Beginning to End

The devotion today contrasted Genesis and Revelation. His knows the end from the beginning

The Curse –

It began: “The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”” ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭3‬:‭14‬-‭19‬ ‭‬‬

It ended: “No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.” ‭‭Revelation‬ ‭22‬:‭3‬ ‭

Death

It begins: “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”” ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭3‬:‭19‬ ‭‬‬

It ends: “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.” ‭‭Revelation‬ ‭20‬:‭12‬-‭14‬ ‭

Tree of Life

Taken: “Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.” ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭3‬:‭22‬-‭24‬ ‭‬‬

Given back: “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” ‭‭Revelation‬ ‭22‬:‭1‬-‭2‬

Light

Created: “And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.” ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭1‬:‭3‬-‭4‬ ‭‬‬

God becomes: “And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it,”. ‭‭Revelation‬ ‭21‬:‭23‬-‭24‬ ‭‬

Heaven and Earth

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

New: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.”‭‭Revelation‬ ‭21‬:‭1‬ ‭‬‬

If God knows this for the world, He knows the same in my life. I just need to follow His lead.

“My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” ‭‭Psalm‬ ‭139‬:‭15‬-‭16‬ ‭‬‬

Prayer – Lord, it is easy for me to take the finished product of the Bible and forget that there are thousands of years from beginning to end. Then I question the short distance from my life from the beginning of a problem to the end of it. Help me to see Your perspective.