MPC, 13th January 2002.The Bible in Four Easy Lessons
Part 1: Genesis - "What Sort of People are We?".
Phil Campbell MPC, 13th January 2002.
What sort of people ARE WE? Deep down, I mean.
It's a question that's always generated a lot of debate.
One of the legacies Rudolph Giuliani left as mayor of New York was a huge reduction in the crime rate. He did it with a policy he called ZERO TOLERANCE. And the New York crime rate has come down to the lowest it's been in decades. But there's been disagreement.
An article in last Saturday's Courier Mail analysed the debate. It said sociologists assume the ENVIRONMENT creates crime. That the CIRCUMSTANCES of people who are unemployed, who don't have public welfare programs, that the SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT is the root cause of crime. So the CRIMINAL is actually the VICTIM. So fix the surrounding social problems and you'll reduce the crime rate. Fix poverty. And you'll fix crime.
Mayor Giuliani disagreed. He said, no, the problem is we've been too permissive on the SMALL THINGS. Which means people think they can get away with the BIG THINGS. It sounded like a crazy idea. But Mayor Giuliani ordered the police into the high crime neighbourhoods to STAMP OUT GRAFITTI. And to arrest people evading fares on the subway. And JAYWALKING. Zero tolerance. He said we're tightening the boundaries on what's ACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOUR.
And suddenly, street crime went down as well. And the MURDER RATE. And muggings and rape. All down to the lowest crime rate for decades.
Two different theories in the end on WHAT PEOPLE ARE LIKE. The sociologists who say PEOPLE ARE BASICALLY GOOD and it's just their surroundings that make them do BAD. And the Giuliani approach. That said PEOPLE WILL DO WHATEVER THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH. So there need to be BOUNDARIES.
Well, as I've already said, over the next four weeks, we're going to have a quick look at the WHOLE BIBLE. The Readers Digest condensed version. And especially the Old Testament. Because the fact is, there's a storyline that runs right through. A plotline that takes you from the first page to the last. And most people don't even realise it. A plotline that is all about WHAT PEOPLE ARE REALLY LIKE. And what THE GOD IS LIKE… who MADE US. And OWNS US.
Problem is, most people are used to reading the bible a bit like a phone book. Or a dictionary. Look up a verse here, a word or two there. You learnt a few memory verses at Sunday school, you know a few Bible stories like Noah and the Ark and Joseph and his coat, and David and Goliath and Daniel in the Lions Den - but how does it all fit together?
In fact, you mightn't even have ever known that it DOES fit together.
I read a book over Christmas. Called The Falls; it's by Ian Rankin. An Inspector Rebus mystery set in Glasgow. And you pick up a book like that, you EXPECT it to have a plot line. A story that runs all the way through. A theme. An introduction; a CONCLUSION. You EXPECT IT to fit together and make sense. A friend of mine was invited to England to give some lectures to Church of England clergy. And he gave a series of talks on how the bible fits together. And they were amazed, these church of England rectors - because they'd never realised. Never seen how the whole bible fits together and makes sense.
And I guess in a way it IS amazing. It's incredible that the bible fits together. Because the Old Testament's made up of 66 different books; and they're written by all sorts of different people. And there are Poems. Songs. History books. Written over hundreds of years. But in spite of that, there's a plot-line that runs all the way through. One theme that goes from beginning to end. And which is what we're looking at over these next few weeks. The big picture. The theme. The idea that holds the bible together. It's going to be hard work. But if you stick with it, it's going to be worth it. It's all about WHAT SORT OF GOD God is. And WHAT SORT OF PEOPLE we are. It's the story of GOD LOOKING FOR A RIGHTEOUS PEOPLE… who want to trust his word, and do what's right FROM THE HEART. In the end it's a story that leads all the way to JESUS. The only one who qualifies. As he brings God and man together. In a perfect way.
We're going to start right at the obvious place, the beginning. Genesis 1. And from there on we're going to skim through as fast as we can and hit the high points. Stick with it, have your bible open, and you won't have any trouble at all.
Genesis 1. Verse 1. Open up and you'll find it straight after the table of contents. And you'll see you get to meet the main character, right there in the first sentence. And he's the GOD WHO CREATES. "In the Beginning, GOD CREATED THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH."
Here we are, face to face with the creator of everything. This is who the bible's all about. The one who put together the heavens. The earth. Teeming with life.
GOD MADE IT. And as you read on through Genesis 1 and 2, you see God forming the world - God speaks. And it happens. He makes and he fills. Water for the fish. Sky for birds. Land for animals. A place for everything, and everything in its place. And over and over again, God looks at it. And sees that it's GOOD. Verse 10. God called the dry ground land, and the waters he called seas, AND GOD SAW THAT IT WAS GOOD. Verse 12. Plants and trees and fruit. And God saw that it was good. Verse 18. The stars, the sun, the moon. And God saw that it was good.
The Bible gets off to a great start. A beautiful world. That God says is GOOD. And the pinnacle of it all, the crowning achievement, you can see in verse 27. "God created MAN IN HIS OWN IMAGE, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." The CREATION OF MANKIND is what it's all about. And all of it... is VERY GOOD.
And as you read on, there's the beautiful picture of the garden of Eden. Man and God in perfect harmony, Man and God together in the perfect place. It's God's world. He made it. And He made man and woman to care for it. A great picture. But let me tell you, not the world WE live in.
I mean, there's still beauty around us; there are glimpses. But what we see now, it's nothing compared to the picture you get at the start of Genesis. Because the Garden of Eden is PARADISE. It's perfection. But there's a TEST coming up. That's going to show WHAT MANKIND IS LIKE. A test for Adam and Eve that DEFINES THE HUMAN RACE perfectly.
Genesis 2, just over the page. The start of the story of the temptation to go one step further than God says. God says, the garden's yours. All of it. Except for one thing. The fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Now, people, it's funny, I reckon, if you asked most people what sort of FRUIT that Eve gave Adam in the garden, 99 percent would say it was AN APPLE. Which is how artists have painted it through the centuries. But it's NOT AN APPLE AT ALL, is it? Look at Genesis 2 verse 17. God says, you can eat whatever you like in the Garden except for one thing. He says, "you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."
This is no APPLE they're eating. It's the KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL FRUIT. Which I haven't seen in any fruitshops lately. Here's the point. The point is, God's saying, here's a test. KNOWING WHAT'S GOOD AND EVIL is up to me. God says, Deciding RIGHT FROM WRONG's MY JOB - and not yours. Eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil means giving God the shove. And telling him you can make the rules for yourself.
So here's the boundary. Let GOD BE GOD. And let mankind be His HUMBLE SERVANTS. Let GOD DEFINE RIGHT AND WRONG. And let man submit to God's rule.
So God says if you do that, if you eat it, YOU'LL DIE. Once mankind eats THAT FRUIT, it's all over. You're out. So WHAT ARE PEOPLE REALLY LIKE? Here's the turning point.
I guess you know the story, the way things unfold in Genesis 3. Just one thing they're not to do. But the tempter comes along, and you can see the sort of things he says in verse 5 of Genesis 3; Don't take any notice of God. He's just a spoilsport. He just knows if you eat it, your eyes'll be opened. You'll be just like HIM, knowing good and evil." DO IT - YOU'LL BE LIKE GOD! Which is the very essence of the temptation. Don't let the GOD WHO MADE YOU tell you what's right and wrong. MAKE UP YOUR OWN MIND. Push the boundaries as hard as you can.
So they take it, the banana, the kiwifruit, whatever it is. It's the FRUIT OF THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL. And they eat it. And it says in verse 7 their eyes are opened. And suddenly, they're ashamed. Ashamed of their nakedness. And they try to hide from the God who made them; but they can't. Because it's as obvious as the purple juice smeared all over your face when you've been feeding at the mulberry tree.
The perfect garden; walking and talking with God. And now it's all come to this. Instead of living under God's rule, in God's garden - instead of harmony, the relationship's broken. And as sure as sure can be, what God says will happen, happens. If you eat it, God says, you'll DIE. And from Genesis chapter 3 onwards, you're looking at a world under GOD'S CURSE. The world's a place of PRICKLES AND THORNS. Not just of the gardening kind. But every kind. Paul says later that from now on the WHOLE CREATION IS GROANING. Subject to frustration.
And so as you keep reading, you'll see Adam and Eve thrown out of the garden. And the curse of sin grows and grows. The first brothers, the first case of SIBLING RIVALRY. Cain takes Abel up the back paddock and he KILLS HIM. Page after page, sin spreads like an ink stain. It's Adam and Eve's decision played out over and over again. We can run things for ourselves. We'll decide right from wrong. Push the boundaries. Don't need God to tell us RIGHT FROM WRONG. And off we go.
What are PEOPLE REALLY LIKE? Let me tell you, the next few chapters, it's all downhill. And things get so bad God decides to wash the whole lot away and start again. And in chapters 6 through to 9, you've got the story of Noah. The one righteous man on the face of the earth. Who God chooses; and saves. With just enough to start all over again. Because - and I want you to look at it in Genesis chapter 6 verse 5 - 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.
Now that's a pretty black picture, isn't it? But over and over again, that's the picture the bible gives of what's inside us. If you're a humanist, then you say, deep down, we're GOOD. Give your kids all the freedom they want - take away all the constraints, and they'll turn out fine. And if they don't, SOCIETY IS TO BLAME, 'cause it can't be ME.
God says - and He can see what's inside - He looks at their hearts. And all they want to do is evil, all the time. In other words, they wanna do what they wanna do. Adam and Eve all over again. They made their decision in the garden. And the effects are still rolling on.
So God sends the flood. And starts all over again. Wipes the slate clean, and uses Noah and his family as the new Adam and Eve. GO FORTH AND MULTIPLY. Take 2. But I guess I don't have to tell you, after a few generations, things aren't any better. Same problem. Mankind doesn't want anything to do with God. And by Genesis chapter 11, you've got 'em getting together and building a tower. It's going to reach the heavens. We talk about people who like to put themselves on a pedestal. Well, that's what they're doing here. Turn over to chapter 11, verse 4, and you'll see it in a nutshell...
Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves, and not be scattered over the whole earth.
It's the humanists' dream. Let's get our act together; build ourselves higher and higher till we're just like God.
At which point God steps in, and scatters them all over the earth. And disrupts everything by splitting them up and confusing their languages; because the trouble is, when men get together, it seems like they've got no place for God. That's what people are like.
Well, that's the situation at the end of Genesis 11. And it's at this point that I want to pause, and say what we've seen so far is a picture of the world. A picture of exactly the world we're living in today. A world where people's natural instinct is to do what they like. To push against the boundaries.
Human nature wants THE OPPOSITE TO WHAT GOD WANTS. I mean, your sins might just be the simple ordinary sort, like coveting. Greed. Or gossip. Or adultery. But the underlying issue is exactly the same. There's something in all of us that says - well, God might want it that way, but I WANT IT THIS WAY. And I know best. Deciding right and wrong for yourself.
We started off with Adam and Eve in paradise. And now we're here. A broken world. Death and destruction everywhere. Creation's a MESS. It's a WORLD UNDER CURSE. That's the picture at the end of Genesis 11.
But in Genesis chapter 12, there's a very clear TURNING POINT. Here's the world under CURSE. And yet in Genesis 12, God steps in and announces a plan. He's going to BLESS THE WORLD AGAIN. And nothing's going to stop him. Because it's a PROMISE.
It's His GOOD creation. And rather than just turn his back and walk away, God's going to start something with one ordinary old man, a man called Abram, he's going to start something that in the end's going to somehow bring BLESSING out of the curse. God's going to BLESS THE MESS.
And he's going to do it through Abram. And his descendants. And he grabs Abram, and he makes him a promise. And I just want you to look quickly now at the first few verses of Genesis 12, where God speaks; because these are some of the most important verses in the whole bible. This is like the springboard that everything else jumps off. These few sentences at the start of Genesis chapter 12 are like the TOPIC SENTENCE of the rest of the bible. Read from verse 2. God speaking to Abram; he says,
I'll make you into a great nation and I will BLESS you. I will make your name great, and you will be a BLESSING. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and ALL PEOPLES ON EARTH will be BLESSED through you.
And then a little bit further on in verse 7.
To your offspring… I'm going to GIVE THIS LAND.
Here it is. In the middle of the mess, in the middle of the curse of sin, God gives Abram a promise of BLESSING. He says, from you, I'm going to make a huge nation and give you a land. Through you, all the nations of the world are one day going to be blessed again. Through you, the curse of sin is one day going to be turned on its head. The GOD WHO MADE IT is going to FIX IT. Through Abram's family line.
And so Abram's going to have to change his name. Abram means FATHER. Which I guess people saw as a bit of a joke, because he's an old man with no kids. And now God says he's going to have to change his name to FATHER OF MANY. AbraHAM. Just on a promise. Which people would have had to seen as WISHFUL THINKING. But God says it's going to be paradise again. It's going to be God, and his people, in a whole new garden. Back to the square 1. Just so long as they don't mess up like Adam and Eve. Just so long as they live with God as their God. And don't push him out of the picture.
Well, let me tell you, those promises God makes to Abraham, these few verses here in Genesis 12, they're the backbone for the rest of the old testament. The rest of the Old Testament is all about what happens. About how God keeps His promises. And I want to sketch in very quickly a few details of what happens from here on in.
I dunno, I always glaze over a bit when people start talking about their family trees. Lou's got an Aunty a bit like that. EVERYONE'S got an Aunty a bit like that. She meets someone, the first thing she wants to know is who you're related to, and they go on to tell you that their grand aunty was the cousin of your fathers uncle, and that sort of stuff. Well, it's a bit like that here. But stick with it.
Isaac is Abraham's son. Jacob is Abraham's grandson. And as you read through Genesis, it's a bit like pass the parcel. God's great promise is passed on from generation to generation. From Abraham. To Isaac. To Jacob. GOD'S GOING TO BLESS THE WORLD AGAIN… through THIS FAMILY LINE. God is going to COME TO OUR AID. Because of the sort of people we are. And bless the world that's under the curse of SIN. Through THIS FAMILY LINE.
And by the time you get to the end of the book of Genesis, you'll see Joseph; on his deathbed in Egypt. Great great great Grandson of Abraham. And yet God's promises are still on his lips. Genesis 50, verse 24 to 26. Turn over and have a look.
Because as I've already said, the rest of the bible's all about God keeping His promise to Abraham. Descendants like the sand on the seashore. A land of their own. And through them, blessing for the whole world. Reversing the curse.
So what's on Joseph's mind when he's lying on his deathbed? Verse 24.
Then Joseph said to his brothers, I'm about to die. But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land TO THE LAND HE PROMISED ON OATH to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
And Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath, and said, God will surely come to your aid, then you must carry up my bones from this place.
God's going to HELP THESE PEOPLE. God's going to SAVE THEM AND BLESS THEM no matter what. Because He's going to keep His promise to Abraham to REVERSE THE CURSE OF SIN.
Genesis is the story of a MESS. Of paradise ruined, because Adam and Eve decided they knew better than God. An attitude that's been passed right down through the generations. Right at the core of human nature. To snatch the crown from God, and put it on ourselves. That's the sort of people we are.
I wonder if that's what you can see YOU'RE LIKE? Because that's the biblical picture.
And there's nothing we can do about it. We just can't help ourselves. And yet there in Genesis 12 you get God's PROMISE to Abraham. A promise to bring blessing again. Through one family that becomes one nation that's meant to be different to every other nation in the world. That in the end brings ONE MAN WHO REALLY IS DIFFERENT.
God's promise is to BLESS THE MESS. And from this side of the cross of Jesus we can look back and see that's exactly what He's done. That even though our NATURE IS TO DO WRONG, there's a way to be RECONCILED WITH GOD. A way to be FORGIVEN BY GOD. A way to be JUSTIFIED, to be COUNTED RIGHT WITH GOD… in spite of what we're like. A way to be CHANGED FROM THE HEART. By the work of His Spirit. Let me leave you with a word from the New Testament. Romans 5 verse 8. Paul says this. Here's the key to how it works.
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
That's where the story's heading. And to make any sense of it you need to understand Genesis. And what people are really like. And why we need saving. It's all about…
So stay tuned for part 2 next week… and we'll see the next exciting instalment - from Exodus all the way to the promised land.