Reflection (Short) - Erets

2025-09-15T06:05:41Z

I’ve been really buggin out about a project I’m working on and nearly forgetting to spend meaningful time during the day/mornings on reflection. Thankfully a 60 second Bible Project video offered me a short framework this morning to think about the land God created…

The video is a minute long, you can find it on the Bible Project website

When I think about Bible stuff, especially anything related to Old Testament or Creation (which is actually literally everything) I have a hard time stopping my mind from jumping to being critical of my brothers and sisters in Christ who adopt naieve or mainstream ideas about my Ancient Faith and King.

One of the things my spiritual family largely misses is the cosmic nature of the creation account…. In this case of erets, which shows up on page 1 of the Bible, the Western mind reads “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…” and we go “oh, the globe, the planet, God made the planet, obviously”

And the thing is… ya, he did… but that’s not what the creation story gets at, and what it does get at is what I’m reflecting on…

God put me on the erets, out of the dust of the erets he formed me, and you… This is more than God drawing planet earth on the canvas of our universe. Yahweh brought order to chaos, he created the heavens (literally “the skies”) and filled it and he also created the earth and filled it. There is a parallel nature to these realms - the physical earthly realm of erets and the spiritual heavenly realm of the skies. These words carry ancient meaning in the creation context, they are poetic and visual in nature, rather than explanatory and physical.

Recognizing that the realm I’m in, God ordered and put me in, should bring meaning to everything I do. My King does say to pray “[God’s] will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. I am supposed to be one of the ones “bringing heaven to earth” - carrying on the ministry of Jesus in the ways he commanded. Paul commands to “do everything with gratitude” philippians 4:6 in my heart towards Jesus. Jesus said plainly “those who love me obey me”

But if I misunderstand my place in the cosmos, as a representative of the one True God to the physical realm he created that exists in a planar intersection with the heavenly realm, if I misunderstand this I will misrepresent my God… and I fear I have been. I’ve been consumed with things inside my life lately, and perhaps that’s moderately ok… I don’t think that the present trials of my life are drawing me away from Jesus at all, but I’d be an idiot to not recognize that there are moments in my day where I feel like nothing matters, where I walk around on God’s erets somewhat aimlessly due to my own self-loathing and consumption. These are moments where my flesh and sin are strong, and the trials is revealing it. The meditation on my purpose in God’s creation, as a member of the realm of the ordered erets, is calming me in this moment.

God’s purpose for anyone is this:

1 Thess. 5:18

give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

At any moment, anyone one of us could be taken off earth - whether by old age like my Grandma, or by violent hatred like Charlie Kirk. God’s will (one of the wills anyways) for anyone is the same, as a member of ordered creation called by Jesus it’s my duty to live this out… and by God’s grace I know it’s possible by his intervention - to give thanks in everything.

The honest truth is I’m not really sure what to do besides take a breath every minute, acknowledge and preach the truth that Jesus is the author and perfector of my life and faith, and to pray this truth calms my heart in the midst of the turmoil I’ve been feeling lately.

Yahweh orders creation, he put all of us on the erets, and the message of his grace goes out to all people…. who will answer and bring God’s will to the earth? Thankfully it’s not my job to know. My job is simple - to give thanks and to love the Lord my God with all of me.

Posts tagged: cosmos

Reflection (Short) - Erets