March 06, 2021
Because once wasn't enough, we are going to take another journey through the Bible. This time we are going to investigate my favorite thing about each book – a theme, thought, sentence, story, etc.
First up is Genesis.
Creation – The Flood – The Patriarchs – Joseph --- all excellent and worthy topics, but they are not my favorite thing.
Genesis 3:9 - But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"
Why is this 11-word sentence my favorite thing about Genesis? It’s simple, really. This one sentence, at the beginning of the story, encapsulates the entire Plan of Salvation and the “Good News” of Scripture – God’s pursuit of humanity.
Humans were the crowning achievement of creation week – “Let US make man in OUR image and after OUR likeness”
Humans……….. made in the very image of God. They had everything they needed for a productive, happy and holy life, but then something awful happened – the Villain – whose only desire is to disrupt, derail and destroy – showed up and everything changed.
• Genesis 3:1-8 - Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Has God indeed said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden?’ And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ So, when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
Every evil, hurtful, destructive and terrible thing that happens in this world is rooted in this awful moment - the day Adam and Eve made a choice and sin entered into the human experience.
But something else also happened in that moment – GRACE
• Ellen White {HP 34.3} - We should never have learned the meaning of this word "grace" had we not fallen. God loves the sinless angels, who do His service and are obedient to all His commands, but He does not give them grace. These heavenly beings know nought of grace; they have never needed it, for they have never sinned. Grace is an attribute of God shown to undeserving human beings. We ourselves did not seek after it, but it was sent out in search of us. God rejoices to bestow this grace upon all who hunger for it, not because we are worthy, but because we are so utterly unworthy. Our need is the qualification which gives us the assurance that we shall receive this gift.
It was God’s custom to join Adam and Eve in the cool of the day for fellowship and communion. Now, they’d sinned. Fear and shame replaced intimacy and the relationship between humans and God was forever changed. He had every right to stay away. He could have abandoned them to their choice and moved on to another corner of the galaxy, but He didn’t. He came back anyway! He went searching for them anyway! He called out to them anyway!
Were there consequences? Yes, there were, just as He said there would be. However, and I think this is something that we miss…. God could have just started over. If He could speak the world into existence, He could certainly speak it out of existence. After all, He had specifically said that on the day they ate of the fruit of THAT tree, they would most certainly die. That was the ultimate consequence = DEATH = non-existence = eternal separation.
While there were some minor consequences - all reminders that sin exacts a high price:
• Slithering
• Pain in child birth
• Marriage inequality {I just want to point out that the subservient nature of the marriage relationship is a consequence of sin and NOT the reality of God’s original plan. Therefore, Christians should aim for God’s original plan = equality and not insist that the consequence of sin be the norm.}
• Working really hard to eke out a living
• Eventual death and returning to dirt
The most significant of the consequences = eternal separation, God would pay Himself.
• Genesis 3:15 - And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; HE will crush YOUR head, and YOU will strike HIS heel."
There would be a fight to the death. Blood would be shed and the price would be paid but victory would be achieved because the death of the Villain was guaranteed.
The consequences of Adam and Eve’s choice, while absolutely devastating, did not have to be the end of the story ---- all because God went looking for them.
Later in Genesis we see this reality played out in the story of Abraham and Isaac:
• Genesis 22:2-14 - Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about." 3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 He said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you." 6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?" "Yes, my son?" Abraham replied. "The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" 8 Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together. 9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. 12 "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." 13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided."
The absolutely astonishing truth is that even though we rebel and run and hide He searches for you and me too:
• Luke 15:4 - Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?
• Luke 15:8 - Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?
And He sent Jesus on a rescue mission to save us:
• Luke 19:10 - For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
• John 3:16-17 - For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
• Romans 5:8 - But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
• 1 John 4:9-10 – This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
God did not leave us. We left Him. We are the ones who ruined the relationship and the canyon that exists between God and humans is completely of our own making and YET He says, “where are you?”
That’s why my favorite thing about Genesis is chapter 3 verse 9.
