MAN RECEIVED GOD’S BLESSING:
God completed the environment with the creation of man, who not only reflected His image but who, praise God, also received His blessing.
Genesis 1:28. “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”
The blessings of God are His benefits.
One of the questions you ask a new boss is what benefits you could expect as an employee of the company. You want to know if you would have moving expenses, housing allowance, health insurance, and transportation in your annual salary package. When considering a job, the benefits can induce us to make a long-term commitment while the lack of benefits can keep us from such a commitment.
Once man was created, he was committed for the long term. And the Creator, in His grace, showered the man with benefits that would make his commitment to life a joy and pleasure: “God blessed them.” Every day the man would be excited to wake up, eager to go to work, rejoicing in who he was and the opportunities he had during the day, sleeping peacefully at night in harmony with the world around him because he was blessed by His Creator. Praise God, from whom all blessings flow! (James 1:17)
“When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your blessings, and see what God hath done!
Count your blessings, Count them one by one.
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.”
I am: Accepted by God, Beloved by God, Chosen by God, Delivered by God.
The creation of man and the establishment of his home seem to be what the story of creation has been pointing toward. Nothing could have been more personal than God Himself planting and arranging the garden that was the first home for man.
MAN’S FIRST HOME, A GARDEN, A PARADISE:
Genesis 2:8. “And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.”
Of all His works God only “created man in His own image: in the image of God created He him.” This expression refers not merely to the intelligence with which God endowed, and the immortality with which He gifted man, but also to the perfect moral and spiritual nature which man at the first possessed. And all his surroundings were in accordance with his happy state. God put him into the Garden of Eden “to dress it and to keep it,” and gave him a congenial companion in Eve, whom Adam recognized as Thus as God had, by setting apart the Sabbath day, indicated worship as the proper relationship between man and his Creator, so He also laid in Paradise the foundation of civil society by the institution of marriage and of the family.
One of the greatest thing about this home was the presence of God was in it. “And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (Genesis 3:8). I like to think that it was God’s custom and delight to walk about in the Garden home of Adam and Eve. God should feel at home in our parlor, den, bedroom, and be welcomed into our conversation and society. This is the only way our house can be a home is to have God, not as a guest, but as an occupant.
In many homes today people are so preoccupied with one another, their food and drink, clothes, comfort, and entertainment, that they lose contact with the One Who should be at the center of all decisions. Don’t neglect the Creator of the home, or it will become an empty shell.
Take time to ask Him to bless your food, help you make the choice of the clothes you wear, the places of entertainment you attend, and above all let Him talk to the family through His word. In His word you will find rules to go by to make for a happy home. And we find that these rules and benefits are still given by the Creator to the families who will live by His commandments.
Every day let us pray, “God Bless Our Home.”
