God and Man

By: Sidney Collett

Narrator: Ivona Gentwo

• 2 min. read • grade level: 12

Sidney Collett

The Bible begins (as we should expect it to) with God: “In the beginning God” (Gen. 1:1¹In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)). Indeed, these few words practically embody the whole theology of the Bible, and constitute the key, not only to the Bible, but to all created things.

The Bible ends with man — the last of all God’s creation: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all” (Rev. 22:21²¹The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. (Revelation 22:21)).

So that God is at one extreme end of the Bible, and man is at the other. But the Bible is a message from God to man, and its object is to bring man to God, and so we find that: In the middle verse of the Bible, which is Psalm 118:8,⁸It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. (Psalm 118:8) man and God, originally so near (Gen. 1:27²⁷So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (Genesis 1:27)), but by sin separated so far apart (Gen. 3:8-24⁸And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. ⁹And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? ¹⁰And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. ¹¹And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? ¹²And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. ¹³And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. ¹⁴And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: ¹⁵And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. ¹⁶Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. ¹⁷And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; ¹⁸Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; ¹⁹In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. ²⁰And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. ²¹Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them. ²²And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: ²³Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. ²⁴So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. (Genesis 3:8‑24)), are brought together.

This little verse is in itself a miniature Bible, and contains the germ of nearly all its teaching. In it the golden link of faith which unites man to his Maker (Jer. 17:7⁷Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. (Jeremiah 17:7) and Heb. 11:6⁶But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)), and by which all the redeemed are known (Gal. 3:7-9⁷Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. ⁸And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. ⁹So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. (Galatians 3:7‑9) and Heb. 11:13¹³These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. (Hebrews 11:13)), is urged as the “better” thing; while “confidence in man,” which is really “confidence in the flesh” and is at the root of all evil (Rom. 8:8⁸So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:8)), and separates man from God (Jer. 17:5⁵Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. (Jeremiah 17:5)), is spoken of as the thing to be avoided! The verse is: “It is better to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence in man” — as if to indicate that the written Word, like the Living Word standing between God and the sinner, stretches out one hand with which to grasp the hand of God, and the other to grasp the hand of man, thus bringing the two together.

— From “The Scripture of Truth.”

Click here to show subject links in the text for more information.