Genesis, the Book of Beginnings
The Bible is a book of the Covenant between God and mankind. The book of Genesis is the first book of the Bible and in it are recorded the origins of the universe, life of all kinds, and the creation and purpose of man. It describes how the original intimacy with God was lost and how God set about to restore this intimacy.
Many people read the Genesis account and they read what seems to be an over-reaction of God for Adam's seemingly small infraction of God's arbitrary rules. Why did He allow that temptation, and why did He make Adam so weak as to even be susceptible to the temptation of a serpent? If God is a forgiving God, why are there such enormous consequences to a small error?
As I began to take a look at the book of Genesis in preparation for these articles I saw some interesting and revealing things in the words and actions of God and Adam in the first few chapters of Genesis.
Genesis, the book of beginnings, can be compared to stem cells in a developing embryo. Before the cells differentiate into various organ tissues, muscle, bone or whatever, they are all apparently the same. These cells individually have the potential to develop into any type of tissue necessary. The process that controls this differentiation is complex and not completely understood, but it is common knowledge that if there is an injury, even a small injury to developing embryonic tissue, the potential for serious defects in the fully developed fruit (or person) are greatly increased. As an apple grower in Minnesota, I am thoroughly familiar with the great crop damage that can occur by one short frost during early fruit development. One cold evening, even just a few hours of sub-freezing temperatures in those fruits that are still smaller than a dime, can cause grossly deformed fruits that never outgrow the damage.
So what's the connection?
The Hebrew words used in Genesis,the record of the patriarchs, the history of the flood, the tower of Babylon and all these things are much like the undifferentiated cells of an embryo or a small developing fruit. God is communicating foundational truths about Himself, our world, our purpose and provision, and our relationship with our creator. We can miss the depth and importance of these concepts if we read Genesis casually, or if we rely solely on the meanings of the translated words in our modern Bibles. It is not that our translations are wrong, but rather that there are some things in Hebrew language and culture that cannot be directly translated into English. Some of the ideas expressed in the original language in one word have no counterpart in English. Also there are patterns, and words or concepts that are repeated several times because they are important and foundational to understanding God who is the source of love and life.If we miss them it has the same effect as damage to developing cells in a small fruit. Our perception of God's love, His integrity, His wisdom, and His everlasting unquenchable desire to give out of Himself in a marvelous physical expression of his eternal Spirit, His absolute generosity, and His desire to forgive error and restore all things lost or corrupted get interpreted as something less than what they are. Or we don't believe them at all.
We end up agreeing with the accusation of the serpent in the garden, "Yea hath God said..." , and the Giver is accused of being a thief, the Source of Love is accused of being the liar. We can find ourselves explaining our sinful selfish nature by claiming that "God just made me this way, so it's all His fault"...
And on and on it goes, we could all write our own paragraphs or pages on our own judgments of God's errors and shortcomings.
But what is here in Genesis is full and brimming over with explanation and revelation of many fundamental truths and principles.
God reveals the end at the beginning
Isaiah 46:8-10
"Remember this, fix it in mind, take it to heart, you rebels.
Remember the former things, those of long ago;
I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.
I make known the end from the beginning,from ancient times, what is still to come.
I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.
NIV
There is a lot of activity in the first two chapters of Genesis.
God created...
God said...
God let be... (an active advancing action, not at all passive)
God saw...
God blessed...
These activities are repeated several times throughout the creation account and they are distinctly separate actions and functions of God. They are the subject of subsequent articles in this series so more about them later, but look HERE!...
Genesis 2:3
Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. NKJV
This is the end! Right here in the second chapter of the first book of 66 books written over 1500 years of human history, God describes, or at least gives us a good clue as to what the end is going to be.
The Book of Hebrews warns and exhorts us to press on toward this same goal.
Hebrews 4:1-11
...since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.
2 For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.
3 Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,
"So I declared on oath in my anger,
'They shall never enter my rest.'"
And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world.
4 For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: "And on the seventh day God rested from all his work."
5 And again in the passage above he says, "They shall never enter my rest."
6 It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience.
7 Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before:
"Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts."
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day.
9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God;
10 for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his.
11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience. NIV
Notice that what is spoken of in Genesis at the beginning, is said to remain and be available for the people of God in the future, but it is also identified as available TODAY, right now whenever you are reading this, and also at the time I am writing this, and also at the time when the scripture in Hebrews was originally written. As with many truths and principles of the Kingdom of God, there is simultaneously a past, present and future aspect to entering into the rest or the Sabbath of God. So we can see that this concept of Sabbath runs through all of time, it is eternal and it is not just some set of rules of behavior and observance that shows our worthiness to be classified among the religious elite.
There is a lot to learn about the "rest" or Sabbath of God and I will deal with that in another article.
In the next study, we will examine more of what God is telling us about the seventh day in Genesis 2:3.
Be Blessed, Tom
