Life in God's creation was good.
In the beginning, God created. God said, "Let there be..." and it came to being. God saw it was good. God separated. God made. God called. God set. God gave. God finished. God rested. God blessed them. God made the seventh day holy. God's active. He's working. There's no other and none greater.
But then God reveals his personal name. Elohim (translated "God" in your Bible) was just a generic name for God. God wanted to be known by his real name, Yahweh. And so in Genesis 2 we find Yahweh (translated "LORD God") intimately engaged with his special creation, man.
And notice the verb in Genesis 2. The LORD God formed. The LORD God breathed life into. The LORD God planted a garden. He put Adam in the garden, caused him to fall asleep, took his rib, closed up his flesh, made a helper suitable for him, brought the woman to him, and the LORD God commanded them.
We're totally the beneficiaries of God's mighty deeds throughout Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. We're riding a wave. We're on top of the world. But what happens next defies explanation. Follow the verbs in Genesis 3.
But then sin entered God's perfect creation.
The serpent said. The woman said. The serpent deceived. The woman saw. The woman took. The woman ate. The woman gave. Her husband ate. Their eyes were opened. They realized they were naked. They sewed fig leaves. They made coverings. They heard the sound of the LORD God walking. They were afraid. They hid. The LORD God called out. Adam answered. The man said. The LORD God said. The woman said.
There's an awful lot of talking, but not so much listening. He said. She said. The serpent said. God maybe said. There's an awful lot of suspicion, and not so much trust. There's an awful lot of hiding, shame, guilt, blame shifting, and maneuvering, but not so much truth.
But keep following the verbs. The next string of verbs are some of the most disturbing in all scripture. They are so disturbing, liberal scholars have denounced their authenticity altogether. They seem irreconcilable to the picture of God presented in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2.
God banished Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden.
The Lord God cursed the serpent and put enmity (hatred) between Satan and the woman and their offspring. The LORD God greatly increased the woman's pain in childbearing. He cursed the ground. He banished Adam from the garden. He consigned Adam to work the ground. He drove Adam out. The LORD God placed cherubim and a flaming sword to guard the way to the tree of life.
Later on in Genesis 4 the LORD God looks with disfavor on Cain. The LORD God hides his presence from Cain. The LORD God is grieved that he made man. The LORD God wipes mankind and every living creature from the face of earth. The LORD God confused the languages of world. He scattered man over the face of whole earth.
Satan deludes us into thinking that nothing is at stake in our relationship with God.
There are many today under the Satanic delusion that nothing is at stake in our relationship with God. This was the original deception of Satan when he said to Eve in Genesis 3:4 (NIV), "You will not surely die. "" This satanic delusion is echoed this week on the front cover of Time Magazine. The lead article in the magazine is titled, "Is Hell Real"?
Yet there these verbs remain. Our relationship with God was defined by the verbs God blessed, God made holy, God formed, God breathed, God planted, God gave, and God commands. But now it is defined by God cursed, God puts enmity into, God increases pain, God banishes, he consigns, God drives out, God looks with disfavor, God grieves, God wipes out, God confuses, and God scatters.
In Genesis 4:12 (NIV) God tells Cain, "When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on earth. " And Cain's response in Genesis 4:13-14 (NIV) is, "My punishment is more than I can bear. Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me. "
What Cain discovers in the wake of his sin, is the same thing we discover in the wake of our sin. It's that we're no longer invincible! Isn't that what we think when we sin? We think we can sin with impunity! We get so proud and arrogant. We say things like, "I'm not going to die. I'm going to live forever! I'm winning over and against God's will. I don't need church. I don't need the Bible. I don't need God talk. I'm free!"
It's just a matter of time before we discover how vulnerable we are apart from God. That's Cain. There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. His punishment is more than he can bear. Ah ha, we're not so invincible. are we?
What if God is completely vested in his relationship with you?
Think what these verbs mean-- cursed, banished, driven out, scattered, confused, and wiped out. What if God isn't as indifferent and disengaged as we've imagined? What if God is taking you seriously-- dead seriously-- more seriously than anyone in your entire life has ever taken you?
What if God is completely vested in his relationship with you-- more vested than anyone else? What if God wants your affection more than anything else in this whole world? What if God felt he had something eternal at stake in not losing you to your desires, to the world, and to the dominion of darkness? What if God were so vested in winning you over to himself that he would allow himself to be jealous for you, offended, angry, grieved, disappointed, or even vengeful?
Don't misunderstand. God doesn't delight in the death of the wicked. Ezekiel 18:23 (NIV) says, "Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live? " But do understand this-- we weren't created for any other. And if we attempt to give ourselves to any other we will discover that God will resist us at every point.
From God's vantage point, everything we do matters. Everything we're becoming matters. God sees everything. He notices. He abhors sin. He chastens and disciplines us in love. He relentlessly urges us to make life-giving choices. We were created for God, and for God alone. His love isn't a coercive love, but make no mistake about it-- it's a serious love, a faithful love, a persevering love, and God will not allow us to rest a single day until you learn to rest in his love.
We either rest within God's love, or become restless without it.
It's why work is so hard. It's why marriages are so conflicted. It's why child bearing and parenting are so painful. It's why the ground is ruthless. It's why our bodies outwardly waste away. It's why Satan's attacks are so real and make us feel so vulnerable. It's why we can feel so isolated and lonely apart from God's presence. It's why we experience real violence, real pain, and real threats in this world. It's why we feel shame, guilt, nakedness, and confusion. It's why we're never happy with what we wear, or with what we sew together. It's why we're so image-conscious. It's why we're never satisfied and always need more. We have a choice. We either rest within God's love, or become restless without it.
Instead of driving us away from God, our vulnerability ought to drive us back to God. As I poured over the opening chapters of Genesis I was struck by five things that we are absolutely dependent upon God to provide for us in our sin.
We are dependent on God's gracious initiative.
Let's not belabor any of these points. When we sin, God takes the initiative to pursue us. God calls out to Adam, even as Adam hides. Luke 19:10 reminds us that the Son of man came to seek and to save what was lost. John 3:16 (NIV) says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son... " Paul tells us in Romans 5:6 that while we were still powerless, Christ died for us. We don't lead ourselves out of this mess. Everything depends on God's gracious initiative in Christ.
We are dependent on God covering our shame.
Adam and Eve's shame was so great that they first tried to cover themselves with fig leaves. They were still so ashamed, they tried to hide from God in the trees. In Genesis 3:21 God sacrifices an animal to provide a garment of skin in which to clothe Adam and his wife. But Isaiah 61:10 anticipates the day when God would offer his Son as a sacrifice for sin, that we would be clothed not with the blood of animals, but clothed with the very righteousness of Christ. See Romans 13:14!
We are dependent on God to crush Satan's head.
It's not enough to be clothed in righteousness. The power of sin in our life must be defeated. In Genesis 3:15 God promises to utterly crush the head of Satan. In Romans 16:20 (NIV) God's word promises, "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. "" God must provide the deliverance. We cannot deliver ourselves from the power of our sin. Deliverance from sin begins with prayer, fasting, meditation, confession, repentance, baptism, and being filled with the Holy Spirit. It is God who must free us to will and act according to his good purposes.
We are dependent on God being the Lord of our lives.
We must learn to love God's personal name. In our English Bibles God's name is translated, "LORD God." The LORD part declares the terms of our relationship with God. He must become LORD! Our God is a good God, but the only way his goodness can be manifest in our lives is if we embrace his authority as our LORD. We must learn to trust his commands, knowing that they always lead to eternal life. See John 12:50. This is what Adam and Eve refused to do!
We are dependent on God granting us eternal life.
We must realize that we cannot secure eternal life apart from Christ. In Genesis 3:22-24 (NIV) we read these ominous words. "And the LORD God said, 'The man has now become like one of of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and life forever.' So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. ""
In Revelation 2:7 it is God who must grant us access once more to the tree of life. There should be no doubt this morning how utterly dependent we are upon Christ. We need Christ to seek and to save us. We need Christ's righteousness to clothe our shame. We need Christ's heel to crush the head of Satan. We need Christ's lordship to guide us in paths of righteousness. We need Jesus Christ to grant us access to the tree of life, that we might take from it and eat and live forever. We praise God for standing in our path, making us restless, until such time as we'd find rest in Christ.