Where are you?

Where are you?

That was the question God left ringing in our ears from Genesis 3 on Sunday night. So before we get into some of the questions from the cards...Our generation is big on discussion and convictions but low on action. So I’ve enclosed the prayer of repentance and change from Sunday night. You may find it helpful to use it as you work through where you are with Jesus. 

Heavenly Father,

We praise you that you are a good and generous God

We praise you that you have made us

To enjoy you, to enjoy your world, to enjoy each other

But so often we live as if we were god

We doubt your goodness,

We toy with temptation

We are proud and foolish

We think we can hide from you

And yet you pursue us in gracious love

Thank you for Jesus' death for our sin

Please forgive us and change us

So that we would serve Jesus in everything

And impact our city for his glory

AMEN

Now to the discussion around Genesis 3.

Some people had some questions about the place and role of the serpent. It’s a little hard for us because at the end of Genesis 2 we have this wonderful picture of a paradise – man and woman walk in harmony with each other and stewarding the creation under God. Then Genesis 3:1 the serpent suddenly appears and begins to tempt and challenge this good order. As we read on in our Bibles it becomes clear that he’s the devil, satan. We need to be clear that he is not an equal rival to God. The universe is not like Star Wars with good and evil in constant struggle back and forth. It’s not like eternity hangs in the balance and it’s unclear if good or evil will win. No God is the Creator and Lord of the universe. Genesis 3:1 says the serpent is a created being, just one of the creatures ‘the Lord God made’.

So now we  ask ‘Why did God make him? What’s he doing in this paradise? Why would God allow this to happen?’. We're simply not told in Genesis 3. One idea is that the serpent was a fallen angel who challenged God (a kind of preview of the man and woman eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) and fell from heaven. This is hard to see from Genesis 3 but some people go to Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. The texts give some support to the 'fallen angel' (have a look) but the problem is that both of them explicitly speak against the cities of Babylon and Tyre. They do it in 'heavenly' language, which makes people think that it's speaking of the devil. But my problem is that you kind of have to read the fall of the devil into the text because we have a prior question about where the devil came from (not because Isaiah and Ezekiel require that) So it's difficult for us to say where and why the devil came into the garden. When we hit these tricky mind bending questions, it's important that we read carefully the following passages - Deuteronomy 29:29, Romans 11:33-36 and 1 Peter 1:17-21. They all remind us that God is bigger than us and has plans that are bigger than us. Remember it's not all about us! 

The vital thing that God wants us to know from Genesis 3 is that the serpent is 'more crafty' than the other animals. This means his words will be slippery and misleading. So the devil's game is not to run your life. John 8 tells us that his game is to seduce, tempt and mislead us with lies and the possibility of freedom and power without God. If you look at Luke 4 you'll see this is the same game he played with Jesus. He has no power over the Christian other than which we give him by believing his lies. 

Now at this point we need to be careful that we don't end up in a shriveled frightened heap trying to destroy all our thoughts and desires just in case they're from the devil! That kind of thinking leads to hermits and cults. We need to be clear that it's not having desires, longing, hopes and dreams that are wrong. It's that so often we desire, hope, long, dream for the wrong things. So instead of always being on the back foot we ask God to transform us so that our desires, dreams, hopes, and longings are all about enjoying him and serving him. How do we see that in practice - follow, copy, obey, worship Jesus. 

Now back to where we started. The question from Sunday night 'where are you?'. 

Someone helpfully asked 'how do we know that God's question wasn't in accusation and anger', instead of grace as I suggested. The answer is that when God asks the question he already knows what the man and woman have done. He doesn't ask because he doesn't know where they are. More than that, God could have decided to kick out or destroy the man and the woman without even talking to them. Their sin and guilt was clearly established. The reason he questions them is that he is continuing to pursue the relationship with them, continuing to relate to them as their God. We find this a little hard because we're so used to thinking of grace in warm fuzzy terms and judgement in harsh terms. We find it hard to think of the judgement of the curse in Genesis 3 as grace. But the fact that God speaks to them and gives hope in Genesis 3:15 is his grace. We see in v21 he makes garments for them - he continues to provide for them. Then in vs22-24 he stops them from eating from the tree of life. I'd always kind of thought that this was God protecting his patch. But again it is grace. Imagine if man and woman had also eaten from the tree of life and lived forever with their knowledge of good and evil. Imagine living forever as we are now - fallen, struggling, sinful, frustrated etc. God is gracious to keep us from that and then send his Son Jesus to bring us into eternal life with him. 

James