Materials for Worship Deep in Creation

God created the world for his glory and his glory alone. Tim Keller says, Even good things can become God things. This is clear even from the earliest stages of the Bible. After the creation account, we see that everything God created was good. Six days in, there is a sun, a moon, plants, fish, birds, animals, and humans. The latter is the pinnacle of creation and made in his very image. We see that God doesn't make humans fend for themselves. He provides for them for their everyday needs. He gives them trees that bear much fruit and companionship with each other. Not only with each other but with himself as well. We see God walking around in the garden with them.

Genesis 2:11-12

The first branch, called the Pishon, flowed around the entire land of Havilah, where gold is located. The gold of that land is exceptionally pure; aromatic resin and onyx stone are also found there.

An often overlooked section of this account happens in chapter 2. Here we get a description of where this garden is located and what is around it. There are precious minerals there. Raw materials to be used for good and sadly for evil as well. The first mineral we see is a familiar one. It is gold. Gold is the first mineral mentioned and one used frequently in other places in the Bible. Gold resembles royalty. It is worth much. At this point, we see no instruction on how to use them,  just that they are present and ready to be found, cultivated, and used.

Exodus 32:2-4

So Aaron said to them, "Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me." So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf.

Later we see gold mentioned again. This time it is being used in jewelry for earrings. We see the melting down of gold to create a golden calf, a manufactured god to take the place of the one that rescued them. These jewelry pieces were probably part of the plunder they took from the Egyptians. God not only saved them but provided for their journey and gave them things to create a new life in the promised land. They squandered these things and made something for their liking. They took a good thing, a good thing God created from the beginning and gave to them, and turned it into an ultimate thing.

Exodus 37:1-4

Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood. Two cubits and a half was its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. And he overlaid it with pure gold inside and outside, and made a molding of gold around it. And he cast for it four rings of gold for its four feet, two rings on its one side and two rings on its other side. And he made poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold

Fast forward a few chapters, and now you have these same people, but different characters take the commands of God and use gold to create from scratch articles of worship. After giving up their gold earrings for the sake of an idol, this practice of taking gold for the ark was probably even more of a sacrifice.

From the very beginning, we see not just a finished creation but a creation filled with raw materials to be used for God's glory and worship. Acacia wood from the trees, gold from the earth, stone for roads and buildings. We see civilization strive off these resources to be used for good. Even after the fall in our sinful natures, we can still use the things of creation to point to Christ. But may we never fall into the trap of making any of these things god things.

Revelation 21:21

And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

In the last book of the Bible, we see this list of raw materials being used. Many of these mentioned in the book of Genesis are now being used as the foundation for the New Jerusalem and the Kingdom of God. As for gold, it is now lining the streets of the city of God, not just overlayed on wood, but pure gold.

How are you using materials of this world to create things that will aid in and worship God?

Don't hoard the precious things of this world like gold. It's just pavement in the kingdom of God, so why not use it to bring about his kingdom on earth as it is in heaven?