Tag: Foolish and senseless people

34.x. “The work of My hands, that I might be glorified.”

 

Genesis 1:27  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

 Matthew 19:4   He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female,

 Mark 10:6    But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’

 Ephesians 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

 Deuteronomy 32:6   Do you thus repay the LORD, you foolish and senseless people? Is not he your father, who created you, who made you and established you?

 Psalms 100:3   Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

 Isaiah 43:21   the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.

 Isaiah 60:21   Your people shall all be righteous; they shall possess the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I might be glorified.

 Jeremiah 31:33   For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

 Jeremiah 32:39-40   I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them.  I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.

 Philippians 2:13     for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

 Hebrews 13:21    equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

 Ephesians 4:1    I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,

 Deuteronomy 5:33   You shall walk in all the way that the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you,

 Psalms 81:13    Oh, that my people would listen to me

In our day, many say there is no real difference between men and women. This makes sense if we are the result of mindless evolution, but not if it is true that male and female He created them. To God, the differences between men and women are not accidents. Since He created them, the differences are good and meaningful. Men are not women, and women are not men. One of the saddest signs of our culture’s depravity is the amount and the degree of gender confusion today.  It is vain to wonder if men or women are superior to the other. A man is absolutely superior at being a man. A woman is absolutely superior at being a woman. But when a man tries to be a woman or a woman tries to be a man, you have something inferior. (Guzik)

This was a peculiar distinction, the value attached to which appears in the words being twice mentioned. And in what did this image of God consist? Not in the erect form or features of man, not in his intellect, for the devil and his angels are, in this respect, far superior; not in his immortality, for he has not, like God, a past as well as a future eternity of being; but in the moral dispositions of his soul. (Jamison-Fausset-Brown)

There is more difficulty in deciding in what the likeness to God consisted. Certainly not in the bodily form, the upright position, or commanding aspect of the man, since God has no bodily form, and the man’s body was formed from the dust of the ground; nor in the dominion of man over nature, for this is unquestionably ascribed to man simply as the consequence or effluence of his likeness to God. Man is the image of God by virtue of his spiritual nature and by the breath of God by which the being became a living soul. (Keil and Delitzsh)

We are not to look to Genesis for a scientific cosmogony, and are not to be disturbed by physicists’ criticisms on it as such. Its purpose is quite another, and far more important; namely, to imprint deep and ineffaceable the conviction that the one God created all things. Nor must it be forgotten that this vision of creation was given to people ignorant of natural science, and prone to fall back into surrounding idolatry. We are not to look to Genesis for a scientific cosmogony, and are not to be disturbed by physicists’ criticisms on it as such. Its purpose is quite another, and far more important; namely, to imprint deep and ineffaceable the conviction that the one God created all things. Nor must it be forgotten that this vision of creation was given to people ignorant of natural science, and prone to fall back into surrounding idolatry.  No theory has been able to bridge the chasm without admitting a divine act introducing the new element of life, and none has been able to bridge the gulf between the animal and human consciousness without admitting a divine act introducing ‘the image of God’ into man.  (MacLaren)

It is, however, in the soul of man, that we must look for the divine image. And here we easily discern it. Like God, man’s soul is a spirit, immaterial, invisible, active, intelligent, free, immortal, and, when first created, endowed with a high degree of divine knowledge, and with holiness and righteousness. (Benson)

We gather from the present chapter that God is a spirit Genesis 1:2, that he thinks, speaks, wills, and acts (Genesis 1:3-4, etc.). Here, then, are the great points of conformity to God in man, namely, reason, speech, will, and power. By reason we apprehend concrete things in perception and consciousness, and cognize abstract truth, both metaphysical and moral. By speech we make certain easy and sensible acts of our own the signs of the various objects of our contemplative faculties to ourselves and others. By will we choose, determine, and resolve upon what is to be done. By power we act, either in giving expression to our concepts in words, or effect to our determinations in deeds. In the reason is evolved the distinction of good and evil Genesis 1:4, Genesis 1:31, which is in itself the approval of the former and the disapproval of the latter. In the will is unfolded that freedom of action which chooses the good and refuses the evil. (Barnes)

We were created by God with faculties of reason, understanding, and freedom in choices and actions. It is within our soul that we freely choose to want to honor and glorify our creator, savior, and redeemer. We were created for the ultimate single purpose of this. It is also within our soul to freely choose to deny, reject, and only live to please ourselves and thereby giving no honor, glory, or want to know the Creator. There is no satisfaction or meaning in a person’s life that has denied or rejected their creator. Satan, the water of all lies, will cast both bold and subtle lies hoping they will persuade a soul to deviate from God’s purpose and blessings. Man lives and man dies, nations rise and nations fall, and throughout it, all the eternal destiny, (Heaven or Hell), of each man is determined based on the freedom of choices they make regarding their Creator.

14.  “Hear this, O foolish and senseless people”

Exodus 33:5  For the LORD had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people;

Deuteronomy 29:4     But to this day the LORD has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.

Isaiah 6:9-10     And he said, “Go, and say to this people: “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’  Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

Jeremiah 5:21    “Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes, but see not, who have ears, but hear not.

John 12:37-41    Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him,  so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”  Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said,  “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.”

Acts 28:25-27    And disagreeing among themselves, they departed after Paul had made one statement: “The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet:  “‘Go to this people, and say, “You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.”  For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed; lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’

Romans 11:8-10     as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.”  And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them;  let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever.”

Disbelief seems to have many forms.  It can come in the form of hearing truth but denying it.  It can come in the form of seeing great wonders but discounting them.  It can come in hearing truth but denying it applies to them.  It can come in the form of seeing creation but denying God as the creator.  It can come in the form of hearing promises of God but denying them in their life.  It can come in seeing a transformed life but denying God’s hand in it.  It can come in the form of hearing God’s commands but denying they apply to them.  It can come in seeing the work of the Holy Spirit in a life and denying the ability of the Holy Spirit’s existence.  It can come in hearing the conviction of God’s word but denying it.  It can come in seeing love and compassion but denying serving God is the reason.  It can come in hearing place your trust in God but only trusting self or others.  It can come in seeing the needy but denying to help.  It can come in hearing the need to be born again but denying the need.  It can come in seeing the lost but deny telling the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It can come in hearing of sin but deny it in their lives.  It can come in seeing God’s word but denying it has value.  It comes in hearing of God’s wrath but denying it will affect them.  It comes in seeing wrong but denying it is wrong.  It comes in hearing God’s call for repentance but denying the need.  It comes in seeing complacent service to God but denying it.  It comes in  “You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.”  For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed; lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’

Pleading to listen

“Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes, but see not, who have ears, but hear not.”

“Give ear, O house of the king! For the judgment is for you;”

Joe 1:2
Hear this, you elders; give ear, all inhabitants of the land! Has such a thing happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?

Hosea 5:1
Hear this, O priests! Pay attention, O house of Israel! Give ear, O house of the king! For the judgment is for you;

Psa 49:1
Hear this, all peoples! Give ear, all inhabitants of the world,

Jeremiah 5:21
“Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes, but see not, who have ears, but hear not.

Amos 3:1
Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt:

Micah 3:1
Hear, you peoples, all of you; pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it, and let the Lord GOD be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.

Matthew 13:9
“He who has ears, let him hear.”

Revelation 2:7
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’

I wonder how many times we have to be told to listen to what the Lord is saying to us.  God wants to give us peace, rest, hope, love, guidance, and assurance yet we choose to keep Him at arms length until something comes into our lives that upsets it.  Can you imagine looking at this from outside and seeing the Creator of all there is reaching out to His creation and telling them how much He loves them and what He expects from them, and how these people reject His love and guidance – what would you think of people who have rejected and neglected their creator?  Do we think for a minute we will not be held accountable for the rejection and neglect?  Every day we have a choice to learn more of Him or to neglect Him.  We come up with multiple reasons and excuses of why we don’t have time.  The bar of what it means to humbly serve, honor and glorify God in our lives needs to be raised higher.