What Does God Want?-Wk 2
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1 Now the serpent was more shrewd than any of the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Is it really true that God said, ‘You must not eat from any tree of the orchard’?”
What Does God Want-Wk 2
In the last chapter the made the point that “God equipped people to image him on earth. He did that by sharing his attributes (his qualities and abilities) with them.”
Dr Heiser goes on to say
“ As wonderful as that was (and is), it’s where things get interesting—and scary. One of God’s qualities is freedom—what we often call free will. If you’ve ever wondered why there’s evil in the world, here’s the Bible’s answer.”
Heiser, Michael S.. What Does God Want? (p. 13). Blind Spot Press. Kindle Edition.
The Question is a common one for those who are exploring faith. In a lot of religious traditions the blame for this get placed squarely on the shoulders of the Divine Being that we call Satan and while there is a Elohim in the Garden of Eden who rebels against his creator and is determined to destroy the new humans, this event is just the beginning and without an understanding of the Rebellions we miss the entire overarching narrative that is the foundation of the Biblical story.
WHEN GOD MADE HUMANITY AND SHARED HIS ATTRIBUTES HE KNEW WHAT THAT MEANT
This decision was not only made for us but also for his heavenly family as well.
REBELLION 1
The potential for one of his children to rebel and sin was present, while we are like him, we are not him, so the mis-use and abuse of our power of choice has always been present and at some point one of his children was likely to make a horrible decision.
We see the first of these in our story occur in Gen 3
Let’s discuss our thoughts around the Garden of Eden story and what we’ve been told about this event.
Who rebelled first?
Who understood the consequences?
“One of God’s supernatural children decided to dishonor God’s decision to have a human family by tempting Eve, hoping God would destroy her and Adam. He came to Eve in the form of a serpent (Gen 3:1-7). The Bible refers to the serpent as Satan and the Devil (Rev 12:9). He succeeded in getting Eve to sin, but failed when it came to getting rid of humanity permanently.”
Heiser, Michael S.. What Does God Want? (p. 14). Blind Spot Press. Kindle Edition.
WHY DOES EVIL EXISIT IN THE WORLD?
“Evil exists in the world because God decided he wanted to create beings like himself.
I don’t mean that God has an evil side. Rather, I mean that God rejected the idea of creating humans as robots or pre-programmed computers made of flesh.”
Heiser, Michael S.. What Does God Want? (p. 14). Blind Spot Press. Kindle Edition.
IN ORDER FOR US TO BE LIKE GOD, WE NEEDED FREE WILL.
Any love expressed as a child is not authentic if it is pre-programmed.
So, Evil enters into and is propagated in the World when God’s children use the powerful gift of Free Will for Self-gratification, the abuse of other imagers, revenge and the promote the Mirage of Autonomy.
GOD FOREKNOWS THIS WILL OCCUR....HOWEVER HE DID NOT PREDESTINE THIS TO OCCUR.
This is a very important distinction and one that we will address later, but for now we need to know that
“The Bible makes it clear that God saw what was coming and had a plan of forgiveness and salvation in place before the rebellion even happened—from “the foundation of the world” to be precise (Eph 1:4; Heb 9:26-10:7; 1 Pet 1:20). The plan of salvation would ultimately require God becoming a man. We’ll get to that part of the story soon enough.”
Heiser, Michael S.. What Does God Want? (p. 15). Blind Spot Press. Kindle Edition.
RESULTS OF REBELLION 1
Adam and Eve get expelled from the Garden of God and the effects of their sin extend from themselves to all creation, that present and that which is to come.
The Divine being responsible for the treachery in the Garden is cursed as well and bound to the Earth as the Ruler or Lord of the realm of the Dead (what later becomes know as Hell). A present and future judgement was placed upon him.
WHY NOT SCRAP IT ALL?
To do that he would have to scrap us. Every one of us. Because we all sin. We are all born with sin present in our DNA.
10 just as it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one,
11 there is no one who understands,
there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away,
together they have become worthless;
there is no one who shows kindness, not even one.”
“All this boils down to an amazing truth: While God knew what making us like him would lead to, the result was preferable to not having a human family at all.”
Heiser, Michael S.. What Does God Want? (p. 16). Blind Spot Press. Kindle Edition.
THE JUDGEMENT WAS PUBLIC AND STRONG
12 Look how you have fallen from the sky,
O shining one, son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to the ground,
O conqueror of the nations!
13 You said to yourself,
“I will climb up to the sky.
Above the stars of El
I will set up my throne.
I will rule on the mountain of assembly
on the remote slopes of Zaphon.
14 I will climb up to the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High!”
15 But you were brought down to Sheol,
to the remote slopes of the pit.
16 In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned;
so I defiled you and banished you from the mountain of God—
the guardian cherub expelled you from the midst of the stones of fire.
REBELLION #2
1 When humankind began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of humankind were beautiful. Thus they took wives for themselves from any they chose. 3 So the Lord said, “My spirit will not remain in humankind indefinitely, since they are mortal. They will remain for 120 more years.”
4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days (and also after this) when the sons of God were having sexual relations with the daughters of humankind, who gave birth to their children. They were the mighty heroes of old, the famous men.
4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but threw them into hell and locked them up in chains in utter darkness, to be kept until the judgment,
6 You also know that the angels who did not keep within their proper domain but abandoned their own place of residence, he has kept in eternal chains in utter darkness, locked up for the judgment of the great Day.
Divine Sons of God make the decision to pro-create their OWN children which made them RIVALS of God their Father.
Rather than have humans as a part of the family, they wanted to have their own bloodline which would serve their desires and plans.
These Fallen Sons of God were judge harshly for their rebellion however the damage to humanity was utter and nearly complete.
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 The Lord regretted that he had made humankind on the earth, and he was highly offended.
THE FLOOD- STARTING OVER WITH A MAN NAMED NOAH
The damage to humanity was so far reaching that the only way to save humanity was to start over.
“Only one man was said to be righteous in God’s eyes—Noah (Gen 6:9).”
Heiser, Michael S.. What Does God Want? (p. 18). Blind Spot Press. Kindle Edition.
AFTER THE FLOOD
“After the flood God repeated the original commands he had given to Adam and Eve (“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth”; Gen 9:1). God was starting over with them. He made a covenant with Noah that extended to all humankind (Gen 9:8-17). A covenant is a promise or pledge. This covenant was one-sided; it was all about God’s promise to never destroy humanity (Gen 9:11). Amazingly, God still wanted a human family. Not as amazing—but still pretty incredible—the abuse of God’s goodness would continue. A third rebellion followed the flood. This one would frame the rest of the biblical story, and show, again, God’s unconquerable patience and love.”:
Heiser, Michael S.. What Does God Want? (p. 18). Blind Spot Press. Kindle Edition.
REBELLION #3
The Tower of Babel
You may have heard this story before, but very few actually understand what occured here.
The judgements that happened here sets the stage for the entire Gospel Story.
The World View of the Bible and of Jesus can only be understood if you understand what happened here.
1 The whole earth had a common language and a common vocabulary.2 When the people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. 3 Then they said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” (They had brick instead of stone and tar instead of mortar.)4 Then they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves. Otherwise we will be scattered across the face of the entire earth.”
5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the people had started building. 6 And the Lord said, “If as one people all sharing a common language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be beyond them.7 Come, let’s go down and confuse their language so they won’t be able to understand each other.”
8 So the Lord scattered them from there across the face of the entire earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why its name was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the entire world, and from there the Lord scattered them across the face of the entire earth.
8 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,
when he divided mankind,
he fixed the borders of the peoples
according to the number of the sons of God.
9 But the Lord’s portion is his people,
Jacob his allotted heritage.
Enter Abraham Stage Right
Abraham
Obeys God
Believes God
Receives the Promises and Covenant of God
Demonstrates Loyalty to God by receiving the Sign of the Covenant and making sure every Man in his household did the same.
“Belief and loyalty are two distinct things. They are related but not interchangeable. The same is true of salvation and discipleship.”
Heiser, Michael S.. What Does God Want? (p. 21). Blind Spot Press. Kindle Edition.
Abraham is promised a Son, a seed and through this son ALL THE NATIONS of the Earth would be Blessed.
Gen 12:1-9
Gen 15:1-6
Gen 18:1-15
15 The Lord’s angel called to Abraham a second time from heaven 16 and said, “ ‘I solemnly swear by my own name,’ decrees the Lord, ‘that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will indeed bless you, and I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be as countless as the stars in the sky or the grains of sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the strongholds of their enemies. 18 Because you have obeyed me, all the nations of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another using the name of your descendants.’ ”
16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his descendant. Scripture does not say, “and to the descendants,” referring to many, but “and to your descendant,” referring to one, who is Christ. 17 What I am saying is this: The law that came four hundred thirty years later does not cancel a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to invalidate the promise. 18 For if the inheritance is based on the law, it is no longer based on the promise, but God graciously gave it to Abraham through the promise.
26 For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith.27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female—for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to the promise.