Genesis 11:1-9: Unity in God rather than ourselves

In the Bible study curriculum “The Story” developed by Max Lucado and Randy Frazee, there are two perspectives of the Biblical narrative.  There is God’s perspective, what they refer to as the “upper story”, and there is the human perspective, which is referred to as the “lower story”.  Ideally, these two should come together as a unified way of seeing the world, but humanity insists on its own agenda, so the two perspectives remain.  Theologians would refer to them as the “transcendent” perspective, and the “immanent” perspective.  The Apostle Paul at times would refer to it as living according to the “Spirit”, or the “flesh”.  We find in the specific incident of the tower of Babel, a microcosm of the continuing battle between these two points of view. 

The human perspective in the story is revealed by the words “come let us…”  Humanity has its own agenda, apart from and sometimes in competition with God’s.  Humanity desires unity, the type that can be found in large cities, and in shared language.  The city of Babylon is believed to be the site of the tower of Babel.  One of its landmarks was a huge ziggurat, whose name Etemenanki, suggested the linking of heaven and earth.  But for all the effort on the part of the Babylonians to demonstrate humanity’s advancement through its own glory, we are also told that there is a dark side to Babylon.  It might be a great city, but it is also a city of persecutions (Daniel 3); hedonism (Isaiah 47:8-13); and wealth that leads to eventual destruction (Revelation 17-18).  While the Babylonians thought they could build a tower to reach the heavens, the only thing that actually makes it that far is the knowledge of their sin and corruption.  We are unsure if they only had one language, or if they had many languages but were all fluent in one language that brought them together, a lingua franca of the ancient world.  It was the first documented case of globalization, except instead of removing barriers to bring humanity closer together; humanity brought itself into conflict with God because of its ambition.  What was motivating this ambition?  It was fame, glory, and a desire to be remembered.  They said, “let us make a name for ourselves”.  No human project undertaken for the sake of human glory, whether it is an individual’s or ours collectively, can be trusted.  Interestingly enough, God in his justice gives them a name that becomes famous, but the name of the Babelites will not mean “glory”, but “confusion”.  F. S. Frick would say that the story is an example of “man’s futile attempt to gain security apart from God through city-building.”  Despite God’s commission to be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, man chooses to settle.  It is no coincidence that just a chapter after the story of Babel, we have the beginning of Abraham’s story, a man who is willing to leave the safety of numbers and venture out in faith. When summarizing the Babel account, theologian Walter Brueggemann would say that “the narrative then is a protest against every effort at oneness derived from human self-sufficiency and autonomy.”

The divine perspective is also revealed through speech, specifically the words “come let us…”  However we see the truth in that God is not portrayed as a rival, but a concerned Father and creator.  Humanity thinks that all their problems will be solved if they speak the same language.  However, it is not simply that they do not understand one another, it is that they do not listen.  The Hebrew word used to refer to such successful communication, or lack thereof, is shema.  It is familiar to the faithful Jew as it is the name of one of Judaism’s most famous prayers:

“Hear (shema), O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.  And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.  You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” - Deuteronomy 6:4-9

John Calvin understood what those at Babel did not.  It is more important that we hear and understand God, than that we hear and understand each other.  When speaking of different Christians from around the world, he would say that “although their language may differ in sound, they all speak the same thing, while they cry, ‘Abba, Father.’”  In other words we are unified, even when we don’t speak the same language, if we are conversing with the same God.  In a fitting finale to the Babel story, Genesis tells us that “the Lord scattered them there”, reversing their intention when “they settled there.” (11:2)

The scattering is seen as punishment, but in fact it is a fulfilling of God’s original intention for mankind to fill the earth.  God is pushing humanity out of the metaphorical nest.  You see, God is against human unity only when we seek that unity on our own terms.  If we fast-forward to the New Testament, we see God bringing people together and enabling them to communicate in ways much like what humanity envisioned at the tower of Babel.  Consider the description of Pentecost in the book of Acts.  The connection between the events at the Tower of Babel, and those at Pentecost are emphasized by words like hear, heard, or ear:

“And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language…And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?...  both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God… But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words…Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” (Acts 2: 6, 8, 11, 14, 37)

God’s Spirit is again moving in humanity, bringing about unity through a shared understanding of God’s redemptive purpose in our world.  The Spirit again blows over the chaos, bringing a renewed capacity to listen.  The difference is not just that the unity of Pentecost was initiated by God, but is also seen in humanity’s response.  As formative as that day in Jerusalem was, they are content to remain scattered, not imposing a false unity.  In other words, all those people from all those places go home, to houses and villages far and wide to live out God’s vision of inhabiting the earth, and joining in the work of building God’s kingdom here.  The Christians on Pentecost understood something we desperately need to hear as a church today, and that is that we cannot live in the church, but we can live as the church.  

Genesis 8:1-9:17: Worshiping in God's New World

Have you ever gone out on a limb to meet someone half way?  If you knew the person, maybe you didn’t feel like it was that much of a risk.  But if you didn’t, the experience was probably an anxious one.  There is a period of time when you feel vulnerable.  You’ve laid your cards on the table, and you wait for what seems like an eternity to see what the other person has in their hand. 

That’s probably what it was like for Noah.  He builds the ark in obedience to God, and then he leads his family onto the gigantic boat.  No matter how great Noah’s faith, there had to be that small voice that seemed to get louder with each moment that the rain didn’t come, “God has forgotten you, and you’ll look like a fool”. 

That voice was silenced with the coming of the rain.  Did it start with just the trickle of a few rain drops, and then crescendo into a downpour?  Or, were the full might of the rain and the fountains of the deep bursting forth unleashed in one moment, one powerful deluge?  We don’t know exactly how it happened, but one thing we do know is that God remembered Noah.  When we say that God remembered Noah, it doesn’t mean that for a while God had forgotten him.  In Hebrew, “remember” means to act on a previous covenant, not “to forget”.  God had made a promise to Noah, and in sealing Noah in the ark, God remembers and acts on that promise.  Remembering is not just a corrective action taken after something slips our memory.  Remembering can be proactive in nature.  When we greet a friend with a card on their birthday and they respond, “You remembered!”  Or, when we stand by the graveside of a loved one and promise ourselves that we will always remember the impact that they made on our lives.  Old Testament scholar Brevard S. Childs would say that “God remembering always implies his movement towards the object of his memory”, so that in a way when we say God “remembered” Noah what we are really saying is that God drew near to him. 

When God remembers Noah, He by extension remembers humankind.  When the flood waters subside and Noah worships, God is “reminded” of the positive side of humanity.  Because Noah demonstrated humanity’s ability to be faithful, even if that faithfulness isn’t perfect, God’s heart was transformed.  Whereas before the flood “the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart” (Genesis 6:6), after the flood “the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, ‘I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth…’” (Genesis 8:21).  After the flood, the new history begins with an altar.  Noah’s first act is to build this altar and worship God.  It is the first time an altar appears in the Bible.  Lest we think that the construction of the altar sanctions the sacred/secular divide, we should take note that part of worship is obedience not just at the altar, but during the whole period leading up to our arrival there.  While the altar isn’t built until the end of the flood, Noah’s whole life was worship because of his obedience.  Noah was so obedient, that he didn’t even leave the ark until God commanded him to do so.  In the words of noted theologian and church reformer John Calvin, “How great must have been the fortitude of the man, who, after the incredible wariness of a whole year, when the deluge has ceased, and new life has shone forth, does not yet move a foot out of his sepulcher, without the command of God.”   What would the altar have meant if Noah had approached it in disobedience?  What if Noah had come to the altar simply to go through the motions, all the while living his life in disobedience and open rebellion towards God?  Even more important, what does our own worship mean if our lives don’t mirror our actions at the altar?  In worshipping, genuinely and wholeheartedly, we express our gratitude to God for the new beginning that he has brought about, not just in Noah, but more importantly in Jesus Christ. 

As residents of this new world, worship is not just our response to salvation, but something we enter into as we live out our redemption.  In Noah’s case, part of the reminder was not just in worship, but in nature itself.  God places the rainbow in the sky so that when humanity gazes upon it, they will remember their collective experience through Noah of judgment, but also redemption.  When commenting on the rainbow, Franz Delitzsch said that, “Stretched between heaven and earth, it is a bond of peace between both, and, spanning the horizon, it points to the all-embracing universality of Divine mercy.”  Many believe that the rainbow is meant to symbolize an actual bow turned on its side, a weapon of war hung up never to be used again.  According to Franz Delitzsch, “The symbol of divine bellicosity and hostility has been transformed into a token of reconciliation between God and man.”  This is not the only reminder we have of judgment and redemption.  As Christians God has given us two acts which inform our identity as the redeemed people of God.  The first of these acts is our baptism.  When we remember our baptism, we should at the same time remember our identification with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  The Apostle Paul writes to the Romans, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:3-4)  In addition to this initiatory act, we regularly gather together as Christians around our Lord’s Table, all the while proclaiming the truth about what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.  Paul reminds the church in Corinth of this when he writes, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.” (I Corinthians 11:26)

These reminders come to us not just to bring comfort concerning what God has done, but to convict us of what should be doing as His people.  They remind us that God has opened up the possibility of a new world.  However, the possibility of a new world will forever be a dream deferred unless we adopt Noah’s faith and obedience for our own life.  God calls us to bring forth a new world where the worth of every human is respected.  God’s image in man is why he saves humanity, and is why the worth of every human must be maintained.  When human lives are taken, John Calvin says, “God deems himself violated in the violation of these persons.”  God calls us to boldly live out the reality that the Holy Spirit abides with us in this world.   Despite our failings, God is committed to His promise to never again destroy the earth with a flood.  Theologian and Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann said it this way: “The only thing the waters of chaos and death do not cut through (though they cut through everything else) is the commitment of God to creation.”  Finally, and most importantly, we are to go tell the world that God continues to save.  The story of the flood shows us that redemption has happened before.  Redemption however, is not limited to the past.  Redemption is in the present as well, with God bearing us through the waters in an ark as sturdy as any ship ever built.  The Apostle Peter would write to a group of Christians persecuted by the world, and encourage them to imagine how they were living as present-day Noahs:

 “For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.  Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.”(I Peter 3:17-21)

Do we trust that God can bear us through the waters of sin and death just as surely as he bore Noah and his family through the flood?  If we truly trust in God’s redemptive work, will we worship not just at the altar, but with lives of obedience as a present-day Noah?  Or, will we be washed away by the consequences of our own rebelliousness and pride?       

Genesis 6:1-7:24: the ark of grace in the flood of judgment

Noah and the ark is perhaps one of the most well-known stories from the Bible.  If you also take into consideration that many other Ancient Near-Eastern cultures had stories about great floods, it becomes obvious that something happened, with the shared experience of that event being recorded in various ways, by various peoples.  So what does the Bible tell us about the flood, Noah, and the ark?

The flood was not so much an act of destruction by God, as it was an act of self-destruction by humanity.  While it’s true that it was God’s might that drove the flood waters, it was man’s wickedness that made the flood a reality.  Who were the sons that so offended God?  The possibilities include descendants of Seth, angels, or a dynasty of tyrants who succeeded Lamech.  Whatever the answer, the result was the same.  Their actions followed in the footsteps of Adam and Eve’s original sin.  Our Bibles say that they saw something beautiful, and they sought to make it their own.  If you read the passage in the original Hebrew, the phrasing is literally what we find in Genesis 3:6 when Adam and Eve’s sin is described: they “saw” what was “good”, and they “took” it.  This selfish behavior passed down through the generations, has caused God to look down and see not the goodness and beauty that was present in creation, but the wickedness that is the result of human sinfulness and rebellion.  Man’s wickedness has spread from being reactionary, to being of the proactive sort.  The heart, the locus of thought, feeling, volition, and morality has turned to planning methods of carrying out the wickedness found in its inner depths.  After seeing this disastrous turn of events, God responds.  The Spirit of God hovered over the waters during creation, now that same Spirit is about to be withdrawn.  Why doesn’t God act immediately?  Why does God delay 120 years?   The truth is that even when God is prepared to react to human disobedience with vengeance, He withholds His wrath long enough for Noah to build the ark.  The word used to describe God’s intention, “destroy”, is the same word used to describe human actions in Genesis 6:12, though it is often translated “corrupt” instead of “destroy”.  The use of the word “corrupt” or “corrupted” makes plain that what God intends to destroy has actually been self-destroyed already.  Nahum Sarna would say, “The idea is that humankind cannot undermine the moral basis of society without endangering the very existence of its civilization.  In fact, through its corruption, society sets in motion the process of inevitable self-destruction.”

In the midst of all the wickedness and God’s plan to destroy the earth, we find obedient faith in the person of Noah.  God has delayed His plan to wipe out mankind because in Noah He sees a glimmer of hope.  Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and through him we found grace as well.  It isn’t that Noah is perfect, but he is obedient. When God speaks, Noah listens.  The delayed entrance of Noah in the story opens up a new possibility, that of obedience and faith.   With Noah’s appearance on the stage, the words “righteous” and “blameless” are used for the first time in the Bible.  Righteousness is a combination of piety and ethics, while blamelessness denotes an abstention from sin, even if one is not entirely without fault.  Noah is described as one who “walked with God”, which links him with Enoch.  While Enoch is saved from death, Noah is saved from the flood.  If Noah isn’t perfect, he is a man of action.  He is not a man who professes something, but then fails to validate that profession with his actions.  The simple statement that “Noah did” underscores his living by faith.  It also puts the emphasis on God’s actions, rather than Noah’s, because Noah simply does what God tells him.  Today’s Christian should note that Noah’s fulfillment of God’s plans would have been a life-long endeavor, not one emotion-filled response.  Noah didn’t agree to build the ark after his heart-strings had been plucked by a well-orchestrated combination of emotional appeal and mood-lit praise music.  Noah’s “yes” to God is one that will cost him dearly.  One-hundred and twenty years Noah labored to build the ark.  How much did he have to pay for materials?  Did he have to go chop down every tree with the help of his sons.  What did it cost him in terms of his social standing?  How did people refer to this crazy man whose faith led him to build a huge boat?  A better question is ‘What if we were more like Noah, caring more about God’s plans for our world rather than our popularity with the world?’    

God sees Noah’s faithfulness, and responds in-kind.  No matter how faithful Noah was, that faith could never save him without God’s intervention.  In Noah’s case, God intervenes in three major ways.  First of all, God designs.  Noah receives from God plans for a boat 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high.  In the Babylonian flood epic, the boat used by the hero is a 180 foot cube, hardly a vessel likely to be seaworthy.  Here however, we find a boat that is large, and yet proportioned to sail.  Its plans make it bigger than the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria, and yet with a 20 foot draft it is shallow enough to not ground on the mountains.  Noah’s obedience brings God’s expert design to fruition.  After God designs, God guides.  There are no navigational aids, so that once in the ark the humans are totally reliant on God.  While there is relative safety inside the ark, there is also a degree of helplessness, as Noah and his family rely on God to deliver them safely through the flood.  Even the animals seem to be guided to Noah.  Just as God brought the animals to Noah’s ancestor Adam to be named, so He brings them now to Noah to be saved.  After God designs and guides, we see that God saves.  God shuts them in the ark, showing the grace and salvation of the ark to be a result of divine action rather than Noah’s.  The ark serves not just an immediate purpose, but also a more enduring one as it serves as a prefigure of the salvation that God will deliver to humankind through Jesus Christ.  While in Noah’s day God blots out humanity, when Jesus Christ comes, God blots out our sins.  It’s the same exact verb used in both instances!  The ark, in many ways, foreshadows our own salvation.  God opens the door to the ark and offers to bear us safely through the waters of sin and death, which threaten destruction just as surely as those torrents did so many millennia ago.  Will you, like Noah, have the faith to step inside?

Genesis 4:1-26: We are our brother's (and sister's) keeper

“Am I my brother’s keeper?”  It’s a phrase that has become embedded in society as a renouncement of interpersonal responsibility.  At the heart of Cain and Abel’s story is the truth of how our worship informs our ethics.  If we fail in our worship, in our understanding of a transcendent and yet imminent God, then surely we will fail in our ethics, in how we relate to one another as beings that bear the image of that God that we so misunderstand. 

There is a foreshadowing of the trouble between these most famous of brothers in the very names that they are given.  Qana, the root for Cain, means to “acquire, get, or possess.”  Similarly appropriate is the meaning of Abel’s name, “vapor, or breath”; a foreshadowing of his fate at his brother’s hand.  A good, though surprising place to start the story, is worship.  If worship is giving God priority, then one brother fails while the other succeeds.  Abel probably brought the best portion, the fattest portion desired by God.  Meanwhile, Cain brings “some of the fruits”, with no indication that these are the first or the best.  Cain comes before God with the leftovers, while Abel makes sure God gets the “pick of the litter.”  Do you see how this was not just a failure of the moment on Cain’s part?  In order to worship properly, Abel had to allow for God’s priority in his life each day of the week.  He planned, dedicating the best of what he had to God, so that when he comes to the altar, it is the culmination of all the time leading up to that moment spent in worship.  For Cain, on the other hand, worship is an afterthought.  While arriving at the altar should be the culmination of a week spent in worship, instead it is a brief interruption when Cain tries to feign obedience to God.  Bruce K. Waltke would say, “Cain first fails at the altar, and because he fails at the altar, he fails in the field.  Because he fails in his theology, he will fail in his ethics…Cain’s sin is tokenism.  He looks religious, but in his heart he is not totally dependent on God, childlike, or grateful.”

A truth we seldom recognize is that our worship affects the rest of our lives, just as the rest of our lives affect our worship.  When it comes to sin, we either rule, or are ruled over.  God warns Cain that his failure at the altar can be compounded if he does not actively master the sin which seeks to master him.  God speaks emphatically; “you” must master it.  Responsibility is Cain’s and Cain’s alone. 

But Cain isn’t interested in mastering sin.  His interest lies in placing the blame for his own failure at the feet of his brother.  He walks through the field looking for Cain, just as God had walked through the garden looking for Adam and Eve.  And while God brought judgment mingled with grace in his meeting with Adam and Eve, Cain brings unbridled envy and jealousy to his meeting with Abel.  Cain stands face to face with his brother, and just as he had rejected God and His divine counsel, so he now rejects his brother, Abel who is made in God’s image.  We see in Abel’s murder not just the first homicide, but an attempt to eradicate God by erasing God’s image found in others.  Cain doesn’t just murder Abel, he attempts to murder God.  When confronted by God, Cain’s first response is to lie.  How many times do we reject the truth by seeking to deny it?  When that doesn’t work, we then go back and refuse to admit that we are responsible.  If we can’t change the facts, we argue that the facts are relevant.  Why are you asking me, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

The result of sin is alienation, not only from God but from each other.  Sin drives a wedge between us, to the extent that we fail to recognize the obligation we all have to “be our brother (or sister’s) keeper.”  This is especially true when our actions negatively impact others.  God seeks to judge our callousness, just as He judged Adam and Eve’s selfishness.  God goes from asking questions to prosecuting Cain, with Abel’s blood as the star witness.  “What have you done?” are chilling words when coming from a parent or a boss, so they must be deathly frightening when voiced by God.  God punishes Cain, the farmer, by turning him into a wanderer; he is rootless with no identity or community.  The punishment is fourfold: there is a meager return from the soil, Cain is hidden from God’s face, he must live as a nomad, and there is a constant danger of being killed.  In a morbidly ironic twist, Cain fears that none will be “his keeper”.  The murderer fears death.

We see in Cain all the things that we hate in our own society: violence, jealousy, and deceit.  We also see in Cain our own possible future, for sin lurks at the door seeking to master us as surely as it sought to master Cain.  It’s comforting to know that even someone like Cain, judged and condemned by God, is also a recipient of God’s grace.  Cain leaves God’s presence, but not His protection.  Walter Brueggemann would observe that, “the killer has no resources of his own but must cast himself upon the mercy of the life-giver…The acknowledgement of guilt and the reality of grace come together in this presentation.” 

There is grace as well for those touched by Cain’s violently sinful act.  While Eve says “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord” when Cain is born, she attributes the work to God by when Seth is born saying, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.”  Eve sees God as entering the midst of tragedy, all the while shining the light of hope into the darkness.  In turn, Seth himself has a child and names him “Enosh”, meaning “weakness”.  Nahum Sarna would say that, “it is the consciousness of human frailty, symbolized by the name Enosh, that heightens man’s awareness of utter dependence upon God, a situation that intuitively evokes prayer.”  The whole cycle of envy and violence brings much sorrow, but it also brings recognition that man is dependent on God.  Ever since that fateful day in the field, humankind has sought to restore the peace that was shattered when man first shed another man’s blood.  May the coming of our Lord’s kingdom restore not only humanity’s peace with God, but also our peace with one another. 

“Behold, how good and pleasant it is

when brothers dwell in unity!

It is like the precious oil on the head,

running down on the beard,

on the beard of Aaron,

running down on the collar of his robes!

It is like the dew of Hermon,

which falls on the mountains of Zion!

For there the LORD has commanded the blessing,

life forevermore.”

-          Psalm 133

Genesis 3:8-24: Why confession is good for the soul

They say confession is good for the soul.  However, one of the hardest things to do is confess when we have done something wrong. 

Why is confession so difficult, and yet, so beneficial?  In God’s reaction to Adam and Eve’s sin the necessity, as well as the beauty and honesty of confession are revealed to us.  If God were interested solely in judgment, as many seem to think, then there never would have been a conversation between the first human beings and God.  God could simply have wiped them out.  We see however, a very different response from a God who is so often described as vengeful.  Rather than destroying humanity, God speaks to them.  By opening a dialogue with His wayward creation, God attempts to bring them around to an understanding of the truth.  In His justice God asks questions, even though He already knows the answers.  By asking the question, God gives Adam and Eve the opportunity to confess their sins.  If God were only concerned with punishment, He has what He needs to proceed.  Fortunately, God is not interested in punishment for vengeance sake, but rather is wants to see humanity learn from their mistakes.  So, what lessons are there to learn?

They learned that you cannot run from God.  They had hidden their nakedness from each other, and then they tried to hide it from God.  Despite Adam and Eve’s failed attempt at flight, humanity has continued to believe that we can flee to a place where God’s gaze does not fall.  Adam and Eve are just the first of many who try to escape God’s judgment.  Jonah tried to run from God, and found himself in the belly of a whale.  While our stories are probably not as spectacular, we have all had the same experience.  At some point in our life, we have run and found ourselves in the belly of our own “whale”.  Maybe you ran from an addiction, only to wake up on a bathroom floor, with no recollection of what happened the night before.  Maybe you ran from marital problems, only to find yourself opening the envelope containing divorce papers.  Maybe you ran from work and responsibility, only to discover a life empty of meaning or fulfillment.  We have all run from something, and eventually we will all reach that point when we have to stop running.  Running does not solve our problems; it just creates more of them.  By running, Adam and Eve have taken the joy of communion with God, and transformed it into something to be feared.  By hiding, and then lying, Adam and Eve have been shown to more closely resemble the serpent than God.    “I was afraid” (v. 10), is an answer we will also hear from Abraham (20:11) and Isaac (26:9).  It shows fear, or a lack of trust in God, which can quickly result in sin.  The dominance of the first-person pronoun is telling, “I heard…, I was afraid…, I was naked; I hid…, I ate…, I ate.” Their responses show a self-absorption that is abandoned only when the conversation turns to fixing blame, and accepting responsibility.  Adam blames the woman that God gave him, implicitly attempting to shift responsibility back toward God.  Eve blames the serpent.  Everyone blames someone else, no one learns anything from the experience, and the cycle seems destined to repeat itself. 

Seeing all of this, one begins to wonder.  Why didn’t God just wipe them out?  We know that God does wipe out most of humanity with a flood, but even then He saves a remnant whose only merits seem to be that they are less imperfect than their contemporaries.  Adam and ever learn there will be judgment and consequences.  The process of bearing children becomes a painful one.  The ground that Adam was supposed to rule over, now rules over him, to the extent that it will eventually consume him in death.  The two who once ruled as one, Adam and Eve, now try to rule over each other.  They are even forced to leave their home, Eden.  Around the black clouds of God’s judgment: pain, hard labor, exile, and eventually death, there are silver-linings to be discerned.   The pain of childbirth demonstrates that God has not removed procreation from human possibility.  Progeny is a means of grace.  When writing to Timothy, Paul refers to women saying, “Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.” (I Timothy 2:15)  If we correctly interpret the story of humanity’s fall, and discern the grace present in God’s judgment, we see that Paul is highlighting the special role women play as a conduit of that grace.  Even death becomes both a blessing and a curse.  It renders all our physical efforts in vain, but it also provides an escape from futility, and opens the way for salvation that extends beyond the grave.  God cannot allow man to live forever in their fallen state, and for that reason in the words of Bruce K. Waltke, “death is both a judgment, and a release.”  Theologian Walter Brueggemann sums up God’s approach in a way that is concise, and that also looks forward to the story that will continue to unfold: “With the sentence given, God does for the couple what they cannot do for themselves.  They cannot deal with their shame.  But God can, will, and does.”

When we view the story in this light, we see that God is gracious, even in his judgment.  The miracle is not in the fact that they are punished, but that they live.  Paul would sum it up in Romans by saying that by one man came death, but life comes from God.  (Romans 5:12)  God opens the door to humanity’s further existence, and even provides for them.  When we understand how God is acting in the story to bring about redemption we see death itself as an escape, which allows for God’s granting of eternal salvation.  Humanity has learned, even if we sometime forget, that there is wisdom in God’s commandments.  God does not just make rules to be a kill-joy. God’s rule is in our best-interest.  When we are motivated by selfishness and rebel against God’s reign in our life, sin is sure to follow. 

If the story ended there, it would not be a happy one.  Thankfully, God is not finished.  God’s relentless love leads Him to fight to bring humanity back into a relationship with Him.  Just as things went so horribly wrong because of the actions of one man (with a little help from his wife), God will also make things wonderfully right through one man, a man like no other.  I leave you with the words of Paul, written to the church in Rome:

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” - Romans 5:12-21 

Genesis 3:1-7: the danger of talking about God rather than to God

There are moments in time that define our lives.  There are choices we make that determine the struggles, obstacles, and challenges that we will face in the future.  For Adam and Eve the choice was between two trees.  They faced a decision: embrace their own will, or the will of God.  Would they actively rebel, or humbly submit? 

As is often the case, in the instance of Adam and Eve a third party enters the story and seeks to influence their decision.  What happened that would ultimately lead to Adam and Eve choosing rebellion over submission, to choosing their will over the will of God?

To put it simply, Adam and Eve lost perspective.  When our relationship with God shifts from the second-person to third-person perspective, trouble is sure to follow.  The theologian Walter Brueggemann makes the following astute observation: “Notice that the serpent engages in theology, without allowing for God’s presence, he talks about God, but not to or with God.”  Consider a relationship in which you currently find yourself.  Regardless of whether it’s a marriage, a friendship, or a familial relationship, imagine what would happen if you stopped speaking with that person, and only spoke about them.  Even if you were saying only nice things about your spouse, friend, or relative, how long could that relationship endure without the benefit of meaningful dialogue?  When the third party, the serpent, maneuvers his way into Adam and Eve’s thought-process, he subtly re-directs their speech so that it is no longer towards God, but simply about God.  Whereas Adam and Eve had been about using their language to bring order to the earth, the serpent uses language, both his and theirs to sow confusion and disorder.  By allowing their thoughts about God to surpass their dialogue with God, Adam and Eve allowed their perspective to change in a way that proved most damaging. 

This damaging change in perspective led to a disastrously myopic view of God.  The serpent makes a statement about God that is a clear distortion by describing God as stingy and bossy, rather than giving and beneficent.  Old Testament scholar Bruce K. Waltke would put it this way:

“Satan smoothly maneuvers Eve into what may appear as a sincere theological discussion, but he subverts obedience and distorts perspective by emphasizing God’s prohibition, not his provision, reducing God’s command to a question, doubting his sincerity, defaming his motives, and denying the truthfulness of his threat.” 

By distorting what God says, the serpent is able to claim knowledge of God’s thoughts and motives.  The serpent distorts God’s words enough to open up the possibility of circumventing them.  Rather than seeing God’s word as giving safe boundaries, Adam and Eve now see it as building barriers. 

Adam and Eve hear the possibilities spoken of by the serpent, that humanity could climb to a place where they were equal with God.  This seeming possibility causes their reach to exceed their grasp.  Gerhard von Rad describes the possibilities spoken of by the serpent as Adam and Eve understood them:

“The serpent’s insinuation is the possibility of an extension of human existence beyond the limits set for it by God at creation, an increase of life not only in the sense of pure intellectual enrichment but also familiarity with and power over, mysteries that lie beyond man.” 

This is where human ambition is transformed into sin.  Eve, and then Adam, acquiesces because they feel as if they lack something.  This something becomes necessary not because of its inherent necessity, but because of Adam and Eve’s inability to focus on anything but the very thing they do not have.  By this point the story is probably becoming uncomfortably familiar.  We see Adam and Eve creeping closer to the sin that will curse humanity.  We flinch because each one of us can vividly think of the time when we saw our own hand extended toward that thing that we most wanted, but least needed.  We remember how when we finally grasped that long-desired object or relationship, we lost our grip on so many other things that mattered deeply to us.  There is good news in the fact that despite our insistence on reaching out for things other than God, God never ceases to reach out for us.  With sin comes judgment, but even in the moment of judgment we see signs of God’s grace.  If there is shame and guilt in our fall, there is mercy, forgiveness, and love in the way that God picks us up.      

Genesis 2:4-25: formed by God

Immediately after the story of creation comes…another creation story?  Some say that these are two different accounts of creation, because what other reason would there be for the story to repeat itself?

I would argue that rather than simply repeating an account of creation, Genesis is focusing in on a specific part of the story in order to elaborate on some very important truths as evidenced in the change in language.  For example, the narrative begins by speaking of the “earth and heavens” rather than the “heavens and the earth”.  The perspective has changed from cosmic, to very much down to earth.  This shift in perspective, considered together with the sudden addition of “Lord” before God, signals that the story is moving to a relational level.  Each part of creation will no longer exist in isolation, but instead in relationship with one another.  That relationship is demonstrated not only in the fact that humankind was created, but how humankind was created.  “Formed”, the word used for God’s creation of humankind, is more intimate than simply “created”.  It brings to mind a potter sitting at his wheel, carefully and painstakingly fashioning something.  However, this is no mere ornamental, inanimate object, but something that is very much alive.  Humans are said to have the very breath of God in their bodies.   This is likely the reason why they are referred to as living beings, or souls.  Humanity is placed in a garden possessing that which is both good for food, and delightful to the eye.  Work is part of humanity’s lot even before the fall, and was given as a blessing.  The fullness of humanity is described as both male and female.  God’s statement that it was “not good” for man to be alone is set in the emphatic position, so that man’s need for companionship is stressed.  It is for this reason that God creates Eve.  While our culture has conditioned us to see the word “helper” as pejorative, here it is meant to signify woman’s essential contribution.  Without the help of women, humanity’s task could never be complete.  This is confirmed by the Hebrew word for suitable, which actually means “equal and adequate”.  The Bible makes it clear, here and elsewhere, that true marriage is the equality of the husband and the wife, as they work together to fulfill their vocation.  Woman may be taken from man, but that means that she is forever a part of man, their destinies being entwined.  This is certainly the way the Apostle Paul sees it, when he tells the Ephesians that “husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.” (Ephesians 5:28-30)   There is something beautiful, something divine even, when a man and woman decide to invest as much in one another, as they do in themselves.  Bruce K. Waltke would say it this way, “a man and woman are never more like God than on their wedding day when they commit themselves unconditionally to one another.”  It’s not random, that the covenant commitment made in marriage is used to depict God’s relationship with His people on more than one occasion.  It’s the deepest expression of love possible between a man and a woman, and our greatest way of relating to God’s love for us. 

What does this story teach us about humanity?  First of all, it reaffirms what each one of us already knows deep down inside, that we are unique among God’s creation.  God does not just “create” humanity, God “forms” us.  We also learn that we bear the breath of God.  Finally, we learn that we can only find true companionship in other humans. 

We don’t just learn about humanity from this story, we also learn about God.  We are told of a God who takes great care in forming humankind, specifically because of His desire to have a relationship with us.  We are told of a God who gives to man not only the gift of creation, but specifically the gift of the ideal companion to work alongside him. 

Finally, what we learn of humanity and what we learn of God come together to teach us something about marriage.  In the Biblical view of marriage, husband and wife are shown to be equal.  An adaption of Matthew Henry’s words has often been quoted, that woman “is not made out of his head to top him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near to his heart to be beloved.”  Henry’s statement is a reflection of what the Apostle Paul would write to the Ephesians, particularly the Ephesian men:

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” – Ephesians 5:25-27

What a beautiful thing, that God creates us not alone, but to live in communion with one another.  While that communion can come in diverse forms and have many functions, it reaches its zenith when a man and a woman surrender a part of themselves, in order to become one.  

Genesis 1:1-2:3: In the beginning...

Why is creation so important?  Why does the Bible begin the story of God’s activity in our world, and even in our universe, with the account of creation?

God wants us to understand the fundamental truth that we are no accident.  Many of the leading atheists of our day would try to drive a wedge between our understanding of God’s role as creator, and our faith in Jesus Christ.  Richard Dawkins, perhaps the most prominent atheist in contemporary society stated the following:

“What you cannot really logically do is to say, well I believe that there's some kind of intelligence, some kind of divine physicist who designed the laws of physics, therefore Jesus is my lord and savior who died for my sins. That's an impermissible illogicality that unfortunately many people resort to.”

Dawkins, and others who share his beliefs, or lack thereof, would have us think that there is no connection between a God who creates, and Jesus Christ.  The Bible tells us otherwise though, with the gospel of John clearly indicating that Jesus Christ ministry was one of re-creation, creating anew a world that had, and in many ways still has, gone horribly wrong. 

So what do we learn from the story of creation as told to us by the Bible?  In Genesis we see God first forming, and then filling.  God forms first the light on day 1, then the sea and the air on day 2, and finally the dry land on day 3.  With the formation of land, God’s reign advances from the realm of time, to that of space as well.  Imagine also the burst of color, as the white and black of light and dark are joined by the blue of the oceans, and green of the grass, the white of the snow, and the tan of the desert.  God has created the life-support systems needed for animals, and for humans: light, air and water, and land. Having formed vast habitats, God then begins to fill them with things, of both the living and non-living sort.  While he formed or created light and darkness on the first day, on day 4 God creates the specific lights: the sun, the moon, and the stars.  Their function is clear: to delineate between night and day, to serve as signs of the passage of time, and to illuminate the earth.  While in other ancient religions the sun and moon were seen as gods themselves, here they are created not to be served, but to serve.  The sky and the sea created by God on the second day are now filled on day 5 with fish and birds that God blesses, and commands to multiply.  In the final action of creation, on day 6, God fills the land that was made on the third day with animals, and then humans.  While there is no full-blown Trinitarian reference, the usage of “us” seems to strongly hint at a plurality in unity.  Man is created not with a grand pronouncement, “let there be”; but with the indication of effort befitting a masterpiece, “let us make.”  Again, ancient convention is turned on its head.  While many early societies saw the king as the image of God, humankind in its most democratic sense bears the image of God.  One does not have to venture into a throne-room to catch of a glimpse of the divine spark, but can see it in the face of the man or woman we pass on the road, encounter in the market, or do business with in town.  To this crowning achievement of creation God says not only “good”, but “very good”.   Finally, we see God rest.  Creation is now done, and from now on procreation will be the method of bringing about new life.  In a way, God hands over the task of bringing about new life to what has just itself been created, and in the process invites creation into the divine task of filling God’s created world. 

It’s a beautiful story, but at the same time it’s more than a story.  It’s a story, THE story, which tells us something about God.  It tells us that God is eternal.  It is mind-blowing, and yet not odd to ponder the fact that God is eternal.  However, normally we consider only the future, and not the past ramifications of that idea.  God existed before time began, and in fact invented time itself.  God has always existed, and will always exist, and God created humanity so that we can enjoy eternity with Him.  Our creation points to the fact that God exists in relationship.  God is not alone as God creates.  The account in Genesis says that “Spirit of God was hovering over the waters…”  (Genesis 1:2)  As God begins to create humankind, He states “let US make man in our image.” (Genesis 1:26)  It is not until the gospel of John that we learn that Jesus, the Word, is part of the “us”.  Finally, we learn that God creates.  God creates, in that things are brought to be out of nothingness, simply by God’s willing them into existence.  In so creating, God brings order out of the chaos. 

We’ve seen what creation tells us about God.  Does it also tell us something about ourselves?  We learn that men (and women) are made in God’s image.  In a world where violence against our fellow man seems to be the order of the day, we need desperately to hear the words spoken by God at creation, that humanity possesses a divine spark, and that the killing of a human is an assault against the divine image that each person bears.  Indeed, there is something special about humanity as creation.  God clearly approached our creation differently, with a special purpose in mind.  D. J. A. Clines would say: “In Christ man sees what manhood was meant to be…men are the image of Christ so far as they are like Christ…this is how man, the image of God, who is already man, already the image of God, can become fully man, fully the image of God.” It’s easy to get lost in the words, but in short Clines is simply stating that Jesus came to show us how to be human, and in the process how to bear the image of God. 

All this talk of the story of creation begs the question, what story is informing your life?  Do you believe that you are an accident, a historical coincidence with no greater purpose, with no deeper meaning for your life?

Or, do you believe that you were created by a loving God and that your uniqueness in creation points to a greater purpose? Do you believe that purpose is for you to exist in a relationship with Him?  

Creation was divine, not accidental. Genesis shares the story of creation with us as an invitation to believe that God, the Creator, is able to bring order out of chaos, just as He brought a beautiful universe from the void. The Creator is able to re-create as evidenced by the life of Jesus Christ and His ministry. Why not allow your Creator the opportunity to take the mess that you have made with your life and shape it into something beautiful?