Genesis holds the key todo much about God and His ways. In the beginning, God separated a lot of things, on purpose, and called it “good.” How can separation be “good?” Separation sounds hard and unpleasant. Wholeness and unity sounds way better. Yet many times in the Bible God makes a distinction between one thing and another while Satan tries to blur the lines, or even erases them. So, what are the reasons God separates things.
The basic narrative for Genesis and separation is to disjoin, divide, or distinguish something that was previously mixed together.
God separated light from darkness – Genesis 1:7
God separated the waters above from the waters below – Genesis 1:7
God separated the day from the night – Genesis 1:14
When we look at how God created all the different animals in various forms, and filled the earth with different kinds of vegetation,we see a glimpse into God’s purposes in making all the separate species. With all the variety comes great beauty. Have you ever looked at a garden with all kind of different flowering plants and foliage and thought how beautiful it looks together?
The differs seasons, and different times of the day all enriches our experiences of life in a profound way. Nature and wildlife in its many forms continues to stun believers and unbelievers with wonder. Nature is wild and varied. Wouldn’t it be boring if there was just one season? Or one type of animal? One type of tree?
In Corinthians 12 Paul describes the different gifts we each have in the body of Christ. Paul said if the whole body were an eye where would the hearing be. If the whole were hearing, where would the smelling be. Our differences are something to celebrate, not resent or erase.
And Then He Made Man, And Separated Woman From Out Of The Man. Male And Female He Created Them.
God separated one from another in Genesis 2. The interesting inference then is that initially, “man” contained the elements of both man and woman, but God separated them so they could relate to one another. Secular humanism has tried to fix misogyny by trying to shove everyone into the same mold, and encourage women to behave as men instead of valuing womanhood as distinct and equally valuable. And now the distinction is getting blurred beyond belief, contravening God’s created order. Learning to be happy with who we are and how God made us is not easy in a world where the temptation to wish we were someone else is strong. Yet our diversity displays God’s glory, especially when working together in harmony. We need to follow Paul’s teaching, each of us needs to embrace the unique contribution we can bring to the world. There is only one of you, and you are deeply loved, just as you are. Resisting the enemy’s pressure to conform to the world is a life long battle, but is well worth the fight.
Another Separation God Makes In The Beginning Is The Difference Between Regular And Holy In His Creation Of Sabbath
There is nothing sinful or bad about the other days of the week, but the Sabbath is Holy to the Lord, set aside for Him. The Sabbath is a time when we can enjoy just being, relating to each other, to creation, and to God without working or striving. Just as many married couples have regular “date nights’ to keep their relationships strong, so God created this day for us to enjoy our relationship with Him. Without that time set aside, it’s all too easy for life to take over and the most important things to get sidelined. The Sabbath is God’s gift to us, made for mankind, as part of the creation narrative in Genesis. The difference between “holy” and regular is not necessarily the same as between “good” and “bad,” but this distinction of setting the Sabbath aside, sanctifying it and separating it from all other days, is an important principle that God builds on throughout His Word.
In Exodus, God’s Law Differentiates Many Times Between Israel And The Nations, Saying They Are A Holy Called-Out People.
The people of Israel were chosen by God to act differently, eat differently, farm differently, dress differently… They were set apart, separated. They were to be a presentation of God and His ways to the earth, even though it would mostly be by way of God showing His faithfulness in the light of Israel’s unfaithfulness. God’s priests were to teach the difference between holy and not holy:
“They shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the common, and show them how to distinguish between the unclean and the clean.” Ezekiel 44:23
God separated then so that we could get to know His ways -not because Israel was better in any way, but for God’s redemptive plans for the whole world. Many people resist this distinction by quoting Galatians 3:28 saying there is no difference between Jew and Gentile now, but forget that it also says there’s no difference between man and woman! And it’s true, before God we are all equal. One is not “better” than the other. We are all equally loved and have equal access.
But just as the distinctions of our God-given gender identity remains, so God still sees Jew and Gentile, even when we are one in Jesus. Becoming one does not erase who we are.
Worship The Creator, Not Creation!
Today’s belief that God and the Universe are the same is on the rise, which is the erroneous belief that all matter is one, and erases the distinction between us and God. We were created to worship our Creator and experience His love for us. Yet we are seeing a return to paganism in many of the nations around the world. Essentially paganism worships creation rather than the Creator.
“Who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and serve the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” – Romans 1:25
In lowering God to the status of His own handiwork, these vain philosophers are trying to strip God of His sovereignty. By refusing to acknowledge God as Creator they deny His right to rule and reign over us. God is King, God is Lord of Creation, and He will judge the living and the dead by His standards, not ours. I am definitely not God, and what a sad state of affairs it would be if He were me! Mercifully the final decisions are in God’s hands, not ours. He is perfectly good and perfectly wise, and He will judge rightly. We are fools to think we can make up the rules for ourselves. We are not God and God is not us.
In Genesis 12 Abraham was sent out of paganism, out of polytheism where the “gods” were part of creation like the sun, moon and stars. In this way of thinking each can have their own view point, devise their own version of morality… but there is only one morality. There is only one yardstick. And it is in the hands of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Today we see people thinking that they are in charge of their own destiny, accountable only to their own ideas. It’s like the time of the judges in the Bible where each did what was right in their own eyes. In choosing this path people dismiss God’s love for them, and miss out on the whole meaning of life.
Babel And Boundary Stones
Another violation of separateness and distinction can be found in the Bible in the moving of boundary stones.
“Don’t move the ancient boundary stone. Don’t encroach on the fields of the fatherless.” – Proverbs 23:10
This Proverb repeats commandments found in Deuteronomy 19:14 and 27:17. Crossing boundaries without permission, or worse moving the boundary stones, was out of bounds in God’s Book. Boundaries protect property, and separated one family’s inheritance from another’s. Today many think that condoning open borders that they are caring for the weak and vulnerable. After all, why shouldn’t rich countries share their wealth? But moving boundary stones or disposing of them altogether does not, in the end, produce the results people may be hoping for. For one thing, how would the poorer nation maintain its own autonomy and resist colonization?
Boundaries are necessary for identity, community, and generosity: If all property is common, giving becomes redundant – people can help themselves to whatever they want. You don’t have to consider this idea
for too long before realizing it’s not a one-way ticket to utopia. Poverty and need should be met with compassion and generosity, as exemplified in the Book of Acts chapter 2 and 4, where the needy were helped because people chose to give voluntarily. The Bible is explicit about God’s expectation that we do care for the needy -it will not go well for us on judgment day if we don’t. But that is still a choice for each person and each nation, to make. Freely. Because God gives us a free will. The alternative is people taking what is not being given voluntarily, otherwise known as theft. Boundaries prevent violation.
Different countries have different cultures and blurring distinctions ends up eliminating that difference, as it happened in Genesis 11. God sees nations as unique, with specific callings and destinies, and characteristics. These differences are glorious, like the diversity in all of creation.
Removing borders leads to sprawling empires.
If there’s one thing history should teach us even the history of missions, it that imposing one culture on another is violation. Unity is one thing, uniformity is another. We need respect and to uphold each nation’s right to be separated from others, tone who they are, to live according to their own cultures and traditions.
The God who the world and everything in it… made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their ways toward Him and find Him. Yet, He is actually not far from each one of us.
It was God’s intention and Will to have different nations and countries, tribes and tongues. He wanted the earth to be fruitful and filled (Genesis 1:28). The inverse of respecting boundary stones is war, conquest, empire, and results in Babel-style globalism. The human desire to erase differences and separateness and to build an empire of all nations fused into one monstrosity. A beast, if you will. We are steadily heading towards this according to God’s Word, but this forced merge of the nations is a counterfeit of God’s real peace plan, which will come at the end of time.
From Pity to Praise 