Last week, we looked at the creation story--which we've actually done a number of times since Christmas, but it's very important that we understand it because just like the setting in a book or movie, if you don't understand the beginning, it'll be hard to understand the end. So basically:
- Unlike the pagan stories of origins, the creation story in Genesis tells us that creation was the result of a loving all-powerful creator, not the result of a cosmic battle or desire of the gods to have slaves.
- Unlike the pagan stories floating around, life has meaning and purpose. The Bible tells us that history isn't cyclical. We're not doomed to continue to experience the same things over and over. We can experience real and lasting change and even improvement.
- God created humans in his image, which means we are free and that we can help influence the future. Humans are not just pawns of the gods.
- The central issue of the Bible is TRUST. It's not IF we're going to trust--all of us already trust something (i.e. ourselves, reason, science, etc.) The question is who or what will we trust. The trees in the garden are the first decision we had to make between trusting God's provision for us and trusting ourselves. Of course we (Adam and Eve) chose to trust ourselves and we lost paradise.
- All of history since then has been our attempt to recreate paradise.
That pretty much summarizes the first message. Adam and Eve sinned and God took away the Tree of Life--which allowed humans to live forever--because if we could live forever, imagine the damage we could do to the world. Once we decided to take over the world, things went downhill in a big hurry.
Cain killed Abel. People began to think they were pretty powerful and built the tower of Babel, thinking they were gods. At each point along the way, God redirected. God punished Cain, but also promised to protect him. God confused people's languages so they couldn't complete the tower. Then we get to Noah...
We won't go into a lot of detail about Noah in the series, but he's worth mentioning. Basically, over time the experiment of people trying to recreate paradise went awry. The way Genesis describes the world the time is that the whole work was wicked beyond repair. "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." (Gen 6:5)
The problem with sin is not that it hurts us (although that is a big problem), but it also hurts others. When parents have a bad temper, they not only hurt their children, but they pass it along to their children. Our decisions aren't isolated, individual decisions, but they take us in a direction and they also take the people around us in a direction. We learn from each other. We even learn sin from each other.
This was the state of the world in Noah's day. The world was bad and it was getting worse. So God decided to start over. Some people see a huge problem with the idea of God wiping people out because of their wickedness. Actually, I think if we take it seriously, we should have some trouble with it. I don't think any Christian should be thrilled or calloused about God's judgment. But as troubling as it is, there are a couple ways to look at the problem.
First, if God is the creator, what he does with his creation is his prerogative. I might not like it, but he's God and I'm not. (That's the faith commitment I've made-and as much as I tend to mess things up, it's a pretty reasonable one).
Second, even in the Old Testament when God wipes out whole groups of people, it's the last resort. Genesis doesn't go into all the details of God's decision-making, but even when God wiped out Sodom, he was willing to allow them to stand if there was just one righteous person in the city. The corruption was so great that God would mercifully put an end to the sheer evil and not allow more people to be born into a completely evil and violent city. This was the situation in Noah's day.
Noah was the only one considered righteous. He certainly wasn't perfect, but God could at least work with him. Incidentally, this is why I don't believe hurricane Katrina was an act of judgment on the city of New Orleans. I think there are very few places today that aren't redeemable. There are many places that are very evil, but history has progressed and it seems that in every evil situation, there's a glimpse of God--of the Kingdom shining through. It's not fully here yet, but there's hope.
