IN HIS IMAGE

If you've ever red what the scholars say about Genesis 1-3, you know these few Hebrew words have suggested volumes to our minds.  We have come to realize these 80 verses are carefully written.

  What is written about the creation is simply repeated by the prophets.  But what is written about Adam and Eve is developed by later Biblical writers for all time.

  As we know chapters 1 and 2 describe what might not be able to described, life in the Garden unfallen.  If Paul tells the Corinthians that the natural man--does not accept the things of the Spirit of God--then we could not understand these two chapters of Genesis unless the Spirit of God illuminates them.

  When God created Adam, He breathed on him God's own breath, causing him to be a living being.  Now what does living being mean?  The word in Hebrew for soul is nephesh, a soul which breathes or possible the inner soul of a man or woman, the word for breath is ruach.  The breath of God gave Adam the living soul which would breathe back out the breath of life God breathed in.  What was in God was in Adam.  This is his soul, his likeness to God.

  Probably every living soul searches for that original breath, the satisfaction from within.  When such breath is given to us today we recognize it as the Holy Spirit, the the point of saying, Breathe on me, breath of God.

  Adam saw birds fly on the wind, ocean waves foam with the wind, his own skin refreshed with a breeze.  Today we see sails of a ship filled with the same wind, we see leaves twirl as they fall in winter, we see windmills and feel the wind-chill.  Yet that wind does not satisfy the soul, it only fills the lungs.

  Do I search for that ruach wind of the soul?  I might hear a glimpse of it in the vibrating notes of a Bach adagio.  I might see it in the repose of a church sanctuary filled with sunlight.  But these are but intimations of immortality, shadows of light, the silence after a voice, a remnant of God.

  And yet they are of the Spirit of God.

  I am stirred in my inner being by His presence.  Even as I live in the fallen world outside Eden, I am aware of Him somewhat like the marble feels the fingers of the sculptor

  As breath, music is the vibration of God; the written word is His voice; and life is His being in us.  When Adam and Eve fell they didn't lose that image of God, they lost the capacity to please Him.  And yet, after Adam and Eve left the Garden, God gave them back the capacity to please Him with sacrifices He would accept.  Centuries later, in Jesus God gave us back the capacity to hear His voice, touch His hands, be in His presence.

Can we practice the presence of God?  We certainly don't beckon Him as a demand--He already fills heaven and earth.  But we can prepare our souls for the revelation of Him by asking God to cleanse us, acknowledging His presence in that place within ourselves from which He created our being.  It is that place which first felt His breath.  From that place He sees us--do we turn to see Him?

  The writer of Hebrews said about the Law--for the Law made nothing perfect, and on the other hand there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God, Heb. 7.19.  Later in this same letter, the writer shows us how we can draw near to God--let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water, Heb. 10.22.

  Jesus brought the living water to the woman of Samaria in John 4.10 and He can wash our bodies with pure water, today.

  How can we put ourselves under this pure water?  With a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.  In this case, faith is seeing that we are the image of God, faith is having the desire to draw near to God, to turn to Him.  Are you pressing toward Him?  James the brother of Jesus said--Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.  Then James said just what Hebrews says--Cleanse your hands, you sinners and purify your hearts, James 4.8.  It is interesting that James uses the same imagery of the well--draw near, cleanse your hands, purify your heart. Hebrews had said, hearts sprinkled clean, bodies washed with pure water

  John the Baptist had said--I baptize you in water...He Himself will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire, Matt. 3.11.

  This we can contemplate in prayer: ask God to cleanse us in our innermost being that we might glorify God in His presence.

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