New Series, The God Who Cares

Deuteronomy 10:14–19 (NIV)

To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it.

Yet the Lord set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today.

Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer.

For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes.

He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.

And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.

Deuteronomy 10:14–19 (NIV)

To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. [GOD IS ABOVE ALL]

Yet the Lord set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today. [BUT HE CHOSE YOU ANYWAY]

Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. [DEDICATE YOUR HEARTS TO GOD’S WAYS AND STOP BEING STUBBORN]

[HOW?] For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. [GOD SHOWS NO FAVORITISM]

He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. [GOD LOVES THOSE WHO AREN’T GOD’S CHOSEN PEOPLE]

And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. [YOU ARE TO LOVE LIKE GOD BECAUSE YOU, TOO, WERE LOST AND UNDESERVING]

Creation and Fall

Genesis 2:5–3:24 (NIV)

Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground,

but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.

[a picture of chaos and emptiness]

Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

[God takes the barren wasteland - the nothing - and makes man. The God plants a garden full of beautiful trees that produce food (an orchard). Trees meant fertility, longevity, unspoiled land. Plus, this garden has life and knowledge itself - something even more than just overflowing sustenance.]

A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters.

The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold.

(The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.)

The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush.

The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

[An even fuller, richer picture of this garden. It is the headwaters - it is the source - of major rivers that will support and enrich great lands and nations.]

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;

but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

[God has made man in his image, provided for him, and given him purpose. God has not given him free reign. God has given man what is good for him. God provides guidance - don’t eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. If you eat of it, you’ll die.]

The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

[Adam names the animals, exercising his role, but no helper is found. So God provides a helper for Adam from his own side.]

Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

[in ancient times, as now, the fact that they were naked but unashamed is…different. It shows an innocence.]

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,

but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ”

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.

“For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

[The serpent IS crafty. This isn’t some cartoon where it is terribly dramatically ironic that we, the reader, can obviously tell that the serpent is obviously a bad guy. The serpent is Satan. The father of lies. You don’t get called the father of lies by being bad at lying. This serpent, quite different from the rest of God’s creation, twists the truth just enough, in a very specific way, to maximize his goals]

[ Role play, “level with me”]

[Now we can see how the deception works. but also realize that it flies in the face of everything that has already been established. God has given more than plenty of that which is good for mankind. God created for them mates, that they would fulfill his purposes together, fully. There is no lack. It all came from God and BECAUSE of God. So the question is, will the woman believe the lie? The lie is that (1) you WON’T surely die, and (2) you will gain something you lack. The next verse describes the woman’s response and how she came to that response.]

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

[woman’s thought process: SHE DETERMINED it was good for food, SHE LIKED how it looked/appealed, and SHE THOUGHT she would gain something she lacked. Again, this flies in the face of everything we’ve seen to this point - God’s good design, God’s abundant provision, God’s specific guidance. She made a decision - a decision we often make in many different moments - that her idea was better, that her wants were more important, that her understanding of the situation was more enlightened, that her case necessitated an exception. She trusted in herself and in the words of the serpent instead of God. Then even the man trusted in his self and his wife more than God. This is just like us. Every sin, we trust in something that isn’t from God. In those moments we trust that our thoughts and desires are better than what God would have us do:

Pursuit of sexual fulfilment (sex outside of marriage, pornography)

Pursuit of provision (work to the neglect of others, dishonest gain)

Pursuit of self worth (buy this, use this substance, be in this relationship)

[so this is what happened in the beginning and its what still happens today. Let’s continue and see if we can see some more paralells with ourselves]

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

[It is very interesting to me that, after their eyes were opened, they realized that they were naked and that being naked was wrong or embarrassing and that they needed covering. But if it was wrong then God wouldn’t have made them that way… and God would’ve told them, don’t walk around naked. And if they were truly in need of clothes, God would have provided them with clothes because he has literally provided for them in every way. It’s as if they have gained an awareness of good and evil but have little wisdom in discerning which is which. THEY felt that being naked was wrong. God never said that. This knowledge of good and evil already isn’t working out for them. How has our knowledge of good and evil served us? How has it served the history of mankind? Are people always making good decisions because of this knowledge? Are people always in agreement about what is good and evil? No. We know about good and evil - we have knowledge about it - but we lack the wisdom or desire to discern it properly. This is why now, as then, we should do as the Proverb says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Let’s see how the man and woman respond to this confrontation]

The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

[Blame shifting. In fact, this is completely backwards of what God intended. The man is later rebuked for listening to his wife instead of listening to God, and the woman is rebuked for listening to this created being over which she and the man were to have dominion, not the other way around. In any case, there are going to be consequences. In fact, God has already mentioned what that consequence was to be - death. But first, the serpent.]

So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

[This is the key verse to understanding the rest of your old testament. This is the promise of Jesus. Jesus will be wounded by Satan, but Satan will be crushed by Jesus’ victory over death. You read the entire OT looking for this offspring to arrive. Who will it be and when will he come? This question gets some answers and some challenges as you read through the OT, especially as you read Genesis - because both are the story of God working this promise of salvation through broken people. The serpent is doomed from this moment. But what about man and woman?]

To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

[Notice that the woman isn’t cursed or doomed, but she does have consequences. God’s design and woman’s desire for bearing children will now be laden with pain. The God-designed and desirable complementary relationship that the man and woman shared is now tainted by self interest and power.]

To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.

It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.

By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

[Notice that the man is no cursed or doomed either, but the ground is, but this isn’t good for the man. The man will continue to tend the land, as was his purpose from the beginning, but now it will be hard and frustrating. And it will continue to be hard and frustrating until he dies and rots into the earth. BUT WAIT, weren’t they supposed to die if they ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil? Let’s read on.]

The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

[In spite of the fact that a terrible event has just happened, in his care, God provides for their self-inflicted shame by killing animals to cover them. Something else died to cover their shame.]

And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”

So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.

After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

[NOTICE that they didn’t die - at least not right away. They WILL die, but not as immediate as it seemed it would when God gave the command. With the knowledge of good and evil, it is no longer good that man should take of the tree of life and live forever. Death has entered the world of man, for the good of man. In this state, how depraved could man become if they lived forever? God provided another way. God promised that he will crush the serpent AND his work through the offspring of woman - Jesus. That is a LOT of work and effort on God’s part. He could’ve just killed Adam and Eve right there and then. But he didn’t, because - and this is a great mystery - he loves us. He loves us so much that, when we are in our most foolish and depraved, he bends over backwards to draw us back to himself - whatever it takes! And what it took was sending himself in the form of Jesus Christ to die in our stead. The law of sin and death is the same now as it was then, and Paul’s letter to the Romans tells us, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We might be tempted to think that the lesson we should learn from this text is don’t sin - just don’t do it. Here’s the problem though - we’re gonna sin. The question is, what are we gonna do when we do? God has given us EVERYTHING in Jesus Christ, but we still fail - we are still imperfect. You would think that after he gave us everything we wouldn’t, but we do. What’s crazy is that he still loves us. There is nothing we can do to stop him from loving us. He has ALWAYS wanted what is best for us. He cares for us. If you are a believer in Christ and you have committed your life to him in baptism, you have this gift of eternal life. So my encouragement to you is, remember that. God has taken care of your sin and your shame. It is paid for and done. Go and love as you have been loved. But if you don’t have this gift of eternal life, it is still offered to you. It is offered to all people. Truly all people, regardless of your past. To accept the gift of eternal life, you must accept Jesus. That means you need to believe who he said he was and that he did what he said he did. That is, he was God in the flesh, that he died to pay for the sins of all, that he rose from the dead, and that he lives still. Not that you simply accept those facts, but you reorient your life to those truths so that Jesus is your God and Master - that you will be his follower and do what he says. Confess that publicly and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins and to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, the perpetual indwelling of God. That’s what it will take to receive that gift. We are about to stand and sing a song together. During that song if you want to do that or if you have questions about some of that, just walk up front and chat with me. Or if you prefer, you can catch me after services and I’ll be glad to answer your questions. Please, consider this gift of God. Lets stand together and sing.