Chapter 1, Creation: In the Beginning
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Main Idea:
Main Idea:
God created the world and all there is and created mankind to be his image bearers in his creation. But, humanity rebelled against God and our world has been plunged into sin and death ever since. But God is working to redeem us from the curse we have brought upon ourselves.
Introduction
Introduction
Video (1:57) https://cdn.teachertube.com/mp4video202/169696.mp4
On June 6, 1944, over 34,000 American soldiers stormed Omaha beach in Normandy, France from amphibious landing vehicles in a bid to establish an American and Allied Forces hold on the European continent. They had a tremendous amount of soldiers, ships, artillery, and guns, but the enemy was deeply entrenched in the high ground overlooking the beaches.
Bunkers with German machine guns laid down a constant barrage of bullets, artillery took out some amphibious ships before they ever reached the beachhead, and many American soldiers were mowed down before they ever even reached the shore.
About 2,400 of those 34,000 American troops at Omaha Beach were wounded or killed that day (roughly the population of Clinton, AR). Thousands of families would have to mourn the loss of a father, brother, husband, or son. Lives were irrevocably changed in moments.
Of course, many inspirational stories of bravery and courage came out of that day. But, in isolation, taken out of the context of the broader war, the invasion of Omaha Beach hardly made any sense. Why spend so much precious blood, sacrifice so many lives, for a seemingly insignificant patch of sand?
But, of course, the Battle of Omaha Beach didn’t happen in isolation. It was part of a much grander operation called “Operation Overlord,” which we now know as “D-Day,” in which more than 150,000 U.S., British, and Canadian Allied troops landed on five different beaches across Normandy. And that operation happened within the context of something much bigger, too—World War II and the brutal Nazi regime that had staged a bloody and ruthless conquest over Europe.
Adolf Hitler had decided that he ought to be the successor to the former Holy Roman Empire, so he had set out to bring all of Europe under his control as the “Third Reich.” He wanted to create a “master race,” so he set out to exterminate any whom he deemed unfit to be a part of his new Empire, including some 6 million Jews and around 1.8 million Polish citizens, not to mention the millions more that died as a result of starvation, oppression, and in combat. Historians estimate that the global death toll of WWII may have been as high as 70-85 million.
Taken out of context of Hitler’s Third Reich, the Holocaust, and WWII, the Battle of Omaha Beach seems like a senseless waste of human life, or at best, some inspiring stories of courage and bravery. But, in context of the War, the Battle of Omaha Beach was much more than that. It was part of the invasion of Normandy, and it was the turning point of the War.
Up until that point, most historians would say the Allies were losing. Germany had overrun Poland, Austria, Belgium, and France, and between Germany and its allies, Europe was firmly under Nazi control. But, because of what happened on June 6, 1944—“D-Day”—the tides of the war turned and the Allied powers gained the upper hand. Because of the courage, bravery, and sacrifices made on D-Day, we don’t live under the threat of a Nazi-controlled Europe.
Hitler posed an existential threat to the existence of democracy, freedom, and life for millions. D-Day was awful and brought tremendous suffering for many people. But, its true significance is not in the number of casualties that occurred on D-Day, but in the untold number of casualties that it prevented. It’s true significance is found in the broader context of the War.
Now, what in the world does all that have to do with the Bible?
I was privileged to get to grow up in church and hear many stories from the Bible from a very young age. I can’t remember a time I didn’t know the story of Noah’s Ark, or “Father Abraham,” or David and Goliath. I understood from a young age that Jesus had died for my sins, and that I needed to have faith in him to be saved, and I gave my life to Christ at a young age. I knew a lot about the Bible, and even surrendered to God’s call to ministry when I was 14 years old and began preaching.
But it probably wasn’t until college at Ouachita Baptist University (OBU) during my Bible Survey class that I finally realized that the Bible was actually one big story. See, up until that time, I think I subconsciously thought of the Bible as more of a collection of a bunch of different stories that were all sort of about faith in God. Noah’s Ark was, to me, an inspirational story about how important it is to have faith when everyone around you refuses to believe. Abraham’s (near) sacrifice of Isaac was just an inspirational story about trusting God when you can’t see how it will all work out. And those lessons are good, and certainly true. But, that’s not the main point of those stories.
What I didn’t realize was that all those stories were actually part of One Big Story—a story that has a beginning, a plot, a climax, and a resolution. Just as a battle’s significance can only be fully understood in the context of how it contributes to the war, all these little stories we see in the Bible can only be fully understood in the context of that One Big Story—The Story. If you don’t get The Story, you won’t really understand all the little stories.
So, this series is going to be a little different than any other series that we’ve done so far. We’re not going to go meticulously verse by verse in this series, because we’re effectively covering the whole Bible between now and May, and that simply isn’t possible.
Instead, we’re going to focus on the overarching story. The Main Storyline, or as I might call it sometimes, the “Upper Story.” And this story begins where all stories begin: “In the beginning...”
Turn with me in your Bibles to Genesis 1.
The word Genesis means “beginnings.”
The very first thing that we learn in this story is that...
1. God Created.
1. God Created.
(pp. 1-3 of The Story)
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Right away, our focus is drawn to God. “In the beginning, God...” Not “In the beginning, a mystical force” or “In the beginning, science,” but “In the beginning, God.” And that tells us something very important about this story.
Throughout chapter 1, notice that God is the only one who speaks.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”
See also, Genesis 1:9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26, 28
The phrase “God said” occurs 12 times before any other character gets to speak. Why is that important? Because right off we are learning something absolutely crucial about this story:
God is the main character.
God is the main character.
In fact, the first time we get a name for anyone else is not until almost the end of Genesis 2, where Adam is finally named, and even then, his name is just “Man”:
20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.
The word “Adam” in Hebrew literally just means “man.” Up until this point in the story, he is just referred to as “the man.”
7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
When he’s finally given a name, it’s just “man.” Why? Because as crucial a role as Adam plays in this story, ultimately, this story is not about him.
This is absolutely essential or we will fundamentally misunderstand every story in this book. From cover to cover, from Genesis to Revelation, the main character in EVERY story is God, not man.
In Genesis 1, it’s obvious. But as The Story goes on, there will be some Lower Stories where God doesn’t speak, there are no actions attributed directly to God, and that don’t even directly refer God. The book of Esther is a good example—the word “God” doesn’t even occur in the book, and there’s not a single direct mention of him in the entire book. But, God is still the main character in Esther, as we will see.
So, knowing this, the first question that we ought to ask ourself whenever we read a story from the Bible is “What does this story tell me about God? What is God doing in this story? How does God feel about what is going on in this story?”
If we don’t ask those questions, we’ll inadvertently change the main character of the book. Sometimes, we’ll make the human heroes the center of the story we’re reading, or worse, we’ll even make ourselves the main character.
If a soldier in battle looses sight of his country—who he’s fighting for—he will lose courage for the battle.
A soldier is called to make sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice. They rarely live in one place for very long before being deployed somewhere else. They are called on to leave behind their families and loved ones, to go to dangerous, uncomfortable places to carry out dangerous and often deadly missions. And good soldiers do this willingly because they know that the mission is greater than them. They are not the main character—their country is.
If a soldier loses sight of why he’s fighting, who he is serving, the sacrifices will be too great. He will begin to turn inward and begin asking questions like, “Why should I have to give up so much time from my family?” “Why can’t I live a comfortable life like civilians?”
And when we lose sight of the fact that we are not the main characters in our own stories, we do the same. We start asking questions like, “Why do I have to give up ____? Why doesn’t God do this for me? Why did God allow that to happen? Why can’t I have ____?”
And we will inadvertently turn God into a supporting cast member and make ourselves the main character of our story.
Glorifying God is the reason we exist.
Glorifying God is the reason we exist.
For six days, there’s a repeated refrain: “God said, ‘let there be’...and there was...” “There was evening, and there was morning, the __ day.”
But then on day 6, there’s an interruption in that sequence. God creates livestock and beasts of the earth and all this, and then instead of concluding, it continues (pp. 2-3):
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
There’s not anything else in all of God’s creation that gets this attention. God is doing something special here.
In ANE cultures, when a king wanted to display his rule or sovereignty over an area and display the glory and the extent of his kingdom, he would often set up images of himself (statues) throughout his kingdom. These statues were reminders of his rule, of the glory of his kingdom, and the extent of his dominion.
And so, as God finishes his creation, what does he do? He chooses human beings as his divine image bearers—created beings that reflect a little bit of the nature of God himself, and he commissions them to fill his creation and rule over his Kingdom as his appointed kings and queens.
This means that human beings were created for a purpose, and that purpose is not centered upon ourselves. We were not created for the pursuit of our own happiness or our own glory. A divine purpose is baked into our being. We exist to reflect the glory of our Creator, our King, to demonstrate the extent of his Kingdom, and to serve as perpetual reminders of his dominion.
16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.
“God does not exist for your glory, you exist for his.”
So many people spend their lives wondering “What is the purpose in life?” It’s one of those questions that you don’t really think about much when you’re busy or life is good. But when life is hard and you find yourself alone with your thoughts, struggling to make sense of the suffering you’re enduring, it’s one of those nagging questions that just won’t leave you alone.
So, people try to fill that void, answer that question. King Solomon, who we will learn about later one, did this. Solomon became known as the wisest and richest king Israel ever had—he was the Elon Musk of his day.
Solomon literally wrote a book about the purpose of life, called “Ecclesiastes.” Solomon, like many people, tried a lot of different answers to the meaning of life.
Like many, he pursued money and power thinking that the comforts of wealth and the admiration of other people would satisfy him. Solomon tried to find happiness in glorifying himself. And if anyone could ever claim to have achieved ultimate glory in this life, it was Solomon.
But, as many men and women who have climbed to the top of that ladder can testify, Solomon concluded:
He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity.
Whoever said ‘money can’t buy happiness’ really knew what they were talking about. :(
-Elon Musk, Feb.
Well, Elon—if you’re watching—the one who said that is God, and it’s stated in the Bible dozens of times and in dozens of different ways.
Solomon also pursued pleasure in hopes that satisfying his urges would bring happiness. With unlimited resources at his disposal, Solomon tried to find meaning in laughter, wine, sex, work, possessions, and whatever he wanted.
And what was the result?
And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure...Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.
See, none of those things can satisfy that question of the meaning of life. Trying to answer that question with any of these things, Solomon said, is like trying to catch the wind. It’s impossible because we were created for the purpose of glorifying and loving God.
You made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless till they rest in you.
Augustine of Hippo
Are you restless this morning? Rest in God.
And at first, Adam and Eve rested in God. They found their joy in God, they lived for God’s glory, and everything was very good.
And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
But, we can look around this world and see for ourselves that it didn’t stay that way. The world is not “very good” today. There’s sickness, disease, violence, war, and evil all around us. What happened? What went wrong?
2. Man Rebelled.
2. Man Rebelled.
(pp. 4-6 of The Story)
In the beginning, everything was like it was supposed to be.
8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.
9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
They had everything they needed. God had made Adam a companion, Eve. The first marriage started off great. Adam was quite pleased with his wife, and she was pleased with him.
22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”
24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
There was no shame. Nothing wrong. Their relationship as husband and wife was in perfect harmony. Perfect intimacy.
And, their relationship with God was in perfect harmony. We find out that God apparently used to spend time with them regularly. They got to walk and talk with God himself.
8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day...
There was just one rule:
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Oh that they had listened. But, as we know, they didn’t. Satan an angelic being in the form of a serpent, comes to Adam and Eve to tempt them.
Temptation begins with questioning God’s Word.
Temptation begins with questioning God’s Word.
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
How many temptations in your life have begun with this simple question: “Did God actually say?”
This is literally the oldest trick in Satan’s book.
Temptation builds when we question God’s goodness.
Temptation builds when we question God’s goodness.
4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
The serpent tempts Eve by questioning God’s goodness—“God is holding out on you Eve! You can have the power to decide for yourself what is right and wrong.”
Eve begins to believe the lie and question God’s goodness. “Maybe God is holding out on me. Maybe there’s a better path out there that will bring more fulfillment, more joy, more pleasure.”
And what happens next is the first recorded human sin.
What is sin?
What is sin?
Sin—anything we do or fail to do that violates God’s commands.
He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
Sin is not just “big” wrongdoing, like adultery or murder. Sin is anything that we do that violates God’s commands, including:
Sins of Omission (not doing what God tells us to do)
Sins of Commission (doing what God tells us not to do)
When Adam and Eve ate of the fruit that God commanded them not to eat of, that was sin.
Why do we sin?
Why do we sin?
It may be hard for some of us to relate to the temptation Adam and Eve faced in the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. But there are some very universal lessons that we can learn in this passage about ourselves and why we sin.
Sin is idolatry—desiring lesser things.
Sin is idolatry—desiring lesser things.
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
Sin begins with desires.
14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
Satan may draw your attention to it, but Satan didn’t make you do it. You sin because you want to. Because you desire something else more than you desire God.
Sin is deception—believing a lie.
Sin is deception—believing a lie.
13 ...The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Every time we sin, we believe a lie. But, it’s our choice to allow ourselves to be deceived. God has already told us what is good, so if we’re deceived, that’s on us.
16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
Sin is rebellion—asserting our independence.
Sin is rebellion—asserting our independence.
5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
We sin because, deep down, we chafe at the idea of an almighty God telling us what to do, creating us for his own glory, and telling us to seek his Kingdom first. We want our own kingdom, thank you very much.
Well, when you reject your king and assert your independence and seek your own kingdom first, that’s called treason or rebellion.
2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me.
But what does Adam and Eve’s sin have to do with us?
All of us participate in Adam’s sin.
All of us participate in Adam’s sin.
We might be tempted to say, “Well, I didn’t eat the fruit, I didn’t sin. Why do I have to suffer and die?” Well, the truth is that we’ve all eaten of the fruit.
Adam and Eve had to walk right past the Tree of Life to get to the tree that brought death. They made a choice to reject life and choose evil. And every one of us have done the same. We have all rejected what God has given us for our good and instead chosen evil. We’re all guilty of Adam’s sin.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way...
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned...
What is the result of sin?
3. Sin Kills.
3. Sin Kills.
(p. 6 of The Story)
The moment they eat of the fruit, everything changes.
Sin brings shame.
Sin brings shame.
7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
The “knowledge of sin” they gained didn’t make them like God, it brought them shame.
Sin separates us from God.
Sin separates us from God.
8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
And then later, they’re kicked out of the Garden.
23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.
24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
And today, sin is still separating us from God. It breaks our relationship with him.
2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
Sin destroys relationships.
Sin destroys relationships.
The first thing Adam does when he’s confronted with his sin is to throw his wife under the bus. And then Eve turns around and says “the Devil made me do it.”
11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
This is where the blame game was invented. And spouses have been passing the buck for what’s wrong in their marriages ever since. And it gets worse. The perfect intimacy they enjoyed before? Gone.
16 To the woman he said...Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”
Distortion of the marriage relationship. Instead of loving leadership, the husband will tend to be sinfully domineering. (“He shall rule over you.”)
Instead of loving submission to her husband’s lead, the wife will tend to take the reins like Eve did. (“Your desire shall be for your husband...”)
These two words, desire and rule, are the same two words used in Gen. 4:7, where God says that sin desires Cain, but Cain must rule over it.
7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, and you must rule over it.”
So, just as sin desires to manipulate and overtake us, a wife will be tempted to manipulate and usurp her husband’s authority. And while we ought to ruthlessly “rule” over sin, mastering it completely, men will be tempted to try to “rule” over their wives in a harsh, and ruthless manner.
Sin destroys the harmony and intimacy of the marriage relationship.
Sin brings pain and suffering.
Sin brings pain and suffering.
16 To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children...”
The unique role that Eve and women get to play in bearing the image of God, by bringing more image bearers into the world through childbearing, is now tarnished with pain and heartache.
17 And to Adam he said, “...cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread...
And the unique way that men were created to bear the image of God, in exercising physical dominion through work, is now difficult, frustrating, and unproductive.
Sin brings death.
Sin brings death.
19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
5 Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.
Every human will one day die as a result of their sin.
And, unless their sins are forgiven, we will be eternally separated from God. God is holy and cannot be in the presence of sin. God is just and he must punish sin. If God did not banish sin from Heaven, sin would corrupt Heaven and bring all of the terrible consequences with it, and Heaven would cease to be Heaven.
So, just as God banishes Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and his presence there, those who remain in their sins—with their sins unforgiven when they die—will be eternally banished from Heaven.
8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
So, sin doesn’t just bring about physical death, but eternal death. This is the “second death,” which is called Hell or the Lake of Fire.
Now, at this point some might object that this doesn’t sound like a very “loving” God. But we need to remember that even if the story stopped here, God would still be in the right. Even if he cast every sinner into Hell, he would have done no wrong.
This story is not ours, we are not the main character, God is. God is the King, the Creator, and he Created us for the purpose of bringing Him glory. When the created fails to uphold its purpose, the Creator has every right to do with it as he sees fit. The King has the right, and duty, to punish traitors.
But, The Story doesn’t stop there. Even in the midst of God’s judgement upon sin and sinners, his mercy and grace shine through.
Not because Adam and Eve (or you and I) deserve it, not because our sins are not so bad, not because we’re good at heart, but because God is merciful and gracious. This is not a story about the goodness of man, but a story about the goodness of God.
4. A Savior will Save.
4. A Savior will Save.
(p. 6 of The Story)
The Good News of Genesis 3:15:
The Good News of Genesis 3:15:
14 The Lord God said to the serpent...15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
Enmity means hostility or conflict. God is saying that there’s going to be a war, an ongoing conflict between the offspring of the serpent (or we might say, the “spawn of Satan” or “Satan’s followers”) and the offspring of the woman.
A war between Eve’s descendents and Satan and his followers.
So, right away we realize that the woman is going to have children, or at least one child. We were expecting God to strike her down immediately, but already God is showing mercy.
But, then we also see that God isn’t just talking generically about all of Eve’s children, he has a particular child in mind—a son. It says “he (singular) shall bruise your (Satan’s) head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
A male descendent of Eve will battle Satan himself.
Now the Hebrew here is a bit challenging because it uses a figure of speech, so the ESV and the NIV translate this a little differently, but the NIV probably captures the intention of the verse a little better.
15 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.”
Satan will seriously harm the Son of Eve.
The serpent—not his offspring, but the serpent himself—is going to strike the heel of a son of Eve, implying serious damage, but damage that is less severe than what the serpent will receive. The Son of Eve, on the other hand, is going to “crush” the head of the serpent.
The Son of Eve will crush the head of Satan (the serpent).
So, one day, a male descendant of Eve is going to achieve final, decisive, absolute victory over the serpent. But, this victory will come at a cost. The snake-crusher himself will be wounded by the serpent in the process.
Spoiler alert!
Jesus is the promised snake-crusher in Genesis 3:15!
That means that all the way back in Genesis 3, The Story is already pointing to Christ. There is already a hint of the good news that is coming, of the Savior.
Jesus was born to a woman, descended from Eve in that sense, and he achieved victory over Satan through his selfless, sacrificial death on the cross.
Call up musicians
Conclusion
Conclusion
But before the snake-crusher comes, things are going to get a whole lot worse.
On Wednesday evening, we’re going to look more into the effects of sin and the downward spiral of humanity that is shown in the stories of Cain and Abel and then the Flood of Noah, but suffice it to say for now that things are going to get a whole lot worse before they get better.
Sin has been unleashed in the world, and mankind is now going to have to deal with the consequences of our rebellion.
Sometimes we lose sight of the bigger picture, of the war that we are fighting. There is a battle raging. Satan has set his sights on you because you bear the image of God. You are a reminder of the glory of God and his Kingdom. Your marriage and your family was created by God to reflect his glory and extend his rule and reign throughout his Kingdom. And Satan hates that.
So, he comes at us with every deceitful scheme he can muster. He afflicts us with suffering and pain so that we will doubt God’s goodness. He tempts us with pleasures and lesser things, anything to draw our desires away from pursuing a whole-hearted love for God. He sows discord and conflict into our marriages and into our human relationships because he wants to tarnish God’s image and distract us from the war.
If you loose sight of the war, you will not have the courage for the battles.
Don’t lose sight of the bigger Story. You are a part of something much greater than yourself. Have you found your place in God’s Story?
Reflection Questions (Adults):
Reflection Questions (Adults):
Why is understanding that 'God is the main character' important when reading Bible stories?
In what ways might you find yourself making yourself the main character in your own story?
In what ways can we reflect God’s glory in our daily lives as His image bearers?
How can recognizing God’s overarching story help you in your personal struggles with faith?
What distractions or temptations can you identify in your life that pull you away from God’s purpose?
Adam and Eve had to walk right past the Tree of Life to get to the other tree. What are some ways we reject the good gifts God has given us in favor of lesser things?
What are some ways that you see the effects of sin in your relationships with God and others?
What does the story of the Garden of Eden reveal about God’s character?
How does Genesis 3:15 point us to Jesus?
Reflection Questions (Kids):
Reflection Questions (Kids):
Who created everything in the world?
What does it mean that humans are made in God's image?
How can we show that we love and respect God in our everyday lives?
What does it mean to reflect God's glory?
What happened when Adam and Eve ate the fruit that God told them not to eat?
What does sin mean?
What are some of the consequences that happen when we sin?
Why is it important to remember that God is the main character in our story?
Who do you think is going to defeat the snake in Genesis 3:15?
