Musings on Genesis 1-7

You don’t read far into the theological history of humanity before seeing the fruit (pardon the pun) of the divine gift of human freedom.  Succumbing to envy, greed, pride, and the like, Adam & Eve disobeyed God and ate of the forbidden fruit.  Attacked by similar weaponry, Cain murdered his brother Able—undoubtedly giving rise to the adage: “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”  And that’s as funny as this horrible scenario can be made out to be.

The truth of the matter is that deviations from God’s holy character lead to incalculable anguish not only for the victims, but ultimately even for the perpetrators.  Abuse of freedom and self-centered grasping for pleasure is a powerfully addicting, nearly insatiable slippery slope that ends ultimately in the only place where God’s presence—and, in fact, no one else’s presence—can be felt.  Human history supplies countless witnesses of this destructive path, none more panoramic than in the days of Noah.  The Mosaic tradition marks the ungodly nadir and God’s reaction to it:

^6:5 But the Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind had become great on the earth. Every inclination of the thoughts of their minds was only evil all the time. ^6:6 The Lord regretted that he had made humankind on the earth, and he was highly offended.  (Genesis 6:5-6; NET Bible)

 Even allowing for some degree of poetic license, the situation described here is clearly “double plus non-good” (let’s hear it for non-offensive, politically correct speech).  The literary context gives the Hebrew “nakham” (which the NET Bible renders as “regretted”) a sense of grieving and emotional pain.  This truly is a case of adding insult to injury.  The Holy God is offended and, indeed, wounded because the objects of His love have rejected His nature, character, and will, and have chosen instead to worship themselves and their pleasures—convinced that in them lies the elixir of life.

God’s response was not a thoughtless impulse; it was not a “knee-jerk” reaction.  On the contrary, God issued warning after warning, but His people refused to take heed. The only way one could read “knee-jerk” into this scenario, is to argue that those who refused to bow their knees were jerks.

God intends all life experience to be didactic.  Those who look back on their own experiences as well as the experiences of others, should learn from these experiences.  The lesson brought by the “days of Noah” was later spelled out in propositional form by the apostle Peter who wrote:

^3:9 The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some regard slowness, but is being patient toward you, because he does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. ^3:10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief; when it comes, the heavens will disappear with a horrific noise, and the celestial bodies will melt away in a blaze, and the earth and every deed done on it will be laid bare. ^3:11 Since all these things are to melt away in this manner, what sort of people must we be, conducting our lives in holiness and godliness, ^3:12 while waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God? (2 Peter 3:9-12)

 Here’s my “takeaway”:

Lord, draw me close to you.  Help me become slow to speak and quick to listen to your Spirit.  Help me learn from my mistakes, but not forever wallow in the guilt that rightly brought me to repentance.  I reaffirm my resolve to read your word each day, not merely to dissect it’s meaning, nor merely to fulfill my calling as a teacher, but to hear your voice in a personal, devotional way.  I reaffirm my resolve to unselfishly give my labor and my time and my very life to those you have placed around me, first to my family and then to all others with whom you give me audience—so help me God.