God Is
Notes
Transcript
Claim - The Creator (God) breaths life into mankind for a personal (Lord/Yahweh) and generous life and relationship with Him - mankind's duty is to enjoy and serve the Lord God.
Focus - To see the goodness of God in his provision and life for mankind and to respond in trust of his promises rather than ourselves
Function - To revel in God’s personal union with us and to work for His glory alone.
(Ello Him)
Pray
This chapter sets up - as the last did - a model or picture of life now today, it tell us who God is - and so we’ll look at different aspects of God revealed here, and see how they show us Jesus today.
God Is:
1 - Powerful and Personal
1 - Powerful and Personal
It is hard to read the fist chapter of Genesis and not see and feel the Power of God.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.
OUtside of time, unquestioned, unrestained, powerful enough to speak light into existence!
Look at the stars at night, the mountains, the raging seas,
the delicate formation and sturcture of flowers,
the detail,
God is powerful.
He created all, is the source of all.
IN fact, the bible claims that such is the incredible power and nature of creation, that when a person looks at it and thinks poroperly about it we can reach no other conclusion other than that there must be a powerful God outside of our understanding who must have created it all.
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
The word used for this powerful God in chapter 1 is ‘ĕlōhîm’.
This is the generic title for God - and it fits with his majesty and power who speaks the entire universe into existence!
But the one true God of the bible is not just powerful and beyond our comprehension.
He is not just ʾĕlōhîm. - God ,
But in this passage he is the LORD God.
This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
If chapter 1 is the big picture,
this part of chapter 2 zooms.
This is the account of the heavens and the earth - or more literally, the generations of the heavens and the earth.
The image is now of historical detail about the creation of the first people. the first generation from the soil.
And the God of chapter one is now referred to as, the LORD God.
The LORD written in capital letters in the bible is used in English whenever the original word Yahweh was used.
The name Yahweh comes from the Hebrew word for “I am.”
SO, When God would later meet Moses at the burning bush and command him to go back to Egypt and lead His enslaved people out of captivity, Moses will, ‘who should I say has sent me’.
God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: “I am has sent me to you.” ’ God also said to Moses, ‘Say to the Israelites, “The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.” ‘This is my name for ever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation.
Yahweh still carries a great sense of power - the Great I AM,
but it is also the personal, relatable name by which elohim can be know!
He is still the powerful ʾĕlōhîm, but he is also the persoanl yahweh, who reveals himself in relationship and love with mankind.
And so right through this passage you wont read just ‘God’
You’ll read LORD God.
Yahweh ʾĕlōhîm
Personal and powerful.
He is not remote or unreachable,
he is down here, with us, personal and intimate.
we have zoomed right down to an intimate garden scene..
God has come down to our level.
POWERFUL - yet personal.
So, Jesus will be no surprise to us then - the powerful God, gets personl and becomes a person.
He comes down to out level - quite literally.
The very name of Jesus emphasises this point:
She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’
The name Jesus is from the Latin form of the Greek form of Yeshua, which literally means “Yahweh saves.”
God is powerful and personal and in Jesus will save. - today we wont find God in the garden of Eden - but we find him in Jesus, the friend of sinners - a personal God who has made himself known to us, relatable and personal.
secondly God is:
2 - Life-giving and Loving
2 - Life-giving and Loving
This point isn’t really separate from God being personal - but it’s worth bringing out in detail.
Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
It is God who gives life. Mankind does not share the same sort of life that a plant, or an animal may enjoy.
We are not just alive, but we have the breath of life from God himself.
God the great potter of the clay, forms - as a craftsman forms his craft - a body form the dust of the earth.
God is involved and invested, interested in his work here.
And then he breathes life into his nostrils.
This isn’t a panicked CPR breath,
It is much more like an intimate kiss (his face to mans) God himself gives mankind his own breath of life.
It’s a word for breath here that is never used for animals - this is different - only God and his loved mankind share this life giving breath.
IN a society and culture where it is very easy to undervalue humanity, or your own worth, returning to the creation narrative reminds us who we are and how valuable we are.
Our worth is not in our ability to do things right,
get things right,
achieve or fail,
Our worth is simply in knowing it is God to whom we belong and have life.
It is Yahweh ʾĕlōhîm who gives us identity.
He loves us and each one of us enough to breath his own breath into our intimately created bodies.
Search as the world might - we will find no value or identity, or even life at all - outside of Our Lord God.
And so again, we see here. the model set up for Jesus to be the way in which we understand and know God fully.
So it is written: ‘The first man Adam became a living being’; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.
God lovingly brought life to humanity physically at creation,
And even though humanity sins against Him, in the next chapter (just as we still do today)
such is his great love that he still brings us new life in Christ Jesus, by his life giving breath - his Spirit. Yahweh Saves.
It is God who gives us life - physically and in Christ spiritually.
Why,
becasue he loves us.
That is your identity,
undeservedly loved by God, so much so that he offers you new life in Christ Jesus - forgiveness of sins and life eternal with Him our saviour, Jesus -meaning - Yahweh saves.
So, God is powerful yet personal, he is life giving and loving,
He is also:
3 - Gracious and Generous
3 - Gracious and Generous
Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground,
Now as we’ll see in a minute God is going to commission mankind to ‘work’ the land to cause it to grow and produce.
We might expect that then to be the next verse,
but far from it,
God is very gracious and generous.
but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.
So firstly God ensures there is life giving water in the ground.
then v7 he creates man...
Is this the starting point - a barren land ready to be planted and worked by man...
No God had already been overflowing in generosity for his loved people.
Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
Read these verses a few times and you get the idea!
Trees, plants, pleasing sights, food, beauty, rivers giving secure boundaries and plenty of water for growth throughout the land. Gold (the best Gold known), gems, minerals.
As we keep saying, humanity is about to ‘fall’ from their relationship with God as sin entres the world in chapter 3,
But Yahweh ʾĕlōhîm, personal and powerful, life-giving and loving, is gracious and generous.
We may live in a fallen world but it is incredible to see how by God’s common grace to all humanity, there is plenty to sustain us.
And of course God’s generosity and grace is seen fully again in Jesus.
Like Adam, We have not done anything special to deserve life or generosity
Yet we receive, forgivenss of sins,
a new life and relationship with God.
Identity and purpose now and eternally.
We revive Jesus himself as our friend and Lord.
Followers of Christ -
we are not to forget how good we have it as the saved people of Yahweh ʾĕlōhîm.
The all powerful creator has come down to us to be a personal, accessible friend in Jesus.
He has given us life out of his love, by his spirit so we are free from death and given life now in Him,
He is gracious to save when we deserved nothing and is generous in all things!
There is no better life, or way of life than with our Lord God.
To be clear - we may not prosper or avoid ilness or physical detah - but we have more!
we have a personal relationship with the all powerful.
This the identity the world is searching for, and we have it In Jesus. Generous and Graciour.
And so finally - what and how do we now live in light of all that?
4 -God is:
4 - Commanding and Caring
4 - Commanding and Caring
We often have this idea that when Jesus returns and we entre His new and eternal creation, we’ll be floating around on clouds and playing harps - and doing well, frankly not much! It’s tempting to think it might get boring!
Or that whilst we live in this life - we only work to pay the bills, but basically it’;s all pointless - we’re just waiting for Jesus to return.
But actually that was not the first intention for mankind, and it is not the eternal intention of mankind.
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
Part of God’s generosity is not to leave us with nothing to do, or no purpose.
We were created to work.
The word work is translated differently by some, but it’s root is always the same - and that is to serve.
As one commentator puts it
The Book of Genesis, Chapters 1–17 4. Keeping Both the Garden and the Commandment (2:15–17)
There is no magic in Eden. Gardens cannot look after themselves; they are not self-perpetuating. Man is placed there to dress it and keep it. The word we have translated dress is ʿāḇaḏ, the normal Hebrew verb meaning “to serve.” So again the note is sounded that man is placed in the garden as servant. He is there not to be served but to serve
In a culture where putting your rights first is key, it’s helpful to be reminded that as created beings we were created actually to serve, not to be served.
And who are we serving, well Yahweh ʾĕlōhîm of course.
Work, is not a punishment from God, although after the fall it does become a difficult toil, but it is a gift for us to be able to serve Him and manage this created world.
Work these days might range from farming, looking after your Family and household, accounting and so on - but it is a good thing to work.
Indeed even in the new creation we will work. What sort of jobs we will do I can’t really help you with - but we will enjoy our work - and our work will be of service to the Lord God.
It’s worth remembering that in our work each day, we are serving our Lord God. Work may be tainted by sin, but it is still a gift and commissioning from Him.
We can do it to honour him, so we do it dilegently, morally, lvoingly.
Work is not a waste of time, but a God serving opertunity.
So God commands us to work or serve from the first man onwards.
and v16 continues:
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 from it you will certainly die.’
First notice - mankind was ‘free’ to eat from any tree.
God is far from a cruel Lord - he gives a huge freedom to mankind.
Plenty of trees to eat from and just 1 not to - the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Why 1 restriction in a world full of freedom?
Is it just a test to set up mankind to fail?
Not really - although that is what it will turn out to be.
Rather - If you want to live and not die - trust me is the message.
I the LORD God - know what is good for you - and you do not.
We’ll think more about the 2 trees in a couple of weeks, but the trees themselevs are more symbolic than literal fruit that changes you or gives you life.
The point is simple - trust the personal, powerful loving, life giving, gracious, generous, caring and commanding God and you will live - you will have acess to life.
Decide you want to take life into your own hands, decide yourself what is best for you (eat from the 1 tree) and you will surely die.
It is extraordinary that Adam would choose his own ways over His Lord God - it’s as surprising that we still do today.
WHy would we - given who we have seen God to be!
But thankfully, Jesus will be the one man - the final Adam, who will obey perfectly the commands of God, and therefore restore HIs care for us.
All we need do is come to him.
It’s a blessing to hear of Yahweh ʾĕlōhîm’s greatness in this passage - it convicts us more of sin as we see how we have not lived for and with Him when he is so good.
And so it reminds us to cling to Jesus. - Yahweh ʾsaves.- Who gives us aceess again to this awesome Lord God.
Let’s stop kidding ourselves that we know better, or his ways are too far fetched,
let us fall back into his intimate life-giving spirit and breath - enjoying the generous and gracious Jesus, who obeys where we have not, and gives us a personal relationship again with our Lord God.
There is no better life - for there is no other life - What a Lord God we serve.
Pray