Sunday January 14
Read Genesis 1:1; Psalm 33:6-9; Isaiah 45:11, 12; Jeremiah 51:15; and John 1:3. What do these texts tell us about the goodness of the material world?
“It was Christ that spread the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth. It was His hand that hung the worlds in space, and fashioned the flowers of the field. ‘His strength setteth fast the mountains.’ ‘The sea is His, and He made it.’ Psalm 65:6; 95:5. It was He that filled the earth with beauty, and the air with song. And upon all things in earth, and air, and sky, He wrote the message of the Father’s love.” - Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 20.
Material things, in and of themselves, are not evil. Unlike some religions, which teach that the material world and matter itself are bad or evil and that only spiritual things are good, the Bible values the material world.
After all, Jesus Himself created it. How, then, could it be evil? It can, unfortunately, as with all of God’s gifts, be perverted and used for evil, but that does not make the original gift evil. The Bible warns against abuse and perversion of the things that God has created in this world, but not against the things themselves.
On the contrary, God created the material world, and He wanted His people to enjoy the fruit and benefits of this world as well: “And thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the LORD thy God hath given unto thee, and unto thine house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you” (Deuteronomy 26:11; see also Deuteronomy 14:26).
Jesus is the Creator (John 1:1-3), and the earth is a mere sample of what He has made. His creative ability gives Him a unique perspective on life itself and those who live on it. He knows the value of material things, and knows that He gave them to us for our benefit, and even for our enjoyment. He knows, too, what happens when humanity perverts those gifts, or even makes the gifts an end in themselves, when, as with all things, they were meant to be used to glorify God.
Look around at the incredible bounties of the created world. Even after the ravages of sin, we can still see the inherent goodness in so much of it. What does the created world, in its goodness, tell us about the goodness of its Maker?
