Commentary
by Walter Albritton
We have
Value because God Created us for Himself
Genesis 2
Key Verse: The
Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life; and the man became a living being. – Genesis 2:7
Self-despising
is widespread. Repeatedly I encounter persons who, despairing of life itself,
complain that they are worthless, having no value to anyone. Whatever hope they
once had is now gone. Their minds are numbed by an
awful sense of meaninglessness.
My heart broke
to hear my own father, in his declining years, ask me often, “Why did God let
me live so long?” I tried to assure him that he was alive because God’s purpose
for his life was not yet completed. I hope I succeeded in my efforts to
encourage him to trust God to the end.
To read the
Genesis accounts of creation is a great tonic for despairing souls. Here is the
exciting news that the living God created human beings for a divine purpose.
Human beings have value because they were created for
a reason. Primarily, that reason is to have communion with God and to serve
God.
This conviction
about the origin of man generates hope. Faith grows in the fertile soil of such
thinking. Embrace the teaching of Genesis about creation and you safeguard your
mind against the invasion of hopelessness. Without hope, it
is misery, not mercy that is fresh every morning. Without hope, nothing
tastes good; nothing stirs our passion to make the most of each new day.
Settle for a
lesser worldview and you become vulnerable to cynicism. The cynic buys the
notion that man crawled out of a primordial swamp as a tiny amoeba and in time
became an ape, finally evolving into a man. For the writer of Genesis, there is
a nobler way to describe the beginning of man’s family tree. I prefer the
Genesis explanation.
If we accept
the idea that our ancestors were “swamp things,” then it becomes much more
difficult to have a lofty view of the value of human life. We become vulnerable
to the belief that a human being has no more lasting significance than the next
stray dog we see on the side of the road. If, however, our ancestors were people
who talked with God, like Abraham and Moses, then it is easier to believe that
human beings were created in the image of God for a
special purpose, to fulfill a plan conceived in the heart of a loving God.
Does Genesis
offer two accounts of creation? Yes. Are these accounts conflicting? No. They
complement each other. They describe the creation story from two different
angles. What is more important is that in both accounts God is the Creator, and
the creation of man is the
Genesis begins
with the striking affirmation that God exists: “In the beginning God”! Modern
secularists insist that God is man’s idea. Genesis declares emphatically that
man is God’s idea! Man’s significance stems from his having being
made in the image of God. This makes humans uniquely different from
animals even though all living things were made from
“the dust of the ground.”
The primary
difference is that human beings can have a dynamic relationship with God. We
can hear God, speak to God, love God, thank God, have communion with God, and serve God.
Especially, humans are capable of obeying God, or disobeying God. Genesis helps
understand our uniqueness by underlining our power to make decisions,
especially decisions that can affect the quality of our lives. Other “creatures”
are not burdened by the responsibility of obeying
God’s commands.
Genesis pays
tribute to man’s capacity to reason by explaining that God asked man to name
the animals and birds. This capacity to think can be used
for good or ill. To understand that we may choose to enhance our relationship
with God is an exhilarating thought! To ignore the opportunity to develop a
mature relationship with God, through constant communion, is surely the most
foolish use of our intelligence.
What Genesis
says about human beings should inspire us beyond measure. God created us. He
called us “good.” He gave us work to do. He expects us to obey Him. He desires
intimacy with us. We may claim that intimacy through loving obedience. He
recognized man’s loneliness, and his need for others, so He created a
companion. This becomes the biblical foundation for the institution of marriage
being God-given, and not an institution designed by man. In a day when the
sacred nature of marriage is being undermined, it
behooves us to stand firmly on the solid ground of biblical teaching. Culture
changes; God’s eternal Word does not.
What a high and
holy privilege is ours – to be given the gift of life
as human beings! When we embrace the theology of Genesis, hopelessness cannot
survive in the presence of such faith. Self-despising is
overcome when we recognize our great value as human beings created by
the Almighty God who desires loving communion with His children! Let us
joyfully use our minds to THINK of creative ways to adore and serve the Father
who made us! + + + +
(Contact Walter at walbritton@elmore.rr.com)