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The Bible starts in a wonderful place for us. In Genesis chapter one and verse one. It begins with the idea of identity. For us to understand what life is all about. One of the most important questions that we can answer is who we are, where we’ve come from and why. Why we exist. Moses is the author of the Book of Genesis, and the purpose that he entails is he begins the story of the. The. The book that we call Genesis is to shape the identity of who we are in light of who God is in this world. Who is God? Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? How do we change? You know, for any religious system or teaching in this world to be considered valid by any person, it’s got to answer those significant questions about life. Who am I? Where am I come from? How do I change? How do I get there? How are we going to go there together? And if you want to live life for the intended purpose for which you were created, it’s important that you start life on the proper building blocks. The identity of who we are. The nation of Israel in this passage of Scripture just came out of what the Bible calls the Exodus. The book of Exodus talks about. It’s the book of exiting the nation of Israel had been living as slaves, and Moses had led this people out of the nation of Egypt into this future promised land that God was going to give to them.
And they’re wandering through the wilderness, and they have all sorts of of questions about who they are and where they came from. You can imagine if you’ve lived a number of years as slaves, how the identity of who you are starts to deteriorate because of the pressure of life that’s placed upon you. And and you’re left wondering those questions. Do I have any worth in this life? Does anyone care that I’m a human being? And where am I going? What is it I’m supposed to do? How? How do I fulfill what God has created me for? In fact, the Bible tells us in in the book of acts, this happened several times within Scripture when it describes the nation of Israel, it says this. But God spoke in this way that his descendants would dwell in a foreign land. It’s talking about Abraham’s descendants, and they’re going to dwell in in Egypt, and that they would bring them into bondage and oppress them 400 years. I got to tell you the Bible, when it describes about the oppression of Israel in the time of Moses, often talks about it in the span of 400 years. And I just want you to know, this morning, Israel was not in slavery for 400 years. Okay. Um, Abraham between Abraham and Moses is a span of 400 years from the time of Abraham.
Abraham had a a concubine named Hagar, and Hagar had Ishmael. Ishmael and Hagar were from Egypt. Ishmael began to oppress Abraham’s chosen son, which was Isaac, and so, beginning with the life of Abraham, the nation of Egypt had oppression on the people of Israel. And the story goes on that eventually we find through the patriarchs of Israel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and then Joseph, that through Joseph the lineage of Israel ends up in Egypt because of a famine. When Joseph dies to the time that Moses is born, a span of 64 years exists. When Moses leads the nation of Israel out of Egypt, he’s 80 years old. And so we know that when Egypt, Israel is placed under slavery in Egypt, it’s at least less than 100 and 144 years from the end of Joseph’s life to the time that Moses leads them out of the exile. But nonetheless, regardless of the time span through which the nation of Israel would have been in direct slavery, the identity of who you are seems to get lost. When life has you down. It’s an opportunity for us as people to reevaluate our identity. To reshape the identity of who we are in God and ask the significant questions of life. Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? Why am I here? How do I change? And the story of Genesis is a story of beginnings.
Genesis literally means beginning. And Moses takes the nation of Israel and he understands this. You guys have been slaves. You you don’t understand what your identity is in God. In order for us to get where we need to go, you need to understand where you’ve come from and who you are. And so Moses begins to shape their identity. Moses is writing this book in the 15th century BC. In the 1400s BC, before Christ, within the first 11 chapters of the Book of Genesis, literally a thousands of years of history is covered within these first 11 chapters. Some some conservative scholars who estimate would say that the world is somewhere between 6 to 10,000 years old. If if that’s true, the span of Genesis chapter one to the span of Genesis chapter 11 covers somewhere between 2000 to 6000 years. To put that into perspective for us, the rest of the Old Testament, beginning in Genesis chapter 11, all the way into the the end of the Bible, in the Old Testament, in the book of Malachi, covers a span of 1400 years. Once you get to the story of Moses in the book of Exodus, to the book of Malachi, the end of the Old Testament, it covers a span of a thousand years. And so here we have in just the first 11 chapters of history, more than what’s covered throughout the rest of history described in the Bible.
And why is Moses going through these 11 chapters so quickly? He’s using it as a springboard to shape the identity of the nation of Israel. It’s a stepping stone for them to get where they need to go, for the Lord to guide and direct. And he starts with the beginning. He starts with the oppression of the nation of Israel and understanding who they are at that moment, and helping them to discover who they are in light of who God is. And so this morning, it’s very simple in the way that we’re going to talk about the book of, of Genesis together, the, the book of Genesis, the first three chapters sets the theme of what all of Scripture will communicate to us. And the remaining chapters, four through 11 is just a summation or a redescription of the events in which happened in chapter one and three. And I’ll show you in just a moment. But but this morning, this is very simple. What we’re going to do, we’re going to just describe what Genesis chapter one to chapter three says to us in a nutshell as people, so that we can all enjoy this journey together, as Moses describes it within the Bible. To see life correctly. It’s important that we begin with God. In Genesis chapter one, Moses starts at very simply in the beginning God, if you want to shape your identity in God, what better way to phrase it right in the beginning? God.
And that says to us as people that God has made himself known. The idea and the thought and scriptures carried this way. If you can’t see the evidence of God in your life, the reason you can’t see it is because you suppress it. In fact, Romans chapter one and 19 says this what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature has been clearly seen. Meaning when you look at creation, God’s purpose and and making creation is that is the evidence of his glory and his creative hand putting these things into existence. The idea that God exists should be evident to us. I love the way that the Declaration of Independence begins its phrasing. It says this in a portion of it. It says, we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. This is self-evident, that an intelligent design demands the existence of an intelligent designer. In the beginning, God to look at humanity and see humanity’s moral compass and desire for good to triumph over evil, suggest the existence of a good God. The desire of humanity to make life count and to be significant suggests more than just stardust evolving into into humanity, but that we as people have merit and value coming and attributed from a God who created us with that merit and value.
God has made himself known, and in the beginning there was God. It goes on and tells us. If I were just to elaborate even further, it would say in the beginning God created. When God speaks. Life. Begins. When God spoke His Word. It tells us in Genesis chapter one and six and verse nine and verse 14 and verse 20 2426 says, As God says, let there be. It exists. When God opens his mouth, life begins. I don’t think it’s by coincidence that when Paul described the Bible in second Timothy 316, he says, All Scripture is God breathed. Saying to us as people, when God speaks, life begins. When you read His Word, you’re reading from the very lips of the one who gives life to you both physically and spiritually. When God breathes, life begins. This brings us to a place. Even as believers, we’ve. Encountered fundamental problems with the idea of God creating with the thought of evolution. As a believer, I’m going to explain to you just quickly why I can’t accept that based on what the Bible declares for us. But I would say this as a Christian community, um. You guys might be shocked like this in a Christian community. A lot of times the word evolution has bad connotations for us.
You hear that word and maybe you’ve been taught in churches. Don’t accept it, you know, and you just throw up a a brick wall to that. And I just want you to know that conservative scholars, liberal scholars, when it comes to the idea of evolution, there’s a they vary between two thoughts of evolution. There is microevolution and macroevolution. Okay. Microevolution teaches this that when God created humanity, Adam and Eve, that he didn’t create all ethnic groups at that time. But the genetic makeup of what would create all ethnic groups in the world was represented in Adam and Eve. And so throughout time, through Adam and Eve, we have the ethnicities and the nationalities of the world. And so that is described by some conservative scholars as what is called micro evolution, meaning a a species like, for instance, the dog from one dog could come multiple dogs. There’s a possibility what’s rejected is what’s called macroevolution, which is a a jumping from one species to the next, meaning ape to man. Right. And so let me let me just explain to you why. For as a believer, I have a difficult time accepting anything other than when God speaks. He makes it. And it’s that simple. When it comes to the evolutionary thought, to suggest that something comes from nothing takes more faith for me to believe than in God who created it, right? To simply say that there was nothing in all of a sudden something evolved from nothing is is difficult to swallow, and I believe takes more faith than to accept the existence of a God.
But when it comes to believing in a God, some people ask the question, when I believe in a God, can I still believe in an evolutionary thought? And here’s the challenges I’ve come up with as a believer. I can’t accept death before sin. And I can’t embrace racism. Let me explain what I mean. If God created it, some people will ask, is it possible that he really just started everything in motion and it evolved? And my answer with that is I’ve challenged that in my own life and looked is I can’t. I can’t accept death before sin and I can’t embrace racism. And this is this is why I can’t accept death before sin according to the evolutionary process. Amoeba to swimming creature. Swimming creature to ape. Ape to person. Right. In order to get to that person, the amoeba creature that evolves to the fishy thing that evolves to the ape has to die in the new creature evolves from that, and then the next creature dies and he evolves to that. The Bible tells us, according to God’s design, that there is no death until sin. And so for that evolutionary process to exist, it’s impossible for something to morph into that amoeba to a fish until it passes on that genetic code from one generation to the next, and the other is this I can’t embrace racism.
If I if I were to hold to an evolutionary process as a human being, this is what I feel like. I would be obligated to say that somewhere in the world, there is a human race that is superior to other human races because they’ve evolved far better than other human races. When I consider the thought of what evolution teaches, I can’t do that. I think God created us all equal. Significant. Important to him. Equal to one another in God’s eyes. And so when I read the phrase that God created, I just embraced that. God could have, I guess, created something that could have evolved. But the Bible never really says that I have to add words to it. What it says is he created when God breathes, life begins. Bible tells us that God desires to make himself known. And then he created this creation to display the glory of who he is. And as it describes this creation, it goes to the process of what this creation represents. But then it gets to the description of mankind. The last thing that God designs when he creates this world in the universe and everything surrounding us is humanity. And the Bible says this about us. God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him, male and female. He he created them.
This means you, as individuals coming last in God’s creation, are of incredible worth being made in his image. We are not identical to God, but we can relate to God. Meaning this when you pick up a penny from the ground because it’s lucky, right? The picture on the penny is of Abraham Lincoln, but none of us are crazy to say that is Abraham Lincoln, right? It’s the image of Abraham Lincoln on the coin. It’s not exactly like Abraham Lincoln, but it bears the image of Abraham Lincoln. And so when God describes us as individuals being created in his image, we bear the image of God, meaning we can relate to him because we we share similarities in the attributes of who God is. The Bible describes it this way God has communicable attributes and incommunicable attributes, which means to us as people. He has communicable attributes that you can relate to and incommunicable attributes that you just accept, but your mind can’t wrap your head around it. For instance, God is eternal. Or God is everywhere present. I don’t know what that’s like. I used to think my mom could do that when I was a kid, but my mind can’t even conceive conceive of it. But I can embrace it. But then, on the other hand, being made in his image, God is love. And God is just. And God is merciful. And God is gracious. God is truth. And God is good.
And being made in his image and worshipping that God. We can connect with that identity because we understand it. And when God created us in Genesis 127, he he created us in his image in the Bible tells us that he created us both male and female. Which says this to us as individuals, we’re created equal and obviously created different. God created us equally in his image, having attributes. When God describes us being made in his image, it does not deal with the physical form, but the qualities and characteristics which make up humanity. Which is why he can also make us different. He made both male and female equal. And different. And God says in Genesis chapter one and verse 31, God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And God is saying in this passage that when he created all of creation, when he got to you, you became the crown of his creative work. If you want to see the evidence of his glory, look at what God can do in humanity. Look what humanity does apart from. God creates you in his image and at the end of that says, it’s very good. When you read about the creation of of the Lord, when God creates at the end of every day that he creates, he just says, it’s good, it’s good, it’s good. But when he creates humanity, he says, it’s very good.
Now, I would add this for the ladies. Ladies, it’s not until after he makes the female which comes after the male that he says, and that’s very good, right? I mean, you guys already know it. When when God made Adam, he formed him out of dirt, right? But when God made Eve, she came from prime rib. Right? You’ve heard that joke. Maybe, I don’t know. That’s that’s a bad one. Or like this one. When Adam saw Eve for the first time, he. He didn’t just say it’s another man. He said, whoa, man like that. Right. And so women are obviously better because after the woman was designed, God said it was very good. And then he does something significant for us. Different than any creature. Says in verse seven, then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And man became a living being. Meaning God, signifying within this passage of Scripture that the difference between us and other creatures in which God designed is that we as creatures, can relate to our creator because he spiritually brought us to life. We can connect with him. We we pray to him. That’s the reason we pray to him is, is that we we have this yearning built within us from the breath of God to seek him and to and to glorify him. It comes from him. Moses is taking the idea of a slave.
And he’s reshaping their worth. Do you see that? You guys don’t understand what you who you are in the eyes of God, and you don’t understand how significant God has made you and how purposeful your existence is in this world. And so, before I lead you on a journey of Exodus out of Egypt into the wanderings of a wilderness, let me let me just share the beauty of who you are in God’s creative design. God created. God desires to be made known, and the crown of his creation has become you. And his desire is to connect with you. And he’s made both male and female to do that. And then God says this about the male and female in Genesis chapter two and verse 18, he says, then the Lord God said, it is not good for man to be alone. I will make him a helper suitable for him, for this is the reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Now I got to tell you, I’ve heard ladies argue about verse 18 before a helper. I’m not his Cinderella, you know. Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry. Da da da da da da da. But the point of the verse is this. When you come to chapter two and verse 18, ladies, just recognize this for a minute, that that God uses the same word to describe your role in creation as he uses to describe the Holy Spirit in John chapter 14, 15 and 16.
I mean, if that word is good enough for God. The Holy Spirit is called the the helper to us as the church. The Holy Spirit is God. God is. I don’t think, taking away from the glory for which he created you, but elevating it. These two creatures, both man and woman, created for God’s glory, were designed in such a perfect way that they can complement one another. Marriage is actually a blessing and not a curse. When we understand the way that God has designed it, the gifts in which God has given to each gender is to complement one another in the idea of what marriage is all about. So that’s why he says in chapter 24, for this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh in the complementary roles of that relationship. The idea isn’t that it’s two people existing together, but the two become one. And the Hebrew, it literally says that they’re glued together. You can’t tell where one person ends and the other one begins, right? Get get a little closer together this morning. It’s a gift. And not a curse. When you think how sacred the idea of marriage is to God. When he designs the first thing that he creates.
The first institution that he gives to humanity is the thought of marriage. And the idea of man and woman complementing one another as one before the Lord. This says to us as people that marriage isn’t about selfishness. But about selflessness. Marriage isn’t about getting married just to make me happy. Marriage is about getting married to give yourself away, that you’re no longer two, but you become one. To lay yourself down for the honour and love of another. And no, this isn’t in the text, but that we’re listing up here. But when you read in chapter, chapter two and verse 19, the first thing that Adam does when he sees Eve, you guys have heard me say this before, but but he sings. And I’ve, I’ve even made that a rap song before. But but the important thing I would say about that text is, do you know when Adam sings to Eve, he does it, having never seen Adam or excuse me, having never seen Eve lift a finger for him. He’s done nothing to that point. But Adam just embraces her as God’s gift to him. Can I tell you this morning that. Whatever. It’s happening in your relationship. Your wife is God’s gift to you. And regardless of the ups and downs. She’s to be treated as such. Adam sings that song to his bride before she even. He even knows if she can cook. He’s running a risk here.
But he looked at her as God’s gift to him. She’s got abilities that I don’t have, giftedness that God has given her far beyond me. You guys know how bad you stink, right? I remember right before I got married, I was living out in Utah in an apartment and had this apartment, and. And I just graduated college, so I had like, five bucks in a in one of those beanbag chairs on the floor as my furniture. And, you know, you’re trying to figure out as a young guy, how do you make make a house look better? And I’m walking in and I got nothing. I got milk crates or something. I don’t I don’t even know what to do. And my wife, my future bride, comes in and she says, you need you know what you need. And she goes, the store comes back and she hangs curtains. Holy cow. You wouldn’t believe the I that God has given her to make that place look. So I’m looking at my place like, man, it feels like a house. Now I can enjoy this. The the giftedness that God has given her to make a building feel like a home within our family. It’s something I cherish not, and maybe different with other ladies. I just know when when she had that thought of curtains. I mean, it blew my mind away. That exists. Holy cow. You know, and just being able to see that and appreciate the beauty of of what God has given her for our lives together, God has created marriage as a blessing, not as a curse to to be selfless and not selfish, to become one in him.
You know, one of the problems with opposing gifts is that sometimes we get so stuck on looking at the cursing of of seeing someone who thinks differently than you that we we try to make people think the same way as us. But but God recognizes in this passage that women were are different. And guys, you’re way different. And and it’s important to see how those gifts work together and to use them as one rather than as two individuals fighting in a under a roof. And in the structure of that family. God then tells us that he in the marriage. He then tells us that he creates family. Can I tell you that that the success of of the family thrives with the marriage. It grows with the marriage. As husband and wife work on their relationship, the family is blessed through that. And can I tell you, the strength of society is built on the health of families. The strength of our church is built on the health of the families who make up our church. Being one as a married couple isn’t something that comes naturally. It’s something you’ve got to work on. The Bible tells us in Genesis chapter three that when the sin curse happened in verse 15 to 16, that Eve’s desire would be to dominate over a husband and rule over him.
And it’s used in a in a sinful connotation. And it’s saying because of sin, curse. Our desire should be to work on our marriage, and as our marriage works, the family works. And so it says this in verse 28, God blessed them, Adam and Eve. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it. And what God is saying in this passage is that as God brings people together, God has goals for the marriage, and it’s to be fruitful and multiply and subdue that that families exist in this world to function not not as takers, but as givers, not to conceal his glory, but as a family reveal his glory and the image of who God is to reflect that in this world. And I love what the Bible tells us. I have the tendency not to do this understanding our worth, understanding what marriage is about, understanding what the family is about, and then figuring out what I need to do. But then God comes up and he says, and this is important. By the seventh day, God completed his work which had had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made.
For us. I would say this. This is the verse that God uses for the nation of Israel to cause them to take a day out of the week to reflect upon him. You think working as a slave for them, as a nation of Israel in the time of Egypt, I don’t know how much opportunity they had just to rest and who God was, and to look back on his beautiful creative hand in, in life and for them. But it’s important for us. It’s important for your health. I mean, your designed this way. If God’s going to do it on the seventh day, how much more should we do it to take the opportunity as a community and as family, to gather together and focus on the one who designed us for his purposes and his intent, and to draw near to him and ask those important questions of life. God, why have you made me? Why am I here and where am I going? And how am I going to get there? How God am I going to change? God lead me. You look at this verse and it talks about the resting of God. Now, I would say from a theological perspective, it’s important for us to understand the rest. God isn’t resting because he’s tired, okay? God does not grow weary. It tells us in Isaiah, I think it’s chapter five.
But what God is resting from, what it tells us in this passage, is that God is resting from his creative work. The place of reflection from his creative work for us as people. And God stops. And that’s the story of God’s desire for us as people. If it were to end there, that’s it. God created us in his image and his glory, to relate to him and enjoy the beauty of his creation as it reflects who he is in this world. And we reflect who he is to this world. And we’re fruitful and we multiply and joy, the oneness of our relationships and the oneness of marriage relationship in particular. But the Bible tells us that it didn’t end there. That. What happens after that is Adam and Eve do what we call the fall. And can I tell you, I know I’m going to use that word for the rest of my life. Adam and Eve, it’s the fall we call. We call this event the fall. But that is that is dubbed for me, one of the worst names they could ever use to describe it. It sounds like someone just kind of dumps over and gets back up. You know, they they kind of tripped, you know, it’s not it. This is like if we could title it the devastation remark of humanity towards God. It’s like giving God symbols or, you know, whenever someone cuts you off the symbol that you do.
Right? That’s that’s what they’ve done. God, you’ve done all this. Oh, yeah. Cut me off. And so God says in Genesis 217, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat from the day that you eat from it, you will surely die. I don’t know if there’s ever been a Surgeon General’s warning label put on something, but there it is. And so and so in Genesis three six this is what happens. God, it’s a great idea. But Eve, Eve, she she took from its fruit and ate it. And she gave also to her husband with her. And he ate. The eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin loin coverings. It tells us the result of them disobeying God. In verse 19. But thorns and thistles, it shall grow for you, and you will eat the plants of the field by the sweat of your face. You will eat bread till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Bible tells us the result of sin against God is death. The Bible talks about death. It’s not just physical death. It’s spiritual death as well. It’s alienation and separation from the God who created us to enjoy him and enjoy his creative work.
Genesis chapter three for the nation of Israel answers this. If God is good and a good God created the world, why is there evil? And you can imagine Israel walking around Moses. Tell us the story. So that’s wonderful. God. God made us this way and God did this for us. And man. That’s God thought that much of us to make himself known and create us in such a special way to relate to him and give us all these things. Well, why then are we seeing all this destruction? Why? Why are we slaves? Why are people oppressing us? Why are people evil? And the answer is because people stray from God. Adam and Eve left God, they sinned against God and destruction took place across the whole world. The Bible tells us all of creation is under this curse. It’s why when you as people go through difficult times, why the depths of your soul aches? It’s because when you were created, you weren’t created to go through that. When death happens, no matter how much you know it will take place, it still hurts. And the reason it hurts is because God didn’t design us for that. But we rejected him. Genesis also shows us how suffering can point us back to God. On the midst of the suffering. It reminds us that we were created for something greater and something more, and therefore we look to our creator.
Adam and Eve in this passage of Scripture. Their response was a typical response that all people give to God tells us immediately. As soon as they sinned, they covered themselves in loin cloth and they really ran and hid from God. Meaning. In this passage of Scripture, the first man made religion is created. Religion goes this way that God, when we sin against you, we’re going to prove to you that you should accept us back by doing things that cover our sin. And Adam and Eve, in this, in this passage of Scripture, decides, you know, all of creation now is cursed. And so God, we can we can fix that. Let’s put on leaves. You know, since that time. Religions have continued. The ceremonies have gotten more elaborate. But when you break it down, it’s nothing more simplistic than what Adam and Eve have done. I’m going to hide my sin from God and prove to him how beautiful I am by putting this mask on. And he’ll accept me. The Bible has a different picture for us. Bible tells us. While Adam and Eve conducted this sin, Adam, Adam and Eve turned from God. All of creation is cursed. And then they create this religion that God’s desire. While Adam and Eve are hiding in the religion, God’s desire is to pursue them. And so it says in verse nine, then the Lord God called to the man and said to him, where are you? God’s coming into the garden in search of Adam and Eve.
After they’ve put on these fig leaves and and hid from them. And so he says in verse 15, he gives a promise to the people, saying, listen, you’ve you’ve sinned. You’ve done this thing to curse creation, but I’m coming in pursuit of you to redeem you from it. Death has come to your life, but me, as God, still loving you and gracious, will offer redemption from you. And this is how it’s coming in verse 15. And I will put enmity between you and the woman. He’s talking to Satan here as the serpent. I’m going to put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed, and he will bruise your head, and on the cross you shall bruise him on the heel. I had it on the cross. But something important happens in the way that God phrases this statement. Because when the Bible is worded, it’s listed as a patriarchal description, meaning whenever it talks about seed and birth and giving life, it’s through the seed of the man. But for some reason in this passage, different from all the other passage, rather than talk about the seed of the man, it talks about the seed of the woman. Wonder why? Because Jesus was born of a virgin. In Genesis chapter three, Moses sets the precedent for what will be the theme for the entire Bible.
Your Bible is all about Jesus. Your Bible is all about God’s redemptive work conducted for man, that we may enjoy our relationship with him forever. Starts in Genesis one with him creating us, offering us redemption through him, and ends in revelation, which is a book of worship before God. It’s all about Jesus. We joke this way at church, sometimes we just say, you know, if we ever ask a question here, the answer is always. And you guys got it. Haha. When you read the Bible. Becomes important for us to see Jesus in it from beginning to end. And 15. He talks about the seed of the woman. In verse 21 it says this. Then the Lord God made garments of skin from Adam and his wife and clothed them. The word clothed here literally means a priestly garment in the Hebrew. And so it’s saying to us as people, you know, you, you think that you’ve got to do this work to please me. Impossible. There’s nothing you can do to undo your sin. There’s nothing you can offer to God that he can’t offer himself. But guess what? God loves you anyway. And God’s grace is to you anyway. And God is giving himself to you anyway. And rather than you put on the fig leaves and hiding from God and presenting yourself as something that you’re not, take off the fig leaves and come to him because he is pursuing you.
And God takes this animal’s skin and he is the one that makes the sacrifice in Genesis. He is the one that causes the first death as a symbol of the sacrifice that his son would make. He is the one that attributes you and allows you to become a priest, which means you can enter before him and enjoy that relationship with him both now and for eternity. It’s God’s redemptive work. You see it from beginning to end. And so the nation of Israel, as they hear this story, it begins to reshape their identity. They they think to themselves, you know, who am I? Why? Why am I here? And God shows this creative work in his wonderful design. Then all of a sudden they hear about the destruction and think, oh no, we’re back to the position of being slaves again. And they realize that God’s love runs deeper than man’s sin, and God lifts them up to enjoy the eternal presence of him forevermore. I would get to that place in the Bible, and I’m going to go through this very quickly, but and think and then man got it together, man. All we need is three chapters. That makes so much sense. We messed up once. We we learned. Right. And then you get to chapter four. In Genesis chapter four, Adam and Eve’s kids are killing people, right? Cain slew Abel. And so the theme from chapter four to chapter 11 goes like this God creates in Genesis one man sins and God redeems, and man’s on the right track in their relationship with the Lord through the redemption of Christ.
But man sins, and God redeems, and man sins, and God redeems, and the the roller coaster begins. In chapter four, we learn about the depravity of man that we as people are always prone to wonder and able. Is killed by Cain. Genesis chapter five, you get to this weird place of genealogy. If you’re like me, you always get there and you say to yourself, why is our genealogy? I’m going to skip this and count like I read it, right? Why in the world is there genealogy and you don’t really know why, why, why? God’s talking about genealogy in chapter five until you get to chapter 11. But God’s showing us where the lineage of the seed of the woman will come through. And so Genesis chapter five, he pauses and he says, and here’s some genealogy to understand that I am still redeeming you, man. You said I redeemed chapter 14, man, you’ve turned from me, and here I am, chapter five again showing you genealogy to prove to you that I am still at work in this world for your redemption. And you get to chapter six. And I got to tell you chapter 6 to 9 summation. This is not a nursery room story, okay? Do not paint this in your kid’s room.
If it’s there already, it’s okay. Animals are cool. But the story of Noah. It’s the destruction of the whole world that’s not smiling. Animals just don’t cut what the story is about, right? Adam and Eve or excuse me, Noah, not Noah and the sinfulness of the world. How the entire world is turned against God. And he spares no one. His family who’s still seeking after him. For you, Bible scholars, I got to tell you, when it comes to the Bible, it’s described there’s there’s a few chapters in the Bible that some will say, these are the hardest chapters in all of, of the Bible in Genesis. Chapter six is one of those. Let me tell you why. Here’s controversy this morning, okay? Genesis chapter six talks about the sons of God breeding with the daughters of men. Some people believe that the reason that’s happening is, is because Satan has a desire to take out human lineage. I’ll tell you why in a minute. Human lineage from humanity. Because he wants to confuse the bloodline of from which Christ will come. And so the teaching is that the sons of God are actually angels breeding with the daughters of men. That’s what some people believe. Okay, uh, there’s a division between Genesis chapter six. And so people, some people believe angels are breeding with humanity for humanity to lose the bloodline through which Christ would come.
And you get to Jude chapter. Uh, well, Jude’s only one chapter, I think verse five and six. It talks about there are some angels that are bound up that that God has bound up because they’re so destructive that they’re just they’re bound up right now. And some people believe that was the sons of God from Genesis chapter six. You ask me what I believe, and I look at it and I look at it and I look at it and I don’t know, I don’t, I don’t I just know what some people teach and they say it’s the it’s the most challenging chapter of Genesis, chapter six. But you can understand if, if this is happening in humanity and humanity is becoming corrupt at this point, the the desire for God to to send the flood throughout creation. In chapter nine. The Bible tells us that’s when the rainbow appears and God promises that he would never flood the world again. In chapter 11, the Bible tells us once again, excuse me at the end of chapter ten that that there’s more genealogy and God’s tracing his lineage for us as people so we can see the evidence of his glory, his redemptive work for man. But when you get to chapter 11, man leaves God again, and the Tower of Babel exists. And so the nation of Israel would see it like this. We’re wandering around God, you’re showing us our worth.
You’re showing us our sin. We’re showing us our need to come back to you. And you’ve demonstrated to us how man has continued to to turn from you. We probably don’t want to do that. But where did all these nations come from? How do we get there from Adam and Eve? In chapter 11 explains that. Tower of Babel, man is seeking to design a place for their own goodness and glory, elevating themselves. And God creates foreign languages and disperses the crowd into their own languages. And from the Tower of Babel, over 70 nations are born. Which brings us to where we are going to conclude today. And that’s in Genesis 11. That from the nations of the 70. God then calls Abraham. The reason that God gave his genealogy in chapter five, in chapter ten was to communicate what he promised in Genesis chapter three, and he calls Abraham in Genesis chapter 11 to say to us as people, this is the place through which you will trace my genealogy, from which the Messiah will come. The evidence of my love for you is ringing true. In this is the area in which you’ll see it. The nation of Israel in this place saw their purpose. God has called us as the people through which the Messiah would come. We leave God, it doesn’t go well for us. But God is always faithful to us despite us.
Life apart from him does not make sense. But Moses’s desire for us as individuals is to stop and rest in the presence of God, to see the magnificence of his glory as he has created us, to reflect that glory in the world, and to identify that God is at work. His hand of love is always been upon us throughout the Old Testament into the new, bringing the Messiah which gives us the hope of redemption through him. Moses is shaping their identity and their purpose and their worth through which God has called them in this world. Genesis being the book of beginnings. That’s what it’s all about. For us to see the evidence of who we are in light of who God is. The solution for us then centers on the goodness of God. God has made himself known and God has declared his glory. And despite anything that man has done, God has continued to pour his grace upon humanity that we as people would come and rest in him. I love the way the psalmist writes it in Psalm 139. Psalm 139. I just pulled a portion of this out, but it’s the description of who we are in humanity, in light of who God is. And the psalmist says this I think it’s more of a reflection on Genesis chapters 1 to 3. And it says, for you formed my inward parts. You wove me in my mother’s womb. How precious also are your thoughts to me, O God? How vast is the sum of them? If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand when I wake.
I am still with you. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts. And see if there be any hurtful way in me. And lead me in the way of everlasting. Our hearts are prone to wonder. But the evidence of God’s goodness is all around. How important it becomes for us, as the psalmist says, just to reflect on the hand of his glory as he formed us as people and expressed thoughts to us, that that we’re we’re more than just slaves in the world. We’re we’re more than just ants scurrying along on a planet. But we’re designed by a creator who desires to be intimate with you and your relationship, giving you the ability to connect with him and giving you purpose through which you lead this life. As you draw near to him, he directs your path. But when you leave him, life gets messy. This is a God who doesn’t give up on humanity, but continues to work through it to fulfill his plan. And the idea is this that you would shape your identity in what God has expressed. That you would see his worth over you as he sees his worth in you. Not because of what you’ve done, but because of who you are in light of who he is. May God receive the glory.