Study 4 – Earth and Sea by Fay Berry 2018

Here is Study 4 of “small studies” in Genesis.
Study 4 – Earth and Sea

Gen 1:10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

EARTH AND SEA

And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear (Gen1:9). And God called he dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas (Gen 1:10). Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear (Heb 11:3)
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It is only in this last year, since listening to all 35 of Jim Dillingham’s studies entitled “Visions of the Kingdom Age,” and listening to each one about 4 times over because there was so much to take in, that I have come to understand that EVERYTHING in “nature” is shadowing a spiritual “substance;” EVERYTHING!.

Well it took me some time to get my “head around” this concept, but now, every where I look in the Bible, I see types and shadows emanating from all sorts of “substances,” and the Genesis story about the forming of the earth and the seas is no exception.
A shadow cannot exist without substance.There must be substance to cast a shadow, be it a rock or a tree. There will be no shadow if there is no rock or tree. The shadow will change its shape, lengthen, shorten, but never its width! It will lengthen or shorten, to the east or to the west, depending where the sun is in the sky.

Only when the sun is overhead will there be no shadow at all. And why is that? Because there is no need of the “shadow” when the substance is fully present, and that only happened for a short time when Christ was on this earth. There will be no shadow once more, when the “Sun of righteousness arises” “with healing in his wings” (Mal 4:2).
The sea and the dry land both represent “peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues” (Rev 17:15), and the separation between the “dry land” and “the seas” are divisions among the peoples of the world. “The sea is God’s, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land (Psa 95:5). “Thou Lord alone,” says Nehemiah: thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worships thee.” “Whatsoever the Lord pleased,” says the Psalmist, “that did he in heaven, and in earth, and in the seas, and all deep places” (Psa 135:6).

“God stills the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people (Psa 65:7. “Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!” (Isa 17:12). “For thus saith the Lord of hosts: Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land”The (Hag 2:6).

The Bible in most cases speaks of the sea as being like a multitude of people in anger and chaos, “the sea and the waves roaring” but when speaking of the kingdom age, it speaks about the seas as being like “a sea of glass,” (Rev 4:6) as peoples in a state of peace and tranquility. There are also people spoken of who are already in a state of peace in the midst of a tumultuous world, for where “two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mat 18:20).

It is such people as these who will be “gathered together in clouds” where they will meet the Lord “in he air,” and then shall the “heaven and earth will praise him, the seas, and everything that moves therein” (Psa 69:34). “For thus saith the Lord of Hosts: Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land” (Hag 2:6) and “the kings of the earth shall stand up, and the rulers will be gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ” (Acts 4:26).

Then “He that sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision” (Psa 2:1) and “then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure” (Psa 2:5). When Christ returns, a voice “of many waters” will be heard throughout the heavens and earth as it were as a”voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Allelia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth” (Rev 19:6).”And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus” (Rev 16:5).

How do we know these things are true since all we can see are “shadows” now? How do we discern the substance? The answer comes to us from God “have faith.” God tells us that he is a God of truth and that we are to trust his word and have faith in him.
Well, what is faith? Answer, “Faith is the SUBSTANCE of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Heb 11:1). The need for “faith” exists because we can only see the “shadows” now, but we have confidence that our faith has foundation, since there can BE no shadows if there is no SUBSTANCE, and there ARE shadows, squillions of them throughout the Bible! God’s asks us to believe in that substance, and the substance is Jesus Christ.

“The just shall LIVE by his faith” God tells us, so “Why are you fearful?” asks Jesus, “O ye of little faith?” and strait way, “he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm” (Mat 8:26). Jesus said to the first century believers, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain (a mountain of course is a powerful king or ruler amongst the nations who rules in the “heavenlies” of the day, and Christ removed many of these mountains!), Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you” (Matt 17:20).
“If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done” (Matt 21:21). But we are mortal, and we are fearful, often we do not trust, we do not have faith. So what do we do about our fears?
“And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith” (Luk 17:5). How do we “increase our faith?” Well there is only one way to do that, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom 10:17).“And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the nations through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed” (Gal 3:8).

But we are not Jews? how can we be blessed in Abraham? We must needs be “buried with Jesus Christ in baptism,” so that we will be “risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead” (Col 2:12). “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear (we can’t see the substance now, only the shadow) (Heb 11:3).

“But 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” (Heb 11:6).
Faith is the SUBSTANCE of things hoped for THE EVIDENCE of things not seen.
By Fay Berry 2018