Spiritual Treasures of Genesis: What you were really called to do - Let their be Light! (part 3/3)

Ever since our creation, we have struggled to find meaning in our lives. This endless search for the question as to why we are here has never stopped. We constantly long for this and we do so, I believe, because Man as a species has been broken ever since the days of Adam’s fall. We are longing to fill the void and heal the wound of whatever that fall meant and caused and left us in lack.

This is the third and final part of a series on God’s creation of man where I first covered being created in His Image and then the meaning of being created “according” to His “Likeness”. And today we’ll see what the First thing Man was created to do and indeed was blessed with.

“And God said, Let Us make Man in Our Image, according to Our Likeness, and let them have Dominion…” (Gen 1:26)
And the Hebrew transliteration reads “waYomer [and said] élohiym [Elohim or God] naáseh [let Us Make] ädäm [Man] B'tzal'mënû [in Our Image/Shade]Kid'mûtënû [according to Our Likeness] w'yir'Dû [and let them have dominion]…”

What really stands out to me in these very powerfully worded chapters – these are the chapters of Firsts by the way; they are full of amazing revelations simply by virtue of seeing words for the first time in the Scriptures. In other words, these firsts are not mistakes of God’s Spirit, they are the first and purposely placed to reveal things to those that seek them. In that vein, what is the First Thing God does?

The first thing we see God doing (not the necessarily the first thing He does since He is the One who was and is and is to be) is creating!

In the beginning, He created… that word created is ‘bara’ and means He filled. He literally Filled – A to Z (Alef-tav in Hebrew pronounced “et”) the Heavens and the Earth. He filled the Existence, the Beginning and End, the things above and the things below, the Heavens and the Earth. Everything!

In the Ancient Hebrew Script that Genesis
was written in this says YAHAY OR.

But zeroing in on the first definitive and specific act of God we see that it was to Create Light. And He did so with but a Word. In Hebrew it was this “Yahay Or” and literally it means “Let-Be, Light!” and there was Light!

Again the Hebrew transliteration, which to me sounds fantastic: “Yahay Or waYahay Or”. (Note the ‘wa’ or ‘va’ and means ‘and’).

To Rule and have Dominion does not mean to be selfish and exploit the earth’s resources and plunder the natural beauty of this world or any other worlds in the heavens. It does not mean we abuse nature and strip it dry and bare as many have twisted God’s words into meaning just that. Nor does it mean that we seek dominate fellow Man and keep the masses subjugated and enslaved. Throughout history we see these things and we still see them – in short all greed, hatred and wars we see they are the perversion of what it means to Mankind, a perversion of what it really means to Rule and Dominate in the Biblical sense. And what should I say also about the primacy of Man in the house… how our leadership as men has been attacked relentlessly by those who have been abusive and absent husbands and fathers? Another time perhaps.

We are made in His image, according to His Likeness – this is our Identity as humans and from this primordial identity comes our purpose. It is also to “create” with a lower-case ‘c’. It is to create just like God Created. He Created with a Word and we too must create with the opening of our mouths.

A simple thing; what are you creating with your mouth these days? What is it that you are saying? Praying? Thanking? Worshiping? Complaining? Muttering? Grumbling? Arguing? Abusing? I don’t say this to shame or condemn you, but rather that we would be awakened to this magnificent calling. 

Our mouths were made to utter the Word of God – Jesus Himself, His Good News. Even His beautiful Name on your Lips reverberates with power. To Bless others with our words, bring healing from within and also physically from without – in the Name above every name, be Healed! What power in the words of our lips when His Name is on our Lips, we see people delivered from oppression of every kind, spiritual and physical. Our mouths are fountains of Life says Proverbs of the righteous man or woman.

Of course, what comes out of our mouths must originate in what we are focusing on, ideally as we walk in the Spirit according not to our old nature but our new nature, setting our minds on the things above, as Paul said, where we are seated with Christ in the Heavenlies. These are the things we must think on to move our mouths to spew forth Words of Life, Light and Love. He is the Light, the Life and Love Himself.

God first called Light into existence with but a Word. “In Him was Life and the Life was the Light of Man.” says, John.

I wonder what will happen when we begin to call light into existence in our lives and among all those we live amongst. I can’t wait to see that!

May the words of your mouth and the meditations of your heart ever be to the praise and glory of our Father. Amen.