MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Genesis 1:29-31
THE UNIVERSE GOD’S GIFT TO MAN
I. The Gift.
1. Extensive. The Universe is a Divine gift to man. It was designed for the occupation of man. The home, with all its furniture, was presented to him. Nature, from its highest manifestations to its lowest, was to minister to his happiness and need.
2. Valuable. The smallest things in nature are valuable. Who can tell the value of the tree, of the herb, of the grass of the field? Diamonds are not more valuable than these; yet they are the constant and everyday gift of God to man.
3. Increasing. Every day the gift is increasing in value. It becomes more expansive. It is better known, and more thoroughly appreciated. Scientific research is giving man to see the richness of the Creator’s gift. All the gifts of God are productive; time unfolds their measure, discloses their meaning, and demonstrates their value.
II. The purpose.
1. To evince love. One of the great objects of creation was to manifest the love of God to the human race, which was shortly to be brought into existence. The light, the sun, the stars, and the creation of man; all these were the love-tokens of God. These were designed, not to display His creative power—His wisdom, but His desire for the happiness of man.
2. To teach truth. The world is a great school. It is well supplied with teachers. It will teach an attentive student great lessons. All the Divine gifts are instructive.
3. To sustain life. God created man without means, but it was not His will to preserve him without; hence He tells him where he is to seek his food. We must make use of such creatures as God has designed for the preservation of our life. God has provided for the preservation of all life. Let us learn to trust God for the necessities of life in times of adversity. Men who have the greatest possessions in the world must receive their daily food from the hand of God.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
I. Let every one depend upon God for the necessaries of life.
1. Asking them by prayer.
2. Acknowledging our own beggary.
3. Trusting Him by faith.
4. Remembering His promise.
5. Obedient to His will.
II. Let us serve Him faithfully at whose table we are fed.
1. Else we are ungrateful.
2. Else we deserve famine.
All the provisions that God allows man for food are drawn out of the earth.
The homeliness of the provision on which God intended man to feed.
Let no man be discontented with mean fare:—
1. It is as good as the body it nourishes.
2. It is better than we deserve.
3. It is more than we are able to procure of ourselves.
4. It is more profitable for health.
5. It is free from the temptation to excess.
God gives us not all our provisions at once, but a daily supply of them:—
1. To manifest His fatherly care.
2. To make us dependent on Him.
3. To exercise our faith.
4. To teach economy.
God makes provision for all the creatures He hath made.
Man was not only a good creature, but a blessed one.
SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS
Man’s Spirit! Genesis 1:27. As a missionary in India was catechizing the children of his school, a Brahmin interrupted him by saying that the spirit of man and the spirit of God were one. In order to show him the absurdity of such a declaration, the missionary called upon the boys to refute it by stating the difference between the spirit of man and God. They readily, so Arvine says, gave the following answers:—The spirit of man is created; God is its creator. The spirit of man is full of sin; God is a pure spirit. The spirit of man is subject to grief; God is incapable of suffering. Therefore, they can never be one. And yet the spirit of the one dwells in the spirit of the other. This is a great mystery:—
“And when the dread enigma presseth sore,
Thy patient voice saith: ‘Watch with me one hour;’
As sinks the moaning river in the sea,
In silver peace, so sinks my soul in Thee.”—Howe.
Man! Genesis 1:27. As the ancients kept their temples pure and undefiled, so we should preserve our “bodies” free from all unholy words and actions. In some of the heathen temples, the Vestals cherished a flame on their altar perpetually. So should we maintain the flame of truth on the altars of our hearts. Within their temple walls were their helpless deities, and there thronged the myriads of votaries to pay homage and worship. We should worship the Father, and cultivate the companionship of the Holy Ghost in our bodies.
Apex! Genesis 1:29. As Agassiz points out, it is evident that there is a manifest progress in the succession of beings on the surface of the earth. This progress consists in an increasing similarity to the living fauna, and among the vertebrates, especially in their increasing resemblance to man. But this connection is not the consequence of a direct lineage between the fauna of different ages. The link by which creation is connected is of a high and immaterial nature; and their connection is to be sought in the view of the Creator Himself, whose aim in forming the earth was to introduce man upon the surface of our globe. Man is the end towards which all the animal creation has tended from the first appearance of the first Palæozoic fishes. When all was complete—
“A creature of a more exalted kind
Was wanting yet, and then was man designed;
Conscious of thought, of more capacious breast,
For empire formed, and fit to rule the rest.”—Ovid.
Divine Gifts! Genesis 1:29. As the artist delights in exercising his talent in depicting the landscape—as the poet finds pleasure in creating, out of human experiences and the bright scenes of nature, a new world of beauty and passion, so God—the Great Artist and Poet—delights in the scenes and objects of nature, in the formation of which He has exercised His Divine skill and power; and to this Divine feeling the Son of God gave frequent expression. He revealed to us His own most perfect understanding and enjoyment of the beauty of nature—how God regarded the creation which He had pronounced to be very good. But they were formed for man’s special enjoyment. The great whole world—to use the figure of an eminent writer—is decked with beauty for man’s pleasure. Beautiful is the lily-work that forms the capitals of its stony and massive pillars; rich is the flowerage that adorns its barge-laden streams, which bear up and along the works of life. Everything that is useful to man has some bright and beautiful thing connected with it, which, like the settling of a brilliant butterfly upon the open page of a dreary tome, or the falling of a rosy gleam upon some homely task, seems to speak of the fact that this verse is true—
“Our cup runneth over, our life is so bright,
So brimming with mercy and love,
It seems just a springtime of sunshine and light,
Blest foretastes of better above.”
God! Genesis 1:31. His works proclaim His being, power, wisdom, goodness. Some years ago there was a German prince, a good christian man, who lived in a fine old castle on the banks of the Rhine. He had a son, who was beloved by all around for his princely virtues; and on one occasion, while he was absent from home, a French gentleman became the nobleman’s guest. This visitor did not believe in God, and never thought of trusting to Him for anything. One day, when the baron and his friend were conversing, he said something which grieved the baron very much, and led him to exclaim: “Are you not afraid to offend God by speaking in such a way?” But the Frenchman replied that he had never seen God, knew nothing of Him, cared nothing for Him. His host remained silent, and resolved to seize the first opportunity afforded him of shewing to his guest the fallacy of his reasoning. So the next morning he conducted the doubter around his castle and grounds to see many beauties. Amongst other things he showed him some very beautiful pictures, which the visitor admired, and of which the prince said: “These are my son’s.” The garden had been chastely and magnificently laid out by his son. The cottages in the village, all neatly and substantially built, had been designed by his son. When the gentleman had seen all, he exclaimed: “What a happy man you must be to have such a son;” but the prince abruptly enquired how he knew that he had so good a son? “By his works,” was the response. “But you have not seen him.” “No; but I know him very well, because I judge of him by his works.” God’s works teach us:
“And every wild and hidden dell,
Where human footsteps never trod,
Is wafting songs of joy which tell
The praises of their Maker—God!
Creation Good! Genesis 1:31. Did that goodness which Jehovah saw evidence itself in the joy of universal adoration? For after all, is there not joy in every aspect of Nature? Could Adam not see it; could Jehovah himself not see this joy of goodness in the purity of virgin morning, in the sombre grey of a day of clouds, in the solemn pomp and majesty of night? Was it not visible in the chaste lines of the crystal, the waving outlines of distant hills, the minute petals of the fringed daisy, or the overhanging form of Eden’s mysterious glades? Could Jehovah not say in even deeper grandeur, sense, and force, than Adam,
“What throbbings of deep joy
Pulsate through all I see; from the full bud
Whose unctuous sheath is glittering in the moon,
Up through the system of created things,
Even to the flaming ranks of seraphim.”—Alford.