Read: Genesis 1:1-31; Genesis 3:13-19; Leviticus 25:23-24; Psalm 98:4-9; Hosea 4:1-3; Romans 8:19-25; Colossians 1:15-23.
After creating them, God looked and saw that each part of creation was good (Gen. 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25). As he looked at everything together as a whole, he saw “it was very good” (Gen. 1:31). Human beings were given the responsibility to tend, care for, and exercise dominion over the rest of creation, not to own or exploit. In the physical setting of earth, surrounded and supported by the other non-human parts of God’s creation, humans can learn who their Creator is and about his character; we learn about relationship; and we can mirror God’s image as we exercise dominion. Within this physical context which provides the essentials of human life for us, we learn love, humility, integrity, perseverance, endurance, joy, faithfulness, repentance, redemption, and hope. When humans sin against God and against each other, the rest of creation suffers with them, as it was with the original sin. Just as believers in Christ look forward to his return, so too does the rest of the creation as it hopes and yearns for complete restoration to fully worship the Creator in “a new heaven and a new earth” (Rev. 21:1)
- What do these scripture passages tell us about the mission of God?