Beautiful autonomy
This week is on Genesis 8:6-12:
I love these verses, because they illustrate a really important truth about God's creation. When Noah reaches this point, the world has been wiped bare by a catastrophic flood. The only people to survive were Noah and his family, because he followed God's instructions and built a boat to escape it. At this point, Noah's sort of vaguely aware that the flood is receding and that it will be time to return to the earth. You'd think that because God told him when the flood would be, God would also tell him when the flood would end. Instead, Noah ends up using science, and it's awesome!
A lot of people, particularly fussy religious control-freak people, have a warped view of God's kingdom. In their worldview, we're kind of like remote control cars. In their ideal world, we'd do nothing unless God told us to move. Maybe we'd sit idle, saying "Yes Lord" over and over until he presses the "evangelize" button on his remote, but nothing else self-initiated could be righteous. To a control freak, other people aren't beautiful individuals with souls of their own, but impersonal objects to be manipulated. To the control freak, God must view us as a control freak views the world: he picks us up when he wants us, and casts us down when he doesn't. Do what you're told, shut up, and don't come up with any ideas of your own. You're a doll, not a wife.
God doesn't see us like that. There is a time for specific obedience, like how God describes when the flood will come, how long the rains will be, and what the precise dimensions Noah will need in order to construct a boat big enough and durable enough to keep his family and stock high and dry during the flood. That's your "Hear and do" or "Faith comes after obedience" thing. But there's another side of God's personality, which expresses his will through our individuality and creativity. That's where the personal relationship comes in, and I believe that's what makes us entertaining to God. He can get perfect specific obedience from a tree. Personality and inventiveness are what make people unique in his creation, I think.
Noah knows about livestock. He knows that birds land on the ground or in trees, and like to pick stuff up for making nests. He knows this, because God created him to know this. God gave us dominion over the beasts of the earth and the birds of the air. (You don't dominate something by ignoring it.) Noah also knows his limitations. He can't climb up very high to see if there's land. He has no natural instincts about where shore might be. And he can't improve his chances by swimming. Of the creatures God had him gather, birds can solve all of the problems we've mentioned. Just by its created nature, a bird will naturally do the things that will give Noah the answer he needs. He doesn't have to control it with a string, or spend years repeating instructions to it. It just solves the problem by being a bird.
Much like the birds did Noah's will by virtue of their unique gifts, we can often do God's will by virtue of who we are. There are many cases in scripture where people are described as having been given certain abilities by God. Artists, craftsmen, warriors, leaders, and so on, all have certain traits created into them so that they will do what they are supposed to do. The stone-cutter doesn't have to be told each time he swings the hammer. The leader doesn't just repeat God's instructions to his people, word for word, without understanding. The artist doesn't just copy off God's paper. God has made us and empowered us as individuals.
The relationship with God is key. Do you just tell him what you want and wait for him to tell you to act? Or do you tell him your perspective on life, your struggles, and hopes, and try to discover more about who he created you to be? He's created us to be active, thinking, participating creatures. Don't just sit around waiting to be told what to do next. What has he given you the ability to do right now? Do you only have half of the instructions you need, like knowing when the flood will come, but not what to do after it happens? Maybe the reason he hasn't given you the rest is because he created you to be able to find the answer with what he's already given you. We're not hollow shells, or lifeless tools. God has created us in his image, and given us minds, and souls, so that we can join him in creation and ruling the universe. Sometimes we'll need his specific instructions or his intervention, but for the rest of life, we can do well by being what we were created to be.
After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.
I love these verses, because they illustrate a really important truth about God's creation. When Noah reaches this point, the world has been wiped bare by a catastrophic flood. The only people to survive were Noah and his family, because he followed God's instructions and built a boat to escape it. At this point, Noah's sort of vaguely aware that the flood is receding and that it will be time to return to the earth. You'd think that because God told him when the flood would be, God would also tell him when the flood would end. Instead, Noah ends up using science, and it's awesome!
A lot of people, particularly fussy religious control-freak people, have a warped view of God's kingdom. In their worldview, we're kind of like remote control cars. In their ideal world, we'd do nothing unless God told us to move. Maybe we'd sit idle, saying "Yes Lord" over and over until he presses the "evangelize" button on his remote, but nothing else self-initiated could be righteous. To a control freak, other people aren't beautiful individuals with souls of their own, but impersonal objects to be manipulated. To the control freak, God must view us as a control freak views the world: he picks us up when he wants us, and casts us down when he doesn't. Do what you're told, shut up, and don't come up with any ideas of your own. You're a doll, not a wife.
God doesn't see us like that. There is a time for specific obedience, like how God describes when the flood will come, how long the rains will be, and what the precise dimensions Noah will need in order to construct a boat big enough and durable enough to keep his family and stock high and dry during the flood. That's your "Hear and do" or "Faith comes after obedience" thing. But there's another side of God's personality, which expresses his will through our individuality and creativity. That's where the personal relationship comes in, and I believe that's what makes us entertaining to God. He can get perfect specific obedience from a tree. Personality and inventiveness are what make people unique in his creation, I think.
Noah knows about livestock. He knows that birds land on the ground or in trees, and like to pick stuff up for making nests. He knows this, because God created him to know this. God gave us dominion over the beasts of the earth and the birds of the air. (You don't dominate something by ignoring it.) Noah also knows his limitations. He can't climb up very high to see if there's land. He has no natural instincts about where shore might be. And he can't improve his chances by swimming. Of the creatures God had him gather, birds can solve all of the problems we've mentioned. Just by its created nature, a bird will naturally do the things that will give Noah the answer he needs. He doesn't have to control it with a string, or spend years repeating instructions to it. It just solves the problem by being a bird.
Much like the birds did Noah's will by virtue of their unique gifts, we can often do God's will by virtue of who we are. There are many cases in scripture where people are described as having been given certain abilities by God. Artists, craftsmen, warriors, leaders, and so on, all have certain traits created into them so that they will do what they are supposed to do. The stone-cutter doesn't have to be told each time he swings the hammer. The leader doesn't just repeat God's instructions to his people, word for word, without understanding. The artist doesn't just copy off God's paper. God has made us and empowered us as individuals.
The relationship with God is key. Do you just tell him what you want and wait for him to tell you to act? Or do you tell him your perspective on life, your struggles, and hopes, and try to discover more about who he created you to be? He's created us to be active, thinking, participating creatures. Don't just sit around waiting to be told what to do next. What has he given you the ability to do right now? Do you only have half of the instructions you need, like knowing when the flood will come, but not what to do after it happens? Maybe the reason he hasn't given you the rest is because he created you to be able to find the answer with what he's already given you. We're not hollow shells, or lifeless tools. God has created us in his image, and given us minds, and souls, so that we can join him in creation and ruling the universe. Sometimes we'll need his specific instructions or his intervention, but for the rest of life, we can do well by being what we were created to be.
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