Reflections:
Creation and its Creator - Part 6
Stewardship and Responsibility
By Enoch Reuben Muniah, Johannesburg
Adam was made the steward, the custodian, or trustee, of God’s creation, to take care of God’s property. God is the proprietor, the owner of all that He has created. Adam and Eve
were to have control or dominion over God’s creatures and to name them (Genesis 1:26)
Alas, since the dawn of the human race, man has deforested the earth, polluted the rivers and oceans and severely altered the weather patterns globally. The emission of poisonous gases into the Earth’s atmosphere has caused a depletion of the ozone layer. The ozone molecules are rapidly disintegrating. This has led to a greenhouse effect that has precipitated radical climatic changes on planet Earth.
Global warming has caused ice at both the North and South poles to thaw, resulting in a breakaway of huge glaciers. These glaciers are like mountains of slow-moving masses of ice, causing great devastation along their path.
It seems that the canopy of mist above the firmament (which I mentioned earlier) is now replaced with a canopy of life-threatening gases, resulting in chemical reactions that break down ozone molecules, thus reducing the ozone’s capacity to absorb the harmful ultraviolet radiation.
The apostle Paul reminds us, “For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now”, (Rom 8:22). Floods, typhoons, tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and avalanches, to name a few, are groanings of creation.
God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden with explicit instruction to dress it and to keep it (Gen. 2:15). In other words, he was to be God’s caretaker of the garden and over all God’s earthly creation. There was a tree in the midst of the garden, the fruit of which he was forbidden to eat.
Husbandry and Helpmeet
Genesis 2:18 introduces us to the woman named Eve, which means ‘life’ because she was the ‘mother of all living’ (Gen. 3:20). God thought it not expedient for a man to be alone. He made all the other creatures male and female.
So, God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and He removed a rib with which Eve was made. Genesis 2:22 “The rib which the Lord God took from man, made He a wo-man”.
So, there they were side by side, male and female. Adam was created, and Eve was made. It was first Man’s rib, then Satan’s fib, now Woman’s lib!
The word made suggests that Eve was built, fashioned, shaped, sculptured, and cultivated to look different from Adam. The Lord God began work as He made some peculiar adjustments to Eve. He took away all the masculine facial features and placed them within her reproductive organs, one of which was the womb, hence womb-man.
Now, if you would excuse the play on words, Adam might have exclaimed, wow-man or perhaps woe-man but he called her wo-man because she was taken out of man. Adam said, ‘she is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man’ (Gen. 2:23).
It was God’s divine design that a man and a woman come together for the express purpose of procreating. “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it”, (Gen. 1:28).
“Therefore, shall a man leave (not forsake) his father and mother and shall cleave unto His wife; and they shall be one flesh” (Gen 2:24). There is the leaving, the cleaving and then the weaving. This is the first mention of the institute of marriage and has been perpetuated ever since. This holy estate of marriage is a mystery spoken of in the New Testament concerning Christ and the Church.
A verse that is worthy of note is Genesis 2:7, “And the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. There are only two things mentioned in scripture that is God-breathed: man, and the Word of God.
I mentioned earlier that man was created out of the ‘dust’ of the earth and not the ‘dirt’ of the earth. The physical composition of man is a combination of varied chemicals and mineral properties of the earth that can be purchased from a Pharmacy (drug store).
For example, it is estimated that man is 26,3 kilograms of oxygen, 56,7 grams of salt, 47,3 litres of water, 1,36 kilograms of calcium, 10,9 kilograms of carbon, a bit of chlorine, phosphorus, fat, iron, sulphur and glycerine. Can you create a man out of all these? Can you put life into him?
In the field of molecular biology, we learn that molecules are living organisms that make up the different cells in the body. The molecular construction of the human body is extremely complex.
The anatomy of the human body is a building up of different body parts. It is estimated that the body has about 50 trillion cells: ie. Blood cells, muscle cells, nerve cells and so on. But it is the molecular makeup that determines what type of cell it forms. The catalyst or bonding agent or glue (for want of a simpler word) is called ‘Laminin’, without which we will simply fall apart. It is a self-adhesive protein molecule that literally holds us together.
So, what I am saying is that we are a highly complex piece of God’s handiwork, meticulously strung together with the greatest of precision; a work of art, mercifully crafted even with the most intricate details of our existence and signed by God. His fingerprint is on us.
Job aptly reminds us that we were taken out of the earth and to the earth we shall return. The apostle Paul reminds us that we are earthen vessels of clay that will sooner or later dissolve and decay. We will in due course be stripped of this clothing of flesh (2 Cor. 5:4). G&P
To be continued (DV)
