June 30th, 2011 by Kristi Stephens

Click… click… click… click…

Hear that? It’s the roller coaster nearing the top of the first hill. We’ve been slowly making our way through these opening chapters of Genesis; this foundational book is crucial for understanding the rest of the “pieces”… and now we’re going to PLUNGE through the rest of the story. Double check that buckle – fastened in tight? Good – here we go!!!!!!

So, a recap in a paragraph: God created this world perfectly, beautifully. He created Adam and Eve in His own image, walked in perfect communion with them, and commissioned them to rule over His creation as His stewards. Sin marred it all – it broke their relationship with one another, their relationship with God, even the harmony of the creation itself. Even in Eden, God promised them that one day a Redeemer would come – and for the rest of human history a choice would be made by every individual: to believe, or not believe. Abel believed, and obeyed. Enoch believed. Noah believed, Abram believed – and God began to reveal a bit more about the coming redeemer. God handpicked Abram and set him apart as His own. Abram, elderly and childless, would have a son in the twilight of his life. His family would become a great nation, placed in a land of their own, and through this nation the Redeemer would come. These people would be God’s chosen people – and much of this story will be about them as we go forward. God is the Creator in Genesis 1, the Redeemer promised in Genesis 3, the Judge in the flood, the only One worthy to be made famous in the Tower of Babel, the Promise Keeper in the life of Abraham.

It really is all about Him.

The rest of Genesis is focused in on the family of Abraham as the lineage and early history of God’s chosen people begins to unfold. God reiterates the promises to Isaac, and again to Isaac’s son Jacob. Eventually, Abraham’s lineage looks like this:

Jacob was a whole bundle of mess. He lived much of his life as a manipulating deceiver. His two wives (who were sisters, by the way), were constantly vying for his affection and attention by trying to out-birth one another. Between them and their servants who were also used as surrogates, Jacob ended up with twelve sons. Not surprisingly, this did not make for a good family dynamic. Four women. Twelve sons. Favoritism. Distrust. Manipulation. Hatred between siblings to the point where they plotted to kill one of their own brothers. {more on that tomorrow.}

It wasn’t until Jacob was well into his life that he seems to genuinely submit himself to God and genuinely place his faith in Him. His family was the evidence of his dysfunctional faith life.

For this reason, I am always struck by these words of Jacob near the end of his life as he blessed his grandsons, the sons of Joseph:

…the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,
the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day…

Genesis 48:15

God shepherded him all his life to that very day.

I have had so very many conversations with women in my Bible studies who are 20, 30, 40 or more years older than me. I have seen them weep in regret over the years when their children were young, years when they had not yet bowed their knees to Jesus Christ as Lord, years when they lived in rebellion, years that have marked their families and the lives of their children. They look at me with longing in their eyes and tell me how much they wish that they had walked with God in the early years of their children’s lives.

Our lack of faith, our sin has consequences – in our lives and in the lives of our families. Jacob’s story is a vivid example of that. However, he is also a testament to the fact that God is still able to restore, to work in the lives of our children, to redeem our family history. Jacob’s son Judah was responsible for selling his younger brother into slavery, and later he fathered a child through his daughter-in-law, thinking she was a prostitute. But God redeems Jacob’s life and brings him to faith. God also redeems Judah’s life – and eventually makes him an effective leader, and the one through whom Jesus Himself would one day come.

The sins of Jacob (who God later renames “Israel”) show up again and again in the nation that would come through him. But God is a God who redeems. He is faithful when they are faithless. He is constantly pursuing them, constantly wooing them. He is their shepherd – the Good Shepherd.

If you have a story like those I described above, your life is never too far gone for God to redeem it. No matter how destructive your choices were, no matter the scars your family may bear – God will forgive, God can restore, God is able.  He has called you back to Himself, and He can pursue your children just as He pursued you. He has been your shepherd all your life to this day – and nothing is out of His hands.

If you’ve missed anything in the One Summer, One Story series, you can find all the posts indexed here! Also, if you would like more lessons from the life of Jacob, I have been sharing a four-part series over at Scripture Dig this week! Join us today?

June 16th, 2011 by Kristi Stephens

If you’ve missed anything in the One Summer, One Story series, you can find all the posts indexed here!

God’s holy judgment of sin makes us uncomfortable, doesn’t it? If it doesn’t, perhaps we haven’t really pondered all that it means.

I’ve been listening to the audio version of R.C. Sproul’s Holiness of God. One of the things in this book that has been echoing in my mind this week is that we are simultaneously drawn to and repelled by the holy. People in Jesus’ day were drawn to Him as a teacher, a healer, a prophet. Some listened to Him like little children going to a parade – enjoying the spectacle and hoping someone throws some candy their way. The disciples loved Him, but were also puzzled by Him and at times even afraid of Him as He displayed power over the wind and waves. The Pharisees hated Him – He was threatening to their image, holier than they could ever be, and scathing in His assessment of who they really were. They hated Him enough to kill Him.

We are drawn to holiness, and then repelled by it. He is intriguing to us, but makes us deeply uncomfortable as our sin is laid bare, our unworthiness exposed, and our meager garments of hypocrisy torn away and shown for what they really are.

The account of the worldwide flood is one that I believe we have sanitized and reduced in order to make it more palatable for us. We decorate children’s rooms in Noah’s ark themes and give them little wooden boats full of small stuffed animals that look like huggable cartoon characters. {I can bring one down from BW’s nursery as an example if you’d like- I bought it for him for Christmas because it was so cute!} We focus only on rainbows and doves sent out and turn our minds away from pondering the full reality explained in Scripture.

The truth is, the world had become unfathomably bad. You think we live in a scary and corrupt world now? Consider this.

The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.

Genesis 6:5

Think about those words. Every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.

Noah was the only man on the face of the earth who found favor in the eyes of the Lord. One lone man surrendered to God – surrounded by an entire world of people completely surrendered to their depravity.

God decides to wash the earth clean of all the filthiness mankind had filled it with and start over again.

“I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.”

Genesis 6:17

Think of the worst natural disasters you have ever seen footage of. Tsunamis. Hurricanes. Tornadoes. Think of those natural disasters killing not thousands of people, but millions. In fact, killing every single human being, every single animal – the entire earth covered above the highest mountains with water. One boat, an ark that had looked huge on land but now looked like a tiny cork floating in a vast ocean, bobbed in solitude among the wages carrying eight people and a sampling of the animal species God had placed on the earth.

Doesn’t seem as much like a children’s story anymore, does it?

Why? Why would God do this?

While I cannot fully fathom all the reasons why God decided to do this [and why in this particular manner], I believe that God was preserving this tiny faithful remnant and keeping them from being outnumbered and swallowed up in the utter wickedness around them. He was protecting the line of Noah – who fathered Shem, who would have many children of his own… and one day a child by the name of Abram would be born in this family. And through Abram, the line of the Promised One would come.

Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of sin is death. It is what we have earned. Any amount of sin, large or small, makes us deserving of his wrathful judgment. If I lived in Noah’s day, I wouldn’t deserve to be on the ark. I would deserve to be washed away in the floodwaters. Noah didn’t even deserve to be on the ark – but his faith in God’s character and promises allowed him to find favor in the eyes of the Lord. Grace, at its core, is unmerited favor. Favor we could not earn, but is bestowed on us freely as a gift.

In Matthew 24 and Luke 17, the second coming of Christ is paralleled with the sudden, complete judgment of the flood. The flood is a sobering reminder that salvation is through Christ alone. We cannot earn ourselves a ticket to safety by our good behavior. Even one wrong thought, attitude, action makes us worthy of God’s cataclysmic judgment. No matter how hard those people tried to swim against the current, they didn’t make it. And no matter how good our lives look or how hard we try to live a good life, we can’t make it without Christ. He’s our only hope.

You cannot earn God’s favor. All we can earn is death. But when we place our faith in Him alone, we find safety in His grace.

Are you repelled by the holy judgment of God? Have you reduced this picture of God’s judgment of sin in your mind, making it more palatable, less disturbing, less damaging to the veneer of righteousness you cling to?

Lord, show us how big and how holy you really are! Forgive us for making you less, for reducing you to a more understandable size, a cute cartoon instead of an unspeakably holy God. We are drawn to you, we are amazed by you, and we stand in fearful awe at who you really are. Open our eyes to the depth of our sin and unworthiness – lay us low in gratitude before you in deeper realization of the fact that your grace is unmerited favor we can never earn.

June 15th, 2011 by Kristi Stephens

[God speaking to the serpent] “And I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”Genesis 3:15

On Monday and Tuesday of this week we looked at the salvific aspects of this verse – God was promising a Redeemer, and as Adam placed his faith in that promise he was forgiven. But there’s also something else to observe here before we move on, something that we must understand if we are going to comprehend the rest of what the Scriptures tell us and even what is happening in our own daily lives.

Enmity.

The world is at war, and there are only two sides – those who belong to and serve God [the offspring of the woman], and those are at war with Him [the offspring of the serpent]. Real faith eventually shows up in our behavior, as the book of James teaches us in the New Testament. Looking through these early chapters in the Bible, we discover clear distinctions between these two groups.

The enmity first rears its ugly head in the lives of two brothers – Cain and Abel [see Genesis 4:1-15].

People have long discussed why Cain’s sacrifice was rejected and Abel’s was accepted. Most likely Cain knew that a blood sacrifice was needed (God had established that pattern by covering Adam and Eve with the skins in chapter 3.) But, no matter what the reasons were, Cain obviously knew what God required. Notice what God says to Cain in Genesis 4:7-

“If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”

Cain was clearly deliberately choosing not to obey God. He wasn’t just mistaken about God’s requirements. He had a choice that he understood: obey, or sin. Abel’s obedience and acceptance before God was infuriating to Cain, and instead of submitting to God’s authority, acknowledging His worthiness to reign, he lashes out and murders his obedient brother.

Enmity. In this generation, there is a clear distinction between one who will follow God, and one who is at war with Him and His people.

Later in chapter four, we find a short record of Cain’s line. In just a few generations, Cain’s willful spirit seems to blossom and grow in his great-great-great-grandson, Lamech.

“Adah and Zillah, listen to me;
wives of Lamech, hear my words.
I have killed a man for wounding me,
a young man for injuring me.
If Cain is avenged seven times,
then Lamech seventy-seven times.”

Genesis 4:23-24

Cain was murderer. He killed his own brother in cold blood and then tried to cover his own sin while talking verbally with God himself! But, at least Cain had the sense to know that his actions were not good. He tried to hide it. He was afraid of the consequences, and God in his unbelievable mercy promises to protect Cain and avenge sevenfold anyone who tries to hurt him.

Now think about Lamech. He’s taken two wives (a violation of the clear order established by God with Adam and Eve), kills a man, boasts about it, and then says if anyone tries to hurt him back he will avenge himself far beyond how God would avenge Cain.

I have heard it said that “whatever walks in one generation will run in the next.” Sin has a tendency to grow when left unchecked. Cain’s line of descendents stands in opposition to God and His purposes – battle lines are being drawn. Enmity.

But notice what comes next:

Adam lay with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, “God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.” Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh.

At that time men began to call on the name of the LORD.

This is the written account of Adam’s line.When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called them “man.”

When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.

Genesis 4:25-5:2

The repetition in the text seems to prompt us to conclude that we are starting over. Abel, the son who believed and obeyed God had been killed. And God provides Seth.

Keeping Lamech in mind, notice who is Seth’s great-great-great-grandson.

Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.

Genesis 5:24

Enoch’s great-grandson is another familiar name – a famous sailor by the name of Noah.

A line of rebellious murderers. A line of God-fearers; tomorrow we will discover that Noah’s family is the only righteous remnant remaining on the earth.

Enmity.

What walks in one generation tends to run in the next. So today, a simple question: what type of legacy are you leaving?

If you’ve missed anything in the One Summer, One Story series, you can find all the posts indexed here!

June 10th, 2011 by Kristi Stephens

When Adam and Eve made that universe-altering choice to rebel against God, they were consumed with shame (Gen. 3:7-8), they spiritually died and were separated from God (3:8-10), and their relationship with one another was broken by sin and blame (3:11-13).

From yesterday’s post:

“But Eden has broken us. Our own sin has splintered us. And we are utterly dependent on His grace to provide the antidote to the poison coursing through our souls.

And so we wait, hiding in the bushes, trembling beneath our pitiful leaves… we wait for how our God will respond.”

So, how WILL God respond?

God pronounces a curse on the enemy and the physical world. The effects of the physical curse mirror the spiritual rebellion and death that have already occurred at the moment of their disobedience. They rebelled against God, now their domains will rebel against them.

Adam, made from the dust, placed in the garden, given dominion to rule, would now find that his God-given domain would no longer submit to his care.

“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food”

Genesis 3:17-19

He would plant vegetables, he would reap thorns and thistles. His work, intended to be rewarding and fulfilling, would be difficult and laborious.

As Adam was made from and for the earth, Eve was made from and for her husband. She, too, would face specific consequences for her sin:

“I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;
with pain you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”

Genesis 3:16

Eve was intended to live under Adam’s loving care and leadership, but she would chafe against him. Her capacity to give life to the next generation would still be intact, but damaged. Bringing forth and raising children would be difficult, painful, fraught with sorrow. She was made for relationship, but these relationships closest to her heart would be a source of pain.

And just as they had died spiritually at the moment of their disobedience, now they would face physical death, as well.

“…for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”

Genesis 3:19

The curse is like a mirror reflecting the spiritual reality that we cannot see. While Adam and Eve chose spiritual death by disobeying the clear word of God, God Himself brought the pain and sadness of the curse into our world.

Why?

I cannot comprehend the fullness of the mind of God. Not even close. His plans and purposes are more than I can fathom.

But from my human mind, I have begun to see the curse as hidden grace. First of all, while I love this beautiful life God has given me full of creation’s beauty and time with those I love… it is a deeply broken world. The weight of sin and sadness weighs on me. The evil humanity is capable of is impossible for me to live at ease with. The more I know my God, the more I long to be with Him – physically with Him. Death, while our enemy, is a hidden gift.

Secondly, and directly related to the first, without this physical pain mirroring the spiritual, I don’t know if we would even begin to comprehend the consequences of our sin. When my garden is overrun with weeds and pests, it is a physical picture of my own deep-rooted sinfulness that must be constantly subdued or it will take a choke-hold in my heart. When my children rebel and back-talk, they act out for me my own rebellion against God. When my body gets sick, when I am surrounded by struggles with death and decay, I am faced with the harsh reality that something has gone terribly, terribly wrong. The physical brokenness all around me is a constant reminder that the spiritual brokenness in the world, while invisible to the eye, is much, much more serious.

But my friend, this is not the end of the story. If God had left us here – spiritually dead, physically dying, limping through life in a world that fights against us at every turn – if this was the end we would truly have no hope.

But it’s not. Monday, we’ll discover the Gospel, the good news, in Genesis chapter 3.

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