KTC-Covenant with Creation (Genesis 1-3)

Kingdom Through Covenant  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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Introduction/Review

As we get started tonight, lets review some key points that we discussed last week...
The story of the Bible is about God as King establishing his kingdom on earth through redeeming a people for himself and for his glory.
God’s Kingdom is His possession, rule, and reign over the entire universe.
The big story of the Bible is our puzzle box to help us understand how all the pieces of the individual bible stories fit together.
God has chosen to establish his kingdom through the covenants that he has made with his people.
A covenant is a long lasting agreement between two parties with the desire for a relationship that is founded on the aspects of faithfulness and loyal love.
Every covenant is ultimately fulfilled in and points to the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Tonight we will talk about the first covenant that God made with creation. As we talked about last week, to understand the Bible rightly, we need to grasp the text in the original audience’s town…so who were they and what was their town like?

Show me the Context!

Author: Moses
Audience: the people of Israel
Background: The book of Genesis was written right before Israel was about to enter the promise land after their exodus from Egypt.
Purpose: To help the people of Israel to know how everything began and how God had made a covenant with his people. They were going into the land of Canaan and needed to be reminded of how to rule over all the earth as people made in God’s image.
Literary Context: For the last five days, God has been creating the universe through his spoken word. After creating light and darkness, the sky, day and night, the land and the seas, and the birds and sea creatures, he turns his attention on day six to create the creatures of the earth. Specifically, he creates the pinnacle of his creation, mankind who is made in his image.

The Making of the Covenant: Sons, Servant Kings (Genesis 1:26-28)

There are four things we need to see in God making a covenant with mankind.
God has made mankind in His own image and according to His likeness.
Mankind encompasses both male and female.
Being made in God’s image means we are God’s sons and servant kings.
The goal of the covenant is rest and peace with God and creation.
Now, let us read the text and explain each one of these points.
Genesis 1:26-28 “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.” So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female. God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.”

1. God has made mankind in His own image and according to his likeness

God is the one who has initiated the covenant with his people in freely choosing to create mankind.
God’s creation of man is special and distinct from the way he made the rest of creation.
We see God’s triune nature in creating mankind with the reference to the plural word “us.”

2. Mankind is made up of both Male and Female

In verse 27, we read that “man” refers to “them” and “male and female.”
This means that both man and woman are both equal in God’s sight and both made in his image.
Verse 27 shows us three truths about gender...
God created gender and that gender distinctions are apart of His good creation.
God created male and female different and the differences men and women have are apart of His good creation.
Without gender differences, the command to multiply and fill the earth would be impossible.

3. Being made in God’s image means we are God’s Sons and Servant Kings

The focus of the covenant relationship between God and man is centered around God making man in his own image and according to his likeness. But what does it man to be made in the image of God?
For us to understand what this text means, we must know what these words meant to the Israelites in their “town.”
Time of writing: Ancient Near East (ANE)-around 2,000 BC
In the ANE, image always refers to a physical statue or idol of either the king in the land or one of the Egyptian gods.
So, image would represent the rulership of the king as being the god’s ruler in that land.
Image of God in the ANE would communicate two main things: sonship and rulership. The King has a relationship to the god as his son and a relationship to the world as a ruler for the god. “image” does not communicate physical appearance but rather the behavior and character of the king reflects the behavior and character of the god.
Give example of the statue of Nebuchadnezzar
All of these aspects are understood in a covenant relationship.
So, being made in God’s image, according to God’s likeness means that mankind was created by God to have a covenant relationship through sonship, and to rule and establish his reign by representing his image over the earth as his servant-kings.
We see examples of the meaning of these words elsewhere in Genesis 5:3 where Seth was made in the “likeness” of Adam, since Seth was Adam’s son.
Psalm 8:5-8 also describes the result of being made in God’s image as man is described as being made a little less than God and his crowned with glory and honor. The psalmist says that man was made to rule over all the works of God’s hands, being his servant king to creation.
The rest of verse 26 tells us the reason God made mankind in his image (see the phrase “so that”) so that mankind would rule over all of the creation as God’s image bearers and servant-kings.
Genesis 1:26 shows that there is a divine and human relationship with a vertical and horizontal dimension. The vertical dimension defines mankind’s covenant relationship with God, because He has made man his sons through being made according to his likeness. The horizontal dimension defines mankind’s covenant relationship with creation as being creation’s servant-kings who represent God being made in his image.

4. The Goal of the Covenant is rest and peace with God and creation.

The goal of the covenant God made with man was rest which can be seen from Genesis 2:1-3. If mankind was in right relationship with God as his son, if mankind worshipped God rightly, then mankind would be able to fulfill his covenant with creation to be God’s servant king and represent his glory being made in his image.
After seeing how the covenant was made, let us now look at the conditions of the covenant in Genesis 2:8, 16-17.

The Conditions of the Covenant (Genesis 2:8, 16-17)

There is really one condition to the covenant between God and mankind.
As God’s sons, mankind must maintain loyal love, faithfulness and right worship.
We see this in Genesis 2:8 where God places Adam in the garden.
The garden represents God’s dwelling place and divine sanctuary. Therefore Adam is also seen as a king priest.
Through being in right relationship with God, mankind will be able to represent God’s image and rule over the earth.
The consequence of breaking this covenant is death.
We see this in Genesis 2:16-17 “And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”
God said mankind could eat of any tree of the garden except the knowledge of good and evil. Mankind would demonstrate their love for God and trust in his word by obeying his command to not eat the fruit from this tree.
So the conditions of the covenant were pretty simple, mankind was called to love and trust their good creator and establish his rule over the earth. They could enjoy the fruit from any tree of the garden (which all were good for food and delightful to the eyes (Genesis 2:9) except for one tree. Did mankind keep his covenant? As we all know, unfortunately this was not the case, as we learn in chapter 3 of the breaking of the covenant through man’s rebellion.

The Breaking of the Covenant: Man’s Rebellion (Genesis 3:1-13)

How did this happen? How did mankind turn away from the God who created them for a perfect and loving relationship with him to rule as kings over the earth?
Mankind doubted and changed God’s word.
Genesis 3:1-3 “Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’ ”
Mankind doubted and forgot their identity.
Genesis 3:4-6 ““No! You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”
The results of their disobedience were guilt, fear, shame, and death.
Genesis 3:7-10 “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew 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 walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.””
Man went from being in a perfect relationship with God as his sons and servant kings to being ashamed of the way God made them, afraid of their good creator, and becoming spiritually dead and separated from their Creator. Yet, praise God this is not how the story ends...

The Fulfillment of the Covenant: Promise of Redemption (Genesis 3:15)

After both Adam and Eve make excuses and blame one another and God for their rebellion, God provides a word of hope in Genesis 3:15.
Genesis 3:15 “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”
There are three things we learn from this promise:
There will be hatred and fighting between the serpent’s offspring and the woman’s offspring.
The serpent’s offspring will do everything they can to destroy the seed of the woman, but will never be able to, only being able to strike his heel.
examples of Cain killing Able-but Seth is born, The famine in Israel-but Joseph delivers them, Pharoah killing all the sons-but God deliver Moses who then delivered Israel, and so on…
The seed (which is singular) from the woman’s offspring will eventually come and crush the head of the serpent. This is fulfilled through the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Jesus was the perfect obedient Son and Servant King (Hebrews 2:5-9; 1 Peter 2:21-22).
Jesus also took the curse for us of breaking the covenant by becoming a curse himself (Galatians 3:13).

Application: How can we fulfill this covenant today?

We must first, be in right relationship with God, and be his perfect obedient sons.
Once we are in right relationship with God, we must exhibit his image, rule, and reign on the earth in governing and caring for creation.
What does this look like?
Love and respect all people since all people are made in God’s image.
Value human life and God’s good creation order.
Seek to imitate God and his character in all that we do.
Take care of God’s good creation.
The Story so far: God created a kingdom, and he is the King, but he made human beings to represent him in that kingdom. Adam and Eve rejected this call, which led to sin and death. But God promised to defeat the Serpent through the seed of the woman.
Next Week: The covenant with Noah (Genesis 6-9).
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