Blessed by God (Part 2): Polarizing Themes in Scripture: from Adam to Abraham

   

     Every good story has certain elements, which may include the promise of hope and the threat of evil as well as the protagonist and the antagonist who are striving against one another to ensure their own desired outcome of the story. Typically, stories are told in the order of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration or consummation. The story given to us in Scripture is no different. The old and new testaments of the Bible together tell one story - the greatest story ever told. It is the drama of redemption; complete with battles, romance, and a longed for hero. It is the true pattern of which all other stories follow. This is precisely why man can write excellent novels with such creativity or produce films with amazing plotlines, it is because he was made in the image of God who is the archetypal story writer. William Shakespeare’s famous words are right: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” This is exactly who we are, players in what John Calvin called God’s “beauteous theatre” as the story of redemption is told. It is God’s story, but we all have a part to play. And in the beginning the stage was set, a beautiful world made for the crown of God’s creation to inhabit. This is where the drama will unfold.

    The God revealed to us in the Scriptures is different than the pagan deities. He is involved in the affairs of his creation, he works and appears to “get his hands dirty” as he makes man from the dust of the ground. Yet there remains a great distance between the Creator and the creature, so God condescends to man to communicate himself in ways that man can understand. We find that this story is structured by a series of covenants in the Scriptures, complete with covenant sanctions promising blessing as the sanctions are fulfilled and curses if they are not. The Westminster Confession of Faith states “The distance between God and the creature is so great, that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience unto him as their Creator, yet they could never have any fruition of him, as their blessedness and reward, but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which he hath been pleased to express by way of covenant” (WCF 7.1). And so we see God enter into a covenant with his people; first with Adam, then Noah, Abraham, Moses and the nation of Israel, King David, until these covenants and the overall story find fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. God’s covenant defines his terms. We as creatures cannot approach God in any way we please based on our intuition or presupposed notions, we must come to him on his terms, in what he has revealed covenantally.

    The covenant sanctions in the Bible present to us the polarizing themes of blessing and cursing. If the demands of the covenant are met by God’s covenant people they will receive the reward of blessing but if they are not fulfilled God’s curse is just as sure. The tragic part of the redemptive narrative is that God’s people are always failing to fulfill their end of the covenant relationship like an unfaithful bride who is constantly breaking her marriage vows. Though we find the people to be utter failures and unfaithful in every way, we find the covenant God to be incredibly faithful and relentless in his pursuit of his rebel bride.

One day in Paradise

    “And God blessed them” (Genesis 1:22, 28). In Genesis one we have the first occurrence of God blessing his people. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, being made in the image of God, were blessed in the garden of Eden prepared by God for them. They were blessed to “be fruitful and multiply,” to fill the earth, subdue it, and have dominion over all of creation. Adam was to work in the garden and he was to keep it. Adam was made to be a king of the earth under the rule of the Almighty, having dominion over all of what God had made. However, Adam’s rule was not ultimate. One tree was placed in the midst of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the only tree forbidden to the Adam. One prohibition was given to the man God had made, and yet the man failed miserably. Later on in the unfolding of the biblical drama, the prophet Hosea compares the nation of Israel with the Adam, “like Adam they transgressed the covenant” (Hosea 6:7). The federal head of the human race failed in what God had given him to do. He was to dress and keep the garden yet he allowed an intruder to come in and then transgressed the command of God by eating the fruit of the forbidden tree. Adam broke the covenant and failed to obtain its hope and receive the blessing of the tree of life for himself, his wife, and all his posterity. Instead, as the head of our race he has plunged all of mankind into a miserable state where we receive the curse of God - alienation from him and the death of our bodies and souls. In Adam all are born in sin and all die. Like our first father, we are covenant breakers who have joined forces with the enemy. We, whose hands should be lifted in praise to the God who breathed into our nostrils the breath of life have instead used them to draw a rebel sword against our great King. We have made ourselves enemies of the righteous Judge and have incurred his curse and so we find this to be true for all men for death has passed upon all men.

    The Scriptures do not only present to us a God who is just but also a God who is gracious. In the midst of pronouncing his curse upon the creation because of man’s sin, good news is given from the mouth of the covenant Lord. Another will come, one who will be born of woman and will succeed where Adam failed. The seed of woman, though his heel will be bruised by the serpent, the same heel will crush the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15). Thus God enters into another covenant with man, a covenant of a different sort. The first covenant which Adam broke was based upon the man’s obedience; if man will be saved from the curse the covenant must be based upon God’s grace in sending the promised Redeemer to destroy the serpent and win back what man has lost and the life that he failed to attain. What we see from this point forward in the unfolding drama is that though the masses lie under the curse and wrath of God, there is a chosen remnant of humanity who are pursued by God himself that he may bless them, rescue them from his own curse, and use them to point to and ultimately bring the promised Savior into the world. Little boys love the stories of make believe princes who defeat dragons at the point of a sword and undo curses to deliver the lovely damsel while little girls love the thought of the hero who comes to her rescue. Curses aren’t reserved for fairy tails however, and neither are heroes. The biblical narrative presents humanity under the real-life curse of death and a true hero who enters as the denouement(1) of the redemptive drama, appearing in order to bless those he rescues and deliver them from the dreaded curse.

Continuing motifs

    The polarizing themes of blessing and curse are continued throughout the Bible. Man has fallen from his created state therefore all are now conceived in sin and born under the curse of God. Death was sure to come for Adam and tragically the first human death Adam knew was not his own. Adam’s son Cain slew his brother Abel and was banished from his original family. Cain (having a curse placed upon him) and his descendants prove to be the seed of the serpent at enmity with God and his people. But another son was born to Eve, Seth, and it is through this son that we trace God’s redemptive purposes all the way to a greater son, Jesus Christ. The two lines are clearly drawn in the opening pages of Scripture, both are from Adam, both deserve the curse of God, but one is shown grace. It is through this line that we are introduced to Noah.

    Among the multitude of sinful men, “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord” (Genesis 6:8). Noah and his sons, continuing the line from Seth, were safely brought into the ark and rescued from the great deluge. The men of the earth were drowned under God‘s curse (Genesis 8:21) but “God blessed Noah and his sons” (Genesis 9:1) having entered into covenant with them. Noah’s salvation from the fury of God’s wrath was all of grace. Noah is called righteous but his righteousness is not inherent, he proved to be a sinner soon enough (Genesis 9:20-29), and he died as all sinners do. Noah was in the line of the coming Redeemer and for a time he provided rest for his people, but it did not last “for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21). Soon we find mankind again at enmity with God, attempting to make a great name and build a tower to Heaven.

    Tracing Noah’s seed we are introduced to Abraham, a pivotal character in the story and one on whom God bestows his sovereign grace for no apparent reason found outside of God himself. The drama continues and so do the themes of blessing and cursing but now we find that God’s purpose to bless from this point forward finds its focus on Abraham the Hebrew and his offspring. Abraham receives the promise to be blessed by God and to be a channel through which blessing will flow to all peoples. Those who bless Abraham will be blessed and those who curse him will be cursed. God’s promise to bless Abraham will be the consideration of the following chapter.

1. John Piper’s title for his message at the 2009 Desiring God National Conference “Jesus Christ as Denouement in the Theater of God.” http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/ConferenceMessages/ByDate/2009/4232_Jesus_Christ_as_Denouement_in_the_Theater_of_God/