Troublesome Topic: WHAT EVERYTHING IN THE UNIVERSE IS MADE OF

Resist the urge to skip this section about clean and unclean things; I am convinced you will find this topic much more interesting than you imagined.

But before I can get into clean and unclean things directly, there is one big picture concept I need to touch on first – What Everything in the Universe Is Made of.

The Ancient Hebrew understanding of the universe can be expressed with what I will refer to as the three “construction materials” and the three “functional states” of the universe. These describe how everything in the universe is constructed and how everything in the universe functions. I will cover the construction materials in this lesson, and the functional states in several lessons that follow.

I call you to do your best to grasp the enormity of these two categories. These truths are huge. They shaped the thinking of the Israelites regarding everything, literally everything in the universe.

Now, when I say everything in the universe, your mind probably goes to issues of science, but this is not a scientific explanation; it is a theological explanation. These are truths that the ancient Hebrew people learned from their relationship with God, primarily through the Law.

THE THREE BUILDING MATERIALS OF THE UNIVERSE

The three types of construction material are Body, Soul and Spirit. This describes what we are made of, or how we are put together.

The body is the physical aspect of anything – here I am using the term body for anything physical, even a rock or a piece of metal. The point is that it has physical reality.

The Soul is, well, it quickly gets difficult to describe because the Bible’s use of the terms rendered in English as soul are quite varied in their usage. But the idea seems to be that the soul is the non-physical side of me that makes me me. It is sometimes called the “inner man.”

Spirit seems to be that which connects me to others, especially to God.

Either the soul or the spirit, (or both), drives the desire for truth and a spiritual relationship with God.

Everything everywhere is composed of either a physical body, a soul, or a spirit, or some combination of the three.

Much more can be said about the soul and the spirit, for they are complex issues. For instance, the Bible says that both humans and animals are souls and possess spirits, but these are a reality for animals in a different way than for humans.

My point here is simply this – if we ignore the aspects of soul and spirit in us, we are ignoring most of what makes us who we are. I believe our composition is not divided evenly between those three “construction materials”, rather, the soul and spirit make up more than a third each, while the physical body is less than a third of who we are. Science, medicine, academia and governments usually see humans as only physical beings; they try to tell us how to think and act while looking at less than 30% of who we really are.  

The only way to live without frustrations is for your body, soul, and spirit to be functioning in perfect unity, agreeing with the way God designed you from the beginning, driving unhindered toward God. An unsaved person feels pulled in different direction because part of him wants to run toward self-satisfaction, and yet part of him still hears the call of God to be what God mace him to be. Many believers in Jesus also live frustrated lives because their priorities are divided; they want to follow God, but they are also holding on to some of what the world has to offer. The only people who experience true joy and peace, the only ones who don’t let anything bother them, are those that are fully committed to God and are running hard after God with their body, soul and spirit in perfect unity. No part of them is pulling the other direction. That is where God wants us to live.

How about you? Are you running hard after God?

Are your body, soul and spirit unified in pursuit of God?

The next lesson in all three series on the Covenants is THE THREE FUNCTIONAL STATES OF EVERYTHING IN THE UNIVERSE