We grow into maturity, as we seek God more and more deeply. That is the goal with this new series, is that you would wonder at who God is. The goal is that you would come to know the unimaginably powerful God of all the universe intimately. That you would have a deep, rich daily intimacy with God, and that you would live as a set apart, special chosen possession of God, in a fallen world, where you will shine ever more brightly in the increasing darkness of these difficult last days.
There are twelve names of God we will address over this series. Today we address the name of God most commonly used in the first two chapters of Genesis, Elohim. This is the name God gives to himself throughout his creative works in Genesis 1 and into Genesis 2. The name Elohim is used 35 times in those opening chapters of the Bible.
In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of Elohim was hovering over the waters.
3 And Elohim said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 Elohim saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 Elohim called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.”
Elohim tells us God is infinitely creative. In our Elohim, we find an infinitely complex creative genius mind. He is infinitely creative. We can see this from the planet Earth. And the our solar system. The sun. The asteroid belt. The sun shining through the trees. Waters rushing along a river bed. Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, and all the great lakes.
Elohim implies God’s glorious creative majesty. Nathan Stone, author of “Names of God” says it this way: “It is most appropriate that by this name God should reveal Himself- bringing cosmos out of chaos, light out of darkness, habitation out of desolation, and life in His image.”
It’s just so much to even fathom. There was nothing there 6000 years ago when God made the universe. There was nothing. There was no human race. There were no planets, no stars, no galaxies. Nothing existed. Nothing aside from God, in a heavenly reality he created, along with his creations, this creatures called angels who serve Him and worship Him. Then Elohim declared, and His power being infinite, piece by piece the universe came into being, all calculated perfectly mathematically, every equation setup just right, endless streams of data, and information, universal constants, and equations like gravity, mass, and particles like the higgs boson that hold the universe together. Higgs boson fields exist all around us. They are tiny particles that appear and disappear, and they literally hold reality together. And if they didn’t exist, all reality would disintegrate and we would no longer exist. They were nicknamed the God particle, because they hold reality together.
He calculated it all out in his infinite mind, using the coding system of DNA to program and establish all the animals, plants, and creatures across the planet. Did you know all living creatures from animals to plants are programmed with the same DNA code? One might think that implies that God used a unique code, DNA, to program all life by one system.
It's kind of like how humans created binary code for computers. Binary code is simply a 0 or a 1. Everything in a computer as far as coding can all be broken down to ones and zeros.
In the DNA coding system, Each gene's code uses four nucleotide bases of DNA: adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T). And they are arranged in DNA into 3 letter codons, which are arranged into 64 different codons to write human, animal, and plant DNA. It’s a complex coding system. But much, much more complex than binary.
The most sophisticated system we could come up with for coding was binary. But inside our bodies is a system infinitely more complex.
I parked by the river yesterday morning eating my breakfast that I got from the fast food drive through and looked at the beautiful trees, the sun shining into the river, the ducks and Canadian geese by the water, the food, the roads, the music playing, and it is just astonishing all that God has made on planet Earth. He is truly Elohim, God the creator.
Even in my mind at those moments I knew he was putting the thoughts in my mind, or at least inspiring those thoughts and emotions, so that I would later write them down and share them with you. This happens frequently as a pastor. Life becomes a living parable through which he has me share things with others. It’s fascinating and also sometimes terrifying.
Our respond to God’s creative genius is important. That’s one thing I want to emphasize in this series. Let’s take it always like this: Here is God’s name, here is what it means first, then second, how do we respond? The point is that we respond. That is God’s desire that we should reach out for Him, as we learn about Him. If not, why even bother studying it?
Our response should be awe, wonder, and amazement. We should let the amazement fill us up inside. We should see nature with different eyes. We should see animals with different eyes. We should see ourselves with different eyes. We should see these things as special, as made by God, as gifts from God, as something that overwhelms us with joy, excitement, wonder, and amazement. And our response should be worship, to say wow God, look at this, you made it and it’s wonderful, this must mean you are wonderful God.
So our respond is to declare God you are amazing. Say it with me: God you are amazing! That is worship. So when you enjoy nature, when you enjoy fellowship with friends, when you enjoy time with your pets or you see a wild animal, take a moment to be amazed. And to thank God.
Yet though we see how beautiful nature is, we also see reality is fundamentally fallen. It’s dangerous. Wild animals can be dangerous. Storms and tornadoes and hurricanes can destroy and harm people and their property. Humans spread trash around the city, landfills form, human bodies become old and frail, we see the carcass of a dead animal on the side of the road and we’re horrified.
What God has made is so beautiful, sublime, pristine, yet it’s also horribly mangled.
It says in Romans 8, “19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. 20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, 21 the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. 22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.”
All the Earth, and the universe was cursed when Adam and Eve sinned against God. They were deceived and turned away from God, and hid from him. And as a result of this, all reality became cursed with sin. Sin is so destructive isn’t it? It destroys everything. Sin spreads through people, sin spreads everywhere. So we see a fallen natural world. We see how animals feed on each other, we see storms and earthquakes, and diseases, and cold winters, and swarms of mosquitos, and we see our planet is fallen. We see loved ones grow old and die. In fact we see every person ever born will one day die.
Our response to this should be fearful reverence for God. To be tremble before a holy God. And to receive Jesus Christ as our savior, so that we do not remain cursed like the rest of the world is. We want to make sure we believe in Jesus, everyday, and we repent of our sins, and live the most pure and set apart life in the power of the Holy Spirit who helps us.
Then we will be fit and ready, pure, holy, spotless, and blameless on the day that Jesus Christ returns to establish his millennial reign upon the Earth. We will become part of the New Earth, in a new universe, in which all the stains of the curse are removed, and every calculation of the universe is set right.
There will be no more decay or death in human DNA, or animal or plants. There will be no more destructive variances in the equations that govern gravity, time, space, matter, energy, the atmospheric systems of Earth, and so on. There will be no more limits on systems of food, water, wealth, and shelter. God will rewrite all these systems to conform to a new perfect system of reality, a paradigm shift he calls the New Heavens and New Earth, and in particular a city called the New Jerusalem where the redeemed and cleaned humanity will dwell with or king Jesus Christ, and our Lord God Elohim forever and ever.
That’s my goal on this fallen, yet beautiful Earth. To love, honor, and fear the Lord Elohim, and to respond to His creative genius with shouting joy, reverence, praise, amazement, and worship. Make that your goal as well. See reality through new eyes, see it as the glorious design of an infinite God, who loves you, yet also calls you to holiness in Christ. Amen.
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