Paradise

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
Genesis 1:1

This is how the Bible begins. The world was created by God. The whole universe is “God’s house”. And God is deeply concerned with everything that happens in it.

However, God is particularly interested in the earth. This is because God created human beings as his own image and placed them on the earth. The first people lived in a paradise called the Garden of Eden, where they enjoyed a close relationship with God. Life in the garden was characterized by ideal relationships: between God and human beings and between man and woman. Human beings were at home in the world and content with the work God gave them to do.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.

From Eden, God intended for this wonderful relationship, which we might call “inside (uchi 内) fellowship” or “home (uchi 家) fellowship”, to spread over the whole world. Indeed, this was the commission given to the first human beings. Were they able to fulfill this task?

Paradise

Opening Questions

What comes to your mind when you think of “paradise”?
How would you define a human being?

In a world where uchi and soto relationships define our daily experiences, we’ve been thinking about the idea of the perfect circle – one characterized by love and acceptance, one from which we will never have to leave. We’ve seen that the Bible describes a circle of fellowship like this. It’s sometimes called “God’s house (uchi)” or “the house of the Lord”.

Last time, we learned that the ultimate fellowship of love is God himself, in his three eternal Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We saw from the Bible that God invites human beings to share this uchi fellowship as he overflows with love towards the creatures he has made.

So, maybe you were surprised to read on page 3 of the my uchi-soto booklet that the whole created universe is “God’s house”. If that’s so, are we all in the ultimate uchi fellowship already? It sure doesn’t feel like it most of the time! We’ll think more about this “problem” next time. Today, we’re going to focus on another question: why does God care about human beings in particular? We’ll start with this psalm (song) from the Old Testament:

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
[…]
O Lord our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Psalm 8:3-9

What does the writer of this song (David) say about God’s relationship with human beings?
How does this understanding lead David to respond towards God?

In Genesis (the first book of the Bible) we read about the creation of human beings. This happens at the end of the sixth “day” of God’s creative work.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
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.” […] And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Genesis 1:26-28, 31

In the ancient world, the “image” of a god was thought to represent that god. The image was placed in a temple (or “house” [in many Ancient Near Eastern languages this is the same word]) to reflect or mediate the presence of the god. In addition, human kings (like the Pharaohs of Egypt) were sometimes described as the living “images” of the gods they worshiped.

We learn in chapter two of Genesis that God places the man and the women to work in and take care of a garden in a place called “Eden”. This is later described as a “paradise”.

What do you think God means when he says he will make man in his “image”? [The Japanese Bible says as God’s image.]
Where is the temple or house in which God’s image is placed?
Why do you think God speaks in the plural: “Let us…”? (verse 26)
What commission does God give to man? What do you think this entailed?

The world God made, and the wonderful uchi fellowship he shared with humans was “very good” (verse 31). But something has clearly gone wrong. We’ll think about that next time.

Concluding questions:

What have you learned today about how the Bible defines human beings?
Why do you think God cares about human beings in particular?
Do you believe that this God cares about you?

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.