Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army 26 Feb 2012
By Captain Michael Ramsay
Creator.
Genesis 1: The first chapter of Genesis reads like a love story of sorts or like a wonderful little children’s book. It shows a loving God who carefully prepares an environment for his newborn creatures just as a mother bird carefully lines her nest in anticipation of the advent of her little ones. Let us read this story (to view it in picture book format click HERE): [1]
It was the first day and God the Father made a wonderful room for His creation and it was good. On day one, He made in this room, light and He made the darkness; He made the day and He made the night.
And then it was morning. So God the Father, on the second day, made another wonderful room for His creation. On day two, He made this room, separating the waters. He made the sky and then it was evening.
And then it was morning. So God the Father, on the third day, made another wonderful room for His creation. On day three, He made this room, gathering the waters. He formed the land, and placed trees and vegetation upon the land and then it was evening.
And then it was morning. And God had finished making His rooms so He now gave life to His creation and He placed them each in their own room that was especially made for them. God the Father, on the fourth day created the stars, and the moon, and the sun and He placed them in the room that He had lovingly prepared for them – the room of light and of darkness and then it was evening.
And then it was morning. God the Father, on the fifth day created the sea creatures, and every bird, and winged creature and He placed them in the room that He had lovingly prepared for them – the room of the separated waters and of the sky and then it was evening.
And then it was morning. God the Father, on the sixth day created the land creatures, and every animal that walks upon the ground, and God created humankind in His own image and He placed them in the room that He had lovingly prepared for them – the room in which He had gathered the waters, made the land, and planted the vegetation and then it was evening.
And then it was morning. God the father, on the seventh day, He rested from His work. The rooms were finished. Creation was finished and it was good. God blessed the day, making it holy and then He rested. That is Genesis 1 (cf. also Psalm 33:6, Psalm 93; Isaiah 45:12; John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:15-17; Hebrews 11:3).[2]
Genesis 2 is thought by some to be a separate creation account.[3] At the very least, it expounds upon this creation story a little more, specifically relating to the role and responsibilities of humanity.[4] Picture this with me if you will. God has made for His children this wonderful garden to take care of and to watch grow. He has made them this beautiful land out of nothing.
Do you know what this reminds me of? Hank (maybe with some help of some others, I don’t know) made this beautiful little garden by the Sunday entrance to the corps here. You can see it again in the summertime. He and Ray and others faithfully tend to it each year as it grows into a great blessing for all who come here during growing season. It always amazes me that this wonderful garden now blooms in season where there once was nothing. Hank created it out of an area of concrete and gravel – basically out of nothing and Hank and Ray on summer days take great pleasure in tending to it by even doing simple things such as Ray ensuring the water is just the right temperature for watering the plants. This reminds me – like a real life parable or object lesson - of God’s creation.
Governor.
When God made this wonderful garden out of even less than gravel and concrete, out of nothing at all for Adam and Eve to tend to, He – as the governor of all things – just asked something very simple in return. God made the world for His people and He just told them to take care of it and obey Him in two or three simple ways.
- Genesis 1:28a: “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it…”
- Genesis 1:28b: “Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’”
- Genesis 2:16-17: “And the LORD God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.’”
God says 1) populate the earth, 2) take care of everything in it and 3) in doing this I’ll let you eat anything you want in the garden – but just not the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it’s not safe. I’m saving that for something.
.
.
This is like if you, as parents, are going out for the first time on a Saturday night leaving your older children to baby-sit their younger sibling all on their own. “Be good and take care of the house”, you say. “I want you to unload the dishwasher and you can have whatever treats you want before bed but just don’t touch the cupcakes; they’re for church on Sunday, so don’t eat the cupcakes or there will be real trouble.” Then you come home, very pleased with your children that they are now old enough to be left alone, you look in the kitchen for something to eat and you notice that where the cupcakes should be… they are gone. The disappointment, the sadness and anger must be a reflection of the disappointment God felt when He came back to the garden and saw that – even though there was only one fruit that He was saving – He came back and it was gone. As parents, of course, if our children ate the cupcakes we would realize that they are not quite ready for the responsibility of being left alone at home and so we would wait awhile before we would trust them to take care of the house again. The children would certainly have a time-out from that responsibility. It was the same with God. He wasn’t about to leave his children in the garden by themselves when they betrayed His trust, letting Him down in exactly the same way. Adam and Eve couldn’t be trusted to take care of the garden. Adam and Eve couldn’t be trusted. Humankind couldn’t be trusted. That responsibility was thus removed from us until we are more able to handle it (Genesis 3).[5]
There is more still to this story in Genesis 1-4 of God as governor. We mentioned how well humanity did in keeping God’s third command to abstain from eating the one forbidden fruit in the garden. How did we do with the first two of His commands? God told us to, Genesis 1:28 ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it…’ After we messed up by eating his fruit, how did we do with scattering and filling the whole earth?[6] Let’s take a look at Genesis 11 and the story of the tower of Babel, shall we?[7] Genesis 11:1-3:
Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, ‘Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.’ They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and NOT be scattered over the face of the whole earth.’
Here we are just a couple of chapters and a few generations later and if we haven’t messed things up enough by eating God’s fruit that He was saving; now, He has told us to go and fill the whole earth and we say, “Thanks anyway God, but I think we’ll just stay here and make a name for ourselves instead of going and filling the whole earth like You said.” How well do you think that goes over?[8]
That’s like telling your children to get their boots on because its time to go to school, then heading out to warm up and scrape off the car and upon coming back into the house, seeing them all still just sitting around in their pyjamas. And when questioned they answer you, “we decided not to go to school today.” How’s dad going to react? How’s dad going to feel? Our earthy fathers are going to - in maybe not their most gentle, inside voices – tell their children to get ready right now! Dad is not happy. The children are going to school whether they like it or not! The children are none the better off for this little stunt because a loving father is still going to send his children to school because he cares what is best for them. And a generation and a Supreme Court ruling or two ago, they might just have had a sore backside to show for their disobedience as well. The children’s stunt didn’t help their cause at all because they still have to go to school, just maybe now they are a little less happy about it then they would have been if they had done what they were asked to do in the first place.
It is the same with God, the governor of all things, and humankind’s decision to disobey His command to fill the whole earth.[9] We still had to do what we were told – scatter over the whole earth – but now we just have something extra to remind us about it. Genesis 11:8-9: “So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel—because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.”
The Lord is the governor of all things. You would think that humanity would have learned this by now after blatantly defying God in breaking the first and the third rule of His government but no. We still hadn’t completely learned our lesson and later in the Pentateuch is recorded the penalty His people experience for breaking the second governing rule: Genesis 1:28b: “Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’” Now we must note first that, as The Salvation Army Canada’s Position Statement articulates, “God’s instruction to ‘subdue’ the earth and ‘rule’ over every living thing (Genesis 1:28) cannot be interpreted to justify abuse or disregard for any life, not only human life. The privileges granted require our accountability to Him and one another.”[10]
Leviticus 25 records that we are directed that the land itself shall enjoy its Sabbath rest (Leviticus 25:2, 26:34,35) just as man was commanded to (Exodus 20: 8-11, Deuteronomy 5:15), and just as God did (Exodus 20:11, Genesis 2:3). If we, as ‘tenants’ of God’s land (Leviticus 25:23), fail in our responsibility to carry out this duty to take care of the land, then the owner of the land -who cares about His land- may remove us from it, like He did with Adam and Eve.[11]
This is exactly, according the scriptures, what happened to Israel as well. God removed Israel from the Promised Land as it neglected its responsibilities to take care of that land. 2 Chronicles 36:20-21: “He carried into exile to Babylon the remnant, who escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia came to power. The land enjoyed its Sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfilment of the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah.”
God, as the governor of all things, gave us just three rules of His government in Genesis Chapters 1 and 2 and before the conclusion of the books of Moses, it was apparent that we would disobey them all and presumably break God’s heart in the process (cf. Job 34:14-15; Psalm 65:9-13, 104:24-30; Isaiah 65:17-25; John 19:11; Romans 8:18-25; Colossians 1:17; Revelation 21:1-4).[12] And this brings us to the third attribute of God we are looking at in our passage today: God as preserver.
Preserver:
God is the preserver of all things. Job 12:10 records that, “In His hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.” Job 27:3 refers to the life within us as “the breath of God in my nostrils.” Job 33:4: “The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” And Psalm 104:29 warns us that “When You [God] hide Your face, they are terrified; when You take away their breath, they die and return to the dust.” God is the preserver of all life. If He were to withdraw His spirit from us, we would perish (cf. also Job 32:8, 34:14; Psalm 33:6; Ecclesiastes 3:19).[13]
Back to Genesis 1-4: We know the story of the Fall, of course, which we touched on briefly earlier, when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit and were removed from Eden. Even when Adam and Eve disobeyed God so that they deserved even death, God provided for them. As He led them to their new life beyond the garden it records in Genesis 3:21 that, “The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” He preserved their life and He provided for them, even as they suffered the consequence of their sin.
He then extends that same grace to their children, preserving the life of Adam and Eve’s eldest son, who murdered his own brother in cold blood (Genesis 4). We remember that story, don’t we? Here we have two siblings with more than a little bit of sibling rivalry: some kids just don’t stop fighting. I don’t know if any parents or children here can identify with that at all. Here we have two brothers fighting for the attention of their Heavenly Father. One gets so upset that his offering isn’t as pleasing as his brothers that he actually kills him and then denies that he knows anything about his brother’s disappearance. God calls Cain on it and as a consequence -like his parents before him and like Israel after him- God removes Cain from the land. He removes him from the ground where his brother, Abel, was killed (Genesis 4:11,12). But even in this, where Cain has killed his own brother and tried to deceive God about it, though there are grave consequences for his actions, God has mercy on his soul and preserves his life. Genesis 4:15, “But the LORD said to him, ‘… if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over.’ Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.” Like with his parents before him and Israel after him, the Lord preserved Cain. He still suffered the natural and logical consequences of his rebellion, because God loves him too much not to rebuke him but God preserved Cain.
Psalm 104:29, again reminds us that God is the preserver of all life. If He were to withdraw His Spirit from us, we all would perish. But John 3:16-17 tells us that God loves the world so much that He sent His only begotten Son so that whosoever of us believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life for God sent His son into the world not to condemn the world but to save it.
And this brings us to our very lives here today for, when all is said and done, “there is only one God, who is infinitely perfect, the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of all things, and who is the only proper object of religious worship” (TSA doc. 2). And this God of the universe and beyond loves us, you and I so much that He has provided “the privilege [for] all believers to be wholly sanctified, and that their whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (TSA doc. 10). The LORD created us, He governs us and He loves us and he has provided for us so that we all may be even preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us pray.
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[1] To see this in picture book form click here: http://www.sheepspeak.com/Room_for_Creation_Web_Ramsay.pdf For more story books by Michael Ramsay (and other writings) click here: http://www.sheepspeak.com./Michael_Ramsays_opinion.htm
[2] Cf. The Salvation Army, Salvation Story: Salvationist Handbook of Doctrine, (The Salvation Army: London: 1998), pp. 27-28.
[3] Cf. Derek Kidner, Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, Il.: InterVarsity Press, 1967 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 1), S. 58
[4] Captain Michael Ramsay, Reading Report on Charles Darwin, "Recapitulation and Conclusion" [The Origin of the Species, Akron, Ohio: Werner, 1872), chapter 15, pp. 267-306]. Presented to William and Catherine Booth College (February, 2009). Available on-line: http://www.sheepspeak.com/Michael_Ramsay_History_TSA.htm#Darwin
[5] Cf. Alan Hausser, “Genesis 2-3: the Theme and Intimacy and Alienation,” in Art and Meaning: Rhetoric in Biblical Literature, ed. David J.A. Clines, David M. Gunn and Alan Hauser. (Sheffield, England: Department of Biblical Studies, The University of Sheffield, 1982).
[6] Cf. Josephus, Antiquities I.iv.1. Cited from Terence E. Fretheim, The Book of Genesis, (NIB I: Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1994), p. 412.
[7] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, ‘Genesis 11:1-12:4: A Very Moving Covenant’, Journal of Aggressive Christianity, Issue 70, December 2010 – January 2011, pp. 32-35. Available on-line: http://www.armybarmy.com/pdf/JAC_Issue_070.pdf
[8] Cf. Terence E. Fretheim, The Book of Genesis, (NIB I: Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1994), p. 412 where he argues that the primary sin here is the unwillingness to move and the‘making a name for themselves’ is secondary.
[9] Cf. Walter Brueggemann, Interpretation: Genesis,(John Knox Press: Atlanta, Georgia), 1982, pp.97-104 and Michael K. Chung , ‘The Narrative of the Tower of Babel in Dialogue with Postmodern Christianity’, Presented to Fuller Theological Seminary (Fall 2005), p. 7.
[10] The Salvation Army Ethics Centre, ‘Responsibility for the Earth’ (December 11, 2011), The Salvation Army, Canada and Bermuda 2009, Available on-line: http://www.salvationarmyethics.org/position-statements/responsibility-for-the-earth-2/
[11]Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, Leviticus 25 1-23 in the Context of the Holiness Code: The Land Shall Observe a Sabbath, presented to William and Catherine Booth College (Fall 2006), available on-line at http://www.sheepspeak.com/OT_Michael_Ramsay.htm - Leviticus 25 1-23
[12] Cf. The Salvation Army, Salvation Story: Salvationist Handbook of Doctrine, (The Salvation Army: London: 1998), pp. 27-28.
[13] Andreas Schuele, 'The Spirit of YHWH and the Aura of Divine Presence', in Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology vol. 66 no. 1, (January 2012) pp. 16-28; cf. also Debra Reagan, ed. Creation Groaning issue of Interpretation: a Journal of Bible and Theology 65 no.4 (October 2011).
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