Genesis 1 - 23
The Big Picture

  1. The Story So Far
    1. Paradise Given and Heaven Promised
      1. Genesis begins with the story of Creation
        1. But this story is not there to satisfy our idle curiosity about the origins of the cosmos.
          1. About black holes and sub-atomic particles we are told nothing.
          2. Not because God did not make such things, but because that's not what God wants to talk about in this book.
        2. The book has a much tighter focus.
      2. Genesis focuses on man and God, and the relation between the two.
      3. The first story in Genesis has two climaxes.
        1. Man, the crowning glory of Creation
          1. In the image of God - male and female
          2. Given dominion over all God had made.
          3. Gen 1:26ff. - Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
        2. God, the ultimate goal of man
          1. God rests on the 7th day, inviting man into his rest (explain).
          2. Thus a covenant is made (explain)
          3. Man is thus told his "eschatology" (explain)
      4. So we zero in on man in the 2nd chapter
        1. He is put in the garden to "keep" it
          1. Or to "guard" it
          2. From what? From the attack of the evil one who will seek to destroy what God has called very good.
          3. And he is given a helper suitable to this very task.
        2. And God tells him not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
          1. So the terms of the covenant are given
          2. Obey God and enter into life. Disobey and you will surely die.
      5. So there he is, inhabiting Paradise and Heaven within his grasp
        1. What will happen?
        2. Unfortunately, you know the answer.
        3. If Adam had obeyed, the Bible would not need to be longer than 3 chapters.
    2. Paradise Lost and Heaven Forfeited
      1. Satan comes as a serpent to attack man's blessedness
        1. He has already forfeited his own. He has already broken the covenant God made with him.
        2. The only happiness left him - if one may call it that - is to cause others to join his misery.
        3. In this way, he thinks insanely, he can somehow hurt God.
      2. Satan comes to that very tree of which Adam was not supposed to eat.
        1. And with his first question he questions God. "Has God really said…?"
        2. Adam must guard the garden as God told him to. Adam must judge Satan at that tree and cast him out of paradise. It is for this that he was created.
        3. But Adam is not there!
        4. But wait! His helper, the one suitable to him, is there! She must do what she was made for! Adam! she must cry, sounding the alarm. Come and judge this wicked one and cast him out. Guard this garden for this is your very purpose.
        5. But she does not cry; she listens. She heeds the voice of the serpent and takes of the fruit.
      3. And Adam comes and sees it all.
        1. He sees the two evildoers, the serpent and the woman. But he does not judge them.
        2. Instead he too heeds someone other than God. He takes the fruit. He eats.
      4. Suddenly they are naked and ashamed.
      5. They hear the sound of the Lord God coming in judgment (explain "spirit of the day")
      6. They hide, but he calls to them. He finds them out and asks about their sin.
        1. Adam blames the woman (and really, God - the woman you gave me)
        2. The woman blames the serpent (and really, God, since he created the serpent).
        3. Then God begins to speak.
      7. What will happen now?
        1. Fortunately, you know the answer
        2. If God had come to destroy Adam forever, again the Bible would not need to be longer than 3 chapters.
        3. He pronounces a curse, first against the serpent, then against the woman, then against the man.
        4. The man and the woman shall have days without rest. Days of toil and labor and pain. And those days will end in death.
        5. But in the middle of the curse, God smuggles in a blessing
          1. The Seed of the woman will crush the serpent's head.
          2. Satan's victory in that garden will be overturned. Sin and death and misery and loss shall not have the final word.
        6. So Adam names his wife Eve (explain)
        7. Then God kicks them out of Paradise
    3. The Quest to Regain Paradise and Heaven
      1. Thus the story of the rest of the Bible is set up
        1. How will they come back to Paradise and regain the promise of Heaven?
        2. The covenant in the garden has been broken. It cannot be prepared. When will God make a new covenant with man? Without it man cannot hope to come near to God. Yet God has promised the reversal of all this.
        3. When will this Seed of the woman come? He must be a second Adam to succeed where the first Adam failed.
        4. The old creation has been cursed. Where is the new creation we so desperately need?
        5. And how can death itself be defeated? For unless that happens, nothing else matters.
      2. The Seed of the Woman vs. the seed of the serpent
        1. Cain vs. Abel (ch. 4)
          1. Things don't get off to a very good start
          2. Cain, who like the serpent, hates God, rises up and kills Abel, the one who has faith in God.
          3. Is this another triumph for Satan?
          4. No. God judges Cain and gives another child to Adam and Eve - Seth. Eve calls him Abel's replacement. He is a child of faith and so the line of faith continues.
        2. The children of Cain vs. the children of Seth (ch. 4b and 5)
          1. Cain bears children and Seth bears children
          2. The children of Cain build cities and boast in their strength.
            • They invent things like musical instruments and animal husbandry and ironwork.
            • They make this world their home, ignoring the fact that it is cursed.
            • If our history books went back this far, these are the people we would focus on. They are the movers and the shakers, the doers and the inventers.
          3. The children of Seth live, bear children in faith, and die.
            • They are waiting for the Seed of the woman to be born
            • No history book would bother to record them. They don't do anything.
            • Yet this is the line that Genesis is interested in. These are the important ones, God says.
        3. 10 generations go by and Noah is born. His father, Lamech, expresses his faith by saying this: "This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD has cursed." And he names him Noah which means "comfort" or "rest."
          1. He thinks, this may be the one in whom the curse is reversed and we no longer have toil and misery.
          2. Perhaps this will be the Seed of the woman to bring us into a new creation.
          3. Perhaps this one, named Rest, will be the one who gives us that Sabbath resting with God that we lost.
      3. Noah - Rest giver and new creation bringer?
        1. A new creation of sorts
          1. But it's got the defects of the old creation - sin and death
          2. And there is still sin
            • All the unrighteous have been destroyed and Noah preserved.
            • But within his own family there is unrighteousness. His own son, Ham, sees him naked and mocks him so Noah curses Ham
            • But why was Noah naked?
              • He was drunk!
              • He took a different forbidden fruit, the fruit of the vine.
              • He made wine from grapes.
                • And there's nothing wrong with wine.
                • The psalmists love the stuff! Jesus drank it with his disciples!
                • But Noah drank too much, proving he was still sinful and not in control of his own behavior.
            • And Noah's nakedness is still shameful!
              • This is no return to paradise where Adam and Eve were naked and not ashamed!
              • This is like after the Fall, after sin came into the world, where people are ashamed until they are covered.
        2. A new dominion covenant
          1. But this time the animals flee from man in fear
          2. And he rules them by terror
          3. Gen 9:2,3 - The fear and dread of you shall rest on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the air, on everything that creeps on the ground, and on all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.
        3. So we continue to wait.
      4. Babylon (Babel)
        1. Let us build a tower up to heaven and live there.
        2. Man proves that he still believes the lie of the serpent - you shall be as gods.
        3. But God, who sits in heaven, laughs them to scorn.
        4. He confuses their language and scatters them to the ends of the earth.
        5. There will be no gaining of heaven by that method, for it is the method of unbelief and pride and boasting in their own strength.
      5. Abraham
        1. Finally, the story slows down and we begin to focus on one man. For 13 chapters we will follow him.
        2. What is so significant?
        3. To Abraham, promises are made. Promises of receiving everything we've been hoping for since Adam and Eve made their melancholy way out of that garden.
          1. Abraham is promised a land, a place where he will meet with God and that will signify his special relationship with God. It is nothing less than the promise of Paradise Restored, and Abraham forsakes his former homeland and his family to pursue it.
          2. These promises are to come to Abraham through his seed.
            • There's that word again! "Seed"
            • Just like the "Seed of the woman" God promised who would destroy the serpent and restore man to Paradise.
            • Can there be any doubt that this is the same seed, being promised again to Abraham?
          3. Abraham is given a covenant!
            • Adam broke our first covenant with God and since then we have needed a new one.
            • Finally, God again makes a covenant with man saying "I will be a God to you and to your seed after you."
            • God - who can take any name or description he deems appropriate - chooses to be called "The God who belongs to Abraham."
            • And God takes all of the covenant obligations upon himself. (Remind of story of passing through the pieces in ch. 15).
        4. This is the story, then, of how God must do everything and Abraham must trust in God alone to do it all.
          1. In ch. 12, he starts out successful.
            • God says leave your homeland and your family to go to a place I'll show you and I'll make you a great nation.
            • Abraham does not say, "But how will I survive without my wealth and my connections? Why should I go into hostile territory, leaving everything that makes me feel safe and prosperous behind?"
          2. By the end of ch. 12 he has failed.
            • He is faced with famine in the land God promised to give him.
            • What is more important? Food or the promise of God?
            • FOOD, Abraham decides. And he moves to Egypt
              • OUT of the land God had sworn to give him
              • AWAY from the promises of God
              • INTO a land of relying on his own strength and ingenuity to care for himself.
              • Abraham voluntarily leaves Paradise because he doesn't trust God.
              • You see how big the problem is? Even if God gave us paradise back, we'd throw it away.
            • The experiment is a disaster
              • Relying on his own strength and wit, he devises a plan to care for himself.
              • To Sarah, "Say you are my sister."
              • Result: Pharaoh adds her to his harem, giving Abraham sheep, oxen, donkeys, slaves, and camels as a bride-price.
              • But how can the promised seed come if Sarah is no longer there to produce him?
            • Things look ready to end in disaster, but God steps in.
              • He plagues Pharaoh's household
              • So Pharaoh returns Sarah and says keep the sheep and oxen and donkeys and camels and slaves. Just get out of here.
              • So Abraham returns to the promised land a rich man.
              • God is able to overcome even Abraham's sins and turn them to good!
          3. In ch. 13 Abraham continues, steadfast in the faith
            • His servants dispute with the servants of his nephew Lot over grazing rights for the sheep and cattle.
            • They have grown so prosperous there's not room enough for both of them in the same area.
            • So Abraham offers Lot half of the promised land, saying he will take the other half
              1. This is not because Abraham despises the land. He's not saying the land is nothing.
              2. This is because he esteems Lot and peace with Lot enough to give him half of his kingdom.
            • But what does Lot do?
              • His eyes wander outside Canaan, outside the promised land to Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain.
              • He loves those lands more than the promises of God and so he voluntarily gives up his right to the promised land. Abraham remains steadfastly in it.
            • And God rewards Abraham's faith by expanding the promise.
              • The promised land was originally just the land of Canaan.
              • Now God says, look around as far as you can see, it's all yours. (So the land Lot chose in unbelief becomes Abraham's by faith.)
            • Thus God shows that he is a God who delights in giving more than he has promised. This will continue until the whole heavens and earth belong to Abraham's seed, to Jesus and those who are united to him by faith.
          4. Abraham continues in faith, judging the blessing of God to be more important than the blessing of men, and judging God faithful to keep all his promises.
          5. But time wears on, and still there is no seed, no offspring, no son.
          6. And if there is no seed, then none of these promises can be fulfilled.
          7. So Abraham takes matters into his own hands
            • He goes into his maidservant Hagar and has a son by her, Ishmael.
            • He figures he'll help God out a bit by providing the son that God couldn't.
            • What he's really doing is trusting in his flesh rather than the promises of God.
            • But God says Ishmael isn't the one and promises the 99 year old Abraham a son by his 89 year old wife.
            • Abraham does what any man would do. He falls on his face and laughs.
            • God comes later to repeat the promise and Sarah overhears. So she falls on her face and laughs.
          8. Nevertheless, a year later, by the power of God, Isaac is born.
            • They laugh again, this time with joy.
            • How gracious God is! And how powerful! What was impossible for them was perfectly easy for him.
            • The son is born! The child is given! He will inherit from Abraham all the promises of God which were, after all, to Abraham and to his seed after him.
          9. Then God says, kill him.
            • And Abraham, without questioning, prepares to do so.
            • Abraham has seen the power of God and his faith has been strengthened.
            • If God brought Isaac from him and Sarah when they were as good as dead, then God can bring Isaac back from the dead.
            • Abraham no longer has any questions about how God will accomplish his plans. He no longer thinks he might be wiser than God. He no longer puts any confidence in his own power.
            • And just as Abraham's hand is raised to stab his son, his only son, whom he loves, to death, God intervenes.
            • God provides a substitute, a ram caught in a thicket. The seed of Abraham and all the promises of God are preserved.
          10. Abraham now lives by faith in the promises of God.
          11. When Sarah dies he spends an extravagant amount of money to buy a burial site in the promised land. He buries her there as a sign of his faith that all God's promises concerning this land will be fulfilled. And Sarah, though dead, will rise again to receive and enjoy those promises.
  2. What It All Means
    1. The Sovereignty of God
      1. Throughout all this we get a picture of God as majestic and powerful
      2. God is in control of all of this!
        1. He is not up in heaven wringing his hands.
        2. Nor is he down on earth scrambling for damage control.
        3. This is not the picture we get at all.
      3. Rather we have a majestic picture of God organizing and ordaining all these things according to the good pleasure of his will.
      4. Think about God coming down in Genesis 3 after Adam and Eve have taken the forbidden fruit.
        1. He's not coming down rushed and flustered and saying, "If only I could have gotten here an hour ago, this might not have occurred."
        2. He's not coming down as one frustrated because Satan has gotten the better of him and plunged his creation into misery and futility.
        3. He is coming down as the sovereign and the judge with blessing and curse in his hand, ready to render to each one's work according to what he has done.
      5. Again with Cain and Abel
        1. Cain sins despicably and God judges majestically and with complete authority.
        2. He does not worry that now the seed of the woman might not come. He replaces Abel with Seth, according to a decision he made from before the foundation of the world, and his plans go on without a hitch.
      6. Again with Noah
        1. He doesn't look down and give a yelp of dismay: "Oh no! The world is filled with the unrighteous. There's only one righteous man left. Satan's about to win! I'd better nuke the place and start again."
        2. No, his decision to destroy the world is calm, rational, and unhurried.
          1. He gives Noah 100 years to build the ark.
          2. 100 years! Isn't he worried Noah might die? Men in their 500s often do, you know.
          3. How ridiculous! God holds life and death in his hand. Nothing is going to happen without his say so.
      7. Again with Babel
        1. The proud men think they can build a tower to heaven.
        2. But God peers down at it. You get the impression he'd have to squint to see it if his eyesight weren't so good.
        3. He even mocks them by pretending to be worried, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them."
        4. But in the next moment, it is clear he is not, "Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another's speech."
      8. And over and over again with Abraham
        1. Abraham worries and falters and is restored to faith again and again.
          1. He goes down to Egypt because he doesn't trust God.
          2. Later he tries the same lie with Abimilech - "She's my sister" - with the same results.
          3. He tries to produce a son on his own because he's worried that God can't do it.
          4. And later when God promises him a son by Sarah, he laughs and says, can't you just use Ishmael?
        2. But God knows exactly what he's doing
          1. He brings Abraham back from Egypt with riches and power.
          2. He promises a son and waits to deliver him. Why? Because he can't? No. Because he chooses to wait. It's no harder for God to give an 89 year old woman a son than to give one to a 21 year old.
          3. When he promises the son will arrive in a year, the son arrives in a year.
          4. And think of Abraham, knife raised, ready to plunge it into Isaac's heart. And God says, Stop! Isn't he worried he'll say it a second too late and Isaac will be dead? Nonsense! God is running this show.
      9. For God, there is no suspense or worry in this story. He knows the end from the beginning. And he has already ordained all things according to his good pleasure.
      10. Then let there be no suspense or worry in anything for you, either.
        1. Take from Genesis this view of God and know that he controls all things.
        2. God is not frustrated or surprised by your finances or your trouble at work or problems at home. He planned them all. And he's in control of them all.
        3. You may not understand them any more than Abraham understood why he was supposed to kill Isaac.
        4. But believe, o child of God, that he has it all under control and is making no mistakes.
        5. And you know how it all ends because you, like Abraham, have promises from God.
        6. It ends with the return of Christ and the revealing of a kingdom that has no end and no more sorrow or tears or pain or death.
        7. When you are caught up in the cares of this world, think of the view of God that Genesis gives you. And imagine it all from God's perspective, looking down from heaven, making everything work out as he planned it, and bringing all of history to a resounding conclusion in which Christ is revealed as triumphant over all.
        8. Who can worry with such a perspective?
    2. The Focus on Christ
      1. This story points to Christ and yearns for him and puts all its hope in him.
      2. Christ is the 2nd Adam who succeeds where the first Adam failed.
        1. The first Adam got us kicked out of paradise.
        2. The second Adam leads us back in.
        3. The first Adam brought death, the second eternal life
      3. Christ is the Seed of the woman promised in Gen 3:16
        1. He is the one who crushed the serpent's head, taking from Satan all the power he had over us because of our sin.
        2. He is the seed Eve was hoping for when she had Abel. And in Abel she received a picture of Christ, the faithful and righteous one who entrusted himself to God alone and suffered death because of it.
        3. And when Abel died, Christ is the seed she was hoping for when she had Seth. And in Seth she received a picture of Christ, rising again from the dead.
        4. He is the seed Lamech hoped for when he had Noah. And in Noah we receive a picture of Christ, the waters of God's judgment closing over his head at the cross. Noah passes through a picture of death in that coffin-like boat and rises again into a new life surrounded by a new creation. All this points to Christ.
        5. He is the seed Abraham hoped for when he had Isaac, the child given to a woman who could not possibly conceive, after such a long wait, in fulfillment of God's promise. Isaac was a picture of his Savior who would be born to a virgin, after a wait of over 2000 years. And all God's promises would be yes and amen in him.
        6. He is the seed Abraham almost lost when he raised that knife to sacrifice his son. Just as God the Father slew his own Son for us and brought him back for us from the dead.
      4. He is the ram, as well, the substitute Isaac and all of us need if we are not to pay for our own sins.
      5. He is the world-rejecting one
      6. He is the suffering servant
      7. When the serpent meets the woman at that tree, she is supposed to call Adam to judge him.
        1. Adam fails
        2. Paul says we will "judge angels"
          1. Adam should have done that and didn't
          2. That purpose is restored in Christ, the second Adam.
        3. As Eve should have cried out to Adam, so we the Church cry out to Christ.
          1. Jesus! Come and guard us and judge this evil one!
          2. Come and put out the wickedness.
          3. And at the cross, the second judgment tree, our wickedness is put out forever!
          4. At the cross, God judges all our sins and destroys them in the body of Christ.
      8. He is the resurrection and the life!
      9. To preach this book without preaching Christ again and again and again is to miss God's whole point! The whole Bible is about Christ and our need for him and our satisfaction with him. In him all promises are fulfilled and everything we need is given.
    3. The Privilege of the New Testament Believer
      1. These are things into which angels longed to look!
      2. We have Christ himself, not a picture.
        1. Better than Abel and Seth, for that was not a real resurrection.
        2. Better than Noah, who did not come into a truly new creation and was not truly righteous.
        3. Better than Isaac, who did not really rise from the dead, or take away our sins, or restore us to paradise.
        4. Better than the ram that replaced Isaac. For the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin, but the blood of Christ can and does.
      3. Even with such control as we spoke of, it was possible to doubt in the Old Testament.
        1. Would God really pull it off?
        2. Would the seed of the woman really come?
        3. Would paradise really be restored and heaven won?
      4. But who can doubt now?
        1. God really did it!
        2. He raised his Son from the dead and now our Savior is enthroned on high
        3. And he has commended all power into the hands of that Son who is seated at the right hand of power.
          1. The power that organized all of history to lead up to Christ!
          2. The power that raised him from the dead is his now to give to you that you too may pass from death into life!
          3. What are the problems you face at home or work in comparison with this?!?

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