Studies in the book of Genesis
We are all conscious of problems in this world—problems in our own personal lives and in the world at large. There is no such thing as complete and perfect happiness. No one is without difficulties. Everyone knows what it is to be weary, to be disappointed, and to struggle. We find conflict within ourselves. We find conflict round and about us. That is the experience of every human being
There is no such thing as unmixed pleasure.
The whole world seems to be nothing but a repetition on a grand scale of what we all experience in our personal lives
The question is, why are you unhappy? What is the cause of your unhappiness? Why should anybody be unhappy? Why should life not be a perpetual holiday? Why do we have to work by the sweat of our brow? Those are the questions with which the Bible deals. Why do things go wrong? Why is there illness and sickness? Why should there be death? These are the major problems of life.
Well, the Bible, in a most extraordinary way, starts like this: ‘In the beginning God …’ It starts with God. And at once I have shown you the ultimate distinction with respect to the views that are held about life. Because of necessity, before I begin to ask any questions about myself and my problems, I ought to ask questions like this: Where did the world come from? Where have I come from? What is life itself? What is its origin?
The tragedy of the world today is that it starts too near to its problems. The poet says, ‘The world is too much with us.’ That, he says, is our trouble. We are right in the midst of it, and we cannot see it because we are too near it. There are times when to see a thing you must get away from it.
You come to me and say, ‘I’m unhappy. I’m conscious of a conflict. I’m in a crisis. What’s the matter with me?’ And the Bible says, ‘In the beginning God …’ as if it has forgotten all about you. But it has not! The only way to understand yourself or your life is to start with God. And right at the very beginning the Bible takes us there. If you are not clear about this, you will go wrong everywhere else
But the modern panaceas never do that, do they? The psychologist starts with you and ends with you, and so do all the others. They suggest things to you and do certain things to you. They try to bring forces and factors to play upon you. And it is you the whole time. That is why the world is as it is. But you cannot understand life, says the Bible, unless you realize that there, at the back of everything, before everything, is God
