During creation week, God created reality to express and embody the purest and maturest expression of love that’s embodied in the Godhead, which is unity in diversity, interdependence, mutual giving of oneself for the stability, and harmony of the universe.
The interdependent ecosystems in nature express the wisdom of love, being relational, functional and unifying.
At the end of creation week, God brought the first humans together, who were different but complementary and they were joined together in holy matrimony:
“and from the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man, He made a woman and brought her to him. 23And the man said: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of man she was taken.” 24For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh” Genesis 2:23
This marriage wasn’t just a marriage between humankind but also all of creation being married to its creator, the lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8) living as one flesh in essence in a harmonious and interdependent unity.
When all of creation lives in harmony with God and each other, there is shalom. When one part of creation suffers we all suffer, and success and harmony depend on living by the law of love – other centered love. Too, this is seen when God told Israel to seek the prosperity of Babylon:
“Seek the prosperity of the city to which I have sent you as exiles. Pray to the LORD on its behalf, for if it prospers, you too will prosper.” Jeremiah 29:7
While nature was created to embody the law of other-centered love, humankind was the pinnacle of expression of the Godhead.
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.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. Genesis 1:26-28
To be made in God’s image requires both masculine and feminine energies because it mirrors and embodies balance and the unity in diversity essence of the Godhead. Male and female are both equals, different but complementary and both of their energies and functional traits are needed to make a well-balanced whole.
Mature love is based on more than emotion and feeling good, it’s functional and practical, grounding and stabilizing. The two are better and more functional because of their difference and God desires that we mature past a me-centric to a we-centric mindset, honoring and celebrating diversity!
Since the fall of mankind, creation is fragmented and has greatly moved away from this essence. Mankind no longer subdues nature with the law of interdependence in mind and because of this, humans no longer live in harmony with nature but live antagonist against it, when before all of creation worked together in a very functional, balanced and whole manner which made work and sustaining order far easier than what it is now.
This is seen in one of the three curses after the fall. The external will always mirror the internal, this is the mirror principle and after the fall of mankind, creation mirrored humanity’s inner fragmentation.
“Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground— because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3:19
The book of Genesis helps us to understand the nature of things, including human nature and psychology and how life was before chaos and fragmentation entered into the picture.
Pentecost was a healing of fragmentation and entering into wholeness through the baptism of the Holy Spirit of both truth and love, which are masculine and feminine energies.
During the ten plagues of Egypt, each plague was aimed at a different Egyptian god and was a reversal of creation week.
Needing multiple gods for multiple needs was mirroring their inner fragmentation and God removed his protective and sustaining power to show Pharaoh that creation does not sustain itself apart from God’s sustaining hand, but that there’s a God in heaven who is actively sustaining and providing for creation and he does have a limit to his forbearance and will intervene and bring salvation and rest for his people.
Pharaoh sat his will against his creator, the only true God and since he was separated from God, he had a heart of stone vs a heart of flesh and thus ruled his kingdom with cruelty and contrary to the law of love.
God allowed a reversal of creation in nature during the ten plagues which was the opposite of what happened during creation week.
The Nile turned into blood, (possibly a red tide and not literal blood) and when the frogs died, this caused an overpopulation of lice and other insects which brought disease that killed both animals and humans.
In the next blog I will show how Pentecost was a healing of fragmentation and entering into wholeness through the baptism of the Holy Spirit of both truth and love.