31. Word as Earth
© Daniel Yordy – 2020
Moses and the writer of Hebrews both said that God is Fire, and Moses and David both said that God is Rock. John said that God is Spirit – which is known to us by water and air/wind, the water of life and the breath of life. It was John who also said that God is Word, God is Light, and God is Love.
God is Fire; God is Water; God is Rock; God is Air; God is Word; God is Light; God is Love.
Understanding Earth
Earth is many things. Everything earth is comes out from the nature and being of God, and everything earth is shows us the purpose and function of much Word inside God’s being that comes into our lives through the speaking of Jesus.
Here is the most profound rendition of Word as Earth. (God formed man from the dust of the ground) – And the Word became FLESH and dwelt among us (John 1).
And here is another. – Ascribe greatness to our God! He is the Rock, His work is perfect; all His ways are just. A God of faithfulness without injustice, righteous and upright is He (Deuteronomy 32). – The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer. My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation. My stronghold, my refuge, and my Savior, You save me from violence (1 Samuel 22).
Yet I have used the phrase ‘Word as Earth.” Consider this line. – The Spirit of the LORD spoke through me; His word was on my tongue. The God of Israel spoke; the Rock of Israel said to me… (2 Samuel 23:3).
There are four arenas of “earth.” First, there is earth and ground as land; second, there is earth and ground as dirt, dust, or soil. And third there is rock and stone. Except Rock typically references God in His just kingdom, whereas stone is often NOT a good thing. Yet Jesus is the corner STONE of God’s house. He is also a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. Fourth, “earth” is the jewels and ores that are found inside the earth. The gold that represents God to us, the gold beaten with hammers upon which we sit, is dug out of the ground.
I can hardly express the depths of my love for earth as land. I think often of the land of my childhood. I study it on Google Maps and on Google Earth. I print it out. I draw its boundaries, to 60 square miles, to 160 square miles, I always hate leaving anything out. I dream of its rich fields, its large moss-covered trees, its streams and rivers, its lakes and waterfalls, its slopes and peaks. I would KNOW it, if I could – which is why 60 square miles is probably better than 160 (all of Crabtree Creek) or 1060 square miles (the forks of the Santiam).
I would know that land and I would care for it, every square foot, every acre. And the entire drainage of the Blair and Gundy Valleys in British Columbia, though quite a different land, is similar to me.
Land is place and belonging, land is homes and food. Land is children running merrily along the creek or through the fields. Land is rich, rich abundance.
Earth is for digging. Earth is for finding treasure. Earth is for growing things. When I see a tilled field of black soil in the Willamette Valley, waiting for seed, I see deep and abundant wealth. Earth is for herbs and vegetables and orchards and grapevines and berries of every kind and cattle grazing in green pastures and chickens running around the yard.
Did I say that I love the land?
The imagined “heaven” in Christian fantasy, disconnected from earth, holds no interest to me. The idea that “heaven” is of God and earth is not is contrary to all and un-Biblical.
Earth is deep; rock is certainty. The boundaries of the land are fixed and sure.
Ask of Me and I will give You the peoples for Your inheritance and the ends of the earth for Your possession (Psalm 2:8). – Your kingdom come; Your desire become as inside of heaven, so also upon earth (Matthew 6:10). That is, upon earth inside of heaven. Notice that Jesus did not say, “Your will be done (by someone else).” He said, “Your desire become (out from Yourself through Me).” – Your desire become upon the earth inside of heaven. –
We live upon earth inside of heaven, the place God has chosen.
And yes, earth as kingdom is found in so many Biblical references to earth, soil, land, stone, and rock, Old Testament and New.
Earth in Nature
Earth is the planet and earth is the soil. Land is a specific area of earth/soil, with specified boundaries. In nature, rock and stone are the same. In my mind, I picture ‘rock’ as large and rough, rising up out from the earth, but embedded deep within it, whereas ‘stone’ is smaller, rounded and smooth, and disconnected from the earth. That’s from my own childhood living next to the Cascades in Oregon. Nonetheless, my dad told me to go pick up ‘rocks’ from the fields, so the words are clearly interchangeable.
Earth as a planet is a study of wonder all in itself. Earth is a living planet, that’s because God breathed a heaven upon it. Remove heaven from earth (and I don’t mean the atmosphere), and all life would cease, and all living things would become dust. I am convinced that there is nothing in the spiritual heavens not connected to things in the earth and that there is nothing that is earth not connected to things in the heavens.
The idea that earth’s core is molten iron and nickel comes ONLY as an explanation for earth’s magnetic field in denial of the flow of electricity over earth from the sun. Otherwise, there is no other evidence of such a thing. Some suggest that the earth could, in fact, be a large geode, with a hollow center surrounded all around by crystal. No actual evidence demonstrates this, but it is a valid idea, and would support odd things said in the Bible and in human ‘mythology.’
The surface of the earth’s crust, mountains, valleys, and plains was not formed over long ages by uniform wind and water. The surface was formed in recent millennia by electrical discharge, that is, by fire, and by flood.
Earth as soil, however, is the intimate and close part of earth. In my mind, plants and soil are utterly entwined together. Plants represent the soil awakening to life. Paul’s words, “rooted and grounded inside of Love,” convey two aspects of earth, roots penetrating deeply, and the massive rock upon which we build our lives. In fact, by these uses of metaphor, Paul is equating God-Love with earth, solid and unmoving, nurturing and deep.
For a definition of soil, let’s turn to dictionary.com – https://www.dictionary.com/browse/soil. 1. the portion of the earth's surface consisting of disintegrated rock and humus. 2. a particular kind of earth: sandy soil. 3. the ground as producing vegetation or as cultivated for its crops: fertile soil. 4. a country, land, or region: an act committed on American soil. 5. the ground or earth: tilling the soil.
Gardening is all about the soil. When I garden, my primary and long-term focus is on the soil, not the plants. In fact, in an ideal gardening experience, I would save the best seed, year by year, so that the seed itself came out of that particular soil and was best adapted to it. In fact, the plants are not the main thing when enriching the soil, but rather the earthworms. Lots of healthy earthworms means a living soil ready for plants. Soil “ploughed” by earthworms is far superior to soil ploughed by iron.
Jesus is the Seed planted in our earth. Everything needed for the fullness of Christ through us is found in that Seed. Nonetheless, whether the Seed produces its full potential is dependent entirely on the soil, that is, you and me. ‘Good soil,” then, is faith and willingness, faith that God is telling us the truth and willingness to be all that the Seed already is.
The Rock in Scripture is the same as my experience in Oregon, with the ridges of the mountains set with large rock edifices thrusting up, every so often. I would climb to the top of one such rocky edifice, thrusting up 800 feet above the forest floor, and dream of building a mighty fortress upon that rock.
Stone in Scripture is a weight, in fact, it’s the word used for “weight” in a scales. The “plumbline” is actually the “stone line.” Smooth stones bordered the creeks of my childhood and I could run across the stones without ever tripping. Nonetheless, the stones that filled our fields were a pain, one could easily “stumble” over them. Except – my brother took those same stones and built beautiful terrace walls along our front yard.
Stone and rock are then tied to the same human trait called “refusal.” Refusal is bad when directed against the Word God speaks, but good when directed against the speaking of the serpent. So stone is bad, when referencing a stony heart, but good when used as an altar, offering to God that which He made, not shaped by the human hand.
Earth in the Bible
Of all these metaphors, the full spectrum of “earth” throughout the Bible is the most complex. And we cannot cover everything in this short space, so we will not include many meanings, positive and negative. In fact, we will leave out several ranges of earth words, such as hills, mountains, and valleys, or gold, silver, and jewels, etc., though these things add huge meanings to any knowledge of God as Word.
Let’s include a number of “earth” verses, and let our understanding be directed by them.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void. (As a womb, waiting for the spoken Word of God to be planted.) – Then God said, Let the earth bring forth vegetation. – Then God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds (Genesis 1:1-2, 11, & 24).
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (Genesis 2:7).
Cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground— because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return (Genesis 3:17-19). These lines speak of the agony of the earth, now laboring under that death flowing out from Adam’s refusal to be the image and likeness of God.
Then the LORD said to Abram, “Leave your land, your kindred, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you (Genesis 12:1). Paired with – A land of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey; a land where you will eat food without scarcity, where you will lack nothing; a land whose rocks are iron and whose hills are ready to be mined for copper. When you eat and are satisfied, you are to bless the LORD your God for the good land that He has given you (Deuteronomy 8:8-10).
Behold, I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. And when you strike the rock, water will come out of it for the people to drink (Exodus 17:6). Paired with – For they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4).
When the LORD had finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, He gave him the two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God. – Then the LORD said to Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the originals, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. – So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the originals (Exodus 31:18 & 34:1 & 4). Paired with – Christ written with Spirit ink, not on tablets of stone. And – the ministry of death, which was engraved in letters on stone (2 Corinthians 3:3 & 7).
An altar of uncut stones on which no iron tool has been used (Joshua 8:21). – The temple was constructed using finished stones cut at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any other iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built (1 Kings 6:7). Never offer to God your own “iron” attempts to “fix yourself,” or to “do God’s will,” or to “look like Christ.” Offer only that which God has made, Christ as you. This is what God means by “not made with hands.”
We have already included Moses and David calling God their Rock. This is Rock as fortress, as a place of safety and protection.
Everything in heaven and on earth belongs to You. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom, and You are exalted as head over all (1 Chronicles 29:11). – The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein (Psalm 24:1).
Ask of Me, and I will make the nations Your inheritance, the ends of the earth Your possession. You will break them with an iron scepter; You will shatter them like pottery (Psalm 2:8-9).
But the meek will inherit the land and delight in abundant prosperity (Psalm 37:11).
And on earth I desire no one besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength (God is the rock) of my heart and my portion forever (Psalm 73:25-26).
See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; the one who believes will never be shaken (Isaiah 28:16).
For as the earth brings forth its growth, and as a garden enables seed to spring up, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations (Isaiah 61:11).
Several of Jesus’ parables reference planting seed in soil, prepared or unprepared, good seed or evil seed.
All authority inside of heaven and upon earth has been given to Me (Matthew 28:18). That is, “upon earth inside of heaven.” This really is how it means.
Truly, truly, I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a seed all alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit (John 12:24).
Having been constructed together [as a House] upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone and the secret place or bond, inside of Whom the whole building, being fitted together, is increasing into a temple, holy inside the Lord. Inside of Jesus, you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God inside the sphere of Spirit (Ephesians 2:20-22).
Then, we must include a big chunk from 1 Peter 2:4-8. Coming to and connecting with Him as a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen and precious alongside of God… “Look and see, I set forth inside of Zion a stone, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one believing upon Him shall not be put to shame.” To you believing, therefore, is the preciousness; to those not believing, however: “The stone which those building have rejected has become the head of the corner [or secret place],” and, “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.” They stumble, refusing to be persuaded by the word.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more (Revelation 21:1-2).
I have left out many good and important verses, though I have included much.
Earth in Shadowfell
In the Shadowfell story, Juliette Marillier places the largest focus on earth as heart, the depths of heart, on love, the drawing of love to love, and on family, including both sorrow and joy. And the picture she presents is the awakening out from the “sleep” of earth into the LIFE of community, a community living inside the rock.
Three hundred years prior to the story, the beloved daughter of the Guardian of the North had fallen from a cliff and died, just after he had spoken angry words to her. The grief of this mighty being, as he blamed himself, was so great that he could not even consider the grief borne by his wife. Thus, after a time, she left to return to her own home and people. With this further loss, then, the Guardian turned so into himself that he fell into a deep sleep and had remained in that sleep for three hundred years.
The dwelling place of the Guardian of Earth and all of his people was a large cave in the rock on the north side of the entire country. His people continued their lives subdued and in sorrow, hoping against hope that their master would re-awaken to them. In fact, his two faithful servants did not leave his side in those three hundred years. When Neryn, the caller, came to their home, seeking to be taught of the Guardian of Earth, his people all placed their hopes in her, that she would bring their Lord back to them.
But Neryn believed that calling a Guardian was disrespect; they were not hers to command. He had instructed his people not to wake him up; she could not violate his direction. Yet she sat by his side for weeks, sending her thoughts deep into his heart, so that she might know him.
“It seemed to me that I must find a way into his slumbering thought and seek there the answer to bring him back.
“Meanwhile, I imagined him as a friend who had been grievously hurt, someone I could not cure, and I did what I might have done if he were human. Sang songs. Told stories, including my own with its losses and its learning.”
After a time, she realized that only this Guardian’s wife had the place to call him back, but Neryn did not know where his wife was, only the Guardian knew.
Someone told her, “The truth, it’s hidden inside him; tucked awa’ deep like a shining jewel in the heart o’ stane.”
Here, then, is a description of Neryn entering into the mind and heart of the Guardian.
“I went through the long preparation… breathing, concentration, awareness… I did not seek the fluid, ever-shifting movement of water now, but the heavy, monumental existence of stone. Not dancing, spraying, flowing, crashing, but waiting, holding, staying, being. – For the wisdom of the north was not only that of stone, but also of earth, and from earth springs life. If he was a rock, monumental and still, I would be a growing tree, and as a tree sends its roots deep into the earth, I would find a way to the secrets at his heart.”
Then, after weeks of seeking to know the heart of this being, Neryn thought, “Love, love heals all.” She found his wife, Siona in his thoughts, and she called, with a power surging through her heart, “Come home, Lady Siona, your Lord needs you. Come now.”
A short time later, Lady Siona came into the room from afar, took her husband by the hand and called him awake.
Through the next few weeks, the Guardian of the Earth taught Neryn many things, but her real learning had taken place as she sought to know his heart and to restore love to him.
As I am quoting these lines, so many verses and Bible metaphors are coming into my mind. Indeed, we are reminding God, as Moses did, just how much He loves His Church, in spite of all the pain caused to Him by people hurting people. And we are bringing her to Him, that her love might draw Him forth into our world.
Earth in Meaning Expressed by Words
I will not take the space to include the many English words that encircle the word “earth,” giving it expression and meaning in every direction. Nonetheless, I want to keep this heading here, so that the concept of many, many words, expressing every shade of meaning, might continue in our pursuit of knowing a God of Earth.
Aspects of Earth
As we saw in earlier accounts of God as Word, a garden plant is simply the best picture to tie all these things together. Half of a plant is in the air, representing the spiritual heavens, and half of a plant is in the earth. Nutrients come into the plant from both air and earth. Much of any increase in prosperity among humans comes out from plant growth.
Let’s list the several aspects of earth, and then expand a bit on each.
- Earth that Hardens – earth with false earth.
- Earth that Reveals (as image) – earth with fire.
- Earth that Contains Depths – earth with water.
- Earth that Provides Abundance – earth with air.
- Earth that Undergirds and Protects – earth as itself.
A stony heart and a stone that stumbles are well-known Biblical metaphors. Also, the earth splits wide and swallows up what is false, and in the end, people choose caves and holes in the ground to hide from the good-speaking of Jesus.
But it took a bit of thought to realize that earth with fire means earth that reveals. Here is the verse. That the proving of your faith, more precious than perishing gold, through fire being refined, it [your faith] might be found into praise and glory and honor inside the unveiling, the revelation, of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:7).
The fire of the furnace is all about proving the gold. Yes, that which is not gold vanishes away, but the focus is never on the dross, but only on the gold.
Then, consider this statement of Jesus. Whoever might drink out of the water that I will give him, will never thirst in this age, but the water that I will give him will become inside of him a spring of water bubbling up into age-unfolding life (John 4).
The water is first found deep inside the earth. Then, it springs up from the earth as a fountain of bubbling water. Thus Jesus gives us the picture of God Himself, springing up as life out from the very depths of our own hearts, up from within our humanity.
There is something about pools of water deep inside the earth that speak of the depths inside of God. Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; all Your waves and billows have gone over me… I will say to God my Rock (Psalm 42).
And we see these depths of water inside the Rock as the Pro-Knowing of God.
Then, earth with air is the realm of the plants and the fruit of the ground. Plant growth is the primary element undergirding human wealth. In my community experiences, obtaining our food out from the ground was more than half of all work.
The metaphor of the Promised Land filled with abundance of good things is a primary picture of Christ Community.
Then, the Spirit and the Bride, always together. The Bride is represented by the earth and the Spirit by the air. – And I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh (Joel and Acts 2).
Then earth as itself means everything having to do with foundations on the one hand and fortresses of refuge on the other. It is evident that God created earth to reveal Himself. – And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (upon earth inside of heaven).
Connecting Earth with Kingdom
Many verses in Old Testament and New connect aspects of earth directly with the Kingdom of God. In essence, the definition of the Kingdom as a complete ecosystem (found in Symmorphy III: Kingdom, “9.1 A Fresh Definition”) is rooted in the meaning of earth and land, soil and growing things.
Every time Moses or David referenced God as a Rock, they also used Kingdom terms, justice and protection for the people. The entire concept of “land” is a Kingdom concept, the place of jurisdiction and provision. The soil out from which plants spring into growth and from which animals and humans find their sustenance is a metaphor of the Kingdom.
The Kingdom of God is a living ecosystem upon earth inside of heaven in which all things, living and non-living, are intertwined in symbiotic and beneficial relationships. Humans and angels have always been much more involved in one another’s lives than humans have known. In fact, a Kingdom ecosystem would be a wondrous thing to search out, a primary topic of future scientific study.
We will look more at the Kingdom of God in the next letter, “Sent as Kingdom.”
Calling a God of Earth
Of truth, the picture given to us by Juliette Marillier, that of little Neryn reaching deep into the heart of the Guardian of Earth in order to find how she could awaken him out of sleep, and then realizing she could cause him to wake up by calling his wife back to him, this picture is the closest to how I understand our role in calling a God of Earth into our world.
Although it is God’s people whom we are “awakening out from sleep”, there is a sense that we could define the ekenosis in the same way, that of awakening our God “out from sleep,” the sleep of not being known, that is, a God that is LOVE, not known.
And just the same as with Neryn, we must let our own knowing go deep into the Heart of this Mighty Being, that we might know His Heart in all its joys and sorrows.
And what is it that will awaken the Heart of Love inside of creation? – Bringing His Beloved back to Him. When He sees her and is “reminded” again of His deep care for her, then we will see a protecting God enter this world for the sake of His Church.
Now, I want to add that I included this last portion in After My Own Heart, Lesson 20. Ruth and Devotion. These two lessons, then, are tied closely together.