How the Mighty Have Fallen

When we were children, I’m sure we all heard the nursery rhyme that goes like this: Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall Humpty Dumpty had a great fall All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again. It’s a quaint little nursery rhyme. I did a little research on this seemingly innocuous rhyme and its history is a bit more sinister than it looks at first. Some scholars believe that the rhyme is simply a riddle. It was told to amuse children into guessing what Humpty must be in order not to be put together again. Of course, we know from popular depictions that the answer is an egg, right?

But nowhere in the poem does it say that. We just assumed that. Perhaps there is another meaning behind the poem, whose origins are rather quite obscure. Some in England believe that Humpty Dumpty was the name of a cannon, one of those big guns that are used in war. According to this theory, the cannon was placed on a city wall during a battle in the English Civil War. But the opposing army aimed their cannons not at the gun itself or the soldiers firing it but at the wall holding it up. When the wall fell, down came the cannon. And all the king’s horses and all the king’s men could not set up the cannon again—at least in time to be effective for the battle.

But another theory is even more sinister—and sad. Other scholars think that the character of Humpty Dumpty is based on a figure of English history, one of England’s kings, Richard III. If you know anything about English history, you’ll know that Richard the III was not considered a good king. And often he is depicted as a hunchback with one shoulder higher than the other. More than that, he rose to power ruthlessly as depicted in Shakespeare’s play bearing his name. And then he died at the Battle of Bosworth field. His naked body was taken and displayed at a local church and then was buried hastily in a grave. For hundreds of years he was forgotten, a blip on the radar and a tragic figure from history. That is until some work was being done in a parking lot in Leicester, England when they discovered Richard’s body—where people had been driving and parking their cars for ages. Oh how the mighty have fallen. Who was once a king was now buried under rubble and asphalt, a target of mockery. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Richard together again...

The Story of Us

There is something about us humans that loves a good story. I bet some of you were riveted as I told briefly of Richard’s rise and fall from grace. I know many of you are engaged by things like history books and documentaries. I am too. It’s fascinating to explore how big names have handled things like war and governing. And sometimes, it’s even satisfying when the big bad leader has a great fall.

But there are some stories we are more uncomfortable with, right? We’re much more delicate when we narrate our own stories to people. We don’t tell of all the rough spots in our lives. Just look at social media -- when people post stuff it’s to make themselves come out in a positive light. They look like they have everything all together. They post travel pictures, family pictures, and all the good things in their life—conveniently leaving out all the bad stuff that would tarnish their social media reputations.

This is a tendency of humans, isn’t it? To make ourselves look good. To make a name for ourselves. To put our best foot forward.

This is part of our problem as humans, right? If we were to take a moment and be brutally honest, none of us has it all together. Even the most powerful and successful of us have things about ourselves that we would change. It might not be things we readily see, it might be something deep down inside of ourselves buried deep in our soul, but there are things we are not proud of. Thoughts from which we cannot hide. Regrets that tug at us.

For us Christians, we have a belief that the world is not as it is supposed to be, and that we are working together with God to make it right. These stirrings deep within us are in part the Holy Spirit tugging us toward the right path, leading us to repentance and healing. But why are we so broken in the first place? How did we get there? Why do humans have so much power in the world and yet use it so unwisely, so prodigally, so harmfully?

The Fall

In Christian and Jewish teaching, the answer goes something like this: In the beginning, Yahweh God created the heavens and the earth. God created everything according to God’s own plan and purpose. And all was good. Then as the crown of creation, God created human beings to inhabit the world that God created. These humans were the very image of God. Like a living statue inhabiting the Temple that was the earth, these humans would act like living idols, mediating God’s presence throughout the world.

And like any Temple, there is a Holy of Holies, the inner sanctum in which the image of the God lives. And in Genesis 2, we see such a place. The Garden of Eden was originally a beautiful living Holy of Holies where humans and God would meet. Outside of Eden things were still wild and untamed. But inside, the Garden was something like what we would call a park. When the Jewish people translated their Hebrew Bible into Greek near the time of Jesus they didn’t translate the Hebrew word for Garden “gan” as “Garden” in Greek but rather used the term “Paradise” which is a word taken from the Persian language to describe a gorgeous palatial park found in the king’s estates and used exclusively by the king. And what is the function of the Holy of Holies? That’s right, it is the place where God lives. Amazingly, it is the place that Adam and Eve live as well.

And Adam and Eve are given two tasks together: they are to keep this place and they are to guard it. The first word simply means to tend the land, much like a gardener or a farmer, though I think gardener is more accurate. But think about that second word—the Hebrew word is Shamar. It means to guard, much like you would guard the palace of a king against intruders.

But hang on…if things were perfect, why would there need to be a guard? What kinds of things could be trouble in paradise?

And this is where our traditions have sometimes let us down. We assume a few things and then we base our theology on those assumptions. For instance, we assume that Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 are telling exactly the same story. We assume that when humans are created on day six of the creation story that that refers to Adam and Eve. But nowhere are the people named there. Nowhere does it say that two people were created in Genesis 1.

So then in Genesis 2 we get the story of Adam and Eve and the Garden. Adam and Eve sin, they get thrown out of paradise and then they have some children right? But then the son, Cain kills Abel and then he’s sent into exile and eventually marries and founds a city named Enoch after his son.

But where did Cain’s wife come from? Many well-meaning Christians believe that Cain must have married his sister, one that the Bible doesn’t mention. And I guess that’s possible. But it’s actually rather unlikely because the Bible again and again speaks against that type of incest. And if that happened, why build a city for just him and his sister? That doesn’t make sense to me at all.

What is more likely is that Cain met one of the many people that were outside the walls of Eden, those created on the sixth day when God created humanity.

But whatever answer we come up with regarding Cain’s wife, we cannot but pause and see that Adam and Eve have failed at their task of tending and guarding the Garden of Eden. Why? Because they let in the talking serpent. And not just that, they listened to him. Even if they had failed at the first, they could have fulfilled the task of guarding by not listening, by protecting the caretakers of the garden from bad advice and bad actions - their own.

The Dragon of Old

We think we know this story so well. Eve listens to a talking snake, gullible she is, and then God punishes them for it by kicking out both Adam and Eve from the Garden. Poor Adam, right?

WRONG! Look carefully at the story. Where was Eve when Adam was told not to eat from the fruit of the knowledge of Good and Evil? I’ll wait.... The answer is, she hadn’t been made yet. Eve was nonexistent when Adam received the command.

So when the serpent shows up, who we know from later texts in Revelation we know to be Satan, he goes right to the one who is not gullible—but vulnerable—vulnerable because maybe, just maybe, Adam didn’t tell her exactly what God said.

Look carefully at the text the next time you read it. God says that the humans in the garden may eat of any tree in the garden except one. In they day they eat from that tree, they will surely die.

Now look at what Eve says to the Serpent. She says that not only must they not eat from it, but they must not touch it. Did God say that? No, God never said that. Then, logically, there are two choices from where that extra bit of law came from. Either Eve made it up, or Adam, when he told Eve about the rules of the garden added that bit—maybe as a hedge of protection around the rules.

Guilt, Shame, Blame

And we all know the tragic results of this story. While Adam and Eve do not immediately die in the physical sense, spiritually they become separated from God’s presence. They lived in a holy of holies and now they were being cast out from the Temple.

Before that, we see some conversation back and forth between God, Adam and Eve and the Serpent.

Adam, what does he do? He blames God! Hey God, if that woman you gave me hadn’t done this, I wouldn’t have eaten...

The woman, in turn blames the snake, Well he said that...

And the snake, Satan, he says nothing. He knows he’s been caught. This fallen angel has done what he came to do and bears the consequences. He has broken the link between God and humans that was to be as close as breath and now separated what was meant to be whole.

So we have blame. Why? Because humans have guilt to deal with. Adam and Eve feel guilt and remorse for their sin. And then there is shame when they realize that they are naked. It takes a lot of maturity and practice to admit wrongdoing and ask forgiveness, to seek reconciliation and make things right. But Adam and Eve are like young children, blatant liars in denying their own thoughts, actions, and desires. God steps in, making them clothing from animals skins to replace their failed attempts at underwear-making. I can’t imagine leaves being all that comfortable anyway!

It Gets Worse

But folks it gets worse. Human sin keeps going. So far we’ve covered Genesis 1 in Creation. Then today so far we’ve covered Genesis 2 and Genesis 3. Now, starting in Genesis 4-11, things go from bad to worse to total disaster.

The chapters from Genesis 4-11 are often called the descent into sin. I prefer to call it the shattering of the image. Humans were called to steward the earth on God’s behalf, that is what it means to bear God’s image. But humans have twisted that message and over these few chapters of the Bible begin to serve themselves more and more.

In Genesis 4, Cain murders Abel, the first taking of life in the Bible. God has mercy on Cain and exiles him away from humans and even protects him from death—again, who might he be afraid of if there weren’t other humans outside Eden? And then in Genesis 5 and 6 we see the pride and degradation of the human being as sin multiplies and vengeance and greed take over.

Then we arrive at the flood incident. But before that we get this little picture of the Sons of God and the daughters of men. Humans seemingly intermingling with angelic beings—this is a great sin in God’s eyes. Things that were never meant to mix but to complement one another are now blended into something that is neither the one or the other.

And God has had enough. He regrets creating humanity because they desires of their hearts are only ever wickedness, and that continually. This is important, because many people hear of the flood and are aghast at a God who would wipe out human life so heartlessly. But they missed this part - God loves humanity, and saw only evil. All the time. Wickedness, selfishness. If God, who later died on a cross to send us the message of how much God loves and wants us to refuse retaliating in violence, knew that there was no redemption possible for these wicked people, then I think there was no redemption possible for these wicked people. God doesn’t say that of us. God doesn’t say that of our neighbors, either. God only said it about Noah’s neighbors.

And so the flood happens. All except Noah and his family are gone, including the offspring of women and angels. Noah then becomes a New Adam. He is told to be fruitful and multiply and fill the now-cleansed earth. But not even Noah’s family gets it right. Noah gets drunk, his son does something sexually inappropriate and gets cursed.

And then it hits its lowest point at the highest point--Babel. People have forgotten the order of the universe. God comes first and then us. But the people at Babel? They’re tired of waiting for God and so they gather together all of one language and they decide if God isn’t going to come down here, we’re going to go up there and bring him down! They want to be equal with God, to tell God what THEY want, not to listen.

This is the height of hubris and pride. The descent into sin is complete. People have totally twisted and reversed the relationship that was supposed to exist between God and humans. Instead of God being followed by humans learning how to be loving as God loves, humans now want God to serve them, to be violent and manipulated as they are!

Are We Any Better?

It’s easy to stand in judgment of the old Bible characters as we look from our vantage point. We know that God did actually come down to the people at Babel -- not to serve them, but to confuse them. They were told to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth but they decided to stay in one place, so at Babel which means “confusion,” God muddles them all up so that they would go their separate ways and thus fulfill their mission.

But are we any better? Have humans made any difference in the world that is positive or are we still sliding into sin, slowly, slowly, down, down, down? The easy answer is to rush to “Jesus” and the forgiveness and restoration that he offers us, and that would be a right answer, the only answer in fact. But God’s story has to go through many twists and turns before we get there. Humanity still has a lot to learn. God hasn’t declared these people un-redeemable, as the sons of angels were. God has patience and love, and a lot to teach humans. And next week we’ll pick up the story right here, at the plains of Shinar, at Babel where God is going to work through one unexpected character and his family to create a new people of God. Join us next week as we learn of Israel’s story. Can God put the Humpty Dumpty of humanity back together again?

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