Genesis 1:1

The family of Jacob/Israel attempted to re-define the Word of YHWH. In the book of Isaiah, chapter 46 opens by describing the burden of the family of Jacob/Israel. Their burden was a direct result of their deviation from the purpose that YHWH had prepared for them. By choosing to rely on the fabrication of their own understanding, their disobedience was ultimately enshrined in the dead images in which they were placing their trust. While stranded in their disobedience notice the prodding YHWH uses (in the Scripture below) to catch their attention with the intent to draw them back to His plan; His plan will be realized no matter what humans may choose or not choose to do. 

(1) Bel (a Babylonian god) kneels down, Nebo (a Babylonian god) bends low. Their images weigh down animals and beast. Your heavy images are burdensome to tired animals. (2) Together they bend low and kneel down; they are unable to rescue the images; they themselves head off into captivity. (3) Listen to me, O family of Jacob, all you who are left from the family of Israel, you who have been carried from birth, you who have been supported from the time you left the womb. (4) Even when you are old, I will take care of you, even when you have gray hair, I will carry you. I made you and I will support you; I will carry you and rescue you. (5) To whom can you compare and liken me? Tell me whom you think I resemble, so we can be compared! (6) Those who empty out gold from a purse and weigh out silver on the scale, hire a metalsmith who makes it into a god. They then bow down and worship it. (7) They put it on their shoulder and carry it; they put it in its place and it just stands there; it does not move from its place. Even when someone cries out to it, it does not reply; it does not deliver him from his distress. (8) Remember this, so you can be brave. Think about it, you rebels! (9) Remember what I accomplished in antiquity. Truly I am God, I have no peer; I am God, and there is none like me, (10) who announces the end from the beginning and reveals beforehand what has not yet occurred; who says, ‘My plan will be realized, I will accomplish what I desire;’ (11) who summons an eagle from the east, from a distant land, one who carries out my plan. Yes, I have decreed, yes, I will bring it to pass; I have formulated a plan, yes, I will carry it out.

The message of the above Scripture is also true in reference to the whole of Creation; I have formulated a plan, yes, I will carry it out! The ‘DNA’ of creation holds the written-code that determines the boundaries and governs the sequence of events according to the will of YHWH. There is no amount of human persuasion or meddling that will ever thwart or undermine His plan. That doesn’t mean human choice has no significance on the stage of life. Quite the opposite! Human response to the will of YHWH is precisely the purpose of Creation. Human interaction or the lack there of, ultimately reveals the heart of each individual and by doing so accomplishes the sovereign will of YHWH.

The conscious awareness of our own existence is a direct reflection of the self-existent characteristic of YHWH that has been embedded within us.  In His sovereignty YHWH deliberately chose to form creatures (humans) in His own likeness by equipping us with intelligence, abstract reasoning, imagination, creativity, emotion, consciousness, morality and the inclination to bond with others. (27) God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27) These traits are inherent within the written-code of our existence and yield a unique quality that separates us from all other creatures in Creation. This uniqueness is the gift of free-will; the privilege and responsibility of conscious choice. These multi-elements of free-will are specifically designed to draw us to Him, with the purpose to engage in an intimate relationship with the Almighty Himself. Without free-will and mutual-intimacy an authentic relationship is not possible.  

The eternal qualities of YHWH and His sovereign purpose of Creation are unraveled in His act of love that Yahoshua displayed through His sacrifice on the Cross. The graphic expression of the Cross gives substance to the Gospel of YHWH by demonstrating love as a quality of ‘being’. This distinguishes love as a deliberate sacrifice for others rather than reacting to a good feeling that merely pleases the senses of one’s self. When we accept and trust in His purpose of the Cross, His promise is for His Holy Spirit to actually dwell within us in order to guide, nurture, and form us into the image of His Son. Marriage and the family-unit, replete with its blessings and complexities, exemplify to us the dynamics of a relationship grounded in deliberate choices along with an intimacy that is branded with a history of sacrifice. YHWH uses our earthly relationships to kindle, prompt and reveal what He has prepared for us as He develops our spiritual attributes. In other words, the abundance of gifts that were bestowed upon us (Adam and Eve) in Genesis chapter one, by being made in the likeness of YHWH, are realized when the Holy Spirit empowers and animates these potentialities that are otherwise ignored and misused by humanity. This empowerment comes only when we are born-again of the Spirit as He dwells with us in our earthly tent (our human body). This active, ever developing relationship with Him transforms us into His true image-bearers . . . the potentiality of Genesis-One realized.