…And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
To me, there is nothing in the world that is so exciting and endearing about our God than the fact that even in the face of utter destruction, He is still moving and working. In these first two verses, if we expand them to include the stories of the great rebellion and the destruction of the first (?) earth, we already see a pattern in which God tends to work. This pattern can be found throughout the bible. First, God sets up something for a purpose… usually coupled with promises and glory in the original state. Then sin comes in (whether by Satan or our own lusts) and destroys what God intends for good. But despite this, the pattern continues that our God is still present for the restoration of whatever was destroyed while deepening our understanding of some aspect of His glory. Lets look at a few examples:
1) Adam and Eve were created to walk with God in the cool of the evening in perfection. They blew it by choosing their own will over God’s. Destruction came in their lives as their innocence was destroyed and their spiritual beings were given a death sentence. They noticed their depravity and wanted God not to know… so they tried to cover their selves with fig leaves. But God, taking compassion on His children used this horrible situation to begin to highlight his love and mercy by instituting sacrifices to cover ones sin (Adam and Eve’s clothing).
2) Samson was designed to be the strongest most powerful judge that God ever sent to His people. He had all the potential to not only set the people free from Philistine oppression with his strength, but also to rule the people from a radical point of dedication to God as a Nasserite from birth. He spoiled that chance on his own purposes and lusts. While God was still able to use his bad choices to bring about his purposes against the Philistines, Samson had to go through destruction in his life. Then while in the heart of the enemy heartland, Samson troubled the Spirit one too many times and the Spirit left Samson[1]. His life truly was a picture of waste… his strength left him, his eyes were plucked out of his head, his head was shaved, and he was forced to work at the grinding mill. Here is the cool part… as a symbolic picture of “the Spirit of God hovering over the waters” the Bible points out that his hair begins to grow[2]. Then, this life that was literally plunged into slavery and darkness to the enemy, was re-birthed in strength and Samson was able to wipe out more Philistine’s by laying his life down, than he was able to in his life.
3) The nation Israel was chosen as God’s nation. To be directly ruled by God’s direction is the most exciting prospect for any collection of people. But even though this nation was “governed by God” as their national name means, they slowly and religiously ignored God and worshipped anything and everything else. Govermentally, they went from the ideal state of Theocracy, to the theocraticly symbolic institution of Monarchy. Due to the facts that man always fails to accurately represent God and the moral decay within the people, the kings were taken away and the people were ruled by foreign powers for the rest of their existence until in 70AD Rome destroyed Jerusalem once and for all. The Israelites essentially went into the dust-bin of history and anyone that still clung to the identity of that nationality was severely persecuted. But in 1948, God took the ashes of this nation and reformed them and gave them back their original nation (for the most part) and we all know that God will come back to them and restore their theocracy. Through their history of destruction, they will readily embrace the Lord as their master knowing full well that any other way will only lead to desolation in their live.
As we can see, God uses this pattern in most cases to underline the “why’s” of following God’s commands. In our lives, God allows us to stray and even destroy our lives so that in the long run, when we come back to Him, we understand the why of what He commanded of us. Praise God that like the re-creation of the earth, God’s Spirit is always there to begin creation again. J
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