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God Lessons in Dark Places by Pastor Steve Kelly
Genesis 1:1-2 (NIV)
In the beginning God 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 God was hovering over the waters.
Look at two dark environments where God created something beautiful:
- A Butterfly
- The Egg
- A butterfly lays an egg on the leaf which becomes the caterpillar’s food source
- The Caterpillar
- Eating machine increases its body mass thousands of times. Molts several times as they outgrow their exoskeleton. Every time they do their appearance changes.
- The Chrysalis
- Makes a silk mat and spins a string of silk around its body and attach the strings to the branch. The same way a telephone lineman uses a leaner belt to attach to the pole.
- The Adult Buttefly
- When a butterfly emerges from a chrysalis its wings are crumpled. The butterfly will hang its wings down and will begin pumping the wings full of fluids.
- Mankind
Genesis 1:26-28 (KJV)
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Psalm 139:7-16 (NIV)
Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” 12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. 13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
V13 – You created-inmost being (my kidneys in Hebrew)
In ancient Israelite culture, the kidneys were considered the seat of human
emotion. In the way, we speak of the heart they would have spoken about the kidneys. You knit me in my mother’s womb
God was there in your mother’s womb knitting you.
V14 – That my soul knows very well
Hebrew implies a deeply personal level of knowledge Same word is described when a person is sexually active with another individual. This means what David knows is not borrowed revelation. He has a deep personal understanding and revelation of what he’s saying.
V15 (Hebrew to English) – My Skelton was not concealed from you when I was made in the hidden place. When I was intricately embroidered in the depths of the earth.
This wording is deeply descriptive in the original language. It would have given the Hebrews the idea of a weaver sitting at the loom and making a piece of high-quality fabric out of seemingly nothing but a pile of thread. All of the verbs describing God’s creative actions are intensive actions. All this means God is fully and aggressively engaged with His creation.
All ofthe verbs that are attributed to human action are passive actions. This means they are actions that happen to us and we can’t claim any credit for. They are entirely outside our real of ability We have no part in our creation or formation. If God can do all that in darkness!
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