Journeying in Genesis: Birth and Rebirth

“These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created,

in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.”

Genesis 2:4

I love how this is worded. Generations is the Hebrew תּוֹלְדָה tôwlᵉdâh meaning descent, i.e. family; (figuratively) history:—birth, generations. It’s from the primitive root יָלַד yâlad meaning to bear young or beget. I love when God births something! He birthed all that we see by creating the heavens and the earth. He did all the travailing to make it happen.

Individually, we all enter this world through labor and birth. After the fall we learn that childbirth would be painful. Jesus explained a new birth that would redeem us from sin in John 3:3 when He told Nicodemus,

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

When Jesus did the travailing for our spiritual new birth on the cross, it sounds like labor pains when Matthew 27:50, says

“And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.”

One day, He will redeem this fallen heaven and earth created in perfection and marred by sin. Scripture describes the signs of Christ’s return like labor pains. They intensify until the delivery. As we study creation and grieve over the fall, our great Redeemer has already put hope in place. Romans 8:22-23 words it like this,

"For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”

For those in Christ, the best is yet to come!