Genesis

In Genesis 3, we still see “the man” and “the woman.” The woman has not even been given the name Eve yet. At this point, the story is still focused more on who they are in relation to God and each other than on their individual names.God has created a place for them to live with Him in harmony. He has given them everything they need, along with one boundary.Then the serpent enters the story and asks one question:Can you really trust God?The serpent does not start by telling them to completely reject God. He starts by making them question the story God has given them.Did God really say that?Is God holding something back from you?Wouldn’t life be better if you decided for yourself what is good?We hear the phrase “trust the process” all the time. Genesis 3 is almost like God saying, “Trust the story.”Trust that I created you.Trust that I know what is good.Trust that the boundaries I have given you are there for a reason.Trust that you do not have to understand everything in order to trust Me.But the man and woman decide they do not trust the story anymore. They believe they can write a better one for themselves.And that is really what sin looks like throughout Scripture.It is not always someone saying, “I do not believe in God.”A lot of the time it is someone saying, “I know what God said, but I think my way will work better.”Adam and the woman do this in the garden. Israel will do this over and over again in the wilderness. Kings will do the same later in the Old Testament. The disciples will struggle with it. And we still do as well.God says one thing, but we look at our circumstances and think:I know, but what if God is wrong about this?What if His way doesn't work for me?What if I need to take control myself?Genesis 3 shows us where that leads.The harmony God created begins to break. The man and woman hide from God. They blame each other. Their relationship with God, with each other, and with creation becomes fractured.They wanted control of the story, but instead they broke the world they had been given.And that becomes one of the major themes of the entire Bible:Will God’s people trust the story He is writing, or will they try to write their own?

After the fall, something interesting happens.Up to this point, Genesis keeps referring to “the man” and “the woman.” But in Genesis 3:20, Adam gives the woman a name:Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.Her name is now connected to what she will do.And that feels very familiar to the way we still see people today.We tend to identify people by what they do.She’s an athlete.He’s the smart kid.She’s the funny one.He’s the pastor.She’s the successful one.He’s the screw-up.We put labels on people based on their job, reputation, talents, failures, or what they can produce.But that is not how God first introduces humanity.Before Adam or Eve had accomplished anything, before they had a job title, before they had succeeded or failed, God had already said they were made in His image.Their value came from who they were, not what they did.That is an important difference.We usually look at each other from the outside in. We see what someone does, what they are good at, what they have messed up, or what they can offer us.God sees us from the inside out.He sees a person made in His image.And this matters even more after Genesis 3, because now Adam and Eve have failed in a pretty spectacular way. But God does not stop seeing them as His creation. He still comes looking for them. He still speaks to them. He still cares for them.Their failure changes a lot, but it does not erase who they are.That is something we need to remember about ourselves and about other people.What you do matters, but it is not the deepest truth about who you are.God sees you as more than your grades, your sport, your job, your popularity, your mistakes, or your success.And if God sees people that way, we should try to see each other that way too.

Friday, we ended with Adam giving the woman the name Eve and with the reminder that their failure did not erase who they were.The next thing God does is easy to overlook.Adam and Eve had tried to cover themselves with leaves. They knew something had changed, they felt ashamed, and they tried to fix the problem themselves.But their covering was not enough.So, God made clothing for them.Genesis does not tell us what kind of animal the clothing came from or describe its death. But clothing made from animal skins means an animal’s life had to be taken.This is the first time in Scripture that something dies to cover human shame.Adam and Eve used leaves.God provided something better.Their leaves represent what we still try to do with our own sin and shame. We hide, make excuses, blame someone else, or try to do enough good things to make up for what we have done.We try to create our own covering.But leaves could not repair Adam and Eve’s relationship with God. They could not undo their sin or remove their shame.Something else had to provide the covering.This becomes an early picture of something we will see throughout Scripture.Later, animals will be sacrificed at the tabernacle and Temple as the people seek forgiveness and restoration with God. Those sacrifices will have to be repeated again and again.Another animal.Another sacrifice.Another reminder that sin brings death and that humanity cannot cover itself.All this points forward to Jesus.When Jesus dies on the cross, He does not bring another animal to be sacrificed. Unlike the sacrifices that had to be repeated, He is the ultimate sacrifice for eternity.From the garden to the Temple to the cross, God provides the covering for our sin and shame that we cannot provide ourselves.

Genesis 4 begins outside the garden.Adam and Eve have two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain works the ground, and Abel cares for animals. Both brothers bring offerings to God, but God looks with favor on Abel and his offering.Cain becomes angry.Genesis does not fully explain what the issue was with Cain’s offering. It may have have been just fine or God may have taken issue with what he brought, how he brought it, or what was happening inside him.But the story quickly turns toward Cain’s response.God asks him:Why are you angry?Why has your face fallen?God asked Adam, “Where are you?” Now He asks Cain to pay attention to what is happening inside him.Cain has not harmed Abel yet.He is angry.He is jealous.He is disappointed.But he still has a choice about what he will do with those feelings.God warns him:“Sin is crouching at your door.”The picture is kind of like a wild animal hiding outside, waiting for the door to open. God tells Cain that sin desires to control him, but Cain must not allow it to rule over him.We sometimes act as though sin suddenly appears out of nowhere.But most of the time, it grows.Disappointment becomes jealousy.Jealousy becomes resentment.Resentment changes how we see another person.Eventually, we justify doing something we never thought we would do.God warns Cain before any blood is shed. He gives him an opportunity to stop and choose a different path.God gives us those moments too.A feeling that something is wrong.A friend who challenges us.A passage of Scripture that makes us uncomfortable.A voice inside us saying, You need to deal with this before it becomes something worse.The question is whether we will listen while sin is still outside the door.Pay attention to what is crouching at your door. What you allow to stay there will eventually try to come inside.

Cain ignores God’s warning.He takes Abel into a field and kills him.The distrust of Genesis 3 has now become the violence of Genesis 4. Sin has spread from humanity’s broken relationship with God into the relationship between two brothers.Then God asks Cain:“Where is your brother Abel?”That question should sound familiar.God asked Adam, “Where are you?”Now He asks Cain, “Where is your brother?”Once again, God already knows the answer. He is giving Cain an opportunity to tell the truth and accept responsibility.Instead, Cain says:“I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”Cain has taken his brother’s life, but now he acts as though his brother’s life was never his responsibility.We still ask versions of Cain’s question.Am I responsible for the person being excluded?Is it my problem if everyone is making fun of someone?Do I need to say something when a friend is making destructive choices?Why should someone else’s pain concern me?The rest of Scripture gives a pretty clear answer.Yes, we are our brother’s keeper.That does not mean we can control every choice another person makes. It means we are called to care about what happens to people. We cannot claim to love God while treating people made in His image as though their lives do not matter.God tells Cain that Abel’s blood is crying out from the ground.Cain tried to hide what he had done, but Abel’s life mattered to God.Throughout Scripture, God hears the cries of people who have been mistreated, forgotten, or oppressed. Their suffering may be ignored by everyone else, but it is never invisible to Him.Cain thought he could take Abel into an empty field where no one would see.But there is nowhere another person’s suffering becomes invisible to God.God’s question is not only “Where are you?” It is also “Where is your brother?”

After Cain kills Abel, God tells him that he will become a restless wanderer.Cain becomes afraid. He worries that someone will find him and kill him.There is something uncomfortable about his response.Cain has taken his brother’s life, but his main concern is what might happen to him. He does not apologize or ask how he can make things right.Yet God still responds with mercy.God places a mark on Cain so that no one will kill him in revenge. The mark of Cain is often treated as though it were only a curse, but in this story it is also protection.Cain will live with the consequences of his actions, but God will not allow his murder to lead to more uncontrolled violence.God’s justice and mercy appear together.Cain’s actions matter.Abel’s blood matters.But God does not completely abandon Cain.Cain leaves God’s presence and settles east of Eden. Adam and Eve had already been sent east of the garden. Now Cain moves even farther away from the place where humanity lived with God.Cain builds a city, his family grows, and human culture begins to develop.But sin grows alongside it.One of Cain’s descendants, Lamech, brags about killing a man who injured him. Cain feared being avenged seven times, but Lamech boasts of revenge seventy-seven times.Violence is not disappearing.It is growing.What began with eating the fruit in Genesis 3 has become murder and revenge in Genesis 4. One act of distrust has spread through relationships, families, and generations.But Genesis 4 does not end with Lamech.Adam and Eve have another son named Seth. Seth later has a son named Enosh. Then Genesis tells us that people began to call on the name of the Lord.Violence is growing, but people are still calling out to God.Humanity continues moving away from Eden, but God has not abandoned humanity.People wander.Sin spreads.Violence grows.But God continues to seek, protect, speak, and rescue.Humanity keeps walking away from God, but God refuses to give up on humanity.

Genesis 4 ended with two different pictures of humanity.Lamech bragged about violence and revenge.But other people began calling on the name of the Lord.By Genesis 6, the violence has continued to grow.Genesis tells us that human wickedness had become great and that the thoughts of the human heart were continually turned toward evil.What began with eating fruit in the garden has spread into the entire human story.Adam and Eve distrusted God.Cain killed Abel.Lamech celebrated revenge.Now the earth is filled with violence.Sin never stays in one place.It moves from our hearts into our choices.From our choices into our relationships.From our relationships into families, communities, and entire cultures.Genesis 6 also tells us how God responds.God is grieved.That is important because we can sometimes imagine God looking down on human sin with nothing but anger.But Genesis describes something deeper.God sees the world He created for beauty, relationship, and life becoming filled with corruption and violence.And it breaks His heart.When Genesis says that God regretted making humanity, it does not mean that God suddenly realized He had made a mistake or that He did not know this could happen.It describes His grief over what humanity has done with the life and freedom He gave them.God cares about what is happening on the earth.He cares about violence.He cares about injustice.He cares about the ways people created in His image are hurting one another.Because God loves His creation, He refuses to pretend that evil does not matter.That means judgment is coming.But Genesis 6 does not end with judgment.It ends by telling us:“Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”Even when sin has spread throughout the world, God has not given up on the world.He begins looking for someone willing to trust Him.Someone through whom He can preserve life.Someone who will work with Him as He begins the story again.Humanity has become unfaithful.But God remains committed to what He created.Sin has filled the earth, but God is already making a way to rescue it.

Genesis describes Noah in a way we have not heard about anyone else so far:“Noah walked with God.”That does not mean Noah was perfect.Later in his story, Noah will fail too.But in a world filled with violence and corruption, Noah is willing to listen to God and live differently.God tells Noah that judgment is coming and commands him to build an enormous boat.Imagine how strange that must have sounded.There is no flood yet.There is no visible reason to build an ark.There is only God’s warning and God’s instruction.Noah has to decide whether he will trust what he sees or trust what God has said.That question should sound familiar.Adam and Eve stood in the garden and decided that their way would work better than God’s.Cain heard God’s warning about sin crouching at his door and ignored it.Now Noah hears God’s warning.And Noah obeys.Genesis says:“Noah did everything just as God commanded him.”God is looking for someone willing to work with Him on the earth.That does not mean God needs Noah as an equal or that Noah will rescue the world through his own strength.God provides the warning.God provides the instructions.God determines how rescue will happen.But God chooses to work through Noah’s trust and obedience.We often want God to show us the whole plan before we take the first step.How is this going to work?What will everyone think?What if I do what God says and nothing happens?Noah does not receive an answer to every possible question.He receives instructions for the next faithful step.So he begins building.Board by board.Day after day.Long before the rain starts.Walking with God usually looks less dramatic than we imagine. Most of the time, it means listening to what God has said and doing the next faithful thing, even when we cannot see where the story is going.God remains the One who rescues.But He invites Noah to take part in what He is doing.God works through people who are willing to trust Him before they can see how the story will turn out.

The flood is one of the most familiar stories in the Bible.We put Noah’s ark on nursery walls. We make toys with pairs of animals. We draw rainbows above a little wooden boat.But the actual story is difficult.The flood is an act of judgment.The earth has become filled with violence, and God refuses to allow that violence to continue forever.That may make us uncomfortable, but a God who never responds to evil would not really be good.If God saw people being abused, oppressed, and killed and simply said, “It does not matter,” that would not be mercy.It would be indifference.The flood tells us that evil matters to God.But judgment is not the only thing happening.There is also an ark.God tells Noah to bring his family and the animals inside. In the middle of judgment, God provides a place of rescue.Then the rain begins.The waters rise.The world that had been filled with violence disappears beneath them.For 150 days, the waters cover the earth.Then Genesis 8 begins with an important sentence:“But God remembered Noah.”That does not mean God had forgotten Noah and suddenly remembered that he was floating around in an ark.In the Bible, when God “remembers,” it often means He is about to act on a promise or commitment.God turns His attention toward Noah.He sends a wind over the earth.The waters begin to recede.Judgment is real.But judgment does not get the final word.God has not forgotten Noah.He has not forgotten the animals.He has not forgotten the creation He called good.The ark holds judgment and mercy together.God takes evil seriously enough to confront it, but He remains committed to preserving life and beginning again.We often want God to be either just or merciful.Genesis shows us that He is both.He does not ignore what humanity has done.But He also does not abandon the world He made.God’s judgment shows that evil matters, and His mercy shows that He has not given up on His creation.

As the floodwaters disappear, the story begins to sound familiar.In Genesis 1, water covers the earth. God causes dry ground to appear, fills the world with living creatures, and tells humanity to be fruitful and multiply.Now water has covered the earth again.The waters recede.Dry ground appears.People and animals come out onto the land.God tells Noah and his family to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth.It is almost as though creation is beginning again.Before Noah leaves the ark, he waits for God’s direction. He sends out a raven and then a dove to see whether the ground is dry. Eventually, the dove returns carrying an olive leaf.Even after Noah can see that the water is gone, he remains inside until God tells him:“Come out of the ark.”The God who told Noah when to enter the ark now tells him when to leave.When Noah steps onto dry ground, the first thing he does is build an altar and offer a sacrifice. He recognizes that he is standing there because God rescued him.God then blesses Noah and his sons and gives them many of the responsibilities humanity received in Genesis 1.Be fruitful.Multiply.Fill the earth.God also reminds them that human beings are made in His image. Even after the violence that filled the earth, human life still carries the dignity God gave it at creation.Then God makes a covenant with Noah.A covenant was more than a casual promise. It created a serious, binding relationship between those involved.God makes this covenant with Noah, his descendants, and every living creature. He promises never again to destroy the earth with a flood.Then He gives them a sign:The rainbow.The rainbow is a visible reminder that God has bound Himself to the future of His creation.God has judged the violence that filled the earth, but He has not abandoned the world He made. He brings people and animals safely through the waters, places them back on dry ground, renews humanity’s calling, and promises to remain committed to creation.Humanity’s violence brought judgment upon the earth, but God preserved life and bound Himself to the creation He made.