In The Beginning
Genesis 5:1-2, 6:1-2, 5-8
The Book of Genesis covers the largest amount of time of any book in the Bible, stretching from the beginning of the world to about 1500 BC. According to geologists, the earth is at least 4 billion years old and some anthropologists believe that humans have been around at last 2 million years. The authors of Genesis did not know much about this long history, nor did they care. Instead, they sought to tell the story of creation and in particular, human origin and a few events and traditions of their ancestors that would help them understand how they came to be a people and God’s special calling on their life together.
The Book of Genesis begins with two stories of creation, the first of which was written sometime around 730 by the Priests of the Temple and thus reflect their theological and higher thinking regarding the nature of God and His actions. They came to understand God through the intentionality of His actions and the fact that God has been active from the beginning of time. Genesis 1 is written in beautiful Hebrew prose poetry and functions like an “Entrance Hymn” to the great drama of salvation about to unfold. It covers the first six days of creation and the 7th day as a day of Sabbath rest. The second creation story was written two centuries earlier around 930 BC during Solomon’s reign. It focuses on the 6th day and clarifies the pinnacle of creation: humanity. Thus, the original editors of Genesis had no problems with two creation stories. Part of our difficulty today is the questions we bring to the Bible. As products of the age of Enlightenment with its focus on rational thought and order, we ask scientific questions: how, when, and what. How did the world begin? When did it come into being, and by what exact process and which order? But these were not the questions of the ancient world or the authors of Bible. Instead, they were concerned with ‘who’ and why.’ Who created the world and everything in it? Why am I here? Why is there evil and can anything be done about it?
It is in these two stories that we are introduced to the God of creation and of the Universe. In a world surrounded with pagan gods, the authors of Genesis wanted to state very clearly that there is only one God who was and has always been since the beginning of time. This God is the God of life, a God filled with goodness and blessing and a God of order, not chaos, drawing a sharp contrast from the pagan gods. This is a God over everything and all that God created was good. God is so powerful that His very word brings things into existence. And the pinnacle of His creation is humanity whom he gave a place of honor, created in His own image and gave the responsibility to care for the world. We have also been given the divine gifts of procreating, of sharing in His Sabbath rest and of a personal relationship with him.
At the end of each day, God pronounced the day’s work as good. But at the end of the sixth day, God saw everything that He had created and pronounced it “very good” meaning it was perfect and without flaw. Therefore, the world in which Adam and Eve lived was perfect: the perfect temperature, the perfect environment, the perfect humidity, and the perfect provision, with everything needed to sustain Adam and Eve and provide for their needs. And each afternoon, God came down and visited them “in the garden at the time of the evening breeze” and they enjoyed wonderful walks and times of fellowship together. They walked with God in perfection, uninhibited, freely communicating with Him, free of fear and sin, with no sickness, no evil and no distractions. Adam and Eve loved God, and knew that God loved them. One can imagine laughter, and the inquisitive questions as they discovered new tastes, new sights and new things. Adam knew from whom he came, and so did Eve. God had blessed them, and gave them dominion over everything he created and commissioned them to care of it. They enjoyed stability, provision and tranquility. Surely, this is what is meant by the word ‘paradise.’ But it also reveals to us the nature of the relationship God desires to have with us.
But it was not to last for sin entered the world. One day, the snake challenged Eve to defy God by eating of the Tree of Knowledge which he had forbidden. When she saw that the fruit of the tree was juicy and ripe, she ate it and Adam ate with her and SIN entered the world and everything changed. And what we see is the impact of sin and its damage on their relationship with God, their relationship to one another and even their relationship to the perfect world in which they lived. And the life, the relationships and the world they knew was never the same.
The first 11 chapters of Genesis with its strong images and colorful events and people explore the depths of the human experience at its most mysterious: the awesome wonder of creation, the joys of life, the agony of sin, the fear of death and the terrible capacity of humanity for evil. What we find is a repeated cycle of sin and the damage it causes. And we see that this pattern is repeated over and over again, not just in Genesis but throughout the story of Israel and humanity itself.
The Cycle of Sin has four parts. First is rebellion. Genesis 3 explains how sin entered the world and spoiled God’s plan. From Adam and Eve’s actions, we get the Doctrine of Original Sin that says all of humanity since Adam and Eve has been corrupted by sin and thus struggles with it in their lives. What is sin? is rebellion against God…it means…to disobey his laws. We believe all humans are inclined toward sin and selfishness. Genesis 4-11 shows how sin proliferates and increasingly damages everything. Why is this important to us? There is no way to really appreciate the significance of our salvation except by understanding how deeply sin has wounded creation and all things in it, including our relationships. The catastrophic nature of sin must become fully known to us if we are to grasp the Good News of Jesus Christ. Genesis 4 is about murder and rebellion against God’s ways. A brotherly argument rooted in anger and jealousy soon turns violent and ends in murder as Cain kills his brother Abel (vv. 1-15). Shortly thereafter, the fugitive Cain builds a city and Cain’s offspring multiply and exercise dominion over the earth, making advances in science and civilization. Nevertheless, the struggle with sin is embedded in the life of this new city as there is a radical increase in pride, immorality, and violence.
Finally, sin becomes so bad and widespread that God makes the heart-wrenching decision to start over again. God flooded the world and saves only one family who was righteous and faithful. A new creation is, indeed, born out of the waters of the flood. Yet sin enters into this freshly cleansed world through Noah’s drunkenness in his vineyard (Gen. 9:20-27). Corruption grows among the descendents of Noah’s three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and culminates in a second great world rebellion against God as they expressed a naive, yet strong confidence in what human beings through their technology could accomplish in the world. They wanted to be famous for their achievements and to be equal with God in how they lived their lives. So they build the Tower of Babel. As a result, God punishes them by dividing them through diverse cultures, languages, nations, and races, a story that explains the origins of these things. Division and difference mark the human condition from this point onward and remains even today.
Second is repentance. Often times when people have rebelled from God and then lived into the repercussions of their actions and words, they come to a point where they call out to God to save them. When we hear the word “repent” it usually means something akin to falling on your knees, telling God you are sorry for what you did, and promising not to do it again. But for the Jews, it was much more than that. Repentance is not just confessing and turning from your ways, it’s “fundamentally changing the way you see and understand everything.” It’s also a radical change of the heart. It’s a transformation of the entire person and the way you live. Repentance: a recognition of what you have done and how you have “fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), saying you’re sorry, promising to walk a different path and then doing it and this experience fundamentally changing who you are, your faith, world view and your life.
The third step in the cycle of sin is Redemption. Redemption is about grace. Grace is not necessarily removing the punishment but God remaining faithful and loving us even through it. It can be what we call tough love. We see signs of grace through the first 11 chapters of Genesis. Adam and Eve though banished from the Garden and yet “The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” Genesis 3:21 After Cain killed his brother, God banished him from the land that he might be a restless wanderer for the rest of his days and yet, “The Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.” 4:15
And in spite the growing prevalence of sin in the world, God still granted His blessings and grace to those few who truly sought Him and loved Him! The Scriptures record that Abel was righteous in God’s eyes. Enoch walked with God and pleased God. And “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord....and Noah walked with God.”
Fourth is restoration of the relationship between God and His children. It is an offer of grace and new beginnings in relationship to God. We see this after the flood when God restores his blessings and the rights of relationship to Him when he says to Noah: “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth…(all of creation is) given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything…. Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you…Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” And God gives a sign of that coventantal promise, the rainbow, to remind us of this. Despite this continued return to sin what we find is that there is grace sprinkled in our lives throughout the journey and ultimately, outrageous grace given to us, no matter who we are or what we have done.
Timothy Paul Jones in his book, Proof writes about his middle daughter who had been previously adopted by another family. He was sure this couple had the best of intentions, but they never quite integrated the adopted child into their family of biological children. For one reason or another, whenever they vacationed at Disney World, they took their biological children with them, but left their adopted daughter with a family friend. Usually, at least in the child’s mind, this happened because she did something wrong that precluded her presence on the trip. After a couple of rough years, they dissolved the adoption, and Timothy and his wife ended up welcoming an 8-year-old girl into our home. And so, by the time they adopted he, she had seen many pictures of Disney World and had heard about the rides, the characters and the parades. But when it came to passing through the gates of the Magic Kingdom, she had always been the one left on the outside. Once he found out about this, Timothy made plans to take her to Disney World. He announced the trip but what he didn’t expect was that the prospect of visiting Disney would produce a stream of downright devilish behavior in his newest daughter. In the month leading up to their trip to Magic Kingdom, she stole food, she lied, and she whispered insults carefully crafted to hurt her older sister as deeply as possible. And as the days on the calendar moved closer to the trip, her mutinies multiplied.
A couple of days before the trip, Timothy pulled his daughter into his lap to talk through her latest escapade. “I know what you’re going to do,” she stated flatly. “You’re not going to take me to Disney World, are you?” Suddenly, her downward spiral started to make some sense. She knew she couldn’t earn her way into the Magic Kingdom — she had tried and failed that test several times before — so she was living in a way that placed her as far as possible from the most magical place on earth. And so he asked her, “Is this trip something we’re doing as a family?” She nodded, brown eyes wide and tear-rimmed. “Are you part of this family?” She nodded again. “Then you’re going with us. Sure, there may be some consequences to help you remember what’s right and what’s wrong — but you’re part of our family, and we’re not leaving you behind.” Despite this conversation of reassurance, her behavior didn’t improve, it pretty much spiraled out of control, even at every hotel and rest stop on the way to Disney World. Still, they headed to Disney World on the day they had promised, and it was a typical Disney day. Overpriced tickets, overpriced meals, and lots of lines, mingled with lots Disney magic.
In their hotel room that evening, a very different child emerged. She was exhausted, pensive, and a little weepy at times, but her month-long facade of rebellion had faded. When bedtime rolled around, he prayed with her, held her, and asked, “So how was your first day at Disney World?” She closed her eyes and snuggled down into her stuffed unicorn. After a few moments, she opened her eyes ever so slightly and said, “Daddy, I finally got to go to Disney World. But it wasn’t because I was good; it’s because I’m yours.”
And then he writes, “That’s the message of outrageous grace. Outrageous grace isn’t a favor you can achieve by being good; it’s the gift you receive by being God’s. Outrageous grace is God’s goodness that comes looking for you when you have nothing but a middle finger flipped in the face of God to offer in return….It’s one-way love that calls you into the kingdom not because you’ve been good but because God has chosen you and made you his own. And now he is chasing you to the ends of the earth to keep you as his child, and nothing in heaven or hell can ever stop him…But here’s what’s amazing about God’s outrageous grace: This isn’t merely what God the Father would do; it’s what he did do. God could have chosen to save anyone, everyone, or no one from Adam’s fallen race. But what God did was to choose a multi-hued multitude of “someones,” and….declared over you, ‘I could have chosen anyone in the whole world as my child, and I chose you. No matter what you say or do, neither my love nor my choice will ever change.’ That’s grace that’s truly amazing.” Thanks be to God. Amen.
