Chapter 1 - Creation

Introduction to the Reading: Have you ever messed up? I mean really messed up.  Have you ever had to face consequences for a mistake? Not just detention or some sort of fine, but life changing consequences.  Have you gotten kicked out of school? Fired from a job? Gotten in trouble with the law? Have you done something that altered the course of your life and impacted those around you?

The opening chapters of Genesis can raise plenty of questions: How could God creating anything out of nothing? How could he create this whole world in six days? Why did he place the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the garden? Where did Satan come from? How could God flood the whole earth? How could all the animals fit in the ark? The list goes on and on.

The question I would ask, though, is simply this: How did Adam feel? How did he feel when he realized he was naked? When he stood before God, and God saw everything - saw right through him - saw that he had failed at keeping the one command that had been given him... How did it feel the first time he went out into the field to try to grow grain - the long days under the hot sun - the hours trying to get the grain out of the husk so that he could eat it, and the entire time thinking of the days back in the garden when luscious fruit hung from the vine for the taking. How did he feel when he laid down to sleep the night after he heard one of his sons had killed the other? Did he feel responsible? Depressed? Confused? In his old age, did he see his great-great-grandchildren reveling in sin and having no regard for God, and sore with arthritis did he sit on his chair and shake his head at how far things had come from the days in the Garden?

As Adam wrestled in his mind with what he experienced, how did he answer the question, "Now what?"

Before You Read - Background of the Book of Genesis: Everyone is somewhat curious about their origins. I heard a reporter the other day say that he wasn't all that excited to learn about his genealogy, until he had to do it for a segment on the news. However, he was excited when he started to get into it and found out that he could trace his roots back to the 16th century. The book of Genesis is a book of genealogies - of histories. Moses wrote the book of Genesis thousands of years after the events we read about this week occurred. One reason he wrote this book was to show the Israelites, the nation he was leader of, where they had come from. We will read of the fathers of the nation of Israel: Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph. This week we read about how all people have descended from Noah and Adam. We learn where we came from and where the earth we live in came from. But God shares with us something even more important - where our Savior from sin, Jesus, came from: a great-grandchild of Eve as to his humanity, but God from all eternity as to his deity - come to us as the result of a promise made on the heels of the very first sin.

Time to Slow it Down - Page 6 "And I will put enmity..."

Note: Enmity = hatred/hostility

• Who is speaking? 
• Who is he speaking to - who is the "you"?
• Who is the "he"?
• How would Jesus (oops I just gave away the answer to the last question) crush Satan's head?
• How would Satan strike at Jesus's heal?
• For Adam are these words of punishment or promise?
• Is there any significance as to the timing of when they are spoken?

When You're Done Reading - Thoughts to Ponder:

• What facts about God does this Chapter reveal to you?

In explaining the 1st article of the Apostle's Creed, Luther wrote in his Small Catechism, "I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my limbs, my reason, and all my senses, and still preserves them." Luther also recognized that God didn't just stop at creating us. Not at all, "That he provides me richly and daily with all that I need to support my body and life."  But these truths aren't just thoughts to appreciate. They lead to actions! "For all which I owe it to Him to thank, praise, serve, and obey Him."

• What truths about me does this Chapter reveal?

As I read this chapter, I'm struck at how much I've messed up. I can't help but notice how far off of the "ideal" I am from what God intended. Not only have I, like my father Adam, failed. More than that, like the rest of Adam's decedents I can't help but sin. I deserve to be destroyed - to be drowned in the water's of the flood. I've messed up. I am not holy like God.

• What truths about God does this Chapter show me?

Three characteristics of God jump out at me: His power - to speak and whole universes come into being. His justice & judgment on sin - he has no tolerance for wickedness. His love - his LOVE! I think the sweetest words in this whole chapter are these, "Where are you?" Sometimes I wonder why God didn't just throw this whole world into the garbage like I threw my broccoli seedlings into the garbage when it was clear they had not turned out the way I had expected.  He didn't - the fact that he came to Adam just astonishes me. Adam is hiding in a corner like a kid who knows dad's looking for him, but God comes to find him where he is at! Oh there are consequences for Adam and Eve, but before the consequences God starts out with words of promise and words of hope - the promise of descendant who would crush Satan and make things right again. And in the midst of a wicked world, God is right there to rescue his people - the very waters he uses to destroy wickedness are the same waters he uses to rescue Noah and his family. God is powerful. God is just. But where there is powerful judgment, there is also God's love. 

Conclusion: Adam had every reason to feel depressed, to be angry with himself, to kick himself for messing up. Adam very well may have spent long hours longing for the "good 'ol days" in the garden. But he didn't need to. He had something else to let his mind dwell on - a promise. Cryptic, scant on details, undeserved - but a promise from a powerful and loving God, a promise that could be counted on.

To Pray: 

Beautiful Savior, King of Creation, Son of God and Son of Man! Truly I'd love Thee, Truly I'd serve Thee, Light of my soul, my Joy, my Crown. Amen.

or

All mankind fell in Adam's fall, One common sin infects us all; from sire to son the bane descends, and over all the curse impends. But Christ, the second Adam, came to bear our sin and woe and shame, To be our life, our Light, our Way, Our only Hope, our only Stay. As by one man all mankind fell And, borne in sin, was doomed to hell, So by one Man, who took our place, We all received the gift of Grace. We thank you, Christ, new life is ours, New light, new hope, new strength, new powers: This grace our every way attend Until we reach our journey's end. Amen.

For those who like more:

• Now that you Know the Context  - Bible Connections:
• According to the writer of Hebrews, how can we believe in creation? (Hebrews 11:3)
• According to Peter, how is the flood like baptism? (1 Peter 3:18-22)
• 2 Peter 3 - Peter says that there will be people who deny that God created the world. They do this because they incorrectly assume that "all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation." In other words, they assume that because we can tell from science how things evolve now that this is how things have always evolved. Therefore if it takes thousands of years for a species to adapt to a new environment, that if we take that same rate of development we can look backwards in time to figure out how things evolved to where they are now. The problem is, evolutionists don't accept that God didn't act the same way at creation as he preserves the world now. According to Peter, what danger is there for these individuals because of this thinking concerning the future?
• Other great reading: For those of you who like the debate about evolution and creation - a great article by Seminary Professor Siegbert Becker http://www.wlsessays.net/files/BeckerEvolution.PDF