MORNING MESSAGE: John Cline
Text: Genesis 1:31-2:25
Reader: Diana Harcus
I have reached that point in life where I enjoy reading a good book, often a novel. But I need to start from the beginning for without knowing how the story in that book begins, I am seldom able to make sense of the events that later happen in it. In fact, I often find myself flipping back to an earlier portion of a book to understand what is going on in the section I am reading later in the book. If I don’t, I might get lost or miss the gist of the story. Worse would be me ploughing ahead through a book and then adopting an unwarranted conclusion, a thing that could happen if I didn’t know how the story of the book began. This principle should certainly also be true for people reading in the Bible how the story begins concerning God’s creation of, interactions with, and ultimate redemption for human beings. The Bible starts with Genesis, a word that literally means, “in the beginning”. Many people avoid reading Genesis because of its complicated and, frankly, hard to believe stories. But, if you don’t read the Bible from the beginning, in Genesis, you won’t understand its storyline. Basically, the Bible’s storyline is this: “in the beginning” things were “very good” in God’s eyes. His creation was perfect. But then humans fell into sin, creation was fractured, and sorrow and separation became the norm. So, God, in His mercy, set in place a plan to restore creation and humanity back to how it was “in the beginning”, i.e. perfect, with humans and creation in full harmony with God. If we ignore the beginning of the Bible, and particularly chapters 1-11 of Genesis, chapters that many dismiss as “myths” or “prehistory”, we won’t understand the rest of the book, and particularly how it unfolds.
Pollster George Barna recently published a poll his Barna Group had taken of American churches and in it, the survey shows that only 21 percent of evangelical Christians and 37 percent of pastors fully believe the Bible or, as Barna calls it, “have a truly biblical worldview”. This is because over the last 200 years, much of Western society has accepted the claims by naturalistic scientists, evolutionists, and critics of the Bible, the Church, and the faith that the universe is billions of years old and that the storyline of Genesis 1–11 should be treated as folly and to be dismissed. As people, churches, schools, denominations, mission organizations, etc. have rejected a literal history for Genesis, other parts of the Bible which teach about marriage, sex, ethics, the physical resurrection of Jesus and the factualness of Christ’s Second Coming, have also become widely doubted, challenged, and even mocked. But there are good reasons scientifically, historically, and rationally to believe Genesis 1-11. Voices such as belonging to the learn-ed scientist, Dr. Don Bierle, who was the guest speaker for our 50th Anniversary weekend 10 years ago, and who claim that Genesis 1-11 can be trusted as history are dismissed as being those of quacks. However, the people doing the dismissing generally only engage with one another and do not read the published findings and opinions of those who read Genesis 1-11 as history. Personally, I am now at the point where, when reading in the Bible and I come to a difficult-to-understand passage, I no longer conclude what I used to, that the biblical writers either made a mistake or were just plain wrong. Now, I am at the place where I realize that if brilliant, certainly much smarter than me, Christians have come to peace about a difficult topic or passage, that the problems I am having lie with me and my ignorance or faulty knowledge. So, I habitually now do research, digging deep for more knowledge and pertinent information as to that topic, because I realize that others have done the necessary research, and so I turn to their insights. For example, biblical scholars who have studied the religions of the Ancient Near East people groups, such as the Canaanites who resided in the Promised Land when the Israelites led by Joshua marched into the land, well, those researchers before me have explained that, contrary to what we might think, God was not a genocidal monster who ordered the Israelites to annihilate the Canaanites. In fact, in those verses where that seems to be the case, we can usually find just a few verses later God telling the Israelites not to marry the Canaanites. Why not? Because He knew how demanding, evil and capricious those murdering, child-sacrificing gods were. So, God ordered the Israelites to drive the Canaanites out of the Promised Land in order to preserve and save them. God’s concern for His people’s well-being was not mean. In any case, that is how we must treat those difficult-to-comprehend events described in Genesis 1-11, as well. Instead of seeing them as myths or prehistory, many learn-ed people, theologians, scientists, archaeologists, and historical researchers are now seeing their value, factualness, and essential importance to the fuller story contained within the Bible. So, in these next few months, I will be preaching to you from Genesis. Hopefully, I will help you to value the “in the beginning” of the Bible’s storyline. Believe me, I know these are not easy passages to preach through, so please pray for me – seriously. We won’t be rushing through them, lest we miss the fuller story that has been set in their chapters. So, let’s start this morning reading about “in the beginning”, because by reading and understanding it, we can hopefully then understand more clearly our faith, our future, and God’s ways and mind.
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day. Thus, the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. (Genesis 1:31,2:1)
Everything was “very good” in the beginning, including we humans who are made in the “image of God” and thus we are the only images of God other humans will ever see. But, as the apostle Paul writes, we are living in a world which is no longer perfect.
For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope, we were saved. (Romans 8:19-24a)
Human freewill and sin – God honoured, which resulted in creation being subjected to “frustration”. However, did you note that there is “hope” mentioned concerning that frustration? That “hope” lies in Jesus, that through him, creation will be restored, and we will be saved. Hope lies in Christ’s restoration of everything back to perfection. In the meantime, however, we live in a fallen world, though even in this imperfect world, we can find rest. We read,
By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so, on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. (Gen 2:2,3)
God offers that “rest” for us. But did you notice that the typical concluding phrase, “and there was evening, and there was morning, another day”, the phrase used on the other days of creation, does not appear at the end of day seven? Biblical scholars assert that this is because there was no conclusion to day seven. In other words, we are still living in day seven, that day of rest for God in which He, while having finished His creating, is still involved in human lives, giving us rest and hope. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews puts it thus:
And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “On the seventh day God rested from all his works.” (Hebrews 4:3a,4)
God finished His work of creating on the sixth day but now He invites His people to enter into His rest, a place of peace and quiet in the midst of all the hurting and brokenness around us. Again, in Hebrews,
There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience. For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. (Hebrews 4:9-14)
Jesus is described as our Sabbath, our seventh day rest. God sees our need – and acts. Going back to Paul’s words in Romans 8, we read,
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
So, no matter how bad things might be, Jesus is our rest. No matter how broken creation is, Jesus is its rest. No matter how awful our lives have been, Jesus, our rest, is with us. He will never let us go.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? (Romans 8:35)
No matter how much loss and suffering we have, Jesus is our rest.
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Romans 8:37)
Things will get better and God’s perfect creation will be restored. In the meantime, we keep on living, working, breathing, interacting, and doing what we know we should do, for the Lord has us in His hands. Good friends of ours, missionaries, a strongly devoted family in following and proclaiming Jesus, just this week on Friday, informed us that their oldest son, in his late ‘30’s, married and with an 8-year-old son, passed away from turbo cancer. Our hearts are broken for them, and then they added in their message, “Oh, and by the way, our youngest son is getting married on Sunday” (that’s today). Life! Heartbreak and joy intermixed in the ups and downs. But our friends know in Jesus they can find their rest, and that their son has entered into ultimate rest. There is an unrequited longing in our human souls for that kind of rest, and for a perfect world without sin or sorrow or suffering. For people who read and believe the Bible, including Genesis 1-11, there is an understanding that such a place did exist. It was a paradise in which death did not occur, and in which all nature existed in harmony. We read about it in Genesis 2, “in the beginning”.
This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:4-9)
Genesis 1 describes the broad picture of creation and at the end of that narrative, humans are created. Genesis 2 zooms in on some of the events in that creation, giving additional details, and helping us to see that humanity is special among all the rest of creation. According to Genesis, the form of the first man was “very good”, having been created from the dust of the ground, but then God breathed life into that first man, transforming him into a living being, or “creature,” or “soul.” All of life originated with God, but human life began with the personal breath of God. Without God, we simply would not live. We need His breath in us. The name Adam is directly from the Hebrew ā’dām, which literally means “man.” This name reflects the dust from which we were formed for the Hebrew word for ground is adamah. God placed that first man in the Garden of Eden and commanded the man to work, care for, and tend to that garden. So, work, as created by God, was part of the “very good”. In the Garden of Eden were all kinds of trees, many of them “good for food”. In the middle of the garden God placed two trees which would become very famous, the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil”, which figures prominently in the “fall” events we will look at next week, and the “tree of life” which will appear again at the end of time when Jesus comes again to restore God’s paradise. The apostle John:
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. (Revelation 22:1,2)
The Garden of Eden will be restored at the end of human history and its “tree of life” will feature prominently in it, for there will be no more illnesses or dying at that time. Near the start of the Book of Revelation, Jesus also mentions the tree of life:
“Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God”. (Rev. 2:7)
So, the effects of the “tree of life” are available to us now, to anyone who puts their trust in the Lord and listens to what the Spirit is saying. We don’t need to wait until the end of time to receive that gift of life God has provided. It is available now to anyone who will accept it, echoing the theme of God’s rest being available to all. Returning now to the Garden of Eden story in Genesis 2, we read this:
A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. (Genesis 2:4-14)
So, a river flowed from the Garden of Eden and divided into four rivers that went out to the world. The location of the Garden of Eden is not knowable, due to the Great Flood which would later come and change the earth. But, if you go to Sri Lanka, you can find a mountain the locals claim is the spot of the Garden of Eden, for on top of that mountain is a human footprint in the mud, which locals claim to have been made from Adam. If you go to Africa, people there may tell you that because the land of Cush (another name for Ethiopia) was mentioned in Genesis 2, that the Garden of Eden must have been there. If you go to Iraq, the place of ancient Assyria and the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, you will find people there claim their land was the place of the Garden of Eden. And, if you go to Jerusalem, people may point to the Gihon Spring and to Adam’s footprint encased in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as proofs that the Garden of Eden was there. So, who knows? All I know was that the Garden of Eden was not in Edmonton’s River Valley, as pretty as that might be. But the Garden of Eden was a real place. That I know to be so because of the biblical revelation that God plans to restore it at the end of time and that its “tree of life” will bring healing to the nations, in other words, to all people.
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” (Genesis 2:15-17)
This is called “foreboding”, setting up an important event still to come.
The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” (Genesis 2:18)
This was the only time anything in creation God did not call “good”. It was not “good” for the man to be alone. God would remedy that.
Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So, the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So, the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. (Genesis 2:19-25)
By the way, it is not true that women have one more rib than men. Also, by the way, it is not true that Adam is of greater importance than Eve just because he was created first. Nor, is it true that Eve is of greater importance than Adam as the women who had come out of the cult of Diana/Artemis and had been converted and were now in the church in Ephesus that Timothy was pastoring were then teaching. That is why in that context, and in that context only, Paul didn’t want women teaching (1 Timothy 2:13,14). In Christ, both men and women are dependent on each other (1 Corinthians 11:11,12).
So, the Garden of Eden represented something more than just a location. In the Hebrew, the term Gan Eden means “Heaven” or “Paradise”. So, the Garden of Eden is a place where God resides, a sinless paradise where Adam and Eve had perfect communion with God the Father. The story of paradise lost in the Garden of Eden explains human struggles and creation’s brokenness. But it is just the beginning of the storyline of the Bible, which will end with Paradise Restored, through Jesus. Until then, we have two tasks to do: take care of God’s creation and bring the image of God to our world. When a follower of Jesus is doing what God wants, others may, no, certainly will, notice that with appreciation. Will you be that kind of follower of Christ’s? Let’s pray…
