Gadfly's Muse

Genesis 18:1-19:38 - The Judge Who Does Right

Image: Afternoon Snack, 2016, Severna Park, MD

 

 

Genesis 18:4–5 ⁴ Please let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. ⁵ And I will bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh your hearts. After that you may pass by, inasmuch as you have come to your servant.   

Genesis 18:14  ¹⁴ Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.”

Genesis 18:19
¹⁹ For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.”

Gen. 18:25 Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

Genesis 18 & 19 are portrayals of two very different views of "hospitality."  In Genesis 18 three "Strangers" approach Abraham's tent.  He immediately recognizes Divinity in them though, as we see from their stay in Sodom, their appearance was of ordinary men.  The difference between the way these "Strangers" were received is the difference of eternity... the difference within humanity... and the difference between the way God deals with man.

Genesis 18:4 was chosen almost 30 years ago as the "motto" for Severn Run E. P. Church because it incorporated the main feature of the Church planting goal:  to become a church that received all who came through its doors as if they were angels in human form.  We wanted to be hospitable and welcoming of all whom the Lord sent us.

Abraham welcomed his visitors and prepared for them an afternoon meal.  In doing so He showed the result of the Lord's work in his life.  He recognized them as being sent from God.  He "bowed himself to the ground" before them... a certain token that he knew their Divine Nature.  One of the men was the Christ, the second person of the Trinity.  He accepts Abraham's bowing in worship as no angel would have ever done.  When He speaks of Abraham in vs 19 He speaks as God: "I have known him (Abraham).." and highlights how Abraham's life will be use in His eternal plan.  This is God, ... this is the Christ, ... and in some dim manner Abraham knew it.  His eyes were opened that much to recognize Who stood before him and his response was worship and welcoming service.  That's not a bad synopsis of God's call on any human being's life.

Contrast this welcome with what the Christ received in Sodom.  Can any greater travesty be imagined, any greater blasphemy contemplated, than to want to have carnal relations with these "Men?"  I cannot even bring myself to write words descriptive of their intent.  It's just too horrid to contemplate.  The Divine trio's external appearance was probably beautiful.  The beauty of the Lord was present in human image and all it evoked in the Sodomites was lust.  When we consider the treatment that city received at the hands of our Lord can there be any question of the justice of it?  

I think not.  The story of Abraham's reception of God and that of Sodom's reception shows us, by analogy, the desperate condition that exists in the hearts of men.  There are no neutral parties within human kind.  We either have the inner core that welcomes God and delights in serving Him or we have the complete opposite core inner being.  We may not be as blatant as the Sodomites but indifference to the Lord is just as fatal as lust.  Jesus told the cities of Galilee who did not "receive" Him as Abraham had, that "it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for (them)."  That is a sobering thought when we remember how the original Sodomites received Him.

But the Good News is chapter 18.  God's love for Abraham is such that He grants him the freedom to intercede for the evil cities themselves.  In verse 19:29 we're told that God saved Lot out of Sodom it was because He "remembered" Abraham.  God's greatest joy is to use His people as His priests and to hear their prayers and attend to the longings of their heart.

Abraham extended hospitality to the Lord that day... he received Him with gladness and submission and a desire to serve.  God's response was to bless Abraham beyond any thing He could imagine.

That's not a bad thing to meditate on and embrace for any of us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Genesis 16:1-17:27 My Ways Are Not Your Ways....

Image: "When You Frame It That Way", 2010, Severn Run E. P. Church, Millersville, Md

Genesis 17:17–18 (NKJV)  ¹⁷ Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” ¹⁸ And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!”

Abram's struggle with doubt continues.  If we had asked him then he would have said: "Well, it's not like I really don't believe what I've been told.... it's just that, you know, nothing's happening!"  

It was Abram's doubt that opened his ears to Sarai's suggestion that he take Hagar as his wife.  How he must have shaken his head in consternation when friction inevitably developed between Sarai & Hagar.  How disappointed he must have been to watch Hagar, pregnant with his first offspring, walk out into the country side.  

And then, Hagar comes back at God's command and has a son, Ishamael.  How Abram must have delighted in that.  "OK, God came through after all.  Not exactly how I understood it but I'll take what I can get."  Abram transferred his hopes to Ishmael and apparently had affection for him.

Then God speaks to Abram again.  From now on it will be Abraham and Sarah.  God reveals more of the covenant he has made with Abram and now, as Abraham, he gets very specific.  The covenant sign of circumcision is introduced (much could be said here).  God's people are now distinguished not just by ethnic origin but by religion.  God's covenant people are those who are circumcised in heart through faith, bear the sign of that circumcision in their flesh and live in absolute hope in the covenant promises God has made to them.

But now comes the hard part.  "Abraham, you and Sarah are going to have a son... next year!"  Abraham's doubts flood back into his heart.  "You have to be kidding me.  It's been thirteen years since Hagar conceived my son Ishmael.  I am a lot older now.  Sarah has never conceived and she is will past child bearing age.  Lord, don't you really mean Ishmael?  Lord... let him live before you."

Abraham here does reveal a soft side of affection for Ishmael.  If Sarah did have a child then that old tension thing would probably come back.  It's not out of the question that she would seek to have Ishmael killed to ensure her own son's inheritance.  Questions like these flooded into Abraham's mind I am sure.  He appealed to God for a different plan.

God's answer is pretty terse but not harsh.  "No! Abraham.  Sarah will bear Isaac and My covenant will be with him!  I'll take care of Ishmael.  He will be a worldly success.  I have not forgotten my promise to Hagar in the wilderness.  He will be a wild man and not suited to be head of my covenant people.  Trust Me, Abraham, I do things My way in order to achieve My purposes.  This is the way it will be."

These powerful chapters deserve much deeper study and commentary.  They are so foundational to the redemptive history God has revealed to us.  But from this overview as well as the passages in the NT which talk about Abraham's faith and how his submission to God was demonstrated by his subsequent conceiving of Isaac with Sarah, we can be encouraged by what we have read.

Sometimes life is bewildering.  Sometimes we just don't have any clear idea what God is doing with us.  Our faith teaches us that "God's decree is whatsoever comes to pass" and therefore whatever is happening to us, around us, in our families, in our churches, etc. etc. has to be viewed as having God's hand in it.  Even when we see sin powerfully present in our own selves or others about us, we wonder why God is allowing it.  That's the journey of faith.  

Our lives, like Abraham's, are in God's hands.  He is our loving Father, faithful Husband, wonderful Savior and comforting Friend (among many other things).  But He is not like us.  His ways and His decrees are directed toward higher ends than we can even conceive most of the time and when we can conceive of them, they don't appear wise to us.  How many times do we ask... like Abraham... "Lord, are you sure this is what has to happen?"

Our Lord Jesus was fully human, as are we.  He felt the pull of doubt also.  Even He asked... "Lord, if it be Your will that this thing should pass?  But, (and here is faith) nevertheless, not My will but Thy will be done."  Abraham finally got to this point.  He finally embraced God's promise and lived to see the glory of God exhibited in the birth of his son Isaac far more than was ever the case with Ishmael.  So it is with us and so it shall be with us.

Wherever we see our doubts about God's plan for us and His creation being raised in our minds, if we persevere in faith, we shall see how His way was indeed best, beyond all describing, always.

Genesis 14:1-15:21 A Covenant Heart

Image: Basics, 2019, Severn Run E. P. Church, Millersville, Md

(Ge 15:18)  "On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, ..."

Genesis 14 & 15 are chock full of important stuff.  Many teachings in the New Testament quote these verses in the light of Christ.  Indeed the story of Melchizedek becomes the background for our Christ's priestly status.  Abram's defeat of Chedorlaomer's forces astonish us.  How could Abram and his very few men do what the combined forces of the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah could not?  

Perhaps no other verse from the OT has more importance for us than Gen. 15:6 - And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness. Here God, for the first time in all of scripture, speaks of "justification", the declaration of an individual as without reproach according to a given standard.  As a traffic judge declares a person "not guilty" according to the traffic laws of the county, so a person is declared "not guilty" by God when His terms of "righteousness" have been met. (cf. Rom. 3:21ff)  God, for the first time in Scripture, speaks to mankind and declares to him, through the example of Abram, how any man can stand in a position of "guiltless" before Him and therefore has all the rights and privileges of fellowship and blessing in God's Kingdom.

God accounted Abram righteous, not because he was sinless, far from it, but because he "believed in the LORD."  Abram's life was given over to God... was submissive to God.... was trusting of God... was devoted to God alone over and against all the other 'gods' of the surrounding culture.  Abram was not trusting in propositional truth... though of course his trust could be expressed that way.  Abram was trusting in a Person... a Real Being... who was high and above all things and yet as near as the voice that he was hearing.  A God who was LORD of all things but particularly was Abram's LORD.  This God was everything to Abram and in everything to Abram and for everything to Abram.

Abram's faith was no mere intellectual thing, it was an all consuming reality that was sometimes punctuated by sheer "horror and great darkness" (vs. 12) and at other times glad rejoicing as when he paid his tithe to Melchizedek (14:20).  Life with the Great King is not dull but it is indeed life with Him.

The overall term for the relationship between God and Abram is "covenant."  "Abiding Relationship" is the key to understanding "covenant' over and against words like "contract."  The words can be used interchangeably to some extent but at root they are different.  A "covenant" has terms of relationship and usually includes the benefits of maintaining that relationship (called being "faithful") and the penalties if the terms are breached.  In the covenant that God has made with redeemed man the terms are "faith."  Not "works" lest any should boast.  But "faith", "faithfulness", counts as "righteousness."  

Other parts of Scripture teach us that this "faith" is a gift of God, that it is not something we can have based on our own sheer will and resources.  God requires faith of us, gives us the faith He requires and then counts as "righteous" based on the presence of that faith.  Our "sins" are dealt with through the once and for all sacrifice of Jesus of Nazareth the Christ of God so that God is not "unjust" in overlooking our sins (Rom. 3:26) but the terms of the Covenant that must be met are that of covenant faith and faithfulness.

Here is wonder... that God would "make a covenant" with Abram.  That He would declare it so forcefully that He bases it on His very own Life.  The strange ritual we see in vs. 12ff is God taking upon Himself the solemn oath that His own life guarantees that He shall not break the covenant He made with Abram that day.  God would have to die!  If God could die He would not be God!  God is in effect saying this covenant will not be broken, cannot be broken and all its promises are "yea and amen."

God made that same covenant with us Gentiles and indeed all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.  He guarantees with the same absolute commitment to us that it is by "faith" that we shall be declared righteous before Him.  We have been washed with the blood of Christ and our sins have been removed as far as the East is from the West in us.  This is the covenant our Covenant Making God has made.

Let us rejoice before Him, pay Him the tithes He is owed and live confidently and expectantly in His grace.

Genesis 12:9-13:18 Undeserved Blessings

Image:  Contentment, 2019, Bertram, Tx

Genesis 13:14–15 (NKJV) ¹⁴ And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; ¹⁵ for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.

No one, to my knowledge, has ever accused me of being a "cat person."  When I am most benevolently disposed toward them, I tolerate them.  Because I live with someone who is sympathetic to every living creature, even spiders which she hates, I help with cat needs when so required.  Otherwise... I would far prefer they lived in the barn and did useful things like kill rats.  

The universal truth is: "cats don't care!"  There is no such thing as a guilty conscience in them and though they transgress mightily (leaving dead chipmunks at the door, inconveniently barfing up stuff, etc.) when their belly is full they sleep peacefully content.  This I believe is an example of grace - the enjoyment of undeserved blessings.  Cats illustrate it, Abram (later Abraham) embodies it.

Chapter 12:10-20 recounts a strange episode.  We must not overlook how it presages the day when Abraham's descendants will again be driven to Egypt to escape a famine, how they are mistreated at the arbitrary whim of a Pharaoh, and how God brings them out in His timing with great wealth.  Abraham, as would his descendants, plundered the Egyptians.  But the strangeness of the passage has to do with Abram's wife, Sarai.  

She was beautiful and an object of desire among the Egyptians who must have seen in her an exotic allure.  Abram picks up on this and proceeds to show the kind of "grasping at straws" decision making which is the hallmark of his life.  Just as he will take Hagar for a wife when God tarries in His promise, so here Abram demonstrates very little trust in God.  He acts like a "wheeler-dealer" and asks his long-suffering wife to say she is his sister and not his wife.  Long story shorter, the Pharaoh finds out, is not happy, fears what Abram's God will do to him and kicks him out of Dodge.  

Abram is a man of serious character defects.  His entire history in our scriptures is a sustained narrative of how he grows in his faith until, finally, he demonstrates it on a mountain altar with his son.  He did not cover himself in glory in Egypt (and evidently did not learn from the experience since he will do it again) nor was he very vocal in bearing witness to his God.  He was no Moses before Pharaoh.  My impression is that he made serious mistakes, sinful mistakes, and yet.... God blesses him.

God speaks to Abram on that high hill in Canaan and says - "look around you... see all these lands... they're yours.  Walk all around them... they are inhabited by fierce warriors of a depraved disposition... but I will protect you.  This land is yours and when I raise up from you a mighty tribe, this land is where they will live.  Sleep well Abram... be content with the promise and enjoy the immense wealth I have given you.  There is more to come!"

Now that is a paraphrase, of course, but in essence that is what the Lord said to Abram.  In spite of all of Abram's obvious defects... and, in fact, through those very defects... God showed Abram and He shows us that our blessings are not given us because of our merit.  The bounteous good fortune that comes to us is not ultimately because we worked for it... it is because God has blessed our work and made it prosperous.  Many men work hard all their lives and die with very little.  All good things come from God, one way or another, period.

God's dealings with His children, those whom He has chosen as He did Abram, are to learn, as did Abram, that faith means trusting in God's promises... which is the same thing as trusting in God's Person.  There's more to it of course but a living faith in God, through His Son, is always expressed in an attitude of "walking throughout the land knowing that one day it will be given me."  Living faith always sees the present in terms of the future as it is promised by God.  Living faith always recognizes that all the promises that are ours are completely undeserved... they are of grace and nothing else.

Understanding that and embracing it allows us to sleep content also... just like that dumb cat.

Genesis 11:1-12:9 When Peace, LIke a River....

Image: Peace, 2009, Covenant Village, Pa

Genesis 12:3 (NKJV) ³ I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Much has been said recently about the "homeless" problem throughout the nation but most especially in California.  According to the most recent statistics I've seen, over 130,000 people are "homeless" in that state... a little over a quarter of all the homeless people in the entire US.  I can understand why these folks migrated to that state.  Given a choice of San Francisco and Chicago, well, the weather alone would make it obvious.  But that is a lot of people.

I know that the cause of homelessness for each of these folks is unique to them and that over-simplification in searching for "cause" for the whole group is complex beyond measure.  But my thoughts at the moment are directed toward those who are "homeless" for reasons beyond their control and who hate it.  

Abram had something in common with such folk.  He was "homeless" because of Divine command and over the course of his long life we can see the yearning for a "home" characterizing his every moment.  Later on Israelite children were taught to remember that homelessness was the fabric of their origin.  "My father was a wandering Aramean..." (Deut. 26:5) they answered when they appeared before the altar of God.  They were "saved" out of Egypt by God's mighty hand but their beginning lay in the travels of Abram as he walked across hot sands and camped near flowing creeks that were not his own.... yet.

I hold that no man can know who he is (self understanding) apart from a sense of his own history.  The present always contains the past in some sense and so it is for human beings.  We need something stable... we need a place to rest that is ours alone... we yearn for "home", whatever that means to each one of us.  Abram was called to go out into the world and travel to a land that God would "show him."  At first he was not told that God intended to give him that land... that came later.  At first Abram and his family were "homeless" in the truest sense of the word.

To be "homeless" was dangerous indeed.  The homeless "camps" in California are not safe places to visit today.  Ancient Palestine was far worse.  Strangers were viewed with suspicion and greedy eyes watched their movements.  It would not have taken much for Abram and his family to fall prey to evil.  He had to trust in the Lord's protection.  He had to believe that God had put him in this situation for a purpose.  He had to believe that God was not going to desert him in his obedience.  Such is the nature of faith in every day and age... including ours.

But God had not just given him the command to "go".. He had also given him incredible promises.  God had actually told him that God intended to make him "a great nation!"  That had to mean a "home!"  God's purposes were to establish him... to stabilize him... to provide for him... and to give him that sense of "shalom" that comes when a person sits down on a rock or at a Thanksgiving dinner... views the blessings that have accrued to him or her... and knows that his deepest needs have been met.  He is where he belongs.  Then it is when "peace, like a river, attendeth his way."  

A man or woman who lives always in transition... who is always "becoming" but never arrives... is never really a "person."  Person-hood, self-identity and peace are intimately inherent in our sense of "place" or "home."  We like Abram are always anxious when we are "homeless."

It's not too long a stretch to see Abram's homeless wanderings as a metaphor for the journey of faith.  Each and everyone of us who have been called by Christ have also been told that, as a result of that very call, this world is not our home.... yet.  Like Palestine this world is still dominated by evil and greedy powers and is very dangerous.  But we have been given a great and wonderful promise.  Our Lord, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of God, has told us that we are co-heirs with Him of all creation.

As we look out into the world, no matter how precious our worldly homes are to us now, we, like the Israelites, have to remember that our origins are traced to that same "wandering Aramean."  What we have in this world now is passing... it will fade away... our "shalom", as beautiful as it is, is not fully present.  We are here to "go" and journey through this land... to expect to be blessed in our obedience to the Lord's command... to be a blessing to the world and all those who are in it... and to have our heart focused on that which is promised.  

And one day we will certainly and finally come "home."

Genesis 9:1-10:32 I Will Remember!

Image:  "Double", 2010, Canadian Rockies, outside Canmore

Genesis 9:12–13 (NKJV) ¹² And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: ¹³ I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.

"Oh, look at the rainbow!!!"  

What parent has not heard the delight in his or her child's voice as they see God's bow gracing the darkened clouds.  And it is not just children.  A particularly beautiful bow will prompt busy commuters to pull over to the shoulder to look (though not in Washington DC... don't even think it).  And if a bow is enough to interrupt a person's journey, how much more inviting is it when a person is able to reflect on it, to sit and gaze at its softly changing textures and let the warmth of the scene settle in our souls.  Rainbows can do that and I have often found a certain peace in absorbing the image.

That's why its there!

Genesis 8 & 9 are a mixture of glad tidings and sorrowful heart tugs.  For all practical purposes God says: "Here we go again" as He sets about to re-establish man on the earth.  Sadly, the "Here we go again" also applies to Ham's shameful conduct with his father.  The earth was washed clean in the flood but not all of Noah's family had their heart changed.

But God is above all and knows all.  He knows that man will again seek to build his own autonomous throne on earth.  He knows that violence is always present in the heart of men.  He makes another covenant with man and it is very similar to the first covenant made with Adam.  There is still the injunction to be fruitful and multiply (9:7).  There is the command to "bring forth abundantly in the earth" which is close to the original command to exercise "dominion."  But a very important change is made.  Man is no longer simply to exercise dominion over the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, etc.  Man is now to exercise dominion over himself.

In the covenant with Noah God lays the foundation for human government.  Mankind is to multiply and prosper on the earth but it is not to be chaotic such as it was before the flood.  Man is to do things decently and in good order.  To mankind now, as sub-rulers under God, is given the mandate to "do justly."  Man now is responsible to God for a just and ordered society.  

Such a society cannot be erected or be sustained if violence is not confronted and dealt with.  Justice, not vengeance (as boasted in by Lamech in Gen. 4), is to be the ground floor on which all human community is to be established.  It is the horizontal relationship that is to reflect man's vertical relation to God.  Lawlessness is simply incompatible with human flourishing as well as constituting contempt for mankind's God.  

God knew that mankind was going to pursue evil again... He took that into account.  He knew that all too soon the earth would be filled with violence again... but now there is a double guilt.  Not only is mankind to be guilty before God for the violence itself but mankind will be guilty before God for not doing what has to be done to punish violent offenders.  The earthly manifestation of man's guilt for not punishing lawlessness is that man will be subjected to more of it until the very essence of that society will crumble and pass from the pages of history in some fashion.

God sees the rainbow that he put in the sky to celebrate His covenant with creation.  He will not destroy the earth again even in the face of mankind's abominable disregard of His Person and His laws.  God will take action against lawless societies and though they may prosper for a time they will be dealt with.  Man can look on the rainbow and renew his hope in God's grace but looking on the rainbow should also renew us in our constant struggle to do justly.

Justice is to render to each offender the appropriate punishment for their sin.  At the top of the list is what we call "capital punishment" that is to be rendered for "capital murder."  This is God's will for man and any society which neglects it stands in peril of violent decay.  Yes, we must guard against hatred and bitterness.  We should weep for the souls of those who must justly be killed... but the weeping should not prevent us from doing our duty.

God remembers His covenant with Noah and so should we.

Genesis 6:9-8:22 A New Day, A New Promise

Image: "In The Beginning", 2009, Covenant Village, Pa

Genesis 8:21 (NKJV) ²¹ And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.

Noah, his family and all those creatures along with him were on that ark for a long time!  You have to wonder how that felt.  I know how happy I am to get out of my car, back home in my own drive way, after a long trip.  When Noah stepped foot off that ramp onto solid earth again he must have felt something like Neil Armstrong as he stepped onto the moon: "this is one small step for man... one huge leap for mankind!"  It had been a trying time but now with the waters receded, the creatures flowing back to their natural habitat and the glistening light lying soft on the countryside, it was time to rejoice.  

And that's what he did.  Noah built and altar and worshiped.  Adam was created on the sixth day of the week but his first full day of life was on the Sabbath.  There seems to be a parallel here.  Noah is preserved through 'death' to walk before God in holiness and peace so the first thing to do is worship.

It's useless and presumptuous to wonder about the animals he sacrificed.  God provided a ram for Abraham when he desperately needed one and God provided the creatures here.  The point is that in this worship God is pleased.  He "smells a soothing aroma."  God is Spirit and so we have to allow for the metaphor here.  But it is the "soothing" that counts.  God's anger... wrath... displeasure... ferocity... against the evil in men's hearts and the violence with which they filled the earth (6:13) was removed.  God's pleasure in His creation is restored and in His benevolence He makes a solemn promise to creation as a whole.

"Never again will I destroy every living thing as I have done!" (8:21)  This a new day... I have given my world and man in it a new start.  My first and primary Nature is to bless... not curse.  My greatest joy is in restoring what is broken and defaced... not in bringing destruction.  I will have my universe before Me and I will watch over it with care and attention.  When mankind again fills my beautiful world with violence I will judge him... mankind... and will remove his evil from it.  As with Noah I shall have my "righteous" ones who bear witness to the truth in their generation as Noah did in his (7:1).  But my world I will not destroy.

Rather this day, in which Noah bows to worship me, is a down payment, a token, a type of the "first day" that I will bring finally to this earth.  When My Son, the true Noah, brings His family out of the Ark of the Church and establishes them before Me in unchanging beauty and acceptance for all eternity thereafter.

Then there will be worship like no other.  There will be no further sacrifice because God has provided that already, but there will be rejoicing, humble astonishment and gratitude beyond description.

And on that day the promise that God made to creation in the days of Noah will be finally and wonderfully fulfilled.  The earth and the universe will not be destroyed but they will be changed.  

"What a wonderful change in (our lives) has been wrought..."  The old gospel song will have a whole new depth of meaning then.

Genesis 4:1-6:8 And Thus It Began....

Image: "Time", 2009, Covenant Village, PA

Genesis 4:26 (NKJV) ²⁶ And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the Lord.

Time, like an ever-rolling stream, Bears all its sons away; They fly forgotten, as a dream Dies at the opening day. Isaac Watts, Hymn: Our God Our Help In Ages Past

 

It seems to happen much more often now.  I talk with people, or I watch the news (mistake?), or I hear things and I shake my head and wonder: "How did things get this way?"  Between the daily deluge of blood shed in this country, the massive unrest and abuse that exists around the world, the rising tensions of economic pressures.... it seems like the earth is spinning out of control.

 

As far as man is concerned... it is.  These chapters teach us that as far as God is concerned... it is not out of control at all.

 

Genesis is one of the most beautifully crafted books in all of Scripture.  It is built around the literary device of "this is the history of" (Gen. 2:4) or "this is the genealogy of" (5:1, 6:9, 10:1, 11:10,27; 25:12, 19, 36:1, etc.).  Each section is a "day of" type of story about the time of a given "head" (say Noah) and the way Mankind developed during that "day" and how God dealt with Man in it.  This is very intentional.  Genesis 1 details the "days" of creation and serves as an introduction and literary pattern to the rest of the book which details the "days" in which God created His first people, the nation of Israel.  

 

In another sense, Genesis is the pattern for all of history.  It is very easy to see the Gospel of Matthew with its opening verses about the genealogy of Jesus as an intentional continuation of Genesis.  We can also see the Book of Acts as that history which occurred during the "Day" of the Lord.  We are living in that day.  The history we read in Genesis and on through the New Testament is OUR history.  We should find ourselves in it, understand our self-identity through it and recognize the continuing story of God's dealings with man present in all the world about us.

 

Genesis 4:1-6:8 explains a lot.

 

Cain is the first human child born into the world.  What an honor and privilege.  He was the natural heir to Adam and Eve and there is some indication that Eve saw him as the "Seed" who was coming.  Long story short:  Cain was no prize... in jealous rage he kills his brother.  The first death recorded in scripture is the hideous story of fratricide... and it was prompted by God's righteous distinction between Cain's offering and Abel's ????  This cannot be anything but insanity!  At the root of fallen mankind's psyche is the irrational pride of "self" - that's where everything we see in the fallen world around us had its headwaters and like Watts' "ever-rolling" stream time has crashed and splashed and carried fallen man down the path that Cain first started.

 

The paradigm for this sinful pride is the "Song of Lamech" (4:23-24)  Here is the theme of vengeance not justice. "Overkill" became the theme... control through terror... defining "respect" in terms of "fear."  The Godfather movies exemplify it.  The street gangs in our cities live by it.  This is the world around us.

 

The rising pressures of vanity, pride and terror along with the frustrations brought on by God's curses on mankind in Gen. 3 worked on our human forefathers.  More and more the sensitive ones among them began to realize just how ruined the world had become.  More and more they saw that their only hope was for relief from outside the world.  More and more men began to "call on the name of the Lord" for some hope of peace, security and forgiveness of sin.  Cain and Abel obviously knew about the need for worship, they brought offerings.  But at the close of chapter 4 we see the institution of formal worship which probably included liturgy and priestly ministrations.  The Holy Spirit moved some men and women to the pathway of seeking God and walking in His ways.  

 

Here is where the idea of "remnant" is introduced.  In every age God ensures that He always will have a witness.  In every age there will be those who are the family of Noah even if it seems that the entire world is given over to depravity.  God never abandoned His entire creation nor did He ever forget His creation purposes.  This age, along with all the previous ill-begotten and rotten ages that have passed, will have its "Day" and then that "Day" will pass and God and His Remnant will remain.

 

Genesis paints the picture of the ever-flowing stream of fallen men in a fallen world.  Its realism is self-evident in the ease with which we see it reflecting the world about us now.  Its message is Good News:  God is the constant in all of it.  He can be trusted because all the evil "Day" has an end and God and His people will continue.

Genesis 3:1-24 Love Among the Ruins....

Image: "Ruins", 2009, Covenant Village, Pa

Genesis 3:15 (NKJV) ¹⁵ And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”

"Where a multitude of men breathed joy and woe... Long ago; " Robert Browning, Love Among the Ruins, 1855

 

As Genesis 2 is a never failing source of smiles for me so Genesis 3 rekindles sorrow on each successive reading.  There is no sense, whatsoever, in playing "what might have been"... nor does it do any good to vainly sneer at Adam and secretly think "I would have done better!"  Genesis 3 exposes our human frailty in the face of temptation like no other source.  Mankind, even in his state of perfection, proved powerless against the most deadly temptation of all.... personal pride.  So sad... but so true.

 

There is much in this chapter to ponder.  Eve succumbed first to the tempter's hiss but we must carefully notice that the effects of sin did not fall on either her or Adam until after Adam took the fruit from her and ate.  Then their "eyes" were opened and "they know they were naked" (vs. 7).  Shame enters the world.  The "delight" of "nakedness" (Gen. 2:25) was stripped from them.  No longer is man naturally open to the world... henceforth man lives with a secret self and a public self and very seldom are they identical... and often they are not even close.

 

Every one of the "delights" opened to man in chapter 2 is directly and immediately affected. 

1- Rather than delighting in fellowship with God, natural men now hide "themselves from the presence of the LORD God" (vs. 8). 

2- No longer can fallen man delight in himself as the beloved of the Lord bearing His image before the world because man now knows, up close and personal, what "good and evil" really mean.  Now "evil" is lodged in his heart... only to be dislodged by a sovereign act of the Holy Spirit.

3- No longer is man's vocation a natural source of delight because it is now under God's curse and every aspect of man's endeavors meet with resistance and frustration. (v 18)

4 - Man now finds that "delighting in the helper comparable" to him is set in the midst of spiritual struggle and warfare.  Marriage relationships are subject to tensions and competing agendas (vs. 16) and though marriage remains as a great blessing on godly couples yet it, like vocation itself, can be difficult and heart-breaking.

5- Delighting in nakedness was covered above.

 

What we see in Genesis 3 are "ruins"... there is life among those ruins but it is not the "life" that Adam and Eve had prior to sin.  The effect of sin, every sin and all sin, is to bring corruption and misery and death.  Sin happens... therefore corruption, misery and death happen.... it's just that simple and just that complex.

 

But, shining like a glimmering charcoal nugget in the bottom of a fire pit after the fire has long died out is Genesis 3:15.  God tells fallen man... at the very point of their sin... while they are still reeling from the devastation that they had wrought upon the earth, ... that he has not given up on them.  

 

The curse on the serpent (vs. 14-15) must be read as both judgment and promise.  The serpent has been manifested as the enemy of mankind.  He has arrogantly set himself above them and sought to displace them from God's historical equation.  But God has humbled him... cast him down from his pretense of glory... he will be more cursed that all other creation ... for he will be humiliated, forced to slither like a snake on his belly... eating dust (vs. 14) all the days, centuries, eons of his life.  What we must see here is that Satan is already, in the Garden, a defeated foe.  He will never be able to halt God's purposes for mankind.

 

Secondly we must see the promises of verse 15.  God did not give up on Eve... or on woman... she will have her "seed".  She will not be cut off from the land of the living but rather, on a great day yet to come, another woman will humiliate Satan by giving birth to her ultimate Seed.  There will come a Man who will not fail as Adam failed but who will resist all temptation, do justly, walk humbly, do great things and in a complete reversal of Adam's example, will give Himself up for His Bride, the Church, and take upon Himself the just penalty that She deserved.  

 

And on that day, Satan will certainly "bruise His heel" but the Seed shall deliver a death blow to Satan's head.  That's love... when God who was the offended party in all of the destruction that Adam and Eve brought upon His beautiful Creation... as He surveyed the "ruins" of the Garden and the defaced beauty that it now showed forth... still loved His creation and man, His creature.

 

This is love... not that we love God but that He first loved us.... all the way back in Eden as He walked and talked among the ruins with our first parents.

 

Oh, the sorrow that the image evokes... Oh, the wonder and gratitude that the love pictured there brings forth out of our once stony hearts.

 

You have sinned.... but I love you more than your sin... and I will do something about it.

Genesis 2:4-25 Garden of Delights

Image: "Barn", 2009, Covenant Village, PA

Genesis 2:8 (NKJV) ⁸ The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.

What we often forget is that God created man to be happy.  Perhaps that word 'happy' is too ambiguous because of how it is used in our culture.  Perhaps we should substitute some other words like: "flourishing" or "content" or, the one I like best, "delighted."  Man was created to live "delightedly."  That's more like it.

Everything we need to know about living such a life is either given us or implicit in Genesis 2.  Sin (chapter 3) has cut unregenerate, non-born-again, man off from these delights - either absolutely or mostly.  But the astonishing work of the Lord Jesus Christ has made it possible for man to gain delight and the Holy Spirit working in and through us makes it happen.  I love thinking about the things I read in this chapter.

First - man was created by God... directly... He had God's breath "breathed into his nostrils."  Of all the creatures he was given the breath of life.  Nothing similar to this intimate act is repeated with the other creatures.  Here is man's first and primary source of delight.

Man is created to delight in close, intimate fellowship with his Creator.  

Man was created to "walk humbly with his God" (Micah 6:8).  This is the well spring from which all other "delights" flow.  Apart from this fellowship man is a boat drifting on stormy seas.  Apart from knowing and loving God man finds no other pleasure ultimately satisfying.  (Jer 9:24)  Space prevents me saying much more but it would be easy.  Knowing and loving God is the ground and foundation for all human happiness and it is vain to search for it elsewhere (Ecclesiastes).  Yet knowing God should register in our lives as our greatest happiness.  If it does not then we are idolatrous to that extent.

Second - man was created by God as special to God.  The intimacy that man has with God is a two way street.  No other creature is loved by God as man is loved by Him.  Other scriptures speak of us as "royal", as being "children of the Most High." 

Man is created to delight in himself as the object of God's love.

Much is said of men and women struggling with their own self-identity.  Here is where that struggle ends.  Here is where the balance between humble awareness of our own faults and arrogant self-pride is found.  Man was designed to delight in Himself as the bearer of God's image.  Far from being the ground of selfishness, knowing ourselves as such is the ground of confidence.  We can undertake all that we are given to do with energy and hope because we know who we are.  We are God's special creature whom He loves.

Third - man was created to delight in his vocation. 

Adam was created and immediately placed into the garden and given instructions to "tend and keep it."  (vs. 15)  Far from being created as a 'couch potato', man is designed for work... for productive, fulfilling, delightful work.  Sin brought "toil" into the picture but we must not let that obscure a source of delight.  As a master craftsman delights in building a beautiful table or desk, as he enjoys seeing it come together before his eyes and in his hands, as he smiles when he passes his touch over its silky finish... so, man was made to delight in his work.  

Man cannot really delight in work when fulfilling service is absent.  Each person is called to specific vocations in their lives... God's Kingdom is a varied as is humanity itself.  But every person can find meaning and purpose in the work that God gives them to do.  

Fourth - man was created to delight in his companion as helper.

Adam looked at Eve when she first was brought to him and he said, in paraphrase, "Now this is more like it!"  She was perfect for him.  She was "just right" for him.  No other creature could complete his humanity as did his wife.  The same could be said reciprocally of Eve.  She delighted in her husband as he delighted in her.  

Man was not created to be an island... he was not created to be alone.  Not so much that other people fill our emotional needs... Adam's intimate relation to God was all he needed in that regard.  But individual man is lacking what he needs to fulfill his human potential.  We all need help to do what God put us here to do.  That's not sin... that's creation.  We need each other and we should delight in the 'perfect' helper that God gives us to fulfill us in this regard.

Fifth and last - man was created to delight in nakedness.

Takes a bit of explanation and I am not advocating living in a nudist colony... far from it.  Rather, man was created to live in relation to God and to each other is purity and vulnerability and without shame.  A man is not truly free nor can he really delight in his life when he is always afraid people will find out his secret self.  Delight comes when man is able to openly confess his faults and discover that he is still embraced and loved.  Again, much more can be said.

I love thinking about this chapter... it moves me to seek delight where God wants me to find it rather than where the world tries to lure me.