The Unexpected

 "So out of the ground the Lord 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". Genesis 2:19.

The book of Genesis is full of surprises. In it's opening chapters, it tells us that humanity was placed in Eden to tend and extend the garden planted there, but it also informs us that man was made of the dust of the ground outside of that realm, and thereby shared a common origin with the creatures God formed and then brought to Adam in the  garden to 'name' according to their kind.

There's a fascinating distinction made here - between the nature of the garden, where humanity are expected to reside and expand the creative work God has begun, and the realm which resides beyond the bounds of this place.

The intention, we presume, was for humanity to gradually extend and expand the borders of the garden as they flourished and began to grow as the human family, but the relationship to this outer realm is clearly seen as one of distinction. It too would flourish as the rains came and plants grew, but there is clearly a difference between the two realms - that of cultivated human society and the "wildness" of what was found beyond that.

It's a distinction that we usually do not consider when we reflect upon what will be true in the coming future of the earth - when God restores creation to an estate where the consequences of sin and death amongst humanity are expunged - and yet, there are places in the scriptures where the Prophets call us to see what will indeed be the case when we inhabit the realm restored to what is intended... and it may well surprise us to do so.

Ezekiel 34 speaks of the new realm as a domain overarched by a covenant of peace, where wild beasts will dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woodlands. Showers will fall and fruit trees grow (25-27). Later, he speaks of the land having restored and fortified cities (36:34-36) - a realm akin to Eden.

We all expect the Lord to restore what was ruined in respect to the paradise once present in the land lost in our fall, but notice that this vision tells us more - that what had been outside the garden is also redeemed and re-established - that which was untamed also has a place in what is coming.

We are often eager to tie our theology into neat bows and pigeon-hole what that tells us, but this reveal is a wonderful example of how the Lord in fact operates outside of those boxes, and has a much larger canvas in play than we can imagine. The Lord once invited Job to consider the Leviathan - a beast so fearful that no man could hope to catch or tame it, but in respect to God, it was merely another creature in the world He had made.

The Lord's plans and purposes are so much above us - that is why He is Lord alone.