“God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:10)
Throughout the process of Creation given to us in Genesis 1, we are repeatedly told what God called the various things that He created. Day, Night, the Heavens, the Seas and the Earth. The reader obviously already knows what these things are called, is it not redundant to state that God called them by these names?
It is actually quite significant that we are told that God called them by these names. The prerogative of the Creator is to designate by what name His Creations shall be called. Like the parent of a newborn baby or the author of a book, God is demonstrating His dominion over these things by being the One to name them. What right does God have to name these things? He has the right because they belong to Him.
Throughout the rest of Scripture, we are not told what anybody else called the heavens, or the seas, or the Earth itself. It does not matter. Only the name assigned to the object by its Creator is important. Now, obviously it is not the name itself that carries the importance. Man in his diversity of language would utter countless different words to signify these things. I am not even certain that it was the Hebrew term itself as it appears in the original text of Genesis that God spoke in naming these things. But we are told that God exercised His right as Creator and that He named the objects of His Creation because they belonged to Him. What an amazing privilege that God would bestow upon Adam when He allowed him to name the animals that He Himself had created (Genesis 1:19)!
The Earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof (Psalm 24:1, 1 Corinthians 10:28). He owns the beasts of the forest and the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalm 50:10). God has the ultimate power and control over His entire Creation, He is Sovereign over it. How is it that we so often forget this? Cannot the God Who has power over all the Earth provide for and protect those who are His own?
To Jesus Christ goes all glory. In service to Him,
Loren
loren@answersfromthebook.org
[This post was originally published July 17, 2009]
**Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) © The Lockman Foundation and are used by permission.
[If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ or you are not certain where you are headed when this life ends, I invite you to read the article “Am I Going To Heaven?“]
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