Shift Family

It doesn’t take long for us to learn of God’s desire of the first couple in the Bible.

In the first chapter of Genesis, v. 27, the text tells us that God created "male and female." And in the following verse, v. 28 we read “God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth."

The very first words God speaks to the couple we call Adam and Eve are to create a family - "Be fruitful increase in number, fill the earth."

Multiply

Have kids

Have so many kids that your descendants will fill the earth.

Notice God didn’t command them to be good first.

God didn’t tell the first couple get responsible jobs, with good benefits and then have children.

God didn’t tell Adam and Eve enjoy these early years together because once kids come everything will change.

No - the very first words God speaks to humanity are words about starting a family. Sounds a bit like an over anxious parent awaiting the arrival of a first grandchild.

"Be fruitful Adam and Eve

Increase in number

Fill the earth"

Our God has a passion for families.

I kind of wish Adam and Eve would have taken God’s words a bit more seriously because in between God’s words and the birth of their two boys - the parents got themselves in some trouble by eating some fruit from a tree they weren’t supposed to eat from.

In chapter 1 - Adam and Eve are told to be fruitful - to start a family.

In chapter 3 - they eat the forbidden fruit and get side tracked.

And then in chapter 4 - they get around to do what God wanted them to do.

Cain is born

And later Abel - the first family of the Bible.

Though Adam and Eve had had a major derailment in their obedience with the birth of their 2 children. There were back on track. They were fruitful. They just doubled the world’s population. God the grandparent must have been pleased.

And yet 6 verses later in chapter 4, v. 8 we read that Cain kills his brother Abel and does as his parent did when they sinned, (sin repeats itself) Cain tries to hide the reality of his actions to God.

He doesn’t own up to his deed.

It is almost unbelievable isn’t it?

Genesis 1 - everything was pronounced good and by Genesis 3 things have fallen apart. Just when we think that Adam and Eve are heading down the right path anew when they give birth to two children 6 verses later, one is dead, killed by his brother.

And frankly as we read through Genesis, the first book in the Bible, we encounter 3 other major families who are not healthy, who are not functioning well. In the families in Genesis we encounter families whose:

Marriages are in turmoil/couples who can’t conceive children.

Tension related to playing favorites with kids.

Sin related to securing an inheritance.

We have dialogues involving adulterous relationships.

There is drunkenness, greed, and deception.

We would have hoped . . .

We would have expected that the first families in the Bible.

That Abraham and Sarah

Isaac and Rebekkah

Jacob and his 4 wives.

Would have been the poster families of what God wanted in all families.

And yet . . .

The husbands

Wives

Their kids

And their descendants act, talk, think and believe in ways that are more similar to a TV soap opera than anything you would imagine God would be present in.

And friends - this morning as we talk about families. Though the family pictures you may have seen on your way in may communicate

Health

Harmony

And a lack of tension

Our families have much in common with what we read about in Genesis. They are not perfect.

And yet God was present in them all.

God was present in these families that were full of dysfunction.

A family doesn’t have to be good for God to be present. We have a God who works in the brokenness of families. Though sin was corrupting and entering into the first families of the Bible. Though these first families would never be the story line for a Hallmark Movie.

Our God was present in those families in the brokenness of their choices and through all their choices in time gave us his Son through their very bloodline.

The writer Matthew wants to make this clear. In his genealogy/the family tree of Jesus.

He puts at the very top of Jesus’ family these 3 primary and broken families of Genesis

Abraham

Isaac

And Jacob

And says, Jesus comes from them.

Our God in Jesus sends us a Son through the Genesis family line to bring hope to our families.