Episode Details

Prayer

Heavenly Father, All praise and glory to you, O God. You are exalted beyond the heavens, perfect in holiness, eternal and unchangeable, righteous in all you do. I give glory to you Almighty God. I rejoice to think on your perfections, and I thank you that you have covenanted with me, an unworthy sinner. Where you are pure, I am full of impurity. Where you are steadfast, I am fickle and unreliable. What is man that you should think on him? Or the son of man that you should care for him? And yet you sent your Son to save me. My words of thanks are far too small an offering of praise, and my life of failures is an unworthy return. My only plea is your mercy in Christ, and my only hope your promises. I take some small comfort in the knowledge that you delight to make your power perfect in weakness, that glory may redound unto your name. So let it be in my life, O Lord, glory unto you O God most high! Please so work in me now as I read your word. Wash my innermost being, renew my heart I pray O Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Reading

Habakkuk 2 & Rev 5.

Gen 1:9-13.

“And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11. And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. 12. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.”

Meditation

So far on day three we’ve noted the emptiness of the waters and the significance of that. As the narrative continues to move forward, God then creates the land. What is the significance of the land? On days one and two, God laid out the original purpose of creation. Day one revealed God’s over-arching purpose of filling creation with his own presence and glory. On day two God set the expanse of the heavens above us to show that heaven sets the pattern and priority for life on earth (a truth also revealed clearly in the Lord’s Prayer: “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”). Day three then begins to unfold how this purpose will be accomplished, for God’s will cannot be done on earth as it is in heaven when there is no earth! And so we see that God, in response to the emptiness, makes the earth so that his glory would have a dwelling place. As we give our attention now to the land, there are three things that I would like for us to notice.

First: the earth, the ground we’re walking on, is a place first and foremost for God’s purposes not ours. This is a first and most basic truth about the nature of land. In forming the land, God has essentially provided a place where his glory and presence can dwell. Without the land, there is no place for that glory and presence to be manifested. I believe that this is one of the key reasons why day two was not declared to be “good” as the other days were – it was not “good” because there was not yet a place for God to be glorified. The land then is a realm of habitation – a place for God’s purposes to be fulfilled.

None of what later comes in the unfolding of history could have happened without land. The Tabernacle where God dwelt in the midst of Israel was raised up on the earth. Christ could not have walked the path to the cross unless there was earth upon which the cross could be raised. The Church, the dwelling place of God, is made up of people from every land, tribe, tongue, and nation. In Rev 5:9 we see this clearly as the 24 elders sing the praises of the Lamb: “And they sang a new song, saying, “W