The Torah

THE BEST OF BOOKS: The Law Part 1
Everything Was Good (Genesis 1-3)

Read Genesis 1:1-5

One of the best and strongest arguments for the existence of God is and has always been creation because nothing can come from nothing and since there is something (creation) it must have come from something (Creator). I have to laugh at evolutionists who shrug off creationism and intelligent design. I think they protest too much!

Evolutionists are constantly publishing books and articles and doing TV and Radio interviews showing all the so-called “evidence” for why creation is a laughable backward myth. My question is, if it’s a myth like all the other myths, why does it occupy so much of their energy and resources to dispel. I don’t see them publishing “scholarly” articles on why it is impossible for the earth to be suspended on the back of an elephant as the Hindus teach, or why it is impossible for existence to have come about as a result of the offspring of some hermaphroditic deity’s self copulation as the Egyptians believed. I have not found one scholarly article refuting the Chinese creation account that the Universe began in an egg.

If the Bible’s account of creation is a myth like all the other primitive myths, why are the evolutionists so threatened by it in a way that they are not threatened by any other creation account? Now as silly as many of the creation myths are, we have to give credit where credit is due; at least they’re not as outlandish as the theory of evolution that says all this came out of nothing and by chance which has the same mathematical odds of happening as a hundred monkeys typing out Shakespeare’s works in order. Calvin seems to think that the knowledge of the existence of a creator is instinctive to all men. He writes:
We see, indeed, the world with our eyes, we tread the earth with our feet, we touch innumerable kinds of God’s works with our hands, we inhale a sweet and pleasant fragrance from herbs and flowers, we enjoy boundless benefits; but in those very things of which we attain some knowledge, there dwells such an immensity of divine power, goodness, and wisdom, as absorbs all our senses.

All of creation declares that there is a glorious creator so that those who reject this self evident truth must do violence to their own conscience. The evolutionists fight creationism because somewhere in their conscience there is a whisper that says, “what if God did create it?”

It is amazing to think that one hundred and fifty years of evolutionary theory has done nothing to dispel the Bible’s account of the origins of creation, in fact, the best scientists of our time with the benefit of 3000 years of science and all the tools of modern technology have done nothing to credibly dispel what a primitive shepherd living in the desert wrote some 3500 years ago. So much for progress!

My aim this message is not to prove the plausibility of a literal 6-day creation (which I believe); I’ve done that in the past and I will do it again in the future. Today, I want to give an overview of the Pentateuch (another name for the Law or the Torah as the Jews call it). ‘Law’ is a word that gets used in a variety of ways in the New Testament. Sometimes it refers to the entire Old Testament; sometimes it refers to just the five books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy); sometimes it refers to the Jewish sacrificial system and sometimes it refers to the Ten Commandments (it can also refer to the rabbinical traditions which Jesus referred to as the traditions of men).

We Christians are not under the Law; we are under grace. Nevertheless, Romans 3:28-31says, “…a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. ...Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.”

The Law is therefore, still useful for Christians. But in what way? Paul wrote that “the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ” (Gal 3:24). As we go along in our study of the best of books we will see how it is possible for the Law to point us to Christ and be written upon our hearts.

Let’s look at Genesis chapter 1: I want to make an observation here about Moses’ use of the word, ‘Good’: it is used about 48 times in the book of Genesis, which has 50 chapters. So that means it gets used about once or twice every two or three chapters. But in the first chapter, “good” appears 7 times! ‘7’ is often referred to as the number of God and implies the idea of perfection or completion. Compare that with creation after Genesis 3, where good becomes a matter of degrees in contrast to evil.

It’s like Dove Soap that is 99 and 1/10% pure. I guess that’s because they just can’t make 100% pure soap (that’s fair). But, let’s say, theoretically, it was possible to make soap that was 100% pure; then in relation to that perfect soap, Dove is dirty.
But goodness is no longer Genesis 1 good- it’s changed. Now- if a man is a good man, his goodness only in relation to how evil another man might be. If today is a good day, it is only good in relation to a day that was not as good. If a song is a good song, it is only good in relation to a song that was not as good. But when God described everything as good in Genesis 1, it was not good compared to something that was bad; it was good in relationship to Himself- it derived its goodness from Him. If God says something is good then it is second to none good. But no more! Something has changed so that, like the Dove soap compared to the perfect soap, we are no longer good compared to God. The best we can hope for is to be not as bad as someone else.

I’m not as bad as Hitler, I must be good. But Clifford Olsen isn’t as bad as Hitler either, is he good? Well no, because compared to me, he’s bad too. But from God’s point of view, its all bad. It’s kind of like looking down on a city through Google earth: a one-story rancher looks as high as 10 story apartment. So what happened? Why has everything that God once described as good, become mixed with evil and bad? The reason is the Fall!

God gave Adam a Law- it was a simple Law, Genesis 2:15,
15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

One simple Law- don’t eat from this tree, it’s mine. Don’t steel from me… don’t covet what is not yours… don’t make this thing into such an idol that you would disobey me for that would be murder… that will trample the Sabbath…. If you truly love me with all your heart soul and strength and if you love your neighbour as yourself, you won’t eat from this tree. What could be simpler?

But for some reason, Adam failed to teach his wife about God’s prohibition. And the serpent was more crafty. He began to question the reliability of and truthfulness of God’s Word. But, even though Eve violated the rule, she was deceived; it was Adam’s who sinned and brought ruin upon his race. Why did God allow this? Why all the untold suffering that has accompanied humanity through the ages? Did God make a mistake?

One of my favourite epics in the Bible is the story of Joseph. Joseph was his father’s favourite son. He was the youngest and he provoked the Jealousy of his 10 older brothers when he told them God had promised Joseph he would rule over his brothers so they sold him into slavery in Egypt. And things went from bad to worse when he was falsely accused by his master’s wife of trying to rape her. So he ended up in an Egyptian prison. But God showed by the life of Joseph that was able to raise him up from the lowest level of Egyptian society and to place him in a position over that country that was second only to Pharaoh.

And, many years later, God brought Joseph’s brothers to Egypt and to seek the aid of the very brother they had betrayed not knowing it was him. Every time I read this story I almost burst out in tears when it gets to the part in chapter 45 when Joseph makes himself known to his brothers.
2 And he wept aloud, and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard it. 3Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph; does my father still live?” But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed in his presence. 4 And Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come near to me.” So they came near. Then he said: “I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. 5 But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. (45:2-5)

Who sold Joseph into slavery? His Brothers! And Morally, they are responsible. Who sent Joseph into Egypt? God! (But He meant it for good). God allowed those brothers’ cunning deceit to accomplish the very thing they thought they were preventing: Joseph became a ruler over his brothers and all that was to preserve their very lives because God had made a promise to their great great grandfather Abraham to raise up a great nation from his yet unborn child. Joseph explained it to his brothers like this, “Joseph said to them, ‘…as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good…’” (50:19-20).

What does that have to do with the Fall and the loss of Good? How does it explain the eons of human suffering and depravity? Because what Satan intended for evil in the garden, God planned for good! What was the good? “To save many people alive” (50:20b). God made us to show us what Good really is, but we don’t see it in the garden… Oh yes, it was good there- we see good ultimately displayed on the Cross of Christ, the very place where many are preserved alive. In attempting to beguile Eve and bring a curse upon humanity, Satan hoped to prevent God from displaying His glory, but Satan unwittingly helped God (not that God needs it) to achieve the full display of His glory (his sovereignty, Justice, anger, love and mercy) at the Cross.
That’s why it’s GOOD News! And we don’t have to wait a thousands of years for it to be revealed, we find it right here in Genesis.

Application: [1]
Last week I listed some errors to avoid in reading your Bible; today I want to list some things that will help you to better understand your Bible. Here are some gaps that need to be bridged:

1. Language gap;
2. Culture gap;
3. Geography gap;
4. History gap.

Why should we work so hard and dig so deeply into God’s Word. Because the deeper we look, the more beautiful and perfect and good the gospel appears to us!


NOTES
[1]MacArthur, J. J. (1997, c1997). The MacArthur Study Bible (electronic ed.) (Ge 1:1). Nashville: Word.