Day 1. Genesis 1-6.
God.
The Creator. The Person. The Power and the Love. This book is about him.
He is not only the Creator but also the Sustainer. History begins with the power and gentleness of pure Love. We see a bit of the shear mass of God in chapter one: and he made the stars also. And shortly after we see the kindness and in time-and-space personality of God in chapter two: the Lord God planted a garden in the east, in Eden, and there he put the man he had formed. From stars to gardens, there is nothing too high for he to reach nor too low for him to stoop to. In the fresh excitement of created personality, God again showed his father heart for Adam.
First He notices Adam’s need for a companion, a helper. The answer to the problem was a woman named Eve. God chose to share not only a representation of his character–that he did by making Adam a personality–but also his nature–this he did by making a dynamic relationship between Adam and now Eve. By doing so God opened a new level of trust and gave a deeper picture of Himself. This is everything! To say that God is a personal God is good. To understand that his interest and passion for us compels him to create a relationship so unique and vital that it vividly portrays His intimacy within the Trinity? Ah, that is truly incredible. There is nothing he withholds from us.
We see then why he gave man free choice, fully opening this entire world to the possibility of destruction. He gave us the choice of love because that is all He is interested in. He created us with the ability to enter His Love, and the only way was through an everyday choice. He knew. He knew the possibility of “Genesis Chapter 3“. But for the sake of true intimacy he decided it was worth it. God, why are we worth it? Why are you so inflamed with Love you would risk yourself? The mystery of His will continues to mystify me. As we read Chapter Three, feel the sorrow, the sadness, the shame. What was wrong has now happened. The worst possible event has taken place. Come, this is our history and Adam and Eve our parents. WHY? We don’t have to know. Let’s see how God responds. Is he angry? Yes. Evil has won. Is he disappointed? Yes. His children have rejected him. Is he surprised? Maybe. He knew it could happen and if he chose to look beyond the present he would have known it would happen. But in the midst of these crushing emotions what does he do? In the face of rejection, the Lord God of heaven and earth promises redemption at the unspeakable price of himself. This why He is forever known as our Redeemer. We must mourn with our God and our parents for what we have lost and then we must rejoice in what we have found.
Mercy. Grace. The good will of God saturates every single chapter of Genesis. In chapter 4, we read about the first murder, the first case of jealousy and hatred. The first death. The first person to be sent from God’s presence. Cain. Our brother has fallen and fallen we would leave him. Except God who causes the sun to shine on the wicked as well as the righteous, he never leaves anyone there if he is asked to help. Cain crys out, “Oh my God! This is too heavy for me. I will perish!” And God answers, “My son you will be granted your life. Guilt is heavy, but I am not Guilt. I still have a desire for you to repent and turn, so I grant you life and the opportunity to turn back from your sin.” That’s grace. Through out chapters 5 & 6 we see first the blessing of generations of multiplication and prosperity and then second the righteous justice of God through judgement. In the second one God chooses one man, Noah. Again in an act of marvelous grace, he sustains the world and protects the line of Adam. We will never understand the horror of the generation of Noah but we can hold on to this promise: no matter what the world is progressing toward, if we continue in the Way of Jesus we will be spared judgement. We are the Noahs.
We can trust our God. He will finish what he has started. We leave Genesis today with only a few whispers of the promised redemption but by the end of this journey, we will be at the cross receiving the thesis of history. Till then, we continue on.
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