I looked up meanings of the word "define" at wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn:
- give the meaning of a word; "Define 'sadness'"
- specify: determine the essential quality of (as in a specification... a blueprint callout)
- determine the nature of; "What defines a good wine?"
- show the form or outline of, differentiate; "The tree was clearly defined by the light"; "The camera could define the smallest object"
The Bible is a dictionary, too, and the Lord God is the original definer. “He said...” and it was. “He spoke...” and it was done.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was
without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. and the
Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 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. God called the light Day,
and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning,
the first day. Gen 1:1-5
So it was with each of the next five days of creation. God defined and spoke:
Day two he created... The expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day. Gen 1:6-8
Day three he created... Oceans and land mass. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Gen 1:9-10
Vegetation. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day. Gen 1:11-13
Day four he created... Sun, moon and stars. And God made the two great lights--the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night--and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. Gen 1:14-19
Day five he created... Sea creatures and birds. And God saw that it was good. It was an explosion of diversity -- not like Henry Ford's Model T -- “You can have any color you like as long as it's black.” And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. Gen 1:20-23
Day six he created... Livestock and land animals. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Gen 1:24-27
You see, God has the authority and power to define. In Isaiah 55:11 He says - “so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” God defined man's purpose and work.
He further defined the nature and boundaries of man's relationship with him:
And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." And God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Gen 1:28-31
The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." Gen 2:15-17
Then God gave Adam the authority and task of naming and classifying all the creatures he had dominion over:
So out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. Gen 2:19-20
This is wonderful! What more could a man want? But... trouble came to Eden.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Gen 3:1-5
Satan sought to “re-define” what God has said. He suggested that God didn't really mean what he said and the He only said it to hold Adam and Eve back from being equal with Him. Satan is still does that today. He has a rival system that does not recognize God's authority or definitions.
God wrote the dictionary for His creation. So, then, “Who wrote your dictionary?” Who we get our definitions from makes a big difference in how we look at life and how we live it. Are God's definitions your definitions?
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