Blessed is the one you choose and bring near to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple!1
Do we really have hope in this corrupted world? God’s words say so; and God cannot lie.2 God is not man, that he should lie, or the son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?3 We do have hope! It is out of his abundant grace, enduring love, faithfulness, goodness, and mercy that God redeems his creation. For his purpose he chose Abram to be a blessing to the people; not that Abram was righteous nor holy. He was raised in Ur of the Chaldeans. And they worshiped other gods. ‘Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham . . . and they served other gods.4
It was not so in the beginning. God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion . . .5 God put them in the garden of Eden to work it and to keep it.6 They had total peace and enjoyed the company of God as he walked the garden.7
But Eve was deceived by the serpent; they transgressed against God’s command.8 Due to their heinous sin they were banished from the garden, from his presence.9 It was an abrupt fall. Despite the sin the blessing to be fruitful and to multiply wasn’t revoked. But the fruit was corrupted; man multiplied evil since then. Cain killed Abel;10 thus, individual murder 1st occurred. During the time of Noah, there was the inception of sexual sin;11 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually;12 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence.13 God was determined to make an end of man and to cleanse the earth through the flood.14
After the flood God reiterated his promise through Noah. And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.15 Yet the hearts of man were not cleansed. There was drunkenness and moral decay.16 There was pride. “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves . . . .17
God knows we need a Savior. He is in constant pursuit of man that we may be reconciled back to him, to recreate the initial intention of God for man—Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.18 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.19
Notes:
1. Psalm 65:4
2. Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18
3. Numbers 23:19
4. Joshua 24:2
5. Genesis 1:27-28
6. Genesis 2:15
7. Genesis 3:8
8. Genesis 3:13
9. Genesis 3:23-24
10. Genesis 4:8
11. Genesis 6:1-2
12. Genesis 6:5
13. Genesis 6:11
14. Genesis 6:11-7:24
15. Genesis 9:1
16. Genesis 9:18-21
17. Genesis 11:4-9
18. Matthew 6:10
19. John 3:16
