"When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4. What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” ESV
“Man” as it is used here is used in the generic sense meaning male and female. We might call it “humankind.” David looked at the “heavens,” that we would call the universe, and saw all of its beauty and was amazed that of all His creation, God would choose to pour out His choicest blessings on human beings. Looking at our history, we should be as amazed as David was. The question was “what is man that you are mindful of him?” Let me give an answer that will probably not be adequate but will give some reason as to why we should be so favored by Almighty God. Human beings are God’s highest creation. After he had created everything else, God created Adam and Eve. After God created Adam and Eve He rested from His labors. This suggests that they were the pinnacle of His creation. He put them in charge of the Garden of Eden and told them to dress and keep it. After He had created everything else He appointed Adam to name all of the creatures, and “whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.” (Genesis 2:19) God saw that Adam was alone and needed a “helpmeet,” so He created Eve to fulfill this need. In Psalm 8, David stressed the point that I am making here: “For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and have crowned him with glory and honour. 6. You made him to have dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet.” Human beings are God’s fallen creation. Unless you have never been in a church in your life, you know what happened with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. They were told not to eat the fruit of the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” (Actually, God told Adam not to eat this fruit, and Adam evidently passed this information on to Eve.) As you know, they ate the fruit and fell from their high place in the Garden of Eden. The fact that God took the first human beings seriously enough to care what they did, to care that they did not obey Him, shows that God had a special plan for these people. No other creature was given this moral responsibility. The fact that we are sinners does not preclude the fact that God loves us and has a purpose for our lives. Of all of the creatures on the earth, the Lord makes moral demands on human beings. God expects more of us than He does of any of the other creatures. We have a special place of dominion on the earth and we have a moral responsibility to go with it. If God didn’t care for us, He would not care what we do. That makes sense to me, and I hope that it makes sense to you. Human beings are God’s redeemed creation. The fact that we are sinners does not mean that God is finished with us. Even, when in Noah’s day, God sent the flood to destroy everyone, He left Noah and His family to repeople the earth. (My computer says that “repeople” is not a word, but what does my computer know?) The fact that God did not wipe out all people, showed that He still valued human beings and knew that they had contributions to make. At some time back in eternity, before the creation of the universe, God made a plan of redemption for fallen mankind. Revelation 13:8 tell us of this: “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship Him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” John 3:16 tells us the reason for “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” was that God loved us enough to send His Son to give His life as a sacrifice for our sins, and that when we believe in Him we “will not perish but have everlasting life.” Throughout the Bible, we see God at work for the redemption of His highest creation. We do not always act like God’s highest creation, but He continues to love us and draw us to Himself. We can rejoice that God loves us in spite of our penchant for sin. Praise Him! Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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September 2021
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