Theology From 30,000 Feet : Lesson 3

Revelation to the Patriarchs

The first eleven chapters of Genesis is the prologue to the story of Scripture. All the main issues that the story of the Bible will address are mentioned or illustrated in some form in this first stage of revelation. The world that God made has fallen into sin and rebellion. At Babel God came down to pronounce a judgement on the plans of sinful humanity. The people are confused and scattered. The focus then shifts significantly. All the attention of the Biblical narrative will be on the line of Shem, one of Noah’s sons. From that line comes a man named Abram. God chooses to work exclusively with this man and his offspring. The rest of the book of Genesis will tell the story of Abraham’s family lineage. Genesis 1-11 is the prologue. The Patriarchs are the first act in the drama. “The great theme of these chapters will be the promised seed or posterity, and, to a lesser extent, the promised land, to which the little group clings tenaciously and in the final chapters looks back in the certainty of return” (Derek Kidner).

In Babel we see the culmination of human sin and rebellion against God, which results in judgement. In Abraham and his family, we will see the beginning of God’s plan of redemption. Abraham is God’s answer to all the problems in Genesis 1-11. We have already seen something like a new beginning with Noah and his family after the flood. God saved Noah and his family on the Ark. They lived to see a new world after the Flood receded, and God made a covenant that He would never again destroy the earth like that. There was a fresh start for the world after the flood and the earth would again be populated by human beings. However, God had not yet dealt with the problem of sin and the rise of the tower of Babel illustrated that fact. It was only after the judgement at Babel that God began to work His plan of redemption. In Genesis chapters 1 through 11 we see what sin had done to the world. Now we will see what God will do about sin. Everything about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is an answer to the problem of sin. If the theme of the first section of Genesis was sin and its effects, the theme of this next period of Biblical revelation is the introduction of the plan of redemption. “The events at this stage were closely interwoven with the carrying out of the plan of redemption. They led to the election and separate training of one race and one people” (Geerhardus Vos).

There is no way to overstate the importance of the Patriarchs and what God revealed to them. In Abraham, Isaac and Jacob we see the beginning of a nation that was created and chosen by God Himself. There has never been another nation like Israel. It is through this nation that came from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that God would bring redemption to the world and fulfill His promise in Eden to destroy the Devil’s work through a human agent (Gen. 3.15). The plan of redemption has some rather humble and strange beginnings. But God was in control of the story. Redemption is a Divine initiative and will not at all rely on human strength or wisdom. In fact, one of the great themes in the lives of the Patriarchs is that God’s plan will continue to advance and be successful even when presented with instance after instance of human frailty. What we discover by learning about the Patriarchs that redemption comes by Divine grace and not human initiative. Grace is Divine initiative and that is the only reason the people of Israel even existed. Israel is a work of God’s grace.

God called Abram out of a pagan civilization and made a tremendous promise to him. This promise was then repeated to Isaac, who was himself part of the fulfillment of that promise. Jacob was then chosen to be the heir of the promise of God. The Divine promise that these men received directly from God is the heart of this entire epoch of Divine revelation. God will be known by the promise He made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Because the Bible is a historical revelation of God to real people, we will begin by considering some of the background of the ancient world in which Abraham lived. Then we will give an overview of the lives of the Patriarchs and the major events in which God was working with them. Then we can look at the revelation that came to them and through them that is recorded in Scripture for us so that we can understand how God was bringing redemption. The revelations given during the Patriarchal period reverberate through the rest of the Bible, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. Even though these men lived at the very dawn of recorded history, we will find that we have much in common with them, especially since their God is also our God.

The Ancient World

Modern scholarship has questioned the historicity of the Patriarchal narratives. But the accounts do not read like mythology. This is the history of a People. This is the history of God’s plan of redemption. If the Patriarchs were not real people, then redemption is not real. Abraham was born in a part of the ancient world we know as the Fertile Crescent. This included lands that followed a path along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and then down through Israel along the Mediterranean Sea to Egypt. (This ancient land includes parts of modern Iran, Iraq, and Syria.) The crescent shaped section of land is also known as the Cradle of Civilization. Abraham was from an ancient city called Ur, which was one of the cities of Sumer. Sumer was the first great civilization in history and is usually credited with creating the first written language. The great Ziggurat of Ur was probably modeled after the tower of Babel itself, and its ruins can still be seen today. The city of Ur was devoted to the worship of the moon and there is every reason to think that before he came to know the true God, Abram himself probably worshiped the moon god or some of the other nature-deities that the pagans of Mesopotamia dedicated their civilization to.

The ancient Sumerians passed away, but other powers soon took control of that important region including such famous kingdoms as Assyria, Babylon, Media-Persia, and the Hittites. Because of modern archaeology we now know much more about these ancient civilizations that are mentioned in Scripture. One of the most famous of these ancient empires produced the first written law code known as the Code of Hammurabi after the ruler of the ancient Babylonians who wrote it down on clay tablets. The ancient Babylonians also produced written stories about the creation of the world by the gods and a great flood that once destroyed the world. These were not the Neanderthal men of modern scientific theory, hiding in a cave trying to make a spark for his fire. These ancient kingdoms built mighty cities with high walls and temples to their patron deities. They developed economic systems, practiced agriculture, procured wealth in silver and gold, and fielded armies. These ancient civilizations had developed everything that was needed for an organized and ordered society, and are still necessary today, complete with political systems and religious places of worship. The architecture was different, and the technology was perhaps crude, but the cities of Mesopotamia had all the basic elements of the great cities of the world today.

There was a constant fear, however, of natural disasters and warfare with other city-states. The religion of the ancient world was designed to keep the cycles of the natural world running smoothly so that crops could be harvested, and babies would be born. The city-states worshiped a patron deity who protected them and gave them victory in combat. Idolatry was at the heart of these ancient civilizations. The city of Ur when Abram was from could be compared to a New York, a London, or a Tokyo with all of the wealth, power, technology, and pagan idolatry that the cities of earth are known to have and have always been known to have since the very beginning of recorded history.

Abram was born at the dawn of history and civilization, but his life would be very different from what characterized the great cities of the Fertile Crescent. Abraham had a calling and a purpose that was very different from the meaningless cycles of nature-worship. But God first called Abram to leave civilization behind, along with all its security. The call of God was radical and demanding. God wanted Abram to be separate from that pagan culture because there would be a lengthy period of Divine instruction and God wanted the chosen family to be removed from the influences of that world. Abraham and the people who came from him would have to be radically different from other peoples and nations. At that time this required a physical and geographical separation. Abraham and his family would be strangers, wanderers, and misfits on earth. In Israel a new kind of nation would rise. Abraham and his people were not to be like Sumer, Babylon, or any of the other nations they would later encounter in Canaan. The separateness and the uniqueness of Israel is one of the central themes of the Old Testament. It began with Abram being called out of Ur to go live in the comparatively uncivilized backwater known as Canaan.

It should not surprise us that God would work that way with Abram and his family. God was going to work redemption without the help of human ingenuity. God is not against civilization, or man creatively using creation, but human civilization is not going to contribute anything to the plan of redemption. Civilization also needs to be redeemed and can therefore contribute nothing to redemption. Mankind tends to rely on civilization to provide something like redemption. Civilization can become an idol and a replacement for reliance on God. Abram must be different. He must learn to rely on God alone and so he must leave Ur. Babel is man on his own, setting his own agenda and goals. Abraham is the opposite of that lifestyle. Oddly enough, God promises to give Abraham what the people at Babel were seeking for themselves apart from God.

When the plan of redemption becomes full-grown, God will send His people into all the world as His witnesses. The cities of the world would become places for evangelism where people would be turned from idols to the living God. But at the very root or beginning of redemption, God had to get Abram out of Ur. There could be no doubt that Abram belonged to God and not to Ur and its patron moon-god. God was going to become the dominant Mover in Abram’s life and there could be no rivals or distractions. The only explanation for the lives of Abraham and his family would be God. Israel would become a people completely devoted to their God in every area of life. This training would begin in the lives of the Patriarchs.

The Lives of the Patriarchs

The Patriarchs are not in the Bible because they are paragons of virtue. We always seem to make the mistake of moralizing characters in the Bible, as if the Bible is a kind of moral handbook. But the Bible is the story of redemption, not a guide to morality. The characters in the Bible are part of God’s redemption story. However, we do see that walking with God has an impact on the character of people. This is especially apparent in the lives of the Patriarchs. They are not accepted because they are moral, but as they walk with God their character is changed and their faith grows. Grace is not given because of inherent character traits, but grace does produce certain character traits in those God is redeeming. Those who are called by God are shaped into the kind of people who can carry the Promise of God forward in the world.

Most people who read the stories of the Patriarchs are struck by many strange customs that the Bible does not explain. Archaeology has uncovered that many of the unusual customs in the stories was not at all unusual in that time. For example, Abraham’s fear that the Egyptian Pharaoh would take Sarah from him was founded in a real custom that was practiced when all-powerful monarchs wanted to add to their harems. It is now known the custom of circumcision was practiced by many of the ancient peoples. However, God changed the meaning of it when giving the command to Abraham. Many of the strange cultural practices mentioned in the text are somehow either changed, overturned, or set in contrast to the promises of God. For example, it was common for the eldest son to be the heir. But God Himself overturns this practice with Jacob and Esau. It was common for a barren wife to give her husband a servant girl in order to produce a child. But for Sarah to demand that Abraham then get rid of Hagar and her son, Ishmael, when against the social laws of that time. But God approves of Sarah’s wishes and there are some important theological reasons for it. All these examples show us that God’s promise tends to nullify or overturn the cultural norms. Redemption is going to be accomplished on God’s terms and in a way that glorifies His grace.               

The most important revelation given to Abraham is the promise of God (Genesis 12.1-3). It is important to notice that the blessing that would come through Abraham is for the whole world, even though at that time God was dealing specifically with Abraham and his posterity. There are two parts of this promise that create problems in the narrative. The first problem is that of descendants. Abraham and Sarah have passed the natural time of childbearing, yet they are promised many descendants. How will God fulfill this promise? Throughout the story of the patriarchs there seem to be constant obstacles that threaten to derail the promise of God. For Abraham, years go by and there is no child. The other part of the promise that is problematic is the possession of the land of Canaan. This promise is also delayed and will never be fulfilled in the lifetimes of Abraham or Isaac and Jacob. They must all live by faith in the promise of God while living like nomadic immigrants in the land. Abraham must buy a piece of land to bury his dead wife. This was the only plot of ground that any of the Patriarchs owned in Canaan.

In Abraham’s life the issue of having a child is the major concern in the narrative. Abraham assumes that his heir will be his head servant, which was another custom that was common in that time. But God assured Abraham that he would have a child. To confirm this, God performs a covenant ceremony for Abraham (Gen. 15.7-21). The cutting of animals into two parts was symbolically what would happen to the party that fails to keep the covenant that was made. God Himself passes between the pieces and makes what amounts to a unilateral covenant with Abraham. There was nothing for Abraham to do. God was binding Himself to keep the stipulations of the covenant. Abraham had already believed the word of the Lord (Gen. 15.6). He was declared righteous because of his faith in God’s promise. The covenant did not require him to do anything other than trust the Lord. The cutting of the animals was a confirmation of the covenant and that God would surely do what He had said He would do for Abraham. The covenant was not about what Abraham would do for God, but what God would do for Abraham and for the rest of the world through him. The covenant of circumcision was likewise another confirmation of the covenant and of Abraham’s status before God. Circumcision represented the cutting away of the old life and being cleansed from uncleanness. People who are in relationship with God are accepted through faith. But being in covenant with God necessitates being cleansed. “Human nature is unclean and disqualified in its very source” (Geerhardus Vos).

The greatest characteristic of Abraham’s life is his faith. Faith is trusting in God Himself. Abraham believed that God was trustworthy. Everyone who is justified by faith has a faith like Father Abraham. But we should not think that faith in God was easy. And Abraham found it difficult to understand how God would fulfill His promise. At one point, Sarah and Abraham decided that God needed some help from them. So, Hagar enters the picture. Ishmael is born and Abraham wants God to use Ishmael to fulfill the promise. But Ishmael is the child of the flesh and the promise is going to be fulfilled by the power of God, not by human ability. So, Ishmael is rejected. The promise will be fulfilled through a child born to Sarah in her old age when she is past the natural age of giving birth. It is not surprising that two senior citizens laughed when they learned that they would have a child! And so, the child is named Laughter. Only God could have brought life from a barren womb because nothing is impossible with God (Gen. 18.14).

But then God tells Abraham to take Isaac and sacrifice him as a burnt offering. This is the high point of Abraham’s faith. Abraham is determined to obey God and reasons that even if he killed his son, God would still somehow be able to fulfill His promise. God provides a ram in the thicket so that Abraham does not have to offer his son. And so, the concept of God accepting a substitutionary sacrifice is introduced into the Biblical narrative. Not only will God accept a substitute, God Himself will provide the lamb for the sacrifice.

After Abraham’s death the promise is repeated to Isaac (Gen. 26.1-5). Isaac’s life seems to be overshadowed by both his father Abraham and by Jacob his son. Many of the same things that happened in Abraham’s life is repeated by Isaac. For example, Isaac is fearful that the local ruler Abimelech will steal his wife. So, he lies about Rebekah just as Abraham had lied about Sarah. Isaac seems to be determined to imitate his father Abraham. But one difference with Isaac is the determination by God that Isaac must not leave the land of Canaan. God promises to take care of Isaac in the Land and Isaac obeys God. God blesses Isaac with a 100-fold harvest. And everywhere Isaac digs he finds water! Isaac seems to be the most passive of the three Patriarchs, but this is because his main character quality is submission. He cooperates with Abraham on Mt. Moriah. His father chooses his wife for him and Isaac accepts his father’s decision and loves Rebekah. When Jacob is obviously the one God has chosen, even though Isaac favored Esau, Isaac recognizes God’s choice of Jacob and Isaac accepts God’s sovereign choice.

If Isaac is the most passive Patriarch, Jacob is the most dynamic and the most complex character in the narrative. Jacob becomes the one through whom God demonstrates the principle of election. According to the cultural norm, the birthright and the Divine blessing should have done to Esau. But even before they were born, God chose Jacob. This could not have been because of Jacob’s moral superiority. However, Jacob proves to be the one who really wanted the blessing of God and would go to nearly any extreme to get it. Esau despised his birthright. Jacob is willing to deceive his elderly father to get the blessing. The theft of the blessing by Jacob seems strange to modern people. Why could Isaac not simply recognize the error and bless Esau instead? The blessing seems to be viewed like shooting an arrow from a bow. When the arrow is shot it hits what it hits. The arrow hit Jacob and Isaac just accepts this as the sovereign will of God.

Jacob must leave the land of Canaan and there is a long series of episodes in his life that serve to discipline him and form his character. As Jacob is leaving the land of Canaan, he sees a vision of a ladder reaching to heaven. The Promise of God is repeated to Jacob (Gen. 28.10-15). The angels going up the ladder carry Jacob’s desires and prayers to God. The angels coming down the ladder bring God’s blessing and care down to Jacob (Geerhardus Vos). An important thing to notice is that God will go with Jacob to bless him even though he is leaving the land of Canaan. God’s presence is not limited to Canaan but can go anywhere because God is the true God and is not limited by geography.

Jacob has nothing when he arrives at his uncle Laban’s house. Laban manipulates and tricks Jacob just as Jacob had done to his brother and father. But even while Jacob is serving Laban, God blesses him, and Jacob grows wealthy at Laban’s expense. Jacob finally leaves Laban and returns to Canaan with God’s blessing, but Jacob fears meeting his brother Esau. The night before that meeting, Jacob wrestles with a man. As Jacob has always demonstrated, he is willing to fight for the blessing of God. Jacob’s struggle pays off. His name is changed to Israel as a result. A name represented the character of the person. Jacob’s character has been changed through a series of hardships. Jacob has the blessing of God, but also a limp because of his suffering and discipline at the hands of God. Jacob represents personal transformation. Jacob does not begin as a virtuous person. But God’s grace overcomes sin and transforms human nature. “Grace is the source of noble character” (Geerhardus Vos). A person who is in covenant with God will not remain the same.

Jacob’s 12 sons are the beginnings of the tribes of Israel. One of those sons, the firstborn of the favored wife Rachael, is sold into slavery by his jealous brothers. But by putting Joseph in Egypt, God is planning to save the chosen family from a famine and to also set the stage for the next stage of redemptive history. The chosen family goes down into Egypt with the understanding that they will return to the land of Canaan eventually. Both Jacob and Joseph give instructions to be buried in Canaan because of their faith in the promise of God. Egypt will serve as the nursery of Israel where a family will become a nation.

The Uniqueness of Israel 

Even secular historians must admit the uniqueness of Israel. Today we can study the history of the Canaanites, the Babylonians, Assyrians, or Hittites. But these nations are just the curiosities of antiquity, like exhibits in a museum. Not so with the people of Israel. No other group of people have had such an impact on the history of the world. Their religion is unlike any other to arise out of the ancient world. The only reasonable explanation for this fact is supernatural revelation (Geerhardus Vos). God is the only logical explanation for Israel. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the true God. When we come to know the true God, we come to know Him through the people of Israel and what God revealed to them. The period of the Patriarchs shows us the uniqueness of God’s chosen people. There has never been another group of people to whom God made Himself known so personally. Patriarchal history is the beginning of redemptive history. God is the main actor in the narrative. Through what God revealed to the Patriarchs we come to know the true God and we come to understand what God is doing in the world. If redemption in the Bible is like a growing tree, then the revelation of God to the Patriarchs is the root of that tree.

Israel had a unique election. The procedure of redemption involved election. We cannot deny that God chose Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. To be sure, their specific election was for the purpose of a universal blessing. But we cannot help but see that God made choices about whom He would work with a through to bring about His plan of redemption. And God has the right to so choose. Objecting to God’s choice is objecting to God as God. This is how God chose to redeem the world. How can those who are being redeemed have any objection as to the method of their redemption? Modern man glories in his ability to choose and to formulate his own meaning and destiny. This was exactly the sin of Babel and is still with us today. It is God’s choice that redeems. Election serves to point out that the source of redemption is God’s initiative, not ours. The Patriarchs were not elected because of moral superiority. They were elected according to grace. The doctrine of election expounds the doctrine of grace. Human initiative is always sinful and opposed to the will of God. It was human initiative that ruined everything. It is God’s initiative that redeems everything. This explains how God’s purpose of redemption can continue to move forward even when the human actors fail. The promise and purpose of God simply does not depend on human achievement.

Israel was given unique promises. The repetition of Divine promise and blessing is central to the whole Patriarchal narrative. After God’s initial calling of Abram, the Divine promise is repeated several times to each Patriarch (See Gen. 13.14-17; 14.4-5; 15.7-21; 17.1-8, 15-16; 22.15-18; 26.1-5; 26.24; 28.10-15; 35.9-12). The promise is that God will bless. Today this is a word that has probably lost much of its theological force. We use the word “bless” or “blessing” much too casually. By it we usually mean that something good will come our way. But in Scripture the Divine blessing is much stronger than just a general kind of well-being. In the Patriarchal narrative, the Divine blessing is nothing less that God’s determination to reverse the effects of sin and the inevitable judgement that comes because of sin. The opposite of blessing is a curse, which is the awful wrath of God. The blessing that God promised through Abraham is the blessing of redemption and being restored to a right relationship with God. There is much more to this blessing that enjoying life here and now. This blessing extends into the gift of eternal life and a place with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the eternal Kingdom of God which will culminate in the New Creation at the end of time. People who would reduce the blessing of God promise to Abraham to a prosperity message of health and wealth in this present life do not understand even the first thing about the Biblical revelation.

Finally, Israel had a unique faith. That fact that Abraham believed God and righteousness was credited to him based on that faith, is surely one of the most revolutionary revelations in the Bible. Everyone who trusts God like Abraham can be called a child of Abraham, even Gentiles who believe. In fact, the only kind of faith that justifies is Abraham’s kind of faith. Abraham’s faith was in God and His ability to fulfill His promises no matter what the obstacle. The primary name of God revealed in the Patriarchal narrative is El-Shaddai, or the all-powerful God. This is because the power of God can overpower even nature and compel it to serve God’s designs (Geerhardus Vos). Abraham put his trust in the power of God, even when all rational human explanations were void. Faith means personal trust in a personal God. Faith does not rest in what we can prove to be so but is resting in the fact that God has declared it to be so. This meant that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob could continue to trust in God Himself, even when they did not yet have or even see the things that God had promised them. God’s word was enough for them. His character was solid, dependable, and unchanging. God could be relied upon to come through for them. This trust also enabled them to do some radical and amazing things, because they knew God was behind every factor and had already planned for every contingency in their lives. Even as they went down in the land of Egypt to sojourn there, they knew that God was still with them and would bring them back to the land he had promised to give them.

Theology from 30,000 Feet: Lesson #2

Revelation in the Beginning

The basic approach to Biblical Theology is to see the whole Bible as a progressive, unfolding revelation of God that is structured like a narrative or story. We can understand the entire Bible as God’s revelation of Himself. This revelation did not come all at one time or just to one person. Rather, there was a gradual unfolding of God’s revelation taking place at various times and in various ways (Hebrews 1.1-2). We can trace some of the epochal periods of God’s revelation of Himself within human history. There are several critical periods of revelation in which God was opening His will and His plan for the world. Not all periods of revelation were the same. God does not change, but how He speaks and what He reveals to mankind is somewhat different during each epoch of revelation history.

The first stage of God’s revelation is found in the first eleven chapters of Genesis. The human condition is described in vivid detail in these chapters. By understanding how the world began, we begin to understand the world today because the principles are universal. “The question of where we come from and where we are going is one of the elementary challenges of life. Perhaps it is THE question of life. Only when we get an answer to it do we learn who we are” (Helmut Thielicke). The first eleven chapters of the Bible contain the account of creation, the account of what happened in the Garden of Eden, and then the aftermath.

Creation and the Creator

The first two chapters of the Bible are the account of creation. The main feature of this account is the glory and goodness of God. God speaks the world into existence out of nothing. God creates the raw materials and then He begins to build a world. He brings light where there was only darkness. He sets the cycles of day and night. He fills the earth with plants and animals.

He then pronounces it good. Creation is rich and beautiful. At the center of that world is the very presence of God Himself. The Bible teaches that everything begins with God and life has meaning only with God Himself as the central consideration. This picture of God in Genesis directly contradicts the mythologies of the ancient pagans whose deities cared little for mankind. The ancient pagans also worshiped creation instead of the Creator. The creation account in Genesis is a case against idolatry in all its forms, both ancient and modern. The central claim of the Bible is that there is one God who created everything and who is the only proper object of our worship and devotion. Creation is the foundation of all Biblical revelation.

Genesis contradicts the secular materialism and atheism of the modern world. The secularists understand the implications of the creation account in Genesis and have done much to try to discredit and dismiss it, often in the name of science. Christians need to understand that behind all the talk about science and the theory of evolution is an agenda to remove God. Modern secularism does not need or want a God to exist. The materialists reject any supernatural explanation for the world. God has been removed from the secular worldview so other explanations for the world must be found, such as evolution. Secularists see their worldview as a rather liberating thing. If there is no God, then there can be no overarching meaning to life that everyone is bound to accept. This means that we are free to create our own meaning. The idea of creating one’s own life and finding meaning for yourself, apart from any outside influence, is a major theme in modern life. The freedom to choose one’s own destiny is the most precious idea to modern people and anything that threatens this autonomy and freedom is considered dangerous.

The first two humans are placed in a beautiful garden. Everything they need is provided for them abundantly. Man is made in the image of God. This means that he is God’s steward who is to rule the earth for God and under the authority of God. The image of God means that man is on the earth to represent God’s rule on earth just as God rules in Heaven. And mankind is blessed with all the mental and creative capacity to govern the creation. But the Creator is never far away, and He even walks with the man and the woman in Eden in some anthropological form. Man was not created to be a slave of God, as in the pagan myths, but sort of like a partner. Man was to care for the creation and develop it or cultivate it. The resources are abundant. The natural world is like a beautiful gift that is ready to be opened and explored. The creation was meant to be used but not abused by mankind. The very first job was tending the Garden of Eden. Work was not a curse but was a part of God’s original design for human life on earth. Just as God had exerted His will in creating the world, mankind was free to take what God had made and form new things out of it. God provided the raw materials for creating human culture and civilization. There is no indication in Scripture that life in Eden was meant to be the final state of the world. God clearly expected mankind to develop the world. The creation is filled with potential. Human history is to be the development of creation’s possibilities with mankind taking the initiative. The world is like a stage that is now ready for a story to be told and a drama to begin.

The Garden of Eden

The account of the Garden of Eden follows creation (Genesis 2.4-3.24). Geerhardus Vos summarizes the revelation of God in the Garden of Eden in four principles: 1. The Principle of Life, 2. The Principle of Probation, 3. The Principle of Temptation, 4. The Principle of Death.

1. The Principle of Life. Although mankind already had a biological kind of life by virtue of his creation, there was a higher quality of life experienced in Eden. This higher life was fellowship with God. The Tree of Life was a real tree. But it pointed beyond itself to a higher reality. Having access to this Tree was a sign of their access to God. They walked with God. The Garden of Eden was a Temple for Divine fellowship. This Divine fellowship is eternal life. Eternal life meant more than just never dying. Having eternal life meant being in fellowship with God. A person who has fellowship with God cannot die.

2. The Principle of Temptation. At this point in history God did not reveal anything about the nature or origins of the Serpent. But we know the Serpent’s nature and intent and that is enough. He is there to tempt the man and the woman away from God. The Tempter is right there to encourage them to throw off the fetters of God. He is crafty, subtle, deceptive. He just wants to have a discussion. But as soon as he starts to speak, he begins to lie. The serpent lies about God. His strategy is to drive a wedge between man and God, creating alienation and even hostility. To accomplish this the serpent makes Eve doubt the goodness of God. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, Eve begins to doubt the goodness of God. Why would a good God withhold something good from them? The forbidden fruit certainly looked good. It promised wisdom. And it would make them like God. Was God a cosmic killjoy who just wanted to dangle these good things in front of their eyes while denying them the full experience? At some point she begins to believe that their lives would be better without God interfering with His selfish and pointless commands. The original temptation was for man to become as God rather than accepting his place as a creature.

3. The Principle of Probation. Man’s probation, or a period of testing and evaluation, had to do with the choice he was given either to remain in fellowship with God or take his own path away from God. This choice is symbolized in the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Tree of Life is fellowship with God. But there is another way that mankind can choose to go. We should notice that God’s command not to eat from that other tree was completely arbitrary. In other words, God had to give them a command that had no other reason behind it other than God Himself. They were to obey God’s command just because it was God. God defines the meaning of life. One of the great errors of the modern world is thinking that we get to define what life is all about. We think we get to decide for ourselves what good and evil means. But it is not so. God was using that tree to create a moral arena. The forbidden fruit was something other than God and His will which created a crisis of choice. Every time they saw that tree, they would have to make a choice between God and something else. The tree was an objectification of a moral decision. What was at stake was their fellowship with God. They could choose uninterrupted fellowship with the Creator or go their own way. Life is like a road which suddenly diverges, making us choose a path. Somehow people manage to convince themselves that every road is good and eventually leads to the same place in the end. That there is a real choice between good and evil is a rather unpopular notion.

4. The Principle of Death. When mankind chose his own path, there was an immediate alienation from God which resulted in his spiritual and eventual physical death as well as expulsion from Eden. Oddly enough, the Serpent seemed to be right. They did not immediately fall over dead. But the process of death had entered the world. Even the creation itself was affected by mankind’s sin. Death is a separation of man from God. There is no option where we can enjoy all the blessings of God without God Himself, though this has perennially been what fallen man has sought. We can be free from obeying God, but there is a price for this freedom. Death should not be viewed as a punishment, but as the inevitable result of being separated from God. We are creatures. We depend on God. Breaking that relationship is a matter of life and death.

After they ate from the forbidden tree, they experienced shame and alienation from God. There is nothing in the account that states they were ashamed in each other’s presence. Their nakedness does not seem to just be sexual embarrassment. They are ashamed to be seen by God. Their nakedness is a new awareness of themselves in the presence of God. They do not feel adequate to stand before God. The relationship with God was instantly changed. They were now afraid of God. They tried to cover themselves. They no longer wanted to be in fellowship with God. There are any number of ways we can try to avoid God. Some people reject the existence of God. The real reason for atheism is moral, not intellectual. If God is not there, then we can have no moral responsibility to obey Him. Philosophy is an escape from God. In every Age there is an attempt to philosophically redefine the meaning of life. Behind it all is just the desire to go our own way rather than having to submit to God. Materialism is an attempt to escape from God. If we are just biological machines living in a world formed by chance, then we can do as we please without any accountability.

God would not leave them alone, which is what they wanted. He made them come out and face the facts concerning what they had done. This shows that God’s desire is to be gracious while also making us face the truth about our condition. Unfortunately, the man and woman are not willing to face the truth. The man blames his wife, and indirectly blames God for what happened. The woman blames the serpent. When we look back at what happened in Eden, we see ourselves. We see all the wrong choices we have made. We too have been rebellious. We wanted to be the Master. We have tried to cover for ourselves, to hide from God, and maybe even blamed someone else for our evil actions.

God uses this confrontation for some extremely important revelations about His plan and the future of the world. To the Serpent, the first words concerning redemption are given. The Serpent’s head will be bruised by someone coming out of humanity (Gen. 3.15). The work of redemption will be God’s, but it will come through the seed of the woman. The Serpent’s work will be undone. The Serpent had successfully turned the man and the woman against God. Redemption will consist of people being brought back to God and reconciled to Him. Rather than seeing God as the enemy, the Serpent will be opposed by those who are being redeemed. Those who were overcome by the Serpent will become participants in his defeat. The world will become a cosmic battlefield where a decisive war will be fought. God has already announced the outcome of the conflict and the Serpent will not have the last word. In some sense the rest of the Biblical story will be about how God is fulfilling His promise in Eden to bruise the Serpent’s head.

There are serious consequences for the disobedience in Eden. The woman will suffer pain in childbirth and will also suffer under her husband’s domineering authority. Sin does not just drive a wedge between God and man, but also between human relationships. Mankind’s original place of ruling over creation is also interrupted by sin. The creation was under man’s dominion and so the creation must also suffer the consequences of man’s sin. A curse of corruption and death is placed on the creation itself. The earth will no longer submit to mankind’s rule. The man will have to work the ground for food, but the earth will now be cursed and will not cooperate with him. The man will literally work the earth until he returns to the earth. All his efforts will be ultimately frustrated. Man will spend his days in toil, only to die and lose all that he had worked for during his lifetime. The specter of death will haunt all human life, dashing his hopes and separating him from everything he loves in the world.

The man and the woman are then removed from Eden and access to the Tree of Life is blocked. This was a merciful thing. We do not have to endure life in a fallen world forever. The Tree of Life disappears and is not found again in this world. Human history now goes in a very different direction. The future is outside of Eden, away from the presence of God. Sin results in banishment, alienation, and homelessness. The human family must now make its way in a world that is hostile and difficult. That fellowship with God that was once possible in Eden is gone. God is there, but His presence is much more mysterious and remote. Outside of Eden it will become possible for mankind to forget about God completely and act as if He does not exist. Before escorting them out of Paradise, God provides for their nakedness. Mankind is not completely alone in the world and without help. God is still there, and He is still providing for man’s needs.

East of Eden

After Adam and Eve are expelled from Eden, we immediately begin to see the effects of sin on the human family. “Hence, before the work of redemption is further carried out, the downward tendency of sin is clearly illustrated in order that subsequently in the light of this downgrade movement the true divine cause of the upward course of redemption might be appreciated” (Vos). Adam and Eve’s offspring display a tendency toward wickedness. This is illustrated in three incidents: in Cain’s murder of his brother Abel, in the wickedness of the world leading up to the Flood, and in the building of the Tower of Babel.

Not only do these accounts illustrate the spread of sin in the world, but also the care of God for the world. God is there during each of these evil events to both bring judgement and show mercy. God is not distant and uninvolved in human history. He is always there to make sure the world does not descend into utter chaos and darkness. Despite human sin and rebellion, God never deserts the world or completely leaves humanity to its own devices. The absentee God of modern thought is not the God of Scripture. God did not leave the world to run on its own according to natural laws. God is sustaining creation and guiding human development. The sovereign hand of God is working in the world. God has a purpose for human history and is guiding things in the direction He desires. Most people in the world do not see God’s hand at work. But these chapters of Genesis prove that God is always there, albeit behind the scenes at times. The main actor in human history is God. God’s works against the dark backdrop of human depravity. These three accounts are not just isolated occurrences but teach us about a pattern throughout the history of the world.

Cain and Abel

Cain and Abel bring their offerings to God. The Lord is pleased with Abel’s offering, but he rejects Cain. We are not told why the offering of Cain was particularly objectionable to God, but it no doubt had something to do with the heart of Cain and his attitude toward God. God warned Cain directly about his behavior. Rather than repenting of his wickedness, Cain seeks to do away with his competition in Abel. The first murder in human history was over religion. Abel becomes the first righteous man to suffer persecution and death. He will not be the last. The murder of Abel is a sign of things to come.

When confronted by God Himself, Cain refuses to take responsibility for his murderous actions. God does not kill Cain but sends him away in yet another act of banishment and alienation. The pattern of sin is repeating itself. Cain is acting like his parents in Eden and receiving the same penalty for his sin. This is a graphic illustration of how sin has caused alienation between people and other people, not just between people and God.

Cain and Abel represent two kinds of people in the world. Cain is a child of the Devil and reveals the murderous nature of his spiritual progenitor. Abel is a righteous man who worships God acceptably yet suffers unjustly as a result of his faith and devotion. This division of humanity becomes a major theme in the Bible. God has always had His people and there have always been people who live in opposition to God and His will. The history of the world is the story of these two societies. There are two cities living side by side in the world: the city of man and the city of God. “I classify The Human Race into two branches: the one consists of those who live by human standards, the other of those who live according to God’s will. I also call these two classes the two cities, speaking allegorically. By two cities I mean two societies of human beings, one of which is predestined to reign with God for all eternity, the other doomed to undergo eternal punishment with the Devil” (Augustine). It is important to notice that God is not only working with the righteous people like Abel but is also involved with the wicked men like Cain. No person is outside of the care and the judgement of God, even if they do not acknowledge Him or submit to His will. God will continue to use wicked men and nations for His own purposes.

The Flood

Cain’s violent murder is not an isolated event. The world becomes so filled with violence that God is sorry he created mankind and is grieved at the wickedness of the world. God’s tolerance comes to an end and He destroys that early world by a great flood. But a full end will not be made. God saves a man named Noah and his family from the Flood and starts the human family over through Noah’s three sons. “For even though the subject is that of catastrophe and downfall, God can never be a God of the end of things. He always bestows beginnings. God is positive. His mercies are new every morning (Lam. 3.23). One must only learn to see. And ultimately, faith is nothing else but seeing that this is so” (Helmut Thielicke). God makes a covenant never to destroy the earth again with water. Until God’s purpose is fulfilled, the earth will remain. The rainbow was chosen by God as a sign of His covenant promise.

The Flood is a graphic illustration of God’s involvement in the world, both with acts of mercy and salvation and acts of judgement. The account of the Flood is also a microcosm of the entire plan of redemption and the story of the Bible. Just as Noah stood out among the wicked people of his generation, the people of God will always be different in a wicked world. God cares for Noah and his family, helping them through every stage of the ordeal, and bringing them through the catastrophe to see a new world. Noah’s relationship with God and the salvation God worked for Noah is an example for all times of how God works with His people. Salvation comes from God. His people must trust, patiently wait, and obey God’s word. When it finally started raining, Noah was glad that he had trusted God!

The Tower of Babel

When the earth is beginning to be populated again after the Flood, it becomes obvious that the sinful nature is still at work in mankind. The people come together and in a great show of solidarity decide to build a city with a tall tower. Their agenda is to make themselves powerful and secure, but God is not a factor in their plans. “Unity was to afford the possibility for founding a gigantic empire, glorifying man in his independence of God” (Vos). The Tower of Babel is a manifestation of mankind’s desire to ascend to the place of God. God comes down to see this project and cannot allow it to continue. There is a bit of Divine sarcasm here. The thing that seems so great to the builders of Babel is so unimpressive to God, He must leave His heavenly throne just to be able to see it properly! What seems high and strong to men is nothing to God.

The world makes its plans without considering God and what God wants for the world that He made. Mankind wants to usurp God and rule the world for its own ends. This is something that God will simply not allow. All of mankind’s plans will fail. Only the Divine purpose will succeed. What men do or seek to do is not the theme of human history. God’s plan for the world is the real theme of history. A secular historian’s account of Babel would read very different from the Biblical account. What might have looked like a great failure to men was really a successful judgement of God. What looked like a good thing to men was not the will of God for the world.

The judgement of God is confusion which results in disunity and the builders of Babel are scattered. But the spirit of Babel will endure in the world when men come together to fulfill their own desires without God in their thoughts. “Always the trend is the same: wherever God has been deposed, some substitute point has to be created to bind men together in some fashion or other” (Helmut Thielicke). The world seeks redemption through its own work and ingenuity. Unfortunately, the plans of men do not include the living God. Human civilization will always try to find a way to recapture the blessings Eden, but it will always do so without God and so it will always fail. The book of Genesis shows us that mankind wanted to have this autonomy and independence from God from the very beginning of human history. By understanding the first section of Genesis we come to understand the modern world. While the unity of mankind might seem like a good goal, and a unified world is often held up as an ideal of the Modernist agenda, if this unity is in opposition to the will of God then no good thing can come from it. History is strewn with the wrecks of other towers like Babel.

The Biblical account gives us revelation about the principles that will govern the unfolding of human history. History will take a dark path that is only redeemed by the ongoing plan and presence of God. We get the idea that if God had let the world go, mankind would have self-destructed. But God did not let the world go. He has a plan for redeeming His creation. The first stage in that plan of redemption will begin with the calling of a man named Abram.

Theology from 30,000 Feet: Understanding the Whole Message of the Bible (Introduction to Series)

Most of us have had the opportunity to travel by air and get a glimpse out the window of the plane. Your perspective of the world is quite different when looking down from an altitude of 30,000 feet! Even if you are afraid of heights, getting that awe-inspiring perspective is worth it.  We see more details on the ground, but the view from 30,000 feet has its own advantages. That view from 30,000 feet is the idea we are using for this series of lessons in theology.   

It is a common problem in the Church that we often get small tidbits and brief glimpses of Divine truth without seeing the whole picture of God’s revelation to us. And just as some people get scared of flying, there are Christian people, and even whole denominations, who get nervous about theology. It can be difficult to understand sometimes. It is known to cause conflicts. It is also known to be dry and academic. But theology is the knowledge of God. This knowledge of God is the whole point of the Bible and the reason why Christ redeemed us. Knowing God is eternal life (John 17.3).

How can we know God? Obviously, God must reveal Himself if we are to know Him. Christians believe that the Bible is God’s revelation of Himself. So, we must read and study the Bible to know God. Everyone has a method for reading the Bible, even if the method is implicit rather than explicit. It is always better to be explicit about how we read and understand the Bible. There is nothing wrong with having a method if we humbly rely on the Spirit of God and are willing to admit our limitations and repent of our mistakes. We must never exalt our theology above Scripture. And a theological method is no replacement for faith, obedience, and the Holy Spirit.

There are two basic theological methods: 1. Biblical Theology, and 2. Systematic Theology. Please understand that there should be no conflict between these two methods. Both methods are going for the same thing. Both methods have their strengths and their limitations. We need both methods in order to build our theology and draw out the teaching of Scripture.

What is the Biblical Theology method? It is unfortunate that this method has been called “Biblical Theology” because it implies that other methods are not as Biblical. But this is not the central claim of this method. All theology must be Biblical. With this method we are trying to understand the Bible as a single revelation that unfolds much like the plot of a story. We do not mean that we only read those sections of Scripture that are narratives while neglecting the other genres. You cannot build a theology that neglects large portions of Scripture. Rather, we look at the whole Bible as an unfolding revelation and we fit all the various parts of Scripture into this framework. We do not seek to impose a framework on the Scripture, but to understand the framework that is suggested by the Scripture itself. Biblical Theology points out that this framework is something like a story or a drama. The method of Biblical Theology seeks to uncover the Bible’s own narrative framework rather than studying topics or going verse-by-verse through individual books. Our goal is not just to understand what the Bible says on a single topic, but to understand the single topic of the entire Bible. And we do not study the Bible just to understand individual books, but how each book contributes to the whole Book.

Understanding the Bible as story will also give us a greater appreciation for history as the sovereign plan of God rather than just a random, meaningless series of events. Christians have a specific view of the meaning of history and this view differs greatly from a pagan view. History had a definite beginning and will have an appointed end. And God is there from beginning to ending. A pagan view of history is cyclical, much like the endless repetitions of nature or a dog chasing his tail around and around for no good reason. It is extremely powerful for us to find meaning in our own lives by seeing the meaning of God’s story in Scripture.

A story is the setting or the background of life from which we construct meaning and significance for everything. Stories are more than just a form of entertainment. Stories explain something about the meaning of life. Imagine you are standing at a bus stop and you overhear a man saying: “After I got out of there, I went home and put the money under the rock by the back door.” What is going on? You must know the story of the man who is saying these words. Different stories will change the meaning of this statement. Did he just leave some cash for his daughter at home? Has he recently been released from prison? Story provides the context or the background by which we make sense of the things we encounter in the world around us. Different stories give life different meanings. And there are many different stories about what human life means.

Most people in the modern world believe that there is no single story that explains everything. “They would argue that a true account of the world can’t be found; that individuals and communities must be content with the separate meanings to be discovered in their own more modest and limited stories. A commitment to pluralism often implies that we should not even look for any such overarching story, one which could be true for all people, all communities, all nations – for to find such a thing would imply that not all stories are equally valid” (Craig Bartholomew & Michael Goheen). Behind this way of thinking is relativism, or the belief that no truth claim can ever be considered absolute. The essence of pluralism is the belief that each culture, nation, or ethnic group has its own, unique story about the world.

Stories provide the framework for how we form our worldview. “Human life, then, can be seen as grounded in and constituted by the implicit or explicit stories which humans tell themselves and one another” (N.T. Wright). Stories help us make sense of the world and our place in it. Of course, the Bible does not claim to just tell one story among many, it claims to tell the story of the entire world. In other words, the Biblical story is the true story about the meaning of life on earth. The Biblical story is one, big story which is supported and fleshed out by many smaller stories. Before we focus on any single story in the Bible, we should have an awareness of the larger story. All the smaller stories in some way contribute to the meaning of the larger story. When we do not understand a certain part of the Bible correctly, it is often because we have not understood the larger story.

The basic approach to Biblical Theology is to see the whole Bible as a progressive, unfolding revelation of God that is structured like a narrative or story. We can understand the entire Bible as God’s revelation of Himself. This revelation did not come all at one time or just to one person. Rather, there was a gradual unfolding of God’s revelation taking place at various times and in various ways (Hebrews 1.1-2). We can trace some of the epochal periods of God’s revelation of Himself within human history. There are several critical periods of revelation in which God was opening His will and His plan for the world. Not all periods of revelation were the same. God does not change, but how He speaks and what He reveals to mankind is somewhat different during each epoch of revelation history.