Hear the word of God as you find it in Genesis, the second chapter beginning at verse 1. Thus the heavens and the earth and all the host of them were finished, and on the seventh day God ended his work which he had done and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done, and then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made. This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth and there was no man to till the ground, but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. The word of the Lord thanks be to God, let us pray together. Father, we do give you thanks for your word, and we confess gladly that without your word we would live in darkness and confusion, but you've given us this light to be a lamp for our feet, a light for our paths, and you've given your spirit as well so that this wonderful and magical and mysterious thing might happen, this convergence of your word and spirit, we pray that that convergence would occur, that our eyes would be illumined so that we might see these wonderful things which are in your word. We pray that we might be greatly encouraged and strengthened by them, Father, minister to your people through your word. By your spirit, we ask in Jesus name, Amen, you may be seated, we all have all too frequently, I suspect, attended funerals, and we have also all too frequently participated in graveside services and it doesn't take much to conjure up the image that I know is present in all of our minds when we think about a graveside service, and that is the image of the automobile, the first, bearing the remains of the one who has died into the cemetery, and then those who are to carry that coffin from that hearse to the place where that coffin will be laid in the ground, and those remains will be laid to rest. It doesn't take much to stir up or to resurrect that image that is associated with funerals in graveside services. I want you to imagine a slightly different image, an image that doesn't involve a half a dozen people or even a few dozen people at a graveside service. But hundreds of people and even thousands of people and even tens of thousands, and even hundreds of thousands of people in procession
carrying in their midst the remains of one particular individual who has died. I've seen the Prince of Egypt, you've seen the Prince of Egypt probably, I've seen the Ten Commandments, and both of those productions and really any other production having to do with the Exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land, there is one striking detail that seems conspicuous by its absence in those productions, and that is that in neither of those productions, you see the pine box with Joseph's remains being born along by the people of Israel carried from Egypt to the Promised Land. But if you read the last paragraph of the Book of Genesis, and if you read the 11th chapter of the Book of Hebrews, you will find in both places, first that Joseph gave instructions concerning his bones that they not remain in Egypt, that they'd be carried to the Promised Land, and Hebrews 11 tells us that those instructions were on it, and those bones were born up from Egypt to the Promised Land. Now, if you're an 11-year-old, or a 13-year-old, or a 15-year-old, and you're walking along in procession, at some point in all probability you would have seen that box being born along that coffin carrying those remains, and you certainly would have asked the question, daddy, what's in that box? What's in that box? Daddy, why are we carrying that box? Daddy, where are we going? Daddy, who are we? Daddy, where have we come from? Daddy, where are we going? I want you to remember that the Book of Genesis comes to a particular people, at a particular place, in particular time, and the particular people is Israel, and the particular place is the wilderness wandering, and the particular time is the time between Egypt and the Promised Land, and the Book of Genesis is given to those little 11 and 12 and 15 year-olds, as well as the two-year-olds and the 42-year-olds and the 80-year-olds to answer those questions, not so much the question about the box with the remains of Joseph, though that's an awfully important question, but the bigger questions, who are we? Where have we come from? Where are we going? These folks are on pilgrimage from Egypt to Canaan, and certainly in the minds of those people and the lips of those people are those kinds of questions. Who are we? Where have we come from? Where have we to go? Genesis answers those questions. The structure of Genesis, the Book of Genesis is really wonderfully simple to identify and figure out the first portion of the Book of Genesis introduces in answer to the questions that these children would ask of their fathers. Genesis 1, 1 and following introduces the most important character in the whole story. There are many, many questions that Genesis 1 answers, many, many themes that are introduced in Genesis 1, but there are two main ideas that are established for those 11-year-olds and those 15-year-olds and those 42-year-olds and those two-year-olds. The two main ideas that are established are these. The God of Israel is the source of everything that exists. The God of Israel is the source of everything that exists. He is the source of his own existence. Genesis doesn't begin with arguments for the existence of God. Genesis simply asserts the existence of God. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That is to say, God created all things visible and invisible. What that suggests, obviously, is that God who is the source of all things has within himself simply the power to be if something exists. Now, something that has always existed and Genesis simply asserts that it is the God of heaven and earth, the God of all things visible and invisible who existed before anything else existed. He exists and he is the source of all that exists. It's interesting that Paul, his Mars Hill encounter with the Athenians, points or reminds them of this statue or this monument to an unknown God and says to them, what you worship as unknown, I declare to you. I declare to you. That's what the Bible does. It declares the existence of God. It advances the notion of the existence of God. It makes no apologies for it. It simply asserts that God is there. He is there and he is not silent. So God is the source of everything that exists. He is the source of his own existence, but he is the source of all that we see and all that we don't see. And what we have in Genesis 1 and 1 and following is this wonderful description of this formative work which God performs as he brings these things into existence and then gives them their shape and fills them up with fullness, all of which reflects his glory, his beauty, his wonder, his blessedness. The structure of Genesis 1, just to remind you, is that you begin with this statement about the primordial stuff of the creation, the things that God has brought into existence as being formless and empty and covered with darkness. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was formless and void. Formless and void having no shape and being characterized by emptiness or void. And how does God then proceed with this primordial stuff of the creation? Well, the spirit hovers over this primordial stuff and by the spirit's presence and by God's authoritative commanding work, the darkness is driven away. And then in the first three days of the creation, God gives form to the formlessness. He gives shape to what is shapeless. The day and the night are separated, distinctions are made. The waters above are separated from the waters below on the second day. And then on the third day, the waters and the dry land are separated from one another. There is form that is given to the formants. And then in days four through six, having given form to formlessness, having created these divisions and distinctions, God fills up what he has formed. He creates the sun and the moon, which rule over the day and the night. He fills the heavens with stars. To govern the day and the night. Then he fills the heavens with birds and the seas with fish. And they rule over the heavens and they rule in the waters. And then on day six, he creates the land animals and the culmination of all of it is that he creates the man and the woman who are created in his image. And they are created to rule over everything that is made. And so what begins in darkness with formlessness and emptiness by the end of the sixth day is a refulgent expression, a glorious expression of the beauty and character and being of God and the man and the woman are set in the midst of a terrible and a govern in God's place over all the things that he has made. And to ensure that what God has made will be fruitful, he blesses it. He blesses what he has made. And in his blessing them, he guarantees their fruitfulness. He guarantees their fullness. And so what you see in days one through six is God, the source of everything that exists, the one who forms and shapes all things. But God is not only the source of everything that exists. He is the Lord and he is the king over everything that exists. That's what the Sabbath day really is about. At the conclusion of his work, God declares that it is good and he enters into the enjoyment of his kingdom. He is like a king ruling from his throne over this blessed kingdom and he is governing it by his providential control in ways that are consistent with who he is. He is a good God. His kingdom is a good place to live. He is a God of fullness and so his kingdom is a place of fullness. He is a God of beauty and so his kingdom is a place of beauty. And he is seated upon his throne, looks upon his creation, upon his kingdom, he delights in it and he rules and governs in the midst of it all. And he upholds all of it by the word of his power. I mean, he was about the second grade. She produced a little book of the seven days of creation. And on the seventh day of creation, there was a bed. The bed was empty. The pillow was there and the bed closed, the sheets and the bed spread were all unmust. The seventh day, there was an empty bed. The only thing that you saw was this little dialogue balloon that you see in cartoons that had these in the invisible God taking a nap from the work of his labor. But the Sabbath rest is not God taking a nap. The Sabbath rest is God ceasing from his creative work but fully awake and fully conscious, delighting in everything that he has made and ruling and governing it for his glory and for the good of his people. And that rest is a rest that is held out to all who believe in him. The day will come and those who believe in him who love him will enter into that rest as will as well and will delight in him. The Sabbath rest establishes God as an enthroned ruling and reigning king and he is the dominant person in Genesis. God is the dominant person. When we begin our biographies, we begin with our parents or our grandparents or some forebear when God begins his biography. When he begins the biography of Israel, he begins not with earthly things, he begins with himself. He is the dominant reality, the ruling and reigning king over everything that he has made.
H.R. Rookmacher was an associate of Francis Schaeffer and I remember this story being told of Rookmacher. He was a professor of art history at the Free University in Amsterdam and I remember this story being told of Rookmacher who wanted to encourage young artists who believed that art was a gift from God and that if anybody in the world should be doing good art in his Christians, Rookmacher wanted to encourage young Christians and so he would occasionally sponsor them and their exhibits and there was one particular exhibit that I think was being held in Philadelphia and the young artists and several artists had their paintings all on display and one of these artists was standing in front of one of his own paintings and Rookmacher came up and looked at the painting and the painting was one of those one of those life scenes you know a street corner with cars passing by and and businesses that are flourishing and booming and people that are walking down the street and you can see if you look closely woven into the background of this life scene ahead and as you look more closely it's the head of Christ and the thing that the artist wanted to convey was the Christ was present in every moment of history when the young artist asked Rookmacher about his painting Rookmacher said your painting technically is wonderful it's really very good but theologically it's weak and why is it weak? And he said because Jesus Christ is never in the background of any moment of human history. He is the dominant reality. Abraham Kaipert is reported to have said and reflecting upon God as the dominant personality in all of human history Kaipert is reported to have said there is not one square inch of the creation about which Jesus Christ does not say this is mine this belongs to me. God is the dominant person and you see that's awfully important for Israel to hear there is enormous practical benefit for these people. Here they are between Egypt and Canaan they're leaving the gods of the Egyptians behind them Pharaoh is hot on their heels they're approaching the Amorites the Jebusites the parasites and all the rest of those Canaanites and they're going to have to root those people out of the land they're going to have to go to war and what God says to them as they find themselves between Egypt and Canaan as they find themselves into wilderness surrounded by barrenness surrounded by scorpions and snakes what God says to them is I am the dominant person I am the Lord of glory I am the Lord of the Egyptians the Lord of the Canaanites the Lord of this barrenness the Lord of these snakes and scorpions you need not be afraid for you are my people and I will deliver you and I will provide for you that's why Genesis begins with God because it means something for you as a pilgrim living in this wilderness waste between your Egypt and your promised land God is the Lord of glory the delivers and protects and defend his people and so that's where Genesis starts and this obviously is all by way of review and obviously we're back in the book of Genesis and older and talking about what it means to be members at St Paul but clearly these things have to do with what it means to be members in the church of Christ now when you come to Genesis 2 and the 4th verse you come to a new section in the book of Genesis the first section of Genesis is Genesis 1, 1 through 2 3 the seven days of the creation when you come to Genesis 2, 4 Genesis 2, 4 is not a summary of the things that have preceded it but Genesis 2, 4 introduces in effect the rest of the book and there's a very important word that you find in the 4th verse of Genesis 2 and it's the word that is in my version translated history in some versions it's translated generations these are the generations of the heavens and the earth this is the history of the heavens and the earth you find that word 10 times in the rest of the book of Genesis and each time you find that word in the book of Genesis it introduces a new section and and Moses as he uses this word wants us to follow this particular line of thought until he introduces a new line of thought he wants us to follow this particular history until he introduces a new person and that person's history the word that's translated history comes from a word that means to be get or to give birth to and so the effect of this word if you were to translate it in a literal sort of way or even in a paraphrastic sort of way what you would have really is this Genesis 2, 4 says what became of the heavens and the earth what happened from this point forward and then you find it again Genesis 5, 1 the generations the genealogies or the histories of Adam what became of Adam Genesis 6, 9 what became of Noah Genesis 10, 1 what became of Shem, Ham and Japheth and then 11, 10 what became of Shem and then 11, 27 what became of terror leading to Abram and then 25, 12 what became of Ishmael 25, 19 what became of Isaac 36, 1 and 36, 9 what became of Issa and 37, 2 what became of Jacob the word is used to introduce new sections to the book of Genesis and there are those 10 of them that I've referred to so what does become of the heavens and the earth what happens to the heavens and the earth but what you have in Genesis 2, 4 through 25 is an elaboration of the creation Genesis 1 gives us sort of broad sketches, broad brushstrokes of the creation but the concern of Genesis 1 is not so much with earthly things the concern of Genesis 1 again is to establish God as the primary character the most dominant person in Israel's history when you come to Genesis 2, 4 through 25 there is an elaboration of the creation there's a further description of the garden the river is referred to and this river that flows out of the garden becomes four rivers and it is the river of life in the midst of the garden and it becomes the rivers that give life to the whole of the creation and there are references to these precious metals and to precious stones and then the land is a fruitful land and this fruitful nest is with fruitfulness is without the sweat of the brow and it's without struggle and death
after the creation of the man and the description of the river and the rivers and the metals and the stones the precious stones then there is the description of the woman and the creation of the woman the man finds himself engaged in this work of science giving names to fans knows that he's alone and he knows that he doesn't have a partner and so God creates this partner for him and if you look at your version your copy of Genesis chapter 2 in all probability you will see that when you get to verse 23 verse 23 is set off from the rest of the narrative and it's set off from the rest of the narrative because when you come to this place when God puts this man to sleep and extracts a rib from his side and takes that rib and forms and fashions that rib into a woman and then brings that woman to the man the man's response is to sing verse 23 is poetry it's not narrative verse 23 is a song it's not simple data or facts the man's heart leaps for joy and in a sense that summarizes the whole of which you see in Genesis 2 4 through 25 you see the creation of greater description a greater elaboration of its beauty and its fruitfulness and its riches and its blessedness but beyond the material blessedness of the creation there is the joy of the creation the joy that there is in paradise that's the before you know you see these before and after shots you know there's the before I lost all my weight and there's the after I lost all my weight there's the before I got my membership at the Y and became burgeoning with muscle and then there's the after I joined the Y and I became a veritable adonis well there is the before and then there is the after and the after stands in stark contrast to the before in the aftermath of the fall of Genesis 3 in the place of a threefold blessing there is a threefold blessing in chapter one God blesses the animals God blesses the man and the woman and God blesses the Sabbath day a threefold blessing but after the fall the blessing is replaced by curse there is now a threefold curse the serpent is cursed the man is cursed and the ground is cursed the blessing is forfeited and all of the relationships we'll look at this in greater detail in the weeks to come all of the relationships that were blessed and that were filled with joy in the creation now suffer the curse and rather than being filled with joy they are filled with alienation hostility and enmity after the fall the man hides from the God who had created and because he's afraid the relationship between God and the man is fractured and is now characterized by a stranger and enmity the relationship between the man and the woman a relationship which only moments before had given the man such great joy that he burst into song the relationship between the man and the woman is now characterized by a stranger and enmity and blame shifting God if you hadn't created this woman if you hadn't made this woman and given her to me I wouldn't have taken the fruit she's the one who took the fruit and gave it to me and and I ate and it's her fault and you've heard me say this before that what Adam is really doing is not blaming his wife he's really blaming God God if you hadn't made this woman if you hadn't brought this woman to me you and I wouldn't be in the trouble that we're in right now enmity hostility a stranger no longer delight but blaming the man is separated from the creation rather than knowing fruitfulness rather than knowing blessedness rather than knowing a labor that is always and everywhere characterized by this fruitfulness and fullness now the man's labor is characterized by struggle the man's labor the man's fruit is born by swept and by tears by uncertainty and heartache so the relationship with the ground is also characterized by a strangement and enmity and then in this family the first crime that is committed after the fall is the crime of murder came and kills his brother because of jealousy and as you make your way through Genesis 4 and 5 and 6 you see other expressions of the corruptions of the fall and the effects of the fall and you see these expressions of the fact that curse has replaced blessedness now came wonders in a wilderness he's no longer at home in a paradise but he wonders in a wilderness and as he wonders he is afraid terrified that he the one who has murdered his brother will himself be the victim of violent crime but it gets even worse when you come to lemic lemic says I have killed a man for wounding me
an evil and curse begin to proliferate to such a great extent that what you have now is not justice but injustice not equity but in equity and vigilante justice a man taking the law to himself creating his own laws and not judging people according to equity but in fact killing a man who has simply wounded him by the time you get to chapter 6 of Genesis the proliferation of evil is so extensive so widespread and so deep and pervasive that there is only one good man left anywhere on the earth that's the after so that right up until the end of Genesis all the way through Genesis and up to the end of Genesis what you see described is curse threatening to overwhelm blessing curse replacing blessing at the end of Genesis Israel is in bondage in Egypt and Joseph is dead in a pine box from glory the glory of paradise to a great in Egypt and all of this all of this books is intended to show one thing the proliferation of evil and sin will be so great that there is the need of divine intervention there is the need of divine intervention that's the after there is the before there is the beauty and glory and wonder of the creation and all of its blessedness and the fall introduces all of these estrangements all of this enmity all of this grief all of this sadness all of this bondage all symbolized by Joseph being dead in a box I don't know if you've seen the movie the Cider House rules there's a poignant scene a particularly poignant scene in the movie the Cider House rules which one of the characters mocks these five simple rules that are written for those who reside in the Cider House don't smoke in bed don't operate the grinder if you've been drinking don't eat your lunch on the roof don't sleep on the roof even if it gets too hot and then there's a fifth one that I can't remember but the character mocks these simple rules and says these rules were made by somebody who doesn't live here and we'll make our own rules in this house where we live and the whole of the movie the whole of the movie is a depiction of the tragedies that flow from a failure to listen when the owner of the house speaks tragedy everywhere when the natural order is violated when the master of the house is not heard folks Genesis will show us this one thing when God is not heard and obeyed there is death please take this to heart when God is not heard and obeyed there is death but when God is heard and obeyed there is life though Genesis ends with Joseph in the grave throughout Genesis there are these repeated promises that this needed divine intervention will come Genesis 315 God will provide a warrior who in the process of being smitten on the heel will crush the head of Satan Genesis 121 the promise made to Abram that in the seed of Abram all the nations of the earth will be blessed and as we watch Israel's history unfold we see that God is the same God in recreation that he was in creation he redeems them he gives them his word and he forms them and shapes them by that word so that they might know life the story of Genesis is the story of a progression from glory to the grave but that's only half the story the other half of the story is the story of Jesus Christ who takes us from grave to glory and that long procession of people that people between Egypt and Canaan that people carrying that pine box with the bones of Joseph is a metaphor of the church of Jesus Christ a people redeemed from their bondage from their death a people unpilgrimage to a promised land so Genesis describes this progression from glory to the grave but we will see that sprinkled throughout are these promises of God that that's not the end of the story let's pray together father thank you that you've had mercy upon your people thank you for this book thank you for the instruction that it gives thank you for the promises liberally sprinkled throughout oh father cause our hearts to face the true the harsh realities of life after the fall so that our hearts might be gripped by the promises of our complete and entire restoration for the promised land or take your word drive it home to us we ask in Jesus name