which man is unable to understand with his human brain. The world of God is definitely not a world that merely exists in our imagination and one in which we set out hopes. We are not able to go there now, but when we do arrive there someday in the future, we will find it is a tangible world, one that we are able to experience and enjoy through our senses. The Bible tells us that such a place definitely exists.
Passages about that world are to be found in various places in the Bible. Ezekiel chapter 1 explains briefly the place where God is and God’s throne, and it presents an amazing, glorious image of the surroundings of that throne. (see verses 26-28) There are also various references to the throne of God in the book of Revelation. The Bible tells us that place exists somewhere up in the skies to the north of the earth. In Job it says, “He stretches out the north over empty space” (26:7) and, “He comes from the north as golden splendor” (37:22). From reading passages like this and others from the book of Psalms, we can see that the world in which we are now living and all the things we see and are aware of through our senses are mere shadows of the true things, and we are briefly aware of these shadows in the course of our lives.
So, what does the Bible mean when it says that the earth on which we live emerged out of water, as when a child emerges from his mother’s womb? The Bible tells us that the throne of God’s glory is surrounded by a tremendous body of water. The image of a certain person is seen and it says His voice is as the sound of many waters. (see Revelation 1:15)
Let’s turn to Psalm 29 verse 3.
The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders; the Lord is over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. verses 3-4
It says here that the voice of God is over the waters. The Bible says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:1-3). The voice of God who made everything under the heavens is over many waters. This may sound very strange.
If we begin to read passages like this through the narrow mind of man, we may mistakenly take this to mean that the voice of God can be heard somewhere by the seashore. If you do not understand precisely what this is saying, you may fall into the trap of mystical interpretation. The Bible says clearly that God is over many waters. These “waters” are the actual waters of which the seas that we see and feel on this earth are a mere shadow.
Let’s turn to Job chapter 26 and read from verse 7.
He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth on nothing. He binds up the water in His thick clouds, yet the clouds are not broken under it. verses 7-8
Here it says, “He stretches out the north over empty space.” Astronomers also acknowledge this. As they observed the skies towards the north above the earth, they discovered a huge empty expanse. Then it says, “He hangs the earth on nothing.” In this passage of the Bible that was written long ago, it was already stated that the earth is just floating in space.
He covers the face of His throne, and spreads His cloud over it. He drew a circular horizon on the face of the waters, at the boundary of light and darkness. Job 26:9-10
When it refers here to a circular horizon on the face of the waters, it is not talking about the horizon on the ocean that we see with our physical eyes from the seashore. The Bible says that God covers the face of His throne with His cloud, and that He drew a boundary on the face of the waters; He drew a line at the boundary of light and darkness.
At some point in the distant past, there was the very beautiful garden of God, but something happened there to interfere with what God was doing, and as a result, part of the garden broke away. In this way, the world in which we live came into being. The place where God is—the amazing world surrounding the throne of God—is reflected as a shadow in the little image of the earth. The Bible presents us with images of the true entities of which the things of this earth on which we live are mere shadows.
Yet, something happened in that beautiful world of God that He created with His word. The power of darkness became completely separated from the world of God who is the Light. The Bible tells us that God dwells in unapproachable light (see 1 Timothy 6:16), and that He is the God of Light. In that case, what is darkness?
Let’s turn to Ezekiel chapter 28 verse 12.
Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him, “Thus says the Lord God: ‘You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.’”
God used the name of the king of Tyre as a shadow of Satan. The Bible establishes that everyone is a sinner from the day he is born, and that Jesus is the only Person in the history of mankind who has eve
| 정회원으로 가입하시면 전체기사와 사진(동영상)을 보실수 있습니다. |
 |
이전기사 :정신 가다듬은 눈으로
다음기사 :<2019.09> 천지 창조 과정에 나타난 하나님의 사랑