Sinful Humanity

Two Brothers - Genesis 4; 1 John 3:12; Hebrews 11:4; Hebrews 12:24

It didn’t take long for the reality of life outside the Garden to settle in. Gone were those tranquil evenings and the long walks through the perfect garden. Here to stay was the toil and tears of a broken and fallen world.

Though outside the Garden, God still had a mandate and a plan for Adam and Eve, to be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth. They began to have children, first Cain who grew up to be a farmer and then Abel, who grew to be a shepherd. They had other sons and daughters too. 

Adam and Eve had no idea the amount of suffering and pain their choice to eat the forbidden fruit would cost them and all generations to come. The harsh consequences of their choice would soon become very plain to them as they watch the effect it had on their own boys. They raised them to know God, the Creator, who gave them breath. They told them of the walks in the Garden, of the Fall, and of God’s promise of redemption. They told them to worship God by offering up a sacrifice from a pure heart.

One day, Cain brought some fruit from his harvest to offer to God for his offering, Abel, by faith, brought the first born of his flock for a sacrifice. God rejected Cain’s offering and had favor on Abel’s, teaching that pure worship is defined by God, not by us. This made Cain very mad, for he had aligned himself with the evil one. 

God asked Cain, “why are you mad? If you do what is right, won’t it be accepted? Be aware, sin is crouching at your door. It desires you but you must rule over it!”

God warned Cain about his anger, but Cain disregarded God’s voice. He set up a meeting with Abel in the field on day, and when Abel showed up, Cain committed an evil deed and murdered him! This is the first murder in all of human history!

Shortly after, God asked Cain, “where is your brother?” “I don’t know, am I my brother’s keeper?” Cain replied.

“What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground! You are now cursed from the ground and it will not produce for you. You are now to be considered a vagabond and a fugitive on this earth.”

“This punishment is too great for me, I cannot bear it! You have removed me from my land and from your face. All who see me will kill me!”

“No! If anyone kills you, vengeance will be taken on them sevenfold!” said the Lord!

And God put a mark of protection on Cain and he left the presence of the Lord and moved east of Eden. In one day, Adam and Eve lost two of their sons, one to murder one to exile. The burden of eating that fruit is unbearable.

Not long after, Adam and Eve had another son and called him Seth. Eve said, “God has appointed for me to have another son instead of Abel, for Cain has killed him. It was after this that people began to call on the name of the Lord. Eve knew that God would be faithful to His promise to send a Savior through her seed to overcome the evil one. Abel’s blood cried out of the ground for vengeance, but the Savior’s blood would cry out for redemption. 

The Flood - Genesis 4-9; Hebrews 11:7; 1 Peter 3:20; 2 Peter 2:5

Adam and Eve continued to have children, and their children had children. Soon the number of humans began to grow rapidly, and Adam and Eve’s sin spread throughout all generations.

As their numbers grew, mankind continued to drift farther and farther from the Garden and the presence of God. Although they were created in the image of God, they chose to disobey God and pursue their own devices. They began acting out of violence with one another. God saw the wickedness of the people and knew that every intention of their hearts were sinful.

His heart was broken and He regretted that He had ever made mankind.

“I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things  and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”

But a man named Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord!

Noah had a close relationship with the Lord and was the only blameless man on all the earth! So God told Noah, “I am going to cover the earth with a flood, destroying every living thing. But I will keep you safe!”

The Lord told Noah to build an ark, a really big boat. God said to him, “Make a boat from wood and seal it with tar, inside and out. Then build many decks and stalls for animals inside of it. I promise to keep you safe in this ark! A pair of every kind of animal–a male and female–will come to you to be kept alive. You will also bring seven pairs of animals that I approved for you to eat and sacrifice. And remember, take enough food for your family and for all the animals.”

As Noah and his boys were building the ark, Noah preached to the people to repent and turn to the Lord for safety. They mock and ridiculed him for his flood warning, as it had never rained before.

Noah followed God’s plan precisely and when it was complete, God brought the animals to the ark. When it was fully loaded and Noah and his family boarded the ark, the rains came. Water burst up from the ground and poured down from the sky, covering the entire earth! Everyone and everything outside of the ark was destroyed, only Noah and his family survived.

For 40 days and 40 nights it rained down, but then it stopped. For months Noah’s ark floated along as the floodwaters began to subside. Noah sent out a raven and it quickly returned. Later he sent out a dove, and he was overjoyed that it returned with an olive leaf in its beak.  Finally one day, after the ark had settled on top of mount Ararat, Noah sent out a dove, when it didn’t return he looked out and saw dry land.

God said, “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, your sons and their wives and all the animals. Fill the earth and multiply.”

The first thing Noah did when he left the ark was to build and alter and sacrifice one of every clean animal unto the Lord. God was pleased with the aroma and said, “I will establish this covenant with you, that I will never again curse the earth, destroying every living thing with a flood, even though people’s thoughts and actions are bent toward sin from birth.”

“I have put all the animals under your control, but have put the fear of man in them. You can use them for food, but you must not eat the lifeblood in the animal. I will require the blood of anyone who takes another person’s life. Life is in the blood and all of life belongs to me!”

God also said, “See I have placed this rainbow in the sky whenever it rains. It will be a reminder to me of the covenant I have made with you and all generations of mankind.”

Even in His wrath against sin, God provided a way of escape. For Noah it was the ark. For us today, God has provided His Son Jesus Christ as our way of escape. Do you trust Him?

(Today’s post is adapted from: The Storyformed Way is a derivative of The Story of God © Copyright 2003-2006 Michael Novelli & Caesar Kalinowski, all rights reserved. This derivative was created and distributed with permission. You are free to use, remix, and build upon this work non-commercially if you attribute Soma Communities. For details, see creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/)

In The Beginning...

Perhaps the most captivating words ever written to invoke a sense of curiosity, wonder and attentiveness. The “beginning” begs questions. When was it? How did we get here? How do I balance theology and science? Is the Bible right or is modern scientific teaching?

We often want to run straight into the Creation/Evolution debate and in the defensive posture we miss the most exciting part. Think of when you were a child and your parents grabbed a book and began to read…”once upon a time.” What was your response? Or when you are watching Star Wars and the prologue begins, “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…” what emotions were invoked?

Excitement? An expectation of thrill and wonder? Precisely!

Though I am one who enjoys a good philosophical dialogue or a theological debate, which there is a time for that. But first, opening up the Bible and reading the first words should invoke the curiosity of our hearts as we begin to read the Story of God!

Do you remember the scene from Princess Bride, when the little boys grandfather says he has come to read him a book on his sick day from school? The boy’s first response was, “this is going to be boring!” and he as full of complaints, even critical of his grandfather. However, as the story progressed he was drawn into it. In the end, the boy asks his grandfather if he would like to come read it to him again.

A good story will draw you in, it will captivate you and you will desire it more. Too often we forget that the Bible is the Story of God. It is the Story He wrote before the foundations of the World. It is the Story of His love for you. Come to it with wonder and expectation. Allow yourself to be overcome with the story. Return to that time as a child that you could not wait for story time. Listen to the voice of the Author describe the Hero and reveal His love for you.

In the beginning…

The Artist was there. Nothing else. It was an immense dark canvas of emptiness. He gazed into the void and saw something. A glimmer in His eyes and the smile on His face revealed the joy He saw in the expanse.

If you could’ve looked into that canvas at that moment, you would have saw…nothing. The void would be too great. Imagine looking into non-existence itself and trying to see something. You could not, for you are finite.

Yet the infinite eternal Artist could see beyond the emptiness. He saw. And what He saw was amazing, so amazing that He wanted to share it with others before He even began His work. He spoke a word and a host of angelic beings became the audience for the Artist.

The angelic host watched in amazement as the Artist began with a Word! He spoke “LET THERE BE LIGHT!” The bystanders could not even describe the experience. His Word was like a song, so beautiful and so powerful. As He spoke, it wasn’t just saying the word; it was as if His Word was the substance He was speaking. The brilliance of the glory of the Artist illuminated the dark canvas for the very first time. He separated the light and the darkness and created the first day. Time, as we know it, began in an instant, with a Word. The Angels could not hold back as they watched, but they sang praises to the Artist as He created.

Each day the angelic crowd waited in anticipation to watch as the Artist created with the power of His Word. On day two, His Word separated the oceans from the sky. He gathered the waters and made dry land. On the dry land, He spoke into existence plants and trees, which produced seeds according to their kind and this completed the third day.

On day four, the Artist stepped back from the earth and hung ornaments in the sky that brilliantly lit up the tapestry of the universe. The next day, the Artist filled the waters and seas with fish, the sky with birds, and the dry land with all kinds of animals. After each day, the Artist stepped back and reflected on His work and said, “This is good!”

With every new day, came new chorus of praise and worship. The Angles rejoiced in bringing glory to the Artist.

The First Humans

On the morning of the sixth day, the Artist’s demeanor changed from the joyous and happy expression He had been creating with. For a moment there was a deep sorrow, pain and hesitation. Only those angels close enough could hear the still small voice of the Artist that willed a “YES!” With that, the Artist’s joyfulness returned and He motioned for the crowd to see what was coming next.

The Artist spoke to Himself, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, and they will care for my creation.” To the surprise of the crowd, He knelt down on the dry land that He spoke into existence. He used His hands and got dirty and formed a man from the dust of the earth. He leaned over him and breathed his own breath into him, giving him life. The Artist called this man Adam.

Later, the Artist made the first woman, Eve, from one of Adam’s ribs, to be a companion and helper for him. Male and female, the Artist created them to be in His image, the Imago Dei.

The Artist created a very special garden, Eden, for Adam and Eve to attend to. It was the perfect paradise for the first humans. It had everything the ever needed or could desire. In the center of the garden, the Artist, planted two very special trees. One was the Tree of Life and the other was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Artist established only one rule for them, “you can eat of any tree in the garden, except for the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” With the warning that if they did eat from it, they would surely die.

From the very first day, Adam and Eve realized that the Artist created them to be with Him. They were amazed that the Artist spent so much time with them. It wasn’t that the Artist needed them, because He didn’t need anything…He was the Artist. They were overwhelmed that He would desire to spend time with them. The Artist would spend time on the cool of the day walking and talking with them. He created them to live abundant life under His protection forever.

Now the canvas was no longer empty, but full. Not just with brilliant colors, but with life! The Artist had left His fingerprints all throughout creation, but especially in those He created in His Image to reflect Him. He reflected on His handiwork and said, “this is VERY GOOD!”

The Artist rested on the seventh day and set it as a day of rest.

Disruption

 With each day of creation, one of the Angles, Lucifer, watched the angelic host praise the Artist as He displayed His creativity. This is what the angels were created for. The praise He received was intoxicating to Lucifer. He wanted the other angels, and even the Artist himself, to praise him.

Lucifer gathered the angelic host and claimed, I will be like the Artist, I will sit upon His throne and I will be God. A third of the angels began to follow Lucifer. Lucifer and his angels rebelled against the Artist.  Any rebellion against God is called sin. The Artist, God, cannot and will not allow sin in His presence. So God, expelled Lucifer, now calling him Satan, and his followers, now called demons, to the earth waiting for their final judgment.

It didn’t take long for Satan to own his new persona. He knew how much God, the Artist, loved His creation, especially those humans. If he could get Adam and Eve to worship him then he could replace God. Satan knew that all he really needed to do is get them to disobey God’s one command. Disobedience, like rebellion, is a sin against God and would require punishment.

Satan took control of a serpent and entered the garden of Eden. He found Eve and said, “Did God really say you must not eat of any of the fruit of the garden?”

Eve told him, “No, we can eat of any tree in the garden. Only we cannot eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and evil, or even touch it, or we will die.”

The serpent responded with, “you won’t die! God knows your eyes will be opened when you eat it. You will become like God, knowing everything, both good and evil.”

When she saw that it was good it looked and delicious it was and that it would make her wise, she took it and ate it. She offered it to Adam and he ate it too. Adam and Eve both chose not to believe God, the Artist who gave them breath, but disobeyed and ate the fruit. Instantly their eyes were opened and their hearts filled with shame and fear. They ran and gathered fig leaves to cover their nakedness.

Later that evening, they heard God walking in the garden and, for the first time, they hid from Him. “Where are you?” God called to Adam. “I heard you coming and was afraid because I was naked, so I hid,” replied Adam. God said, “Why are you ashamed of being naked? Did you eat the fruit I told you not to eat?” Adam pushed the blame on Eve saying, “It was the woman you gave me. She gave me the fruit.”

Then God said to Eve, “How could you do this?” Eve blamed the serpent saying, “the serpent tricked me into eating the fruit.”

So God said to the serpent, “because you have done this evil thing, you will crawl on your belly and will eat dust all the days of your life. You will be the enemy of the woman and her children. You will bite His heel, but He will crush your head.” Here God gave the very first promise of redemption.

God said to Eve, “because of your rebellion you will experience pain in child birth and your desire will be against your husband.”

God said to Adam, “because you disobeyed my command and listened to your wife, the ground will be cursed under you. Through pain and toil you will work it and one day you will return to the dust you came from.”

The Artist’s heart was broken over their disobedience, but He could not overlook what they had done. God always does what is good, right and perfect. His perfection required that there is punishment for rebellion. So God threw Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, lest they eat of the Tree of Life and live forever in their sin. No longer following God’s way, they were removed from His protection and subject to pain, sickness and even death.

However, God continued to love Adam and Eve. He sacrificed an animal and made skins to cover their nakedness. Their sin led to the death of an animal to provide coverings. Little did they realize the picture that God, the eternal Artist, was painting with this sacrifice as one day He would send His own Son to provide the ultimate sacrifice for their sins, covering them with His own righteousness.

[This week's story taken from: Genesis 1-3; Job 38; Isaiah 14; Revelation 12; Psalm 8; Psalm 19]

(Today’s post is adapted from: The Storyformed Way is a derivative of The Story of God © Copyright 2003-2006 Michael Novelli & Caesar Kalinowski, all rights reserved. This derivative was created and distributed with permission. You are free to use, remix, and build upon this work non-commercially if you attribute Soma Communities. For details, see creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/)

Heart Burn...The Good Kind

Have someone ever told you something so scandalous that you couldn’t believe it to be true? Not they exaggeration, or hyperbolic language, but a statement of fact that seems utterly ridiculous and therefore your initial reaction is to deem it untrue.

Say I told you that a man in his 60’s who is a father and a grandfather is now a woman. Oh wait, that story is being told all over the media and internet with Bruce Jenner’s Vanity Fair cover story. Once a subject that would never have been given credence is now being preached in such a way that you are considered an idiot if you don’t accept it.  However, this post is not my opinion about that particular topic (maybe some other article), but about your feelings and thoughts at something scandalous.

What if the scandal isn’t challenging societal norms or morals? What if it is challenging the very way we view the world? What about when science debunked the accepted view that the earth is flat? Only to realize that science was just telling people what God had already stated in Isaiah 40:22. The significance of understanding the world is a sphere changes everything. Sailors, who were once afraid of falling off the edge of the world, now could sail around the world. And so many other changes.

What responses do we have? Dismiss it? Alarm? Fear? Uncertainty? Unsettled? Hopeful? Admiration? As different as our personalities are will provoke different emotions to news that is hard for most to understand.

The Road to Emmaus

In Luke 24:13-35 we encounter two disciples who were wrestling with news that completely ruptured their understanding of reality. So much so that they didn’t know what to think about it. People they knew and trusted were now telling them the unbelievable. Jesus has risen from the dead! People don’t just rise up from the dead. Dead is dead. It’s final. Or at least that is what reality dictated. This story…well that is scandalous!

While they were walking a stranger met them and began talking with them. They told him of the scandal and the absurdity of it. They didn’t realize they were talking to the risen Lord Himself! They were so convinced that it wasn’t true that He called them “fools” and began to teach them about how the Scriptures all pointed to the truth that this would happen.

For the next couple of hours, Jesus, still a stranger to them, shared from Moses and the prophets how everything pointed to Christ. From beginning to end, the Bible is the redemptive story of God through Jesus Christ.

Breaking Bread

 

When they arrived home, the invited Him in for dinner. When Jesus broke the bread with them, their eyes were open to the truth of who He was. Something the disciples saw Jesus do time again, something simple, like breaking bread was what opened their eyes. Once they realized this, Jesus disappeared from their sight. Now leaving them to continue on the story of God’s scandalous grace. Only after realizing Jesus was the one teaching them did they both exclaim how their hearts burned deep within as He taught them. 

Notice how the joy of what He taught overpowered the realization of how long it took for them to realize it was Jesus. Jesus didn't put them on a guilt trip. He didn't shame them. Once they knew the truth, they were set free!

There are so many experiences in this life that create a sense of awe, euphoria and joy. People seek to have experiences to help them forget pain, depression or sorrow. People run to alcohol and drugs to imitate feelings. Music can inspire and lift a person’s spirit. Relationships can provide a sense of purpose and bring stability, but can also be tumultuous. From drugs, sex, alcohol, power, money…you name it, nothing can cause your heart to burn in jubilation like the Spirit teaching you about Jesus.

Solomon said that God has wired us for eternity. Augustine said there is a God shaped hole in all of us. Song writers have written lyrics describing our longing for more. The more is Jesus. The answer is Jesus. The most wonderful, rewarding and inspiring truth is Jesus. Have you chosen lately, to do what Mary did, and sit at the feet of Jesus to be with Him? Has your soul been stirred that you describe it as “my heart burned within” as you experienced more of God?

Jesus wants you to be in an intimate relationship with Him. The God of the universe is inviting a sinner like me and you, to be in a relationship with Him. It is scandalous! Jesus died and rose from the grave in order that we could be united with Him forever.

And so over the coming weeks, we are going to walk the Road to Emmaus as these disciples did. We are going to begin with Moses and the Prophets and see how The Story of God is unfolding all around us. Life is not about me, it’s not about you, it’s about Jesus. Let’s walk this road together and seek to learn in such away that as we are walking we can say…doesn’t our heart burn with excitement…as we get to know Jesus better.