Prayer
Heavenly Father, All praise and glory to you, O God. You are exalted beyond the heavens, perfect in holiness, eternal and unchangeable, righteous in all you do. I give glory to you Almighty God. I rejoice to think on your perfections, and I thank you that you have covenanted with me, an unworthy sinner. Where you are pure, I am full of impurity. Where you are steadfast, I am fickle and unreliable. What is man that you should think on him? Or the son of man that you should care for him? And yet you sent your Son to save me. My words of thanks are far too small an offering of praise, and my life of failures is an unworthy return. My only plea is your mercy in Christ, and my only hope your promises. I take some small comfort in the knowledge that you delight to make your power perfect in weakness, that glory may redound unto your name. So let it be in my life, O Lord, glory unto you O God most high! Please so work in me now as I read your word. Wash my innermost being, renew my heart I pray O Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Reading
Habakkuk 2 & Rev 5.
Gen 1:9-13.
“And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11. And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. 12. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.”
Meditation
So far on day three we’ve noted the emptiness of the waters and the significance of that. As the narrative continues to move forward, God then creates the land. What is the significance of the land? On days one and two, God laid out the original purpose of creation. Day one revealed God’s over-arching purpose of filling creation with his own presence and glory. On day two God set the expanse of the heavens above us to show that heaven sets the pattern and priority for life on earth (a truth also revealed clearly in the Lord’s Prayer: “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”). Day three then begins to unfold how this purpose will be accomplished, for God’s will cannot be done on earth as it is in heaven when there is no earth! And so we see that God, in response to the emptiness, makes the earth so that his glory would have a dwelling place. As we give our attention now to the land, there are three things that I would like for us to notice.
First: the earth, the ground we’re walking on, is a place first and foremost for God’s purposes not ours. This is a first and most basic truth about the nature of land. In forming the land, God has essentially provided a place where his glory and presence can dwell. Without the land, there is no place for that glory and presence to be manifested. I believe that this is one of the key reasons why day two was not declared to be “good” as the other days were – it was not “good” because there was not yet a place for God to be glorified. The land then is a realm of habitation – a place for God’s purposes to be fulfilled.
None of what later comes in the unfolding of history could have happened without land. The Tabernacle where God dwelt in the midst of Israel was raised up on the earth. Christ could not have walked the path to the cross unless there was earth upon which the cross could be raised. The Church, the dwelling place of God, is made up of people from every land, tribe, tongue, and nation. In Rev 5:9 we see this clearly as the 24 elders sing the praises of the Lamb: “And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”” God’s redemption plan needed a place in which it could be accomplished, and at the fulfillment of that plan in Revelation 5, it says that the saints will reign “on the earth”. The earth is thus the place or setting in which God’s creation purposes are realised.
A second basic truth about the land follows on very naturally from this is that: the purpose of the earth is to glorify God. Now just pause and think about that for a moment. Your living space, your home, has a purpose – to glorify God. We make cars for the purpose of transport, we make pens for writing, and we make bricks for building. God made this planet to be a place for glorifying himself. That’s the intention behind every square inch of ground on this place we call earth. When you look around you at the dirt, and ground, and rocks, you’re looking at a place that was build to be the realm of God’s glory. Every square inch of it. When you look at a map and see Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, China, Russia, and all the world – you’re looking at land that is designed to be the place where God’s presence will dwell and his glory will shine. That’s his purpose for each and every country of the world, every city, every household. And so I can’t put this any better than the dutch theologian Abraham Kuiper: “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!”
This leads us very naturally into a third observation: the earth will glorify God. This is the end or purpose for which the earth was created, to be the place in which the earth would manifest his glory and presence – and with absolute certainty it will be accomplished! One of my favourite verses in the whole Bible is Habakkuk 2:14: “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” The prophecy was spoken earlier by Isaiah in Isaiah 11:9 as well. Consider the words of that prophecy. When you think about it, it’s a delightful inversion of what we saw on day two. On day two we saw that the earth was covered in water, formless and void, but the prophecy reverses (or fulfills) the situation in an echo of the same creation imagery. The difference is that it is no longer the waters covering the earth, it is the glory of the LORD filling the earth. This is the destination towards which our planet is headed: the glory and presence of God’s light will fill the earth! That’s the endgame – the earth will glorify God. That’s why he made it, and nothing will stop that divine plan from happening.
Be ye doers of the word…
When we’re talking about a place to belong, at the end of the day that is the place where we belong. Any home that God gifts to us in this life is a foreshadow of that final eternal home that God is preparing in the new heavens and the new earth in his presence. As you look around you and enjoy God’s good earth, pause and remember: the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it (Ps 24:1). Contrary to popular opinion, there is no secular world where Christ has to “stay out of it”, it’s all his. Religion is not a pick-and-chose affair where you chose the one that suits you best, there is only the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness, and the Son of God came to undo the works of the evil one and to destroy that kingdom of darkness. Which side will you choose? The kingdom of God will be all and in all, and the glory of God shall fill the earth. Through Christ, God will unite all things in heaven and on earth, and he will be all and in all. That is your true home.
Consider Hebrews 11:8: “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.” God designed the land to be a place where we can dwell, but in the bigger picture it was always pointing towards something more glorious. Don’t look for a permanent home and place to be on this side of eternity, your final home is not here but there. So when you feel homesick, when you feel like there’s no place for you to belong, remember that your life is hid with Christ in God. Remember that there is a place for you to belong. There is nothing permanent for us that is centred in this present world, for life is like a breath our days are fleeting like a shadow. But in Christ we have an eternal inheritance, and an eternal dwelling place. Day three lays down a world-sized seed, a seed which is intended to point us toward our final dwelling place with God. Keep watch, and we will see this seed grow into a mighty oak in the fullness of God’s timing. SDG.
Prayer of Confession & Consecration
Lord God, please forgive me. My vision is so spiritually impoverished. Please forgive me for looking for the fulfillment of a home in this life, and please forgive me for treating any single patch of your earth as though it existed for my purposes. O Lord, please open the eyes of my heart, that everywhere I look I may consider the purpose of the earth that you have made – that it exists for the purpose of glorifying your name. Help me not to defile the land upon which I walk and live, but help me by your Spirit’s power and strength to give great glory to you in the manner of my dwelling. And hasten the day, Lord, when we shall arrive at our final dwelling place, the New Heavens and the New Earth, wherein righteousness dwells. I long for that day, Lord. Please keep and sustain me. Please deliver me this day from the plots and attacks of the evil one, and lead me in the way everlasting. So may it be in the lives of all the saints of God. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
Day 18: God creates the land (Gen 1:9-13).