Tag: Old Testament

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Faith Triumphant – Habakkuk 3:1-15

This is a book about faith. It starts with Habakkuk’s faith being tested, crying out to God asking why His people are so corrupt. His replies by promising judgement through the Chaldeans. This continues to test Habakkuk’s faith, and he asks why – but he seeks to listen. God replies with a teaching of faith – the righteous will live by faith, and we can have faith that He will bring all things fulfillment.

In chapter 3, we see the outcome of faith triumphant, in Habakkuk’s song of response. The song is a “Shiggaion” like Psalm 7 – but we don’t know what that means, exactly. It could mean a wild, mournful song, or it could mean a song of meditation and humility, which is certainly the spirit of the song. The other musical term used is “Selah” which we also do not know the meaning of – or could be a pause, or an intensifier, or a line repeat.

The song starts with an acknowledgment that Habakkuk is fearful. While we know that “God has not given us a spirit of fear” we still experience fear. Habakkuk also sees that the only rescue from his fear is the revival of God’s work, even though that work is part of what is making Habakkuk afraid. From Paul in the New Testament, we can have confidence in the promise that “He who began a good work in [us] will be faithful to complete it.”

The core of Habakkuk’s request is this: “In wrath, remember mercy.”

Then he gets to the poetry of the song, painting a broad picture of the seeds and power of God. First, he recounts God meeting Israel in the wilderness (the wilderness of Teman here is used as a more general term) and Mount Sinai (called here and Deuteronomy Mount Paran). He points to the flashes of glory shown to Moses and in the pillars of cloud and fire, and to the plagues sent on both Egypt and, later, the wandering Israelites.

He calls out God’s power over those things that seem permanent, whether mountains or kingdoms or rivers. All of them fall before God’s “chariot of salvation” – his “merkabah yeshua”. Even the sun and moon are under His command, calling back to how God gave the land to Israel in the first place.

Then he pivots from what God had done to what He will do. He again brings in the term salvation, “yeshua,” twice – He will work the salvation of His anointed people through His anointed. Habakkuk and others of his time may have seen this pointing back to David or even ahead to Cyrus, but we see how this is ultimately fulfilled by Yeshua himself. The head of the wicked will be crushed, as His promised at the beginning would be the end of the deceiving serpent.

That gives an additional perspective on next lines, which serve as multiple hopes: hope that the rule of the Chaldeans would not be permanent, that the oppressors of the poor would not last, but also that the rule of sin within our lives and our world is not permanent, either.

We can sing our songs of hope like Habakkuk, because we know that Yeshua the God-man is the ultimate fulfillment of all the promises of the prophets of Israel. Have we sought the salvation that He offers.”

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, May 16, 2021

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What Truly Matters? – Jeremiah 9

Josiah was a rare good king of the nation of Judah. In the midst of repairs of the temple, prophecies were discovered about the judgement that was coming in the nation. Josiah trusted those prophecies, and in return that judgement was stayed through his lifetime.

Later, though, Josiah got it in his head that he needed to go fight a war, so he went out and picked a fight with the king of Egypt. This did not go well, and Josiah was killed.

The prophet Jeremiah lamented the death of Josiah, in 2 Chronicles 35, echoed here in Jeremiah 9.

Jeremiah weeps for and laments the evilness of the age and of his people. This is not an incidental evil, but planned and trained for like a bowman learns his careful craft. In response, God pledges to lay waste to the nation, leaving it not even fit for scavengers and wild beasts.

God will send war and famine to Israel. Jeremiah calls for loud wailing and lamentation, and for preparing the traditional mourners for the death that will come across generations, to all ages and all economic levels. There will be so much death that the bodies will lay “like dung in the field.”

Then comes the call to repentance. Because of all this, we have no reason to trust in our strength, riches or intelligence. All these things are fleeting and can be taken away at any moment. The only thing that can last is the steadfast love, justice and righteousness of God. We see the later in the story when the obedience of the Ethiopian eunuch Ebed-melech results in the sparing of his life.

In the final verses of chapter 9 we see that this judgement is promised broadly, and that the “uncircumcised in heart” are no better than the pagan nations surrounding them.

What does all this mean for us today as followers of Christ? The first few verses of Philippians 3 serve as a New Testament companion piece to Jeremiah 9.

Like Jeremiah, Paul counsels us to put no confidence in any of the things that humanity prizes – anything we have gained, whether religious or secular, whether money or power or intelligence, anything that is not founded on Christ. The false circumcision is not worth any more than an utter lack of it – and we can substitute church attendance, good works, the “right” social media posts or any other outward signs that may well be falsified. Christ in what matters, and our connection to Him is all that we ultimately can take with us.

– Sermon Notes, Aaron James, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, August 11, 2019

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Leading & Following – Numbers 11:1-15

This passage raises two important questions: what does it mean to be a good leader? And what does it mean to be a good follower? All of us play both roles in different parts of our lives, and this passage gives us a look at both sides of the equation.

At this point in the story of the Exodus, the Israelites are in the desert, the wilderness of Paran in what is now Saudi Arabia, dependent on manna for food.

They have come out of slavery, but have forgotten the bad parts of that life and now only remember the food. They have received miraculous sustenance but now it has become mundane and they are tired of it. They complain to Moses and Moses in turn complains to God. He is in over his head and wants to give up entirely.

The Bible is an honest book. It does not present “10 Easy Rules for Being a Leader” or even a follower. Instead, we get this story of a bunch of sinful people flailing around in the desert. But even then, there are important lessons we can take.

All of us are leaders in one form or another, whether in our family, work, community or other circumstance. All of it comes with similar challenges that can make our leadership ineffective.

First, the temptation of power is always present, and even the smallest amount of power can be abused.

Second, the responsibility of leadership can feel overwhelming, and it is easy to feel inadequate just like Moses did.

Third, sin can disrupt your leadership. We have seen this all too often in the Christian ministry world. All leaders sin, but there are sins that can entirely undermine your leadership, if they strike at the very foundation of what made you a leader in the first place.

There are also things that can make bring a follower difficult. If we have a lack of trust in our leaders, if we are in the midst of a transition, these and more can make life as a follower difficult.

Fortunately, we have the perfect leader as our example in Christ. First, we are to be servant leaders, willing to do the lowliest task. We are to maintain the highest moral and ethical standards.

We can also learn from Christ how to be a follower. First, we must not follow blindly, but be discerning in who we follow and how we follow. The scriptures are an authority over any Christian leader. Second, we must keep perspective and not lose context the way the Israelites did. And third, we must pray for our leaders, whether in the church, in the workplace, in the government or wherever we find them.

One thing to be careful about as either a leader or a follower is seeing our goal, our Promised Land, as the necessary step before we can really be with God. “Once we get to this point, then we can finally know God.” But in reality, God is with us all throughout the journey.

– Sermon Notes, Dave Lester, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, June 9, 2019

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Don’t Limit God – Psalm 78 1:1-22

Psalm 78 is the longest of the history psalms. It is the story of the Israelites in the wilderness and a reminder that when we go through times of wilderness in our own lives, God is all we need.

This is a psalm of Asaph, reminding Israel – and therefore us, because we have been grafted in – of what God has done. It begins with instruction to listen carefully even though (or especially because) we have heard these stories before, because there are lessons to be learned. We are to trust and pass on these stories to the next generation.

Specifically, we are too teach them three things: the glorious deeds of God, his strength and his mighty wonders. Knowing the ways of God and how he cares for us is more important than knowing facts about God. 

It goes on to say the God has established a testimony through the Law, which we are to review and repeat so that the next generation will set their hearts anew on God. 

This is in contrast to earlier generations who abandoned God and did not set their hearts aright. They did not deal with the “idol factory of the heart” as Tim Keller calls it, even when God does many miracles and even makes water pour from a rock. 

Instead, they were ungrateful, complaining and murmuring, ungrateful for what they had been given. They did not trust God to care for them or even believe that God could. 

Does this stir anything in your heart where you are limiting God? Our hearts are “prone to wander” which means we have a need for self examination. We are called up prepare our hearts so that we can maintain confidence in God even in the wilderness. 

– Sermon Notes, Brad Weir, City Church International, Dallas, TX, January 20, 2019

Psalm 78:1-22

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Bringing Shalom to Our City – Jeremiah 29:1-7

 

The nation of Israel has become corrupt. They take the outward signs of pious life, but in fact were just as bad as the pagans around them. Or worse, because as representatives of God, this behavior represented God to the world around them.

And so God uses Nebuchadnezzar to bring judgement on Jerusalem, bringing thousands of Jews to Babylon in exile. The land is taken, the temple is destroyed and the Law itself is upended.

So what does God say to do? Settle down, raise families, seek the peace of wherever you are. Prior to this, the concept of peace had been wrapped up in the direct rule of God over his chosen people in the Promised Land. But now the Law, the Temple and the land are gone, just as was promised in Deuteronomy would happen if they turned away.

But God doesn’t tell them to live separately or to isolate themselves from the culture around them. He tells them to plant gardens – the same word as “paradise”. They are called to bring a little piece of paradise into their new home. Babylon is also known for its gardens, so using this term rather than “vines” or “grain” implies an integration with the culture around them.

God also calls on them to, essentially, “be fruitful and multiply” – another callback to the Garden of Eden and the instruction given there. And again, it also appears to be an instruction toward intermarriage and integration, since the vast majority of the exiles were men.

He then instructs them to pray for Babylon, the city that just wiped them out. Not only that, but to seek the peace and prosperity of the city. The goal had changed from Israel being a hermetically sealed, isolated kingdom of peace that would eventually spread shalom to the gentiles. Their sin meant they had to spread out and seek to bring shalom into their neighborhoods and the city of their exile.

Then we come to Christ. The mission itself does not change – Jesus does not being back the earthly kingdom of Israel. Instead, he founds a new, spiritual kingdom, not based on rule following, but on a relationship with the rule-giver. Christ becomes the new law, the new temple and the new Kingdom.

Like Israel, we are in a moment of now-but-not-yet. We are, like Israel, spread among the world and called to bring peace to a broken world. God will eventually force the peace, but that will come with judgement. So in His mercy, God waits and uses us as His hands and feet to bring people to repentance.

We are called to bring the peace of God into the world around us drop by drop. We are called to citizenship, not to live in bunkers. We are called to fight against poverty and oppression, and to stand against abuse, especially when it comes from people who claim Christ.

We can look at early Christianity to see how this played out. The early church essentially invented the concept of charity. St. Basil invented the hospital in the 3rd century. During plagues, pagans would evacuate, while Christians would remain in the city and nurse the sick as best they could. These examples drew thousands to Christ.

Let us do the same. Let us spread this peace today, in our homes, neighborhoods, cities, countries and world.

– Sermon Notes, Brent Rood, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA

Jeremiah 29:1-7

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The Hope of Redemption – Psalm 107

This Psalm, from David, recounts the steadfast love of God for the people of Israel – the word is חסד or hesed. It is a story of redemption.

The initial redemption, the foundational rescue event that served as a sign for all the future redemption events, was the rescue of the people of Israel from Egypt and being brought into the Promised Land. This is a common theme throughout the Old Testament, of remembering God’s goodness in and through that moment.

But Psalm 107 looks at a continual redemption, an ongoing story in which God acts as redeemer. David does this through four characters: the wanderer, the prisoner, the fool and the ship captain.

The wanderer calls back to the time the Israelites spent wandering on the wilderness. They had been redeemed out of Egypt, but rejected God’s plan for them to enter the Promised Land and spent 40 years wandering in a circle in the desert. It is us, too, when we wander in our own spiritual circles,

The Psalm says that the Lord will make the way of the wanderer straight, and bring him into the city where he can have rest and safety. David calls these wanderers to be thankful, when we are brought out of whatever wilderness we have wandered in.

Next, we have the prisoner, imprisoned and oppressed because of their own wicked deeds. Again, it calls back to the history of Israel, when rebellion against God would result in discipline through foreign conquerors. The discipline is not there to harm them, but to reorient their perspective and bring them back to God.

Again, this is like us, whether situations of literal imprisonment, or spiritual imprisonment by sin, God is there to forgive and save us from our distress when we cry out to him. Has this happened to us? David instructs us to be thankful.

Then there is the fool, entirely devoted to his own pleasure and desires, even to the extent that they forego food and drink. The fool goes beyond the wanderer and the prisoner in their complete abandonment to sin. But when they hit bottom and cry out to God, once again He comforts, heals and forgives their sin. And again, we who have been the fool are called in to be thankful.

Next, we have the ship captain. Unlike the others, he seems to have things together, and his vice isn’t rebellion or depravity. Instead, it is overconfidence and pride, a belief that they are self-sufficient and is able to chart their own course. This is many of us in our Christianity, trying to live good lives in our own strength, with our own plans and towards our own goals.

But God wants dependent worshipers who live in love and relationship with him. And so he sends mighty waves and storms to remind us that we ultimately cannot survive under our own power. We call out to him and he again redeems us from the storm. Once again, we are to live in gratitude to the Lord who rescues is.

Then in verse 32, David goes into all the ways God works to bring his people back to him – turning rivers into deserts and deserts into pools of water, doing whatever is needed to bring us to redemption. God customizes our redemption to exactly what he wants for us in exactly the ways we need.

For us, we also look back to an original redemption, the salvation brought to us by the death and resurrection of Christ. And we also see ongoing redemption and rescue throughout our lives, whether as wanderer, prisoner, fool or captain. But the rescue is not from our situation, but primarily from our own self-dependence and rebellion.

The rescue will look different for different people. The wanderer is left to their own fumbling devices for a long period of time. The prisoner must have their rebellion crushed and their lives restricted to turn then around. The fool must hit rock bottom before they turn their eyes heavenward. The ship captain must fail on their own so they will depend on God.

This multifaceted, steadfast love has no limits. There is not a set number of redemptions on a cosmic punch card. God’s redemption is bottomless and never ending. We are a forgetful people, and so constantly need reminding of this.

Or maybe we are frustrated and confused that we don’t seem to be moving forward spiritually. We may be moving backwards, and the shame or frustration of that may be keeping us from actually moving forward again. But our spiritual life is not and was never promised to be a steady upward climb. It is a constant forward and back motion, confession and repentance and returning to God. But we cannot wait until we are better to turn to God. We must turn to him before we can get better at all.

Or maybe we have never sought the redemption of God. Maybe we are turned off from it by the public face of Evangelical Christianity on the news and in social media. If you reject the ugly, false pictures of God and Christ being portrayed, then good for you. Seek the God of the scriptures and understand the true Christ and the redemption he offers.

Wherever we are in this story, whatever the reason we need rescue today, we should turn to God and throw ourselves on his mercy. God loves us more than we love ourselves, which means we have a mighty hope.

– Sermon Notes, Brent Rood, Seed Church, November 26, 2017

Psalm 107

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The Trouble with Kings – 1 Samuel 8:1-2

The Israelites had moved into the Promised Land, but had not fully taken possession of it, rather punching a hole into the heart of it. This meant they were surrounded by enemies, which caused problems throughout the book of Judges.

The last judge was Samuel, a prophet who communicated directly with God. But Samuel was getting old, and could no longer travel as a “circuit judge” as he had in the past. He passed his responsibilities to his sons, but they turned out to be dishonest and oppressive.

It was a time of instability, with the Philistines taking tribute and the looming death of Samuel threatening to upend the current rickety peace.

Instead of turning to God in this time of instability, the Israelites demanded a king. This offended Samuel, but why? The concept of a king had been predicted as far back as Abraham, with the specific indication that a king would be set up when Israel came into the land.

But it wasn’t the “what” they asked for, but the “why.” They looked at Samuel as a secular leader rather than as the conduit for the will of God. Humans have a tendency to elevate people too highly when they succeed, and chop them off at the knees when things aren’t going well. We do this are the expense of following God. Israel could have asked Samuel what God’s plan was for leadership, but instead they came up with their own panicky plan.

They asked for a king “as the other nations have.” They wanted to fit in rather than stand out as God’s chosen people. It was not too different from the constant temptation of the idols of the surrounding peoples. They wanted the easy life of sight rather than the difficult life of faith.

So Samuel takes the request to the Lord, who tells him not to reject the request outright, but instead to outline the trouble with Kings. Humans are self serving by default, and combining that with the power of a king, then you get a nation focused on the whims of a narcissist.

Short term, they will be able to point to a monarch who represents the nation rather than an invisible deity. Long term, though, it will mean only trouble.

The king described by Samuel is very different than the one described in Deuteronomy 17, where it is made clear that the kingship is not about wealth and pleasure, but about serving God and the people.

But after all these predictions, the people still demanded a king. They wanted earthly stability over heavenly faith. And so God does the most terrifying thing we can imagine: He gave the people what they wanted.

The book of Samuel was compiled in its final form around the time of the exile. There was a clear view of the tragedy of kingship from that time. Saul was a failure, David a (very) qualified success, Solomon somewhere in between, and after that it was largely chaos and tragedy the rest of the way.

God gave the people what they wanted in part in order to contrast earthly kingship more starkly with the ultimate plan and ultimate kingship in the person of Christ. And yet, when He came, the people again chose stability over faith.

Jesus was popular when he was giving things to the people (bread, fish, healing), to the extent that at one point they tried to make him king by force. But when he explained that he himself was the bread of life, that he came to rule a spiritual kingdom rather than an earthly one, the people turned on him just as they did in 1 Samuel.

We are surrounded by leaders who fail us constantly. No human can fill that innate need that we have, no more than it could for the Israelites. Do we spend more time fretting about earthly leadership, or seeking the will of our heavenly king? Our desire for stability drives us to seek the answers in the world around us, but in the end, faith in Christ is the only stable rock upon which we can ground our life.

-Sermon Notes, Brent Rood, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, September 10, 2017

1 Samuel 8:1-22

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A Psalm of Disorientation – Psalm 143

The psalms can be divided into three types (first done by Walter Bruggemann). First, songs of orientation that in a basic way orient ourselves towards God, casting the world in a simplified form and ourselves as faithful followers. Then, songs of disorientation, when the simple worldview of the initial psalms are upended by confusion, pain and disconnection. Finally, songs of new orientation, the emergence from those times of struggle into a new, more mature relationship with God. Psalm 143 falls best into the disorientation category.

In the psalms, we see various descriptions of human nature: the soul, the real self and appetites; the spirit or breath, our emotions; and our heart, best understood as our mind, the part that is supposed to know right from wrong. Our hearts are broken, and so are ruled by our emotions and appetites, not by that understanding of right and wrong.

Psalm 143 opens and closes with reflection on the righteousness of God. It then moves directly into a request that God not judge the singer based on their deeds. This is directly reversed from psalms of orientation like psalm 7, when he specifically asks to be judged based on his righteous deeds.

He then moves into the meat of the prayer: his enemy is closing in and it is causing emotional turmoil within. It is on one hand a foxhole prayer, written while David is hiding from Saul or the Philistines. On the other hand, the specific enemies are not named, because this is a song written to be sung by many people, all of whom have enemies, whether physical or spiritual.

He comes to God, then (and us with him) thirsty like a parched land. We can easily have our need God dulled by the pleasures of the world, and it is only when that world has fallen apart on us that we truly feel the desperate that within us.

Attached to all this, he hopes that this feeling of abandonment does not mean God has turned His face from him, that this temporal darkness does not have eternal significance.

He then moves into five specific requests, paired with the reason for these requests – notably, not because of his own righteousness. Answer me quickly, do not hide your face, bring me word quickly, show me your will, rescue me from my enemies. The reasons given are not based on David’s abilities (or ours), but rather on the nature of God Himself and the trust that David places in Him.

So David brings faith rather than righteousness. He brings no currency to the transaction, only faith that God will rescue him based on three things: His name’s sake, His righteousness and his unfailing love.

The term “unfailing love” literally means “cut a covenant” with the implication of blood. God specifically made covenants with David, that he would be king, live a long life, that his son would build the temple, and the Messiah would come from his line. For God to keep these promises, God must rescue David from his troubles. From that perspective, it is fairly cold and impersonal. It gets to the unfailing part, but not the love.

The second component to the righteousness of God are the parts of His character that lead him to make these promises to begin with. God is the one who created the relationship with David (and us!) not the other way around. God has rigged the entire situation so that our faith is substituted for righteousness. His righteousness is unfailing in its commitment, and love in its motivation. When David appeals to God’s righteousness, he is appealing to the love and mercy of God, not to His perfection.

What do we learn ourselves from Psalm 143? Primarily, that we can call on God based not on our righteousness, but His. We do not have the individual covenant that David did, but instead we have Christ as our representative. Like David, we have no currency of righteousness. If we, through faith, are linked to Christ, then all the promises of God to Christ fall to us. Through faith, we become the anointed ones, and Christ’s story becomes our story, His unending currency righteousness becomes ours.

This means that the first step in calling on God is to connect ourselves to Christ. We need Him as our mediator. If we have done this but still pray from a place of self-righteousness, entitlement and pride. Are we angry at God for not responding in the way we desire or expect? Are we putting ourselves up as judges of God? Or are we on the other end of the spectrum, disheartened by our own sin, we pray (or fail to pray) out of our own sense of unrighteousness. We are called to boldness, not based on our abilities but on the imputed righteousness of Christ.

As Martin Luther is said to have written:

For feelings come and feelings go, and feelings are deceiving;
My warrant is the Word of God, Nought else is worth believing.
Though all my heart should feel condemned, For want of some sweet token,
There is One greater than my heart, Whose Word cannot be broken.
I’ll trust in God’s unchanging Word, ‘till soul and body sever;
For though all things shall pass away, His Word shall stand forever.

– Sermon Notes, Brent Rood, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, August 27, 2017

Psalm 143

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The Baptism of Naaman – 2 Kings 5:1-19

Naaman was the commander of the Syrian army that had just conquered Israel. Following this, he came down with leprosy, a disease generally reserved for those under the curse of God. Israelites reading this story would have generally approved of this situation, but the slave girl, whose family was likely killed by Naaman and his army, felt differently and pointed him towards the prophet Elisha.

At this point, Naaman has some choices to make. Does he trust this girl? Does he trust Israel? Does he trust the God of Israel? What is he willing to do in order to live. He decides to try, and off he goes to the monk wizard hermit. He stops off at the king of Israel to request healing, and the king freaks out. Here is the man who just conquered the nation asking for something impossible. “Am I God, that I can kill and bring back to life?” he demands. This notion of resurrection is a key to the implications of the story.

Ultimately, though, Elisha invites Naaman to come be healed. When he shows up, though, things do not go as planned. Elisha sends a servant out to tell Naaman to dunk himself in the (filthy, muddy) Jordan River seven times. Not six, not eight. Five is right out. Naaman badly. He wanted a “sexy salvation” but this seemed shameful and offended his pride.

Once again, though the servants step in and persuade him to put aside his pride. So, Naaman goes under – in the Greek, the baptism of Naaman is the first reference to baptism in scripture. On the seventh dip, he is reborn – both physically and spiritually. He does still hang on to his pride enough to attempt to pay for the healing and earn it retroactively. But he is denied.

Instead, Naaman takes a load of dirt in order to take some of the land of Jehovah in order to retain that connection. His faith in healing had turned into a faith in God Himself.

The point of this story is not that some guy got healed. It’s not that the Jordan River is magic. It’s that God gives grace to the most unlikely people in the most unlikely ways. God’s ultimate goal for us is not just to be healed or forgiven, but to have a connection of love with us, a worshipful relationship of creation and creator.

This story calls forward to the resurrection, the death, burial and coming to life of Christ. Unlike Naaman, Christ died not for his sins, but ours. We, like Naaman, are enemies of God, and yet Christ died and rose again for us. What did Naaman have to do in order to receive healing and forgiveness? Essentially, he had to believe and trust the prescription of God.

This is what we demonstrate and act out in baptism. It represents the death and resurrection of Christ, and our own death and resurrection in Him. It also represents the cleansing of our sin by the forgiveness of God.

Some of us may have barriers to this. We may not see a need for baptism or even for Jesus himself. We may be skeptical about the whole God, Christ and salvation story.

Regardless of where you are, though, God is calling you to connect to that story through faith in Him and baptism. He wants to forgive your sins, change your heart and enter into an eternal relationship with you.

– Sermon Notes, Brent Rood, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, Easter Sunday 2017

2 Kings 5:1-19
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Genesis as Rebuke

The first chapter of the Bible these days gets swept up into debates about evolution, science, etc. But how was it understood by the ancient Israelites when it was written? Why did they consider it important enough to be written down?

It is notable that God calls two things good that the ancient Israelites would generally not have considered to be good, but rather terrifying. Darkness and the abyss of the sea were both symbols of evil, danger and chaos, but God calls them “good” when he places them in their appropriate contexts and within their appropriate boundaries.

Another note – vegetation was created before the sun, which may seem strange. But keep in mind that the Israelites knew very well that the sun was required for plants to grow. This order was purposeful, and the contradiction was purposeful.

Later, man was created – in the image of God. This is in stark contrast to how surrounding cultures saw man. The image of God (or rather, of the gods) was restricted to rulers. The Israelites, though, put the basis for equality and democracy right in their own “founding document.”

The book of Genesis may have been formalized, compiled from oral tradition and other written accounts, during the Babylonian exile. If that is the case, this chapter would have served at least in part as a rebuke to the Babylonian creation account, in which Marduk tears apart the body of Tiamat in order to create the world.

The Genesis creation account puts forth two bold statements that go after the theology of the cultures around them. First, there is one God, not many. Second, the creation of the Earth did not happen in the midst of war and conflict, but was rather a purely good act of creative construction.

The counterintuitive order of creation may also have had something to do with this. The sun gods of the era were vital because of the importance of sun for crops, yet here Israel says “no, in the end even the sun is subservient to the creator God, and if He wants plants, he gets plants, and the sun is irrelevant.”

So how does this creation account impact our own relationship with the culture around us? Regardless of how you interpret the specifics of the passage, we all should take from this passage the understanding of the one God as the creator of heaven and earth. How does this understanding of a creator God set us apart from those with their own creation stories, their own gods of science and chance?

–Sermon Notes, Dave Lester, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA

Genesis 1

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