The King and His Kingdom: Understanding the Bible's Big Idea (2): When a Plan Seems to Fall

Apart

Genesis 1:26-28

By way of review, we began our overview of the Bible's storyline by considering three foundational ideas:

1.

How do we actually read the Bible? What is one of the overarching ideas of the Bible? How do we trace that through the Bible?

2.

3.

4.

Intro: => I'm a big fan of the A-Team I will gladly fight anyone who says that The A-Team wasn't awesome TV. I have every episode and even had a t-shirt with probably the greatest single catchphrase in TV history

=> The phrase comes from Hannibal Smith, the leader of the ATeam, who always said, often with a cigar in his mouth: I love it when a plan comes together!

=> Well we're about to see what happens when it looks like God's made the perfect plan only for it to fail...or did it, really?

Keep your Bibles open to Genesis chapters 1-11 we'll be working through that portion of Scripture in a little detail. It's been said that if you understand these chapters correctly, you have a good foundation to understand the rest of the Bible. Debatable maybe, but like any good story, if you get the beginning, you're well on the way to getting your mind around much of the Bible.

We have two big ideas to consider:

1.

The Pattern of the Kingdom Genesis 1-2 The Perished Kingdom Genesis 3-11

2.

I. The Pattern of the Kingdom (Genesis 1-2):

Lets begin by looking at the Pattern of the Kingdom as we find it in Genesis 1-2. What was the intention behind creation? Well, remember that last week, we described three things about what the Kingdom of God is all about:

1.

God's people God's place God's rule/blessing

2.

3.

You can find all those elements in Genesis 1-2, so we'll take them in the order in which they appear in the text:

A. God creates a place in which He delights: The story begins with creating the world and not just creating it for creating it's sake this is a world in which the Father delights. We see that

in the number of times the phrase, And God saw that it was good - Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24.

This is important because as we'll see in future weeks, we'll find that God hasn't done away with his delight in the world He created the way in which He delights changes but he definitely hasn't!

B. God creates a people in whom He delights: At the pinnacle of this creation was man created in the image of God. Genesis 1:26-28 is crucial in understanding this:

26 Then God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them; and God

said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

Not only does God create a world in which He delights and then creates people He delights in but He creates them to have dominion over creation. Now at this point, I need to do some deconstruction.

As with everything the Bible teaches, there is a RIGHT way to teach this and a WRONG way to teach this. Take the doctrine of election there's a right way to teach the doctrine that God, out of His boundless mercy, decides to not let all men continue on the road to their just damnation but graciously chooses to set His love on a people called His elect. The wrong way to do that (and I quote a Bible study I heard once): Every person in hell is there because God put them there and He's happy about it. Romans 9:16 says that no amount of wanting to be saved, no amount of crying out to God will make God want to

save you. We'll not go into how damaging that teaching was but what happened? One aspect of the Bible's teaching was elevated over another.

And when we come to the theme of dominion, that happens a lot. In case you have been thankful to be spared the curse of watching so-called Christian TV, the way it is done goes something like this:

God created Adam in His image and told him, like Himself, to have dominion over everything

He then forfeited His dominion to Satan and became subject to sickness, poverty and basically everything bad

Along comes Jesus who wins back our dominion and now we have the right to a life that is nice and peachy

This isn't a series on the errors of the prosperity gospel but it is clear enough to say that's a distortion of what the Bible.

What then is the right way? Psalm 8 is clear that God has created man with the aim that all things be under His feet (Ps 8:4-8) - not in the same way in which God rules. The Bible is equally clear that God alone possesses unconditional,

unchallenged authority. But it is clear that man was made to rule under Gods gracious sovereignty. Mans rule wasnt autonomous or self-made:

God decrees blessing and dominion for His creation (1:2627)

God decides where they are to live and rule (2:8-9) God sets the boundaries of this relationship - Do what I ask and you will live, dont and you will die (2:15-17)

Seems like the job to die for - God says creation is yours to be in charge of in my place - the world is your home and all the food is fair game...minus one tree. This plan couldnt go wrong, right?

Well, in the words of Hebrews 2, we dont see everything subjected to man now (Heb 2:8), so what in the world - literally - happened?

II. The Perished Kingdom (Genesis 3-11):

When we get to Genesis 3, we are met with these words:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden '?"

Some conservative scholars are quick to say that this may have been an allegorical account - well, Im not so quick to say that since it seems a little deceptive to stick an allegory in the middle of a historical account. Regardless, one thing is clear this story is not going to end well.

In traditional theology, we call it 'the Fall' I'll be honest, I hate the term. When I fall over, I usually get back up. What we are going to see in Genesis 1-3 is not a fall but a crash a full-on, 200 mph, 'call-the-fire-brigade-and-bring-some-cutters-with-

you' crash. Watch how this unfolds:

The woman talks to the snake and he distorts God's word (v. 2-5)

The woman, now being deceived, desires the fruit and takes it - thereby ignoring the terms of the relationship (v. 6-7)

And then God speaks:

The relationship is broken God knew the location of Adam, but their relationship, once so tight, is in pieces (v. 8-10)

The man made to rule passes off responsibility to his wife. The woman passes off responsibility to the snake. In short, those made to rule are running scared.

God curses the serpent (v.14-15), curses the woman (v.16) and curses the man (v.17-19)

And with that, the Kingdom God set man to rule over seems to have crash-landed. The rule of God over His creation seems to have been interrupted and the relationship of a loving God with His people is now in tatters. At the end of chapter 3, the Lord God also kicks them out of the garden.

Remember our definition of the Kingdom of God: God's people in God's place under God's rule and blessing? All three are gone. What's the result? Well man is still made in the image of God yes he is now fallen and that image is defaced, much like spray-painting the Mona Lisa. It's all there but marred horribly.

He is still made to rule and reign but that God-ordained rule is now heavily distorted:

1.

Human rule becomes self-centred: No longer is God ruling via the medium of His Word, but man rules by his own sinful desire and want.

2.

Human rule become ridden with conflict: Genesis 4 introduces us to the first murder where a sinner murders a righteous man. Later in chapter 5, his son Lamech does just kill a man for wounding him he even writes a song about it. One of my favourite preachers, Geoff Thomas, says it was the first song in the history of rap not too sure about that but one thing is clear. Consensus is out the window, conflict is in.

3.

Human rules becomes subverted: Creation now rules ovetr the creature. Think about it a snake managed to get two people to forfeit the greatest relationship in the world.

Fast-forward to today: we chase money paper with value WE give to it. We chase guys or girls created beings no different

to us. We chase fame and status creations of society around us. Drugs are the product of herbs and weeds and yet they control and dominate the lives of so many. In the words of Romans 1, we now worship and serve the created, not the Creator.

What's the end result of that? FLOOD! We could do a whole lesson on that suffice it to say that by the end of Genesis 6, God has had enough and the King of the universe decides to execute judgment.

After the flood, the nations spread out and become distinct (Genesis 10) and we are left wondering whether God's plan really does come together. However, His plan is as sure as ever and next time, we'll see how God sets about getting us back on the plan and it'll be fun.