God's Mission to Restore All Peoples--Part 1

According to the Bible, God has been on a mission to restore all peoples to HIM from the very beginning. God is still on this mission. The WAY God has designed to restore all people is through his chosen people. Several blogs will deal with this tremendous truth in scripture.

Genesis 1-2 clearly portrays God's mission to restore all peoples to God.

God created everything he had made. On the sixth day, God said:

"Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.
So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." (Genesis 1:26-28).

God created male and female equally in his image.

In Genesis 2:18-25, the Bible goes further into detail about this creation.

"Then the Lord God said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.' So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to call the cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
Then the man said,
'This at last is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called WOMAN,
for out of the MAN this one was taken.'
Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh. And the mad and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed."

God's desire is that ALL HUMAN BEINGS live in harmony. This text emphasizes several relationship:

1. The relationship between God and male and female. This is the paramount relationship. How could ANYONE be divided against anyone else since all human beings are created by God and be in God's image and likeness. Is God against God? Emphatically NO!!!

2. The relationship between male and female: husband and wife. Marriage is designed for God SO THAT human beings will always be united.

3. The relationship between parents and children. God's desire, God's plan, God's mission is to unify parent and child under God. What a terrible mistake for parents to demand that children follow parents. NO!!! God's design, God's mission is that all people FOLLOW GOD, NOT follow human beings. Jesus makes this very clear in favoring his heavenly Father above his earthly father Joseph--Luke 2:41-52. Jesus himself taught clearly: "My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it." Luke 8:19-21.

MUCH MORE TO COME!!!

Share YOUR limitations and concerns and experiences with others. Let me hear from YOU.

John Willis