God Walks With Man
Inspired by God’s Spirit, God’s Word goes on to describe how man was formed. God created a garden called Eden into which he placed the man, whom he called Adam (Genesis 2:7). Then Adam walked with God as the first witness to God’s creation, enjoying the freshness and comfort of walking among God’s creation (Isaiah 43:10). Living in fellowship with his creator according to God’s design, Adam wandered along the river banks and through all kinds of trees and shrubs that were both good to eat and pleasing to the eye. God charged him with caring for the garden. God created all people that we may glorify him and that we may fellowship with Jesus, his Son (Isa. 43:7, 1 Cor. 1:9). [excerpt from Why Can’t We Trust God? published by Zion Press, an imprint of Crosslink Publishing]
Adam was created Holy, an eternal being in the presence of God. God surveyed His creation and exclaimed that it is very good (Genesis 1:31). Although created in the image of the Father, His Son, and God’s Holy Spirit, Adam sinned, and was driven from God’s goodness, left to walk a cursed world for over 900 years. Adam was left alone, outside of the Will of God, and without God’s spirit in him; All of humanity suffered, separated from the Father by sin.
Roughly one thousand years later, God returned to rescue His children in Egypt, guiding Moses and the Israelites through the desert by a pillar of cloud in the day and fire in the night. Here they built a tabernacle where God’s spirit met with Moses and Aaron to receive the sacrifices necessary to cover the sins of the people. In the tabernacle, the Israelites placed a golden ark with two cherubim, angels with outstretched wings, at the head and foot of the bench. During Solomon’s days, God accepted and consecrated a glorious temple, a home for the ark, where God once again dwelled with His chosen people.
God’s Spirit Departs
During the reign of King Jehoiakim, God’s Spirit grieved over the sin of His people and left the temple.
Then the glory of the Lord departed
from over the threshold of the temple and stopped above the cherubim. While I watched, the cherubim spread their wings and rose from
the ground, and as they went, the wheels went with them. They stopped at
the entrance of the east gate of the Lord’s house, and the glory of
the God of Israel was above them.
These were the living creatures I had seen beneath the God of Israel by the Kebar River, and I realized that they were cherubim. Each had four faces and four wings, and under their wings was what looked like human hands. Their faces had the same appearance as those I had seen by the Kebar River. Each one went straight ahead. (Ezekiel 10:18-22)
God’s Spirit Returns – Glorious Day!
I never really saw it this way until today. One of the glorious scenes of Jesus’s resurrection is the moment Mary looks into the empty tomb, and what does she see? She sees a picture of the Ark of the Covenant. A wondrous image of God’s Ark lost to the Babylonian empire is returned to Jerusalem, signaling the return of the Holy Spirit to man.
Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. (John 20:11-12)
Mary Magdalene witnessed two angels, one at the head and one at the foot of the bench – the perfect indicator of God’s mercy. His Holy Spirit once again dwelled with His chosen people and all of His children. And soon, His Holy Spirit came upon His children, those who love the Lord.
Another miracle of Resurrection Day. Happy Day After Easter!!