Week 7 – Session 1

CREATION AND GOD’S GRACE

God-Elohim created everything.  Our goal for this Bible study is to get to know God more. In Genesis 1 we see God-Elohim as all-powerful, wise, and masterfully creative. In the account of creation in this first chapter of Genesis there are 32 mentions of the word Elohim. I believe that nothing is in scripture by accident.  Everything is intentional and meaningful, including the numbers and the number of things mentioned.

E.W. Bullinger has a great resource called “Numbers in Scripture” from which I will pull my musings this week.

While there’s no direct link to the number 32 in his work, there certainly is for 3 and 2, and their sum of 5.

Let’s take a minute and go though some Scriptural meaning of numbers:

There can be no doubt as to the significance of the primary number one. In all languages one is the symbol of unity. It denotes unity and primacy. Unity being indivisible, and not made up of other numbers, is therefore independent of all others, and is the source of all others. So with the Deity. The great ‘First Cause’ is independent of all. All stand in need of Him, and He needs no assistance from any.

Two affirms that there is a difference—there is another.

All things that are specially complete are stamped with the number three.

Four is the number of the world, then it represents man’s weakness, and helplessness, and vanity.

Four plus one (4+1=5) (the world + divinity) is significant of Divine strength added to and made perfect in that weakness; of omnipotence combined with the impotence of earth; of Divine favour (grace) uninfluenced and invincible.

THEOLOGICALLY ACKNOWLEDGED DEFINITIONS OF GRACE

• Grace is unmerited favor
• Grace is the finished work
• Grace is divine influence upon the heart
• Grace is God’s ability

 For a more in-depth study of Grace see additional resources.

What are your thoughts about the Grace of God?

More about the number five in Scripture….

THE FIFTH BOOK OF THE BIBLE (DEUTERONOMY) magnifies the grace of God, and in it special pains, so to speak, are taken to emphasize the great fact that not for the sake of the people, but for God’s own Name’s sake had He called, and chosen, and blessed them. Read Deuteronomy 4:7, 20, 32, 37, 8:11, 17, etc.

ISRAEL CAME OUT OF EGYPT five in a rank. In Exodus 13:18 it says, “The children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt.” In the margin it says they went up by five in a rank. It may be in ranks, i.e. fifties, as in 2 Kings 1:9 and Isaiah 3:5.* The point is that they went up in perfect weakness; helpless, and defenseless; but they were invincible through the presence of Yehovah in their midst.

* In Joshua 1:14, “Ye shall pass over before your brethren armed.” Margin: “Heb., marshalled by five.” This may have some reference to the fact that the number five was specially hateful to the Egyptians, if indeed it were not the cause of such hatred. Sir Gardner Wilkinson tells us that even down to the present day the number five is regarded as an evil number in modern Egypt. On their watches the fifth hour, “V,” is marked by a small circle, “o.”

“FIVE SMOOTH STONES” were chosen by David when he went to meet the giant enemy of Israel (1 Sam 17:40). They were significant of his own perfect weakness supplemented by Divine strength. And he was stronger in this weakness than in all the armor of Saul. It is worthy of note that after all he used only the one, not any of the four. That one was sufficient to conquer the mightiest foe.

THE TABERNACLE had five for its all-pervading number; nearly every measurement was a multiple of five. Before mentioning these measurements we ought to notice that worship itself is all of grace! No one can worship except those who are sought and called of the Father (John 4:23). “Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest and causest to approach unto Thee, that he may dwell in Thy courts; we shall be satisfied with the goodness of Thy house, even of Thy holy temple” (Psa 65:4).

The Tabernacle has this number of grace (five) stamped upon it. The outer court was 100 cubits long and 50 cubits wide. On either side were 20 pillars, and along each end were 10 pillars, or 60 in all; that is 5 x 12, or grace in governmental display before the world, 12 being the number of the Tribes.

The pillars that held up the curtains were 5 cubits apart and 5 cubits high, and the whole of the outer curtain was divided into squares of 25 cubits (5×5). Each pair of pillars thus supported an area of 5² cubits of fine white linen, thus witnessing to the perfect grace by which alone God’s people can witness for Him before the world. Their own righteousness (the fine linen) is “filthy rags” (Isa 64:6), and we can only say “by the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Cor 15)—a sinner saved by grace. This righteousness is based on atonement, for 5 x 5 was also the measure of the brazen altar of burnt offering. This was the perfect answer of Christ to God’s righteous requirements, and to what was required of man.

THE HOLY ANOINTING OIL (Exo 30:23-25) was composed of five parts, for it was a revelation of pure grace. This five is marked by the numbers four and one. For four parts were spices, and one was oil.

The four principal species:—

1. Myrrh, 500 shekels (5×100).
2. Sweet cinnamon, 250 shekels (5×50).
3. Sweet calamus, 250 shekels (5×50).
4. Cassia, 500 shekels (5×100).

And olive oil, one hin.

THE INCENSE (Exo 30:34) also was composed of five parts. Four were “sweet spices,” and one was salt.

This incense was called by various names,—”pure,” “perpetual,” “sweet,” “holy.” No imitation of it was allowed. It indicates those precious merits of Christ through which alone our prayers can go up with acceptance before God.

In light of all this what are your thoughts about how God uses numbers in His holy Word?

These are just a few of the ways we see the number 5 manifested in Scripture.  To read more you can read the book online.

Now I want to introduce the idea of grace and creation as being tied together. I’d like to share a writing from Charles Journet who was a Swiss Roman Catholic theologian and cardinal. I’ll say here that while I don’t agree with most of the principles of the Roman Catholic church I do believe that within its framework were men and women who sincerely loved the Lord, and who had personal relationships with Him. Through their writings God exposes thoughts and ideas that are in alignment with His Scriptures, and which help us lead and guide us into all truth.

I feel confident that this excerpt is an example of that.

Excerpt:

I should like to speak to you first of the essence of grace.

1. The very first thing, one which must never be forgotten, which we shall never adequately grasp, is that the Judaeo-Christian revelation is the revelation of the love of God for us, of a love which will never cease to astonish us here below because it surpasses all we could possibly conceive, and of which we can never plumb the depths. To know the depths of God’s love for us, we should have to be God. And the effects of this love are disconcerting and surprising to us, precisely because we are unable to comprehend its Source. They are disconcerting to the purely rationalistic reason, even to reason pure and simple.

The writer is saying here that love is the essence of grace. In what ways have you seen God manifest His love in your life lately?

What does that teach you about God’s grace?

2. The first act in which God’s love pours itself out is creation. God is the Infinite, the Absolute. He possesses being, intelligence, love, beauty to an infinite degree. We should not say he has being, intelligence, love; rather, that he is Being itself, Intelligence itself, Love and Beauty themselves. He dwells in himself; he is lacking in absolutely nothing. Why, then, did he create the world?

When man acts, it is always to procure for himself some benefit; but God could gain no benefit from creation. So then we are compelled to say that, if he created the world, it was through pure superabundance, pure desire to communicate his riches, pure disinterestedness, through love. Here we border on the mystery of his presence in creation. This is a presence at once of causality and conservation; the same divine omnipotence that makes the universe emerge from nothingness keeps it above nothingness; just as I exercise the same force to lift a weight and to keep it at the height to which I have raised it.

The divine presence envelops and penetrates all creatures. It is a knowing presence, which pierces the secrets of hearts; a powerful presence, which gives beings their activity, gives to the rose-bush for example the power to produce a rose; a presence of essence, which also gives the rose-bush the power to ‘be’ what it is.

These are the three aspects of his presence in creation. It is intimate to creatures. Strictly speaking, God is more present to things than they are to themselves.  And if for one instant he were to forget the world, it would fall immediately into nothingness.

How does the thought that creation is a manifestation of the love of God make you feel?

Grace is the divine impulse which produces in us acts of free adherence to God, of free acceptance and consent. God comes to me to draw me to him. I can interrupt or destroy this divine movement; or else I can let God act in me and take possession of my free will and make it assent, without violating it.

Actual grace seeks me out in sin to bring me to justification; then, when I am there, it comes back again and again, insistently, to carry me to a higher stage of sanctifying grace. God is constantly knocking at the gate of my heart to invite me to go beyond the state I have reached, because my whole life should be a journey on the way to Love. I cannot give a renewed assent to Love, nor above all can I give a more intensified assent than hitherto, unless a divine movement comes secretly to my heart to help it ascent higher. I can refuse it. But if I let God act he will raise me further, step by step, to a greater love. ‘At the end of your life’, says St. John of the Cross, ‘you will be asked how you have loved’.

What are some of the things in your life that you see as a block to God’s love?

How can you overcome these things?