tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84425098394970829782024-03-18T10:34:49.997-04:00Iron in Fire<p align="center"><i>"As iron cast into fire loses its rust and becomes glowing white, so he who turns completely to God is stripped of his sluggishness and changed into a new man."</i></p>
<p align="right">--Thomas á Kempis</p>JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13108158469007498050noreply@blogger.comBlogger493125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442509839497082978.post-20378850177972270392024-03-17T10:23:00.001-04:002024-03-18T10:34:06.111-04:00Skins and Sins and Sons; or, Restating the World<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Over the course of
Genesis 3, we've witnessed the slow-motion downfall of humankind from
being God's image to God's exile. It's been a tragic and degrading
path that the first sin put the man and the woman on. And now that
the garden has vomited us forth, now that cherubim and burning blade
firmly bar our way back in, we have little choice but to begin
looking at the world from a new perspective – a perspective from
<i>outside</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> the garden of God.
With today's passage, we begin to consider, in Bede's words, “the
deeds of this world and of mortal life.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote1sym" name="sdfootnote1anc"><sup>1</sup></a></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">First,
though, </span><i>“the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
God made for the human and his wife garments”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 3:21). Earlier, the man and woman had sewn together fig
leaves into skimpy girdles to conceal their nakedness, but in neither
durability nor size were they up to the task. God generously
provides replacement clothing, something larger, “something more
durable, more suited to the hard lives they will face outside the
garden.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote2sym" name="sdfootnote2anc"><sup>2</sup></a>
The kind of garment pictured here is a long tunic that reaches down
at least to the knees, maybe even the ankles.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote3sym" name="sdfootnote3anc"><sup>3</sup></a>
Unlike flimsy fig leaves, they're stiffer stuff, able to not only
visually obstruct their bodies but also protect them from the
elements, from “blazing sun, chilling wind, or pouring rain.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote4sym" name="sdfootnote4anc"><sup>4</sup></a>
Now, God doesn't </span><span style="font-style: normal;"><u>have</u></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
to do this. He could just let them spend their whole lives doing
little more than stitching leaf to leaf! But generously, before he
sends them out to face the consequences of sin, he provides something
to ease the harshness of the world. And to that end, having stopped
his work of 'making' on the seventh day, God goes back to 'making,'
all for the sake of mercy.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote5sym" name="sdfootnote5anc"><sup>5</sup></a>
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Not
only are they a protection, though, they're a privilege. The word
for 'garments' here is used by Moses for the 'tunics' that Aaron and
his sons will wear as their priestly vestments (Exodus 29:5-9;
Leviticus 8:7).<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote6sym" name="sdfootnote6anc"><sup>6</sup></a>
These vestments given to Adam and Eve are more than just the
customary clothes of a caveman; they show that the man and woman go
forth invested as priests who maintain a relationship with God. The
L</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
God stooped down and peeled the fig leaves away, destroying the
covering they've tried to make for themselves; he exposed their
shamefully bare nature. But then the hand of the L</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
gently </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“clothed
them”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
in what they had no way to get themselves (Genesis 3:21). By God's
“caring authority,” he shows his commitment to not give up on us,
to cover us when we confess we're naked and poor, to welcome us, to
dignify us.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote7sym" name="sdfootnote7anc"><sup>7</sup></a>
We're rightly moved when the father runs to the prodigal son and
throws a robe over him as he comes home; but this is the Father
giving the fine robe as the prodigal son leaves in the first place!
These vestments are astonishing symbols of the authority and dominion
that the man and woman will still bear in the world beyond the garden
as God's images and as God's beloved.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote8sym" name="sdfootnote8anc"><sup>8</sup></a></span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">But
this intimacy and power of grace, while free to the man and woman,
still has its cost. These are, we're told, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“garments
of skins”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 3:21). And to make body-length tunics for two, no animal
has that much skin to spare and then just go about its day. God's
provision comes at the cost of some animal's life.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote9sym" name="sdfootnote9anc"><sup>9</sup></a>
Something had to die in order for the man and woman's shame and
vulnerability to be covered, in order for them to be reinvested with
status and authority, in order for them to be equipped to still
minister to God outside the garden. </span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Sin
is a costly thing that can't merely be papered over or dismissed. To
get by in the world will be painful and messy and at least a little
bit brutal. For even here, in this dawning moment, some beast has
died for our sake. And whatever it was, it won't be the last. The
priest who slew a guilt-offering was entitled to its skin (Leviticus
7:8). And so, as they say goodbye to the garden of God, man and
woman wear the skins of a dead beast over their own naked skin, a
constant reminder of “the profound consequences of their choice for
disobedience.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote10sym" name="sdfootnote10anc"><sup>10</sup></a>
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Now
</span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“the human
called his wife's name 'Eve,' because she was the mother of all
living”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 3:20). Adam and Eve – their names mean 'Human' and
'Make-Alive.'<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote11sym" name="sdfootnote11anc"><sup>11</sup></a>
And to call her 'Mother of All Living' is a profound gesture Genesis
makes; among Israel's pagan neighbors, that kind of title was
reserved for mother goddesses.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote12sym" name="sdfootnote12anc"><sup>12</sup></a>
He calls her that in advance. But now, in the world outside God's
garden, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“Adam
knew Eve his wife, and she conceived, and she bore”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 4:1). They were told to </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“be
fruitful and multiply,”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
and the original blessing remains intact despite the curse (Genesis
1:28). In fact, this conception and labor are carried out </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“with
the L</span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></i></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 4:1). Despite how challenging and uncomfortable Eve finds
the process, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“with
God all things are possible”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
after all (Matthew 19:26).<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote13sym" name="sdfootnote13anc"><sup>13</sup></a>
God </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“makes
her the joyous mother of children”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Psalm 113:9).</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">And
so </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“she bore
Cain, and she said: 'I have gotten a man!'”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 4:1). It's a curious thing for her to say. The verb she
uses, </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">q</span></i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">ā</span></i></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">n</span></i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">îtî</span></i></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">,
is used elsewhere for acquiring wisdom (Proverbs 1:5), owning
livestock (Isaiah 1:3), buying a field (Jeremiah 32:44), buying a
lamb (2 Samuel 12:3), buying clothing (Jeremiah 13:2), even buying a
slave (Exodus 21:2). It's a commercial word, a property word, an
ownership word. Eve's claiming what she's conceived and birthed as
her purchase, her property, her possession. In more special
circumstances, though, this is also the word used for God as the
Producer of heaven and earth (Genesis 14:19), as the one who created
Israel (Deuteronomy 32:6), as the one who forms our innermost parts
before we're born (Psalm 139:13). Eve's laying credit to forming,
fashioning, forging, manufacturing a man.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote14sym" name="sdfootnote14anc"><sup>14</sup></a>
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">In
Genesis 2, the woman was depicted as derived from the man (Genesis
2:23); now she, as woman, asserts her womanly power as the source of
man from henceforth.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote15sym" name="sdfootnote15anc"><sup>15</sup></a>
She concedes, at the end, a role for God – </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“I
have gotten a man with the L</span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></i></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 4:1) – but casts herself as his colleague, as though Cain
were the fruit of a group project they'd worked on.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote16sym" name="sdfootnote16anc"><sup>16</sup></a>
But it's almost like she's his competitor as well: “Now it's not
just you who manufacture men, L</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">;
what you do, I do too!” She “puts herself on par with the Lord
as creator,” and so Cain's very name is testimony to the same
grasping after godhood that led her to snatch the forbidden fruit.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote17sym" name="sdfootnote17anc"><sup>17</sup></a>
It isn't a sign of a healthy attitude: in her son whom she
manufactured and owns, she has a man, she thinks, like a new husband,
who won't disappoint in the way Adam does; he'll be “the apple of
his mother's eye.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote18sym" name="sdfootnote18anc"><sup>18</sup></a>
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><i>“And
she added to bear his brother Abel”</i></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 4:2). He comes across as an afterthought. His name gets no
comment, because its meaning is obvious to anybody who speaks Hebrew.
It's a pretty common word in the Old Testament, often translated
'vanity,' but really meaning 'breath' or 'mist' or 'vapor.' It
refers to something so fragile it can easily be blown away, something
on the verge of dissipating the moment you see it,<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote19sym" name="sdfootnote19anc"><sup>19</sup></a>
“something insubstantial and evanescent.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote20sym" name="sdfootnote20anc"><sup>20</sup></a>
It's a pretty odd name for a baby boy; perhaps he was a small and
weak child, not expected to last long, the kind for whom Adam
might've stayed up late into the night praying for a miracle.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote21sym" name="sdfootnote21anc"><sup>21</sup></a>
And, of course, there's no doubt some foreshadowing here: Abel's
really won't be a long life on earth.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote22sym" name="sdfootnote22anc"><sup>22</sup></a>
</span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“Leave me
alone,”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Job tells his friends, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“for
my days are a vapor”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Job 7:16). Abel could've said that just as well.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">The
fact that Genesis only mentions once that Adam knew his wife or that
she conceived, and then narrates two births, has led many to suggest
that Cain and Abel might be implied to be twins.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote23sym" name="sdfootnote23anc"><sup>23</sup></a>
If so, they make quite the contrast: one born so robust he's
portrayed as a full-grown man straight from the womb, and his brother
born so frail he was practically named 'Temporary,' 'Don't-Count-on-It,' 'Here-Today-Gone-Tomorrow.' And together
they paint a portrait of the world as we find it outside God's
garden. Cain shows us the world through the lens of pride and
possession. He tells us there's no limit to human potential, nothing
to thwart our glory. In Cain's world, the way to get by is to get
ahead, to work hard, to put yourself first and achieve all you can
imagine. His whole life will be stamped by the dynamic of owning and
being owned. His is the world viewed by economists, industrialists,
technologists; he's the manufactured man, the quantifiable man. To
live in Cain-world is to live for grabbing and getting, a world of
invention and production, of seeking salvation on an assembly line.
It's a world bought and sold a trillion times a minute, a world we
demand to reshape and repair and remortgage, a factory model of
markets and might, suffused with objects and efforts, a world we
imagine we can master through ingenuity and elbow grease.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">But
then Abel is born: </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“Vapor
of vapors! Everything is vapor! What profit does an adam have by all
the toil which he toils under the sun?”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Ecclesiastes 1:2-3). So says Ecclesiastes, which might as well be
called the Book of Abel. Everything Cain represents is unmasked
therein as an “ultimate emptiness and fruitlessness.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote24sym" name="sdfootnote24anc"><sup>24</sup></a>
</span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“All toil and
all skill in work,”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
everything Cain was all about, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“come
from a man's envy of his neighbor: this also is vapor and grasping
after wind”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Ecclesiastes 4:4). </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“So
I hated life, because what was done under the sun was grievous to me,
for everything is vapor and grasping after wind”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Ecclesiastes 2:17). </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“Adam
is like a vapor; his days are like a passing shadow”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Psalm 144:4). </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“Surely
every adam stands as entirely vapor”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Psalm 39:5). Human life turns out to be 100% Abel. All we are is
dust in the wind. And so are all these nice things that share this
Abel-world with us. Things fall apart. If Cain shows us the world
through a lens of pride and possession, Abel shows it through a lens
of peril and pointlessness. Nothing in life is certain but death and
taxes. </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“Time
and chance happen to [us] all”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Ecclesiastes 9:11). Nothing we can do amounts to more than children
building sandcastles on a beach holiday, or a fool trying to shoot
down the moon with bow and arrow.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote25sym" name="sdfootnote25anc"><sup>25</sup></a></span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">As
one author puts it, “where the name 'Cain' speaks of grasping after
divinity, then, the name 'Abel' signifies the transient nature of
human existence.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote26sym" name="sdfootnote26anc"><sup>26</sup></a>
The hopes of Cain are thwarted by Abel every time, and Cain will
make sure of it. Here we have the world outside the garden: pride
raising its own peril, possessiveness proving pointlessness, and the
vicious cycle locks us into a desperate combat to secure the
impossible. The more we see that nothing lasts, the more anxiously
we crave to cobble together something certain; and the more
frantically we try, the more we damage the world and hasten its
dissipation. Now that's a Cain-and-Abel world we're in.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">It
wasn't meant to be that way, of course. In the beginning, we were
made originally righteous, innocent, by “a definite gift of grace
divinely bestowed upon all human nature in the first parent.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote27sym" name="sdfootnote27anc"><sup>27</sup></a>
If Adam and Eve hadn't sinned, then at the moment of our conception
God would've given each of us that same added gift of a total
rightness inside and out, key to operating human nature the right
way.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote28sym" name="sdfootnote28anc"><sup>28</sup></a>
In Genesis 3, we watched Adam and Eve lose that innocence, but we
might hope that when their children are born, they'll enter even the
world outside the garden as innocents who have the same inner health
Adam and Eve had.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">But
it turns out that the answer to that is no. As St. Augustine put it,
“the transgression of those two,” of Adam and Eve, “ought to be
understood as so great a sin that it could change for the worse the
nature of all who are born of man and woman and could bind them with
a common guilt.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote29sym" name="sdfootnote29anc"><sup>29</sup></a>
Original righteousness was ripped off human nature violently,
leaving human nature itself naked and wounded in all who are born to
it, starting here in Genesis 4. In Cain and Abel alike, Adam and Eve
“begat sons who still carry with them the original sin of their
unfaithful progenitor.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote30sym" name="sdfootnote30anc"><sup>30</sup></a>
Or, to use the Bible's own words, Cain and Abel could both look back
and sing in unison the psalm: </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“I
was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Psalm 51:5).</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">The
Apostle Paul explains that </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“by
the one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Romans 5:19). Each one of us can say, “In Adam </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><u>I</u></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
fell, in Adam </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><u>I</u></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
was cast out of paradise..., in Adam </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><u>I</u></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
am guilty of sin.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote31sym" name="sdfootnote31anc"><sup>31</sup></a>
It's right there in the Bible: </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“the
trespass of one led to condemnation for all humans”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Romans 5:18). “As an inheritance, Adam left his children... not
freedom but bondage..., not salvation but destruction.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote32sym" name="sdfootnote32anc"><sup>32</sup></a>
Paul says it without mincing words: as Adam's descendants, we are
all born </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“children,
by nature, of wrath”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Ephesians 2:3).</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">So
the early Christians recognized that “every soul... born in Adam...
is unclean,” and “sinful, too, because it is unclean.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote33sym" name="sdfootnote33anc"><sup>33</sup></a>
That includes Cain. It also includes Abel.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote34sym" name="sdfootnote34anc"><sup>34</sup></a>
And me, and you, and your great-grandkids. Not only after they grow
up, but from the very beginning. “All the children of Adam were in
him infected by the contagion of sin,”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote35sym" name="sdfootnote35anc"><sup>35</sup></a>
hence why the birth of every child in Israel called for a
sin-offering (Leviticus 12:6).<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote36sym" name="sdfootnote36anc"><sup>36</sup></a>
“No one is without sin, not even an infant one day old, although
he never committed a sin” in his own person,<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote37sym" name="sdfootnote37anc"><sup>37</sup></a>
they said, for a newborn baby “has not sinned at all, except that,
born carnally according to Adam, he has contracted the contagion of
the first death from the first nativity.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote38sym" name="sdfootnote38anc"><sup>38</sup></a>
“All souls, even those of infants..., contract original sin.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote39sym" name="sdfootnote39anc"><sup>39</sup></a>
That's because “the human nature in which each of us is born of
Adam... is not in good health,” because it has a “defect which
darkens and weakens” it.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote40sym" name="sdfootnote40anc"><sup>40</sup></a>
This “defect stemming from the origin remains in the offspring to
make them guilty.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote41sym" name="sdfootnote41anc"><sup>41</sup></a>
So “no one is born of Adam who is not bound by the chain of sin
and condemnation;”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote42sym" name="sdfootnote42anc"><sup>42</sup></a>
“absolutely everyone who has been born is held guilty.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote43sym" name="sdfootnote43anc"><sup>43</sup></a>
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Those
aren't my words; they're the words of Christians from the first four
centuries of the faith, before Patrick began to evangelize Ireland.
As sons of Adam, as daughters of Eve, “we are invariably
fellow-travelers away from God” even as he forms us in our mother's
womb.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote44sym" name="sdfootnote44anc"><sup>44</sup></a>
We have an obligation to be in a right relationship with God, to be
at peace with God, but we are born outside that relationship, born
inheriting a fallen state, born as heirs of a war declared on God.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote45sym" name="sdfootnote45anc"><sup>45</sup></a>
Even though we didn't choose it, we're born guilty of being on the
wrong side of it. From our first infant cry, Adam's generating
influence is reaching down through the ages, connecting us to his
sinful will.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote46sym" name="sdfootnote46anc"><sup>46</sup></a>
Since Adam represented us all before God, human nature itself was
declared guilty in him, and so what we inherit is guilty, even before
we've had a chance to will anything sinful as newborn individuals.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote47sym" name="sdfootnote47anc"><sup>47</sup></a>
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">It's
not just a silly outdated idea, either. John Wesley reminded us that
“all men are conceived in sin and shapen in wickedness,”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote48sym" name="sdfootnote48anc"><sup>48</sup></a>
so that each person born in descent from Adam and Eve is “justly
punishable for it.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote49sym" name="sdfootnote49anc"><sup>49</sup></a>
Our own denomination's articles of faith confess this, too. Each
one of us suffers from a “disordered disposition,” a “corrupt
habit of sorts” through which “the various powers of the soul
strain towards conflicting objectives.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote50sym" name="sdfootnote50anc"><sup>50</sup></a>
That inner disorder we're born with and guilty of explains why
“human nature is now defective so that we are all prone to [actual]
sin.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote51sym" name="sdfootnote51anc"><sup>51</sup></a>
Original sin doesn't coerce us into putting sin into practice – we
have free will – but, living with the effects of original sin,
universally we actually sin once we get the chance.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote52sym" name="sdfootnote52anc"><sup>52</sup></a>
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">That
might sound like an incredibly gloomy, dreary, and offensive message
– that we should look into an infant face and see not only the
precious image of God but also the presence of disorder, guilt, sin,
judgment. But the reason why the Church came to so strongly insist
on this original sin idea is because, if original sin isn't true,
then “not all would be in need of redemption through Christ.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote53sym" name="sdfootnote53anc"><sup>53</sup></a>
The Church came to this deep understanding of original sin by
reasoning backwards from the beautiful reality of our redemption in
Jesus!</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">It
all adds up from one practice and two convictions. First, the
practice: the early church baptized babies. We can't find a time
when we see Christians unwilling to baptize babies. Our earliest
witnesses say the Church got it as “a tradition from the apostles
to give baptism even to little children,”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote54sym" name="sdfootnote54anc"><sup>54</sup></a>
and the New Testament itself shows us cases of whole households being
baptized together, babies and all (Acts 16:33). If “no one is
prevented from baptism and grace,” one early bishop said, “how
much more should an infant not be prohibited?”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote55sym" name="sdfootnote55anc"><sup>55</sup></a>
Second, the first conviction: there are not two different kinds of
baptism. They got that straight from the Apostle Paul, who says
outright in the Bible: </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“one
Lord, one faith, one baptism”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Ephesians 4:5). Third, the other conviction: baptism is an answer
to sin and guilt. They got that from the Apostle Peter, who
</span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“baptized...
for the forgiveness of your sins”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Acts 2:38), and from Ananias who baptized Paul to </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“wash
away [his] sins”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Acts 22:16).</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">So,
they reasoned, babies are baptized, and baptism is to wash away the
guilt of sin. Could they be baptized for some other reason? No,
because then there'd be two different kinds of baptism, but we know
there's only one. So if babies are baptized, then “the Church
certainly baptizes” them “for a true forgiveness of sins.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote56sym" name="sdfootnote56anc"><sup>56</sup></a>
For “if there were nothing in infants that ought to pertain to
forgiveness..., then the grace of baptism would appear superfluous.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote57sym" name="sdfootnote57anc"><sup>57</sup></a>
But what in infants could need forgiving, if they haven't committed
any sins of their own? The early church answered: “In the case of
little children, original sin is removed by baptism.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote58sym" name="sdfootnote58anc"><sup>58</sup></a>
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Whether
we accept all their premises or not, that's how the early church
reasoned their way there. “The first birth holds human beings
under the condemnation from which only the second birth sets them
free.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote59sym" name="sdfootnote59anc"><sup>59</sup></a>
That's why Jesus says, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“You
must be born again!”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(John 3:7). “Who will be so bold,” they ask, “to say that
Christ is not the Savior and Redeemer of infants? But from what does
he save them if they don't have the disease of original sin?”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote60sym" name="sdfootnote60anc"><sup>60</sup></a>
So, they concluded, on account of original sin, “it is necessary
even for infants to be reborn in Christ,”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote61sym" name="sdfootnote61anc"><sup>61</sup></a>
to be “released from the bonds of sin through the grace of Christ
the Mediator.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote62sym" name="sdfootnote62anc"><sup>62</sup></a>
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">This
dark doctrine of original sin is actually meant to cast into relief
the bigger truth that “every human being, even the littlest, is
called to the knowledge and love of Christ.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote63sym" name="sdfootnote63anc"><sup>63</sup></a>
And if that's true of even a baby at her first breath, if it was
true of infant Abel and child Cain, then how can any of us ever doubt
that </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">we're</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
called to Christ, that salvation is meant for the likes of us? For
the Lord's faithful grace “has the same fullness of power... in the
action, confession, and forgiveness of sins in every sex, age, and
condition of the human race.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote64sym" name="sdfootnote64anc"><sup>64</sup></a>
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Just
as the sin of Adam and Eve was covered by garments God made, so Cain
and Abel, though born naked and poor, need not stay that way. Even
out of God's garden, Adam and Eve could knit and sew clothes of
cotton and wool and animal skins for their children, and undoubtedly
they did. But spiritually, Cain and Abel don't have to stay naked
and poor either. They, like every child, like every adult, can be
clothed by God. </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“For
as many of you as were baptized into Christ”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
– even if in the very hour you opened your eyes outside the garden
– </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“have put
on Christ”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
as a vestment infinitely nobler than what Adam and Eve wore
(Galatians 3:27). And so we can thank God that, though we're out in
this world of pride and peril, of possessiveness and pointlessness,
although we're born in sin and all we grasp at is only chasing the
wind, Christ welcomes us one and all with this same promise, even in
our Cain-and-Abel world: </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“Let
the little children come unto me”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Matthew 19:14). Amen.<span></span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<div id="sdfootnote1">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote1anc" name="sdfootnote1sym">1</a> Bede,
<i>On Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 4:1, in
</span><i>Translated Texts for Historians</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
48:140.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote2">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote2anc" name="sdfootnote2sym">2</a> C.
John Collins, <i>Genesis 1-4: A Linguistic, Literary, and
Theological Commentary</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (P&R
Publishing, 2005), 175.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote3">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote3anc" name="sdfootnote3sym">3</a> Bruce
K. Waltke, <i>Genesis: A Commentary</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Zondervan Academic, 2001), 95.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote4">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote4anc" name="sdfootnote4sym">4</a> Mitchell
L. Chase, <i>Short of Glory: A Biblical and Theological Exploration
of the Fall</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Crossway, 2023),
166; cf. Zvi Grumet, </span><i>Genesis: From Creation to Covenant</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
Maggid Studies in Tanakh (Maggid Books, 2017), 55.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote5">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote5anc" name="sdfootnote5sym">5</a> Kenneth
A. Mathews, <i>Genesis 1-11</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
Christian Standard Commentary (Holman Reference, 2023), 208.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote6">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote6anc" name="sdfootnote6sym">6</a> Seth
D. Postell, <i>Adam as Israel: Genesis 1-3 as the Introduction to
Torah and Tanakh</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Wipf &
Stock, 2011), 112; G. Geoffrey Harper, </span><i>“I Will Walk Among
You”: The Rhetorical Function of Allusion to Genesis 1-3 in the
Book of Leviticus</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Eisenbrauns,
2018), 157-158; Gregg Davidson and J. Kenneth Turner, </span><i>The
Manifold Beauty of Genesis One: A Multi-Layered Approach</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Kregel Academic, 2021), 109.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote7">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote7anc" name="sdfootnote7sym">7</a> Friedhelm
Hartenstein, “Clothing and Nudity in the Paradise Story (Gen.
2-3),” in Christoph Berner, Manuel Sch<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">ä</span>fer,
Martin Scott, Sarah Schulz, and Martina Weing<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">ä</span>rtner,
eds., <i>Clothing and Nudity in the Hebrew Bible</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(T&T Clark, 2019), 373.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote8">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote8anc" name="sdfootnote8sym">8</a> David
W. Cotter, <i>Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, Berit
Olam (Liturgical Press, 2003), 35-36. Cf. Wisdom of Solomon 10:1-2.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote9">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote9anc" name="sdfootnote9sym">9</a> Matthew
S. Harmon, <i>Rebels and Exiles: A Biblical Theology of Sin and
Restoration</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Crossway, 2020),
16-17; Brial Neil Peterson, </span><i>Genesis: A Pentecostal
Commentary</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Brill, 2022), 55;
Christopher Watkin, </span><i>Biblical Critical Theory: How the
Bible's Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Zondervan Academic, 2022), 176; Mitchell L. Chase, </span><i>Short
of Glory: A Biblical and Theological Exploration of the Fall</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Crossway, 2023), 167.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote10">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote10anc" name="sdfootnote10sym">10</a> Raymond
R. Hausoul, <i>God's Future For Animals: From Creation to New
Creation</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Wipf & Stock,
2021), 71. Cf. Martin Luther, </span><i>Lectures on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
3:21, in </span><i>Luther's Works</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1:221 (“a sign that they are mortal and that they are living in
certain death”).</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote11">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote11anc" name="sdfootnote11sym">11</a> Richard
S. Hess, <i>Studies in the Personal Names of Genesis 1-11</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eisenbrauns, 2009), 23.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote12">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote12anc" name="sdfootnote12sym">12</a> Nahum
M. Sarna, <i>Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, JPS Torah
Commentary (Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 29.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote13">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote13anc" name="sdfootnote13sym">13</a> John
Goldingay, <i>Genesis</i>, Baker Commentary on the Old Testament<span style="font-style: normal;"> (Baker
Academic, 2020), 94; Brian Neil Peterson, </span><i>Genesis: A
Pentecostal Commentary</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Brill,
2022), 57.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote14">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote14anc" name="sdfootnote14sym">14</a><span style="font-style: normal;"> C.
John Collins, </span><i>Genesis 1-4: A Linguistic, Literary, and
Theological Commentary</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (P&R
Publishing, 2005), 196-197; John Day, </span><i>From Creation to
Abraham: Further Studies on Genesis 1-11</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(T&T Clark, 2021), 78-80.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote15">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote15anc" name="sdfootnote15sym">15</a> Nahum
M. Sarna, <i>Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Jewish
Publication Society, 1989), 32; Bruce K. Waltke, </span><i>Genesis:
A Commentary</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Zondervan
Academic, 2001), 96; Kenneth A. Mathews, </span><i>Genesis 1-11</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Holman Reference, 2023), 219.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote16">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote16anc" name="sdfootnote16sym">16</a> Zvi
Grumet, <i>Genesis: From Creation to Covenant</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
Maggid Studies in Tanakh (Maggid Books, 2017), 57.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote17">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote17anc" name="sdfootnote17sym">17</a> John
Byron, <i>Cain and Abel in Text and Tradition: Jewish and Christian
Interpretations of the First Sibling Rivalry</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Brill, 2011), 15; Iain Provan, </span><i>Discovering Genesis:
Content, Interpretation, Reception</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eerdmans, 2016), 99.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote18">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote18anc" name="sdfootnote18sym">18</a> Zvi
Grumet, <i>Genesis: From Creation to Covenant</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
Maggid Studies in Tanakh (Maggid Books, 2017), 57.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote19">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote19anc" name="sdfootnote19sym">19</a> James
McKeown, <i>Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, Two
Horizons Old Testament Commentary (Eerdmans, 2008), 40; Joseph E. Coleson, <i>Genesis 1-11: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition</i> (Beacon Hill Press, 2012), 152; James
Chukwuma Okoye, </span><i>Genesis 1-11: A Narrative-Theological
Commentary</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Wipf & Stock,
2018), 78.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote20">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote20anc" name="sdfootnote20sym">20</a> John
Goldingay, <i>Genesis</i>, Baker Commentary on the Old Testament<span style="font-style: normal;"> (Baker
Academic, 2020), 95.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote21">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote21anc" name="sdfootnote21sym">21</a> Richard
S. Hess, <i>Studies in the Personal Names of Genesis 1-11</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eisenbrauns, 2009), 27-28.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote22">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote22anc" name="sdfootnote22sym">22</a> Bruce
K. Waltke, <i>Genesis: A Commentary</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Zondervan Academic, 2001), 97.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote23">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote23anc" name="sdfootnote23sym">23</a> John
Byron, <i>Cain and Abel in Text and Tradition: Jewish and Christian Interpretations of the First Sibling Rivalry</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Brill, 2011), 20-21; John Goldingay, </span><i>Genesis</i>, Baker Commentary on the Old Testament<span style="font-style: normal;">
(Baker Academic, 2020), 95.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote24">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote24anc" name="sdfootnote24sym">24</a> John
Goldingay, <i>Genesis</i>, Baker Commentary on the Old Testament<span style="font-style: normal;"> (Baker
Academic, 2020), 95.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote25">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote25anc" name="sdfootnote25sym">25</a> Gregory
of Nyssa, <i>Homilies on Ecclesiastes</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1:2, in Stuart G. Hall, ed., </span><i>Gregory of Nyssa: Homilies on Ecclesiastes: An English Version with Supporting Studies</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Walter de Gruyter, 1993), 35.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote26">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote26anc" name="sdfootnote26sym">26</a> Iain
W. Provan, <i>Seriously Dangerous Religion: What the Old Testament
Really Says and Why It Matters</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Baylor University Press, 2014), 193.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote27">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote27anc" name="sdfootnote27sym">27</a> Thomas
Aquinas, <i>Summa theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I-II, q.81, a.2, in </span><i>Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
26:15.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote28">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote28anc" name="sdfootnote28sym">28</a> Paul
A. Macdonald Jr., <i>God, Evil, and Redeeming Good: A Thomistic
Theodicy</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Routledge, 2023),
103-104.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote29">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote29anc" name="sdfootnote29sym">29</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>Unfinished Work in Answer to Julian</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
6.21.A7, in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/25:656.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote30">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote30anc" name="sdfootnote30sym">30</a> Paulus
Orosius, <i>Defense Against the Pelagians</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
26, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
99:153.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote31">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote31anc" name="sdfootnote31sym">31</a> Ambrose
of Milan, <i>On the Death of His Brother Satyrus</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2.6, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
22:200.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote32">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote32anc" name="sdfootnote32sym">32</a> Melito
of Sardis, <i>On the Passover</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
49, in </span><i>Popular Patristics Series</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
55:64-65.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote33">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote33anc" name="sdfootnote33sym">33</a> Tertullian
of Carthage, <i>On the Soul</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
40.1, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
10:271.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote34">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote34anc" name="sdfootnote34sym">34</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>Nature and Grace</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
36 </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">42,
in </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Works of
Saint Augustine</i></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/23:246.</span></span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote35">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote35anc" name="sdfootnote35sym">35</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>Unfinished Work in Answer to Julian</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
6.22.A12, in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/25:660.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote36">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote36anc" name="sdfootnote36sym">36</a> Origen
of Alexandria, <i>Commentary on Romans</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
5.9.11, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
103:366-367.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote37">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote37anc" name="sdfootnote37sym">37</a> Ambrose
of Milan, <i>Cain and Abel</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 1.3
</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">10,
in </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Fathers of
the Church: A New Translation</i></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">
42:366.</span></span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote38">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote38anc" name="sdfootnote38sym">38</a> Cyprian
of Carthage, <i>Letter</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 64.5, in
</span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
51:219.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote39">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote39anc" name="sdfootnote39sym">39</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>Letter</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 190.5, in
</span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
II/3:269.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote40">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote40anc" name="sdfootnote40sym">40</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>Nature and Grace</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
3, in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/23:226.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote41">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote41anc" name="sdfootnote41sym">41</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>The Grace of Christ and Original Sin</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2.39 </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">44,
in </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Works of
Saint Augustine</i></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/23:457.</span></span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote42">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote42anc" name="sdfootnote42sym">42</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>Letter</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 190.3, in
</span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
II/3:265.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote43">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote43anc" name="sdfootnote43sym">43</a> Pope Zosimus
of Rome, <i>Tractoria</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, quoted
in Augustine of Hippo, </span><i>Letter</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
190.23, in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
II/3:274.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote44">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote44anc" name="sdfootnote44sym">44</a> R.
R. Reno, <i>Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, Brazos
Theological Commentary (Brazos Press, 2010), 97.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote45">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote45anc" name="sdfootnote45sym">45</a> Paul
A. Macdonald Jr., <i>God, Evil, and Redeeming Good: A Thomistic
Theodicy</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Routledge, 2023),
126.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote46">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote46anc" name="sdfootnote46sym">46</a> Paul
A. Macdonald Jr., <i>God, Evil, and Redeeming Good: A Thomistic
Theodicy</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Routledge, 2023),
122.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote47">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote47anc" name="sdfootnote47sym">47</a> Paul
A. Macdonald Jr., <i>God, Evil, and Redeeming Good: A Thomistic
Theodicy</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Routledge, 2023),
123.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote48">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote48anc" name="sdfootnote48sym">48</a> John
Wesley, <i>Sermon </i><span style="font-style: normal;">44.3.1, in
</span><i>The Works of John Wesley</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2:183.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote49">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote49anc" name="sdfootnote49sym">49</a> John
Wesley, <i>The Doctrine of Original Sin</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2.1.5, in </span><i>The Works of John Wesley</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
12:217.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote50">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote50anc" name="sdfootnote50sym">50</a> Thomas
Aquinas, <i>Summa theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I-II, q.82, aa.1-2, in </span><i>Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
26:31-37.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote51">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote51anc" name="sdfootnote51sym">51</a> Thomas
Aquinas, <i>Summa theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I-II, q.80, a.4, in </span><i>Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
25:229.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote52">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote52anc" name="sdfootnote52sym">52</a> Paul
A. Macdonald Jr., <i>God, Evil, and Redeeming Good: A Thomistic
Theodicy</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Routledge, 2023),
104.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote53">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote53anc" name="sdfootnote53sym">53</a> Thomas
Aquinas, <i>Summa theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I-II, q.81, a.3, in </span><i>Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
26:17.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote54">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote54anc" name="sdfootnote54sym">54</a> Origen
of Alexandria, <i>Commentary on Romans</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
5.9.11, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
103:367.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote55">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote55anc" name="sdfootnote55sym">55</a> Cyprian
of Carthage, <i>Letter</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 64.5, in
</span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
51:219.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote56">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote56anc" name="sdfootnote56sym">56</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>Letter</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 190.15, in
</span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
II/3:269; cf. Origen of Alexandria, </span><i>Homilies on Luke</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
14.5, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
94:58 (“little children are baptized for the remission of sins”).</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote57">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote57anc" name="sdfootnote57sym">57</a> Origen
of Alexandria, <i>Homilies on Leviticus</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
8.3.5, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
83:158.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote58">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote58anc" name="sdfootnote58sym">58</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>Punishment and Forgiveness of Sins</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1.9, in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/23:38.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote59">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote59anc" name="sdfootnote59sym">59</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>The Grace of Christ and Original Sin</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2.39 </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">45,
in </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Works of
Saint Augustine</i></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/23:458.</span></span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote60">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote60anc" name="sdfootnote60sym">60</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>Punishment and Forgiveness of Sins</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1.23 </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">33,
in </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Works of
Saint Augustine</i></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/23:53.</span></span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote61">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote61anc" name="sdfootnote61sym">61</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>Letter</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 202A.17, in
</span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
II/3:369.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote62">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote62anc" name="sdfootnote62sym">62</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>City of God</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 13.3,
in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/7:71.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote63">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote63anc" name="sdfootnote63sym">63</a> Daniel
W. Houck, <i>Aquinas, Original Sin, and the Challenge of Evolution</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Cambridge University Press, 2020), 257.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote64">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote64anc" name="sdfootnote64sym">64</a> Pope Zosimus
of Rome, <i>Tractoria</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, quoted
in Augustine of Hippo, </span><i>Letter </i><span style="font-style: normal;">190.23,
in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
II/3:273.</span></span></p>
</div>
JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13108158469007498050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442509839497082978.post-24162233795723579732024-03-03T10:49:00.001-05:002024-03-03T14:16:16.365-05:00The First Gospel<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">We've listened in as the
serpent whispered his power of confusion into the woman's ear. We've
gazed at the fruit in all its delectable allure. We've tasted with
the woman, and the man, the sweetness of sin and its rot. We've
endured the spiral of shame, the growth of guilt, the frantic force
of fear. We've panicked and bellowed blame every which way. We've
toiled under the catastrophic weight of the curse. We've said a
tearful goodbye to our paradise lost, and ventured out to the land of
thorns and thistles where our tombs will be. But in the course of
wringing all these tragic meanings out of Genesis chapter 3, there's
one little note we've passed by, one glimmer in the dark. For this
all began with a serpent, and before our penalties are even
mentioned, he's got to get his.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“<i>The L<span style="font-size: x-small;">ORD</span>
God said to the serpent, 'Because you have done this'”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
– because you deceived the woman who did you no wrong, because you
twisted and mocked and spread doubt, because you cast the holy name
of God into disrepute, </span><i>“cursed are you above all
livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall
go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 3:14). Now, the surface meaning is that God has a problem
with the animal we call a snake.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote1sym" name="sdfootnote1anc"><sup>1</sup></a>
Formerly, the snake was the most cunning of wild beasts; now, it's
the most cursed of wild and domestic alike, an exile from the
animals.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote2sym" name="sdfootnote2anc"><sup>2</sup></a>
The snake gets around not by flying, swimming, walking, but
slithering, wriggling its body over the earth. Their tongues flicker
in and out to augment smell; it looks like they lick up dust as food.
As far as </span><i>“enmity”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
goes, even infants instinctively are wary of snakes,<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote3sym" name="sdfootnote3anc"><sup>3</sup></a>
and “many species of primates are deeply afraid of snakes.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote4sym" name="sdfootnote4anc"><sup>4</sup></a>
By some estimates, over 150,000 people die each year from
snakebites, making them the most deadly animal to us besides
mosquitoes and each other.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote5sym" name="sdfootnote5anc"><sup>5</sup></a>
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But
if we're content to leave things at that level of understanding here,
we're missing out. As we've mentioned, the serpent here isn't just
an ordinary snake, as if snakes were cunning conversationalists.
We're dealing with a spiritual power behind the surface of the snake.
Many of Israel's neighbors told stories about cosmic serpents who
set themselves up against the gods. In Egypt, the sun god was under
threat each night from a giant serpent of chaos, and a great deal of
Egyptian religion revolved around keeping this serpent at bay. Among
the Hittites, the storm god had once been defeated by the serpent,
and only with human help was he able to kill this serpent and its
offspring.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote6sym" name="sdfootnote6anc"><sup>6</sup></a>
Among the Canaanites, their god Baal was said to have faced “Litan
the Fleeing Serpent..., the Twisty Serpent, the Potentate with Seven
Heads.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote7sym" name="sdfootnote7anc"><sup>7</sup></a>
The Bible uses that same language: </span><i>“Leviathan the
fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent..., the Dragon that
is in the sea”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Isaiah 27:1),
</span><i>“king over all the sons of pride”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Job 41:34). </span><i>“No one is so fierce that he dares to stir
him up”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Job 41:10).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">So
this isn't simply a common, everyday snake in the first place. This
is </span><i>that</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> serpent, a
spiritual power opposed to divinity, just as the Egyptians and
Hittites and Canaanites and others all could've recognized. Here,
“the nature of the serpent was a symbol of the devil.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote8sym" name="sdfootnote8anc"><sup>8</sup></a>
This is 'the Serpent' with a capital S. The snake seen on the
surface is hiding a fallen angel, an adversarial Satan, a force of
disorder and disruption and danger, the sinuous wellspring of pride,
a Leviathan full of venom that corrodes the soul. And that's whom
God is judging.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“<i>Cursed are you
above all the livestock and all the beasts of the field!”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 3:14). More than any other creature, God curses the devil.
The Serpent is tolerated only for a time. A cosmic war has begun:
the Serpent picked a fight with God, dragging his name through the
mud; in turn, God skewers the Serpent with the words of his curse
(Isaiah 27:1).<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote9sym" name="sdfootnote9anc"><sup>9</sup></a>
In the end, this Serpent will be destroyed, which will mean
creation's salvation.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote10sym" name="sdfootnote10anc"><sup>10</sup></a></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">In
the meantime, </span><i>“on your belly you shall go,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
the L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
announces to the Serpent (Genesis 3:14). The devil – once a lofty
light in heaven, momentarily absorbed in the contemplation of the
perfect good which is God – is now condemned to earthly obsessions,
the muck and the mud of baseness.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote11sym" name="sdfootnote11anc"><sup>11</sup></a>
For the devil to be cast onto his belly is to be a pathetic figure
slithering through the world, since he “forfeited the dignity
accorded him in the beginning and was cast down to earth.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote12sym" name="sdfootnote12anc"><sup>12</sup></a>
The devil is here being restrained, bound from being the menace he'd
otherwise be; cowardice strikes his heart, forced into submission by
God before the war really begins.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote13sym" name="sdfootnote13anc"><sup>13</sup></a>
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“<i>Dust you shall eat
all the days of your life,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
God announces (Genesis 3:14). Just like crawling on the ground,
licking or eating dust was a posture of extreme humiliation in the
ancient world.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote14sym" name="sdfootnote14anc"><sup>14</sup></a>
To 'eat dust' was a Near Eastern way of describing what it was like
to be dead: people in the underworld were pictured as “those who
long for light, who eat dust and live on clay.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote15sym" name="sdfootnote15anc"><sup>15</sup></a>
No matter how much of our dust he eats, no</span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
matter how much destruction he causes, it doesn't nourish or satisfy
the devil: he's starving on this dusty diet, frustrated, pained.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote16sym" name="sdfootnote16anc"><sup>16</sup></a></span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">God
goes on: </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“I
will put enmity between you and the woman”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 3:15), that is, the devil </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“with
the power of death”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Hebrews 2:14) will be made an enemy to </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“the
mother of all living”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 3:20). “I will make the woman your implacable enemy,”
God's saying.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote17sym" name="sdfootnote17anc"><sup>17</sup></a>
For a moment in the story, it seemed like the Serpent had won the
woman for his partner, his ally, virtually his vessel in leading
humanity astray. But now that budding alliance is blessedly ripped
asunder, divorced, turned into burning hatred, as the scales fall off
her eyes and she at last can recognize all the Serpent's abuse for
what it is – and she will be his furious foe.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote18sym" name="sdfootnote18anc"><sup>18</sup></a>
This is no merely mild mutual dislike; it's a state of war, a hatred
on which life and death hang.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote19sym" name="sdfootnote19anc"><sup>19</sup></a>
And this hostile condition, this bold antipathy, this open enmity
between the Serpent and the Woman, is enforced by the word of God.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote20sym" name="sdfootnote20anc"><sup>20</sup></a></span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">“<i>I
will put enmity,”</i></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
the L</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
elaborates, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“between
your seed and her seed.”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Not only are the Serpent and the Woman personally opposed, but from
each will descend dueling lineages locked in a mortal combat
throughout time: </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“He
shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 3:15). There is, there must be, an instinctive opposition
between everything truly human in us, everything that comes from the
mother of life, and the darkness that roams the world. There's
common grace hereby placed in us that, despite our sinfulness, will
burst through and resist the dark. “Reconciliation with the Evil
One is harmful... Accordingly,” St. Basil said, “the devil has
remained our opponent because of the fall that came upon us due to
his abuse long ago. So the Lord has planned for us wrestling with
him so that we would wrestle through obedience and triumph over the
Adversary.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote21sym" name="sdfootnote21anc"><sup>21</sup></a>
This long war is part of God's curse against the Serpent, who
expected no resistance from us.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">And
that means, for one, a long spiritual warfare. One old commentator
observes that “the seed of the devil are apostate angels, who were
corrupted by the example of his pride and rebellion.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote22sym" name="sdfootnote22anc"><sup>22</sup></a>
For all human history, we've been under siege by subtle powers of
corruption, seed of the serpent which slither behind the scenes.
These are spirits oppressive and possessive, unclean spirits that
stink up all they waft through like a sewer breeze (Mark 1:23),
harmful spirits that wear down our living (1 Samuel 16:14), lying
spirits that aim to propagate that old mission of deception (1 Kings
22:22). And they were quite successful: through the ages, as the
line of promise narrowed and narrowed, “demonic deceit was thus
overshadowing every place and hiding the knowledge of the true God.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote23sym" name="sdfootnote23anc"><sup>23</sup></a>
Yet we could always resist them through obedient openness to being
taught by God's Spirit.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">But
it isn't only spirits who are the Serpent's seed. Down through the
ages, the devil has been able to draw away many of those descended
physically from the woman. The Serpent's seed includes all </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“those
captured by him to do his will”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(2 Timothy 2:26), into whom he implants his sly craft, onto whom he
imprints his low-down ways, through whom he reproduces his
faithlessness and wickedness.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote24sym" name="sdfootnote24anc"><sup>24</sup></a>
In the grand field of this world, humans can be either </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“sons
of the kingdom”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
or </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“sons of
the Evil One”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Matthew 13:38). Just as the woman's seed will live in the direction
of humanity's mission to spread life and order and flourishing, so
the Serpent's seed will go the other direction, to disrupt and
disorganize and dismantle that which God wanted to see in the world.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote25sym" name="sdfootnote25anc"><sup>25</sup></a>
For </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“whoever
makes a practice of sinning is of the devil”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(1 John 3:8). But just as the Serpent can corrupt the seed of the
woman into his own, anyone who's lived as the Serpent's seed can be
renewed as the Woman's seed, can </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“turn...
from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive the forgiveness
of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Acts 26:18). The question is, whose side will you take? Whose seed
will you prove to be?</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Skipping
past how this plays out in the rest of Genesis (we'll get there), at
Sinai the L</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
chooses to take Israel under his wing as a young bride (Ezekiel
16:8). She became </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“a
Woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her
head a crown of twelve stars”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Revelation 12:1). And so the Children of Israel are, from that
perspective, the promised collective seed of this Woman, Mother Zion.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">When
they enter the promised land, the city of Gibeon decides to be
</span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“cunning”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
– now there's a serpent word (Joshua 9:3-4). They manufacture
false evidence that they've traveled from a distant land that isn't
in Canaan, and so when they speak flattering words and seem harmless,
Joshua and the Israelites make a hasty covenant with these Gibeonites
(Joshua 9:4-15). After realizing the truth, Joshua asks them why
they </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“deceived”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Israel (Joshua 9:22). He uses God's words to the serpent against
them, announcing </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“Cursed
are you”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Joshua 9:23), and he relegates them to servants under Israel's foot,
debased like a serpent slithering in the dust (Joshua 9:24).<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote26sym" name="sdfootnote26anc"><sup>26</sup></a>
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">In
the days of the judges, when a Canaanite general named Sisera menaced
Israel, a woman named Jael lured him into a false sense of security
in her tent and, as he slept, hammered a tent peg through his skull
(Judges 4:21). </span><i>“Most blessed of women,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
they sang of her who </span><i>“crushed his head”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
like a serpent's head (Judges 5:24-26).<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote27sym" name="sdfootnote27anc"><sup>27</sup></a> Later, the Children of Israel demanded a king, so they got a
promising young man named Saul (1 Samuel 10:17-27). His first real
test of leadership came by a confrontation with the Ammonite king
Nahash – 'Serpent' (1 Samuel 11:1-4). So Saul mustered an army,
marched to the rescue, and struck at King Serpent's army until
salvation was won (1 Samuel 11:8-11). Only once he'd shown himself a
true seed of the woman (for now), able to lead Israel in crushing the
serpent's head, did they accept him fully as king (1 Samuel 11:15).<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote28sym" name="sdfootnote28anc"><sup>28</sup></a></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Eventually,
as Saul began to take a more serpentine path in life, Samuel anointed
a boy named David to one day take his place. And it's no coincidence
that, when the Philistines sent their champion to intimidate the
Israelites, Goliath was wearing a helmet made of bronze – (the
Hebrew word for 'bronze' sounds a lot like 'serpent') – and,
literally, a </span><i>“coat of scales”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(1 Samuel 17:5). Goliath was costumed as the seed of the Serpent, so
what was David to do as the seed of the woman? Smash a stone square
in the giant's head, that's what (1 Samuel 17:49)!<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote29sym" name="sdfootnote29anc"><sup>29</sup></a></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The
prophets promised his descendants that </span><i>“the nations...
shall lick the dust like a serpent, like the crawling things of the
earth..., and they shall be in fear of you”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Micah 7:17). But even within Israel, </span><i>“whoever does not
practice righteousness”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> could
find themselves numbered among </span><i>“the children of the
devil”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (1 John 3:10). Be they
Jew or be they Gentile, </span><i>“the wicked... go astray from
birth, speaking lies; they have venom like the venom of a serpent”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Psalm 58:3-4), </span><i>“plan evil things in their heart and stir
up wars continually; they make their tongue sharp as a serpent's, and
under their lips is the venom of asps”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Psalm 140:2-3). No wonder, then, that as Israel grew more and more
venomous to each other, more and more serpent-like, Jeremiah heard
the verdict: </span><i>“Behold, I am sending you among serpents...,
and they shall bite you, declares the L<span style="font-size: x-small;">ORD</span>”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Jeremiah 8:17).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The
rabbis looked back and said that whenever Israel forsook the
commandments, the serpent “will aim and bite on his heel and make
him ill. For [Israel's] sons, however, there will be a remedy; but
for you, O Serpent, there will not be a remedy, since they are to
make appeasement in the end, in the days of King Messiah.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote30sym" name="sdfootnote30anc"><sup>30</sup></a>
To bring a climax to this conflict, a woman would bear the Messiah,
the One destined for the promise. Until then, Israel – Mother Zion
– endured the agony of her combat like labor pangs, </span><i>“and
the Dragon stood before the Woman who was about to give birth, so
that, when she bore her child, he might devour it”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Revelation 12:4).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“<span style="font-style: normal;">Eve,
an undefiled virgin,” they used to say, “conceived the word of
the serpent and brought forth disobedience and death.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote31sym" name="sdfootnote31anc"><sup>31</sup></a>
But in answer to that, there's a New Eve in town, a Woman who hears
an angelic voice announce to her good tidings that she's conceiving
the hope of the world.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote32sym" name="sdfootnote32anc"><sup>32</sup></a>
And so “the knot of Eve's disobedience was untied by Mary's
obedience.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote33sym" name="sdfootnote33anc"><sup>33</sup></a>
We probably don't give Mary nearly enough credit or honor; the Bible
she every generation must celebrate the matchless blessing God gave
her (Luke 1:48). It was with unstained faith that she carried God in
her womb, was tethered by an umbilical cord to the Infinite, the
Immortal, the Consuming Fire. It was through her that Mother Zion's
birth pangs came to their blessed fruition. If Eve the Disobedient
was the </span><i>“mother of all the living”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
in a natural sense (Genesis 3:20), Mary who gives birth to the Body
of Christ is the new “Mother of All the Living” spiritually. As
the New Woman carrying the Promised Seed, she's the woman whom the
Serpent most completely hates, and who most abhors him as her enemy,
wanting nothing to do with him but to see him destroyed by her Son
(Genesis 3:15).<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote34sym" name="sdfootnote34anc"><sup>34</sup></a>
Her childbearing is curse-breaking, world-saving, all because it
brings our Savior to us. It's as the Seed of this woman that Jesus
is here to save.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Legend
had it that, from the moment the Virgin Mary gave birth, the darkness
shuddered in terror and confusion – for, in a moment, “all magic
was vanquished, all bondage of evil came to naught, ignorance was
destroyed, and the ancient realm was brought to ruin.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote35sym" name="sdfootnote35anc"><sup>35</sup></a>
Looking back on everything that came before, Christians could say
that the Serpent had “bit and killed and hindered the steps of
humanity until the Seed came who was Mary's Child, who was destined
beforehand to trample on [the Serpent's] head.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote36sym" name="sdfootnote36anc"><sup>36</sup></a>
This Child, this Jesus, was born with a mission: </span><i>“to
destroy the works of the devil”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(1 John 3:8), whether demonic or human.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
so Jesus </span><i>“commands even the unclean spirits, and they
obey him”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Mark 1:27).
Famously </span><i>“he cast out many demons” </i><span style="font-style: normal;">wherever
he went (Mark 1:34). And he enlisted his apostles as officers in
that same campaign: </span><i>“I saw Satan fall like lightning from
heaven! Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and
scorpions and over all the power of the enemy”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Luke 10:18-19). The demons, seed of the Serpent, were tread down by
Jesus. But Jesus was also opposed by those to whom he thundered
back: </span><i>“You brood of vipers! How can you speak good when
you are evil?”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Matthew
12:34). </span><i>“You are of your father the devil”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(John 8:44). </span><i>“Serpents, brood of vipers, how shall you
escape the sentence of hell?”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Matthew 23:33). The scribes, the Pharisees – they'd become seed
of the Serpent, full of devilish venom against the Woman's Seed.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote37sym" name="sdfootnote37anc"><sup>37</sup></a></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Ultimately,
though, the Seed of the Woman wasn't sent just to live out his enmity
with the seed of the Serpent. His fight, in the end, was to be
against the Ancient Serpent himself. And it all came down to the
moment when he allowed the devil to bite his heel, to lash out with
all his venom and fury, to hurl him down to the dust of death from
the cross. Little did the Serpent realize that it was in biting
Christ this way that his own head would be smashed. At the cross,
Christ </span><i>“disarmed the principalities and powers and put
them to open shame by triumphing over them”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Colossians 2:15). It was a costly victory, since the Son of God,
wearing the fragility of our flesh, had to be bitten by everything
the devil could muster; but it was the only way for God to make this
a truly human victory.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote38sym" name="sdfootnote38anc"><sup>38</sup></a>
“On Good Friday,” it's been said, “a holy heel took aim with
all the power of heaven.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote39sym" name="sdfootnote39anc"><sup>39</sup></a>
Now are fulfilled the words of Job: </span><i>“His hand pierced
the fleeing serpent”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Job
26:13)! Now are fulfilled the words of Asaph: </span><i>“You
crushed the heads of Leviathan”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Psalm 74:14)! Now is the Serpent trodden down!</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But
though the Promised Seed has triumphed decisively, the fight isn't
over. The Woman has been reborn in him, and her name is Church.
Meanwhile, the devil limps along, crippled and enraged: </span><i>“The
Dragon became furious with the Woman and went off to make war on the
rest of her seed, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold
to the testimony of Jesus”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Revelation 12:17). Someone being baptized into the Church would
declare: “I renounce you, Satan, and all your works, and all your
pomp, and all your worship!”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote40sym" name="sdfootnote40anc"><sup>40</sup></a>
In saying that, every person baptized into Christ, abandoning the
Serpent to become the seed of the Church, pledged enmity against the
Serpent and all his seed. One Christian said this about the Church
as the Mother of Christians: “Do you not see these weapons,
unconquerable and unbreakable, with which she shatters and removes
the head of the serpent? I am speaking of the cross, the body, the
blood of Jesus, and the vows, prayers, vigils, and other weapons that
fight against the serpent.... Here is evidence of the God-given
hatred this pious woman has gained against the serpent: she removes
the idols..., she raises the churches, and the nations acknowledge
God.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote41sym" name="sdfootnote41anc"><sup>41</sup></a>
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Still
we have demons to resist by our resolute faithfulness to God; still we have demons to cast out in our Lord Jesus' name. Still we have false teachers
to beware, for until the end, </span><i>“some will depart from the
faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and doctrines of
demons”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (1 Timothy 4:1), </span><i>“who
do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly, and by smooth
talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
even now (Romans 16:18). “Satan, through his works of wickedness,
has driven some from the Church and formed heresies and schisms.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote42sym" name="sdfootnote42anc"><sup>42</sup></a>
“May a hatred of the serpent be granted you that, as they lie in
wait for your heel, you may crush their head.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote43sym" name="sdfootnote43anc"><sup>43</sup></a>
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Still,
too, we have persecutors and critics. Given that the seed of the
Serpent on earth oppose the cause of Christ, we should expect to feel
a sharp nipping at our heels if we're truly the brothers and sisters
of our Master. Be sure you're not the one cozying up to the devil,
of course! </span><i>“Let none of you suffer as... an evildoer”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(1 Peter 4:15). But </span><i>“rejoice insofar as you share
Christ's sufferings”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (1 Peter
4:13). Rejoice when they hiss derogatory things, when they coil
around and squeeze your life tight, when they spit venom, when they
bite, </span><i>“for so they persecuted the prophets who were
before you”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Matthew 5:12).
</span><i>“Do not repay evil for evil..., but, on the contrary,
bless”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (1 Peter 3:9). Pray
for those who imitate the Serpent, that </span><i>“God may perhaps
grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(2 Timothy 2:25). It's through prayer and blessing and good news and
the outpouring of love – only through these – that we can crush
what the Serpent has done in them.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Ultimately,
in having chosen to tempt us, chosen to pick a fight with God through
us, the Serpent did so much more harm to himself than he's done to
us. We have a promise: </span><i>“The God of Peace will soon crush
Satan under your feet”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Romans
16:20). Even now, “when you gather frequently as a congregation,
the powers of Satan are destroyed, and his destructive force is
vanquished by the harmony of your faith.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote44sym" name="sdfootnote44anc"><sup>44</sup></a>
And so “if you turn to the Lord with your whole heart and do
righteousness..., you will be empowered to rule over the works of the
devil. Do not fear the devil's threat at all, for he is as weak as a
tendon on a corpse.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote45sym" name="sdfootnote45anc"><sup>45</sup></a>
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Already
we bear witness that </span><i>“the Dragon, that Ancient Serpent
who is Devil and the Satan,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
is </span><i>“thrown into the pit... so that he might not deceive
the nations any longer”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Revelation 20:2). “Just as it was decreed against the serpent
that he and all his seed were to be trod upon, so it was also decreed
against him who was in the serpent that he go to the fire together
with all his hosts,”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote46sym" name="sdfootnote46anc"><sup>46</sup></a>
into </span><i>“the eternal fire which has been prepared for the
devil and his angels”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Matthew
25:41). And so at last </span><i>“the devil who had deceived them
[will be] thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
to </span><i>“be tormented day and night forever and ever”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Revelation 20:10).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
thus, by Jesus the Woman's Conquering Seed, “God destroys both the
Serpent and those angels and humans who have come to resemble the
Serpent; but frees from death those who repent of their sins and
believe in Christ.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote47sym" name="sdfootnote47anc"><sup>47</sup></a>
That's what God, in a veiled way, announces in advance here in the
Bible's third chapter, amidst all these curses – indeed, before we
hear a word of our punishment, we hear the </span><i>protevangelium</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
the first gospel! The war may be long and hard and costly, but evil
will run out! Evil will be beaten! Evil will get its head caved in
and be done away with, and the death-blow to the Serpent's head has
already been dealt by Christ crucified and risen! And because of
him, humanity – all those who, in the end, prove to be the Woman's
seed – will live to trample down the ruins of evil, thanks to Jesus
Christ the Serpent-Smasher! Thanks be to God! Amen.<span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<div id="sdfootnote1">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote1anc" name="sdfootnote1sym">1</a> Donald
E. Gowan, <i>Genesis 1-11: From Eden to Babel</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eerdmans, 1988), 57.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote2">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote2anc" name="sdfootnote2sym">2</a> Joseph
E. Coleson, <i>Genesis 1-11: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Beacon Hill Press, 2012), 134-135.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote3">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote3anc" name="sdfootnote3sym">3</a> Nobuyuki
Kawai, <i>The Fear of Snakes: Evolutionary and Psychobiological
Perspectives on Our Innate Fear</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Springer, 2019), 59.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote4">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote4anc" name="sdfootnote4sym">4</a> Lynne
A. Isbell, <i>The Fruit, the Tree, and the Serpent: Why We See So
Well</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Harvard University Press,
2009), 109.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote5">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote5anc" name="sdfootnote5sym">5</a> Lynne
A. Isbell, <i>The Fruit, the Tree, and the Serpent: Why We See So
Well</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Harvard University Press,
2009), 111.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote6">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote6anc" name="sdfootnote6sym">6</a><i> Illuyanka
Tale</i> 1.3, 10-12, in <i>Writings from the Ancient World</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2:11-12.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote7">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote7anc" name="sdfootnote7sym">7</a> <i>KTU</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1.5 i 1-3, in </span><i>Writings from the Ancient World</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
9:141.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote8">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote8anc" name="sdfootnote8sym">8</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>Unfinished Work in Answer to Julian</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
6.28.A1, in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/25:686.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote9">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote9anc" name="sdfootnote9sym">9</a> Richard
E. Averbeck, “Ancient Near Eastern Mythography as It Relates to
Historiography in the Hebrew Bible: Genesis 3 and the Cosmic Battle,” in James K. Hoffmeier and Alan
Millard, eds., <i>The Future of Biblical Archaeology: Reassessing
Methodologies and Assumptions</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eerdmans, 2004), 352.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote10">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote10anc" name="sdfootnote10sym">10</a> James
M. Hamilton Jr., <i>God's Glory in Salvation Through Judgment: A
Biblical Theology</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Crossway,
2010), 76.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote11">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote11anc" name="sdfootnote11sym">11</a> Anastasius
of Sinai, <i>Hexaemeron</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 11.4.6,
in </span><i>Orientalia Christiana Analecta</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
278:415.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote12">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote12anc" name="sdfootnote12sym">12</a> Theodoret
of Cyrus, <i>Questions on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
34, in </span><i>Library of Early Christianity</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1:75.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote13">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote13anc" name="sdfootnote13sym">13</a> Brian
Neil Peterson, <i>Genesis: A Pentecostal Commentary</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Brill, 2022), 52.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote14">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote14anc" name="sdfootnote14sym">14</a> Joseph
E. Coleson, <i>Genesis 1-11: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Beacon Hill Press, 2012), 134.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote15">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote15anc" name="sdfootnote15sym">15</a> <i>Epic
of Gilgamesh</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> VII:187-188, in
Sophus Helle, </span><i>Gilgamesh: A New Translation of the Ancient
Epic</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Yale University Press,
2021), 67. Compare also </span><i>Descent of Ishtar to the
Netherworld</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> lines 7-8 (“the
house whose dwellers thirst for light, where dust is their food,
clay their bread”) in </span><i>State Archives of Assyria
Cuneiform Texts</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 6:29.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote16">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote16anc" name="sdfootnote16sym">16</a> R.
R. Reno, <i>Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, Brazos
Theological Commentary (Brazos Press, 2010), 93.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote17">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote17anc" name="sdfootnote17sym">17</a> John
Chrysostom, <i>Homilies on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
17.28, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
74:237.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote18">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote18anc" name="sdfootnote18sym">18</a> Anastasius
of Sinai, <i>Hexaemeron</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 11.4.3,
in </span><i>Orientalia Christiana Analecta</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
278:411.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote19">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote19anc" name="sdfootnote19sym">19</a> Kenneth
A. Mathews, <i>Genesis 1-11</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
Christian Standard Commentary (Holman Reference, 2023), 197.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote20">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote20anc" name="sdfootnote20sym">20</a> Joseph
E. Coleson, <i>Genesis 1-11: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Beacon Hill Press, 2012), 135.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote21">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote21anc" name="sdfootnote21sym">21</a> Basil
of Caesarea, <i>Homily Explaining That God is Not the Cause of Evil</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
9, in </span><i>Popular Patristics Series</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
30:77-78.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote22">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote22anc" name="sdfootnote22sym">22</a> Bede,
<i>On Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 3:15, in
</span><i>Translated Texts for Historians</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
48:133.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote23">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote23anc" name="sdfootnote23sym">23</a> Athanasius
of Alexandria, <i>On the Incarnation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
13, in </span><i>Popular Patristics Series</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
44A:77.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote24">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote24anc" name="sdfootnote24sym">24</a> Bruce
K. Waltke, <i>Genesis: A Commentary</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Zondervan Academic, 2001), 94.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote25">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote25anc" name="sdfootnote25sym">25</a> Bryan
C. Hodge, <i>Revisiting the Days of Genesis: A Study of the Use of Time in Genesis 1-11 in Light of Its Ancient Near Eastern and Literary Context</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Wipf & Stock, 2011), 132.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote26">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote26anc" name="sdfootnote26sym">26</a> Seth
D. Postell, <i>Adam as Israel: Genesis 1-3 as the Introduction to
Torah and Tanakh</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Pickwick
Publications, 2011), 107.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote27">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote27anc" name="sdfootnote27sym">27</a> Andrew
David Naselli, <i>The Serpent and the Serpent Slayer</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Crossway, 2020), 85.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote28">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote28anc" name="sdfootnote28sym">28</a> Andrew
David Naselli, <i>The Serpent and the Serpent Slayer</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Crossway, 2020), 87.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote29">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote29anc" name="sdfootnote29sym">29</a> Andrew
David Naselli, <i>The Serpent and the Serpent Slayer</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Crossway, 2020), 87-88.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote30">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote30anc" name="sdfootnote30sym">30</a> <i>Targum
Neofiti</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> Genesis 3:15, in
</span><i>Aramaic Bible</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 1A:61.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote31">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote31anc" name="sdfootnote31sym">31</a> Justin
Martyr, <i>Dialogue with Trypho</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
100.5, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
6:305.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote32">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote32anc" name="sdfootnote32sym">32</a> Mitchell
L. Chase, <i>Short of Glory: A Biblical and Theological Exploration
of the Fall</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Crossway, 2023),
160.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote33">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote33anc" name="sdfootnote33sym">33</a> Irenaeus
of Lyons, <i>Against Heresies</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
3.22.4, in </span><i>Ancient Christian Writers</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
64:105.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote34">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote34anc" name="sdfootnote34sym">34</a> Paul
O'Callaghan, <i>God's Gift of the Universe: An Introduction to
Creation Theology</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Catholic University of America Press,
2021), 288.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote35">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote35anc" name="sdfootnote35sym">35</a> Ignatius
of Antioch, <i>Letter to the Ephesians</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
19.3, in </span><i>Loeb Classical Library</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
24:239.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote36">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote36anc" name="sdfootnote36sym">36</a> Irenaeus
of Lyons, <i>Against Heresies</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
3.23.7, in </span><i>Ancient Christian Writers</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
64:108.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote37">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote37anc" name="sdfootnote37sym">37</a> Andrew
David Naselli, <i>The Serpent and the Serpent Slayer</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Crossway, 2020), 97.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote38">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote38anc" name="sdfootnote38sym">38</a> Matthew
S. Harmon, <i>Rebels and Exiles: A Biblical Theology of Sin and
Restoration</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Crossway, 2020),
15-16.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote39">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote39anc" name="sdfootnote39sym">39</a> Mitchell
L. Chase, <i>Short of Glory: A Biblical and Theological Exploration
of the Fall</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Crossway, 2023),
123.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote40">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote40anc" name="sdfootnote40sym">40</a> Hippolytus
of Rome, <i>On the Apostolic Tradition</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
21.9, in </span><i>Popular Patristics Series</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
22:111; Cyril of Jerusalem, </span><i>Mystagogic Catechesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1.4-8, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
64:155-157; Ambrose of Milan, </span><i>On the Sacraments</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1.2 </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">5,
in </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Fathers of
the Church: A New Translation</i></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">
44:271; and so many other sources testify to this act of renouncing
the devil.</span></span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote41">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote41anc" name="sdfootnote41sym">41</a> Anastasius
of Sinai, <i>Hexaemeron</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
11.4.8-9, in </span><i>Orientalia Christiana Analecta</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
278:417-419.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote42">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote42anc" name="sdfootnote42sym">42</a> <i>Didascalia
Apostolorum</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 6.6, in Alistair
Stewart-Sykes, </span><i>The Didascalia Apostolorum: An English Version with Introduction and Annotation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Brepols, 2009), 229.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote43">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote43anc" name="sdfootnote43sym">43</a> Cyril
of Jerusalem, <i>Catechetical Lectures</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
6.35, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
61:168.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote44">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote44anc" name="sdfootnote44sym">44</a> Ignatius
of Antioch, <i>Letter to the Ephesians</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
13.1, in </span><i>Loeb Classical Library</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
24:223.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote45">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote45anc" name="sdfootnote45sym">45</a> Hermas,
<i>Shepherd of Hermas</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
Commandments 12.6.2, in </span><i>Loeb Classical Library</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
25:303.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote46">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote46anc" name="sdfootnote46sym">46</a> Ephrem
the Syrian, <i>Commentary on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2.32.2, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
91:121.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote47">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote47anc" name="sdfootnote47sym">47</a> Justin
Martyr, <i>Dialogue with Trypho</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
100.6, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
6:305.</span></span></p>
</div>
JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13108158469007498050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442509839497082978.post-56467513508603472452024-02-25T10:34:00.078-05:002024-02-26T08:37:55.744-05:00The Burning Blade at Our Backs<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">What began as a fall is
beginning to seem more like the triggering of an avalanche. In these
past weeks, we've tread methodically through Genesis 3, watching in
slow-motion as everything precious comes undone. Hearing the serpent
engage the woman with his cunning, we <a href="http://iron-in-fire.blogspot.com/2024/01/fields-of-freedom-seeds-of-doubt.html">observed</a> a case study in how
we could be deceived into doubting the goodness of God's will.
Drooling with her over the forbidden fruit, we <a href="http://iron-in-fire.blogspot.com/2024/02/useful-pretty-profitable-toxic.html">felt</a> the pull of how
desires can be preyed on to tempt us toward sin. And then, as she
reached out, plucked, bit, we saw how intellect and will led to the
action that constituted sin. But once both had sinned, immediately a
whole host of psychological and social consequences <a href="http://iron-in-fire.blogspot.com/2024/02/shame-and-blame-game.html">began to crop up</a>:
guilt and shame, fear, blame, the fracturing of relationships. And
so we <a href="http://iron-in-fire.blogspot.com/2024/02/curses.html">learned</a> that our decisive failure would frustrate the whole
creation's aspirations of rushing into God. Up to these verses,
though, we've still been safely sheltered in God's garden of
delights. The time has come, though, for that to change. For by our
sin, we've forfeited the bliss we once briefly knew as home.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I suppose our first
question is, “Why? Why did we have to leave the garden? Why
wasn't all this enough as it is?” And by my count, there are five
reasons why we had to leave the garden. Reason #1 is punitive: as
sinners, we just don't deserve to enjoy all the good things of God's
garden any more. <i>“Shall I not punish them for these things?
declares the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Jeremiah 5:9). God is Justice, and justice has a problem with
sinners reaping a life of bliss. </span><i>“Why does the way of
the wicked prosper?”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Jeremiah
12:1). In the end, the solution God's wise justice provides has to
be what's written: </span><i>“The wicked will not dwell in the
land”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Proverbs 10:30), </span><i>“the
wicked will be cut off from the land”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Proverbs 2:22). “There is no greater punishment than to be cast
out of paradise.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote1sym" name="sdfootnote1anc"><sup>1</sup></a></span></sup></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">If
the first reason is punitive, Reason #2 is purgative: we are now
unclean through sin, and for the good of the garden, we can't be
allowed to stay in the holy place. Remember, Genesis pictures the
first sin as involving an unclean beast getting humans to gulp down
unkosher food, and so to take all that defilement within ourselves;
and as a result, humans have become ritually dirty, potentially
staining anything we touch.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote2sym" name="sdfootnote2anc"><sup>2</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span><i>“Can mortal man be... pure before his Maker?”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Job 4:17). The image of God has been desecrated, his priests have
been defiled.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote3sym" name="sdfootnote3anc"><sup>3</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span><i>“We have all become like one who is unclean..., we all
fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Isaiah 64:6). But </span><i>“who shall stand in his holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his
soul to what is false”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Psalm
24:3-4). Once that's not us, we cannot stay.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">If
the first two reasons are punitive and purgative, Reason #3 is
restrictive: it would be bad for the world for us to have access to
the Tree of Life. At this point, we've become, the L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
God says to his heavenly host, </span><i>“like one of us, to know
good and evil”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Genesis 3:22).
That is, they've attained divine wisdom, divine power. Now, I'm
inclined to think God's speaking a bit sarcastically: if there's
anything the pitiful cowards having a meltdown in their fig leaves
hardly look like, it's sages or mages.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote4sym" name="sdfootnote4anc"><sup>4</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Still, divine knowledge and divine life – the things represented
by the two trees – add up, in the eyes of Israel's neighbors, to
what makes something a god.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote5sym" name="sdfootnote5anc"><sup>5</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
If we've stolen the first, can we take the other step? This isn't,
as some think, as if God fears us. No matter what, it's nonsense to
picture any threat to the Almighty. But this is heavenly horror at
our hubris. We couldn't be trusted even with what we'd been given,
let alone with godhood!</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote6sym" name="sdfootnote6anc"><sup>6</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Full of ourselves, we'd do limitless damage.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote7sym" name="sdfootnote7anc"><sup>7</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
So we can't be allowed to be like deranged gods roaming the world.
We must be humbled by a limit.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">On
the other hand, it isn't just for the world's sake that we mustn't
live forever. It's for ours, too. Reason #4 for us to leave the
garden is medicinal: it's for our own good that we not live forever.
Think about it. What would the world be like if we had a way to keep
ourselves alive indefinitely? Picture Adolf Hitler's fifth
millennium in power, with no prospect of an end.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote8sym" name="sdfootnote8anc"><sup>8</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Or imagine if torturers could keep their victims alive for a
thousand years of agony! The truth is, even shy of those dramatic
cases, life is hard, and if we're honest, we struggle to tough it out
for seventy, eighty, ninety years before we say we want off this
crazy ride. If the man and woman “eat while they were clothed with
a curse,” they would thereafter “remain in lives of eternal
suffering,” as St. Ephrem put it; they'd “live as if buried
alive..., tortured eternally by their pains.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote9sym" name="sdfootnote9anc"><sup>9</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Not just that, but the more we sin, the more attached we get to sin.
If it's hard to break a bad habit now, imagine if you were set in
your ways for four thousand years and then tried to quit? To live
forever as sinners would literally be hell on earth.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
so the earliest Christians all saw that it was for our own good that
humans were sent away from the Tree of Life, “that they might not
continue forever as a transgressor, and that the sin that had them
surrounded might not be immortal, nor their evil interminable and
incurable; so he checked their transgression by interposing death,
and he made sin cease by putting an end to it through the
disintegration of the flesh.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote10sym" name="sdfootnote10anc"><sup>10</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Paul says that </span><i>“one who has died has been justified from
sin”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Romans 6:7) – that is,
there's something about dying and suffering that lets us repair our
sins. Without it, our sin could never let up or lessen. “God
conferred a great benefit on man: he didn't let him remain forever in
a state of sin but... cast him out of paradise, so that through his
punishment he might expiate his sin in a fixed period of time.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote11sym" name="sdfootnote11anc"><sup>11</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Thus, “he who had been harmed in the leisure of the garden might
be aided by the toil of the earth” as a penance,</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote12sym" name="sdfootnote12anc"><sup>12</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
and at the end of it, “death is healing.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote13sym" name="sdfootnote13anc"><sup>13</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Our
removal was a punitive, purgative, restrictive, and medicinal
measure. But it was also missional. Back in the beginning, Genesis
identifies a gap in the creation: </span><i>“there was no human to
work the ground,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> as a result
of which, the ground couldn't reach its fullest potential (Genesis
2:5). It was partly to solve that problem that God made us two
verses later (Genesis 2:7). Now, the human leaves the garden </span><i>“to
work the ground from which he was taken”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 3:23). In chasing us back to the ground where we began, God
is coupling our survival to his service. We won't eat unless we're
working, but it's somehow the very work we were made for. We're
being sent out, despite our fall, on mission. (The Latin Bible even uses <i>emisit</i> here, from the same root as <i>missio</i>.) As much in exile as at
home, we have a purpose for our lives!</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote14sym" name="sdfootnote14anc"><sup>14</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">So
</span><i>“the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
God said, 'Behold, the human has become like one of us, to know good
and evil. Now, lest he send out his hand and take also of the Tree
of Life and live forever...,' therefore the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
God sent him out from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from
which he was taken. He drove out the human”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 3:22-24). The remedy for us sending out a hand to take the
fruit is for us to be sent out. But we aren't just sent out. We're
driven out, pushed out, forcibly evicted from our special home. And
that was God's own doing. It says so right there: the L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
God is the one who sent out, drove out, humanity from the garden, for
the five good reasons we mentioned. One ancient reader pictured the
scene: “The Immortal became angry with them and expelled them from
the place of immortals..., and they immediately, going out..., wept
with tears and groans.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote15sym" name="sdfootnote15anc"><sup>15</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“<i>And he placed, to
the east of the Garden of Eden, the cherubim and a flame of the sword
that whirled, to guard the way of the Tree of Life”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 3:24). Genesis is written as if we're already supposed to
know what this is talking about. And maybe those old Hebrews did.
The countries around Israel all had traditions about spirits with
human heads, lion bodies, and eagle wings; we actually have pictures
of them even from Israel.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote16sym" name="sdfootnote16anc"><sup>16</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
While the Greeks called them sphinxes, the Assyrians called some of
them </span><i>kur</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>ī</i></span><i>bu</i><span style="font-style: normal;">.
In inspiring Scripture, the Holy Spirit used this “poetic
imagery,” as “a concession to the nature of our own mind,” to
portray one of the sorts of spiritual creatures God made for his
heaven.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote17sym" name="sdfootnote17anc"><sup>17</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Generally, Christians have taken these cherubim, alongside the
seraphim and thrones, as the tip-top, cream-of-the-crop angels, the
ones who are “God's immediate neighbor..., receiving the primal
theophanies” so that they “contemplate the divine splendor in
primordial power.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote18sym" name="sdfootnote18anc"><sup>18</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But
everybody in Israel's neighbor-world knew that </span><i>kur</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>ī</i></span><i>bu</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
had a job to do, and it was to serve as guardians of holy spaces –
basically, they were bodyguards for the gods and their temples.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote19sym" name="sdfootnote19anc"><sup>19</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
So they'd be portrayed at temple gateways and in front of holy
trees, always in pairs, to mark a boundary between sacred and
profane. Genesis up until here has made that </span><i>our</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
job, to </span><i>“guard”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
the garden as its keepers (Genesis 2:15). But now we've lost the
job, gotten canned, been replaced by these alien entities from a
realm not our own.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote20sym" name="sdfootnote20anc"><sup>20</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Now the cherubim are put at the eastern gates of the
garden-sanctuary, defending it from </span><i>our</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
trespass.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote21sym" name="sdfootnote21anc"><sup>21</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">With
them is an added protective measure – as if the cherubim weren't
enough!</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote22sym" name="sdfootnote22anc"><sup>22</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
It's probably best translated as </span><i>“Flame of the
Whirling/Thrashing Sword”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 3:24).</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote23sym" name="sdfootnote23anc"><sup>23</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Some of Israel's neighbors thought that their gods made supernatural
weapons that had minds of their own, and they also worshipped a god
they called 'Flame of the Arrow,' so Genesis might be borrowing that
language to picture a fiery member of the L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">'s
heavenly army who is now stationed at the garden gate to fiercely
intercept and destroy anything that intrudes.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote24sym" name="sdfootnote24anc"><sup>24</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
The point of all this is that the garden is locked down tight.
There's no going back, not with the burning blade at our backs!</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
so we, humankind, were “thrown out into this world, condemned as
though to prison.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote25sym" name="sdfootnote25anc"><sup>25</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Made homeless, we confronted a darker and less pleasant world than
we knew.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote26sym" name="sdfootnote26anc"><sup>26</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
The world outside is an as-yet-uncultivated land that's neither the
haunted desert nor the vivacious garden, but a space in between
that'll become what they – we – make of it. It's a wild world
out there, no longer the comfortable refuge of the garden.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote27sym" name="sdfootnote27anc"><sup>27</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
It comes with “many dangers, toils, and snares,” as the hymn has
it.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote28sym" name="sdfootnote28anc"><sup>28</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
But the good news is that we're sent out neither naked nor in our
skimpy fig-leaf girdles. Instead, God himself manufactures a remedy
for our intense vulnerability: </span><i>“the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
God made for Adam and his wife garments of skins, and clothed them”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 3:21). </span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Outside
the garden, with access to the Tree of Life cut off, we come to a
world where “our deaths are assured, though not immediate.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote29sym" name="sdfootnote29anc"><sup>29</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span><i>“Sin came into the world through one man, and death
through sin, and death spread to all humans”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Romans 5:12). Sooner or later, everybody's battery runs out, and
God took our charger away. So, </span><i>“through fear of death,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
we all become </span><i>“subject to lifelong slavery”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Hebrews 2:15). But here's the good news: </span><i>“the human
called his wife's name 'Eve' because she was the mother of all the
living”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Genesis 3:20). In
faith, Adam announces God's promise that life will roll on in the
face of death, generation after generation.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote30sym" name="sdfootnote30anc"><sup>30</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
It isn't eternal life, but the continued ebb and flow of natural
life. Death is here, but death won't keep life down.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Sadder
than death, though, this “curse is fundamentally excommunication,”
distancing us from our former fellowship with God and his angels.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote31sym" name="sdfootnote31anc"><sup>31</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
The loss of the garden signifies “a motion away from fellowship
with God” on our end,</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote32sym" name="sdfootnote32anc"><sup>32</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
but also “a divine retreat from humanity” so that God and his
angels are less visible now.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote33sym" name="sdfootnote33anc"><sup>33</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
In the garden, the realities we call spiritual would've been as
matter-of-fact as fig leaves; to exchange quick pleasantries with Gabriel in the orchard might've been a perfectly typical occurrence. But now God honors the relational
distance between us by allowing a perceptual distance – that is,
he's increasingly hidden from our view, harder to see. He interacts
with us through symbols and messengers to mediate his presence in
ways we seldom recognize or understand. Although God is always close
by, it's rarer to see his closeness in this darkness.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Between
this distance we discern, the difficulties we endure, and the
definite demise we face, deep inside we all feel a homesickness we
struggle to put a finger on. Even when our thoughts aren't on the
garden, our hearts are! And to that end, God doesn't let Adam and
Eve get very far. They live their hard lives on the cursed ground in
the garden's shadow, provoking them to lives of grief in this world.
Why would God do that? Because </span><i>“godly grief produces a
repentance that leads to salvation without regret,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
the Bible says (2 Corinthians 7:10). It may not restore them to
paradise in this life, but it keeps God's friendship and gives them
hope beyond life's exile.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote34sym" name="sdfootnote34anc"><sup>34</sup></a></span></sup></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Fast-forward
to Israel camped out in the desert. They built a tabernacle,
positioning it with its entrance on the east side. Not only does it
have a replica tree as a lampstand (Exodus 25:31-36), but its most sacred furnishing is
a box whose lid is flanked by two gold cherubim (Exodus 25:17-22).
The box is kept behind a veil decorated with images of the cherubim
(Exodus 26:31), and in fact all ten wall curtains of the tabernacle
are decorated with cherubim (Exodus 26:1). The whole camp faces in
towards it as the heart of their life (Numbers 2:1-31). What they
have here, out in the desert, is an artificial Eden. So, Moses says,
the </span><i>“camp must be holy”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Deuteronomy 23:14).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">For
that reason, anyone who became unclean – from leprosy, discharges,
touching corpses, whatever – they were to </span><i>“send...
outside the camp, that they may not defile their camp in the midst of
which I dwell,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> God said
(Numbers 5:2-3). Just as Adam and Eve were banished from the garden,
unclean Israelites were banished from the camp which was one body,
one land, with the Tabernacle of the L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote35sym" name="sdfootnote35anc"><sup>35</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
The good news is, this expulsion wasn't permanent. Those excluded
for uncleanness only dwelled </span><i>“outside the camp”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
until they could be clean again (Leviticus 13:46). That called for
bathing, rituals of restoration, and time (Leviticus 14:8; Numbers
19:12-19; Deuteronomy 23:11). The way they kept their exclusion so
limited was that, once a year, they chased a scapegoat out of the
camp, making it a substitute for their own exile from the garden
(Leviticus 16:20-22).</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote36sym" name="sdfootnote36anc"><sup>36</sup></a></span></sup></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Unlike
Adam, who failed to drive out the serpent, Israel is given divine
help to – (mostly) – drive out the pagan nations squatting in the
land God promised them (Exodus 23:30-31). And this land takes the place
of the camp as their new Eden. They had been warned in advance,
though, that if they defiled the promised land, they'd be sent away
as surely as Adam and Eve were sent away. Sadly, Jeremiah then heard
the bad news: </span><i>“When you came in, you defiled my land. …
I will hurl you out of this land … I will thrust you out, and you
will perish”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Jeremiah 2:7;
16:13; 27:10). As a national community, they were exiled from the
land of promise, from their new garden.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote37sym" name="sdfootnote37anc"><sup>37</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
It was punitive to respond to their sin, purgative to cleanse the
land, medicinal to humble them, even missional insofar as they
should've proclaimed the L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
among the nations to which they were scattered.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Even
before it happened, though, King Solomon had prayed that, should they
ever be sent out from their garden, </span><i>“if they repent with
all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their
enemies,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> God might have mercy
(1 Kings 8:48-50), just as Moses had promised God would (Deuteronomy
30:1-5). So the L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
tells the exiles, </span><i>“You will call upon me..., you will
seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart..., and I
will restore your fortunes and gather you from... all the places
where I have driven you..., and I will bring you back”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Jeremiah 29:12-14). But once back in the land, they now know it's
no lasting garden yet (Ezra 9:13-15; Daniel 9:24). Still they're
left hoping for a future Savior who “shall open the gates of
paradise,” who “shall remove the sword that has threatened since
Adam,” who “will grant to the saints to eat of the Tree of
Life.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote38sym" name="sdfootnote38anc"><sup>38</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Fast-forward
again, and there's a man dying on a cross. He turns to one of his
neighbors and says words that should wake up the world: </span><i>“I
tell you today, you will be with me in Paradise”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Luke 23:43)! On the third day, that middle man has risen from the
dead. And in the light of Jesus' resurrection, we get a fascinating
scene. What happened in the beginning? Two humans in the garden
listened to the serpent teach them false knowledge and open their
eyes (Genesis 3:1-7), and therefore they were sent to walk the 'way'
out of Paradise, away from the food that is life; the 'way' back in
was blocked (Genesis 3:22-24). Now, we find two humans walking along
a way, when the risen Jesus comes among them and teaches them true
knowledge by opening the Scriptures to them (Luke 24:13-17). As they
walk on the way of his teaching, their hearts burn within them,
almost as if passing by the fiery sword (Luke 24:32), and at their
destination, their eyes are suddenly opened when Jesus breaks the
bread and gives them the food that is life: his body and his blood
(Luke 24:30-31).</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote39sym" name="sdfootnote39anc"><sup>39</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The
road to Emmaus became, to those two disciples, the way back into
Paradise! And ever since, Christians have faithfully believed that
God planted the Church itself as a new Garden of Eden on the earth.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote40sym" name="sdfootnote40anc"><sup>40</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
They saw that “the things of the garden refer to the Church of
Christ,”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote41sym" name="sdfootnote41anc"><sup>41</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
where every week in their liturgy the Christians would eat knowledge
from Scripture and then, in the second half, eat Life from the altar.
And “the grace of the Holy Spirit does not ever cease from
decorating and crowning with fresh flowers the Paradise of the
Church.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote42sym" name="sdfootnote42anc"><sup>42</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">But
could the tragedy of Adam and Eve be repeated here, too? It's an
uncomfortable question for us. Modern America tells us community is
too vital, everyone should feel welcome, come as you are, love means
radical inclusion. At a denominational level, let me tell you, I've
heard boasting about how many decades it's been since anybody's been
treated with any kind of disciplinary measures. Maybe the truth is
that we've gotten so desperate to see butts in the pews that we've
traded away holiness for consumer satisfaction – a devil's bargain.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Paul,
though, tells the Thessalonians that if any Christian doesn't live by
what he, as an apostle, teaches, </span><i>“take note of that
person and have nothing to do with him”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(2 Thessalonians 3:14). And when he hears of a man in the Corinthian
church whose very grave sin is tolerated by the rest, Paul thunders
with the voice of God: </span><i>“Let him who has done this be
removed from among you! … When you are assembled in the name of the
Lord Jesus, and my spirit is present, with the power of Jesus you are
to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so
that his spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(1 Corinthians 5:2-5). </span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">So “someone who has condemned himself to
his own destructive fall... is cast out in exile from the fountains
of Paradise.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote43sym" name="sdfootnote43anc"><sup>43</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Early Christians said that just as Adam “became an outcast of the
garden,” so a Christian “who has believed but has not kept the
commandments... has become an outcast of the Church,” and so “no
longer receives.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote44sym" name="sdfootnote44anc"><sup>44</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
As St. Augustine observed, Adam had been, “in a way,
excommunicated” from Paradise, and in just the same way “nowadays,
in this Paradise which is the Church, people are commonly barred from
the visible sacraments of the altar by church discipline.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote45sym" name="sdfootnote45anc"><sup>45</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
But the Church always emphasized that “the aim of excommunication
is healing and not death, correction and not destruction.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote46sym" name="sdfootnote46anc"><sup>46</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span><i>“When we are judged,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
St. Paul says, </span><i>“we are being disciplined by the Lord so
that we may not be condemned along with the world”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(1 Corinthians 11:32). That implies that if the Church fails to
judge, it risks condemning its members to hell. But those who are
disciplined, excluded, can be so freely restored to the Paradise of
the Church through repentance and reconciliation!</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote47sym" name="sdfootnote47anc"><sup>47</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But
let me end by pointing ahead from here, to what the seer saw in a
vision: </span><i>“The angel showed me the river of the water of
life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the
Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either
side of the river, the Tree of Life, with its twelve kinds of fruit,
yielding its fruit each month … No longer will there be anything
accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and
his servants will worship him”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Revelation 22:1-3). In the end, in the very end, there is a Last
Garden waiting. The cherubim finally step aside with joy. The
burning blade backs down. The way is open, never to be shut again
(Revelation 21:25). And on that open way, Adam and Eve will at last
come home, for, as earlier Christians believed, after being driven
out, “those first human beings afterward lived righteously, and for
that reason we are right to believe that they were set free from
final punishment by the blood of the Lord.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote48sym" name="sdfootnote48anc"><sup>48</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">There
may, horrifyingly, be other people who remain outsiders to this Last
Garden: </span><i>“Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and sexually
immoral and murderers and idolaters and everyone who loves and
practices falsehood”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Revelation 22:15). Tragically, that is a choice someone could make:
to refuse to be set free, to deny themselves entry. For </span><i>“nothing
unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable
and false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Revelation 21:27). Those who prove to have chosen to return to the
defilement of deadly sin, those who will to not repent and be
cleansed of it in even their final hour, those who finally display no
faith toward the Lamb who bade them follow... this Last Garden can
never receive such.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Here,
though, is the good news, the very, very, </span><i>very</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
good news: those who endure in faith, those who enter and remain in
Paradise </span><i>here</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> in hopes
of Paradise </span><i>there</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
will on the last day be saved to the uttermost, confirmed in perfect
righteousness: </span><i>“I will deliver you from </i><i><u>all</u></i><i>
your uncleannesses,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> God
promised (Ezekiel 36:29). The Last Garden looms ahead, and those who
dwell in it have no need for any punishment, they are too pure to
need purged, their humility transcends all restrictions, they need no
further medicine, and their mission will at last be complete.
</span><i>“Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may
have the right to the Tree of Life and that they may enter [the
garden] by the gates”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Revelation 22:14)! With Adam and Eve and all the saints, they shall
never, no, never, no, never be driven out from the Eternal Garden of
the L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
our Light! Thanks be to God for an undying hope, that our
homesickness now shall be answered by an immortal homecoming ahead!
Amen.<span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<div id="sdfootnote1">
<p class="sdfootnote"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote1anc" name="sdfootnote1sym"></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote1anc" name="sdfootnote1sym">1</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>Unfinished Work in Answer to Julian</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
6.27.A19, in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/25:681.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote2">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote2anc" name="sdfootnote2sym">2</a> Seth
D. Postell, <i>Adam as Israel: Genesis 1-3 as the Introduction to
Torah and Tanakh</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Pickwick
Publications, 2011), 129.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote3">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote3anc" name="sdfootnote3sym">3</a> Bryan
C. Hodge, <i>Revisiting the Days of Genesis: A Study of the Use of
Time in Genesis 1-11 in Light of Its Ancient Near Eastern and
Literary Context</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Wipf &
Stock, 2011), 119-120; Matthew S. Harmon, </span><i>Rebels and
Exiles: A Biblical Theology of Sin and Restoration</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(IVP Academic, 2020), 14.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote4">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote4anc" name="sdfootnote4sym">4</a> Martin
Luther, <i>Lectures on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
3:22, in </span><i>Luther's Works</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1:222; Michaela Bauks, “One, Two, or Three...? The Confusion of
the Trees in Genesis 2-3 and Its Hermeneutical Background,” in
Elizabeth R. Hayes and Karolien Vermeulen, eds., </span><i>Doubling
and Duplicating in the Book of Genesis: Literary and Stylistic
Approaches to the Text</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eisenbrauns, 2016), 107.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote5">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a name="productTitle1"></a><a name="title1"></a></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote5anc" name="sdfootnote5sym">5</a><span style="font-style: normal;"> Nathan
S. French, </span><i>A Theocentric Interpretation of </i><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>הדעת
טוב ורע</i></span></span><i>: The Knowledge of Good and Evil
as the Knowledge for Administering Reward and Punishment</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2021), 127.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote6">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote6anc" name="sdfootnote6sym">6</a> David
W. Cotter, <i>Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, Berit
Olam (Liturgical Press, 2003), 36.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote7">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote7anc" name="sdfootnote7sym">7</a> Donald
E. Gowan, <i>Genesis 1-11: From Eden to Babel</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eerdmans, 1988), 61.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote8">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote8anc" name="sdfootnote8sym">8</a> Paul
Copan and Douglas Jacoby, <i>Origins: The Ancient Impact and Modern
Implications of Genesis 1-11</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Morgan James Faith, 2018), 111.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote9">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote9anc" name="sdfootnote9sym">9</a> Ephrem
the Syrian, <i>Commentary on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2.35.1-2, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
91:122-123.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote10">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote10anc" name="sdfootnote10sym">10</a> Irenaeus
of Lyons, <i>Against Heresies</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
3.23.6, in </span><i>Ancient Christian Writers</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
64:108.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote11">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote11anc" name="sdfootnote11sym">11</a> Theophilus
of Antioch, <i>To Autolycus</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2.26, in Robert M. Grant, </span><i>Theophilus of Antioch: Ad Autolycum</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Oxford University Press, 1970), 69.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote12">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote12anc" name="sdfootnote12sym">12</a> Ephrem
the Syrian, <i>Commentary on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2.35.3, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
91:123.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote13">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote13anc" name="sdfootnote13sym">13</a> Theodoret
of Cyrus, <i>Questions on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
40, in </span><i>Library of Early Christianity</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1:91.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote14">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote14anc" name="sdfootnote14sym">14</a> Joseph
E. Coleson, <i>Genesis 1-11: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Beacon Hill Press, 2012), 145.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote15">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote15anc" name="sdfootnote15sym">15</a><i> Sibylline
Oracles</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 1.50-55, in </span><i>Old
Testament Pseudepigrapha</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 1:336.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote16">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote16anc" name="sdfootnote16sym">16</a> Alice
Wood, <i>Of Wings and Wheels: A Synthetic Study of the Biblical
Cherubim</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (De Gruyter, 2008),
166-179.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote17">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote17anc" name="sdfootnote17sym">17</a> Pseudo-Dionysius,
<i>Celestial Hierarchy</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 2.1, in Colm Luibheid, tr.,
</span><i>Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Paulist Press, 1987), 148.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote18">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote18anc" name="sdfootnote18sym">18</a> Pseudo-Dionysius,
<i>Celestial Hierarchy</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 6.3–7.1,
in Colm Luibheid, tr., </span><i>Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Paulist Press, 1987), 160-162.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote19">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote19anc" name="sdfootnote19sym">19</a> Alice
Wood, <i>Of Wings and Wheels: A Synthetic Study of the Biblical
Cherubim</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (De Gruyter, 2008),
154-155.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote20">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote20anc" name="sdfootnote20sym">20</a> Tremper
Longman III, <i>Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, Story
of God Bible Commentary (Zondervan Academic, 2016), 70.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote21">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote21anc" name="sdfootnote21sym">21</a> Alice
Wood, <i>Of Wings and Wheels: A Synthetic Study of the Biblical
Cherubim</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (De Gruyter, 2008),
52-53.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote22">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote22anc" name="sdfootnote22sym">22</a> Joseph
E. Coleson, <i>Genesis 1-11: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Beacon Hill Press, 2012), 145-146.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote23">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote23anc" name="sdfootnote23sym">23</a> Alice
Wood, <i>Of Wings and Wheels: A Synthetic Study of the Biblical
Cherubim</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (De Gruyter, 2008),
55.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote24">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote24anc" name="sdfootnote24sym">24</a> Alice
Wood, <i>Of Wings and Wheels: A Synthetic Study of the Biblical
Cherubim</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (De Gruyter, 2008),
56-57.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote25">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote25anc" name="sdfootnote25sym">25</a> Melito
of Sardis, <i>On the Passover</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
48, in </span><i>Popular Patristics Series</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
55:64.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote26">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote26anc" name="sdfootnote26sym">26</a> Kenneth
A. Mathews, <i>Genesis 1-11</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
Christian Standard Commentary (Holman Reference, 2023), 211.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote27">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote27anc" name="sdfootnote27sym">27</a> Loren
D. Haarsma, <i>When Did Sin Begin? Human Evolution and the Doctrine
of Original Sin</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Baker
Academic, 2021), 81-82.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote28">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote28anc" name="sdfootnote28sym">28</a> John
Newton, “Amazing Grace,” verse 3, in <i>Olney Hymns, in Three
Books</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (W. Oliver, 1779), 54.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote29">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote29anc" name="sdfootnote29sym">29</a> Christopher
Heard, “The Tree of Life in Genesis,” in Douglas Estes, ed., <i>The
Tree of Life</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Brill, 2020), 95.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote30">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote30anc" name="sdfootnote30sym">30</a> Kenneth
A. Mathews, <i>Genesis 1-11</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
Christian Standard Commentary (Holman Reference, 2023), 207.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote31">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote31anc" name="sdfootnote31sym">31</a> Anne
Marie Kitz, <i>Cursed Are You! The Phenomenology of Cursing in
Cuneiform and Hebrew Texts</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eisenbrauns, 2014), 238.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote32">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote32anc" name="sdfootnote32sym">32</a> R.
R. Reno, <i>Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, Brazos
Theological Commentary (Brazos Press, 2010), 96.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote33">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote33anc" name="sdfootnote33sym">33</a> Adam
E. Miglio, <i>The Gilgamesh Epic in Genesis 1-11: Peering into the
Deep</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Routledge, 2023), 84.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote34">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote34anc" name="sdfootnote34sym">34</a> Cyril
of Jerusalem, <i>Catechetical Lectures</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2.7, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
61:100.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote35">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote35anc" name="sdfootnote35sym">35</a>Anne
Marie Kitz, <i>Cursed Are You! The Phenomenology of Cursing in
Cuneiform and Hebrew Texts</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eisenbrauns, 2014), 239; </span>G. Geoffrey Harper, <i>“I Will
Walk Among You”: The Rhetorical Function of Allusion to Genesis
1-3 in the Book of Leviticus</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Eisenbrauns, 2018),
134.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote36">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote36anc" name="sdfootnote36sym">36</a> G.
Geoffrey Harper, <i>“I Will Walk Among You”: The Rhetorical
Function of Allusion to Genesis 1-3 in the Book of Leviticus</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eisenbrauns, 2018), 169-175.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote37">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote37anc" name="sdfootnote37sym">37</a> Seth
D. Postell, <i>Adam as Israel: Genesis 1-3 as the Introduction to
Torah and Tanakh</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Pickwick
Publications, 2011), 129.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote38">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote38anc" name="sdfootnote38sym">38</a><i> Testament
of Levi</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 18:10-11, in </span><i>Old
Testament Pseudepigrapha</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 1:795.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote39">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote39anc" name="sdfootnote39sym">39</a> Christopher
A. Graham, <i>The Church as Paradise and the Way Therein: Early
Christian Appropriation of Genesis 3:22-24</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Brill, 2017), 86-90.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote40">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote40anc" name="sdfootnote40sym">40</a> Irenaeus
of Lyons, <i>Against Heresies</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
5.20.2, in </span><i>Ancient Christian Writers</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
72:169; Tertullian of Carthage, </span><i>Against Marcion</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2.4.4, in Ernest Evans, tr., </span><i>Tertullian: Adversus Marcionem</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Oxford University Press, 1972), 95; Cyprian of Carthage, </span><i>Letter</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
73.10.3, in </span><i>Popular Patristics Series</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
33:202.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote41">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote41anc" name="sdfootnote41sym">41</a> Anastasius
of Sinai, <i>Hexaemeron</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 7B.5.5,
in </span><i>Orientalia Christiana Analecta</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
278:257.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote42">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote42anc" name="sdfootnote42sym">42</a> Anastasius
of Sinai, <i>Hexaemeron</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 11.5.1,
in </span><i>Orientalia Christiana Analecta</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
278:425.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote43">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote43anc" name="sdfootnote43sym">43</a> Cyprian
of Carthage, <i>Letter</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 73.10.3,
in </span><i>Popular Patristics Series</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
33:202.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote44">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote44anc" name="sdfootnote44sym">44</a> Hippolytus
of Rome, <i>Commentary on Daniel</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1.18.12-13, in T. C. Schmidt, </span><i>Hippolytus of Rome's
Commentary on Daniel</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Gorgias
Press, 2022), 48.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote45">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote45anc" name="sdfootnote45sym">45</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>Literal Meaning of Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
11.40 </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">54,
in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/13:461.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote46">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote46anc" name="sdfootnote46sym">46</a> First
Council of Lyons, Constitutions 1.19, in Norman Tanner, <i>Decrees
of the Ecumenical Councils</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Sheed & Ward, 1990), 291.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote47">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote47anc" name="sdfootnote47sym">47</a> Tertullian
of Carthage, <i>On Penance</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 12,
in </span><i>Ancient Christian Writers</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
28:37.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote48">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote48anc" name="sdfootnote48sym">48</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>On the Punishment and Forgiveness of Sins</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2.34 </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">55,
in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/23:115.</span></span></p>
</div>
JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13108158469007498050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442509839497082978.post-25963700180729336992024-02-18T10:47:00.000-05:002024-02-21T11:31:25.943-05:00Curses!<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">What a beautiful
creation; what a marvelous Creator! Last year, we took our time, as
Genesis takes its sweet time, luxuriating in the time and attention
and care God lavishes on building up each of the realms and features
of his creation: the light, the sky, the sea, the earth, the plants,
the creatures of the sea, the creatures of the land and the air. All
of these things, as he summons them forth, he pronounces 'good,'
calls them suitable for his holy purposes. But that doesn't mean he
sees them as perfected. No, for that, he introduces one final kind
of creature – his own image, stamped into creation on these dusty
primates called human beings. This human creature is made so much
like the rest of the creatures, called forth from the same stuff, but
also made so much unlike the others, with a spiritual soul and mighty
mind and heart able to respond knowingly, willingly, to a God of
Love.
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">And to this human
creature, the L<span style="font-size: x-small;">ORD</span> God
entrusts a daring mission. Transplanted into God's garden, they're
there to reflect him as the priests and rulers of the earthly
creation around them. All these creatures – humans are to gather
up their implicit praise and give it voice. All these creatures –
humans are to subdue their territory, have dominion over them, keep
the peace among them and lead them onward. Humans are to cultivate
the garden, keep it flourishing and sacred; and as the humans are
fruitful and multiply, they're to make the garden itself fruitful and
multiply it, stretching its holy goodness across the land and sea and
somehow even to the skies. This is what human life is here for: to
make a very good creation perfect, leading the whole creation – the
earth, maybe the universe – on a voyage into God, until every
created thing fully achieves its destiny in him.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">But then we turn the
page. And we don't at all do what it is we're here for. In this
scene of a serpent whispering doubt and defiance, in this glimpse of
human eyes lawlessly enraptured by the forbidden, in this final
united act of detaching the created good from the love of its
Creator-Goodness, sin has come on the scene – sin, the missing of
the mark, the voiding of the purpose, the betrayal of the mission.
And in its tow, sin leads a parade of creation's cheapening. Shame
is born in us, and guilt, and fear, and defensiveness (Genesis
3:1-10). In our turning away from the God of Love, we humans
willingly gave up many of the added gifts God had given us as a
garment, gifts like our original righteousness with which we'd walked
before our Maker. We stripped off our graciously given glory,
heedless what we ripped and tore in this frantic process of denuding
ourselves.
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">And without these, we
find our inner and outer self disrupted, tainted, taken over by sin.<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote1sym" name="sdfootnote1anc"><sup>1</sup></a></sup>
Jesus tells us that <i>“everyone who practices sin is a slave of
sin”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (John 8:34), because, as
his apostle Peter adds, </span><i>“whatever someone has been
subdued by, to that he is also enslaved”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(2 Peter 2:19). And man and woman prove it by how they react to the
presence of the God whose images they are, as we heard last Sunday:
rather than repent and expose their shame and guilt and fear and
defensiveness to the healing storm of God's love, they justify
themselves at the expense of each other, of creation, even blaming
God for their own wrongs (Genesis 3:11-13).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">In
response, the L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
God – a God of justice as well as of mercy – is obviously going
to respond. The chain of blame, as Genesis tells it, went like this:
God spoke to the man (Genesis 3:9-11), who blamed the woman (Genesis
3:12); then he spoke to the woman, and she blamed the snake (Genesis
3:13); and the snake had zero right to speak and nothing to say
before the awesome face of the L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
God. So God gives his responses, his judgments, working his way back
out from there: first a word of judgment addressed to the snake
(Genesis 3:14-15), then a brief word of judgment addressed to the
woman (Genesis 3:16), and finally a longer word of judgment addressed
to the man, both as a man and as 'the human being' (Genesis 3:17-19).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">In
these responses God gives, for the very first time in the Bible, a
new word appears which is going to haunt us from here on out:
'curse.' In the world Genesis was written in, curses were a familiar
part of life, “petitions to the divine world to render judgment and
execute harm.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote2sym" name="sdfootnote2anc"><sup>2</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
And people knew there were no curses more powerful or fast-acting
than those uttered by a god; nothing was more distorting,
disfiguring, dissolving, destroying.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote3sym" name="sdfootnote3anc"><sup>3</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Up until now, God has only ever blessed: good, upbuilding,
life-giving words. But now Love himself curses.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The
Apostle Paul, looking back on what he reads here, has some big
observations that take us deeper and higher than the surface, than
the letter. Obviously, if human beings, as bearers of God's image,
had a responsibility – a sacred calling – to lead creation into a
glorious future, then those same human beings becoming 'slaves of
sin' would have radical repercussions for that mission.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote4sym" name="sdfootnote4anc"><sup>4</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Creation's destiny could only come through us, and if we're missing
the mark, then the entire creation – the universe, one and all –
is missing the mark. Therefore, St. Paul writes, </span><i>“creation
was subjected to futility”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Romans 8:20). With us losing the grace to exercise dominion God's
way, creation is handed over to a new master: Futility –
pointlessness, emptiness, an inability to reach the goal.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote5sym" name="sdfootnote5anc"><sup>5</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
The creation train that had been hurtling toward its heavenly goal
has lost steam. Now it's coasting, aimlessly adrift, spinning around
in circles.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote6sym" name="sdfootnote6anc"><sup>6</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Meandering, the creation has fallen back on its merely natural
condition, on things that were meant to be only a temporary stage.
The entire creation is developmentally delayed.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">St.
Paul describes it another way, too: </span><i>“bondage to
corruption”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Romans 8:21).
That is, since creation's human caretakers and cultivators are now
'slaves to sin' – or, in St. Peter's words, </span><i>“slaves of
corruption”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (2 Peter 2:19) –
now creation itself is enslaved to that same power of sin and
corruption. Every creature that exists in this natural world is a
slave now to corruption, to decay, to decomposition, to falling
apart. Now, obviously, the fact of created things being broken down
didn't begin at the curse. When the man or woman plucked a fruit off
one of the lawful trees in the garden, and they took a bite, the
living cells in that fruit would be broken down by their digestive
processes – that was the whole point.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote7sym" name="sdfootnote7anc"><sup>7</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
So that's not what's new. What's happened here is that now creation
is in </span><i>slavery</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> to this
disorder, decomposition, and dispersal – a march toward corruption
and chaos.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
St. Paul's third assessment is that </span><i>“the whole creation
has been groaning”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Romans
8:22). The creation all around us does not feel comfortable and at
peace with its situation! It implicitly knows that this isn't all it
was made for. Just as there's a God-shaped hole in our hearts, so
there's a God-shaped hole in creation's heart. And it protests
against the chains that bind it to aimlessness. Creation groans
under the burden it carries. Creation is pained by being stuck at a
rough-and-raw stage it should have moved past. Creation is
frustrated by the curse.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Back
in Genesis, the first word of that curse is the curse spoken to the
snake. Earlier, we'd read that the snake was </span><i>“cunning
above every beast of the field which the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
God had made”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Genesis 3:1).
Now, using a word that sounds almost the same, God punningly
pronounces the snake </span><i>“</i><i><u>cursed</u></i><i> above
all the livestock and above every beast of the field”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 3:14). The snake, which once excelled its animal peers in
sly cleverness, now excels those same peers in bitter cursedness.
And so the curse “implicitly affects all animals.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote8sym" name="sdfootnote8anc"><sup>8</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
We'll find later that the ground, too, is cursed (Genesis 3:17).
Animate and inanimate creation is impacted by the curse; and as a
result, there's an estrangement there – human and animal and
vegetable and mineral all implicitly resentful and alienated from
each other, all hurting and confused by the judgment occasioned by
human sin (Isaiah 24:5-6; Hosea 4:3). There's a new animosity, an
uncooperativeness. As St. John of Damascus put it, “the creation
that had been subject to the ruler appointed by the Creator” –
that's us – “rose up in rebellion.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote9sym" name="sdfootnote9anc"><sup>9</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Then
there are the words God speaks to the woman and to the man, both of
which revolve around the same odd Hebrew word, </span><i>'itssabon</i><span style="font-style: normal;">.
It's the physical and emotional toll of what's difficult,
exhausting, unpleasant.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote10sym" name="sdfootnote10anc"><sup>10</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
It's a sorrow that combines agony and anguish. God gives us
something to cry about. And this curse attaches to exactly those
functions most essential for human life to go on, in one life or
generation to generation.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote11sym" name="sdfootnote11anc"><sup>11</sup></a></span></sup></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">What
does God say, after all, to the man? That this toll, this agony and
anguish, will now attach to what Israel saw as the traditional male
role: providing for himself and his family. </span><i>“Cursed is
the ground because of you! In toil you shall eat of it all the days
of your life”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Genesis 3:17).
Earlier, Genesis told us there was a need for humans </span><i>“to
work the ground”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Genesis
2:5). But now what once was just work – a good and joyful thing –
has become “weariness,”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote12sym" name="sdfootnote12anc"><sup>12</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
“difficulty,”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote13sym" name="sdfootnote13anc"><sup>13</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
“grinding labor,”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote14sym" name="sdfootnote14anc"><sup>14</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
“toils and sorrows.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote15sym" name="sdfootnote15anc"><sup>15</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Work was meant to be enjoyable, rejuvenating, fun; but now the
ground resists us with its firmness, demanding large investments of
difficult effort – </span><i>“the sweat of your nose”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
– to cultivate the creation (Genesis 3:19). This doesn't just
apply to manual labor, either. St. Augustine pointed out that this
'sweat' “signified labor in general, from which no human being is
exempt, though some work at hard tasks while others work with
worrisome cares; to the same labor, there belong also the studies of
any who learn.” Some people, he thought, “work harder with their
minds than the poor with their bodies.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote16sym" name="sdfootnote16anc"><sup>16</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Physical or mental, work is often drudgery, a slog, a daily grind.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
what are we working for? Earlier, in the garden, we're imagined as
nourished by fruits, nuts, vegetables, and herbs that grow wild
(Genesis 1:29; 2:16) – a lifestyle sustained by foraging and
gathering the abundance of a world bursting with bounty, allowing us
to devote most of our strength to mission. But now, without toil, no
food: </span><i>“You shall eat the plants of the field; by the
sweat of your nose you shall eat bread”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 3:18-19). For some early Christians, this transition into
agriculture symbolized our guilt: from standing upright plucking
fruit, now we're bowed low to the earth, so “the position of man's
body confirmed the guilt of his conscience.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote17sym" name="sdfootnote17anc"><sup>17</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Yet
</span><i>“thorns and thistles shall it bring forth for you”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 3:18). That last word, 'for you,' is the emphasis here:
painful plants and proliferating weeds cropping up where we're
working. These are the kinds of plants that tend to take over in
soil that's been depleted and degraded by human mismanagement.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote18sym" name="sdfootnote18anc"><sup>18</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
And sometimes, that's all we get: “Not only will work be painful
and difficult, it sometimes also will come up empty and end in
futility.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote19sym" name="sdfootnote19anc"><sup>19</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Or, as a prophet put it: </span><i>“They have sown wheat but
reaped thorns; they have tired themselves out but profited nothing”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Jeremiah 12:13). Fear, failure, futility stalk our labors. This is
not what we were made for. </span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">If
this sort of agony and anguish attaches to what Israel saw as typical
man activities, no less did it apply to the unique work of women.
Just as humans were to </span><i>“work and keep the garden”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 2:15), we were to </span><i>“be fruitful and multiply”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 1:28). That's pretty important – an incredible blessing,
to gestate and nurture new human life made in the image of God! But
now, says God, he's going to multiply the woman's </span><i>“toil
and conception; in pain you shall beget children”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 3:16). The very start of pregnancy – and its uncertainty
– will be overshadowed by sorrows. Pregnancy will be an
uncomfortable time, one stalked by anxieties. Childbirth itself will
be painful, difficult, risky. Ape babies may be easy, but human
babies have such massive brains to squeeze out through an
unaccommodating pelvis designed for walking upright that our
childbirths are incredibly complicated and challenging.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote20sym" name="sdfootnote20anc"><sup>20</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
And then come further hurts and heartbreaks: “the birth of
children and their upbringing and sickness and health and good
fortune and misfortune.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote21sym" name="sdfootnote21anc"><sup>21</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">What's
more, God points out to the man in the garden that he'd preferred to
live out 'one flesh' with his wife over being 'one spirit' with his
God (Genesis 3:17); therefore, this one flesh, already divided
against itself in their blame game, is going to be further poisoned;
instead of willingly following each other's voices, now they'll treat
each other like ventriloquist dummies, projecting their own voices
onto the other, or as mute audiences to be lectured.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote22sym" name="sdfootnote22anc"><sup>22</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
A “battle of the sexes” begins, as man and woman will “no
longer face the world as 'one flesh,'” but instead will present a
divided front, busying themselves in misunderstanding and
contradicting each other.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote23sym" name="sdfootnote23anc"><sup>23</sup></a></span></sup></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“<i>Your desire shall
be toward your man,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> God tells
the woman, </span><i>“and he shall rule over you”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 3:16). In this, we find the woman not only desiring the man
with a positive longing, driven to him for survival and satisfaction,
but also craving to domesticate and dominate him; and he, in turn,
aims to subjugate her, to exploit her, to put her in her place.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote24sym" name="sdfootnote24anc"><sup>24</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Each in their own way, they're locked into a competition for
control.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote25sym" name="sdfootnote25anc"><sup>25</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
This brings a “dynamic of domination” into what was meant to be
equal.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote26sym" name="sdfootnote26anc"><sup>26</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Now, just as the man taken from the ground is being drawn back to
and subjected to the ground, the tendency will be for the woman,
pictured as taken from the man, to be drawn back to and subjected to
the man.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote27sym" name="sdfootnote27anc"><sup>27</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
And through history, that's exactly what we've seen: the frequent
sidelining of women, who have often been ignored, condescended to,
horribly mistreated, abused.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The
world described in the curses is a world where snakes slither
underfoot, where getting pregnancy can be hard and giving birth
hurts, where food comes from farming through men's hard work, where
men put women down, where things fall apart – in short, the world
of ancient Israel.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote28sym" name="sdfootnote28anc"><sup>28</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Israel may have heard the curse explained in terms they could
understand from their own experience, but we can still understand a
world of sorrow, of anxiety and heartbreak, of mistakes and
misunderstanding, confusion and conflict, power plays and
resentments, sweat and fear and overwork, a world where things still
fall apart. Work, home, family, society – the lesson is that what
we call 'normal life' now is not what God originally wanted for us.
It's the curse.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
that curse culminates in dissolution, decomposition – death.
Humans will work and sweat and eat </span><i>“until you return to
the ground, for out of it you were taken: for you are dust, and to
dust you shall return”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 3:19). If you attended an Ash Wednesday service – oh, I
hope you did – you probably heard those fateful words with which
these curses conclude. Dissolving something back into its source
ingredients was one of the most powerful effects a divine curse could
have.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote29sym" name="sdfootnote29anc"><sup>29</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
And so it is with us: dust, loosely held together; our feeble soul
can't hold on forever. God's intention was, by his grace, to make us
imperishable, because God's image ought not break down, “God did
not make death.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote30sym" name="sdfootnote30anc"><sup>30</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Yet we ourselves “invited death, considered it a friend, pined for
it, and made a covenant with it.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote31sym" name="sdfootnote31anc"><sup>31</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
And so “you decompose into the material you were formed from.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote32sym" name="sdfootnote32anc"><sup>32</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
That's natural for us, but that doesn't make it right, that doesn't
make it God's plan.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote33sym" name="sdfootnote33anc"><sup>33</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">As
the bishop St. Cyprian reminds us, “we are all bound and confined
by the bond of this sentence until, having paid the debt of death, we
leave this world. We must be in sorrow and lamentation all the days
of our life, and we must eat our bread with sweat and labor.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote34sym" name="sdfootnote34anc"><sup>34</sup></a></span></sup><i>
</i><span style="font-style: normal;">Isn't that what Lent tells us,
too? Lent calls us, jolts us, back to that sorrow and lamentation
which comes so unnaturally to a culture obsessed with happiness above
all else. In Lent, we're urged to look at the thorns and thistles,
at our agony and our anguish; to admit our curse with pained hearts;
to humble ourselves before our Maker; to repent in dust and ashes; to
toil vigorously against our sins.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">In
the context of all this, St. Paul offers us hope. He makes clear
that when God issued these curses, his words acknowledged creation
was on the wrong track and judged it, but he did so with every plan
to work with sinful humanity to ultimately usher everything back on
the right track through us.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote35sym" name="sdfootnote35anc"><sup>35</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
God </span><i>“subjected it in hope that the creation itself will
be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of
the glory of the children of God”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Romans 8:21). For into this cursed creation, God sent his perfect
Son to be the Human whom Adam and Eve failed to be. This Last Adam,
by sharing in a cursed creation's sufferings, is steering it to the
heavenly goal it was meant for. The Last Adam adopted the appearance
of a slave, serving humanity to remake us in a less dusty image
(Philippians 2:7; 1 Corinthians 15:49). He at last accepted the
curse onto himself, for our sake and for all creation, to redeem all
things from their curse (Galatians 3:13). He became </span><i>“obedient
unto death, even death on the cross”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Philippians 2:8), but </span><i>“it was not possible for him to be
held by it”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Acts 2:24). God
did not, would not, could not allow his Son to become a slave of
decay (Acts 2:31). Instead, God gave the Last Adam resurrection and
exaltation, </span><i>“having untied the birth-pangs of death”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Acts 2:24).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
God has promised that the Last Adam will, in the end, demolish Death
itself (1 Corinthians 15:26). For </span><i>“he who raised the
Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(2 Corinthians 4:14). We who know the final force of the curse, that
from dust we came and so to dust we all return, have a promise that
dust and ashes are not our final fate. Even the rabbis added a
promise: “You are dust, and to dust you are to return, but from the
dust you are to arise again to give an account and a reckoning of all
that you have done.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote36sym" name="sdfootnote36anc"><sup>36</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
And so we are “dissolved only for the time which God has set for
each. … As seeds sown in the ground, we do not perish when we are
dissolved, but as sown we shall rise again, death having been
destroyed by the grace of the Savior.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote37sym" name="sdfootnote37anc"><sup>37</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
God does not send us a Lent without an Easter in store at the end of
it!</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
so these very bodies that dissolve to dust will serve as the seeds
from which God will grow what we were meant to become; we'll be
raised in </span><i>“incorruption,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
in bold defiance of corruption's present subjection of the cursed
creation (1 Corinthians 15:42). Creation itself, St. Paul says,
shares our wait for </span><i>“the redemption of our bodies, for in
this hope we were saved”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Romans 8:23-24). And when we are revealed in resurrection glory,
restored as the priests and rulers of creation we were meant to be,
then the whole creation will be set free, liberated in the fullest
sense of the word, to become everything creation was meant to be. So
yes, </span><i>“the creation waits with eager longing for the sons
of God to be revealed”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Romans
8:19), </span><i>“for we know that the whole creation has been
groaning together in the pangs of childbirth until now”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Romans 8:22). Only then will the birth come, the new heavens, the
new earth, where all toil and pain, all agony and anguish, all death
and decay will have </span><i>“passed away”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Revelation 21:4). And we will for all eternity lead every creature
in one exuberant shout of triumph: </span><i>“Our God turned the
curse into a blessing!”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Nehemiah 13:2). </span><i>“To Him who sits on the throne and to
the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Revelation 5:13).<span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<div id="sdfootnote1">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote1anc" name="sdfootnote1sym">1</a> Thomas
Aquinas, <i>Summa theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I-II, q.85, a.5, in </span><i>Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
26:97.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote2">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote2anc" name="sdfootnote2sym">2</a> Anne
Marie Kitz, <i>Cursed Are You! The Phenomenology of Cursing in
Cuneiform and Hebrew Texts</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eisenbrauns, 2014), 3.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote3">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote3anc" name="sdfootnote3sym">3</a> Anne
Marie Kitz, <i>Cursed Are You! The Phenomenology of Cursing in
Cuneiform and Hebrew Texts</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eisenbrauns, 2014), 134-138.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote4">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote4anc" name="sdfootnote4sym">4</a> N.
T. Wright, <i>Paul and the Faithfulness of God</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Fortress Press, 2013), 485, 493.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote5">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote5anc" name="sdfootnote5sym">5</a>Ben
Witherington III, <i>Paul's Letter to the Romans: A Socio-Rhetorical
Commentary</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Eerdmans, 2004),
223; Frank J. Matera, </span><i>Romans</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
Paideia Commentaries on the New Testament (Baker Academic, 2020),
200.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote6">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote6anc" name="sdfootnote6sym">6</a> Loren
D. Haarsma, <i>When Did Sin Begin? Human Evolution and the Doctrine
of Original Sin</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Baker
Academic, 2021), 74.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote7">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote7anc" name="sdfootnote7sym">7</a> Loren
D. Haarsma, <i>When Did Sin Begin? Human Evolution and the Doctrine
of Original Sin</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Baker
Academic, 2021), 66-67.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote8">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote8anc" name="sdfootnote8sym">8</a> Adam
E. Miglio, <i>The Gilgamesh Epic in Genesis 1-11: Peering into the
Deep</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Routledge, 2023), 82.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote9">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote9anc" name="sdfootnote9sym">9</a> John
of Damascus, <i>On the Orthodox Faith</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
24, in </span><i>Popular Patristics Series</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
62:122.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote10">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote10anc" name="sdfootnote10sym">10</a> Jacques
van Ruiten, “Eve's Pain in Childbearing? Interpretations of
Genesis 3:16a in Biblical and Early Jewish Texts,” in Gerard P.
Luttikhuisen, ed., <i>Eve's Children: The Biblical Stories Retold
and Interpreted in Jewish and Christian Traditions</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Brill, 2003), 4-5; Joseph E. Coleson, </span><i>Genesis 1-11: A
Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Beacon Hill Press, 2012), 137. </span></span>
</p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote11">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote11anc" name="sdfootnote11sym">11</a> R.
R. Reno, <i>Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, Brazos
Theological Commentary (Brazos Press, 2010), 93.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote12">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote12anc" name="sdfootnote12sym">12</a> Irenaeus
of Lyons, <i>Against Heresies</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
3.23.3, in </span><i>Ancient Christian Writers</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
64:106.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote13">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote13anc" name="sdfootnote13sym">13</a> John
Chrysostom, <i>Homilies on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
17.41, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
74:244.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote14">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote14anc" name="sdfootnote14sym">14</a> Josephus,
<i>Antiquities of the Jews</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1.49, in </span><i>Loeb Classical Library</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
242:23.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote15">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote15anc" name="sdfootnote15sym">15</a> Paulus
Orosius, <i>Defense Against the Pelagians</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
26, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
99:153.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote16">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote16anc" name="sdfootnote16sym">16</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>Unfinished Work in Answer to Julian</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
6.29.A4, in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/25:688.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote17">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote17anc" name="sdfootnote17sym">17</a> Novatian
of Rome, <i>On Jewish Foods</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2.6, in </span><i>Corpus Christianorum in Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
22:197. See also Natan Levy, </span><i>The Dawn of Agriculture and
the Earliest States in Genesis 1-11</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Routledge, 2023), 65, on early Neolithic agriculture's many
drawbacks.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote18">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote18anc" name="sdfootnote18sym">18</a> Ellen
F. Davis, “Propriety and Trespass: The Drama of Eating,” in
Stephen C. Barton and David Wilkinson, eds., <i>Reading Genesis
After Darwin</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Oxford University
Press, 2009), 213; Joseph E. Coleson, </span><i>Genesis 1-11: A
Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Beacon Hill Press, 2012), 140; Iain W. Provan, </span><i>Seriously
Dangerous Religion: What the Old Testament Really Says and Why It
Matters</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Baylor University
Press, 2014), 121.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote19">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote19anc" name="sdfootnote19sym">19</a> Douglas
J. Moo and Jonathan A. Moo, <i>Creation Care: A Biblical Theology of
the Natural World</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Zondervan
Academic, 2018), 101</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote20">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote20anc" name="sdfootnote20sym">20</a> Lesley
Newson and Peter J. Richerson, <i>A Story of Us: A New Look at Human
Evolution</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Oxford University
Press, 2021), 20-22; John H. Langdon, </span><i>Human Evolution:
Bones, Cultures, and Genes</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Springer, 2022), 671-673; Rene J. Herrera and Ralph
Garcia-Bertrand, </span><i>Sex and Cohabitation Among Early Humans:
Anthropological and Genetic Evidence for Interbreeding Among Early
Humans</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Academic Press, 2023),
190.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote21">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote21anc" name="sdfootnote21sym">21</a> Philo
of Alexandria, <i>On the Creation of the Cosmos According to Moses
</i><span style="font-style: normal;">24 </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">167,
in </span><i>Philo of Alexandria Commentary Series</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1:91.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote22">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote22anc" name="sdfootnote22sym">22</a> Ingrid
Faro, <i>Evil in Genesis: A Contextual Analysis of Hebrew Lexemes
for Evil in the Book of Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Lexham Press, 2021), 154.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote23">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote23anc" name="sdfootnote23sym">23</a> Iain
W. Provan, <i>Seriously Dangerous Religion: What the Old Testament
Really Says and Why It Matters</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Baylor University Press, 2014), 117-118; Paul C. Vitz, “Men and
Women: Their Differences and Their Complementarity: Evidence from
Psychology and Neuroscience,” in Paul C. Vitz, ed., </span><i>The
Complementarity of Women and Men: Philosophy, Theology, Psychology,
and Art</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Catholic University of
America Press, 2021), 184.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote24">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote24anc" name="sdfootnote24sym">24</a> Donald
E. Gowan, <i>Genesis 1-11: From Eden to Babel</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eerdmans, 1988), 58; </span>Nahum M. Sarna, <i>Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
JPS Torah Commentary (Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 28; </span>Bruce
K. Waltke, <i>Genesis: A Commentary</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Zondervan Academic, 2001), 94; Joseph E. Coleson, </span><i>Genesis
1-11: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Beacon Hill Press, 2012), 138-139.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote25">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote25anc" name="sdfootnote25sym">25</a> Leon
R. Kass, <i>The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Free Press, 2003), 114-115; C. John Collins, </span><i>Genesis 1-4:
A Linguistic, Literary, and Theological Commentary</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(P&R Publishing, 2005), 160; Anne Campbell, </span><i>A Mind of
Her Own: The Evolutionary Psychology of Women</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Oxford University Press, 2013), 257.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote26">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote26anc" name="sdfootnote26sym">26</a> Abigail
Favale, <i>The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Ignatius Press, 2022), 49. See also John Chrysostom, </span><i>Homilies
on Genesis </i><span style="font-style: normal;">17.36, in </span><i>Fathers
of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
74:241 (“I created you equal in esteem to your husband”).</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote27">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote27anc" name="sdfootnote27sym">27</a> Zvi
Grumet, <i>Genesis: From Creation to Covenant</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Maggid Books, 2017), 52.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote28">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote28anc" name="sdfootnote28sym">28</a> Leon
R. Kass, <i>The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Free Press, 2003), 94.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote29">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote29anc" name="sdfootnote29sym">29</a> Anne
Marie Kitz, <i>Cursed Are You! The Phenomenology of Cursing in
Cuneiform and Hebrew Texts</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eisenbrauns, 2014), 150-151.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote30">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote30anc" name="sdfootnote30sym">30</a> Wisdom
of Solomon 1:13.</span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote31">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote31anc" name="sdfootnote31sym">31</a> Wisdom
of Solomon 1:16.</span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote32">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote32anc" name="sdfootnote32sym">32</a> John
Chrysostom, <i>Homilies on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
17.41, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
74:244.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote33">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote33anc" name="sdfootnote33sym">33</a> Athanasius
of Alexandria, <i>On the Incarnation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
4, in </span><i>Popular Patristics Series</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
44A:59.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote34">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote34anc" name="sdfootnote34sym">34</a> Cyprian
of Carthage, <i>On the Good of Patience</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
11, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
36:274.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote35">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote35anc" name="sdfootnote35sym">35</a> N.
T. Wright, <i>Paul and the Faithfulness of God</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Fortress Press, 2013), 1091-1092.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote36">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote36anc" name="sdfootnote36sym">36</a><i> Targum
Neofiti</i> Genesis 3:19, in <i>Aramaic Bible</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1A:62.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote37">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote37anc" name="sdfootnote37sym">37</a> Athanasius
of Alexandria, <i>On the Incarnation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
21, in </span><i>Popular Patristics Series</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
44A:95.</span></span></p>
</div>
JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13108158469007498050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442509839497082978.post-47842681674639140402024-02-11T10:41:00.059-05:002024-02-11T15:06:18.805-05:00Shame and the Blame Game<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">In these past couple
weeks, we've watched as human history derailed from the path to a
blissful destiny, only to become a slow-motion trainwreck. Into
paradise slithered a serpent, and Genesis laid out for us the
dynamics of deception. Plus, our desires have power to lure and
entice our wills. Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life
– these add up to a love of the world that competes with love for
God, making our hearts contested terrain.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="http://iron-in-fire.blogspot.com/2024/02/useful-pretty-profitable-toxic.html">Last week</a>, we left off at
the exact moment it went truly awry. Corrupted intellect and
perverted will gave birth to evil action. The woman reached out to
snap a piece of fruit off of the tree that represented our one lawful
limit; she ate what she sacrilegiously stole; she then offered some
to the man, and in a shocking twist, he imitated her – 'monkey see,
monkey do' was his childish impulse – and ate, totally disregarding what their L<span style="font-size: x-small;">ORD</span>
God had said to them. Now the pair of them were partakers together
in this unlawfully assailed tree and its dark sacrament of forbidden knowledge.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
with that, a change took place. The serpent had told them both, </span><i>“In
the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 3:5). And, sure enough, </span><i>“then their eyes were
opened”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Genesis 3:7). But it
isn't what the serpent led them to believe. Their new knowledge
reveals conflict, confusion, chaos. In quantum mechanics, the
uncertainty principle warns that the more precisely we know a
particle's momentum, the less precisely we can know its position.
What the serpent failed to mention was that this tree makes us
</span><i>'knowers of good and evil'</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
only at the expense of becoming </span><i>un</i><span style="font-style: normal;">knowers
full of </span><i>un</i><span style="font-style: normal;">certainty.
Humans no longer have the luxury of just taking the world as it is.
Their minds are churning, souring, as badness stares back from every
bush.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote1sym" name="sdfootnote1anc"><sup>1</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The
grand insight to which their eyes have been opened is this
less-than-heartwarming realization: </span><i>“they knew that they
were naked”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Genesis 3:7).
Why couldn't they see it before? After all, when the L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
God made humanity, in one sense we </span><i>were</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
more naked than any of our fellow mammals (Genesis 2:25). But in
another sense, the psalmist reminds us that the L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span><i>“made us a little lower than heavenly beings, and crowned
us with glory and honor”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Psalm 8:5). Among Israel's neighbors, divine images – whether
idols or kings – were portrayed with the god's glory radiating from
their heads; that's what a crown was there to symbolize.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote2sym" name="sdfootnote2anc"><sup>2</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
What the psalmist might be saying is that Adam and Eve's heads were
“surrounded with a brilliant, dazzling light which was a physical
manifestation” of the L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
God's own glory, thus clothing their nakedness with majesty.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote3sym" name="sdfootnote3anc"><sup>3</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">If
so, then now this glory has fled away, their light has died, and they
see themselves and each other cracked open and leaking purpose.
Hence, for the first time, they see themselves reduced to a bare
natural condition, like shaved chimps. Shorn of glory, they see
themselves in the naked light of day, where they can really
scrutinize themselves for the first time. And so begins the first
voyage of self-discovery.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote4sym" name="sdfootnote4anc"><sup>4</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
The trouble is, they actually </span><i>do</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
'find themselves.' Now they're self-conscious, subjects of their own
sustained but uncertain introspection. They have a new capacity to
not just feel good about themselves, but also to feel bad about
themselves. What before was innocent nakedness is now shameful
baldness, born in loss and defeat and failure.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">With
this newfound power to judge, we have the ability to judge ourselves
faulty and feeble and foolish, to feel a divorce driven between our
reality and our requirement.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote5sym" name="sdfootnote5anc"><sup>5</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
And so, at some fundamental level, the human is now alienated from
himself, swept up by the discovery of an inner warfare of the flesh
against the soul (1 Peter 2:11).</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote6sym" name="sdfootnote6anc"><sup>6</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
If a human can judge himself, then surely he can judge and be judged
by others. Other humans, even those who are 'one flesh' with you,
can see you, judge you, diminish you. It used to be that this total
transparency toward each other was a gift; but now it feels like a mugging.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote7sym" name="sdfootnote7anc"><sup>7</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
To be so exposed to another's gaze feels like being defined,
captured, enslaved – an existential assault.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote8sym" name="sdfootnote8anc"><sup>8</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">It's
not just in their heads, either. To be exposed as naked means to be
made powerless and poor; to be stripped of identity, status, honor;
to be devalued and degraded in the sight of oneself and others.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote9sym" name="sdfootnote9anc"><sup>9</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
So, thanks to this new knowledge, humans are humiliated by the
collapse of their once-lofty dignity. Before, in having nothing but
God to their name, they had more than the world could hold; now they
know they've lost everything.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote10sym" name="sdfootnote10anc"><sup>10</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
They are, in more ways than one, dis-graced.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote11sym" name="sdfootnote11anc"><sup>11</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"> With the loss of grace, guilt and shame have now invaded paradise.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">What's
worse, each human has just proven to the other that he or she is
willing to transgress boundaries – so how can he trust her to
respect his boundaries, or how can she trust him to respect hers?</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote12sym" name="sdfootnote12anc"><sup>12</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Even to be naked in nature is to contend with sharp rocks, poison
ivy, insects, beasts; how much more being vulnerable to people?
“Such is the evil that sin is,” it's said, that “not only does
it deprive us of grace from above, but it also casts us into deep
shame and abjection, strips us of goods already belonging to us, and
deprives us of all confidence.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote13sym" name="sdfootnote13anc"><sup>13</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Tragically,
the ironic opening of their eyes to their shame was the last action
they take as </span><i>“the both of them.”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
Now, too ashamed to speak, they begin to work separately but in
parallel. </span><i>“And they sewed...”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 3:7). It would be easy to miss this, but sewing isn't
something people do bare-handed. To sew, you need a needle, don't
you? Where's that coming from? This calls for “the first human
invention” – and not just any invention, but one that pierces,
that pokes holes in God's world.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote14sym" name="sdfootnote14anc"><sup>14</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
A fitting metaphor for what they've done to themselves.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
what they sew together, using I-don't-know-what, are fig leaves they
find nearby. Fig leaves, can be over nine inches across, usually
have five lobes, and have a sandpaper-rough upside but a soft and
hairy underside.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote15sym" name="sdfootnote15anc"><sup>15</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
But, vivid green as they are, once the humans yank them from their
tree, they're cut off from life and fruitfulness. They're doomed to
decay; everything until then is just running out the clock on rot. Also a
disturbingly fitting picture for the state the humans have seized for themselves.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">So
the humans </span><i>“sewed fig leaves together, and made
themselves girdles”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Genesis
3:7). This is the first time in the Bible the word 'make' has
somebody other than God for its object.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote16sym" name="sdfootnote16anc"><sup>16</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
The first human act of making is to make a concealment, a way to
disguise the naked truth. In a world of shame, we constantly trade
in disguises, trying to gussy up our shortcomings as other than what
they are.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote17sym" name="sdfootnote17anc"><sup>17</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
To that end, what we made are girdles, belts (2 Samuel 20:8; Isaiah
3:24). Skimpier than a bathing suit even after today's fashions, such a thing as the sum-total of an outfit barely passes as a token
gesture toward either modesty or self-protection. Stitching leaves
into a jockstrap – oh, how absolutely godlike!</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote18sym" name="sdfootnote18anc"><sup>18</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
It closes us off in a way we were never meant to be, yet we treat it
as a natural cost of our begrudging coexistence.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">What's
more, fig leaves sewn together aren't going to last long; and once
they shrivel and decay, nakedness will just reassert itself, the
problem once more staring us in the face.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote19sym" name="sdfootnote19anc"><sup>19</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
They must realize they'd have to make a new one every few days,
meaning their pitiful attempts to disguise their shortcomings are
going to keep occupying monumental amounts of their time and energy.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote20sym" name="sdfootnote20anc"><sup>20</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
And we haven't stopped. How much time and energy does the human
race waste in fashioning fig leaves for ourselves, over and over
again? What about you and me?</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Eventually,
they hear </span><i>“the sound of the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
God walking in the garden in the wind of the day”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 3:8). He regularly came to the garden for fellowship with
these creatures who bear his image, and ordinarily this would've
thrilled their hearts, a cue to run toward the sound of the L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote21sym" name="sdfootnote21anc"><sup>21</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
But this time their hearts don't thrill. </span><i>“For although
they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Romans 1:21). In the aftermath, God looks like a threat, a danger,
perhaps even an enemy. So they react to his presence with dread,
fear, aversion. Rather than open themselves to their Lord's stormy
care, rather than hurl themselves into this oncoming hurricane of
divine love, rather than submit long enough to let God blow away
their guilt and shame, they yearn to get away, to save themselves
from the risk of salvation! How foolish. Yet how typical of us.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
so, in the last thing the human pair does as a 'they,' they hide.
They seek shelter from their Father God in the midst of the garden's
trees, the very same trees he planted for their nourishment and
delight and blessing.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote22sym" name="sdfootnote22anc"><sup>22</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
What we see here is an ugly-stupid picture of our desperation to
make the world not a site of encounter but a shield of avoidance, to
flee deeper and deeper into created things for an impossible escape
from their Creator – and seeking </span><i>“the creature rather
than the Creator,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> Paul
reminds us, is the seed of idolatry (Romans 1:25).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Left
to our own devices, we each run and run and run, scouring creation
for smaller and smaller places to hide, shriveling ourselves to fit
our fears, our restless hearts too caught in their own inertia to
ever reclaim rest.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote23sym" name="sdfootnote23anc"><sup>23</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
We'll run to tireless artifice, achievements, accolades. We'll run
to sports and games, adventures, amusements. We'll run to affairs of
the heart and pleasures of the flesh. We'll run to family and
friends. We'll run to politics, to philanthropy, even to religion.
Whether we hide from God behind stained glass or at the bottom of a
bottle makes little difference in the end. “The farther man
withdraws from God, the farther still he desires to withdraw.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote24sym" name="sdfootnote24anc"><sup>24</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
So we'll run when we're out of steam. We'll run beyond our last
breath, run till we're nothing. We'll run all the way to hell to
hide, if we have to, despite its patent pointlessness: </span><i>“No
creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to
the eyes of him to whom we must give account”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Hebrews 4:13).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
so now, to that end of calling us to give account, the L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
God speaks, his first recorded words since the commandment. Like the
serpent, he asks a question, one meant this time not to manipulate
but to give voice to “the cry of a broken heart.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote25sym" name="sdfootnote25anc"><sup>25</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
He's not come to lecture them, yell at them, denounce them. He's
filled with deep concern, like a parent rushing to the side of a
collapsed child. His questions are an opportunity, an invitation to
confess, to repent, to be forgiven.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Question
1: </span><i>“Where are you?”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 3:9). “God knew where Adam was, but Adam didn't.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote26sym" name="sdfootnote26anc"><sup>26</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
In his effort to hide from God, this man has lost track of himself,
of his own place, of his own soul. He's sleepwalked his way to a pit
without knowing it. As much as he may now know good and evil, he no
longer knows himself. His journey of self-discovery has left him
further in the weeds and further in the dark. And he is us. The
only cure is self-examination: Where are you? In all our pride, do
we even know where we are? Or are we in the dark as to our position?
Are we close to God, are we creeping to the margins, or have we strayed even to a far country? Do
we present ourselves to him in the open, or is there something we're
still hiding our sensitive bits behind? And how is it we got here?</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote27sym" name="sdfootnote27anc"><sup>27</sup></a></span></sup></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The
man should've shouted, “I'm fallen and need rescue, that's where I
am! I'm in sin, I'm in shame, I'm in sorrow, and I hope, O God, I'm in the path of your mercy!” Yes, even still, he could've taken the initiative to nakedly present his
lostness to the L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">.
But he responds as we do: </span><i>“I heard the sound of you in
the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 3:10). It's just nine short words in Hebrew, “the
stiff-armed response of a man trying to barricade himself.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote28sym" name="sdfootnote28anc"><sup>28</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
This nakedness to which he confesses sums up here everything that
now makes him unfit for God's presence, unfit for God's garden, unfit
for God's world.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">I
can almost hear the pain in God's voice when the second question
comes: </span><i>“Who told you that you're naked?”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 3:11). Who made you feel ashamed of yourself? Who dared ruin
your innocence? Who robbed you and left you in dirt and blood and woe? Why
are you wallowing in this muck that's so beneath you? Who is it, exactly, who opened up
for you this gulf that now gapes between us?</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote29sym" name="sdfootnote29anc"><sup>29</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
It wasn't <i>God</i> who created the distance, not <i>God</i> who caused the ruin, not <i>God</i> who authored the shame.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Then
follows, hot on its heels, the third question: </span><i>“From the
tree that I commanded you not to eat from, have you eaten?!”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 3:11). The tone is one of absolute heartbreak, as though
born from disbelief: “The one and only thing I said no to, the one thing I banned for your own good... seriously, you did that?!” If God were a man, this is the part where he'd
rend his garments, don sackcloth and ashes for us, and wail in lamentation over our choosing sin over
his perfect love. And this threefold barrage of questions is, make no mistake, the relentless
pursuit of God's love for his prodigal sons and daughters.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote30sym" name="sdfootnote30anc"><sup>30</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
So here God pauses, yielding the floor, making space for us so we can share his shock
and sorrow over sin. How much swine-slop do we have to slurp down before
we spit sin out? Will we come to our senses and run home to our Father, even if
only at the last hour? What will we say?</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">We
reply – we have no choice but to give account – and in this scene, every word the
humans utter is... 'true.' But true words don't add up here to a whole
truth; they're sewn together like the fig leaves, artfully arranged
to obscure.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote31sym" name="sdfootnote31anc"><sup>31</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
What ought to happen is full confession, not just of an act, but of
an act </span><i>as sin</i><span style="font-style: normal;">. We
shouldn't minimize our culpability. Rather, we should own and
disown: own up to what we've done (</span><span style="font-style: normal;">“</span><span style="font-style: normal;">Yes, that happened; yes, I caused it; yes, I am the responsible party</span><span style="font-style: normal;">”</span><span style="font-style: normal;">), and disown it as an act which was
wrong (</span><span style="font-style: normal;">“</span><span style="font-style: normal;">No, it oughtn't have happened; no, I was not in the right; it's something I'd like to have not done</span><span style="font-style: normal;">”</span><span style="font-style: normal;">). We ought to embrace God's attitude as ours, ought to take up
God's point of view. “No one can be justified from sin unless he
has first made confession of his sin,” <i>as</i> sin.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote32sym" name="sdfootnote32anc"><sup>32</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Then, and only then, can healing begin.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">That's
not what happens. Before conceding </span><i>that</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
he ate, the man will rationalize </span><i>why</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
he ate, claiming all the extenuating circumstances and exculpating
factors he can imagine. Earlier, he waxed poetic in celebrating his
wife: </span><i>“bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh!”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 2:23). Now that same beloved wife is cast off as a burden
and an imposition, a cancer in his bone and in his flesh. It's as if he says: “God,
it's her fault! She was so alluring and charming and irresistible;
she'd already eaten and seemed fine; we're one flesh, acting as one, so once she'd acted for that one flesh, how could I
do anything but follow along? I was peer-pressured by the only peer
I've got. So yes, I ate – but I ate because she ate, I ate because
she gave. And if </span><i>she</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
hadn't given, </span><i>I</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
wouldn't have eaten. So don't look at me, God; look at her! I
accuse her!”</span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">As
if it weren't enough to begin the stupid trend of men shaming and
blaming women for their own failures at self-control, he objects
doubly to the gifts he's received: not only the woman's gift to him,
but God's gift of the woman to him. </span><i>“The woman whom </i><i><u>you</u></i><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">
gave to be with me – she gave me from the tree, and I ate”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 3:12). Indirectly, the man blames God for the man's own
sin.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote33sym" name="sdfootnote33anc"><sup>33</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
It's like he's insinuating: “She gave me the fruit, but you gave
her to me – well, didn't you know women are only trouble? You
presented her as my helper, so really, in taking what she gave,
wasn't I in a way trusting you blindly, trusting that what you gave me would always be a true help? And if that blew up in my
face, then whose fault is that really? So yes, I ate – I ate because
you gave me a defective helper, who hurt me with her poisoned gift.
I'm a victim of the system! So don't look at me, God; go look in a
heavenly mirror!”</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">God
could, at this point, tear through the countless holes in the man's
story. Instead, generously, God does turn his attention to the
woman, giving her the opportunity to confess that her husband
refused. But she rationalizes just as much as he did. She doesn't
hit back at the husband who just threw her under the bus – that
won't work – but she points the finger at the now-silent snake.
“This serpent came along with blasphemies, God, and I had only the
best of intentions, to defend your good name! But who prepared me to
face a criminal mastermind? I was out of my depth, I hadn't a
prayer. I was seduced, corrupted, deceived, tricked, tempted. How
could I win? My decisions were all downstream from these alien
thoughts sown in my mind like tares among the wheat. So I plead an
insanity defense. Yes, I ate – I ate because this creature of
yours cornered me, blinded me, turned my thinking upside-down. If </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">he</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
hadn't deceived me dizzy, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">I</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
wouldn't have eaten. The devil made me do it! Don't look at me, God, look at him!”</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Both
their answers are off-base. But are they really any different than what we
constantly do, to God and to others? We, too, evade questions. We,
too, make excuses. We, too, pass the buck. We, too, play the blame
game. Out of an instinctual awareness of our naked vulnerability,
most of us find it a lot more comfortable to try to justify ourselves
rather than step into the light with our guilt and shame and
weakness. So our pride incessantly “tries to shift its own
wrongful act to another” – another person, another cause, another situation, another
explanation.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote34sym" name="sdfootnote34anc"><sup>34</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
“The desperate human need for self-justification,” it's been
said, “blossomed instantaneously and never has left us, except with
divine treatment. Perhaps more than any other perverse human 'need,'
this one splinters relationships, often rendering them (absent divine
grace) beyond the possibility of repair.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote35sym" name="sdfootnote35anc"><sup>35</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
And so, rather than admit our shame, we accept separation from
ourselves, separation from each other, separation from God.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote36sym" name="sdfootnote36anc"><sup>36</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">What
we've had in today's passage is a painfully cutting study of what sin
is like from the inside: guilt, shame, fear, avoidance, excuses,
accusations – anything but what's good for us. This “new fear
and tension,” this turn from mutual cherishing to mutual blaming,
this spiteful aversion to God, adds up to this truth: sin yields,
every time, a “reduced quality of human life.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote37sym" name="sdfootnote37anc"><sup>37</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
There's only one cure for that alienation, and one of the studies I
read sums it up beautifully: “As the light of God's word reveals
our transgressions and we sense greater depths of our shame, we may
feel overwhelmed. But your sin does not overwhelm Christ. … The
very reasons you think he should depart are the very reasons he tells
you to come.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote38sym" name="sdfootnote38anc"><sup>38</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Ain't that the truth!</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">I'll
let the Apostle John, then, have the last word: </span><i>“Whoever
confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in
God. So we have come to know and believe the love that God has for
us. God is Love! And whoever abides in love abides in God, and God
abides in him”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (1 John
4:15-16). </span><i>“Abide in him so that, when he appears, we may
have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(1 John 2:28). </span><i>“By this is love perfected in us, so that
we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is, so
also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect
love casts out fear”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (1 John
4:17-18). Amen.<span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<div id="sdfootnote1">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote1anc" name="sdfootnote1sym">1</a> Leon
R. Kass, <i>The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Free Press, 2003), 89.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote2">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote2anc" name="sdfootnote2sym">2</a> Catherine
L. McDowell, <i>The Image of God in the Garden of Eden: The Creation of Humankind in Genesis 2:25–3:24 in Light of the m</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>ī</i></span><i>s
p</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>ī</i></span><i>, p</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>ī</i></span><i>t
p</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>ī</i></span><i>, and
wpt-r Rituals of Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt </i><span style="font-style: normal;">(Eisenbrauns, 2015), 159-163.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote3">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote3anc" name="sdfootnote3sym">3</a> Catherine
L. McDowell, <i>The Image of God in the Garden of Eden</i><i>: The Creation of Humankind in Genesis 2:25–3:24 in Light of the m</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>ī</i></span><i>s
p</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>ī</i></span><i>, p</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>ī</i></span><i>t
p</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>ī</i></span><i>, and
wpt-r Rituals of Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eisenbrauns, 2015), 164-170.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote4">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote4anc" name="sdfootnote4sym">4</a> Leon
R. Kass, <i>The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Free Press, 2003), 67.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote5">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote5anc" name="sdfootnote5sym">5</a> Tremper
Longman III, <i>Genesis</i>, Story of God Bible Commentary<span style="font-style: normal;">
(Zondervan Academic, 2016), 65.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote6">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote6anc" name="sdfootnote6sym">6</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>City of God</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 13.13,
in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/7:78-79.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote7">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote7anc" name="sdfootnote7sym">7</a> Abigail
Favale, <i>The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Ignatius Press, 2022), 46.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote8">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote8anc" name="sdfootnote8sym">8</a> Christopher
Watkin, <i>Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible's Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Zondervan Academic, 2022), 148-149.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote9">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote9anc" name="sdfootnote9sym">9</a> David
A. deSilva, <i>Honor, Patronage, Kinship, and Purity: Unlocking New
Testament Culture</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (IVP
Academic, 2000), 25.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote10">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote10anc" name="sdfootnote10sym">10</a> John
Goldingay, <i>Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Baker
Academic, 2020), 65.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote11">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote11anc" name="sdfootnote11sym">11</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>Literal Meaning of Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
11.31 </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">41,
in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/13:453; cf. Paul O'Callaghan, </span><i>God's Gift of the
Universe: An Introduction to Creation Theology</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Catholic University of America Press, 2021), 334.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote12">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote12anc" name="sdfootnote12sym">12</a> J.
Richard Middleton, “Reading Genesis 3 Attentive to Evolution:
Beyond Concordism and Non-Overlapping Magisteria,” in William T.
Cavanaugh and James K.A. Smith, <i>Evolution and the Fall</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eerdmans, 2017), 90.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote13">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote13anc" name="sdfootnote13sym">13</a> John
Chrysostom, <i>Homilies on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
16.19, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
74:220.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote14">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote14anc" name="sdfootnote14sym">14</a> Leon
R. Kass, <i>The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Free Press, 2003), 90.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote15">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote15anc" name="sdfootnote15sym">15</a> Badii Gaaliche, Diganta Nazary, Mehdi Ben Mimoun, and Ali Sarkhosh, “Taxonomy, Botany, and Physiology,” in Ali
Sarkhosh, Alimohammed Yavari, and Louise Ferguson, eds., <i>The Fig:
Botany, Production, and Uses</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(CABI, 2022), 18-19.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote16">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote16anc" name="sdfootnote16sym">16</a> John
Dyer, <i>From the Garden to the City: The Corrupting and Redeeming
Power of Technology</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Kregel,
2011), 70.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote17">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote17anc" name="sdfootnote17sym">17</a><span style="font-style: normal;"> R.
R. Reno, </span><i>Genesis</i>, Brazos Theological Commentary<span style="font-style: normal;">
(Brazos Press, 2010), 92.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote18">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote18anc" name="sdfootnote18sym">18</a> Iain
W. Provan, <i>Seriously Dangerous Religion: What the Old Testament Really Says and Why It Matters</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Baylor University Press, 2014), 254; John Goldingay, </span><i>Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Baker Academic, 2020), 76.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote19">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote19anc" name="sdfootnote19sym">19</a> William
P. Brown, <i>The Seven Pillars of Creation: The Bible, Science, and
the Ecology of Wonder</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Oxford
University Press, 2010), 86.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote20">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote20anc" name="sdfootnote20sym">20</a> Joseph
E. Coleson, <i>Genesis 1-11: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Beacon Hill Press, 2012), 123.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote21">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote21anc" name="sdfootnote21sym">21</a> C.
John Collins, <i>Genesis 1-4: A Linguistic, Literary, and
Theological Commentary</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (P&R
Publishing, 2005), 174.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote22">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote22anc" name="sdfootnote22sym">22</a> Mitchell
L. Chase, <i>Short of Glory: A Biblical and Theological Exploration
of the Fall</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Crossway, 2023),
96.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote23">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote23anc" name="sdfootnote23sym">23</a> Patrick
Henry Reardon, <i>Creation and the Patriarchal Histories: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Book of Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Conciliar Press, 2008), 44.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote24">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote24anc" name="sdfootnote24sym">24</a> Martin
Luther, <i>Lectures on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
3:9, in </span><i>Luther's Works</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1:173.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote25">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote25anc" name="sdfootnote25sym">25</a> Joseph
E. Coleson, <i>Genesis 1-11: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Beacon Hill Press, 2012), 126.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote26">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote26anc" name="sdfootnote26sym">26</a> Patrick
Henry Reardon, <i>Creation and the Patriarchal Histories: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Book of Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Conciliar Press, 2008), 44.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote27">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote27anc" name="sdfootnote27sym">27</a> Leon
R. Kass, <i>The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Free Press, 2003), 92.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote28">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote28anc" name="sdfootnote28sym">28</a> Mitchell
L. Chase, <i>Short of Glory: A Biblical and Theological Exploration
of the Fall</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Crossway, 2023),
97.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote29">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote29anc" name="sdfootnote29sym">29</a> John
Chrysostom, <i>Homilies on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
17.12, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
74:227-228.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote30">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote30anc" name="sdfootnote30sym">30</a> John
Chrysostom, <i>Homilies on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
17.2, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
74:222.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote31">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote31anc" name="sdfootnote31sym">31</a> Abigail
Favale, <i>The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Ignatius Press, 2022), 47; cf. C. John Collins, <i>Genesis 1-4: A Linguistic, Literary, and Theological Commentary</i> (P&R Publishing, 2005), 174.<br /></span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote32">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote32anc" name="sdfootnote32sym">32</a> Ambrose
of Milan, <i>On Paradise</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 14
</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">71,
in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
42:350.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote33">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote33anc" name="sdfootnote33sym">33</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>On Genesis Against the Manichees</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2.17 </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">25,
in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/13:88.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote34">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote34anc" name="sdfootnote34sym">34</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>City of God </i><span style="font-style: normal;">14.14,
in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/7:121.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote35">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote35anc" name="sdfootnote35sym">35</a> Joseph
E. Coleson, <i>Genesis 1-11: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Beacon Hill Press, 2012), 131-132.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote36">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote36anc" name="sdfootnote36sym">36</a> Paul
O'Callaghan, <i>God's Gift of the Universe: An Introduction to
Creation Theology</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (CUA Press,
2021), 335.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote37">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote37anc" name="sdfootnote37sym">37</a> Chris
W. Lee, <i>Death Warning in the Garden of Eden: The Early Reception
History of Genesis 2:17</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Mohr
Siebeck, 2020), 28-29 n. 36.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote38">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote38anc" name="sdfootnote38sym">38</a> Mitchell
L. Chase, <i>Short of Glory: A Biblical and Theological Exploration
of the Fall</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Crossway, 2023),
105.</span></span></p>
</div>
JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13108158469007498050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442509839497082978.post-20199244693664607622024-02-04T10:45:00.002-05:002024-02-11T14:40:51.587-05:00Useful, Pretty, Profitable, Toxic<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">There's trouble, it seems
in Paradise. Everything had been going so well up until this. As
the crown of all that God had made on this earth, God had installed
the humans as his living images in the sanctuary of his garden,
entrusting us with awesome responsibility in the world, but lavishing
us with so much grace as to make it light and joyful to pursue his
work (Genesis 2:7-15). There was only one commandment: enjoy freely everything that
this garden has to offer, except for one measly limit, one and only
one tree held back from us (Genesis 2:16-17). Can we bear to have
all but one, to accept the principle that God is God and we are not?
That's where we practice obedience.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">But <a href="http://iron-in-fire.blogspot.com/2024/01/fields-of-freedom-seeds-of-doubt.html">last Sunday</a>, we
caught a filthy intruder in the garden. Slithering in, his goal is
to inject chaos into what had been so precariously arranged. Word by
word, with a cunning care he whittles away at the woman's implicit
faith in the L<span style="font-size: x-small;">ORD</span> God,
twisting God's words, portraying God as stingy, selfish, a source of
starvation (Genesis 3:1). Luring her into conversation, he nudges
her to think of God only in common with what she can't have, to think
of what's forbidden as the center of her world (Genesis 3:2-3). Now
the serpent can launch the next phase of attack: he quiets her fear
of punishment, he trashes God's motives, says God lied to keep us in
the dark and keep us down, but that humans can climb our own way to
godhood and be a law unto ourselves (Genesis 3:4-5).</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">With every step of the
way, the serpent – with a mix of half-truths and misdirection –
has pulled the wool over her eyes on the pretext of helping her see
better. Whispering from the outside, he's clouded her thinking. And
in this, we have a stunning case study of the process of deception,
of how our thinking runs wild from the purity of faith. So often,
the way toward failure begins with error in our minds. And by the
end of this conversation, the woman isn't acting out of a place of
thinking God's thoughts after him. She's thinking with a compromised
noggin, a head crammed with suspicions and doubts. She wonders who
she can really trust. Her head spins.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">So at this point, the
serpent pulls back. He has nothing else to do. Like they said in
the Middle Ages, “the devil is not a direct and sufficient cause of
sin; he can only persuade or provide what is desirable.”<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote1sym" name="sdfootnote1anc"><sup>1</sup></a></sup>
Well, persuade he has. <i>“The woman was deceived,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
her mind whispered in and worked over (1 Timothy 2:14). But she
still hasn't willed or done anything against the commandment.
Confused though she is, she still doesn't have to.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">At
this point, she's got plenty of options. She can put the whole thing
out of mind and walk away. She can opt to sleep on it, hoping her
mind clears up by the next morning. She can see if her husband's
perspective might help clarify her thinking, call her back to God's
word. Best of all, she could pray. She could go seek the L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
face-to-face when he walks in the garden, submitting her clouded
thinking to him for a decision. And the same is true for us when we
find ourselves assailed by doubts or presumptions, by distortions in
our thinking. We can mentally change the topic, we can sleep on it,
we can seek help, or, best of all, we can pray and seek God's face.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But
the woman takes a more dangerous path. </span><i>“So the woman saw
the tree...”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Genesis 3:6).
With the serpent's words rattling around in her head, she aims her
senses at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, at what the
commandment held at a distance. Now, she isn't forbidden to look at
the tree. But she gives the tree her full and focused attention.
And what she sees, her deceived mind processes differently than
before the serpent worked its charms on her.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote2sym" name="sdfootnote2anc"><sup>2</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
With faith compromised, there's plenty of room for perceptions to
malfunction.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“<i>So the woman saw
that the tree was good...”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 3:6). The serpent told her that the tree had the power to
make humans </span><i>“like gods”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 3:5), so she'll practice by doing what God does. All
through chapter 1, what happened day after day? </span><i>“God saw
that it was good,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> whatever he
had made (Genesis 1:12). Now, she puts herself in God's place as an
observer and esteemer of the world, exercising her own independent
evaluation of this tree.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote3sym" name="sdfootnote3anc"><sup>3</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
But she plays it like a parody, because whereas </span><i>“the
L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i> looks
on the heart”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> of his creation,
she's going to </span><i>“look on the outward appearance”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
and judge that way, with her senses (1 Samuel 16:7).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“<i>So the woman saw
that the tree was good for food”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 3:6). That's her first observation. It was, as some early
Christians granted, a “sweet-flavored fruit.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote4sym" name="sdfootnote4anc"><sup>4</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
The point is that what the woman notices here about the tree is that
its fruit has a certain genuine goodness. The tree actually isn't
something evil, some dark void that drains all light and joy from the
world. It is a created good – as in, God made it and called it
good. God designed it in such a way that its fruit could supply
nutrition. More than that, he gave its fruit its own kind of flavor.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">So,
in studying the tree, the woman appreciates that eating from it would
yield a physically pleasurable experience. Usefully, it would
satisfy her carnal appetites. And as she perceives it in this way,
as a potential object for her flesh, her appetites awaken. Her
passions are aroused for the way the fruit would feel on her lips,
the way its skin would give way to her teeth, the way its pulp would
taste on her tongue, the way its solidity would fill her belly. Now,
naturally we crave fleshly pleasures, to </span><i>“relax, eat,
drink, be merry”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Luke 12:19).
It is totally normal for us to hunger for food, thirst for drink, to
feel sexual and other bodily impulses. In a sense, these are matters
of “animal necessity.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote5sym" name="sdfootnote5anc"><sup>5</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
The drives we have toward these goods are good drives; their proper
satisfaction yields good pleasures. The woman sees that, feeling
herself tugged toward eating this fruit.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">However,
she doesn't need this fruit. Humans in the garden find </span><span style="font-style: normal;"><u>every</u></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
tree there </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“good
for food”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 2:9). The woman has no need to focus on this particular
tree to gain nourishment or savor a flavor.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote6sym" name="sdfootnote6anc"><sup>6</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
She doesn't have to venture outside God's will in order to be
satisfied. Confronted with her fleshly desire to eat, she only needs
to abstain long enough to turn around and eat the fruit of a
different tree, a lawful tree. But her desire – her </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“lust
of the flesh,”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
as the Apostle John calls it (1 John 2:16) – confronts her from
within. And we often find the same thing happening to us. Our
bodily urges urge us to meet them, sometimes quite strongly. But the
Apostle Paul warns us about </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“indulgence
of the flesh”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Colossians 2:23), tells us to </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“make
no provision for the flesh, to satisfy its desires”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
in ways out of step with God (Romans 13:14), lest we functionally
replace God and so </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“serve
our own appetites”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Romans 16:18). Insofar as any appetite becomes an idol to be
served, its object in that moment is </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><u>not</u></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
'good for food.'</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Next,
</span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“the woman saw
that the tree was... a delight to the eyes”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 3:6). As her sight reaches out to the tree, as she surveys
the shape of its trunk, the textures of its bark, the handsomeness of
its leaves, the plumpness of its fruit, her attention is captivated.
She perceives it as beautiful, as delightsome. Looking at it makes
her </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">want</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
to look at it. It inclines her toward it. It fills her with a sense
of longing. It moves her emotions. It exerts a pull on her, but not
just by the sensations of touch and taste. She engages with the tree
by “the visual apprehension of external goods,” by an enjoyment
in seeing and imagining.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote7sym" name="sdfootnote7anc"><sup>7</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
She is “overcome by the beauty of the tree and by desire for its
fruit” alike.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote8sym" name="sdfootnote8anc"><sup>8</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
She “looks to the tree... for aesthetic pleasure.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote9sym" name="sdfootnote9anc"><sup>9</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">And
this, as it gets out of hand, is what the Apostle John dubs </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“the
lust of the eyes”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(1 John 2:16). It's the same as if she were entranced by the
sleekest new toys, or the shiniest gold or silver or jewels, or by
clever art, or by great production values. Now, there's nothing
inherently wrong with aesthetic pleasure. There's nothing bad in
seeing and feeling and imagining, so far as that goes. God made a
beautiful world, and gifted us with incredible imaginations and
lovely emotions. We may look, visually or mentally, on the beauty of
anything to admire the handiwork of God the Creator. But problems
emerge when, in Job's words, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“my
heart has gone after my eyes”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Job 31:7), for </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“never
satisfied are the eyes of man”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Proverbs 27:20). We have to be careful about the allure of
creatures stoking our desires for their own sake, like how
commercials constantly present images to captivate us. Christ warned
that </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“everyone
who looks” </span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">at
created goods </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“with
lustful intent,”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
for the sake of moving our hearts without reference to God, in ways
that enlarge a conflict between our desires and his word, has a
problem already (Matthew 5:28). We're meant to have our </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“eyes
fixed on all [God's] commandments”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Psalm 119:6).</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Looking
through the eyes of the garden woman, this tree “appeared to the
eye to be beautiful and to the taste to be edible.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote10sym" name="sdfootnote10anc"><sup>10</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
But in attending to the tree in these terms, things it shares with
all the trees in the garden (Genesis 2:9), she effectively reduces it
to the level of every other tree; what should be sacramental, holy,
is treated as common food, common sight.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote11sym" name="sdfootnote11anc"><sup>11</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Because she sees it this way, she can't find any reason in the tree
itself why it ought to be forbidden, why she ought to restrain her
bodily appetites and her imaginative affections. Isn't this tree
such a good tree, good for the same reasons and in the same way as
every other tree she has to hand? Does not her appetite cry out that
she has a need for the tree's nourishment? her taste scream that she
has an interest in the tree's gourmet flavor? her awareness of its
allure whisper that the tree is enjoyable, enriching, worthy? She
seeks reason in the creation to obey the Creator, rather than seeking
in the Creator a reason for the creation.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">So
the woman keeps her focus on the tree, and she </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“saw...
that the tree was desirable to make wise”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 3:6). This, finally, is </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">not</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
something she could get from any of the trees she was to enjoy in the
garden. This restores something special to the tree, but no longer
is its specialness on account of God's word speaking about it. Now,
what's special about it is entirely utilitarian: what use can I make
of it, what profit squeeze from it? </span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">On
one level, her seeing has maybe moved her to a more refined class of
pleasure, from carnal to aesthetic and lastly to intellectual
pleasure – a puzzle to turn over in her mind, a solution to all her
riddles, a source of insight and intellectual fulfillment.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote12sym" name="sdfootnote12anc"><sup>12</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
But on another level, what the woman seeks in the tree isn't the
Bible's usual word for wisdom. This one is more associated with the
sense of being skillful and therefore successful, able to chart a
path to prosperity.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote13sym" name="sdfootnote13anc"><sup>13</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
The 'wisdom' she's chasing is perhaps less contemplative and more
pragmatic, a wisdom that can be used to achieve what she wants, to
gain and grow and impress the world.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote14sym" name="sdfootnote14anc"><sup>14</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Now, again, this kind of wisdom isn't inherently bad. It's the
capacity for </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“wise
dealing”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
that Solomon's proverbs aimed to give </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“instruction”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
in (Proverbs 1:3). But if desired for its own sake, it feeds into
what the Apostle John calls </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“the
pride of life”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(1 John 2:16) – our ambitions for power, possessions, prestige.
It's an outsized desire to overcome obstacles or limits, “an
inordinate attraction for some kind of superiority.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote15sym" name="sdfootnote15anc"><sup>15</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
This is a materialistic pursuit of “self-actualization and
accomplishment” that seek to act as though with the sovereignty of
a god.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote16sym" name="sdfootnote16anc"><sup>16</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">By
this point, in desiring this, the woman perhaps is priding herself on
her enlightened yearning for intellectual triumph. But
interestingly, the word here for 'desirable' comes from the same
Hebrew root as the word 'covet' in the Ten Commandments.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote17sym" name="sdfootnote17anc"><sup>17</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
As high and lofty and godlike as she might pretend her aspirations
are, it's really just as basic as St. Paul said: </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“Sin,
seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all
kinds of covetousness”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Romans 7:8). Although her thinking about what the tree offers has
been shaped by the message of the serpent, ultimately it's her own
covetous desires that have the potential to drive her actions. It's
exactly like James tells us: </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“Each
person is tempted when </span></i><i><u>by his own desire</u></i><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">
he is lured and enticed”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(James 1:14). In the end, it isn't the devil who tempts us; it's our
own inner desires that lure us. We are ultimately self-seduced.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">The
problem, again, is that at no point does she weigh any of these
considerations – her flesh's hankering for its flavor, her eyes'
appreciation for its beauty, her soul's craving for self-advancement
– against the factor she's screened out: the word of God. She
evaluates what her eyes see in creation, but not what her ears had
heard from creation's Creator. Or maybe she accords them all equal
weight and tallies three pros to one con, as if morality were mere
statistics.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote18sym" name="sdfootnote18anc"><sup>18</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
The central issue is, her inner life is no longer subordinating
these desires to their ultimate goal in God. See, if </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“the
lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
are </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“from the
world,”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
then these add up to a world-love that competes in our lives with the
love of God (1 John 2:15-16).</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Such
distorted love, such runaway desire, leads to devastating places.
That's why St. James says that </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“desire,
when it has conceived, brings forth sin”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(James 1:15). St. Augustine put it like this: “Sin is nothing but
the twisted consent of the free will, when we stoop to things
forbidden by justice which it is true freedom to abstain from. That
is, sin consists not in the things themselves, but in the unlawful
use of them. Now, the use of things is lawful when the soul remains
within the bounds of God's law and subject to the one God in
unqualified love, and regulates other things that are subject to it
without greed or lust – that is, in accordance with God's
commandments.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote19sym" name="sdfootnote19anc"><sup>19</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
The message here is that when we “use created things not
temperately but inordinately, the Creator is disdained.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote20sym" name="sdfootnote20anc"><sup>20</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Intemperate use of created goods adds up to sin because it falls
short of love for God.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">There's
a tree in South America, Central America, the Caribbean, even south
Florida that grows little greenish fruits that look a bit like
apples. The tree is lovely to set your eyes on, with leaves so
symmetrical. The taste of its fruit is sweet and satisfying, they
say, and it smells great too. It's such an interesting tree, one so
exotic you'd love to brag to your friends about your new experience.
Just ignore the warning posted on the trunk. Why not pick a fruit up
and take a little bite? Well, I'll tell you why. This manchineel
tree “produces one of the most potent tree toxins known” to
humanity.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote21sym" name="sdfootnote21anc"><sup>21</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
It isn't just the fruit that's toxic. To touch its bark or leaves,
to even let the rain roll off it onto your skin, brings danger. This
tree guarantees you a bad time.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote22sym" name="sdfootnote22anc"><sup>22</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
I came across a story told by a woman who unknowingly found this
forbidden fruit on a beach in Tobago – how she took the fruit, ate
a bite, even gave some to a friend to eat – perhaps that's the
shape of a familiar tale. Here's how she told it:</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.49in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">I
saw some green fruits among the scattered coconuts and mangoes lying
on the beach. They were round, the size of a tangerine, and had
apparently fallen from a large tree with a silvery bole and oblique
based leaves. I rashly took a bite from this fruit and found it
pleasantly sweet. My friend also partook (at my suggestion).
Moments later, we noticed a strange peppery feeling in our mouths,
which gradually progressed to a burning, tearing sensation and
tightness of the throat. The symptoms worsened over a couple of
hours until we could barely swallow solid food because of the
excruciating pain and the feeling of a huge obstructing pharyngeal
lump. … Over the next eight hours, our oral symptoms slowly began
to subside, but our cervical lymph nodes became very tender and
easily palpable. Recounting our experience to the locals elicited
frank horror and incredulity, such was the fruit's poisonous
reputation.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote23sym" name="sdfootnote23anc"><sup>23</sup></a></span></span></sup></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Better
to eat a trillion manchineel fruits, though, than to do what the
woman in the garden did: </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“She
took of its fruit, and she ate, and she gave also to her husband (who
was with her), and he ate”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 3:6). Her mind was corrupted, her will was dragged by
deafening desires; all she knew was that the fruit's finite goodness
in that moment became as if infinite to her. So she reached out her
hand to seize, steal, consume; then she offered to share. </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“Adam,”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
we read, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“was
not deceived”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(1 Timothy 2:14). Yet he accepted and ate anyway. </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“Sin
came into the world by one man” </span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">(Romans
5:12), for he “committed transgression without any justification.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote24sym" name="sdfootnote24anc"><sup>24</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">What
we have here is a picture of warning: deceived or undeceived, if we
let our desires and passions run away with us, if we let them lead us
into intemperate uses of creation that reflect worldly loves rather
than pure love for God born from faith, sin is what happens. But we,
no less than Eve, no less than Adam, grasp daily for the fruit we
foolishly think will satisfy, the fruit we feel ourselves admiring
and appreciating and attracted to. But there's a better fruit
offered to us in Christ: </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“The
fruit of the Spirit is </span></i><i><u>love</u></i><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">,
joy, peace, </span></i><i><u>patience</u></i><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">,
kindness, goodness, </span></i><i><u>faithfulness</u></i><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">,
gentleness, </span></i><i><u>temperance</u></i><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">[you
might know it as 'self-control']</span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">;
against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ
Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we
live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Galatians 5:22-25). Amen.<span></span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<div id="sdfootnote1">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote1anc" name="sdfootnote1sym">1</a> Thomas
Aquinas, <i>Summa theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I-II, q.80, a.1, in </span><i>Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
25:221.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote2">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote2anc" name="sdfootnote2sym">2</a> Leon
R. Kass, <i>The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Free Press, 2003), 87.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote3">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote3anc" name="sdfootnote3sym">3</a> Nahum
M. Sarna, <i>Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, JPS Torah
Commentary (Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 25; Christopher
Watkin, </span><i>Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible's
Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Zondervan Academic, 2022), 113.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote4">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote4anc" name="sdfootnote4sym">4</a> Gregory
of Nazianzus, <i>Poemata Arcana</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
7.114, in C. Moreschini, ed., and D. A. Sykes, tr., </span><i>St. Gregory of Nazianzus: Poemata Arcana</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Clarendon Press, 1997), 41.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote5">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote5anc" name="sdfootnote5sym">5</a> Leon
R. Kass, <i>The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Free Press, 2003), 88.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote6">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote6anc" name="sdfootnote6sym">6</a> C.
John Collins, <i>Genesis 1-4: A Linguistic, Literary, and
Theological Commentary</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (P&R
Publishing, 2005), 172.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote7">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote7anc" name="sdfootnote7sym">7</a> Thomas
Aquinas, <i>Summa theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I-II, q.77, a.5, in </span><i>Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
25:177.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote8">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote8anc" name="sdfootnote8sym">8</a> Ephrem
the Syrian, <i>Commentary on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2.17.1, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
91:108.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote9">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote9anc" name="sdfootnote9sym">9</a> Leon
R. Kass, <i>The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Free Press, 2003), 88.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote10">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote10anc" name="sdfootnote10sym">10</a> Ambrose
of Milan, <i>On Paradise</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 2 </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">9,
in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
42:292.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote11">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote11anc" name="sdfootnote11sym">11</a> Iain
W. Provan, <i>Seriously Dangerous Religion: What the Old Testament
Really Says and Why It Matters</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Baylor University Press, 2014), 112.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote12">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote12anc" name="sdfootnote12sym">12</a> David
Fohrman, <i>The Beast That Crouches at the Door: Adam & Eve,
Cain & Abel, and Beyond</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Maggid Books, 2021), 39.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote13">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote13anc" name="sdfootnote13sym">13</a> Joseph
E. Coleson, <i>Genesis 1-11: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Beacon Hill Press, 2012), 121.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote14">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote14anc" name="sdfootnote14sym">14</a> Bruce
K. Waltke, <i>Genesis: A Commentary</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Zondervan Academic, 2001), 91-92.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote15">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote15anc" name="sdfootnote15sym">15</a> Thomas
Aquinas, <i>Summa theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I-II, q.77, a.5, in </span><i>Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
25:177.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote16">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote16anc" name="sdfootnote16sym">16</a> Gary
W. Derickson, <i>1,2,3 John</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
Evangelical Exegetical Commentary (Lexham Press, 2014), 205.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote17">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote17anc" name="sdfootnote17sym">17</a> Seth
D. Postell, <i>Adam as Israel: Genesis 1-3 as the Introduction to
the Torah and Tanakh</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Pickwick
Publications, 2011), 116.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote18">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote18anc" name="sdfootnote18sym">18</a> Brian
Neil Peterson, <i>Genesis: A Pentecostal Commentary</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Brill, 2022), 50.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote19">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote19anc" name="sdfootnote19sym">19</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>Unfinished Literal Commentary on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1 </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">3,
in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/13:115.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote20">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote20anc" name="sdfootnote20sym">20</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>Homilies on the First Epistle of John</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2.11, in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
III/14:47.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote21">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote21anc" name="sdfootnote21sym">21</a> Lauren
M. Blue, <span style="font-style: normal;">et al., “Manchineel
Dermatitis in North American Students in the Caribbean,” </span><i>Journal
of Travel Medicine</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 18/6 (2011):
422.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote22">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote22anc" name="sdfootnote22sym">22</a> Lewis
S. Nelson, et al., <i>Handbook of Poisonous and Injurious Plants</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
2</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;">nd</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
ed. (Springer, 2007), 178.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote23">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote23anc" name="sdfootnote23sym">23</a> Nicola
H. Strickland et al., “My Most Unfortunate Experience: Eating a
Manchineel 'Beach Apple,'” <i>British Medical Journal</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
321, issue 7258 (12 August 2000): 428.
<</span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1127797/"><span style="font-style: normal;">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1127797/</span></a></u></span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">>.
</span></span>
</p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote24">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote24anc" name="sdfootnote24sym">24</a> Cyril
of Alexandria, <i>Glaphyra on the Pentateuch</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1.2.4, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
137:59.</span></span></p>
</div>
JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13108158469007498050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442509839497082978.post-492883746205358102024-01-28T10:46:00.001-05:002024-02-11T14:35:51.241-05:00Fields of Freedom, Seeds of Doubt<p>
</p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Up to this point, our
stroll in God's garden has turned up nothing but artful flowers and
cheering sunshine, sparkling rivers and luscious fruits and critters
in harmony, and noble people crowned and commissioned, with an even
more awesome glory ahead of them. Well, that all isn't going to
survive the day, I'm afraid. In these few short verses at the opening of Genesis chapter 3, groundwork
is laid for a grave fall. For into this idyllic scene has slithered
an intruder.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“<i>Now the serpent was
more crafty than any other beast of the field that the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
God had made”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Genesis 3:1).
Let's start with the obvious: at the literal level, we're confronted
by a </span><i>“beast of the field,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
a wild animal. Before whatever else we can say, this is one of God's
creatures which has an assigned role to play in God's good world and
which, when it was first made, was pronounced good.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote1sym" name="sdfootnote1anc"><sup>1</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
It's one of those same </span><i>“beasts of the field”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
which, in the last chapter, the human had rejected as a potential
partner but given a name, an identity (Genesis 2:19-20). That means
its proper place is under human dominion, a creature subject to their
</span><i>“rule over every creeping thing that creeps on the land”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 1:26). And as a </span><i>“beast of the </i><i><u>field</u></i><i>,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
the serpent is alien to the garden.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote2sym" name="sdfootnote2anc"><sup>2</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Now,
how were the humans just described? They were </span><i>“naked and
unashamed”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Genesis 2:25).
What you see is what you get, and with them you see everything.
They're innocent, devoid of guile. They speak plainly exactly what
they mean. But here comes the serpent, and he's crafty, cunning,
sly, shrewd. It's interesting that Genesis describes the humans as
naked, </span><i>'arummim</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, and
the serpent as cunning, </span><i>'arum</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
– those words sound the same. Just like others in this story, this
pun is meant to provoke thought.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote3sym" name="sdfootnote3anc"><sup>3</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
The serpent is so cunning that it </span><i>seems</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
as openly transparent as the humans – but actually the transparency
is camouflage. But to what end?</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">His
goal is to misrepresent and mislead, to deceive and delude, and
ultimately to prey on the bearers of God's image. It's a rejection
of God's decree putting the serpent under human dominion. It's also
vindictive retaliation for his own rejection: if the man prefers the
woman to the serpent, the serpent will seduce her out of spite.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote4sym" name="sdfootnote4anc"><sup>4</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
So the serpent's shrewd rhetoric and tempting promises aim to
undercut her trusting relationship to her L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
God.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Notice,
by the way, that ever since the Eden story began, the Creator has
consistently been referred to as “the L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
God,” </span><i>Yahweh Elohim</i><span style="font-style: normal;">.
'Yahweh' – in our Bibles, 'L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">'
with all caps – is his covenant name, his name for relating to the
people whom he's chosen, and it emphasizes his eternal faithfulness.
The commandment came from 'Yahweh God' (Genesis 2:16). But the
serpent only wants to discuss what 'God' has said. Now, of course
the serpent's got no right to be on a first-name basis with God. But
it's also a tactic. He wants the woman to mentally disengage from
thinking about God on a level of personal relationship.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote5sym" name="sdfootnote5anc"><sup>5</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">So
the serpent begins by setting a framework of his choosing: </span><i>“Has
God really said...?”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> On the
surface it looks almost friendly, but the serpent is opening up the
possibility of putting God into a question.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote6sym" name="sdfootnote6anc"><sup>6</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
The tone that comes through is a feigned confusion: “How could it
be that God would say...?”, “Isn't it outrageous that God
said...?”, “Really! It's unbelievable that God would say...!”
Implied is the idea that God's word is an appropriate topic of
debate, something on which creatures get to pass judgment.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote7sym" name="sdfootnote7anc"><sup>7</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
It's a totally disingenuous question, without an ounce of sincerity.
The serpent doesn't want to be informed; he wants to scoff, mock,
manipulate.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote8sym" name="sdfootnote8anc"><sup>8</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Next,
the serpent attributes to God the exact opposite of what God said.
The L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
God commanded humans, </span><i>“You shall eat of every tree of the
garden”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Genesis 2:16). The
serpent quotes those words exactly, but sticks a 'not' at the very
front of them (Genesis 3:1). What a massive difference it makes,
that one little word! In what the L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
God really said, he spread forth almost limitless fields of freedom
in front of us and urged humans to go enjoy ourselves, to make the
most of it, to receive the world as sheer gift and to live in it
without anxieties or fears. But the serpent turns this truth on its
head. The serpent caricatures God as a stingy miser, a God whose
first instinct is to forbid, restrict, oppress.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote9sym" name="sdfootnote9anc"><sup>9</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
In the serpent's telling, this is a God who surrounded us with
delicious delights and then effectively condemned us to slowly starve
as we stare at the taunting treats we may not eat.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote10sym" name="sdfootnote10anc"><sup>10</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
And so the serpent pits God </span><i>against</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
blessing, God </span><i>against</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
humanity, God </span><i>against</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
life.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote11sym" name="sdfootnote11anc"><sup>11</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Even
now, this is one of the devil's favorite opening gambits. When he
wants your mind and heart to accept sin, either he'll convince you
that God is less generous than he really is (and therefore you're
entitled to do whatever was unjustly withheld from you) or else that
God hasn't said what you thought he said (and therefore the sin isn't
really against God's law after all). So be on guard whenever either
kind of thought begins to probe the boundaries of your mind. If
clever justifications explain why sin isn't really sin, watch out.
And if the voice whispers that God is a stingy naysayer, there's the
serpent's other angle, getting you to mistake the God of Yes.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Okay,
so put yourself in the woman's place. The serpent – unbeknownst to
her, the deceitful voice that tempts – has introduced this question
implying a totally reversed view of God. What are the woman's
options? What are our options? The first option would be to realize
that the serpent is an unclean trespasser who doesn't belong in the
garden to begin with, and so for the humans to judge it and silence
it by casting it out of God's garden.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote12sym" name="sdfootnote12anc"><sup>12</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
If possible, the best answer to the deceitful voice when it aims to
weaken your faith or rationalize sin, is expulsion. Take dominion
over your passions, over your beliefs, over those inner voices and
intrusive thoughts.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">A
second option would be to silently snub the serpent. “There was no
need for her to get involved in conversation with him in the first
place.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote13sym" name="sdfootnote13anc"><sup>13</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
She owes the serpent zero attention. If you can't get that
deceitful voice, out of your head, you can refuse to engage. Give
yourself critical distance: notice it, then walk away. Recognize
that the whisper has no power over you but what you give it. So give
it nothing. “When temptation comes, never dialogue. Close the
door, close the window... We do not converse with the devil.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote14sym" name="sdfootnote14anc"><sup>14</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The
third option, if the woman insists on speaking, is: just say no. The
L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
God didn't give his commandment to snakes, did he? So it's none of
the serpent's business. The woman can just tell him, “Wrong!”,
and go about her day. </span><i>“Let your yes be yes and your no
be no; anything further comes from the Evil One,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
Jesus pointed out (Matthew 5:37).</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote15sym" name="sdfootnote15anc"><sup>15</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Faced with the voice that misrepresents God, all the answer you need
give is simply “No.”</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But
the serpent was oh-so-clever. His caricature of God was so insane,
so ludicrous, that the woman opened a deeper dialogue with the
serpent. She means well! She's speaking up to set the record
straight. She hopes to help the serpent by correcting his ignorance
with gentleness and respect. She aims to serve the L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
God by defending his honor.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote16sym" name="sdfootnote16anc"><sup>16</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
But that's what the serpent wants. He used his absurdity as bait, a
way to lure the woman in. He aims to exploit her good intentions.
In proving the possibility of wrongness, the serpent has gotten his
nose in the door.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote17sym" name="sdfootnote17anc"><sup>17</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Paul would've told her: </span><i>“Keep watch on yourself, lest
you too be tempted”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Galatians
6:1).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">So
the woman answers the serpent, not by quoting God's word precisely,
but by paraphrasing it. What had the L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
God said? </span><i>“Of all the trees of the garden, absolutely
you may eat”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Genesis 2:16).
But how does the woman say it? </span><i>“Of the fruit of the
trees of the garden, we may eat”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 3:2). She adds the word 'fruit' – no problem there –
but what words does she subtract? 'Absolutely' and 'all.' Her
portrayal of the permission is muted, less forceful than what the
L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
God actually spoke.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote18sym" name="sdfootnote18anc"><sup>18</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
In letting herself be put on the defensive, she's tacitly been drawn
a half-step closer to the serpent's point of view. And that's part
of what the serpent will do to us, too. If the serpent uses a voice
of presumption, smuggling in false promises under God's name, then
we're liable to get carried away. But if the serpent uses a voice of
doubt, then even as we defend our faith, we'll be prone to waffle a
little bit, to shave the edges off, to make our faith more palatable
– and so we'll understate the raw audacity of the gospel. The
woman's defense understates the raw audacity of God's gracious
invitation.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But
it's worse than that. She doesn't actually say the permission comes
from God at all. She only mentions God once she speaks, not of what
she </span><i>can</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> have, but of
what she </span><i>can't</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> have.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote19sym" name="sdfootnote19anc"><sup>19</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
So she fails to relate the bounty of the garden to God its Giver.
She fails to highlight how every fruit is a sign of ongoing
relationship with a God of generous love.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote20sym" name="sdfootnote20anc"><sup>20</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
How typical for us, too! When we find ourselves pushed toward that
borderland between faith and doubt, it's not uncommon to begin to
mentally connect God more with his apparent failures than with his
abundant faithfulness. In those dark and lonely hours, our thought
might be, “God isn't visible here in my hurt, here in my prayer.”
But we forget to think, “But God </span><span style="font-style: normal;"><u>is</u></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
visible in making my heart beat, in giving me food to eat and water
to drink and air to breathe, in raising up friends who love me, and
in countless other blessings.” So here, in the woman's misstep, we
notice a bypassed off-ramp in temptation: explicitly thank God for
all the blessings you </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">do</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
enjoy, and it will put into perspective any dos and don'ts he's given
alongside them.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Then
the woman continues: </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“But
God said”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 3:3). There it is: taking her cue from the serpent, she's
implicitly downplaying that this God is Yahweh, the Eternally
Faithful One. The devil would love to get us to do that, as he
whispers in our ear. It's easier to find fault with a generic God
than with a God we know by name. So when you face the serpent,
remind yourself: “This word I stand on is what Jesus, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">my</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Jesus, my Jesus who loved me all the way to the cross, is saying to
me.” What doubt can't we defy if we look our Jesus in the eye?</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Now
the woman explains God's law to the serpent. </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“You
shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that's in the middle of the
garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 3:3). Here's what she gets right: there is only one
exception to the blank-check freedom the humans have to enjoy the
garden's fruits. Only one tree is off-limits, so she recognizes that
the law doesn't imperil human life or human plenty. But notice where
the woman goes off-script. Which tree was the one at the heart of
the garden? First and foremost, it was the Tree of Life (Genesis
2:9). But now, in the woman's eyes, the garden's heart has been
replaced. The garden is recentered around the one thing she's saying
she can't have. And that's a sure recipe for discontentment.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote21sym" name="sdfootnote21anc"><sup>21</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">God
had designed the garden with his own life-giving presence at the
center, but the woman has remapped it. Only now does the forbidden
Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil take center-stage, precisely
</span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">because</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
it's the one in the commandment. Therefore, the humans' world is
portrayed as all </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">about</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
the rules, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">about</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
the law. Instead of being focused on living life to the full within
God's gracious boundaries, instead of having her eyes fixed on the
God of Life, now her eyes are anxiously aimed at the sin she ought to
avoid. But the more this becomes her center, the more obsessed she
gets about this tree and the rule, letting it loom larger than the
God who gave it. If 'legalism' is a meaningful word, this is the
perfect example.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote22sym" name="sdfootnote22anc"><sup>22</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
What makes life <i>life</i> is lost.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">When
you're faced with temptation, don't lose sight of the commandment,
but remember that it's a means to an end. The point of God's no is
to preserve God's bigger yes. We don't love God in order to obey
him; we obey God for the sake of his love. Because God is Love,
because God is Life, we trust and obey. We can run our race better
by fixing our eyes on Jesus, in whom God's Love has a face, than we
ever could by fixing our eyes on all the pitfalls to avoid. If you
can remember what you're obeying </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">for</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">,
if you keep your eyes not on the sin to be resisted but on the Spirit
who supplies the strength, then you'll be better able to keep the
faith with gusto.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Back
to the woman, and what she says about the tree she's misplaced. </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“You
shall not eat..., neither shall you touch it, lest you die”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 3:3). Now, this might have been part of the original
command, since dietary laws often ruled out both eating and touching
(Leviticus 11:8), and since this tree was like the Ark of the
Covenant which even the Levites </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“must
not touch..., lest they die”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Numbers 4:15).</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote23sym" name="sdfootnote23anc"><sup>23</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
But on the other hand, she might have been trying to enhance the
commandment by putting a fence around the law.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote24sym" name="sdfootnote24anc"><sup>24</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
If you shouldn't eat from it, why even get close enough to touch it?
Better stay back, just in case. It makes sense! But the trouble
with building fences around the law is, if we forget what we've done,
then God seems more restrictive than he really is.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote25sym" name="sdfootnote25anc"><sup>25</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Then this fence makes the law seem harder to keep, which can in turn
rationalize despair: why bother trying, why not just give in?</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote26sym" name="sdfootnote26anc"><sup>26</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
And then the fence around the law ties the Lord's command to human
wisdom: if we breach the fence and no disaster hits, we might assume
that the whole law has no bite.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote27sym" name="sdfootnote27anc"><sup>27</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">But
the way her final words came out, the woman portrays her </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">reason</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
for not eating, not as love for God, but as self-preservation –
lest she die, for the sake of not dying, she won't eat.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote28sym" name="sdfootnote28anc"><sup>28</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
But that leaves the serpent an opening: if loving God is her motive
for obedience, the serpent has no argument, but if she obeys out of
fear, once neuter her fear and her obedience might fall. So again
the serpent quotes God exactly, but prefaces it with a 'not': </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“You
shall </span></i><i><u>not</u></i><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">
absolutely die!”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 3:4). Before, the serpent was content to insinuate, to
question; now he out-and-out contradicts the God of Truth by an open
challenge, confident the woman will be receptive.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote29sym" name="sdfootnote29anc"><sup>29</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Next, he offers a plausible-sounding theory for why God would have
lied: </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“For God
knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened...”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 3:5). Now the serpent, in portraying the woman as blinded,
has piqued her curiosity. We always want to know what someone
doesn't want us to know. We always think that our wish to know gives
us a right to know, and therefore anyone preventing us from knowing
is opposed to us.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote30sym" name="sdfootnote30anc"><sup>30</sup></a></span></span></sup></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
And so God is caricatured as a lawgiver motivated not by justice,
generosity, and love, but by envy, selfishness, and fear. In the
serpent's telling, God gave this command as a way of keeping us
docile, to prevent us from having the power that could set us free to
pursue our desires unconstrained. And this is what the serpent's
whispers to us often amount to: that either God doesn't even know
what's really good for us (and therefore we should just make up our
own mind), or that God does know but is against our good (and
therefore we need to escape his control). Which lie we buy doesn't
really matter, so long as it avoids the truth which works by love.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Finally,
the serpent dangles the deceitful delusion, some candy to be coveted.
Whereas the L</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
God had said </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“In
the day you eat of it, you shall absolutely die”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 2:17), the serpent promises that </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“in
the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be as
gods, knowers of good and evil”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 3:5). In the pagan religions that tempted Israel, the last
step in turning an idol statue into a god was, they believed, a
ritual opening of its eyes.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote31sym" name="sdfootnote31anc"><sup>31</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
So that's what the serpent professes to offer the humans: godhood in
their own right. The serpent says that God knows that humans could
become gods who are knowers.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote32sym" name="sdfootnote32anc"><sup>32</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
In becoming “knowers of good and evil,” humans would be capable
of laying down their own law, of blessing and cursing with divine
power.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote33sym" name="sdfootnote33anc"><sup>33</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Of
course, the serpent is a deceiver, a false prophet calling the woman
not just to worship a false god but to try to turn herself into one.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote34sym" name="sdfootnote34anc"><sup>34</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
The serpent is the forerunner of every blasphemer who slanders God,
every heretic who twists God's words, every voice of doubt and
contradiction toward the true faith. And in service of this, the
serpent's final twist is that, in telling the humans they need this
one extra things to be 'like gods,' he tricks the woman into
forgetting that humans are already made </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“in
the likeness of God”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 1:26). He's given her a false insecurity he promises he can
remedy, as any savvy advertiser does.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote35sym" name="sdfootnote35anc"><sup>35</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
And he'll gladly, he suggests, smuggle to the woman all the hidden
treasures God's been selfishly hoarding for himself.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote36sym" name="sdfootnote36anc"><sup>36</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Picture the serpent here as a sketchy guy pulling his van up beside
a kid and offering her a little bag of white powder, saying, “C'mon,
forget your parents, this'll make you grow up real fast.” Well,
maybe in a way, but not in any way the kid should want. Actually, he
wants her hooked, vulnerable, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“captured
by him to do his will”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(2 Timothy 2:26).</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">But
now the serpent is able to posture falsely as the humans' liberator,
defender, teacher, and friend, as if to say: “Look, God is all bark
and no bite on this. He's just jealous, he's afraid, he's hiding
something from you. God isn't looking out for you. Stuffy and
uncool, oppressive and obstructive, God is keeping you down, drugging
and distracting you from getting what you really want. I, on the
other hand, want you to succeed! I want you to be reach your fullest
potential! Don't you want to be sly like me, godlike like me? I,
not God, have your best interests at heart. I, not God, am the one
who loves you. You can trust me: I've told you the whole story, the
naked truth. God's commands were just a way to control you, but now
you can break free. You can imitate me. You can please yourself.
You can grab power. I know you want to see what you've been
missing.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote37sym" name="sdfootnote37anc"><sup>37</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
there, for today, we leave their conversation. Having planted and
watered these seeds of pride and greed and unbelief, the serpent has
nothing more to say. He never outright tells her to take the fruit;
he only sets her head spinning and watches things burn.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote38sym" name="sdfootnote38anc"><sup>38</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
When the conversation started, she lived by faith in the goodness of
her L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
God's provision. But now she's been forced into a self-consciousness
where nothing can be taken for granted, not even God.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote39sym" name="sdfootnote39anc"><sup>39</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
She hasn't yet surrendered. But her faith is at a decision point,
for her ears have been opened to suspicion and doubt. And the
serpent's call is played out in our lives day after day, as the
serpent tries to reframe our thinking to be more like his.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote40sym" name="sdfootnote40anc"><sup>40</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Paul tells us: </span><i>“I am afraid that, as the serpent
deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be corrupted from the
sincerity and the purity that is in Christ”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(2 Corinthians 11:3). Facing the Tempter daily, </span><i>“we are
not ignorant of his designs”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(2 Corinthians 10:11). But we have help from </span><i>“One who in
every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Hebrews 4:15), a Savior perfectly qualified </span><i>“to help
those who are being tempted”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Hebrews 2:18). Thanks be to God! Keep the faith.<span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<div id="sdfootnote1">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote1anc" name="sdfootnote1sym">1</a> Johnson
T. K. Lim, <i>Grace in the Midst of Judgment: Grappling with Genesis
1-11</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Walter de Gruyter,</span>
2002), 138.</span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote2">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote2anc" name="sdfootnote2sym">2</a> Bryan
C. Hodge, <i>Revisiting the Days of Genesis: A Study of the Use of
Time in Genesis 1-11 in Light of Its Ancient Near Eastern and Literary Context</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Wipf
and Stock, </span>2011), 115; Raymond R. Hausoul, <i>God's Future
for Animals: From Creation to New Creation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Wipf and Stock, 2021), 43.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote3">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote3anc" name="sdfootnote3sym">3</a> David
W. Cotter, <i>Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Liturgical Press, 2003), 34; James McKeown, </span><i>Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eerdmans, 2008), 35; Joseph E. Coleson, </span><i>Genesis 1-11: A
Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Beacon Hill Press, 2012), 116; J. Richard Middleton, “Reading
Genesis 3 Attentive to Human Evolution: Beyond Concordism and
Non-Overlapping Magisteria,” in William T. Cavanaugh and James K.
A. Smith, eds., </span><i>Evolution and the Fall</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eerdmans, 2017), 85-86.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote4">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote4anc" name="sdfootnote4sym">4</a> Leon
R. Kass, <i>The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Free Press, 2003), 81; Lawson G. Stone, “Garden of Delights and
Dilemmas: The Old Testament on Sex,” in Jerry L. Walls, Jeremy
Neill, and David Baggett, eds., </span><i>Venus and Virtue:
Celebrating Sex and Seeking Sanctification</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Wipf and Stock, 2018), 15-16.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote5">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote5anc" name="sdfootnote5sym">5</a> C.
John Collins, <i>Genesis 1-4</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(P&R Publishing, 2005), 171; J. Richard Middleton, </span><span style="font-style: normal;">“Reading
Genesis 3 Attentive to Human Evolution: Beyond Concordism and
Non-Overlapping Magisteria,” in William T. Cavanaugh and James K.
A. Smith, eds., </span><i>Evolution and the Fall</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eerdmans, 2017), </span><span style="font-style: normal;">87.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote6">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote6anc" name="sdfootnote6sym">6</a> Andrew
David Naselli, <i>The Serpent and the Serpent Slayer</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Crossway, 2020), 35.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote7">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote7anc" name="sdfootnote7sym">7</a> Christopher
Watkin, <i>Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible's Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Zondervan Academic, 2022), 111.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote8">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote8anc" name="sdfootnote8sym">8</a> Leon
R. Kass, <i>The Beginning of Wisdom</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Free Press, 2003), 82; Joseph E. Coleson, </span><i>Genesis 1-11</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Beacon Hill Press, 2012), 118.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote9">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote9anc" name="sdfootnote9sym">9</a> Leon
R. Kass, <i>The Beginning of Wisdom</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Free Press, 2003), 83; Christoph Levin, “Genesis 2-3: A Case of
Inner-Biblical Interpretation,” in Nathan MacDonald, Mark W. Elliott, and Grant Macaskil,</span><span style="font-style: normal;"> eds., </span><i>Genesis
and Christian Theology</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eerdmans, 2012), 95.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote10">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote10anc" name="sdfootnote10sym">10</a> Bruce
K. Waltke, <i>Genesis: A Commentary</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Zondervan Academic, 2001), 91; Mitchell L. Chase, </span><i>Short
of Glory: A Biblical and Theological Exploration of the Fall</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Crossway, 2023), 64-65.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote11">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote11anc" name="sdfootnote11sym">11</a> R.
R. Reno, <i>Genesis</i>, Brazos Theological Commentary<span style="font-style: normal;"> (Brazos
Press, 2010), 86.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote12">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote12anc" name="sdfootnote12sym">12</a><span style="font-style: normal;"> Gregory
K. Beale, </span><i>The Temple and the Church's Mission: A Biblical
Theology of the Dwelling Place of God</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(IVP Academic, 2004), 87; James M. Hamilton Jr., </span><i>God's
Glory in Salvation Through Judgment: A Biblical Theology</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Crossway, 2010), 75; Tremper Longman III, </span><i>Genesis</i>, Story of God Bible Commentary<span style="font-style: normal;">
(Zondervan Academic, 2016), 64; Gregg Davidson and Kenneth J.
Turner, </span><i>The Manifold Beauty of Genesis One: A
Multi-Layered Approach</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Kregel
Academic, 2021), 109.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote13">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote13anc" name="sdfootnote13sym">13</a> John
Chrysostom, <i>Homilies on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
16.5, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
74:210.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote14">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote14anc" name="sdfootnote14sym">14</a> Pope
Francis, General Audience, 27 December 2023. <<a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/audiences/2023/documents/20231227-udienza-generale.html">https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/audiences/2023/documents/20231227-udienza-generale.html</a>>. <br /></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote15">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote15anc" name="sdfootnote15sym">15</a> R.
R. Reno, <i>Genesis</i>, Brazos Theological Commentary<span style="font-style: normal;"> (Brazos
Press, 2010), 87.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote16">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote16anc" name="sdfootnote16sym">16</a> David
W. Cotter, <i>Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, Berit
Olam (Liturgical Press, 2003), 34; Patrick Henry Reardon, </span><i>Creation
and the Patriarchal Histories: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the
Book of Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Conciliar
Press, 2008), 42.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote17">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote17anc" name="sdfootnote17sym">17</a> Leon
R. Kass, <i>The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Free Press, 2003), 83.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote18">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote18anc" name="sdfootnote18sym">18</a> Ingrid
Faro, <i>Evil in Genesis: A Contextual Analysis of Hebrew Lexemes
for Evil in the Book of Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Lexham Press, 2021), 114.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote19">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote19anc" name="sdfootnote19sym">19</a> Leon
R. Kass, <i>The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Free Press, 2003), 84.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote20">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote20anc" name="sdfootnote20sym">20</a> Christoph
Levin, “Genesis 2-3: A Case of Inner-Biblical Interpretation,”<span style="font-style: normal;"> in Nathan MacDonald, Mark W. Elliott, and Grant Macaskil,</span><span style="font-style: normal;"> eds., </span><i>Genesis
and Christian Theology</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eerdmans, 2012), </span>96.</span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote21">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote21anc" name="sdfootnote21sym">21</a> David
Fohrman, <i>The Beast That Crouches at the Door: Adam and Eve, Cain
and Abel, and Beyond</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Maggid
Books, 2021), 58.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote22">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote22anc" name="sdfootnote22sym">22</a> Tremper
Longman III, <i>Genesis</i>,<i> </i>Story of God Bible Commentary<span style="font-style: normal;">
(Zondervan Academic, 2016), 64.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote23">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote23anc" name="sdfootnote23sym">23</a> G.
Geoffrey Harper, <i>“I Will Walk Among You”: The Rhetorical
Function of Allusion to Genesis 1-3 in the Book of Leviticus</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eisenbrauns, 2018), 133; </span>Jeffrey J. Niehaus, <i>When Did Eve
Sin? The Fall and Biblical Historiography</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Lexham Press, 2020), 103-104; Mitchell L. Chase, </span><i>Short of
Glory: A Biblical and Theological Exploration of the Fall</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Crossway, 2023), 67.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote24">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote24anc" name="sdfootnote24sym">24</a> Johnson
T. K. Lim, <i>Grace in the Midst of Judgment: Grappling with Genesis
1-11</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Walter de Gruyter, 2002),
140; James Chukwuma Okoye, </span><i>Genesis 1-11: A
Narrative-Theological Commentary</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Wipf and Stock, 2018), 56; Brian Neil Peterson, </span><i>Genesis:
A Pentecostal Commentary</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Brill, 2022), 49.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote25">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote25anc" name="sdfootnote25sym">25</a> Christoph
Levin, “Genesis 2-3: A Case of Inner-Biblical Interpretation,”<span style="font-style: normal;"> in Nathan MacDonald, Mark W. Elliott, and Grant Macaskil,</span><span style="font-style: normal;"> eds., </span><i>Genesis
and Christian Theology</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eerdmans, 2012), </span>97.</span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote26">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote26anc" name="sdfootnote26sym">26</a> David
Fohrman, <i>The Beast That Crouches at the Door</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Maggid Books, 2021), 57; Christopher Watkin, </span><i>Biblical
Critical Theory: How the Bible's Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Zondervan
Academic, 2022), 112.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote27">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote27anc" name="sdfootnote27sym">27</a> Ambrose
of Milan, <i>On Paradise</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 12
</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">56,
in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
42:336.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote28">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote28anc" name="sdfootnote28sym">28</a> Leon
R. Kass, <i>The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Free Press, 2003), 84-85.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote29">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote29anc" name="sdfootnote29sym">29</a> Iain
W. Provan, <i>Seriously Dangerous Religion</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Baylor University Press, 2014), 112; J. Richard Middleton, </span><span style="font-style: normal;">“Reading
Genesis 3 Attentive to Human Evolution: Beyond Concordism and
Non-Overlapping Magisteria,” in William T. Cavanaugh and James K.
A. Smith, eds., </span><i>Evolution and the Fall</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eerdmans, 2017), </span><span style="font-style: normal;">88.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote30">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote30anc" name="sdfootnote30sym">30</a> Mitchell
L. Chase, <i>Short of Glory: A Biblical and Theological Exploration
of the Fall</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Crossway, 2023),
21, 68.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote31">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote31anc" name="sdfootnote31sym">31</a> Catherine
L. McDowell, <i>The Image of God in the Garden of Eden: The Creation
of Humankind in Genesis 2:25 – 3:24 in Light of the m</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>ī</i></span><i>s
p</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>ī</i></span><i>, p</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>ī</i></span><i>t
p</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>ī</i></span><i>, and
wpt-r Rituals of Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eisenbrauns, 2015), 168-169.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote32">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote32anc" name="sdfootnote32sym">32</a> Michaela
Bauks, “One, Two, or Three...? The Confusion of the Trees in
Genesis 2-3 and Its Hermeneutical Background,” in Elizabeth R.
Hayes and Karolien Vermeulen, eds., <i>Doubling and Duplicating in
the Book of Genesis: Literary and Stylistic Approaches to the Text</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eisenbrauns, 2016), 105.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote33">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a name="productTitle1"></a><a name="title1"></a></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote33anc" name="sdfootnote33sym">33</a> Nathan
S. French, <i>A Theocentric Interpretation of </i><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>הדעת
טוב ורע</i></span></span><i>: The Knowledge of Good and Evil
as the Knowledge for Administering Reward and Punishment</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2021), 127, 132.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote34">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote34anc" name="sdfootnote34sym">34</a> Brian
Neil Peterson, <i>Genesis as Torah: Reading Narrative as Legal
Instruction</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Wipf and Stock,
2018), 46.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote35">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote35anc" name="sdfootnote35sym">35</a> Abigail
Favale, <i>The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Ignatius Press, 2022), 44.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote36">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote36anc" name="sdfootnote36sym">36</a> Mitchell
L. Chase, <i>Short of Glory: A Biblical and Theological Exploration
of the Fall</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Crossway, 2023),
68.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote37">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote37anc" name="sdfootnote37sym">37</a> See
Christopher Watkin, <i>Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible's Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Zondervan Academic, 2022), 113-114.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote38">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote38anc" name="sdfootnote38sym">38</a> John
H. Walton, <i>The Lost World of Adam and Eve: Genesis 2-3 and the
Human Origins Debate</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (IVP
Academic, 2015), 135.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote39">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote39anc" name="sdfootnote39sym">39</a> Leon
R. Kass, <i>The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Free Press, 2003), 83.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote40">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote40anc" name="sdfootnote40sym">40</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>On Genesis Against the Manichees</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2.14 </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">21,
in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/13:85.</span></span></p>
</div>
JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13108158469007498050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442509839497082978.post-66996641595092973762024-01-21T10:30:00.001-05:002024-02-11T14:26:01.836-05:00Lay Hold of Life!<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="http://iron-in-fire.blogspot.com/2024/01/two-trees.html">Last Sunday</a>, resuming our
tour through the Book of Genesis, we found ourselves in a garden in
which God had planted a large number of very pleasant trees, which
offered all we could want out of created goods – they're useful,
enjoyable, interesting, and varied. But among them, we met with two
trees that stood out, two trees that are something more than the
others. There's something sacramental about these trees. The one we
focused on the most last Sunday was called the Tree of the Knowledge
of Good and Evil. It represents the presence of divine wisdom in the
garden, and its fruit offers the royal power to govern by handing our
blessings and curses, just like the Law of God. But this was
withheld from us, because we weren't capable of handling it – not,
at least, without growing through discipline. And so to have it
planted there, available but forbidden, presents us with the very
first law, the original commandment: Enjoy everything else, but don't
trespass in this one thing. In turn, that commandment created the
possibility of obedience – or disobedience. Two very different
options.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Today, we're not going to
take long, because we don't have much time. But I want to turn our
focus away from this tree that's forbidden, and over to another tree,
a more central tree. And that was called the Tree of Life. Its
fruit is a sacrament of divine life, God's own life-giving presence
in his creation. It's symbolized, in the later tabernacle and
temple, by the menorah that shines 24/7 to fill the holy sanctuary
with light, including shedding it onto the golden table that always
offers holy bread. These two things together – the lampstand and
the table of bread – reveal the illumination and provision that the
Tree of Life was there to give in the garden-sanctuary. The Tree of
Life represents the opposite of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and
Evil, insofar as the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, if
approached disobediently, becomes a tree of death. Obedience to
God's word, keeping his commandment by refusing the forbidden fruit
and enjoying all the other fruit, is what's shown to us by this other
tree, this first-mentioned tree. The pathway of obedience to God
leads to sharing God's life.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Later, we hear that the
wisdom that begins with obedience is <i>“a tree of life to those
who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called blessed”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Proverbs 3:18). God wants us to lay hold of life, God wants us to
cling to this tree of life and be blessed. The problem, you might
have noticed, is that we presently are not living in the Garden of
Eden. We're going to find out how that happened over the course of
the next month. But the fact remains that this isn't Eden. So it
looks very much as if the Tree of Life has been taken away from us,
left to us only in symbols like the lampstand in the temple and the
ability to approach wisdom through God's law.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But
when the early Christians read Genesis, they saw a prophecy. “Very
sad was the Tree of Life when it saw Adam hidden from it!” they
said. “Into the virgin earth it sank and was buried, but it arose
and shone forth from Golgotha.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote1sym" name="sdfootnote1anc"><sup>1</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
From these early days, Christians identified “the tree of life”
with “the mystery of the cross.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote2sym" name="sdfootnote2anc"><sup>2</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
In advance, Christ's “crucifixion was symbolized by the tree of
life.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote3sym" name="sdfootnote3anc"><sup>3</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
After all, what did the Apostle Peter say? </span><i>“He himself
bore our sins in his body on the tree.”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
That's what Peter calls the cross: 'the tree.' Why did Jesus bear
our sins in his body on the tree? Peter says: </span><i>“That we
might die to sin and live to righteousness.”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
That is, the fruit of Christ's cross is that we come alive – alive
to righteousness, alive to the life God wants for us. And Peter goes
on: </span><i>“By his wounds you have been healed”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(1 Peter 2:24). How does John depict the Tree of Life? </span><i>“The
tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each
month; the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Revelation 22:2). And so “by the tree of life he restores us.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote4sym" name="sdfootnote4anc"><sup>4</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The
Tree of Life is a sign, a prefigurement, of Christ crucified. His
wounds are the medicinal leaves that bring healing to all the nations
of the world. His fruit is the life he offers to us, the life he
surrenders into God's hands as he dies. Although the cross was a
Roman instrument of death, Christ brilliantly turned it into the Tree
of Life – it's the wooden tree on which he sacrificed himself so
that we could come alive to righteousness. And in this way, Christ
crucified “became the Tree of Life that saved creation.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote5sym" name="sdfootnote5anc"><sup>5</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Last
Sunday, we heard from Moses that, when confronted with this choice
posed by the trees, this divergence of life and death, we ought to
</span><i>“choose life”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Deuteronomy 30:19). And now we know how to choose life: by choosing
the cross of Christ. Now, to the world, and maybe to the worldliness
in us, that's absurd! The cross is such an ugly, foolish, scandalous
thing – pain and blood and tears and death. </span><i>“Christ
crucified”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> is, the Apostle
Paul already told us, </span><i>“a stumbling block to Jews and
folly to Gentiles”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (1
Corinthians 1:23). How could this tree of a curse, this tree that
terrorizes and kills, be the Tree of Life? Only because Christ is on
it to save. A bare cross, a cross that isn't Christ's throne, could do
nothing. But Christ crucified is everything.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Paul
tells the Corinthians, not long after mentioning the scandal and the
foolishness of the cross, that he </span><i>“decided to know
nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(1 Corinthians 2:2). The reason was, he said, so that their faith
</span><i>“might not rest in human wisdom”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
– in other words, in what the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and
Evil gave – </span><i>“but in the power of God,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
the power of the Tree of Life (1 Corinthians 2:5). Right now, we're
in the middle of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, because –
contrary to the express wish of Jesus – Christians have fractured
from the unity he gave to his Church in the beginning. These
different denominations, these self-governed 'non-denominational'
churches – none of that was what Jesus gave his Church. He gave
the Church a unity to gather around, be fed by, and abide in a single
Tree of Life. That was what Paul proclaimed: that Jesus </span><i>“might
reconcile us both to God in </i><i><u>one</u></i><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">
body through the cross,”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
through the Tree of Life he became on Calvary. </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">And
our prayer and passion should be to resolve these divisions, to
reconcile into the one unity of the Church, to really become a single
kingdom of peace, for the sake of that life.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">And I
will tell you this: there is nothing more unifying, nothing more
powerful, nothing more healing for all these sicknesses of life –
including our disunity – than to gather around the Tree of Life,
than to gaze at Christ crucified, than to cling to that old rugged
cross, than to feast on the fruit of his love. So come. Come and
stand at the foot of the cross, and know you tread ground holier than
Adam and Eve trod. Come, stretch out your hand to him, and take what
the cross is offering. Lay hold of life – at great cost does it
grow for you to take!</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">I'll
close with a quote from a medieval bishop, one of the great
scientists of his day: “It is right for the blessed cross to be
called the tree of life, because by the fruit of that tree of
paradise, the human being, if he had not sinned, would have been able
to make his life everlasting. So by the fruit of the tree of the
cross, the life of grace is made everlasting. The fruit of the tree
of the cross is Christ … Other trees, though they bear fruit from
which one may live, do not bear the fruit which </span><span style="font-style: normal;"><u>is</u></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
life. The tree of the cross not only bore fruit one could live on,
but the fruit which is Life. … And on this tree of life, he put
death to death and gave life to the dead.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote6sym" name="sdfootnote6anc"><sup>6</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Thanks be to God, who makes us alive by Christ crucified, our Tree
of Life which saves all creation! Amen.<span></span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<div id="sdfootnote1">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote1anc" name="sdfootnote1sym">1</a> Ephrem
the Syrian, <i>Hymns on Virginity</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
16.10, in Kathleen E. McVey, tr., </span><i>Ephrem the Syrian: Hymns</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Paulist Press, 1989), 332.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote2">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote2anc" name="sdfootnote2sym">2</a> Origen
of Alexandria, <i>Homilies on Exodus</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
7.1, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
71:302.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote3">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote3anc" name="sdfootnote3sym">3</a> Justin
Martyr, <i>Dialogue with Trypho</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
86.1, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
6:285.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote4">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote4anc" name="sdfootnote4sym">4</a> Gregory
of Nazianzus, <i>Oration</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 29.20,
in </span><i>Popular Patristics Series</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
23:88.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote5">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote5anc" name="sdfootnote5sym">5</a> Ephrem
the Syrian, <i>Hymns on Virginity</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
51.8, in Kathleen E. McVey, tr., </span><i>Ephrem the Syrian: Hymns</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Paulist Press, 1989), 463.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote6">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote6anc" name="sdfootnote6sym">6</a> Robert
Grosseteste, <i>Hexaemeron</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
11.8.2, in C. F. J. Martin, tr., </span><i>Robert Grosseteste: On the Six Days of Creation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Oxford University Press, 1996), 322.</span></span></p>
</div>
JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13108158469007498050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442509839497082978.post-36021934417331023602024-01-14T10:45:00.001-05:002024-02-11T14:22:45.310-05:00Two Trees<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">As we pick up the Book of
Genesis again in the new year, let's briefly refresh our memories of
where it took us during the year so lately concluded. After a sneak
peak behind the veil at the Creator at home in his eternal triune
self, we watched creation explode into being out of nothing, loved
into existence by the God who spoke his Word and poured out his
Spirit. We saw chaos become order, saw darkness yield to light, and
marveled at earth and starry sky and sea, at the blooming forth of
the plants, at the swimming fishes and soaring birds and the
countless marvels of the animal world. We watched as, from the dust
of the earth and the breath of life, a new kind of creature was
welcomed to the scene: the human being. We began to probe the
mystery that this one kind of creature is stamped with the Creator's
very own image: a priestly animal ministering in God's cosmic temple,
a royal animal administering God's dominion over the others. We
turned then to examine the incredible value of men and women, how
they share these callings, the mystery called marriage, and how
they're meant to fruitfully multiply God's image, spread Eden to all
the earth, and ultimately ascend to a supernatural life.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">In studying the human
habitat called the Garden of Eden, we were suitably impressed at its
pleasantness, as we enjoyed all the comforts God offered us in our
originally innocent condition. We found a wide variety of plants
there, though today there are two we have our eye on, because Genesis
highlights them for their significance. It is of course a garden
where the L<span style="font-size: x-small;">ORD</span> has planted
and grown <i>“every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for
food.”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> But we're told about
two particular examples that stand out among this bounty.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">First,
we're told that </span><i>“the tree of life was in the midst of the
garden”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Genesis 2:9). This
tree grows at center-stage, even though it's going to in fact be
veiled from our attention throughout most of the story. All other
trees of the garden are there to sustain life by the supply of
nourishment – that's what it means that they're 'good for food.'
But it's been said that this tree is something deeper: not just
nourishment, but a sacrament.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote1sym" name="sdfootnote1anc"><sup>1</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
It's a symbol that makes truly present the Creator's own life-giving
presence within his creation, because “God, who gives life, is at
the center” – not anything else, not even the human being, is
central to the garden, but God's life is.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote2sym" name="sdfootnote2anc"><sup>2</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">If
the Garden of Eden is in some ways the original model for the
Tabernacle and later the Temple, then the Tree of Life is what grows
in the Holy of Holies. But actually the items modeled on the Tree of
Life were moved into the central sanctuary. It's often suggested
that the golden lampstand – with its branches and flowers and buds
– was designed as a depiction of the Tree of Life (Exodus
25:31-39), always lit to signify the Tree of Life being always
fruitful (Exodus 27:21).</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote3sym" name="sdfootnote3anc"><sup>3</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
And in the Tabernacle, the lampstand – the menorah – always shed
its light on the golden table displaying the Bread of the Presence
(Exodus 25:23-30; 26:35). In a similar way, the Tree of Life in the
garden preaches that the Eternal Word of God </span><i>“is life,
and the life was the light of men”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(John 1:4), so that </span><i>“life and immortality”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
are </span><i>“brought to light through the gospel”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(2 Timothy 1:10).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But
the Tree of Life isn't the only special tree in this garden. We're
told there's a second tree worth comment: </span><i>“the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
is nearby (Genesis 2:9). What that means – this phrase 'knowledge
of good and evil' – has been debated for over two thousand years
with no end in sight. Early Jewish writers gloss it as “the Tree
of Wisdom,” which doesn't clear up as much as we'd like.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote4sym" name="sdfootnote4anc"><sup>4</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
If the Tree of Life represents divine life in the garden, then this
tree emphasizes the presence of divine wisdom in the garden.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote5sym" name="sdfootnote5anc"><sup>5</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
If the Garden is the model for the Tabernacle, then some have
compared this tree to the tablets of God's wise Law which were stored
away inside the Ark of the Covenant.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote6sym" name="sdfootnote6anc"><sup>6</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Those stone tablets were the standard, and they could feel good in
vindication or bad in punishment, could be felt as peace or penalty.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote7sym" name="sdfootnote7anc"><sup>7</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
The tree offers the royal wisdom to govern, a divine knowledge and
capacity to hand out blessings and curses, rewards and punishments,
like in the Law.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote8sym" name="sdfootnote8anc"><sup>8</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">In
the world where Israel lived, divine life plus divine knowledge was
basically the recipe for what it meant to be a god, a personal entity
on a higher plain of existence than ours.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote9sym" name="sdfootnote9anc"><sup>9</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Of course, Israel knew well that the God they worshipped was in a
class entirely his own: </span><i>“Who is like you, O L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>,
among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in
glorious deeds, doing wonders?”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Exodus 15:11). But the word for 'god' even in Hebrew is flexible
enough to cover not only </span><span style="font-style: normal;"><u>the</u></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
God but also other heavenly beings, including those we think of as
angels and those who were wrongly worshipped by the other nations.
So the Psalmist envisions the L</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
taking </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“his
place in the divine council”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
so that </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“in
the midst of the gods he holds judgment”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Psalm 82:1). Israel's neighbors would've heard in this story that
the ingredients of godhood grow in the garden.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Earlier,
we read how God had granted to humanity </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“every
plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every
tree with seed in its fruit..., for food”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 1:29). Now here, we hear God's word again, the first thing
he says in this chapter: </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“You
shall absolutely eat of every tree of the garden”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 2:16). This isn't just permission; this is impassioned
encouragement, virtually an order to eat up!</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote10sym" name="sdfootnote10anc"><sup>10</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
It's like God is saying, “Look at all these trees I planted in my
garden! Behold, I'm sharing everything with you. You're dining at
my table, friend, and I don't want you to leave any dish of this
banquet untouched.” Not only did God make these trees nutritious,
but he made them flavorful, beautiful, diverse. And what else could
we want from created goods than for them to be useful, enjoyable,
interesting, and varied – all while reminding us of God their Good
Giver?</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">By
implication, this invitation covers every tree in the garden –
including the tree of life itself.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote11sym" name="sdfootnote11anc"><sup>11</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
But there is one exception to this </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">carte
blanche</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
free-for-all. </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“Of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 2:17). This stands out in sharp relief. And this is
important, because what we're reading here is “the first law in
Scripture.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote12sym" name="sdfootnote12anc"><sup>12</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
It's every bit as much a Thou-Shalt-Not as the later Big Ten, but
it's the Big </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">One</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote13sym" name="sdfootnote13anc"><sup>13</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Pause
here for a moment to notice that, of all the kinds of actions God
could have given a commandment to prohibit, or all the ways God could
have phrased this, he chose this. What is the sort of act that the
original commandment bans? Eating. The first commandment given to
humanity is depicted in Genesis as a dietary law.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote14sym" name="sdfootnote14anc"><sup>14</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Remember, this book is given to Israel, who had their own collection
of laws regulating food. Of some creatures, they were told: </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“These
you may eat”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Leviticus 11:2); of others: </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“This
you shall not eat”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Leviticus 11:4). An entire chapter of the Law is filled up with
nothing but details of what </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“may
be eaten”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
and what </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“may
not be eaten”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Leviticus 11:47). That doesn't even count rules about certain foods
allowed only to some people in some places under some conditions, but
not to other people or in other places or under other conditions.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Whatever
we think about it today, God had a lot of laws about what his people
Israel could eat, and how, and when. Though foreign to us since in
the New Testament we learn that every dietary law was </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“an
ordinance of flesh imposed until the time of reformation”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
in Christ (Hebrews 9:10), yet they were so central for Israel that
the most righteous were willing to withstand torture or even lay down
their lives for these dietary laws.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote15sym" name="sdfootnote15anc"><sup>15</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
To Israel, what a world of difference it must have made to see those
laws in light of Eden – to realize that the one thing Adam was
commanded in the garden was to keep kosher, just like them!</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote16sym" name="sdfootnote16anc"><sup>16</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">With
that said, now we can ask why </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">this</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
is the tree that's off-limits. Doesn't God want to share knowledge
with us? But, first, there are some ways of approaching knowledge
that aren't good. In the Old Testament, seeking knowledge from God
by asking prophets and priests is one thing, and seeking knowledge
from spirits by consulting mediums and fortune-tellers is a very
different thing (Leviticus 19:31; Isaiah 8:19). Just so, trying to
become wise 'from below' would be to seek </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“not
the wisdom that comes down from above,”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
James says, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“but
the wisdom that is earthly, unspiritual, demonic”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(James 3:15). And the tree remains a source of earthly wisdom so
long as it's treated as such. Grabbing at it with our own hands,
taking it because we hunger for it, is theft. That makes it
knowledge that does not begin, as all true knowledge does, with the
fear of the L</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Proverbs 1:7). And that is just the kind of unspiritual knowledge
God doesn't want us to consume.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote17sym" name="sdfootnote17anc"><sup>17</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
So God is saying: </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“I
want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is
evil”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Romans 16:19).</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Second,
there are some times or conditions of knowledge that aren't good.
Generally speaking, we're aware that some kinds of knowledge
presuppose a certain level of maturity to handle, and without that
maturity, they can be quite harmful. We as a society accept this
principle: you'd be wary about entrusting nuclear missile launch
codes to a high-school student, you wouldn't hand the keys to a
bulldozer to a sixth-grader, you wouldn't teach a third-grader the
essentials of bomb-making or a second-grader the art of
knife-throwing, you wouldn't take a first-grader to an R-rated movie,
and you realize that a toddler is hardly ready for the knowledge of
vodka and cigars. The Bible says that one characteristic of children
is that they </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“have
no knowledge of good and evil”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Deuteronomy 1:39) – they aren't equipped to handle it without
psychological harm.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Just
so, the humans in the garden aren't yet in a condition of full
maturity. One of the earliest Christian readings of Genesis we have
tells us that, since “Adam was as old as an infant, therefore he
wasn't yet able to acquire knowledge properly... God wanted the man
to remain simple and sincere for a longer time,” for “it is
shameful for infant children to have thoughts beyond their years.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote18sym" name="sdfootnote18anc"><sup>18</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Adam and Eve already have the simpler wisdom of childlike faith
available to them, and they need to grow in that before they can
possibly cope with the mature wisdom this tree confers.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote19sym" name="sdfootnote19anc"><sup>19</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Otherwise, they'd be traumatized. But maybe, after getting to know
God over time as they carry out their mission more fully, they'd have
grown to where they could have </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">asked</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
for this knowledge </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">from
above</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">.
After all, that's exactly what Solomon asks: </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“an
understanding mind to govern your people, that I may know between
good and evil”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(1 Kings 3:9). What this tells Adam and Eve is that they need to be
humble and patient, need to wait, grow, learn from God before they
can take the place at his side that's meant for them.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote20sym" name="sdfootnote20anc"><sup>20</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">And
then, third, there are some uses of knowledge that aren't good. Even
equipped with this knowledge in the right way and at the right time,
it has to be used well, with a heart fixed on God, used in ways that
conform scrupulously to God's directions.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote21sym" name="sdfootnote21anc"><sup>21</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
The knowledge of good and evil is a powerful and potentially
dangerous thing when it tries to escape its foundation in God's Law.
Cut loose on its own, this knowledge is deprived of its deep
connection to truth, beauty, and goodness, and can become a weapon
for accomplishing great evil. So it's no wonder the humans were
warned against coveting their God's one reserved tree (cf. Romans
7:7).</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Right
before we hear the words of this first law, we're told that humanity
was put in this garden </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“to
serve it and to keep it”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 2:15). Over prior months, we've peeled off layers of that
purpose, and we've got one more to go. Part of our purpose in the
garden is to serve, and elsewhere we're reminded </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“to
serve the L</span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></i></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">
your God with all your heart and with all your soul”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Deuteronomy 10:12). We're to cultivate God's law, study God's word.
This is the work of </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“a
worker... rightly handling the word of truth”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(2 Timothy 2:15). This is attentively digging into what God has
said, in order to get a deeper and more fertile understanding of it.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote22sym" name="sdfootnote22anc"><sup>22</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
And what does God say all the time? </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“So
you shall </span></i><i><u>keep</u></i><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">
my commandments and do them – I am the L</span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></i></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">!”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Leviticus 22:31). </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“You
shall absolutely </span></i><i><u>keep</u></i><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">
the commandments of the L</span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></i></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">
your God”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Deuteronomy 6:17).</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">One
of the earliest Jewish glosses on this line in Genesis is that Adam's
job is “to toil in the Law and to observe its commandments.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote23sym" name="sdfootnote23anc"><sup>23</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
And early Christians agreed that Adam was “set [in Paradise] as a
laboring farmer to perform divine commands,”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote24sym" name="sdfootnote24anc"><sup>24</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
with “no other task than keeping the commandment of God.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote25sym" name="sdfootnote25anc"><sup>25</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
The purpose, the point, of Adam and Eve being in the garden is to
give them a space in which to exercise obedience, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“to
keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(1 Timothy 6:14), to preserve their grace and virtue intact.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote26sym" name="sdfootnote26anc"><sup>26</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
That's a key part of the mission he's been given. Even in paradise,
there's got to be self-denial for the sake of our souls, which means
we need to have some sort of law at the foundation of our growth –
even if it's described as just about the easiest commandment you
could possibly invent.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote27sym" name="sdfootnote27anc"><sup>27</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
We are not meant to be without limit, are not meant to be totally
self-determined. Paradoxically, if God refused to give us a law,
we'd be </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">less</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
free.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">For
if there were no commandment, no constant reminder that humans aren't
the garden's masters but only its tenants by grace, then nothing
would stop us from being inwardly corrupted by pride.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote28sym" name="sdfootnote28anc"><sup>28</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Because of how much we'd been given, “it was absolutely necessary
for the man who had come into such glory and delight to understand
clearly that God held a position over him as his King,” and so “God
immediately issued a law.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote29sym" name="sdfootnote29anc"><sup>29</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Thus one tree was forbidden, “to commend the good of pure and
simple obedience, which is the great virtue of a rational creature
set under its Creator and Lord.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote30sym" name="sdfootnote30anc"><sup>30</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
It thus became a sign, symbol, and sacrament of obedience.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote31sym" name="sdfootnote31anc"><sup>31</sup></a></span></span></sup></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">To
Adam and Eve, the point of this command must've seemed mysterious,
obscure, pointless, arbitrary. But that was because it was an
opportunity to exercise life-giving faith, a trust that God's reasons
for the command, though beyond our understanding, must be good
because God is good. What they needed to be in a position to show
was what Paul calls </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“the
obedience of faith”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Romans 16:26). And so, to many readers through the ages, access to
this tree served as a sort of test: to see whether humans would
choose the obedience of faith or would take a lesser path. A test,
by its nature, offers a chance for success or failure, for a good or
a bad outcome; but a test also implies the offer of a reward, that
the obedience of faith should not go uncrowned.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote32sym" name="sdfootnote32anc"><sup>32</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
It is, as Paul put it, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“the
very commandment that promised life”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Romans 7:10). </span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">No
wonder </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“the
commandment is holy and righteous and good”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Romans 7:12)! But, God warned Adam, there is also a chance of a bad
outcome. </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“In
the day that you eat of it, you shall absolutely die”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 2:17). That phrase – literally, 'dyingly die' – is a
common Old Testament expression for the death penalty.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote33sym" name="sdfootnote33anc"><sup>33</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Approached in a wrong way, this second tree is so far opposite the
tree of life as to become practically a tree of death. Though
actually, as one early Christian wrote, “it is not the tree of
knowledge that kills; rather, it is disobedience,”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote34sym" name="sdfootnote34anc"><sup>34</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
“the transgression of public law and the experience of misery.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote35sym" name="sdfootnote35anc"><sup>35</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Obedience
to God, trusting that his word is the right way to live, is a
life-or-death situation – that's what trees like these aim to show
us. In disobeying, we would experience not just life but also death,
not just good but also evil.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote36sym" name="sdfootnote36anc"><sup>36</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“Whoever
keeps the commandment,”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
says the Bible, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“keeps
his life, but he who despises his ways will die”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Proverbs 19:16). So, says Moses, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“see,
I have set before you today life and good, death and evil”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
– but the choice is ours (Deuteronomy 30:15). That's what the
trees are about, to let us choose life or death. God makes his
preference clear: </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“Choose
life!”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Deuteronomy 30:19)</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Through
obedience to a commandment, we were to train and build up our souls
to realize not only our natural potential but the supernatural goals
God always had in store for us.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote37sym" name="sdfootnote37anc"><sup>37</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Martin Luther went so far, then, as to label these trees as “Adam's
church, altar, and pulpit: here he was to yield to God the obedience
he owed, give recognition to the word and will of God, give thanks to
God, and call upon God for aid against temptation.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote38sym" name="sdfootnote38anc"><sup>38</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
It was by worshipping the Lawgiver through the obedience of faith
that life, true life, divine life, could be ours.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Ultimately,
the point of the Law comes down to one question: what do we love
most? Jesus himself says to his disciples: </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“Whoever
has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(John 14:21). If the people in the garden endure in loving God more
than all the trees, more than life itself, then this commandment
can't be too hard for them, and it certainly isn't a far-away thing
(Deuteronomy 30:12). Rather, it's quite literally in their mouth, in
their hand, in their heart, for them to render this loving obedience
of faith at all times (Deuteronomy 30:14). </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“And
his commandments are not burdensome”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
when approached with a heart of love (1 John 5:3).</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">That's
as much for us in the world as it was for them in the garden. Over
and over again, Jesus tells us – not Adam, not Eve, but you and me
– that the measure of our love is keeping his commandments (John
14:15), and that keeping his commandments is the way we remain in his
love, continue to know his love experientially (John 15:10). Then
Jesus sent his apostles to the nations to </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“teach
them to keep all that I have commanded you”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Matthew 28:20). The Apostle John says that anybody who professes to
know God and yet doesn't keep his commandments is lying about knowing
God (1 John 2:4). And even Paul, for all he says about the Law, also
says that </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“keeping
the commandments of God”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
is all that really matters in life (1 Corinthians 7:19), and that
</span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“obedience...
leads to righteousness”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Romans 6:16). For Jesus is </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“the
source of eternal salvation to all who obey him”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Hebrews 5:9), God gives his Holy Spirit </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“to
those who obey him”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Acts 5:32), and </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“whoever
does not obey the Son shall not see life”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(John 3:36). The truth of these two trees follows us all our days.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
Standing between the trees, with life and death set before us, good
and evil right at hand, may we prefer always whatever God's word and
will will give us over what his wisdom won't, because we love him, we
trust him, we know him, and therefore we obey him – obey him with a
faith that works by love – and so shall we live. Amen.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<div id="sdfootnote1">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote1anc" name="sdfootnote1sym">1</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>Literal Meaning of Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
8.4 </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">8,
in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/13:351; see also C. John Collins, </span><i>Genesis 1-4: A
Linguistic, Literary, and Theological Commentary</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(P&R Publishing, 2005), 115.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote2">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote2anc" name="sdfootnote2sym">2</a> Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, <i>Creation and Fall</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(1933), in </span><i>Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
3:83.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote3">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote3anc" name="sdfootnote3sym">3</a> Gregory
K. Beale, <i>The Temple and the Church's Mission: A Biblical
Theology of the Dwelling Place of God</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(InterVarsity, 2004), 71; G. Geoffrey Harper, </span><i>“I Will
Walk Among You”: The Rhetorical Function of Allusion to Genesis
1-3 in the Book of Leviticus</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eisenbrauns, 2018), 207.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote4">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote4anc" name="sdfootnote4sym">4</a><span style="font-style: normal;"> For
example, </span><i>1 Enoch</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
32:1, in </span><i>Old Testament Pseudepigrapha</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1:28; Josephus, </span><i>Antiquities of the Jews</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1.40, in </span><i>Loeb Classical Library</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
242:21.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote5">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote5anc" name="sdfootnote5sym">5</a> Mitchell
L. Chase, <i>Short of Glory: A Biblical and Theological Exploration
of the Fall</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Crossway, 2023),
21.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote6">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote6anc" name="sdfootnote6sym">6</a> Gregory
K. Beale, <i>The Temple and the Church's Mission: A Biblical
Theology of the Dwelling Place of God</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(InterVarsity, 2004), 71; Steven C. Smith, </span><i>The House of
the Lord: A Catholic Biblical Theology of God's Temple Presence in
the Old and New Testaments</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Franciscan University Press, 2017), 63.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote7">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote7anc" name="sdfootnote7sym">7</a> Mitchell
L. Chase, <i>Short of Glory: A Biblical and Theological Exploration
of the Fall</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Crossway, 2023),
150.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote8">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a name="title"></a><a name="productTitle"></a></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote8anc" name="sdfootnote8sym">8</a> Nathan
S. French, <i>A Theocentric Interpretation of </i><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>הדעת
טוב ורע</i></span></span><i>: The Knowledge of Good and Evil
as the Knowledge for Administering Reward and Punishment</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2021), 151.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote9">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a name="title1"></a><a name="productTitle1"></a></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote9anc" name="sdfootnote9sym">9</a> Peter
T. Lanfer, “Solomon in the Garden of Eden: Autonomous Wisdom and
the Danger of Discernment,” in Joel Baden, Hindy Najman, and
Eibert Tigchelaar<span style="font-style: normal;">, eds., </span><i>Sibyls,
Scriptures, and Scrolls: John Collins at Seventy</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Brill, 2016), 714; Nathan S. French, </span><i>A Theocentric
Interpretation of </i><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>הדעת
טוב ורע</i></span></span><i>: The Knowledge of Good and Evil
as the Knowledge for Administering Reward and Punishment</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2021), 106.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote10">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote10anc" name="sdfootnote10sym">10</a> Joseph
E. Coleson, <i>Genesis 1-11: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Beacon Hill Press, 2012), 97.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote11">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote11anc" name="sdfootnote11sym">11</a> Adam
E. Miglio, <i>The Gilgamesh Epic in Genesis 1-11: Peering into the
Deep</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Routledge, 2023), 56-57.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote12">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote12anc" name="sdfootnote12sym">12</a> Tremper
Longman III, <i>Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, Story
of God Bible Commentary (Zondervan, 2016), 49.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote13">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote13anc" name="sdfootnote13sym">13</a> Chris
W. Lee, <i>Death Warning in the Garden of Eden: The Early Reception
History of Genesis 2:17</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Mohr
Siebeck, 2020), 38,</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote14">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote14anc" name="sdfootnote14sym">14</a> Nahum
M. Sarna, <i>Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, JPS Torah
Commentary (Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 21; Seth D. Postell,
</span><i>Adam as Israel: Genesis 1-3 as the Introduction to the
Torah and Tanakh</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Wipf and
Stock, 2011), 117; Brian Neil Peterson, </span><i>Genesis as Torah:
Reading Narrative as Legal Instruction</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Wipf and Stock, 2018), 48; Chris W. Lee, </span><i>Death Warning in
the Garden of Eden: The Early Reception History of Genesis 2:17</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Mohr Siebeck, 2020), 39.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote15">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote15anc" name="sdfootnote15sym">15</a> 2
Maccabees 6:18-20; Josephus, <i>Jewish War</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2.152, in </span><i>Loeb Classical Library</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
203:381.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote16">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote16anc" name="sdfootnote16sym">16</a> G.
Geoffrey Harper, <i>“I Will Walk Among You”: The Rhetorical
Function of Allusion to Genesis 1-3 in the Book of Leviticus</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eisenbrauns, 2018), 134.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote17">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote17anc" name="sdfootnote17sym">17</a> Mitchell
L. Chase, <i>Short of Glory: A Biblical and Theological Exploration
of the Fall</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Crossway, 2023),
149.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote18">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote18anc" name="sdfootnote18sym">18</a> Theophilus
of Antioch, <i>To Autolycus</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2.25, in </span><i>Theophilus of Antioch: Ad Autolycus</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Oxford University Press, 1971), 67.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote19">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote19anc" name="sdfootnote19sym">19</a> J.
Richard Middleton, “Reading Genesis 3 Attentive to Human
Evolution: Beyond Concordism and Non-Overlapping Magisteria,” in
William T. Cavanaugh and James K.A. Smith, eds., <i>Evolution and
the Fall</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Eerdmans, 2017), 79
n. 39.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote20">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote20anc" name="sdfootnote20sym">20</a> Iain
W. Provan, <i>Seriously Dangerous Religion: What the Old Testament
Really Says and Why It Matters</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Baylor University Press, 2014), 113-114; John H. Walton, </span><i>The
Lost World of Adam and Eve: Genesis 2-3 and the Human Origins Debate</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(IVP Academic, 2015); cf. Ephrem the Syrian, </span><i>Commentary on
Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 2.23.1, in </span><i>Fathers
of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
91:114.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote21">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote21anc" name="sdfootnote21sym">21</a> Peter
T. Lanfer, “Solomon in the Garden of Eden: Autonomous Wisdom and
the Danger of Discernment,” in Joel Baden, Hindy Najman, and
Eibert Tigchelaar<span style="font-style: normal;">, eds., </span><i>Sibyls,
Scriptures, and Scrolls: John Collins at Seventy</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Brill, 2016), </span>718.</span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote22">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote22anc" name="sdfootnote22sym">22</a> Brian
Neil Peterson, <i>Genesis: A Pentecostal Commentary</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Brill, 2022), 43.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote23">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote23anc" name="sdfootnote23sym">23</a><i> Targum
Neofiti</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> Genesis 2:15, in
</span><i>Aramaic Bible</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 1A:58.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote24">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote24anc" name="sdfootnote24sym">24</a> Gregory
of Nazianzus, <i>Poemata Arcana</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
7.106, in C. Moreschini, ed., and D. A. Sykes, tr., </span><i>St. Gregory of Nazianzus: Poemata Arcana</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Clarendon Press, 1997), 39.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote25">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote25anc" name="sdfootnote25sym">25</a> Theophilus
of Antioch, <i>To Autolycus</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2.24, in </span><i>Theophilus of Antioch: Ad Autolycus</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Oxford University Press, 1971), 67.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote26">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote26anc" name="sdfootnote26sym">26</a> Athanasius
of Alexandria, <i>On the Incarnation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
3, in </span><i>Popular Patristics Series</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
44A:57; Ambrose of Milan, </span><i>On Paradise</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
4 </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">25,
in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
42:302.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote27">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote27anc" name="sdfootnote27sym">27</a> Ephrem
the Syrian, <i>Commentary on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2.8.2, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
91:102; Augustine of Hippo, </span><i>City of God</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
14.12, in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/7:118.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote28">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote28anc" name="sdfootnote28sym">28</a> John
Chrysostom, <i>Homilies on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
16.18, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
74:220.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote29">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote29anc" name="sdfootnote29sym">29</a> Cyril
of Alexandria, <i>Glaphyra on the Pentateuch</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1.2.2, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
137:56-57.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote30">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote30anc" name="sdfootnote30sym">30</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>City of God</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 13.20,
in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/7:87.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote31">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote31anc" name="sdfootnote31sym">31</a> Robert
Grosseteste, <i>Hexaemeron</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
11.9.4, in C. F. J. Martin, tr., </span><i>Robert Grosseteste: On the Six Days of Creation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Oxford University Press, 1996), 324.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote32">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote32anc" name="sdfootnote32sym">32</a> Theodoret
of Cyrus, <i>Questions on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
26, in </span><i>Library of Early Christianity</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1:63; John of Damascus, </span><i>On the Orthodox Faith</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
25, in </span><i>Popular Patristics Series</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
62:125.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote33">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote33anc" name="sdfootnote33sym">33</a> Arie
van der Kooij, “The Story of Paradise in the Light of Mesopotamian
Culture and Literature,” in Katharine J. Dell, Graham Davies, and
Yee Von Koh, eds., <i>Genesis, Isaiah, and Psalms: A Festschrift to
Honour Professor John Emerton for His Eightieth Birthday</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Brill, 2010), 6-7; Christoph Levin, “Genesis 2-3: A Case of
Inner-Biblical Interpretation,” in Nathan MacDonald, Mark W.
Elliott, and Grant Macaskill, eds., </span><i>Genesis and Christian
Theology</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Eerdmans, 2012), 98;
Chris W. Lee, </span><i>Death Warning in the Garden of Eden: The
Early Reception History of Genesis 2:17</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Mohr Siebeck, 2020), 23; Mitchell L. Chase, </span><i>Short of
Glory: A Biblical and Theological Exploration of the Fall</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Crossway, 2023), 156.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote34">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote34anc" name="sdfootnote34sym">34</a><i> Epistle
to Diognetus</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 12.2, in </span><i>Loeb
Classical Library</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 25:157.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote35">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote35anc" name="sdfootnote35sym">35</a> Peter
Damian, <i>Letter</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 49.17, in
</span><i>Fathers of the Church: Medieval Continuation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2:281.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote36">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote36anc" name="sdfootnote36sym">36</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>The Punishment and Forgiveness of Sins</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2.21 </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">35,
in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/23:103.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote37">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote37anc" name="sdfootnote37sym">37</a> R.
R. Reno, <i>Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, Brazos
Theological Commentary (Brazos Press, 2010), 71.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote38">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote38anc" name="sdfootnote38sym">38</a> Martin
Luther, <i>Lectures on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2:9, in </span><i>Luther's Works</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1:95.</span></span></p>
</div>
JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13108158469007498050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442509839497082978.post-723371037663708502024-01-07T10:42:00.002-05:002024-02-11T14:23:03.842-05:00Gold, Grain, and Glory<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">If you were with us <a href="http://iron-in-fire.blogspot.com/2023/12/king-of-all-years.html">last Sunday</a> to close out the old year gone by, we began to take a look at
Psalm 72, a mighty treatment of a royal son who would be all that
Solomon ever dreamed of being, and then some. He'd be a good king, a
fair king on the side of the poor, a wise and compassionate king who
refreshes life. And, what makes this king stand out even from the
historical Solomon is that his reign will last <i>“while the sun
endures, and as long as the moon, throughout all generations”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Psalm 72:5). Brothers and sisters, Solomon is off his throne, his
wealth gone who-knows-where, and sun and moon endure without him.
Solomon couldn't live up to this Solomon song. We needed someone
better, someone greater, someone who could be King of All the Years.
And then Jesus Christ was born. He was born, but he'd already been
King since before sun was lit or moon was crafted. He is born, this
Potentate of Time, and all history passes beneath his scepter and
before his judgment.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Back
to this psalm we come, hungry and thirsty for more of King Jesus.
Now we find he isn't just Potentate of Time, but he's the rightful
king of all space: </span><i>“May he have dominion from sea to sea,
and from the river to the ends of the earth!”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Psalm 72:8). The psalm prays that even the most distant powers
would submit: </span><i>“May desert tribes bow before him, and his
enemies lick the dust!”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Psalm
72:9). </span><i>“May all kings bow down before him! May all
nations serve him!”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Psalm
72:11). It's a picture of total submission, of every knee bowing and
every tongue confessing – even the national ones, even the royal
ones, even the imperial ones (Philippians 2:9).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
that calls for more than just words. </span><i>“May the kings of
Tarshish and of the coastlands render him tribute; may the kings of
Sheba and Seba bring gifts!”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Psalm 72:10). Tarshish – Tartessos – was in south Spain, rich
in silver and tin. Sheba, whose queen visited Solomon, was in south
Arabia, while Seba was across the Red Sea in northeast Africa. So
God tells Zion: </span><i>“A multitude of camels shall cover you,
the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall
come, they shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall bring good
news, the praises of the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>.
All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered to you, the rams of
Nebaioth shall minister to you; they shall come up with acceptance on
my altar, and I will beautify my beautiful house”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Isaiah 60:6-7).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">If
a few of those words leapt out at you, they should. Yesterday was
the ancient Christian feast of Epiphany, of the manifestation of
Jesus to the world after his birth. In addition to celebrating his
baptism in the Jordan, it also remembers how, just as the shepherds
were the first Jewish witnesses to the newborn King, so God called
Gentile witnesses, too. </span><i>“Behold, Magi from the east came
to Jerusalem, saying, 'Where is he who has been born king of the
Jews? For we saw his star at its rising and have come to worship
him'”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Matthew 2:2). Early
Christians specified that these were “Magi from Arabia,”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote1sym" name="sdfootnote1anc"><sup>1</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
and suggested the reason they knew the significance of this birth was
that, from the time they saw the royal star, they found their power
vanishing.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote2sym" name="sdfootnote2anc"><sup>2</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
After some next directions courtesy of the Hebrew Scriptures, these
Magi traveled the last miles to Bethlehem, and found the heavenly
light revealing the exact house to visit. </span><i>“They rejoiced
exceedingly with great joy; and, going into the house, they saw the
Child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Matthew 2:10-11).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Later,
people started picturing them as kings, based on the recognition that
easterners treated magi with nearly royal honors.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote3sym" name="sdfootnote3anc"><sup>3</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Tradition made of them Gentile kings bearing tribute for their True
Sovereign, the king of Psalm 72, as a way of showing us that from the
moment of his birth, Jesus is already so much more than even Solomon
was at the height of his empire. And, however many they were, they
came bearing three gifts (Matthew 2:12). </span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">They
brought gold, that precious metal we still prize. To be a king
practically meant being surrounded by the gleam of gold. They
brought frankincense, hardened tears of the light-colored resin
produced by a scruffy-looking coastal tree that grows in south Arabia
and northeast Africa – Sheba and Seba.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote4sym" name="sdfootnote4anc"><sup>4</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
This frankincense, excellent in perfumes, was an expensive commodity
traded around the world; the Romans imported thousands of tons
yearly, unable to conquer the land where it grew.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote5sym" name="sdfootnote5anc"><sup>5</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Frankincense was also used in worship, including at Israel's
gold-plated temple. And then there was myrrh, the darker resin
produced by a different genus of thorny tree that grows in those same
parts of Arabia and Africa.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote6sym" name="sdfootnote6anc"><sup>6</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Likewise valued for perfumes and also for medicines, Israel had it
as a major ingredient in the holy oil that could only be used to
anoint priests (Exodus 30:23). But it had long been used during
burials to mask the scent of decay. And so the Magi came bearing
“not only gold as a sign of honor and frankincense as a sign of
worship, but also myrrh as a sign of his future burial.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote7sym" name="sdfootnote7anc"><sup>7</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">When
they found the one they came to see, all they saw with their eyes was
a little Jewish boy, not dressed up in fine silks or ornamented by
any outward displays of glory. They'd undoubtedly been much more
impressed elsewhere, so far as their eyes were concerned. Yet they'd
been led there by signs in the sky and the voice of prophecy. And so
they fell on their faces before him, they emptied their treasure
chests to him. In heartfelt humility they gave him gifts fit for a
loved one, for a king, for a temple, for a God.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But
back from the House of Bread (Bethlehem) to the Psalm of the King.
It asks, </span><i>“May there be abundance of grain in the land!
On the tops of the mountains may it wave; may its fruit be like
Lebanon, and may people blossom in the cities like the grass of the
field!”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Psalm 72:16). Not
only was grain a basic foodstuff, but it was central to Israel's life
of sacrifice: with every sacrifice came grain on which frankincense
had been sprinkled (Leviticus 2:14-15). Grain was bound up with
sacrifice, with worship. </span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
now this King in Bethlehem has, as the psalmist prayed, become the
abundance of life-giving grain. Jesus calls himself </span><i>“the
Bread of Life,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> after all
(John 6:35). There is no greater abundance of grain than when Christ
is its giver – and so there is bread made from grain on our altar
this morning, enough for all. Down through the centuries, Christ's
name has been proclaimed over and over again by those ordained to
invoke his blessing, and his voice speaking through them names this
fruit of grain as his own sacred body, given for the life of the
world. In offering his body as food and his lifeblood as drink, King
Jesus openly hosts a royal feast of blessing to make us flourish and
blossom in every city and every country. Jesus is, as he said, </span><i>“the
food that endures to eternal life. … If anyone eats of this bread,
he will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of
the world is my flesh. … Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my
blood abides in me, and I in him”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(John 6:27, 51, 56). </span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">How
much difference would it make, then, if we shook off our humdrum
attitudes about it, refusing to see only a tiny token, a subjective
symbol, a morning snack? If Magi eyes can see a baby and recognize
God, can we recognize him in the bread and in the cup, accepting by
faith that the Lord God may well be here to </span><i>“do wondrous
things”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Psalm 72:18)? What
could be more wondrous than a miracle in our midst? What could
better proclaim his name, in his death and resurrection, until he
comes again (1 Corinthians 11:26)? May this whole earth be filled,
in the eating and the drinking, with his glory (Psalm 72:19)!
Bringing our tribute before him, we walk away filled with a much
grander gift: “spiritual food and drink and eternal life.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote8sym" name="sdfootnote8anc"><sup>8</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Amen.<span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<div id="sdfootnote1">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote1anc" name="sdfootnote1sym">1</a> Justin
Martyr, <i>Dialogue with Trypho</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
78.1, in </span><i>Selections from the Fathers of the Church</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
3:120.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote2">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote2anc" name="sdfootnote2sym">2</a> E.g.,
Ignatius of Antioch, <i>Ephesians</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
19.2-3, in </span><i>Loeb Classical Library</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
24:239; Origen of Alexandria, </span><i>Against Celsus</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1.60, in Henry Chadwick, </span><i>Origen: Contra Celsum</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Cambridge University Press, 1953), 55.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote3">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote3anc" name="sdfootnote3sym">3</a> Tertullian
of Carthage, <i>Against Marcion</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
3.13, in Ernest Evans, </span><i>Tertullian: Adversus Marcionem</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Oxford University Press, 1972), 209.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote4">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote4anc" name="sdfootnote4sym">4</a> Elise
Vernon Pearlstine, <i>Scent: A Natural History of Fragrance</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Yale University Press, 2022), 12.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote5">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote5anc" name="sdfootnote5sym">5</a> Elise
Vernon Pearlstine, <i>Scent: A Natural History of Fragrance</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Yale University Press, 2022), 20-21.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote6">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote6anc" name="sdfootnote6sym">6</a> Elise
Vernon Pearlstine, <i>Scent: A Natural History of Fragrance</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Yale University Press, 2022), 13.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote7">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote7anc" name="sdfootnote7sym">7</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>Sermon</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 202.2, in
</span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
III/6:92; see also Origen of Alexandria, </span><i>Against Celsus</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1.60, in Henry Chadwick, </span><i>Origen: Contra Celsum</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Cambridge University Press, 1953), 55; and Hilary of Poitiers,
</span><i>Commentary on Matthew</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1.5, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
125:46.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote8">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote8anc" name="sdfootnote8sym">8</a><i> Didache</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
10.3, in </span><i>Loeb Classical Library</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
24:433.</span></span></p>
</div>
JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13108158469007498050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442509839497082978.post-35498280200197802352023-12-31T10:38:00.002-05:002024-02-11T14:23:21.354-05:00King of All the Years<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">So we've come to the day
that marks the close of another year. The old year – well, I can't
decide if it went slowly or quickly – but it's run its allotted
measure of three hundred and sixty-five days down to the wire now.
Fourteen hours from now, at the stroke of midnight, the old year is
relegated to the history books, and a new year is unfolded, its pages
seemingly blank before us, ready for us to write on it our solemn
determinations and drives. And this time of transition is often a
poignant one, as we think back over the year, not just isolated days
or weeks, but as a whole – “to look back on the way that is past,
and forward on that which remains.”<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote1sym" name="sdfootnote1anc"><sup>1</sup></a></sup>
In the face of the prospect of an unsullied canvas for the coming
year, it's not uncommon for this to be a day we take for
self-reflection – the proverbial 'good, hard look in the mirror.'</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The Bible, of course,
affords a fair amount of fodder for such a scrutiny. We know it does
at an individual level. <i>“Woe to those who call evil 'good' and
good 'evil'! … Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and
shrewd in their own sight! Woe to those who are heroes at drinking
wine!”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Isaiah 5:20-22).
</span><i>“They swear falsely..., they have made their faces harder
than rock, they refuse to repent”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Jeremiah 5:2-3). </span><i>“A merchant in whose hands are false
balances – he loves to oppress”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Hosea 12:7). </span><i>“Like a cage full of birds, their houses
are full of deceit; therefore they have become great and rich, they
have grown fat and sleek”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Jeremiah 5:27). </span><i>“Their works are works of iniquity...,
their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity..., the way of peace they do
not know, and there is no justice in their paths”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Isaiah 59:6-8). </span><i>“When pride comes, then comes disgrace”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Proverbs 11:2).</span> So <i>“your iniquities have made a
separation between you and your God, your sins have hidden his face
from you so that he does not hear; for... your lips have spoken lies,
your tongue mutters wickedness”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Isaiah 59:2-3).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">But the Bible also holds
up a mirror at a societal level. <i>“Woe to him who builds his
house by unrighteousness and his upper rooms by injustice, who makes
his neighbor serve him for nothing and does not give him his wages”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Jeremiah 22:13). </span><i>“Your princes are rebels and
companions of thieves”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Isaiah
1:23), </span><i>“truth has stumbled in the public squares”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Isaiah 59:14), </span><i>“woe to those who decree iniquitous
decrees and the writers who keep writing oppression..., to rob the
poor of my people of their right”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Isaiah 10:1-2). It denounces those who </span><i>“take interest
and profit..., dishonest gain”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Ezekiel 22:13). </span><i>“Wicked rulers... frame injustice by
statute”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Psalm 94:20), and
</span><i>“if a ruler listens to falsehood, all his officials will
be wicked”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Proverbs 29:12).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">If
that's the mirror held up, not to put too fine a point on it, but you
probably wouldn't have to go too far to find decent illustrations in
the last decade of government charging interest on loans, of failure
to give promised benefits to those who serve, of laws passed and
verdicts rendered with no substantial connection to justice, of
politicians who can fairly be called 'rebels' and 'companions of
thieves,' of powerbrokers building themselves a good reputation by
hidden or even open unrighteousness, of rulers so craving falsehoods
that they surround themselves with corruption, of true ideas being
excluded from the public square, and so on, and so on.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">I'm
not going to belabor those thoughts or cite examples; I'm not in the
pulpit to be a pundit. But I will note that a poll earlier this
month found that majorities of the American public would prefer that
the front-runners of our major political parties not be running, and
that two-thirds of Americans have a pessimistic outlook on the state
of our political life.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote2sym" name="sdfootnote2anc"><sup>2</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Most of us, when we reflect on our national health, don't like what
the mirror shows back.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Certainly
we imagine that to be a stark contrast to the early days of our
nation, when one state senate president, painting in the rosiest
colors to urge Americans to “prize our political condition,”
celebrated that “no man can be deprived of his life, liberty or
property but by the operation of laws freely, fairly, and by common
consent previously enacted,” and that “religious freedom,
banished from almost every corner of the globe, has fixed her
standard among us, and kindly invites the distressed from all
quarters to repair hither.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote3sym" name="sdfootnote3anc"><sup>3</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
yet two years earlier, one American newspaper backed by Thomas
Jefferson and James Madison accused the government of introducing a
“many-headed monster of power... and instrument of oppression”
aiming to “pervert the judgment of the people of America” into
accepting “those fiats of Congress which attempt to declare right
to be wrong or black to be white.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote4sym" name="sdfootnote4anc"><sup>4</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
On the other hand, their opponents warned that if the other side had
its way, there'd follow “tragic scenes of devastation, bloodshed,
and horror,”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote5sym" name="sdfootnote5anc"><sup>5</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
attributing to their political adversaries “a mental depravity that
rejoices in human misery.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote6sym" name="sdfootnote6anc"><sup>6</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Meanwhile, American ears weren't sheltered from the ears of
preachers denouncing how “thousands of... our equals by nature are
dragged from their native lands, loaded with irons, crowded into
floating prisons..., exposed to sale, and bought, and made to submit
to severest toil, and tortured at the pleasure of their cruel
masters” – all endorsed by American law.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote7sym" name="sdfootnote7anc"><sup>7</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Those
decidedly uncheery judgments all, by the way, were penned during the
Washington Administration; and barely were we into the Adams
Administration than we read orators decrying “those lying
newspapers, lying pamphlets, lying letters, and lying conversations
with which the country has been filled..., vipers in our bosom,
vultures preying on our bowels.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote8sym" name="sdfootnote8anc"><sup>8</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Perhaps aiming the mirror backward through time is little comfort
after all.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Nor,
if we go further back still, do things on the earthly scene get much
better. Take, for instance, a king by the name of Herod.
Half-Edomite and half-Arab, yet descended from converts to Judaism,
he began his political career with a bold tough-on-crime move,
executing bandits without trial, and then implying he'd massacre the
whole Jewish court if they tried to try him. He was known to execute
not just criminals but their families. He eventually turned his
bloodlust toward his own family, driven by raging jealousies and
maddening headaches to decree death to brothers-in-law, wives, and
sons by the handful. He ruled a surveillance state, sending secret
police to ferret out his critics; he demanded absolute loyalty; he
had no qualms about torture. He bracketed his convictions, funding
God's temple and idol temples from the same purse, all while
presenting himself as a champion of Jewish rights. He aspired to be
seen as a new Solomon, as a Psalm 72 kind of king.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote9sym" name="sdfootnote9anc"><sup>9</sup></a></span></sup></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But,
as we read in the Gospel, so terrified was he of news that a child
had just been “</span><i>born</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
king of the Jews,” rather than having the role appointed by Rome
like Herod did, that he sent soldiers traipsing the four miles from
his fortress to Bethlehem, with orders to deliver a death penalty to
all the infant boys in the village. Joseph and Mary had escaped
already with Jesus, but perhaps up to twenty little ones left behind
became the first martyrs for Christ (Matthew 2:16). This past week,
many different groups of Christians all marked a feast day honoring
these 'holy innocents.' Around that same time, Herod – by then
old, sick, and greedy – had peaceful protesters burned alive. And
finally, knowing how unpopular he was, he had his soldiers round up
the most popular Jewish leaders, ordering them to be killed when
Herod died, all just so that people wouldn't throw parties when they
heard Herod had kicked the bucket. One Jewish writer looked back on
Herod and said: “He was a man who was cruel to all alike, and one
who easily gave in to anger and was contemptuous of justice.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote10sym" name="sdfootnote10anc"><sup>10</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Nothing
could be farther from the psalm we read this morning, which gives
deep testimony for a people's longing for leadership that looks
nothing like Herod, that inspires more than the politics we still see
all around us. They're looking for a leader who will </span><i>“judge
your people with righteousness”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Psalm 72:2), who will make decisions based on God's own truth,
setting God's people at liberty to pursue their Father's business in
the public square. That's the opposite of unequal measures, foolish
counsel, framing injustice by statute. They're looking for a leader
who will </span><i>“defend the cause of the poor of the people”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Psalm 72:4) and </span><i>“judge [God's] poor with justice”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Psalm 72:2), one whose leadership will rule out exploitation, wage
theft, other social injustices. They're looking for a leader who
will </span><i>“give deliverance to the children”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Psalm 72:4), one whose reign cherishes the tenderness of young life,
refusing to let it be aborted or abused, mutilated or miseducated.
They're looking for a leader who will </span><i>“crush the
oppressor”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Psalm 72:4), whose
power maintains security against evil, not turning a blind eye to
crime. They're looking for a leader whose reign elevates human
dignity and the enjoyment of life, one who leads </span><i>“like
rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Psalm 72:6) – a life-promoting, life-refreshing presence. Under
him, </span><i>“the mountains bear prosperity for the people”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Psalm 72:3), chasing away poverty and moral degradation and all else
that threatens human health.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Over
the recent Advent season, we had the opportunity to reflect on Jesus
as the promised Son of David who's come to inherit the Throne of
David. And from the very beginnings, Christians have read this psalm
as being about him, about Jesus Christ.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote11sym" name="sdfootnote11anc"><sup>11</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
We recognize that, while all leaders ought to live up to those
standards, yet the only safe bet in that is King Jesus; although we
don't yet experience his governance on earth directly, yet this is
the way he rules his people. What's more, this psalm sketches us a
beautiful picture of the rule of Jesus. </span><i>“For he delivers
the needy when he calls, the poor and him who has no helper”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Psalm 72:12). He's responsive to the prayers of the helpless, those
who cast themselves entirely on his grace. </span><i>“He has pity
on the weak and needy, and saves the lives of the needy”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Psalm 72:13). He's full of compassion and salvation for those who
admit their need of him; his mercy is given to the measure of our
hunger and thirst for it. </span><i>“From oppression and violence
he redeems their life, and precious is their blood in his sight”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Psalm 72:14). Jesus is a Savior who redeems us from sin's
oppression and who prizes our lifeblood, who cares for us
individually, who knows each one by name, who desires to engage each
citizen of his kingdom person-to-person. Now that's a king!</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Jesus
is the kind of king we've needed! Jesus is the king we cannot,
should not, bear to be without! In another psalm, the psalmist
prayed to God: </span><i>“Prolong the life of the king; may his
years endure to all generations! May he be enthroned forever before
God; appoint steadfast love and faithfulness to watch over him”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Psalm 61:6-7). And here in this psalm, we have that answered: this
kind of king will reign </span><i>“while the sun endures, and as
long as the moon, throughout all generations”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Psalm 72:5). That's a bold statement – an absolute absurdity if
we tried to apply it to anybody who isn't Jesus. I mean, think about
it: how many empires, dynasties, rulers of the past have the sun and
moon watched come and go? Every one! How many of those rulers can
say their reign only partly overlapped with the rule of sun and moon
in the sky? Not any! When the first human first looked up to
heaven, there the sun was already burning bright, there the moon was
already orbiting the earth. But the moon has never watched a night
when this king wasn't king, and the sun has never once outshined his
throne. </span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">His
is the kingdom of which it's written: </span><i>“It shall break in
pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall
stand forever”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Daniel 2:44).
For Christ </span><i>“will reign... forever, and of his kingdom
there will be no end”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Luke
1:33). </span><i>“To him was given dominion and glory and a
kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him;
his is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his
kingdom one that shall not be destroyed”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Daniel 7:14), </span><i>“and all dominions shall serve and obey
him”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Daniel 7:27).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Jesus
is the king of history. Jesus was king when Rome fell, he was king
on the eve of the Arab conquests, he was king before the birth of
Charlemagne, he was king before tribes became the nations we know, he
was king before Europe met a New World, he was king while the ink on
the US Constitution was drying. Jesus was king during the Black
Death and the slave trade and the Great Depression and the Holocaust;
he was king during the Industrial Revolution and the Wright Brothers'
flight and the splitting of the atom, king when Dr. King dreamed his
dream, when Apollo 11 went up and the Berlin Wall came down, when the
Internet made its first connection. He's king over more than
microscope or telescope sees, more than any channel or station or
paper can report.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">All
of history is Christ's domain. All of history passes beneath his
scepter. All of history gathers at his bar of judgment. What we
call a thousand years ago, the medieval past, to Jesus it might as
well have been yesterday (Psalm 90:4). To him, the difference
between our national founding and this moment might as well be hours
whizzing by, hardly the massive gulf it seems to us. To judge Jesus
by the standards of the latest fad would be ridiculous; he came
before and outlasts any political arrangement, any movement, any
development. And yet, through all this history, he's responsive to
the prayers of the helpless, compassionate to those in need, caring
individually for the flesh and blood behind every name that was never
written down.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">We've
come to the end of another year – a year we date in reference to
Jesus' reign: the Year of Our Lord 2023. In the past year, COVID-19
officially ceased to be a pandemic, which has hopefully relieved and
cheered you. Yet the world weathered deadly cyclones and earthquakes
and wildfires – perhaps that frightened or alarmed you. Beside a
banking crisis, shootings, and bombings, we saw the Russian war in
Ukraine continue unabated, and new atrocities inflicted first in
Israel by Hamas and then in the Gaza Strip by Israel. We've
witnessed sobering atrocities in Nigeria and other places around the
world, and maybe that's distressed you and weighed on you. But as we
look over this past year, whatever it brought to us, one thing we can
confidently say is that Jesus was King there. Not all the war and
weather makes a difference in that; it only shows how much earth yet
needs to be conformed to his kingdom, how much nature and nation yet
rage against the L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">'s
Anointed (Psalm 2:1-2). This year, for the first time ever, the
human population topped eight billion of us on earth at once – and
yet each one is known by name to King Jesus, is treasured and
cherished and prized and </span><i>heard</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
by King Jesus. </span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Tomorrow
starts, as we said, a fresh year – God help us. The good news, the
prophets mention, is that if any </span><i>“turns from his sin and
does what is just and right, if the wicked restores the pledge, gives
back what he has taken by robbery, and walks in the statutes of life,
not doing injustice, he shall surely live … None of the sins he has
committed shall be remembered against him”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Ezekiel 33:14-16). </span><i>“Wash yourselves, make yourselves
clean … Cease to do evil, learn to do good”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Isaiah 1:16-17). </span><i>“Sow for yourselves righteousness;
reap steadfast love! Break up your fallow ground, for it is the time
to seek the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>,
that he may come and rain righteousness upon you”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Hosea 10:12). That'd be a fine New Year's resolution, if ever I
heard one. </span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Whatever
we choose, I don't know what the next year will be like – for me,
for you, for our country, for our world – for I'm </span><i>“neither
a prophet nor the son of a prophet”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Amos 7:14). But I do know that, in 2024 and beyond, the sun will
never shine on a day when Jesus will not be king. The moon will
never look on Jesus' faithfulness faltering. For sooner would
humanity go extinct, sooner would the moon crumble to dust, sooner
would the sun go supernova, sooner would the universe freeze in
silent death, than would God annul his covenant by which Jesus is
King eternally. King Jesus is here to stay, and if the collapse of
the cosmos can't interrupt his reign, then neither can all the petty
machinations of lesser lords. It'd be easier for a flea to conquer
the Milky Way than for anything Herod or his johnny-come-lately apes
do to unravel the kingdom of Christ.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Because
Jesus is King of All the Years. </span><i>“He changes times and
seasons, he removes kings and sets up kings, he gives wisdom to the
wise and knowledge to those who have understanding”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Daniel 2:21). As the hymn goes: “Crown him the Lord of Years! The
Potentate of Time, – Creator of the rolling spheres, ineffably
sublime!”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote12sym" name="sdfootnote12anc"><sup>12</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Beyond our ability to imagine, he has full power over time, over
history, over the present and the future; he has command of creation,
he has dominion over the course of human affairs, and all the
bloodiness of all the Herods and all the tears of all the tragedies
are steered toward his ends and answered in his time. He meets the
hopes and fears of all the years, for not a year has ever come or
ever will that doesn't bend the knee to Christ the King.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">So
in 2024, may we find blessing in him, enjoying all the graces that
this King of All the Years has to offer us – for he who makes
worlds and rules time, “the source of our life, our food, our
kingdom, our peace,”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote13sym" name="sdfootnote13anc"><sup>13</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
what can he not give to bless his people? And in 2024, </span><i>“may
all nations call him blessed”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Psalm 72:17), all nations – ours included – be prayed for and
evangelized and discipled until they rule by his rule. In 2024, may
we bless the Father through him, may we live a God-centered life in
Jesus' kingdom (Psalm 72:18). As we reflect on 2023, as we take that
good, hard look in the mirror, nothing less is our standard and our
goal – and when we find ourselves helpless and needy in the face of
it, then above all will our King hear us. And so, as we seek this
King's bounty in 2024, </span><i>“may the whole earth be filled
with his glory! Amen and amen”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Psalm 72:19).<span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<div id="sdfootnote1">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote1anc" name="sdfootnote1sym">1</a> Henry
Grove, <i>Considerations on Time and Eternity, Adapted to the New
Year</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (John Clark, 1719), 4.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote2">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote2anc" name="sdfootnote2sym">2</a> “Public
Dissatisfied with Biden-Trump Rematch,” AP-NORC Center for Public
Affairs Research, December 2023.
<<span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://apnorc.org/projects/public-dissatisfied-with-biden-trump-rematch/">https://apnorc.org/projects/public-dissatisfied-with-biden-trump-rematch/</a></u></span></span>>.
</span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote3">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote3anc" name="sdfootnote3sym">3</a> David
Ramsey, speech on 4 July 1794, reprinted in <i>Gazette of the United
States</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (29 July 1794): 2. The
latter passage is adapted from William Linn, </span><i>The Blessings
of America: A Sermon</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Tammany
Society, 1791), 20.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote4">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote4anc" name="sdfootnote4sym">4</a> “To
the Freemen of the United States,” <i>National Gazette</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(2 April 1792): 1.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote5">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote5anc" name="sdfootnote5sym">5</a> Ebenezer
Fitch, valedictory address at Williams College, 2 September 1795,
excerpted in <i>Gazette of the United States</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(20 November 1795): 3.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote6">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote6anc" name="sdfootnote6sym">6</a><i> Gazette
of the United States</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (13 June
1795): 2.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote7">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote7anc" name="sdfootnote7sym">7</a> David
M'Clure, <i>Sermons on the Moral Law</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Beach and Jones, 1795), 242.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote8">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote8anc" name="sdfootnote8sym">8</a> Alexander
Addison, <i>An Oration on the Rise and Progress of the United States
of America, to the Present Crisis, and On the Duties of the Citizens</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(John Ormrod, 1798), 40-41.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote9">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote9anc" name="sdfootnote9sym">9</a> Samuel
Rocca, <i>Herod's Judaea: A Mediterranean State in the Classical
Work</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Mohr Siebeck, 2008),
25-29.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote10">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote10anc" name="sdfootnote10sym">10</a> Josephus,
<i>Antiquities of the Jews</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
17.191-192, in </span><i>Loeb Classical Library</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
410:459.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote11">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote11anc" name="sdfootnote11sym">11</a> Justin
Martyr, <i>Dialogue with Trypho</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
34.1-7, in <i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i> 6:197-200.<br /></span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote12">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote12anc" name="sdfootnote12sym">12</a> Matthew
Bridges, “Crown Him with Many Crowns,” verse 5, in ibid., <i>The
Passion of Jesus: A Collection of Original Pieces Corresponding with the Five Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary of our Blessed Lady</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Richardson and Son, 1852), 64.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote13">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote13anc" name="sdfootnote13sym">13</a> Laurence
Kriegshauser, <i>Praying the Psalms in Christ</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(University of Notre Dame Press, 2009), 160.</span></span></p>
</div>
JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13108158469007498050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442509839497082978.post-48083498880065866652023-12-24T10:59:00.020-05:002023-12-24T15:07:50.739-05:00Tonight's the Night!<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">We <a href="http://iron-in-fire.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-throne-of-his-father-david-advent.html">began</a> this Advent by
looking back on one of the most important people in the Bible: a boy
named David, who grew – by God's grace – to be a king. If you
were with us then, you heard how God took this black sheep of a
family in a little town called Bethlehem and raised him up to be the
shepherd of a holy nation. Along the way, by grace he toppled
giants, by grace he outlasted persecutors, by grace he conquered
Jerusalem, fended off enemies, and became a blessing on his throne.
We heard, too, how God made a special covenant with him: <i>“I will
raise up your seed after you... He shall build a house for my name,
and I will establish his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father,
and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will
discipline him..., but my steadfast love will not depart from him...
And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me;
your throne shall be established forever”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(2 Samuel 7:12-16). After that, </span><i>“the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
gave victory to David wherever he went..., and David administered
justice and equity to all his people..., and David's sons were
priests”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (2 Samuel 8:14-18).
There we last left the tale of David, on that happy note. What a great
ending!</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">But...
it wasn't. Pride crept into David's heart. His army went forth
while he stayed safe and sound in his palace. Idleness there led to
lust, greed, theft, adultery, murder (2 Samuel 11). Chastised and
rebuked, he repented and was forgiven his guilt, but he'd labor
lifelong under the deadly consequences of his deeds (2 Samuel 12).
From that moment on, his family began to spin out of control.
David's son Amnon made a shameful assault on David's daughter Tamar
(2 Samuel 13:1-22). David's son Absalom murdered David's son Amnon
and fled (2 Samuel 13:23-39). Absalom, welcomed home, then betrayed
and dethroned David (2 Samuel 14-17), a tragedy that ended only in
the death of this traitorous son of David (2 Samuel 18), sending
David into a horrifying spiral of grief (2 Samuel 19). In this
instability, Sheba of Benjamin rose up and lured all the tribes but
Judah into renouncing David; and in the chaos of civil war, one of
David's nephews murdered another (2 Samuel 20).
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">With
Israel reunited at great cost, David's son Adonijah proclaimed
himself the next new king, so David had to have his son Solomon
anointed quickly to ensure his succession (1 Kings 1). With his
dying words, David gave Solomon two instructions: Walk with God, and
settle my old scores – which Solomon did, executing his
half-brother Adonijah and his cousin Joab (1 Kings 2). But yet
</span><i>“Solomon loved the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>,
walking in the statutes of David his father”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(1 Kings 3:3). Blessed with wisdom, this son of David made Israel
great among the nations, so that people </span><i>“ate and drank
and were happy,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> and </span><i>“Judah
and Israel lived in safety..., every man under his vine and under his
fig tree, all the days of Solomon”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(1 Kings 4:20-25). </span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">In
peace, Solomon built God a temple, which he inaugurated by rehearsing
the covenant with David: </span><i>“Now the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
has fulfilled his promise that he made! For I have risen in the
place of David my father, and I sit on the throne of Israel (as the
L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
promised), and I have built the house for the name of the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
God of Israel. … Now therefore, O God of Israel, let your word be
confirmed which you have spoken to your servant David my father”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(1 Kings 8:20-26). After a week of feasting under the son of David's
blessing, on the eighth day people </span><i>“went to their homes
joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
had shown to David his servant and to Israel his people”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(1 Kings 8:66). God promised Solomon that </span><i>“if you'll
walk before me as David your father walked..., then I'll establish
your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your
father..., but if you turn aside from following me, you or your
children..., then I will cut off Israel from the land that I've given
them..., and this house will become a heap of ruins”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(1 Kings 9:4-8). What a darkest of nights that'd be!</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Step
by step, Solomon let success steal his heart away </span><i>“after
other gods..., so Solomon... did not wholly follow the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
as David his father had done”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(1 Kings 11:4-6). There'd been so many hopes; now there were so many
fears. At his death, Solomon was followed by Rehoboam, grandson of
David, a foolish man who yearned to flex his harshness (1 Kings
12:1-5). He provoked Israel 'til they disowned his throne: </span><i>“What
portion do we have in David? … To your tents, O Israel! Look now to
your own house, David!”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (1
Kings 12:16). </span><i>“So Israel has been in rebellion against
the House of David to this day. … There was none that followed the
House of David but the tribe of Judah only”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(1 Kings 12:19-20). God declared: </span><i>“I will afflict the
seed of David because of this, but not forever”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(1 Kings 11:39). So Judah could only look in hope toward the last
night of affliction.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Rehoboam
died, passing the throne to one of his 28 sons, Abijah, who warned
the Israelite secessionists not to </span><i>“withstand the Kingdom
of the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
in the hand of the sons of David”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(2 Chronicles 13:8). Yet Abijah's </span><i>“heart was not wholly
true to the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
his God, as the heart of David his father was; nevertheless, for
David's sake, the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, setting up his son after him”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(1 Kings 15:3-4). That was his son Asa, who </span><i>“did what
was right in the eyes of the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>,
as his father David had done”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(1 Kings 15:11), like purging idolatry and welcoming many from the
northern tribes back into communion, forging with them a new covenant
to together seek the L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
(2 Chronicles 15:8-15). Yet late in his days, his courage failed,
and he used bribery rather than faith to fend off Israelite
aggression (1 Kings 15:16-24).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Asa's
son Jehoshaphat found peace with Israel's king Ahab (1 Kings 22:44),
and he </span><i>“walked in the earlier ways of his father David”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(2 Chronicles 17:3), sponsoring the Levites to take teaching tours
through the land (2 Chronicles 17:7-9). But Jehoram, Jehoshaphat's
son, began his reign by putting his own brothers, fellow sons of
David, to death (2 Chronicles 21:4). Jehoram </span><i>“did what
was evil in the sight of the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>,
yet the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
was not willing to destroy Judah, for the sake of David his servant,
since he promised to give a lamp to him and to his sons forever”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(2 Kings 8:18-19). In the end, Jehoram </span><i>“departed with no
one's regret”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> into that silent
night of the tomb (2 Chronicles 21:12-20). Only one of Jehoram's
sons had survived: Ahaziah, who was led astray by marrying a daughter
of Ahab and Jezebel. Ahaziah's wicked widow </span><i>“arose and
destroyed all the royal family”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
except one infant boy hidden away in the temple. That boy, Jehoash,
was acclaimed king at age 7 by guards armed with David's shields and
swords (2 Kings 8-11). </span><i>“And Jehoash did what was right
in the eyes of the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
all his days”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (2 Kings 12:2),
repairing the temple but lastly succumbing to betrayal, fear, and
assassins.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">His
son Amaziah </span><i>“did what was right in the eyes of the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>,
yet not like David his father”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(2 Kings 14:3). Under him, the northerners of Israel raided even the
sacred temple of God, and Amaziah also fell victim to assassins (2
Kings 14:11-20). He was followed by his son Uzziah, who, after
decades of goodness, then trespassed on priestly privileges and was
stricken by God with leprosy, forcing him to abdicate the throne (2
Kings 15:5; 2 Chronicles 26:16-21). His son Jotham, who took over,
returned to </span><i>“what was right in the eyes of the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
and built the upper gate (2 Kings 15:34-35). Meanwhile, as northern
Israel, cut off from David's heirs, slid further into corruption, God
warned them through Hosea that </span><i>“the children of Israel
shall dwell many days without king or prince,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
but afterward they </span><i>“shall return and seek the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
their God </i><i><u>and</u></i><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">
David their king, and they shall come in fear to the L</span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></i></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">
and to his goodness in the latter days”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Hosea 3:4-5). </span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Outraged,
Israel allied with Damascus to harass Judah and depose Jotham (2
Kings 15:37). His son Ahaz was terrified. Ask any sign you need to
set your heart at peace, Isaiah said; but when Ahaz declined, Isaiah
announced those beautiful words: </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“Hear
then, O House of David!... The Lord himself will give you a sign.
Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his
name Immanuel”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Isaiah 7:11-14). And later, as Ahaz's anxiety plunged him deeper in
cowardice and corruption to the point of burning his own son alive (2
Kings 16:3), Isaiah praised God for impending deliverance: </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“The
yoke of his burden and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his
oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian, for every boot of
the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in
blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. For to us a child is
born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his
shoulder, and his name shall be called
Wonderful-Counselor-Mighty-God-Everlasting-Father-Prince-of-Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end,
on the Throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to
uphold it with justice and righteousness from this time forth and
forevermore”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Isaiah 9:4-7). But when would that be?</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Ahaz
passed from the worldly scene, but not before making his son Hezekiah
his co-king and watching together as northern Israel was destroyed by
the Assyrians, just as Isaiah had promised. Hezekiah, like his
father David, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“trusted
in the L</span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></i></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">...
so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah..., for
he held fast to the L</span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></i></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">...
and the L</span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></i></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">
was with him: wherever he went out, he prospered”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(2 Kings 18:5-7). Holding the Assyrians at bay, he became terminally
ill but, for David's sake, God showed by a shadow-shortening sign
that he'd heal him at the temple on the third day (2 Kings 19-20).
</span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“He who has no
money, come, buy and eat! … I will make with you an everlasting
covenant: my steadfast, sure love for David”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Isaiah 55:1-3).</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Alas,
his son Manasseh </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“did
what was evil in the sight of the L</span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></i></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">...,
and he burned his son as an offering”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(1 Kings 21:2-6) – another innocent son of David, put to a fiery
demise. Chastened in the end, Manasseh </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“humbled
himself greatly..., and commanded Judah to serve the L</span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></i></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">,”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
and God </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“was
moved by his entreaty and heard his plea”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(2 Chronicles 33:12-16). But his son Amon </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“did
what was evil in the sight of the L</span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></i></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">,
as his father Manasseh had done”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(2 Kings 21:20). Assassinated in a palace coup, the people raised up
Amon's little son Josiah in his place (2 Kings 21:23-24). Could <i>he</i>
be the son of David they'd been looking for?</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Ruling
rightly, Josiah </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“walked
in all the way of David his father,”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
and tried to reform Judah by the newly rediscovered Law (2 Kings
22-23). Only by truly embracing this Law could Jerusalem continue to
have </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“kings
and princes who sit on the Throne of David”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Jeremiah 17:25). But Josiah ended in tragedy, shot by Egyptians at
Armageddon, for God had decided that Judah was too far gone to be
saved except by a night of judgment (2 Kings 23:26-30). Josiah's son
Jehoahaz lasted mere months; Egyptians carried him away and replaced
him with Jehoiakim, who had a heart only </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“for
dishonest gain, for shedding innocent blood, and for practicing
oppression and violence”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Jeremiah 22:17). Once he'd burned God's word, he was a dead-end:
</span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“He shall have
none to sit on the Throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast
out to... the frost by night”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Jeremiah 36:30).</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">His
18-year-old son Jehoiachin took his place (2 Kings 24:6-9). Now God
was fed up with these sons of David. </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“As
I live, declares the L</span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></i></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">,
though you were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear
you off”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Jeremiah 22:24). After just 97 days on the throne, Jehoiachin was
taken prisoner to Babylon, a cold and lonely night (2 Kings
24:10-16). His uncle Zedekiah, then </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“the
king who sits on the Throne of David,”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Jeremiah judged as rotten fruit whom God would throw away in disgust
(Jeremiah 29:16-19). In the end, Zedekiah saw his sons slain before
he was blinded and bound for Babylon (2 Kings 25:7). Through these
centuries, what do we see, if not so many wasted sons of David –
brutalized and burned, corrupted and condemned?</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">But
through it all, Jeremiah found a message of hope: </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“I
will gather the remnant of my flock..., and they shall be fruitful
and multiply. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them,
and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed … Behold, the days are
coming, declares the L</span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></i></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">,
when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, and he shall reign
as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness
in the land. In his days, Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell
securely. And this is the name by which he'll be called:
The-L</span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></i></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">-is-Our-Righteousness”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Jeremiah 23:3-6). Even in the prophet's darkest hour, he heard the
promise: </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“David
shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the House of Israel. …
If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the
night..., then also my covenant with David my servant may be broken
so he won't have a son to reign on his throne. … As the host of
heaven can't be numbered..., so will I multiply the seed of David my
servant”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Jeremiah 33:20-22). In that day, a people redeemed from captivity
</span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“shall serve
the L</span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></i></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">
their God and David their king”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Jeremiah 30:9). And from his night-black prison, Jeremiah surely
wondered: But when?</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Away
in Babylon's hinterlands, the exiled priest Ezekiel heard the promise
also: </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“I will
rescue my flock..., and I will set up over them one shepherd, my
servant David, and he will feed them”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Ezekiel 34:23-24); </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“and
they shall no longer be two nations. … I will save them from all
the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. …
David my servant shall be their prince forever. … Then the nations
will know that I am the L</span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></i></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">
who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forever”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Ezekiel 37:22-28). But when?</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">After
decades, Jehoiachin was honored in Babylon, a sign of hope (2 Kings
25:27-30). But he died without seeing home again (Jeremiah 22:27).
His seven sons grew up wondering if there was any hope, since
Jeremiah had preached of their father: </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“Write
this man down as childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days,
for none of his seed shall succeed in sitting on the Throne of David
and ruling again in Judah”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Jeremiah 22:30). But when Persia conquered Babylon, they released
the Jews and made Zerubbabel – a twentieth-generation son of David
– their governor. Prophets assured Zerubbabel he was chosen for
great things, undoing the curse on his grandfather Jehoiachin (Haggai
2:23). He'd see the new temple to completion, not by might or by power but by God's Holy Spirit (Zechariah 4:6-8). </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“Shout
aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you;
righteous and having salvation is he. … His rule shall be from sea to sea, and from
the river to the ends of the earth!”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Zechariah 9:9-10).</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">But
Zerubbabel wasn't the son of David who brought salvation. When he
died, this local governorship of the Persian province of Yehud passed first to his son-in-law Elnathan and then to a series of men, including Nehemiah,
with nary a word of descent from David. And yet Zechariah foresaw a
coming day when </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“the
L</span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></i></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">
will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem so that the feeblest among
them on that day shall be like David, and the House of David shall be
like God, like the Angel of the L</span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></i></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">
going before them”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Zechariah 12:8). Did Zerubbabel and Zechariah alike wonder, “But
when will these things be?”</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Through
dark centuries, faithful Jews never forgot the promises to David. When a
priestly family threw off the Greek yoke (huzzah!) and set themselves up as
kings (uh-oh...), other Jews lamented that they'd “despoiled the Throne of
David with arrogant shouting.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote1sym" name="sdfootnote1anc"><sup>1</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
In the days of Roman dominion, Jews continued to wait for “the
shoot of David who will arise at the end of days.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote2sym" name="sdfootnote2anc"><sup>2</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
They prayed, over and over again, for God to “raise up... the son
of David to rule over your servant Israel in the time known to you, O
God.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote3sym" name="sdfootnote3anc"><sup>3</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
A king “free from sin,”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote4sym" name="sdfootnote4anc"><sup>4</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
with words “purer than the finest gold,”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote5sym" name="sdfootnote5anc"><sup>5</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
a king “faithfully and righteously shepherding the Lord's flock,”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote6sym" name="sdfootnote6anc"><sup>6</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
so that “all shall be holy, and their king shall be the Lord
Messiah,”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote7sym" name="sdfootnote7anc"><sup>7</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
the “Messiah of Righteousness, the Shoot of David”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote8sym" name="sdfootnote8anc"><sup>8</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
– when, <i>when</i>, <b>when?</b></span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
Not long at all. Because, to meet the struggling hopes and haunting
fears of all those many long, long years, God answered those prayers.
He scooped up all the words of the prophets, and he sent his Eternal
Word to take on Davidic flesh-and-blood in the womb of the Virgin Mary of the
House of David, legally betrothed to Joseph son of David. And there,
in the little hometown of David, the Promised Son of David waits to
be born – the Lord Messiah, the Savior who brings immense joy (Luke
2:10-11). But when, when? When does the Word-made-Flesh tabernacle
among us? When does mercy immortal invade the earth? <i>When, when?</i>
I tell you now: Tonight's the night!</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
Tonight's the night David's fears and tears are washed away.
Tonight's the night Solomon's wealth of wisdom is surpassed.
Tonight's the night Rehoboam's division is rewoven into unity.
Tonight's the night Abijah's Heir holds in hand the Kingdom of God,
the night Asa's Son comes to bring prodigals home, the night heralds
greater than Jehoshaphat's enlighten the land. Tonight a New Joash
evades the butcher's blade, leprous Uzziah's perfect Son heals with a
touch, and Jotham's Scion opens the gate of heaven on earth.
Tonight's the night Ahaz's Sign casts out the oppressor's power, and
Life stretches farther than faithful Hezekiah's shadow. Tonight's
the night Forgiveness is born to burn off all Manasseh's mountainous
sins, and Josiah's Strength shatters the idols dead.
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Tonight's
the night Jehoiachin's Son sets captivity free, Zerubbabel's Seed
builds a higher temple, the Lord's Lamp burns bright in the darkness
that can't comprehend it. Tonight's the night for raising up a
Righteous Branch, a single Shepherd of Salvation to gaze up from the
manger at the sheep he feeds. Tonight's the night from which the
Lord's steadfast love is wedded inseparably to man. For “as
keepers of deposits, all the kings of the House of David handed down
and passed on the throne and diadem of the Son of David..., the Lord
of Everything.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote9sym" name="sdfootnote9anc"><sup>9</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Tonight's the night of awestruck shepherds and of herald angels all
ablaze. Tonight's the night earth exults and heaven hollers, when
truth trumpets and beauty blossoms, when goodness glories and mercy
marvels: “Behold the Son of David who glorified and crowned the
House of David!”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote10sym" name="sdfootnote10anc"><sup>10</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Now is the House of David indeed <i>like God</i>, because God has become
David's Son as well as his Lord (Zechariah 12:8; Luke 20:44).</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">So
tomorrow, under the newborn eyes of the Son of David who is the true
Son of God, let us eat and drink and be merry, each under our own
vine and our own tree. Let us come to his goodness in this latter
part of the year, at this holiday of holiness, and retell these words
purer than finest gold, these great glad tidings of gospel joy. For
tonight, oh, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">tonight
is that night</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
– and tomorrow is that day of God's good will that knows no end.
Amen! Amen, and may it be to you the very merriest Christmas!<br /><span></span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<div id="sdfootnote1">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote1anc" name="sdfootnote1sym">1</a><i> Psalms
of Solomon</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 17:6, translated in
James H. Charlesworth, ed., </span><i>Old Testament Pseudepigrapha</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2:666.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote2">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote2anc" name="sdfootnote2sym">2</a> 4Q161,
frgs. 8-10, line 17, translated in Donald W. Parry and Emanuel Tov,
eds., <i>The Dead Sea Scrolls Reader</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2:55.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote3">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote3anc" name="sdfootnote3sym">3</a><i> Psalms
of Solomon</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 17:21, translated in
James H. Charlesworth, ed., </span><i>Old Testament Pseudepigrapha</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2:667.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote4">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote4anc" name="sdfootnote4sym">4</a><i> Psalms
of Solomon</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 17:36, translated in
James H. Charlesworth, ed., </span><i>Old Testament Pseudepigrapha</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2:668.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote5">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote5anc" name="sdfootnote5sym">5</a><i> Psalms
of Solomon</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 17:43, translated in
James H. Charlesworth, ed., </span><i>Old Testament Pseudepigrapha</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2:668.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote6">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote6anc" name="sdfootnote6sym">6</a><i> Psalms
of Solomon</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 17:40, translated in
James H. Charlesworth, ed., </span><i>Old Testament Pseudepigrapha</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2:668.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote7">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote7anc" name="sdfootnote7sym">7</a><i> Psalms
of Solomon</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 17:32, translated in
James H. Charlesworth, ed., </span><i>Old Testament Pseudepigrapha</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2:667.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote8">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote8anc" name="sdfootnote8sym">8</a> 4Q252,
column 5, lines 3-4, translated in Donald W. Parry and Emanuel Tov,
eds., <i>The Dead Sea Scrolls Reader</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2:111.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote9">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote9anc" name="sdfootnote9sym">9</a> Ephrem,
<i>Hymns on the Nativity</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 24.2,
in Kathleen E. McVey, tr., </span><i>Ephrem the Syrian: Hymns</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Paulist Press, 1989), 192.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote10">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote10anc" name="sdfootnote10sym">10</a> Ephrem,
<i>Hymns on the Nativity</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 2.5,
in Kathleen E. McVey, tr., </span><i>Ephrem the Syrian: Hymns</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Paulist Press, 1989), 77.</span></span></p>
</div>
JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13108158469007498050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442509839497082978.post-77049576423958365142023-12-03T10:25:00.003-05:002023-12-23T13:20:14.017-05:00The Throne of His Father David: An Advent Sermon<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Alright, there's a
question I have for all of you: How many of you have ever, in all
your lives, seen a Christmas movie called <i>Home Alone</i><span style="font-style: normal;">?
Well, for the rest of you, it came out a third of a century ago, so
I don't think I have to worry about too many spoilers. I bet you
mostly remember the meat of the plot, but I want to focus your minds
on the opening scenes. The McCallister family is getting ready to
leave their massive home in suburban Chicago for a Christmas family
vacation all the way to Paris. And there are a lot of kids running
to and fro. You've got Buzz and Jeff, you've got Megan and Linnie,
to say nothing of the seven cousins roaming the house. </span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But
then there's the runt of the family, the target of Buzz's frequent
bullying and the disdainful taunts of all the rest: Kevin
McCallister, age 8. Completely dismissed, even by his parents. In
Kevin's perception, he “always gets treated like scum.” He's the
afterthought child at best, constantly angling for that last scrap of
real attention. After a family altercation, his mother banishes him
to the attic. And in the frantic chaos of the next morning's late
start, and an inflated miscount of the children, it's little wonder
that his distinct personhood is so neglected as to be unnoticed in
its absence – and his family flies away without him.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">They
didn't have this movie, or any movie, three thousand or so years ago,
but there's a boy back then who I think might have liked it, or at
least gotten the premise. He was a youngest child, with two sisters
and seven big brothers. Like Buzz to Kevin, the oldest brother Eliab
looked down on this littlest brother as a pest. This littlest
brother was the afterthought child of the family. Shorter than the
others, barely acknowledged or respected, he was accustomed to being
left out of things. The day a prophet came to town and invited their
family to an exclusive party, their dad made sure that all of them
were there, Eliab and Abinadab and Shammah and Nethanel and Raddai
and Ozem and the other one, and probably the girls Zeruiah and
Abigail too – except he didn't bother inviting the littlest kid.
Who would want him? He can have leftovers, or eat bread and water.
So dad left the pipsqueak out, put him to work while the rest of the
family hobnobbed with a real mover-and-shaker over a steak dinner.
Can there really be any doubt that this kid's heart would go out to
that Kevin on the screen?</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The
name of that littlest brother, those three thousand plus years ago,
was – and I'm sure you've guessed this by now – David. Think
about what his childhood must have been like. He was born a number
of years into the reign of his people's first king, Saul the Tall, a
handsome but humble man, the son of a prosperous farmer, a man
originally more accustomed to operating a plow than to commanding
nations. Saul had been picked from the least trusted tribe,
Benjamin, and its most hated city, Gibeah, in case this experiment in
having a king went awry. But it hadn't, and so David was born in a
small town, Bethlehem, less than ten miles south of Saul's town
Gibeah. Between Bethlehem and Gibeah there lay a city on a hilltop,
the Jebusite walled town of Jerusalem.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">By
the time David was a young teenager, he was small and forgotten, but
scrappy and brave, with experience taking out bears and lions with
his shepherd's sling so as to save his father's lambs; he was
musically gifted, a useful talent for entertaining himself in the
fields; he was well-spoken, not that anyone was accustomed to
listening to what he had to say; and, though he'd never have presumed
it of himself, his heart was pleasing to his God, reminding God of
what a human heart ought to be like. And so one day, out in the
field with the flock, a messenger comes – maybe a neighbor, maybe a
cousin – to tell him his dad Jesse is calling for him. He hurries
back to town, only to find himself at the party from which he'd been
excluded. And there stands the prophet Samuel, and the delectable
beef, and the dejected looks on the faces of seven brothers who,
unbeknownst to David, have just heard Samuel tell their father that
the L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
doesn't choose them (1 Samuel 16:6-10).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But
now David is here, and to his and everyone's surprise, as he's
introduced to this legendary judge, priest, and prophet, the prophet
pulls out a ram's horn from his cloak, uncorks it, and drizzles
fragrantly spiced oil all over David's head, while David's brothers
stand around and watch their little brother receive an enigmatic
honor. We've jumped to the end of </span><i>Home Alone</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
where the older brothers and sisters warmly greet Kevin, tell him
that they missed him, that they're glad to see him. Here David's
brothers, and perhaps also his sisters, are in awe as the prophet
anoints the boy, setting him apart for... something. Samuel doesn't
explain. We have the benefit of hindsight that, as the psalmist says,
God </span><i>“chose David his servant and took him from the
sheepfolds; from following the nursing ewes he brought him to
shepherd Jacob his people, Israel his inheritance”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Psalm 78:70-71). The former 'black sheep' of the family, the lonely
shepherd boy sent to toil, the afterthought child, is now, in a way
deeper than the rest can see, at the center of Bethlehem (1 Samuel
16:11-13).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Somehow,
David gets recommended to King Saul as a worthy musician and
armor-bearer, a service he can come on occasion to provide. In this
next story, he's a fairly passive character, a teen boy who does
whatever other people ask him to, again so small and forgettable that
as the story unfolds, King Saul will ask repeatedly who he is and
where he's from, as if they've never met before. That includes the
day in the Valley of Elah when this boy David, running family
errands, is the lone one ridiculous enough to pick a one-on-one fight
with the hulking Philistine champion Goliath, striking Goliath down
like a mere beast through speed, savvy, and skill blessed by God (1 Samuel 17). In
the next years, David grows in popularity, the stuff of folk songs
and legends. But Saul's on-and-off darkness grows, a spirit of
murderous envy gnawing viciously on the king's soul as David ceases,
bit by bit, to be a nobody (1 Samuel 18-21). The path there is long and painful, but
by the end of his twenties David is an outcast from court, a people's
champion for the depressed and oppressed, the malcontents of all
Israel who are bitter and burned-out, astonished to find themselves
with any hope left in their hearts to pin on this general whom Saul
has deemed an enemy of the state (1 Samuel 22:1-2). Yet through it all, David refuses
to harm King Saul, even when he has every opportunity to reach out
and take what he growingly senses should be his by divine right (1 Samuel 24, 26).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Eventually,
without David raising a hand in violence, Saul's own foolishness
leads to his doom – taking David's dearest friend, Saul's son
Prince Jonathan, with him (1 Samuel 31). Now fast-forward through years of civil
war. David has already settled his family in a town in Judah's hill
country called Hebron. That wasn't David's decision; it was God's
direction. Hebron's got a long history behind it. Father Abraham's
tomb wasn't far away (Genesis 23:19; 25:8-10). When Israel invaded
the land, Hebron's suburban villages were assigned to Caleb of Judah,
one of the only faithful scouts under Moses, but Hebron itself was
also given to Israel's priests as a city under their special
protection (Joshua 14:13-15; 21:13). Now, with the civil war ended
once there was no one left alive from Saul's house to contest what
God was manifestly doing, messengers from all the tribes have come to
Hebron.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">David,
by this point in his later thirties, meets these messengers. Their
mindset is to put aside the feud that divides tribe from tribe. They
accept David, of the tribe of Judah, as being of the same
bone-and-flesh kinship as themselves who come from the other tribes
(2 Samuel 5:1). They remember and recount David's past military
heroism that was for the good of the whole nation. They confess they
now see he's the man whom God himself has chosen to be Israel's good
shepherd and prince (2 Samuel 5:2). When they receive a fair
hearing, the elders come, and accept the terms of David's covenant, a
treaty to end the war. The elders recognize him as their leader,
accept a position under his authority (2 Samuel 5:3). And then they
anoint him there in Hebron. Once more, for the third time now, that
fragrantly spiced oil pours over David's head, dripping down his
bearded cheeks; he inhales slowly through his nostrils, taking in the
aroma of election. The elders accept him, not just as the king of
his own tribe as he had already been (2 Samuel 2:4), but as the king
of an Israel united as one nation under God and, now, under God's
anointed shepherd (2 Samuel 5:3). What Samuel had signified over two
decades earlier in anointing a boy, now that very sign was fulfilled
by the third anointing of the man.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">With
all Israel behind him, it was time for David to go forth with God.
Nestled in their midst remained this outpost of foreigners, the
unconquered Jebusites persisting for centuries in Jerusalem.
Experience had deceived them into thinking they were untouchable, and
boastfully they dismissed David as a puny man, so contemptible even
disabled Jebusites could hold him off. Until David and his men
infiltrated Jerusalem through its water system, and he claimed a new
capital for Israel: the upper stronghold Zion, City of David (2
Samuel 5:6-9).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“<i>And David became
greater and greater”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> –
things were only looking up for David. But what was it that made a
shepherd boy, an afterthought child, into a king and conqueror? </span><i>“For
the L<span style="font-size: x-small;">ORD</span>, the God of
Hosts, was with him”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (2 Samuel
5:10). Israel's God, the L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">,
the One who arranges heavenly beings into ranks like an army, was
David's unseen backer, whose invisible power could be detected in its
effects. And when David began to make international ties and receive
gifts so that he could construct a new palace of cedar and stone (2
Samuel 5:11), then David himself </span><i>“knew that the L<span style="font-size: x-small;">ORD</span>
had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his
kingdom for the sake of his people Israel”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(2 Samuel 5:12). Not for David alone, but for the people, the flock.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">David
became greater and greater. His ample family was set to continue its
patterns of growth (2 Samuel 5:13-16). David won a great victory
over the Philistines in the Battle of Baal-perizim (2 Samuel
5:17-21). David won yet another great victory over the Philistines
in the Battle of the Valley of Rephaim (2 Samuel 5:22-25). It was
time. Now that Israel was unified, with a new capital city untainted
by a fractious history of division, King David didn't want to live
apart from God. He wanted God to be his next-door neighbor. Or, to
be more precise, he wanted the Ark of the Covenant, that holy relic
that belongs to God's heavenly throne, a relic which mustn't be seen
unveiled or touched, on pain of death. When David had been merely
king of one tribe, it wouldn't have been right to fetch the ark. The
ark was awaiting unity. It belonged in a city for the whole nation.
It belonged in Jerusalem. So David pitched a tent in the stronghold
Zion. </span><i>“The L<span style="font-size: x-small;">ORD</span>
has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his dwelling place”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Psalm 132:13). And David's heart burned to give the L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
the L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">'s
desire.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Through
incaution, the first attempt to move the ark the six miles from
Kiriath-jearim ended in utter disaster (2 Samuel 6:1-10). Only three
months later, after the ark had proven itself a blessing and not a
curse to dwell with (2 Samuel 6:11-12), did David move past his fear
and throw wide the gates. They resumed the right way, with true
reverence and care. Every sixth step, before taking a seventh, the
parade paused for a sacrifice to God, out in the open air (2 Samuel
6:13). It was the most festive day of David's life: a leaping
priest-king of Jerusalem, a spiritual heir to Melchizedek, dancing
barely dressed in his under-robes (2 Samuel 6:14-15); but despite the
judgmental eyes of the proud, he was as fully </span><i>“clothed in
righteousness”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> as any of the
priests that day, as a saint shouting for joy to his God (Psalm
132:9). Blowing a trumpet, offering sacrifices once the ark had been
rested inside the tent David had pitched, David blessed the people
and gave each man and woman freely a meal with dessert to take home
and enjoy, treating not a one as an afterthought child (2 Samuel 6:17-19). The next tale will begin with the
notice that </span><i>“the king lived in his house, and the L<span style="font-size: x-small;">ORD</span>
had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(2 Samuel 7:1). And so was fulfilled </span><i>“what the L<span style="font-size: x-small;">ORD</span>
had sworn to him: to... set up the throne of David over Israel”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(2 Samuel 3:10).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
why, maybe you might wonder, would we tell this story on the first
Sunday of Advent? What has it to do with this season? But if you
open the Gospel of Luke to its first pages, after some opening action
up on Mount Zion, the scene shifts to the northern hinterlands, far
beyond Gibeah and Ramah. For centuries, people have been crying out
in prayer, </span><i>“Lord, where is your steadfast love of old,
which by your faithfulness you swore to David?”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Psalm 89:49). Now, at last, the angel Gabriel visits a young woman,
the Virgin Mary, who is legally betrothed in Nazareth to </span><i>“a
man whose name was Joseph, of the House of David”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Luke 1:27). Tradition has it that Mary herself was of David's line (e.g., <i>Ascension of Isaiah</i> 11.2).
What does Gabriel say first? </span><i>“Hail, full of grace! The
Lord is with you”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Luke 1:28)
– just as we earlier heard </span><i>“the L<span style="font-size: x-small;">ORD</span>,
the God of Hosts, was with [David]”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(2 Samuel 5:10).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Later
in David's reign, he came to wonder if he'd really </span><i>“find
favor in the eyes of the L<span style="font-size: x-small;">ORD</span>”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(2 Samuel 15:25). So naturally, when Mary wonders (Luke 1:29), the
angel assures her: </span><i>“Don't be afraid, Mary, for you have
found favor with God!”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Luke
1:30). That's when Gabriel tells her: </span><i>“Behold, you will
conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name
Jesus”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Luke 1:31). Just as
the L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">'s
favor made David grow </span><i>“greater and greater”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(2 Samuel 5:10), so this child likewise </span><i>“will be great,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
says the angel (Luke 1:32). </span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">For
long ago, the L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
God had, by a special covenant with David, agreed to adopt David's
rightful heir: </span><i>“I will raise up your offspring after you,
who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He
shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of
his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to
me a son”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (2 Samuel 7:12-14).
But in a supreme way beyond all expectation, this Jesus, heir to that
covenant, will </span><i>“be called the Son of the Most High”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Luke 1:32). So it shouldn't surprise us that the angel concludes:
</span><i>“And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his
father David, and he will reign over the House of Jacob forever, and
of his kingdom there will be no end”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Luke 1:32-33). For hadn't the L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
sworn to David </span><i>“a sure oath from which he will not turn
back: One of your fruit of the womb I will set on your throne”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Psalm 132:11), </span><i>“you shall not lack a man to sit before
me on the throne of Israel”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (1
Kings 8:25)?</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Once
God's Holy Spirit overshadows Mary (Luke 1:35), much as the same
Spirit had rushed continually upon David from his first anointing (1
Samuel 16:13), the newly pregnant Mary goes on a journey to visit her
elderly kinswoman Elizabeth in the hill country of Judah (Luke
1:39-40), probably in the priest-owned city of Hebron where Israel
first accepted David as king (2 Samuel 5:3). There, just as David
had once fearfully asked </span><i>“How can the Ark of the L<span style="font-size: x-small;">ORD</span>
come to me?”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (2 Samuel 6:9),
so the Holy Spirit prompts Elizabeth to say in wonder: </span><i>“Blessed
are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why
is this granted to me, that the Mother of my L<span style="font-size: x-small;">ORD</span>
should come to me?”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Luke
1:42-43). After singing how </span><i>“from now on, all
generations will call me blessed”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Luke 1:48), Mary leaves just before Elizabeth gives birth to John,
whose father Zechariah blessed God for having </span><i>“raised up
a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Luke 1:69).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Months
later, since Joseph is </span><i>“of the house and lineage of
David,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> a census calls him
back home </span><i>“to the city of David which is called
Bethlehem”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Luke 2:4), the
same where David's head first got oiled, where David first caught the
Spirit to the consternation of his brethren. Taking Mary with him,
there in Bethlehem she gives birth to the Messiah, the Anointed One,
in a cramped peasant home (Luke 2:5-7). Meanwhile, there were
shepherds in the fields outside town, keeping watch over their flocks
in the same way the shepherd boy David once watched his father's
flock in that same field. And to these shepherds in David's field,
there came a splendor and a sound, an angel with a joy so fearsome as
to burst the human heart with good news too big to fit inside it.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">So
many times in David's life, people told David their version of good
news, and always it was a failure. The Amalekite man who took credit
for Saul's death hurried to tell David (2 Samuel 1:1-10). </span><i>“He
thought he was bringing me good news,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
David reflected (2 Samuel 4:10). But the boast disgusted David and
broke his heart (2 Samuel 1:14-16). Saul's son Ishbosheth then waged
that civil war against David over the kingdom, until Ishbosheth was
betrayed and assassinated in his sleep by two of his very own men,
members of his own tribe of Benjamin (2 Samuel 4:5-7). They expected
to be rewarded for their 'good news' that they'd put an end to
David's enemy, that vengeance had won the day (2 Samuel 4:8). How
little they, holding Ishbosheth's head, understood David's heart (2
Samuel 4:11-12). Many years went by, and David's reign again was
beset by civil war. His own son Absalom had risen up against him,
driven him out of Jerusalem. Holed up at Mahanaim in deep regret,
David sent forth his troops but ordered them to show mercy to his son
(2 Samuel 18:5). Suddenly, David sees a running messenger, the high
priest's son Ahimaaz. </span><i>“He is a good man and comes with
good news,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> David hopes (2
Samuel 18:27). Ahimaaz claims not to have answers. He's followed by
a Cushite, who professes to carry </span><i>“good news for my lord
the king”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> – Absalom, son of
David, has been killed in disgrace by David's nephew Joab (2 Samuel
18:31-32). David weeps and wails like never before, wishing he
could've given his own life to save his beloved but traitorous son (2
Samuel 18:34).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Three
times, no one around David understood what good news really meant.
They thought brutal betrayal and bloody vengeance were the stuff of
which good news is made. Their 'good news' was a disappointment to
David every time. But now comes a messenger more foreign than any
Amalekite or Cushite, a messenger as foreign as heaven to earth –
and this messenger knows what good news looks like. </span><i>“I
bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people, for
unto you is born this day, in the City of David, a Savior, who is the
Anointed One, the Lord!”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Luke
2:10-11). This good news was the One to whom would be given the
throne of his father David, the One who would be the Shepherd of
Israel and the Desire of the nations.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">What
was the throne of David, the rule of David, like? It was the
priest-king joyously leading the procession. It was worship and
blessing and a holy tent. It was a distribution of sustenance and
sweetness to the people, a gift from a glad heart like the heart of
God. That's what it had meant for David to have the throne. And
Jesus, L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
and Anointed rolled into one, will rule like that from the throne of
his father David. The kingdom of God and of David are one. Jesus is
born, the Son of David whose heart isn't merely after God's own
heart, but </span><i>is</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> God's
own heart. He's born to give his own life to save his beloved but
traitorous creation. He's </span><i>“the Root and Descendant of
David... who has the key of David”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Revelation 22:16; 3:7). He's born in Bethlehem to unlock the gates
of life, to pitch the living tent of the church for worship, to bless
his people in the holiest of names, to feed us the sustenance of the
Spirit and the sweetness of God. He's born to be our good-news
Savior. </span><i>“Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father
David! Hosanna in the highest!”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Mark 11:10). We're longing for King Jesus, the king in whom the
throne of David is forever. That's the longing of Advent. Amen and
amen.</span></p>
JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13108158469007498050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442509839497082978.post-26172403711671654072023-11-26T10:35:00.002-05:002023-11-26T17:50:39.755-05:00Onward, Outward, Upward<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">What a journey we've had
from the dawn of creation to here. Since June, we've traced the
creative work of the eternal God as his Word spoke into being this
realm of space and time, as he brooded over it by his Spirit, as he
separated and combined it, gave it shape, and infused it with a
dazzling litany of life. And as the last of that life, we met
ourselves: human beings – on the one hand, crafted from the matter
of earth, sharing an origin with all other animals; on the other
hand, formed by a substantial spiritual soul with intellect and will,
making us kin to God's angels. As the linchpin between visible and
invisible creations, God placed us in a special environment and
called us to special tasks. He settled us in a delightful garden in
perfect innocence and called us to know him. He made this garden his
sanctuary, and installed us there as his cultic images and as his
priests, to minister to him in worship on behalf of the creation
around us. He appointed us royalty, giving us charge over the earth
and its creatures. And all our life and work is for the sake of
worship and guardianship, of governance and provision. God made us
quite the creature. He made us so that he can see himself in us.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Seeing that humanity was
far too exciting to be left generic, God made two ways to be human:
male and female, like so many of the other animals. Equal in
dignity, complementary in giftedness, men and women are partners in
all these incredible and astonishing purposes for which God placed us
here and commissioned us. In this first marriage made in Paradise,
the first husband and first wife lived in total transparency and
radical self-giving. United under God's blessing, theirs was the
blessed life. As we bring our journey with Genesis to a pause today
before Advent, there are three more things to say about this blessed
life.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>First</b><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
the blessed life means that humanity is to go </span><b>onward</b><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
We spoke <a href="http://iron-in-fire.blogspot.com/2023/11/wedded-love-mysterious-law.html">last Sunday</a> about how marriage is the proper home of human
sexuality – and we all know, I think, where sexuality can lead.
Even in the other animals that exist in two sexes like us, that
dictates how they reproduce according to their kind. And so to us,
as to the other animals, God has a few choice words to say on the
topic. What are the first things God says to this first married
couple as he blesses them? </span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">“Be
fruitful and multiply”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
(Genesis 1:28). Be fruitful – be growing, be productive. Multiply
– become large in number. Adam plus Eve is not supposed to equal
only two forever.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Nor
does it. In fact, that's where Eve gets her name. We later read:
</span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">“The human
called his wife's name 'Eve,' for she was the mother of all living”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
(Genesis 3:20). The Hebrew pronunciation of 'Eve' (</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Ḥ</span></i></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">aww</span></i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">ā</span></i></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">h</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">)
sounds like the Hebrew word for 'life' (</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">ḥ</span></i></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">ayy</span></i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">ā</span></i></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">h</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">).<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote1sym" name="sdfootnote1anc"><sup>1</sup></a>
Not long after that, we read that </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">“Adam
knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and gave birth”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
(Genesis 4:1). The first marriage had then become the first family.
And although Genesis doesn't depict this actually happening until
paradise is left behind in the rearview mirror, St. Augustine pointed
out that “even if there had been no sin, the marriage of the first
human beings, which was worthy of the delight of paradise, would have
produced children to love.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote2sym" name="sdfootnote2anc"><sup>2</sup></a>
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
nature of marriage is such that it is open to life, open to the
natural fruit of sexual union, open to becoming a family. Marriage
is “an institution blessed by God for the reproduction of the human
race.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote3sym" name="sdfootnote3anc"><sup>3</sup></a>
Some thought that a desire for children was the </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">only</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
reason to get married, that any other motive was impure.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote4sym" name="sdfootnote4anc"><sup>4</sup></a>
Thankfully, others in the early church recognized that children were
only one of the things worth cherishing in marriage.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote5sym" name="sdfootnote5anc"><sup>5</sup></a>
But all agreed that the union of husband and wife, on the one hand,
and the procreation of children, on the other, are naturally related:
the same action that seals the first is designed by God to lead
naturally to the second, under the right conditions. It's no wonder
that, up until just a hundred years ago, Christians were basically
unanimous in officially opposing contraception.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote6sym" name="sdfootnote6anc"><sup>6</sup></a>
Openness to natural growth, to being fruitful and multiplying, to
family, is part of what it means to validly form a marriage in the
first place.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote7sym" name="sdfootnote7anc"><sup>7</sup></a>
St. Augustine said, if an </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">openness</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
to procreation is absent, “I do not see how we can call these
marriages.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote8sym" name="sdfootnote8anc"><sup>8</sup></a>
For marriage is, by definition, “a union between one man and one
woman which is exclusive, permanent, and open to life,” so that
agreeing to another kind of relationship is not the consent that
births a marriage.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote9sym" name="sdfootnote9anc"><sup>9</sup></a>
And Paradise respected that reality: Adam and Eve knew their Edenic
marriage was exclusive, permanent, and also open to life.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">So,
had we stayed in Eden, the human family would've grown generation by
generation; and each new person would have been born into the same
original righteousness and innocence that Adam and Eve enjoyed and
kept whole as an inheritance for each.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote10sym" name="sdfootnote10anc"><sup>10</sup></a>
In Eden just like here, “children should be welcomed with love,
brought up with kindness, given a religious education,” as St.
Augustine put it.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote11sym" name="sdfootnote11anc"><sup>11</sup></a>
As the population grew and society became more complex through the
division of labor, then as now parents would've taught their children
“crafts which are agreeable and suitable to the fear of God.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote12sym" name="sdfootnote12anc"><sup>12</sup></a>
As it was meant to be: a flourishing family before God.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">And
yet there was a widespread movement in the early church of men and
women who said no to being fruitful and multiplying in the
marriage-and-family way. Other apostles were married men, but Paul –
like Jeremiah and John the Baptist before him – was not. Paul was
celibate, </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">“and
to the unmarried and the widows, I say that it is good for them to
remain as I am,”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
he advised (1 Corinthians 7:8), since an unmarried person has greater
freedom for contemplating God and serving his kingdom (1 Corinthians
7:32). Just over a century later, we hear how “many of us, both
men and women,” were “growing old unmarried in the hope of being
united more closely with God.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote13sym" name="sdfootnote13anc"><sup>13</sup></a>
“Celibacy and marriage have their distinctive services of the
Lord,” they said,<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote14sym" name="sdfootnote14anc"><sup>14</sup></a>
but in their eyes, celibacy was actually “the superior condition,”
viewed as “better and holier” than marriage and children.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote15sym" name="sdfootnote15anc"><sup>15</sup></a></span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">If
that strikes us as strange, well, it would've been just as strange to
many of their Jewish neighbors, for whom the blessing had come to be
read as a commandment: Thou shalt marry, thou shalt try to have kids.
So what was it that freed the early Christians to think about the
blessing a different way? A few renegades decided that it had been
altogether “abolished” and “superseded.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote16sym" name="sdfootnote16anc"><sup>16</sup></a>
The Church actually accepted the command, they just saw new ways to
do it. For they'd heard the Lord tell them: </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">“Go
therefore and make disciples”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
(Matthew 28:18). Just as </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">“Be
fruitful and multiply”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
was the Great Commission of the Old Covenant, this was its
counterpart in the New. So now, they said, “since members of
Christ to be God's people and citizens of the kingdom can be brought
in from the whole human race,” there are many more ways for God's
people to increase and multiply!<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote17sym" name="sdfootnote17anc"><sup>17</sup></a></span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">And
so we're told in Scripture that </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">“the
word of God continued to increase,”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
be fruitful, </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">“and
the number of the disciples multiplied greatly”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
(Acts 6:7). Again and again, we hear that </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">“the
word of God is increased and multiplied”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
(Acts 12:24), such that therefore the Church itself </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">“multiplied”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
(Acts 9:31). The Apostle Paul tells how </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">“the
gospel... is bearing fruit and increasing... among you since the day
you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
(Colossians 1:5-6), and that's how even a celibate man like him
</span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">“became your
father in Christ Jesus through the gospel”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
(1 Corinthians 4:15), </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">“like
a nursing mother taking care of her own children”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
(1 Thessalonians 2:7). Even if unmarried or widowed according to the
flesh, we – like Paul – continue to be fruitful, to increase
God's word, to multiply the Church, through evangelism and
discipleship!<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote18sym" name="sdfootnote18anc"><sup>18</sup></a>
In spreading the word of God to other people, in helping them to be
converted by the Lord, in assisting them in internalizing the word of
God so it can sprout and bear much fruit in the soil of their hearts
– in these ways, we Christians increase and multiply as surely as
by having families. You can be fruitful and multiply as profoundly
as a spiritual father or mother to new disciples as by being a
natural father or mother to children. And we share a sacred
responsibility to let the word of God increase through us, to let the
number of disciples multiply through us, so that the new humanity in
Christ will go onward as surely as the old humanity in Adam.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">A
</span></span><b><span style="font-style: normal;">second</span></b><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
lesson about the blessed life is that it means that humanity is to go
not just onward but </span></span><b><span style="font-style: normal;">outward</span></b><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
The Garden of Eden was a wonderful home for Adam and Eve. But
supposing they'd stayed welcome there, they would have been fruitful
and multiplied till they started to crowd the garden. This garden
God planted in Eden wasn't infinite; Genesis depicts it as a specific
location, some amount of acreage, bounded on all sides by places that
</span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">aren't</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:10-14). So what happens when the
garden hits capacity? </span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Well,
that raises some other questions. They were given </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">“dominion
over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over
every living thing that moves on the earth”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
(Genesis 1:28). That spurred one early Christian to ask: “How was
Adam to rule over the fish of the sea unless he were to be in
proximity to the sea? And how was he to rule over the birds that fly
throughout every region unless his descendants were to dwell in every
region? And how was Adam to rule over every beast of the earth
unless his offspring were to inhabit the entire earth?” Or, we
might add: how were Adam and Eve to eat </span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">“every
plant yielding seed that is on the face of </span></i><i><u><span style="font-weight: normal;">all</span></u></i><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
the earth”</span></span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
if they never go to where those plants are (Genesis 1:29)? </span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">In
the ancient world, as a king expanded his empire, he would put up
statues of himself in the most far-flung provinces. Just like when
explorers plant flags in the name of this or that country, it was a
way to stake a claim. It was how the king made his claim to dominion
visible in that place, a reminder to all who saw his image that this
was his territory under his watchful eye.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote19sym" name="sdfootnote19anc"><sup>19</sup></a>
The image of the king let you know who owned the land it was in.
Well, each human being is God setting up </span></span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">his</span></span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
image somewhere, a visible reminder that it's God's territory under
God's watchful eye (Genesis 1:26). God did not intend to stake a
claim over just however many acres were in this garden. No sooner
did he tell humans to </span></span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">“be
fruitful and multiply”</span></span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
than he told them to </span></span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">“fill
the earth and subdue it and have dominion”</span></span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
(Genesis 1:28). God shows his ownership of earth “by multiplying
his images over the earthly domain.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote20sym" name="sdfootnote20anc"><sup>20</sup></a>
So human presence filling the earth is meant to be a good thing.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote21sym" name="sdfootnote21anc"><sup>21</sup></a>
</span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">But
on the other hand, Adam is portrayed as a priest-king installed in
the garden as a holy sanctuary. It's where his work belongs. How
could he go abroad and leave it behind? And the solution to that
puzzle comes when we know that in the ancient world, kings had a
responsibility over temple construction and renovation. Even in
ancient Assyria, sometimes they'd judge an existing temple “too
small,” so the king would “greatly expand this temple beyond its
previous extent.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote22sym" name="sdfootnote22anc"><sup>22</sup></a>
But especially in Egypt during the time of Moses, temple complexes
“underwent continuous expansion.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote23sym" name="sdfootnote23anc"><sup>23</sup></a>
Many a new pharaoh, as a display of his royal service to his gods,
“pushed the perimeter of [temple] walls and courtyards farther and
farther into what had previously been secular space,” and in this
way, “the area of the sacred was greatly extended.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote24sym" name="sdfootnote24anc"><sup>24</sup></a>
That's how a king honored a god: by enlarging the temple space. So
what would happen as they garden filled up with new generations of
humans? “They were to extend the geographical boundaries of the
garden until Eden covered the whole earth.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote25sym" name="sdfootnote25anc"><sup>25</sup></a></span></span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Picture
it: pushing out the boundary markers of the garden, cultivating the
newly included ground, planting the trees of holy Eden there, foot by
foot. As the years pass, the garden gets longer and wider, more of
the earth is claimed as part of this sanctuary. The area of the
sacred would extend further out into the world as the human
priest-kings subdued acre after acre in the name of life and peace,
answering their call to “spread the holiness of the Holy Place to
that which yet needed to be sanctified in the world beyond.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote26sym" name="sdfootnote26anc"><sup>26</sup></a>
Whole territories would then be subdued and sanctified. Next,
continents. At last, one day, there'd be no patch of dirt on earth
that wasn't part of this garden that began in Eden. One worldwide
community in highest harmony would fill the holy earth.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">That's
what Genesis suggests was meant to happen: for humans to “begin
from Eden, work their way outward, and spread the blessings of Eden
to all the earth.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote27sym" name="sdfootnote27anc"><sup>27</sup></a>
Eden was to go global! Paradise was to expand! Adam and Eve and
their children were to grow in practice the kingdom that was theirs
by grace – the kingdom of God!</span></span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Here
we are, though, and we don't live in a garden of trees and flowers
and all these things. Neither did Israel. But, as we saw, God gave
them back a taste of the garden when they built the tabernacle; he
raised them up as his kingdom on earth, promising that if they were
faithful in their land, he'd </span></span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">“enlarge
your borders”</span></span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
(Exodus 34:34). The tabernacle took up just 675 square feet, inside
a courtyard of over 11,000 square feet. In time, they expanded to
Solomon's Temple, a building of 2,700 square feet inside a courtyard
of 45,000 square feet. When they returned from exile, they built a
Second Temple with a courtyard of over 70,000 square feet; and later,
even King Herod more than doubled the area of the temple courts.
That still didn't measure up to Ezekiel's dream, with temple
courtyards covering over 765,000 square feet as the heart of a holy
district of over a billion square feet, 40 1/3 square miles (Ezekiel
45:1). And Ezekiel's wildest vision pales next to John's glimpse of
a temple-city covering over 53 trillion square feet, bigger than the
Roman Empire (Revelation 21:16). Filling the earth!</span></span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">But
what does it mean? The Lord Jesus told his apostles to </span></span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">“go
into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation”</span></span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
(Mark 16:15). Paul explains that </span></span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">“through
us,”</span></span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
God </span></span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">“spreads
the fragrance of the knowledge of [Christ] everywhere”</span></span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
(2 Corinthians 2:14). This – the realm of the gospel, of the
kingdom, of the church – is the Garden of Eden planted anew. The
prophet Daniel foresaw God's kingdom destined to grow and grow until
at last it </span></span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">“filled
the whole earth,”</span></span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
as the garden was always meant to (Daniel 2:35). The kingdom of God
must be extended unended, the fragrance of Christ must cling to all
things, all land must be a holy district.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">But
in a world of sin, we look out to a world that's not merely empty and
waiting to be filled with godliness. </span></span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">“Their
land is filled with idols,”</span></span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
said the prophet – allergic to the fragrance of Christ, the earthly
powers resent the kingdom of God and desperately preserve the land
for profanity (Isaiah 2:8). We'll meet resistance, spiritual
warfare; we'll have to defend the garden against infiltrating idols
inside as much as opposition outside. And as we expand this kingdom
of God's peace and God's justice, God's grace and God's truth, God's
beauty and God's goodness through all the ways we work and keep his
creation, it's up to us to crowd out these idols by a better witness,
by a humbler service, by a wiser path, by a more radical love. </span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">We
pray, we labor, we march in procession to expand the realm of “peace
on earth and mercy mild,” where “God and sinners” are
“reconciled,”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote28sym" name="sdfootnote28anc"><sup>28</sup></a>
where idols tremble and shatter before the Desire of Nations, where
the hungry are filled with good things and the lowly are exalted
(Luke 1:52-53), the poor are lifted to sit with princes (1 Samuel
2:8), where the deserts bloom like flowers (Isaiah 35:1). And </span></span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">“as
grace extends to more and more people, it will increase thanksgiving
to the glory of God”</span></span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
(2 Corinthians 4:15).</span></span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Third</span></span></b><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
– and I know we don't have long to tell it – the blessed life
means that humanity is to go, not just onward, not just outward, but
also </span></span></span><b><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">upward</span></span></b><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
Eden is still a distinctly earthly life, sustained by fruits and
veggies from the earth. Those in Paradise are, as one hymn puts it,
“frail children of dust, and feeble as frail.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote29sym" name="sdfootnote29anc"><sup>29</sup></a>
God walks in the garden in the cool of the day, but he's not
manifest to Adam and Eve constantly. They therefore don't know God
fully as they are fully known (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:12). And Adam
and Eve, as will become all too clear all too soon, are capable of
falling. This life of Eden is a good life on earth, but it's not yet
the perfection God plans for them. There's got to be something more,
something beyond Eden, beyond even a paradise earth.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">So
what if things had continued as they ought to have? As St. Augustine
puts it, the bliss of Eden “would have continued until, through the
blessing that said 'Be fruitful and multiply,' the number of the
predestined saints was completed; and then another and greater
felicity would have been granted, which was granted to the most
blessed angels.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote30sym" name="sdfootnote30anc"><sup>30</sup></a>
Somehow, Adam and Eve and all their family would </span></span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">“all
be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last
trumpet”</span></span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
(1 Corinthians 15:51-52), “changed into a better state... by a
blessed transformation.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote31sym" name="sdfootnote31anc"><sup>31</sup></a>
Then they'd have </span></span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">“spiritual
bodies,”</span></span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
totally animated and powered by God's own Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians
15:44).<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote32sym" name="sdfootnote32anc"><sup>32</sup></a>
Then, at last, the life of Eden would flow upward into that heavenly
life beyond, a life more lively than any paradise man ever tasted on
the earth.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">At
the start of this year, we <a href="http://iron-in-fire.blogspot.com/2023/01/to-see-him-as-he-is.html">spoke</a> about the ultimate purpose for which
we're made, which is to see God as he is – to behold the beauty of
his infinite depths in such a way that we're completely and eternally
fulfilled in it. It's to become happy with God's own happiness, to
live with God's own life, to love with God's own love. And in being
united to God, we'll be </span></span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">“transformed
into the same image from glory to glory”</span></span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
(2 Corinthians 3:18), until </span></span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">“we
shall be like him”</span></span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
in ways we dare not dream (1 John 3:2).</span></span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">That's
what Adam and Eve were meant to gain, and it's what Eden alone
couldn't give them. Adam and Eve, no less than ourselves, needed to
set their minds on heavenly things above, rather than on the things
of their earthly paradise (Colossians 3:2). And now, in Christ,
human nature – the nature of Adam and Eve and you and me – is
placed on heaven's throne, and God has </span></span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">“seated
us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus”</span></span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
(Ephesians 2:6). As one church, </span></span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">“we
are to grow up in every way into him who is the Head, into Christ”</span></span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
(Ephesians 4:15), in whom </span></span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">“the
whole body... grows with a growth that is from God”</span></span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
(Colossians 2:19). So we all – Adam and Eve and all God's people –
</span></span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">“share
in a heavenly calling”</span></span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
(Hebrews 3:1), </span></span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">“the
upward call of God in Christ Jesus”</span></span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
(Philippians 3:14). We're on a journey toward </span></span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">“a
better country”</span></span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
than Eden, </span></span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">“that
is, a heavenly one”</span></span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
(Hebrews 11:16). And there, in Christ, </span></span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">“we
have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the
heavens”</span></span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
(2 Corinthians 5:1). There, </span></span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">“just
as we have borne the image of the man of dust,”</span></span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
Adam, </span></span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">“we
shall also bear the image of the Man of Heaven,”</span></span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
who is Jesus Christ the King, our Lord (1 Corinthians 15:49).</span></span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Thanks be to God! And so
let's do what Adam and Eve should have from the start. Let's go
onward in Christ, being fruitful and multiplying what belongs to him.
Let's go outward for Christ, subduing the earth for the sake of his
kingdom of love. Let's go upward to Christ, rising to a heavenly
country. Until, at last, God will indeed be all in all, and heaven
and paradise and all the new creation are filled with the perfect
glory that knows no end! Hallelujah forever! Amen and amen!<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<div id="sdfootnote1">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote1anc" name="sdfootnote1sym">1</a> Donald
E. Gowan, <i>From Eden to Babel: A Commentary on the Book of Genesis
1-11</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Eerdmans, 1988), 60.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote2">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote2anc" name="sdfootnote2sym">2</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>City of God</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 14.23,
in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/7:130.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote3">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote3anc" name="sdfootnote3sym">3</a> Tertullian
of Carthage, <i>To His Wife</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1.2, in </span><i>Ancient Christian Writers</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
13:11.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote4">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote4anc" name="sdfootnote4sym">4</a> Justin
Martyr, <i>1 Apology</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 29.1, in
</span><i>Justin, Philosopher and Martyr: Apologies</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Oxford University Press, 2009), 161; Athenagoras of Athens, </span><i>Legatio</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
33.1, in </span><i>Athenagoras: Legatio and De Resurrectione</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Clarendon Press, 1972), 81.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote5">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote5anc" name="sdfootnote5sym">5</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>On the Excellence of Marriage</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
3, in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><i>: A Translation for the 21st Century</i><span style="font-style: normal;"></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/9:34-35.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote6">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote6anc" name="sdfootnote6sym">6</a> Alexander
R. Pruss, <i>One Body: An Essay in Christian Sexual Ethics</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(University of Notre Dame Press, 2013), 277-279.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote7">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote7anc" name="sdfootnote7sym">7</a> Alexander
R. Pruss, <i>One Body: An Essay in Christian Sexual Ethics</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(University of Notre Dame Press, 2013), 242.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote8">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote8anc" name="sdfootnote8sym">8</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>On the Excellence of Marriage</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
5, in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><i>: A Translation for the 21st Century</i><span style="font-style: normal;"></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/9:36.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote9">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote9anc" name="sdfootnote9sym">9</a> Cormac
Burke, <i>The Theology of Marriage: Personalism, Doctrine, and Canon
Law</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Catholic University of
America Press, 2015), 2; Alexander R. Pruss, </span><i>One Body: An
Essay in Christian Sexual Ethics</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(University of Notre Dame Press, 2013), 241-243.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote10">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote10anc" name="sdfootnote10sym">10</a> Thomas
Aquinas, <i>Summa theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> I,
q.100, a.1, in </span><i>Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
13:171.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote11">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote11anc" name="sdfootnote11sym">11</a> Augustine
of Hippo<i>, Literal Meaning of Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
9.7 </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">12,
in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><i>: A Translation for the 21st Century</i><span style="font-style: normal;"></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/13:382.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote12">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote12anc" name="sdfootnote12sym">12</a> <i>Didascalia
Apostolorum</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 4.11.1, in Alistair
Stewart-Sykes, </span><i>The Didascalia Apostolorum: An English
Version with Introduction and Annotation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Brepols, 2009), 223.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote13">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote13anc" name="sdfootnote13sym">13</a> Athenagoras
of Athens, <i>Legatio</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 33.2, in
</span><i>Athenagoras: Legatio and De Resurrectione</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Clarendon Press, 1972), 81.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote14">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote14anc" name="sdfootnote14sym">14</a> Clement
of Alexandria, <i>Stromateis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
3.79.5, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
85:305.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote15">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote15anc" name="sdfootnote15sym">15</a> Origen
of Alexandria, <i>Against Celsus</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
8.55, in Henry Chadwick, </span><i>Origen: Contra Celsum</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Cambridge University Press, 1953), 494; Augustine of Hippo, </span><i>On
the Excellence of Marriage</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 24
</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">32,
in </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Works of
Saint Augustine</i></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/9:57.</span></span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote16">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote16anc" name="sdfootnote16sym">16</a> Tertullian
of Carthage, <i>Exhortation to Chastity</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
6, in </span><i>Ancient Christian Writers</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
13:52.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote17">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote17anc" name="sdfootnote17sym">17</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>On Holy Virginity</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
9, in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><i>: A Translation for the 21st Century</i><span style="font-style: normal;"></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/9:72.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote18">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote18anc" name="sdfootnote18sym">18</a> G.
K. Beale and Mitchell Kim, <i>God Dwells Among Us: Expanding Eden to
the Ends of the Earth</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(InterVarsity Press, 2015), 36.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote19">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote19anc" name="sdfootnote19sym">19</a> Richard
Lints, <i>Identity and Idolatry: The Image of God and Its Inversion</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(IVP Academic, 2015), 69; Tremper Longman III, </span><i>Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
Story of God Bible Commentary (Zondervan Academic, 2016), 36.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote20">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote20anc" name="sdfootnote20sym">20</a> Bryan
C. Hodge, <i>Revisiting the Days of Genesis: A Study of the Use of
Time in Genesis 1-11 in Light of Its Ancient Near Eastern and
Literary Context</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Wipf &
Stock, 2011), 42-43.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote21">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote21anc" name="sdfootnote21sym">21</a> Matthew
Levering, <i>Engaging the Doctrine of Creation: Cosmos, Creatures,
and the Wise and Good Creator</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Baker Academic, 2017), 215-217.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote22">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote22anc" name="sdfootnote22sym">22</a> Adad-nirari
II, A.0.99.2 (893 BC), in <i>Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia:
Assyrian Periods</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 2:154;
Esarhaddon, Nineveh Cylinder G (677 BC), in </span><i>Royal
Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
4:56.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote23">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote23anc" name="sdfootnote23sym">23</a> Erik
Hornung, <i>Idea into Image: Essays on Ancient Egyptian Thought</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Tikmen Publishers, 1992), 116.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote24">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote24anc" name="sdfootnote24sym">24</a> Byron
E. Shafer, “Temples, Priests, and Rituals: An Overview,” in
Byron E. Shafer, ed., <i>Temples of Ancient Egypt</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Cornell University Press, 1997), 7.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote25">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote25anc" name="sdfootnote25sym">25</a> G.
K. Beale, <i>The Temple and the Church's Mission: A Biblical
Theology of the Dwelling Place of God</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(IVP Academic, 2004), 81.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote26">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote26anc" name="sdfootnote26sym">26</a> Steven
C. Smith, <i>The House of the Lord: A Catholic Biblical Theology of
God's Temple Presence in the Old and New Testaments</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Franciscan University Press, 2017), 40.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote27">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote27anc" name="sdfootnote27sym">27</a> C.
John Collins, <i>Genesis 1-4: A Linguistic, Literary, and
Theological Commentary</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (P&R
Publishing, 2005), 69.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote28">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote28anc" name="sdfootnote28sym">28</a> Charles
Wesley, “Hymn for Christmas Day” [= “Hark! the Herald Angels
Sing”], in John Wesley and Charles Wesley, <i>Hymns and Sacred
Poems</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (William Strahan, 1739),
</span>206.</span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote29">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote29anc" name="sdfootnote29sym">29</a> Robert
Grant, “O Worship the Lord, All Glorious Above,” in Edward
Bickersteth, ed., <i>Christian Psalmody: A Collection of Above 700
Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, Selected and Arranged for
Public, Social, Family, and Private Worship</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(L. B. Seeley and Sons, 1833), hymn 17, verse 5.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote30">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote30anc" name="sdfootnote30sym">30</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>City of God</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 14.10,
in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><i>: A Translation for the 21st Century</i><span style="font-style: normal;"></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/7:115.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote31">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote31anc" name="sdfootnote31sym">31</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>On the Excellence of Marriage</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2, in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><i>: A Translation for the 21st Century</i><span style="font-style: normal;"></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/9:34.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote32">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote32anc" name="sdfootnote32sym">32</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>Literal Meaning of Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
9.3 </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">6,
in </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Works of
Saint Augustine</i></span><i>: A Translation for the 21st Century</i><span style="font-style: normal;"></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/13:379.</span></span></span></p>
</div>
JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13108158469007498050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442509839497082978.post-17892533681564082032023-11-19T10:35:00.002-05:002023-11-19T20:10:54.448-05:00Wedded Love, Mysterious Law<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">John, sitting in his
house on London's Jewin Street, felt desperate for some help. John
was the poet who couldn't write. For the past ten years, John had
been completely blind. But day by day, feeling like a cow itching to be milked,
he <i>needed</i> to get this poem out of his head and onto the page through
the hands of a scribe. So he dictated lines – ten, twenty, thirty,
fifty at a time – to whatever friend happened to stop by that day.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote1sym" name="sdfootnote1anc"><sup>1</sup></a>
Now it was a late autumn day, 1662, and John was nearly finished
with this poem in ten books – or should it be twelve? John had
begun near the time his second wife and infant daughter died. Then
came the 1659 military coup, and the 1660 restoration of the monarchy with the arrival of King Charles II. John, published praiser of the old king's
killers, had gone into hiding, lest he die for his treason.
Terrified of assassins even after prison and pardon, John was something of a wreck, and by this point,
his three dissatisfied daughters had taken to thieving from him.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote2sym" name="sdfootnote2anc"><sup>2</sup></a>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">It was hard to believe
blind John, so fiercely and fearfully embattled, could stitch
together any poem unseen, or that he should write movingly of
marriage and its beauties. Barely had his first marriage begun than
his wife Mary, despising him, had returned to her parents. Deserted,
John became the most radical voice calling for an expansion of
divorce law. He was furious in being refused the “meet and happy
conversation” he believed God had made “the chiefest and the
noblest end of marriage.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote3sym" name="sdfootnote3anc"><sup>3</sup></a>
Mary thereafter returned, dying in childbirth seven years later.
His second marriage lasted fifteen months before Katherine likewise
died. Only recently had his doctor recommended him a third woman to consider for a wife: the doctor's own cousin Elizabeth, three decades John's junior.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">But for all John's
familial woes, his poetry lavished praise: “Hail, wedded love,
mysterious law, true source of human offspring, sole propriety in
Paradise of all things common else..., perpetual fountain of domestic
sweets, whose bed is undefiled and chaste pronounced...”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote4sym" name="sdfootnote4anc"><sup>4</sup></a>
For John, in the books of this poem, was devoted to retelling the
opening chapters of Genesis, which he approached in large part as a
love story.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote5sym" name="sdfootnote5anc"><sup>5</sup></a>
And John succeeded in making his mark on history. For John's last
name was Milton, and this poem was his <i>Paradise Lost</i><span style="font-style: normal;">.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">When
we left off here last week, we heard how God decided to create two
ways of being a human person: the male way, as a man, and the female
way, as a woman. We talked about the ways in which men and women are
different, made by God to complement each other, made to be fit for
each other's company and to enrich each other. And we saw that men
and women are equal in value, equal in dignity, equal in faithfully
expressing the image of God. Neither man nor woman is the 'default'
way to be human. Instead, both need each other.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Continuing
from there this week, we see one particular area where they need each
other: marriage. And the first thing we should realize is that
“marriage is from God and is good.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote6sym" name="sdfootnote6anc"><sup>6</sup></a>
Marriage isn't some bad or dirty thing, not some outmoded waste of
time or a bureaucratic straitjacket of love. Adam and Eve belong
together in marriage as obviously as a temple and an altar go
together. And “it was the will of the Creator to bring the sexes
together in harmony..., for marriage combines the sexes into one.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote7sym" name="sdfootnote7anc"><sup>7</sup></a>
This passage in Genesis is written to show us that. Second,
marriage is a divine idea, not a human one. Marriage has “an
objective structure,” a meaning; it isn't just “a construct...
created by its participants and shaped in its meaning and norms by
their subjective purposes and desires.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote8sym" name="sdfootnote8anc"><sup>8</sup></a>
And third, marriage is built on God's created reality of sexual
difference. That's why a marriage can't be truly formed except
between a man and a woman – that's simply part of marriage's
objective structure; the man-woman dynamic is essential.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But
before we get to marriage, we should say some words about a still
wider thing: love. Love isn't </span><i>primarily</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
a feeling or an emotion. Love involves the lover actively willing
good things for the beloved and seeking a union with the beloved.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote9sym" name="sdfootnote9anc"><sup>9</sup></a>
Love can take a lot of forms, but the form it takes in a given case
should be appropriate to who you are as the one loving, to who and
what the beloved really is, and to what kind of relations you should
have.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote10sym" name="sdfootnote10anc"><sup>10</sup></a>
If you love your child merely in ways appropriate to a pet, or your
pet in ways appropriate only to a child; if you love God merely in
ways appropriate to a fellow creature, or a fellow creature in ways
appropriate only to God; if you love your spouse merely in ways
appropriate to a friend, or a friend in ways appropriate only to a
spouse – well, those would all be problems!<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote11sym" name="sdfootnote11anc"><sup>11</sup></a>
“Love calls on us correctly to adjust the relationship to the
reality of the other person.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote12sym" name="sdfootnote12anc"><sup>12</sup></a>
Romantic love is a specific type of love where “the other's good
as a sexual being is willed in a way that involves the lover's
sexuality,” as being a man or a woman, “and the lover strives
for... a sexual union with the beloved, a union that consummates the
love.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote13sym" name="sdfootnote13anc"><sup>13</sup></a>
That willing and striving is often </span><i>helped</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
by the emotion we <i>also</i> call 'love,' a sense of “deep empathy and
overwhelming passion for someone.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote14sym" name="sdfootnote14anc"><sup>14</sup></a>
And “this union alone has the potential to create new life” in a
natural way.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote15sym" name="sdfootnote15anc"><sup>15</sup></a></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">With that in mind, the Bible is quite clear that a union like that is meant to be a
<i>marriage</i> union.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote16sym" name="sdfootnote16anc"><sup>16</sup></a>
The reason is that, as “the deepest bodily union one can choose to
have with another person,” sexual union “calls for union on </span><span style="font-style: normal;"><u>all</u></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
levels of the person, a union extended into the indefinite future.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote17sym" name="sdfootnote17anc"><sup>17</sup></a>
Sexual union can't be appropriate outside of that more comprehensive
union – and that's what marriage is. This isn't some trivial
truth; it actually matters. In the early church, one bishop dubbed
the relationship of husband and wife “the first natural bond of
human society,”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote18sym" name="sdfootnote18anc"><sup>18</sup></a>
while another said that “the love of husband and wife is the force
that welds society together.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote19sym" name="sdfootnote19anc"><sup>19</sup></a>
“Marriage is a community,” and “a community... is a unity
constituted by common pursuit of genuine goods.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote20sym" name="sdfootnote20anc"><sup>20</sup></a>
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">St.
Augustine, one of those bishops we just quoted, saw three main goods
in marriage: the fact that marriage is the shape of a loving
relationship between a husband and a wife; the fact that marriage is
where children are naturally conceived, born, raised, and taught; and
the fact that the marriage bond has a permanence with a profound symbolism that points
beyond itself to a higher truth.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote21sym" name="sdfootnote21anc"><sup>21</sup></a>
Marriage, the original two-sex community that fully express
humanity, is a profound image of the Creator God who is himself Love:
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote22sym" name="sdfootnote22anc"><sup>22</sup></a>
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">So
what would that community have looked like in Eden, when things were
still so very good? And what ought it look like for us, if we want
marriage today to be as Edenic as we can have it? </span></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><b>First</b>, it begins
with recognizing the other as an amazing wonder, as a complementary
counterpart to be loved (Genesis 2:23). John Milton beautifully
imagines what it might have been like for Adam to first lay eyes on
Eve on their wedding day: “On she came, led by her heavenly Maker,
though unseen, and guided by his voice;...: Grace was in all her
steps, heaven in her eye, in every gesture dignity and love. I,
overjoyed, could not forbear aloud. 'This turn hath made amends!
Thou hast fulfilled thy words, Creator bounteous and benign, Giver of
all things fair, but fairest this of all thy gifts.... I now see
bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, myself before me: Woman is her
name, of Man extracted:... they shall be one flesh, one heart, one
soul.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote23sym" name="sdfootnote23anc"><sup>23</sup></a>
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Milton
sees here how important that amazement recognition can be, whether it
begins before or after the rite of marriage itself. In calling the
woman his own 'flesh' and his own 'bone,' Adam is recognizing her as
already being his own nation, his own tribe, his own clan, from the
outset (cf. 2 Samuel 19:12-13). She's amazingly like him, and yet
amazingly unlike him, revealing to him his own identity. That's what
love does: it amazes.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><b>Second</b>,
Genesis goes on with a comment about how, because of this new reality
displayed in Adam and Eve, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“a
man shall abandon his father and his mother”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 2:24). That's a curious thing, since in all the cultures
around there, a son's loyalty to his father until death was nearly
absolute. If the son married, the new wife was absorbed into the
son's father's house. But here in Genesis, defying every culture,
marriage makes something stronger even than the bond of a son to his
father and mother. Turning from them, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“he
shall cling to his wife”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 2:24). Marriage means “to sever one loyalty and commence
another.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote24sym" name="sdfootnote24anc"><sup>24</sup></a>
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">That
means it isn't something a father and mother can force onto a son or
daughter, much as many cultures have tried to make it so. Whether
arranged or not, the pivotal element of marriage is created out of a
consent no earthly power can compel. A child didn't consent to come
from father and mother, but it's by consent that a man and woman
pledge their lives together in loyalty to create this new thing
called a marriage.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote25sym" name="sdfootnote25anc"><sup>25</sup></a>
Marriage just is, as one theologian put it, “a legitimate
consent... by a male and a female to observe an undivided common
life.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote26sym" name="sdfootnote26anc"><sup>26</sup></a>
The first marriage began when man and woman first consented “to
live together... in single-hearted devotion.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote27sym" name="sdfootnote27anc"><sup>27</sup></a>
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><b>Third</b>,
while a marriage is created by the couple's consent, it's ceremonial
because it's meant to be open to the blessing of God and the support
of his creation. In this first marriage in Eden, God plays a triple
role: father of the bride, best man to the groom, and officiant for
the couple. An early Christian poet pictured that original wedding:
“The One who fashioned everything by his skill adorned that bride
and gave her to her bridegroom... All creation stood there like
bridesmaids, and they surrounded them with their songs and their
chants. … And with its gifts, the entire world rejoiced with them.
… Paradise opened its high gates, that the wedding partners might
enter in, to rejoice there in the banquet of good things that had
been prepared.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote28sym" name="sdfootnote28anc"><sup>28</sup></a>
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">At
that first wedding, Genesis tells us, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“God
blessed them”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 1:28). Taking inspiration from that, Jews and Christians
continued to pray for God's blessing on their marriages (Tobit
8:6-7), and the marriage ceremony developed as a way to embody and
express God's blessing. In the ninth century, one bishop explained
Christian wedding customs by saying that the bride and groom were
“stationed by the hand of the priest in the church of the Lord
along with offerings which they should offer to God, and so at last
they receive the blessing and the celestial veil, on the model of the
Lord who, after placing the first people in Paradise, said to them:
'Increase and multiply.'”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote29sym" name="sdfootnote29anc"><sup>29</sup></a>
But already in the early church, they said: “How shall we ever be
able adequately to describe the happiness of that marriage which the
Church arranges, the sacrifice strengthens, upon which the blessing
sets a seal, at which angels are present as witnesses, and to which
the Father gives his consent?”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote30sym" name="sdfootnote30anc"><sup>30</sup></a>
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><b>Fourth</b>,
then, once pledging their consent and having entered at least into
God's general blessing on marriage, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“they
shall become one flesh”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 2:24). On one level, that's about the creation of a new
identity: this man and this woman are now family to each other. But
there's more. What makes your body one body? The fact that it's “an
articulated entity with parts that work together cooperatively, each
performing some function needed by the whole.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote31sym" name="sdfootnote31anc"><sup>31</sup></a>
Part of what Genesis is showing us is that the two unite –
personally, psychologically, physically – as a new body system, for
the sake of “a mutual organic striving for reproduction.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote32sym" name="sdfootnote32anc"><sup>32</sup></a>
In sexuality, they undergo “real biological union” to become, in
certain ways, “a single organism.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote33sym" name="sdfootnote33anc"><sup>33</sup></a>
And when that full organic union beyond the mating moment by means
of commitment, the two endure as 'one flesh.'<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote34sym" name="sdfootnote34anc"><sup>34</sup></a>
In marriage, man and woman achieve a comprehensive union as persons,
in all aspects of their life.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote35sym" name="sdfootnote35anc"><sup>35</sup></a>
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><b>Fifth</b>,
in light of that, “husband and wife also have a duty of fidelity to
one another,” and the trust they share is “a spiritual good of
great value,” more valuable even than life itself.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote36sym" name="sdfootnote36anc"><sup>36</sup></a>
Jesus himself quoted this story to show the Pharisees that marriage,
by its very nature, is unbreakable: </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“What
God has joined together, let not man separate. … Whoever divorces
his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she
divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Mark 10:9-12). For </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“they
are no longer two but one flesh” </span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">for
life (Mark 10:8). Jesus' words! So Milton was wrong to think, as he
did in his pain, that when good feelings or good relations die,
“there can be left of wedlock nothing but the empty husk of an
outside matrimony, as undelightful and unpleasing to God as any other
kind of hypocrisy.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote37sym" name="sdfootnote37anc"><sup>37</sup></a>
Marriage, by nature, is “a union between one man and one woman
which is exclusive, permanent, and open to life.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote38sym" name="sdfootnote38anc"><sup>38</sup></a>
And in Eden, this would have been perfectly honored. For Adam and
Eve, there was no prospect of unfaithfulness or marital breakdown, no
way to grow apart, no testing their ties. They lived to the whole
truth of marriage; so should we.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><b>Sixth</b>,
in this marriage, Eve was indeed a genuine and equal partner. One
early Christian teacher remarks that in the garden, “Eve... would
also help Adam... with any other task that Adam was capable of
doing.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote39sym" name="sdfootnote39anc"><sup>39</sup></a>
And </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“the two
of them were naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 2:25). Or, as Milton put it: “So passed they naked on,
nor shunned the sight of God or angel, for they thought no ill.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote40sym" name="sdfootnote40anc"><sup>40</sup></a>
There's no secrecy, no protective distancing, no holding back,
nowhere to hide because nothing to hide. Adam and Eve bring no
baggage of the past, no fears for the future, no thoughtless deeds or
callous words to apologize over. Yet they truly see each other in
total transparency. St. Augustine sums up that “the first pair
lived in faithful and unalloyed fellowship, and their love for God
and for each other was undisturbed.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote41sym" name="sdfootnote41anc"><sup>41</sup></a>
In this right marriage relationship, there are “no barriers of any
kind, no self-consciousness, but complete and unhindered giving and
enjoying of one another.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote42sym" name="sdfootnote42anc"><sup>42</sup></a>
Recognizing the “spousal meaning” of their unobstructed bodies,
they're full of “precisely that love in which the human person
becomes a gift,” a love that lets them live for each other in
infinitely intimate communion.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote43sym" name="sdfootnote43anc"><sup>43</sup></a>
So Milton portrayed them, quite beautifully, as “imparadised in
one another's arms,” there to “enjoy their fill of bliss on
bliss” in the “happier Eden” of their marriage.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote44sym" name="sdfootnote44anc"><sup>44</sup></a>
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">And
that sort of transparency and self-giving is something to aspire to
imitate in our marriages, as much as we today can regrow Eden at
home. Here's how one early Christian pictured “the marriage of two
Christians, two who are one in hope”: “Nothing divides them,
either in flesh or in spirit. … They pray together, they worship
together, they fast together, instructing one another, encouraging
one another, strengthening one another. … They have no secrets from
one another, they never shun each other's company, they never bring
sorrow to each other's hearts. Unembarrassed, they visit the sick
and assist the needy; they give alms without anxiety... Psalms and
hymns they sing to one another, striving to see which one of them
will chant more beautifully the praises of their Lord. Hearing and
seeing this, Christ rejoices.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote45sym" name="sdfootnote45anc"><sup>45</sup></a>
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">But
why were all these things written in Genesis? Not only to teach what
we've just said, but also as prophecy, as a profound mystery to be
unfolded to view as the fullness of time drew nigh. In limited
fashion, it began to unfold at the dawn of the new covenant, which
the prophets described as a wedding between God and Israel. Just as
someone was to forsake father and mother, so Israel was to </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“forsake
the idols of Egypt”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Ezekiel 20:8). Just as husband and wife were to 'cleave' or 'cling'
to each other, so Israel was to </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“cling
to the L</span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></i></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">
your God”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Joshua 23:8). </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“As
the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice
over you”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Isaiah 62:5). </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“I
spread the corner of my garment over you..., I made my vow to you and
entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord G</span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">OD</span></i></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">,
and you became mine. Then I bathed you with water... and anointed
you with oil; I clothed you also with embroidered cloth..., and I
adorned you with ornaments and put... a beautiful crown on your
head..., and your renown went forth among the nations because of your
beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed
on you, declares the Lord G</span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">OD</span></i></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Ezekiel 16:8-14).</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">But
even that wasn't yet the fullness. Think back: what happened to Adam
in the garden? Adam was put into a deep sleep, a sleep as still as
death; then a wound was made in Adam's side; Adam's body was opened
so that the stuff to birth his future bride could be taken out and
then built up by God into a fitting partner (Genesis 2:21-22). Now
let me tell you a story, not of the First Adam, but of the Last. The
Last Adam was, by his Father's dispensation, nailed to a cross fixed
on a hill's rib above a garden place. There, on that cross, the Last
Adam </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“bowed
his head and gave up his spirit”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
in the sleep of death (John 19:30). What happened then? </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“One
of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear.”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
A wound was made in the Last Adam's side. Why? Because </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“at
once there came out blood and water”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(John 19:34). Genesis was prophecy! “In this sleep [of Adam] was
depicted the death of the Crucified One, and in the blood and water,
all the beauty of baptism.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote46sym" name="sdfootnote46anc"><sup>46</sup></a>
This blood and water is the stuff of the Last Adam's bride-to-be,
“the mystery and the rebirth of the Church through fire and
water.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote47sym" name="sdfootnote47anc"><sup>47</sup></a>
“A wife is made from the side of the sleeping man; the Church is
made for the dying Christ from the sacrament of blood that flowed
from his side when he was dead.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote48sym" name="sdfootnote48anc"><sup>48</sup></a>
“From the side of Christ sleeping on the cross flowed the
sacraments... by which the Church was established.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote49sym" name="sdfootnote49anc"><sup>49</sup></a>
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Here
lies the great secret of the cross! </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“This
mystery </span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">[in
Genesis]</span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"> is
profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the Church”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Ephesians 5:32). How often, in the days of his ministry, did Jesus
have to call himself 'the Bridegroom' for us to get it (Luke
5:34-35)? </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“Christ
loved the Church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify
her... by the washing of water with the word,”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
by baptism (Ephesians 5:25-26). Ever since then, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“the
Church... was being built up,”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
and is being built up even now, with his sacramental loving and
nourishing and cherishing (Acts 9:31; Ephesians 5:28-30), </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“so
that he might present the Church to himself in splendor”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
at the wedding feast of the Lamb we're all waiting for (Ephesians
5:27). That's why, to the extent any form of Christianity separates
from that Church, “it loves Christ with an adulterous love,” as
one bishop colorfully put it.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote50sym" name="sdfootnote50anc"><sup>50</sup></a>
The Church is the Savior's helpmeet – in the words of one teacher,
she's “a helper and wife that never turns traitor..., a helper that
gives life to the dead..., a blameless and indestructible helper. …
She has assisted the whole human race... God the Word became one
with the Church so that man might never be alone but wholly with
God...”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote51sym" name="sdfootnote51anc"><sup>51</sup></a>
And to this perfect mystery, our marriages are made to point.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">So,
in the words of the prophet, let be </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“heard
again... the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the
voices of those who sing, as they bring thank-offerings to the House
of the L</span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></i></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Jeremiah 33:10-11)! Amen.<span></span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<div id="sdfootnote1">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote1anc" name="sdfootnote1sym">1</a> William
Poole, <i>Milton and the Making of <u>Paradise Lost</u></i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Harvard University Press, 2017), 132.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote2">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote2anc" name="sdfootnote2sym">2</a> Neil
Forsyth, <i>John Milton: A Biography</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Lion Books, 2008), 147-154.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote3">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote3anc" name="sdfootnote3sym">3</a> John
Milton, <i>The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(n.p., 1664), 8.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote4">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote4anc" name="sdfootnote4sym">4</a> John
Milton, <i>Paradise Lost</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
IV.750-752, 761-762, in Matthew Stallard, ed., <i>Paradise Lost: The Biblically Annotated Edition</i> (Mercer University Press, 2011), 160. <i><br /></i></span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote5">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote5anc" name="sdfootnote5sym">5</a> Neil
Forsyth, <i>John Milton: A Biography</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Lion Books, 2008), 168.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote6">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote6anc" name="sdfootnote6sym">6</a> Hugh
of St. Victor, <i>On the Sacraments</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2.11.2, in </span><i>Victorine Texts in Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
10:289.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote7">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote7anc" name="sdfootnote7sym">7</a> Theodoret
of Cyrus, <i>Questions on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
30, in </span><i>Library of Early Christianity</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1:69.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote8">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote8anc" name="sdfootnote8sym">8</a> Patrick
Lee and Robert P. George, <i>Conjugal Union: What Marriage Is and
Why It Matters</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Cambridge University
Press, 2014), 5-8.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote9">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote9anc" name="sdfootnote9sym">9</a> Alexander
R. Pruss, <i>One Body: An Essay in Christian Sexual Ethics</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(University of Notre Dame Press, 2013), 11, 20.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote10">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote10anc" name="sdfootnote10sym">10</a> Alexander
R. Pruss, <i>One Body: An Essay in Christian Sexual Ethics</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(University of Notre Dame Press, 2013), 29.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote11">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote11anc" name="sdfootnote11sym">11</a> Alexander
R. Pruss, <i>One Body: An Essay in Christian Sexual Ethics</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(University of Notre Dame Press, 2013), 19-20.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote12">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote12anc" name="sdfootnote12sym">12</a> Alexander
R. Pruss, <i>One Body: An Essay in Christian Sexual Ethics</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(University of Notre Dame Press, 2013), 370.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote13">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote13anc" name="sdfootnote13sym">13</a> Alexander
R. Pruss, <i>One Body: An Essay in Christian Sexual Ethics</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(University of Notre Dame Press, 2013), 87.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote14">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote14anc" name="sdfootnote14sym">14</a> Rene
J. Herrera and Ralph Garcia-Bertrand, <i>Sex and Cohabitation Among
Early Humans: Anthropological and Genetic Evidence for Interbreeding Among Early Humans</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Academic Press,
2023), 105.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote15">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote15anc" name="sdfootnote15sym">15</a> Abigail
Favale, <i>The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Ignatius Press, 2022), 41.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote16">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote16anc" name="sdfootnote16sym">16</a> Paul
Copan and Douglas Jacoby, <i>Origins: The Ancient Impact and Modern
Implications of Genesis 1-11</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Morgan James Faith, 2018), 89.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote17">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote17anc" name="sdfootnote17sym">17</a> Patrick
Lee and Robert P. George, <i>Conjugal Union: What Marriage Is and
Why It Matters</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Cambridge University
Press, 2014), 75.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote18">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote18anc" name="sdfootnote18sym">18</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>On the Excellence of Marriage</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">1,
in </span><i>The Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/9:33.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote19">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote19anc" name="sdfootnote19sym">19</a> John
Chrysostom, <i>Homilies on Ephesians</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
20, in </span><i>Popular Patristics Series</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
7:44.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote20">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote20anc" name="sdfootnote20sym">20</a> Patrick
Lee and Robert P. George, <i>Conjugal Union: What Marriage Is and
Why It Matters</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Cambridge University
Press, 2014), 40, 46.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote21">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote21anc" name="sdfootnote21sym">21</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>Literal Meaning of Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
9.7 </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">12,
in </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>The Works of
Saint Augustine</i></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/13:382.</span></span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote22">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote22anc" name="sdfootnote22sym">22</a> William
P. Brown, <i>The Seven Pillars of Creation: The Bible, Science, and
the Ecology of Wonder</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Oxford
University Press, 2010), 43-44.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote23">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote23anc" name="sdfootnote23sym">23</a> John
Milton, <i>Paradise Lost</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
VIII.484-499</span><span style="font-style: normal;">, in Matthew Stallard, ed., <i>Paradise Lost: The Biblically Annotated Edition</i> (Mercer University Press, 2011), 301</span><span style="font-style: normal;">.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote24">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote24anc" name="sdfootnote24sym">24</a> Victor
P. Hamilton, <i>The Book of Genesis: Chapters 1-17</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Eerdmans, 1990), 181.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote25">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote25anc" name="sdfootnote25sym">25</a> Pope
John Paul II, <i>Theology of the Body</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
10.3 (21 November 1979), in Michael Waldstein, ed., </span><i>Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Pauline Books and Media, 2006), 168.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote26">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote26anc" name="sdfootnote26sym">26</a> Hugh
of St. Victor, <i>On the Sacraments</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2.11.4, in </span><i>Victorine Texts in Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
10:291-295.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote27">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote27anc" name="sdfootnote27sym">27</a> Cyril
of Alexandria, <i>Glaphyra on the Pentateuch</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1.2.2, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
137:57.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote28">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote28anc" name="sdfootnote28sym">28</a> Jacob
of Serugh, <i>Memra</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
71.2461-2462, 2465-2466, 2496-2500, in </span><i>Texts from
Christian Late Antiquity</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
59:80-84.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote29">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote29anc" name="sdfootnote29sym">29</a> Pope
Nicholas I, letter to Bulgarian khan Boris I (866), <span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">§</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">3.
<<a href="https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/866nicholas-bulgar.asp">https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/866nicholas-bulgar.asp</a>>.
</span></span>
</p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote30">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote30anc" name="sdfootnote30sym">30</a> Tertullian
of Carthage, <i>To His Wife</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2.8, in </span><i>Ancient Christian Writers</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
13:35.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote31">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote31anc" name="sdfootnote31sym">31</a> Alexander
R. Pruss, <i>One Body: An Essay in Christian Sexual Ethics</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(University of Notre Dame Press, 2013), 90.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote32">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote32anc" name="sdfootnote32sym">32</a> Alexander
R. Pruss, <i>One Body: An Essay in Christian Sexual Ethics</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(University of Notre Dame Press, 2013), 135.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote33">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote33anc" name="sdfootnote33sym">33</a> Patrick
Lee and Robert P. George, <i>Conjugal Union: What Marriage Is and
Why It Matters</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Cambridge University
Press, 2014), 44.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote34">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote34anc" name="sdfootnote34sym">34</a> Alexander
R. Pruss, <i>One Body: An Essay in Christian Sexual Ethics</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(University of Notre Dame Press, 2013), 170-172.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote35">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote35anc" name="sdfootnote35sym">35</a> Patrick
Lee and Robert P. George, <i>Conjugal Union: What Marriage Is and
Why It Matters</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Cambridge University
Press, 2014), 59.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote36">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote36anc" name="sdfootnote36sym">36</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>On the Excellence of Marriage</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">4,
in </span><i>The Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/9:35.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote37">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote37anc" name="sdfootnote37sym">37</a> John
Milton, <i>The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(n.p., 1644), 15.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote38">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote38anc" name="sdfootnote38sym">38</a> Cormac
Burke, <i>The Theology of Marriage: Personalism, Doctrine, and Canon
Law</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Catholic University of America Press, 2015), 2.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote39">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote39anc" name="sdfootnote39sym">39</a> Ephrem
the Syrian, <i>Commentary on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2.11, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
91:104.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote40">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote40anc" name="sdfootnote40sym">40</a> John
Milton, <i>Paradise Lost</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
IV.319-320</span><span style="font-style: normal;">, in Matthew Stallard, ed., <i>Paradise Lost: The Biblically Annotated Edition</i> (Mercer University Press, 2011), 145</span><span style="font-style: normal;">.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote41">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote41anc" name="sdfootnote41sym">41</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>City of God</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 14.10,
in </span><i>The Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/7:115.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote42">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote42anc" name="sdfootnote42sym">42</a> Donald
E. Gowan, <i>From Eden to Babel: A Commentary on the Book of Genesis
1-11</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Eerdmans, 1988), 50.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote43">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote43anc" name="sdfootnote43sym">43</a> Pope John
Paul II, <i>Theology of the Body</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
15.1 (16 January 1980), in Michael Waldstein, ed., </span><i>Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Pauline Books and Media, 2006), 185-186.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote44">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote44anc" name="sdfootnote44sym">44</a> John
Milton, <i>Paradise Lost</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
IV.506-508</span><span style="font-style: normal;">, in Matthew Stallard, ed., <i>Paradise Lost: The Biblically Annotated Edition</i> (Mercer University Press, 2011), 151</span><span style="font-style: normal;">.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote45">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote45anc" name="sdfootnote45sym">45</a> Tertullian
of Carthage, <i>To His Wife</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2.8, in </span><i>Ancient Christian Writers</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
13:35.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote46">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote46anc" name="sdfootnote46sym">46</a> Jacob
of Serugh, <i>Memra</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
71.2415-2416, in </span><i>Texts from Christian Late Antiquity</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
59:76.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote47">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote47anc" name="sdfootnote47sym">47</a> Anastasius
of Sinai, <i>Hexaemeron</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 9.6.7,
in </span><i>Orientalia Christiana Analecta</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
278:349.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote48">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote48anc" name="sdfootnote48sym">48</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>Answer to Faustus, a Manichean</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
12.8, in </span><i>The Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/20:130.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote49">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote49anc" name="sdfootnote49sym">49</a> Thomas
Aquinas, <i>Summa theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> I,
q.92, a.3, in </span><i>Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
13:41.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote50">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote50anc" name="sdfootnote50sym">50</a> Leander
of Seville, <i>Sermon on the Triumph of the Church for the
Conversion of the Goths</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, in
</span><i>Fathers of the Church</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
62:234.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote51">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote51anc" name="sdfootnote51sym">51</a> Anastasius
of Sinai, <i>Hexaemeron</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 9.3.8,
in </span><i>Orientalia Christiana Analecta</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
278:327-329.</span></span></p>
</div>
JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13108158469007498050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442509839497082978.post-52277992183688044502023-11-12T10:37:00.053-05:002023-11-14T11:44:01.982-05:00Venus, Mars, and Eden<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">It was the dawn of the
fifteenth century since the Savior's birth, and Christine de Pizan
was beginning to write faster and faster. A decade or so earlier, at
twenty-five, the plague's theft of her husband Etienne had left her a
widowed mother of three, supporting her likewise widowed mother.
Natives of the Republic of Venice, her father Tommaso had moved the
family to Paris when Christine was not yet four, to become a court
astrologer for the French king Charles V. With no other means of
support once Tommaso and Etienne were taken by the reaper, in the
1390s Christine had turned to writing, with the backing of Queen
Isabeau, who rose in prominence in public affairs as her husband King
Charles VI slipped ever deeper into near-incapacitating mental
illness.
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">As she was reading one
day, she says, Christine began to wonder “how it happened that so
many different men – and learned men among them – have been and
are so inclined to express... so many wicked insults about women.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote1sym" name="sdfootnote1anc"><sup>1</sup></a>
Hadn't even Boccaccio, in his celebration of famous women, said that
women are “endowed with tenderness, frail bodies, and sluggish
minds by nature”?<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote2sym" name="sdfootnote2anc"><sup>2</sup></a>
This constant barrage began to make Christine feel self-conscious,
ashamed of her womanhood, to the point where she “finally decided
that God had formed a vile creature when he made woman. … As I was
thinking this, a great unhappiness and sadness welled up in my heart,
for I detested myself and the entire feminine sex, as though we were
monstrosities in nature. … And in my folly, I considered myself
most unfortunate because God had made me inhabit a female body in
this world.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote3sym" name="sdfootnote3anc"><sup>3</sup></a>
But then God gave her grace to let go of that folly and to write
this book in defense of womankind.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Ten years after she
finished that book, Christine watched as her adopted homeland of
France, already beset by civil war, was invaded from across the
channel. The English king Henry V inflicted defeat after defeat on
the French, so that five years into the invasion, in 1420, he
strong-armed Charles VI and Isabeau into giving Henry their daughter
Catherine in marriage and, with her, a claim to the throne for their
future son – thus disinheriting Charles and Isabeau's own son, the
rightful crown-prince Charles, who struggled to fight on through the
lonely years against the English and their Burgundian allies.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">But then, in the spring
of 1429, the French holdouts found a new defender, of the unlikeliest
sort: a teenage peasant girl, who had lived all her days since
infancy under this black cloud of violence. Jehanne d'Arc – Joan
of Arc – was convinced she'd been raised up by God himself to
rescue France from her darkest hour. She had difficulty persuading
these skeptical soldiers, who were deeply doubtful of this little
girl. Joan had already started wearing men's clothing, believing the
Lord had commanded her through his angels and saints.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote4sym" name="sdfootnote4anc"><sup>4</sup></a>
Dubbing herself 'the Maiden,' she wrote to the English invaders,
announcing that she had “come here from God the King of Heaven to
restore the royal blood,” and ordering them to “go back to your
own countries, for God's sake,” or else “wherever I find your
people in France, I shall make them leave, whether they want to or
not; and if they will not obey, I shall have them all killed. I am
sent from God, the King of Heaven, to boot you all out of France.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote5sym" name="sdfootnote5anc"><sup>5</sup></a>
Adding a layer of armor over her manly clothes, Joan carried a
standard, inspired the troops, and advised the commanders. With this
maiden's help, the French broke the siege on Orleans and began
retaking a town here, a town there. In July 1429, she stood beside
the disinherited prince as he was at last crowned and anointed King
Charles VII of France in the cathedral at Reims. The war had only
begun.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">That very month,
Christine de Pizan wrote her final poem, a celebration of Joan's
story. “This is God's doing who counseled her, who received from
him more courage than any man,” she wrote. “Oh, what an honor to
the female sex!”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote6sym" name="sdfootnote6anc"><sup>6</sup></a>
Christine didn't live to see the day, less than a year later, when
Joan would be a prisoner of war, put on trial by judges who lamented
that “this woman – utterly disregarding the honor due the female
sex, throwing off the bridle of modesty, and forgetting all feminine
decency – wore the disgraceful clothing of men, a shocking and vile
monstrosity.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote7sym" name="sdfootnote7anc"><sup>7</sup></a>
In the official charges against Joan, one was that she “steadfastly
refuses to carry out other tasks proper to her sex, in all things
behaving more like a man than like a woman.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote8sym" name="sdfootnote8anc"><sup>8</sup></a>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">For these and other
alleged offenses, Joan was bound to a stake and burned alive in May
1431, never seeing her twentieth birthday on the earth. It would be
a quarter century before, in 1456, the verdict would be revisited and
reversed; her reputation as a holy woman has only grown in the
centuries since, and today she's counted among the patron saints of
France. But in the aftermath of her life, still we're left with
these two voices: the men who judged her a discredit to women, and
the woman who lauded her an honor to women.
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">When we last left off in
Genesis, we saw that the human being, entrusted with priestly and
royal work to do in the garden, was in solitude. And that was the
one thing God saw as an ugly stain on his wonderful creation: <i>“It
is not good that the human should be alone”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 2:18). So, as we heard <a href="http://iron-in-fire.blogspot.com/2023/11/discover-and-define.html">last week</a>, God paraded in front of
the human all the living creatures, allowing the human to exercise
dominion by discovering and defining them with names of his choosing
(Genesis 2:19-20). But none were able to be the human's partner, none able to complete him or complement him, none to equal him or deliver him.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">So
what Genesis pictures next is pretty amazing. </span><i>“The L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
God caused a deep sleep to fall on the human”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 2:21). That expression, 'a deep sleep,' is the same word we
find elsewhere describing the trance that a prophet went into during
a vision from God, as when Daniel collapsed </span><i>“into a deep
sleep with my face to the ground”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Daniel 8:18; 10:9). Perhaps we're meant to take what follows as
what God shows him in a dream, displaying less the outer events than
the inner meaning of God's work.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote9sym" name="sdfootnote9anc"><sup>9</sup></a>
This is a moment of divine revelation.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“<i>And while he slept,
he took one of his sides and closed up its place with flesh”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 2:21). I know, I know: we're used to hearing that God took
one of Adam's 'ribs.' But the word in Genesis is actually 'side' –
a common architectural word. The tabernacle had sides (Exodus
26:20), the temple had sides (Ezekiel 41:5), the ark of the covenant
had sides (Exodus 25:12). So so does the human body. And it's just
such a side – a crucial element of the structural integrity of
humanity itself – that God grabs hold of here. It's not just any
flesh and bone the Lord seizes on, but the flesh and bone closest to
the man's heart, without which he's utterly exposed.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote10sym" name="sdfootnote10anc"><sup>10</sup></a>
So God yanks out an entire side from the human being, rips him
apart, and stitches what's left of him back together. There's a lot
more missing now than one slim and measly bone. This is a deep
symbol. It'll take time to unpack.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But
what happens next? </span><i>“And the side that the L<span style="font-size: x-small;">ORD</span>
God had taken from the human, he built into a woman, and he brought
her to the human”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Genesis
2:22). She's not sculpted from dust and mud, at least not directly.
No, she's built – again, that language of construction. She's
built like a home is built, like a city is built, like an altar is
built. And the materials are no inert earth, but the very stuff of
human life itself. Her origin is a thing of awe and wonder. Nothing
taken from man is left out, nothing more needs be added. The joyous
completeness of humanity is present when they meet face to face, as
man and woman (Genesis 2:23). It's only in meeting the woman that
the other human is able to recognize and name his own identity as a
man.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote11sym" name="sdfootnote11anc"><sup>11</sup></a>
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
the first lesson we ought to take from this holy tale is the divine
truth that there </span><i>are</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
such things as men and women. In wiser ages, this wouldn't have
needed to be said. How we got here instead is a long and sordid
story. But our culture has broken apart human nature to the point it
can imagine that bodies and persons can be at a mismatch – that the
body you have can be a lie that needs to be conformed to 'who you
really are,' your inner self, the story you want to tell, the role
you perform.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote12sym" name="sdfootnote12anc"><sup>12</sup></a>
But the truth is, we don't just </span><i>happen</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
to inhabit a certain kind of body; we're each body-and-soul as one
seamless thing. The body reveals the person. Our genes, our
anatomy, our lives all bear witness – even if imperfectly – to
the essential deep truth of who we are.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">From
Genesis, in agreement with all human experience, we know that “God
chose to create two sexes” – when he surely could've done
otherwise, could've made us however he wanted, still he chose this
way as the most fitting.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote13sym" name="sdfootnote13anc"><sup>13</sup></a>
God created “two modes of being human,” “two different ways of
being a human person,” “two original modes of being persons”:
the male mode, as a man, and the female mode, as a woman.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote14sym" name="sdfootnote14anc"><sup>14</sup></a>
God acted “by creating male and female, each sex being plainly
evident in the flesh,”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote15sym" name="sdfootnote15anc"><sup>15</sup></a>
a truth “readily recognizable at birth for 99.98% of human beings”
and discernible with patient investigation for the few remaining
outliers.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote16sym" name="sdfootnote16anc"><sup>16</sup></a>
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Biologically,
a male animal is the one whose body is geared toward contributing the
smaller sex cell to the reproductive process, and a female animals is
the one whose body is geared toward contributing the larger sex
cell.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote17sym" name="sdfootnote17anc"><sup>17</sup></a>
That's true “among all plant and animal species that reproduce
sexually,” not just us.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote18sym" name="sdfootnote18anc"><sup>18</sup></a>
So a man is the kind of human who could have a potential for
fatherhood, biological or otherwise, and a woman is the kind of human
who could have a potential for motherhood, biological or otherwise.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote19sym" name="sdfootnote19anc"><sup>19</sup></a>
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">God
created two modes of being human, but not a third. Neither a generic
unsexed humanity nor a third sex is provided for here. In Genesis,
“human sex is strictly binary, male and female.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote20sym" name="sdfootnote20anc"><sup>20</sup></a>
And so “binary distinctions between men and women” are
culturally a “human universal.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote21sym" name="sdfootnote21anc"><sup>21</sup></a>
Nor is there a prospect for Adam to become Eve, or Eve to become
Adam, or either to become some new invention of their own devising.
Manhood and womanhood are priceless gifts from God, and they cannot
be exchanged; there is no returns policy. All the cosmetic
alterations and hormonal replacements cannot delete the truth encoded
in the DNA in just about every cell in a man's or woman's body. The
fact that we're created as bodily beings “puts a limit on choice, a
limit on self-improvisation, a limit on social construction.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote22sym" name="sdfootnote22anc"><sup>22</sup></a>
We have bodies, and they mean things. And one thing our bodies mean
is that your maleness or your femaleness is absolutely inseparable
from who you are; it cannot be stripped off of what it means for you
personally to be human.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote23sym" name="sdfootnote23anc"><sup>23</sup></a>
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">A
second lesson God has for us is that men and women are, in some ways,
different. Now, to say with the old phrase that “men are from Mars
and women are from Venus”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote24sym" name="sdfootnote24anc"><sup>24</sup></a>
is an exaggeration; men and women are much more alike than alien to
each other, and communication between us hardly takes an
interplanetary connection. But we're designed differently, so on
average we think and feel and act differently. There's a real
biology to this: medical practitioners know, for instance, that
“women are more susceptible than men to depression, osteoporosis,
asthma, lung cancer due to smoking, and autoimmune disease,” while
“men are generally at greater risk” of “cardiovascular
disorders such as hypertension, arrhythmias, and heart failure.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote25sym" name="sdfootnote25anc"><sup>25</sup></a>
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Male
and female brains tend to form some differences in the sizes of brain
regions and the ways in which those regions are connected, even in
the womb. Then, even as newborns, boys tend to gravitate more toward
things, while girls tend to gravitate more toward people and to show
more empathy.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote26sym" name="sdfootnote26anc"><sup>26</sup></a>
Already in early childhood, boys tend to gain advantages in more
abstract reasoning, while girls tend to gain advantages in concrete
reasoning and verbal skills.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote27sym" name="sdfootnote27anc"><sup>27</sup></a>
In one study, a typical two-year-old girl knew 40% more words than
the typical boy of the same age.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote28sym" name="sdfootnote28anc"><sup>28</sup></a>
“Girls are also more physically flexible than are boys and have an
advantage in fine-motor coordination.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote29sym" name="sdfootnote29anc"><sup>29</sup></a>
Already at this stage, psychologists find “broader sex differences
in social motives, behaviors, and personality” that manifest
throughout “many different kinds of relationships.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote30sym" name="sdfootnote30anc"><sup>30</sup></a>
And as they grow into their teen years and beyond, their bodies,
brains, and often behaviors will tend to diverge more and more. </span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Genesis
suggests that the woman, as a woman, is </span><i>“fit for the man”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
– literally, she's both like him and the opposite of him, and vice
versa (Genesis 2:20).<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote31sym" name="sdfootnote31anc"><sup>31</sup></a>
Theirs is “a balance of sameness and difference between the
sexes,” offering a “fruitful tension.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote32sym" name="sdfootnote32anc"><sup>32</sup></a>
Men and women are “complementary opposites..., different in ways
that make them natural partners.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote33sym" name="sdfootnote33anc"><sup>33</sup></a>
Sex differences are “arranged purposefully to correspond to the
difference of the other, so that maleness points to femaleness, and
vice versa.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote34sym" name="sdfootnote34anc"><sup>34</sup></a>
So “both femaleness and maleness always have a positive character,
each confirming the goodness of the other.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote35sym" name="sdfootnote35anc"><sup>35</sup></a>
They give each other meaning and fit together to form a social
whole.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Christine
suggested that God had “ordained man and woman to serve him in
different offices, and also to aid and comfort one another, each in
their ordained task, and to each sex God has given a fitting and
appropriate nature and inclination to fulfill their offices.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote36sym" name="sdfootnote36anc"><sup>36</sup></a>
These differences are God-given, she thinks, because men and women
each have unique ways to contribute to God's service – distinctly
but together. </span><i>“In the Lord, woman is not independent of
man, nor man independent of woman”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(1 Corinthians 11:11). To recognize their complementary differences
is “an opportunity for mutual enrichment, as well as a
responsibility that we have toward persons, to help them become
perfect,” to become the fullest men or fullest women God invites
them to be.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote37sym" name="sdfootnote37anc"><sup>37</sup></a>
So society shouldn't think with only a male mind, or feel with only
a female heart. Men and women each need freely to contribute to
society's thinking, feeling, and acting. The more we artificially
suppress the contributions of either women or men, the less fruitful
our society is able to be.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The
third lesson is that men and women are equally valuable – not
something that taken for granted in the world Genesis was written in.
The ancient Greeks, for instance, told a tale where the human race
was originally only men, and the first woman, Pandora, from whom “the
tribe of women comes,” was created by the gods “as an evil for
mankind.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote38sym" name="sdfootnote38anc"><sup>38</sup></a>
Greek philosophers suggested that a female is essentially “a
deformed male,” and that the male is always “better and more
divine” than the female.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote39sym" name="sdfootnote39anc"><sup>39</sup></a>
For that reason, they held that “the relationship of male to
female is that the one is by nature superior, the other inferior, and
the one is ruler, the other ruled.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote40sym" name="sdfootnote40anc"><sup>40</sup></a>
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Unfortunately,
that legacy held on through the centuries. Even Jewish writers
somehow came to imagine that “a woman is inferior to a man in all
respects,”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote41sym" name="sdfootnote41anc"><sup>41</sup></a>
created like Pandora as “the starting point of a blameworthy life”
whose very existence made humanity less like God than when there was
only a male.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote42sym" name="sdfootnote42anc"><sup>42</sup></a>
In this tradition – sadly adopted at some level by many Christians
– men became identified with strength and reason and other good
qualities we might have, with women becoming symbols of weakness, of
emotion, and so on. Hence the need, they thought, for women to be
ruled, reflecting a natural ordering of the soul's lower faculties to
its higher ones. In this mentality, the only real help women were
capable of offering to a male world was by having babies; if not for
that need, some thought, God should've just made a second man and
skipped women altogether.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote43sym" name="sdfootnote43anc"><sup>43</sup></a>
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">So,
since the prevailing common sense became that “woman is by nature
subordinate to man,”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote44sym" name="sdfootnote44anc"><sup>44</sup></a>
even female writers in the Middle Ages often bought into the belief
that women were “inferior by nature.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote45sym" name="sdfootnote45anc"><sup>45</sup></a>
Today, in some circles, the distortion runs in the other direction,
with some believing men are inferior by nature – less sensible,
less open, less adaptable, less capable – or simply stained by a
collective male guilt.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote46sym" name="sdfootnote46anc"><sup>46</sup></a>
Christine, a standout in her era, didn't buy either. She could see
that women “have minds skilled in conceptualizing and learning,
just like men,” and can have “enormous courage, strength, and
boldness to undertake and execute all kinds of hard tasks, just like
those great men... have accomplished.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote47sym" name="sdfootnote47anc"><sup>47</sup></a>
Christine recognized what too many in her time refused to see: “the
endless benefits which have accrued to the world through women.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote48sym" name="sdfootnote48anc"><sup>48</sup></a>
Neither was she dismissive of or hateful toward men and the benefits
that accrued to the world through them.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">So
what does Genesis show us? First, Adam isn't Eve's maker –
something pretty obvious to Adam, who wasn't even awake for the
procedure.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote49sym" name="sdfootnote49anc"><sup>49</sup></a>
Neither, of course, was she his maker. Second, the woman isn't
pictured coming from the crown of his head or the soles of his feet,
as if God were establishing a clear pecking order.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote50sym" name="sdfootnote50anc"><sup>50</sup></a>
He might as well be split down the middle. She comes from his side,
his torso, beside his very heart. And that's the point: she
originates </span><i>on his level</i><span style="font-style: normal;">.
As Christine put it, a woman “should stand at [man's] side as a
companion, and never lie at his feet like a slave.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote51sym" name="sdfootnote51anc"><sup>51</sup></a>
For “God has never held, nor now holds, the feminine sex – nor
that of men – in reproach.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote52sym" name="sdfootnote52anc"><sup>52</sup></a>
“There is not the slightest doubt,” she says, “that women
belong to the people of God and the human race as much as men.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote53sym" name="sdfootnote53anc"><sup>53</sup></a>
And so, whether men or women, we bear “the same human nature, and
with equal fidelity and dignity.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote54sym" name="sdfootnote54anc"><sup>54</sup></a>
Neither man nor woman is the 'normal' or 'privileged' or 'default'
way to be human, as if the other were a deviation, a deformity, a
defect. “Women don't have to act like men to be considered human,
any more than men have to act like women to be considered human.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote55sym" name="sdfootnote55anc"><sup>55</sup></a>
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Then
there's that word God uses for what Adam needs – a </span><i>“helper”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 2:18). Too often, people misread this as a sidekick, a
supporting player whose very identity is subordinate to the man's.
But you know who Israel has as a helper? </span><i>“Blessed is he
whose helper is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the L<span style="font-size: x-small;">ORD</span>
his God”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Psalm 146:5) –
same word! A helper is someone or something that relieves distress,
rescues from danger, even saves from death.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote56sym" name="sdfootnote56anc"><sup>56</sup></a>
If you want a more concrete image of what that looks like, you could
do worse than Joan of Arc.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">God
provides the woman to be the man's helper, who is, in her nature,
like him, equal to him – an equal partner in all the royal and
priestly work that God put humanity here to do. She's his equal
partner in subduing the earth and exercising dominion, in serving God
in worship, in guarding and stewarding the holy garden. A society
that neglects the active help of women or of men is a society that
needs saving. A society in which men and women forget we're
fundamentally allies in a common cause is a society toying with its
own death. Because we are by nature each other's helpers, rescuers,
deliverers from a dark and lonely plight.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
as if that weren't enough, remember that </span><i>“God created the
human in his own image..., male and female he created them”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 1:27). A woman is no less the image of God than a man is,
nor is a man less the image of God than a woman is. Both are equally
embodied reflections of God in the world, here on earth to let
creation reverence its Creator and to spread blessing and life and
hope wherever we go. As one gender studies scholar put it, in
Genesis 1 and 2 “there is no hierarchy of value, no dynamic of
superiority and inferiority. Sexual differentiation is not a mishap,
but cause for celebration and wonder.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote57sym" name="sdfootnote57anc"><sup>57</sup></a>
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Have
we been celebrating it, then? Have we been struck by wonder at “the
beauty of the difference between man and woman,” and at the
profound strength of their equality?<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote58sym" name="sdfootnote58anc"><sup>58</sup></a>
It's a delightful thing when we embrace each other as equals,
celebrate manhood and womanhood as equal in dignity, equal in being
faithful to the image of God, equal and complementary in the Lord –
for male and female, men and women, are </span><i>“one in Christ
Jesus”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Galatians 3:28). May
we this week receive gratefully this gift of our manhood or our
womanhood from God's hands. May we this week enrich each other with
our special contributions. And may we, as men and women, help one
another in this holy mission we share, in Christ's name. Amen.<span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<div id="sdfootnote1">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote1anc" name="sdfootnote1sym">1</a> Christine
de Pizan, <i>Book of the City of Ladies</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1.1.1, in Christine de Pizan, </span><i>The Book of the City of
Ladies</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, translated by Earl
Jeffrey Richards (Persea Books, 1982), 3-4.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote2">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote2anc" name="sdfootnote2sym">2</a> Giovanni
Boccaccio, <i>On Famous Women</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
preface, in Giovanni Boccaccio, </span><i>Concerning Famous Women</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
translated by Guido A. Guarino (Rutgers University Press, 1963),
xxxvii.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote3">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote3anc" name="sdfootnote3sym">3</a> Christine
de Pizan, <i>Book of the City of Ladies</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1.1.1, in Christine de Pizan, </span><i>The Book of the City of
Ladies</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, translated by Earl
Jeffrey Richards (Persea Books, 1982), 5.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote4">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote4anc" name="sdfootnote4sym">4</a> Joan
of Arc, testimony given 27 February 1431, in Daniel Hobbins, tr.,
<i>The Trial of Joan of Arc</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Harvard University Press, 2005), 66-67.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote5">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote5anc" name="sdfootnote5sym">5</a> Joan
of Arc, <i>Letter to the English</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
quoted in Maud Burnett McInerney, </span><i>Eloquent Virgins: From
Thecla to Joan of Arc</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Palgrave
Macmillan, 2003), 211.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote6">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote6anc" name="sdfootnote6sym">6</a> Christine
de Pizan, <i>Tale of Joan of Arc</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
26, 34, in Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, ed., </span><i>The Selected
Writings of Christine de Pizan</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(W. W. Norton, 1997), 256-257.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote7">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote7anc" name="sdfootnote7sym">7</a> Pierre
of Beauvais<i> et al.</i>, preface to trial record, 1431, in Daniel
Hobbins, tr., <i>The Trial of Joan of Arc</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Harvard University Press, 2005), 33.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote8">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote8anc" name="sdfootnote8sym">8</a> Jean
d'Estivet, article 16, read into the record on 27 March 1431, in
Daniel Hobbins, tr., <i>The Trial of Joan of Arc</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Harvard University Press, 2005), 131.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote9">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote9anc" name="sdfootnote9sym">9</a> Ephrem
the Syrian, <i>Commentary on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2.12, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
91:105.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote10">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote10anc" name="sdfootnote10sym">10</a> Leon
R. Kass, <i>The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Free Press, 2003), 101.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote11">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote11anc" name="sdfootnote11sym">11</a> Antonio
Malo, <i>Transcending Gender Ideology: A Philosophy of Sexual
Difference</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, translated by Alice
Pavey (Catholic University of America Press, 2020), 97.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote12">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote12anc" name="sdfootnote12sym">12</a> Andrew
T. Walker, <i>God and the Transgender Debate: What Does the Bible
Actually Say About Gender Identity?</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Good Book Company, 2017), 25-26.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote13">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote13anc" name="sdfootnote13sym">13</a> Mark
A. Yarhouse, <i>Understanding Gender Dysphoria: Navigating Transgender
Issues in a Changing Culture</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(IVP Academic, 2015), 37.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote14">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote14anc" name="sdfootnote14sym">14</a> Antonio
Malo, <i>Transcending Gender Ideology: A Philosophy of Sexual
Difference</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, translated by Alice
Pavey (Catholic University of America Press, 2020), 76; </span>Prudence
Allen, “Gender Reality vs. Gender Ideology,” in Paul C. Vitz,
ed., <i>The Complementarity of Men and Women: Philosophy, Theology,
Psychology, and Art</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Catholic
University of America Press, 2021), 74; Abigail Favale, </span><i>The
Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Ignatius Press, 2022), 38.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote15">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote15anc" name="sdfootnote15sym">15</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>The City of God</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
14.22, in </span><i>The Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/7:129.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote16">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote16anc" name="sdfootnote16sym">16</a> Abigail
Favale, <i>The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Ignatius Press, 2022), 127.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote17">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote17anc" name="sdfootnote17sym">17</a> Anne
Campbell, <i>A Mind of Her Own: The Evolutionary Psychology of
Women</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, 2</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;">nd</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
ed. (Oxford University Press, 2013), 17.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote18">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote18anc" name="sdfootnote18sym">18</a> Abigail
Favale, <i>The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Ignatius Press, 2022), 124.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote19">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote19anc" name="sdfootnote19sym">19</a> J.
Budziszewski, “The Meaning of Sexual Differences,” in Paul C.
Vitz, ed., <i>The Complementarity of Men and Women: Philosophy,
Theology, Psychology, and Art</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Catholic University of America Press, 2021), 29.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote20">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote20anc" name="sdfootnote20sym">20</a> Lawson
G. Stone, “Garden of Delights and Dilemmas: The Old Testament on
Sex,” in Jerry L. Walls, Jeremy Neill, and David Baggett, eds.,
<i>Venus and Virtue: Celebrating Sex and Seeking Sanctification</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Cascade Books, 2018), 6.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote21">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote21anc" name="sdfootnote21sym">21</a> Anne
Campbell, <i>A Mind of Her Own: The Evolutionary Psychology of
Women</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, 2</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;">nd</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
ed. (Oxford University Press, 2013), 25.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote22">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote22anc" name="sdfootnote22sym">22</a> Abigail
Favale, <i>The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Ignatius Press, 2022), 83.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote23">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote23anc" name="sdfootnote23sym">23</a> Deborah
Savage, “Woman and Man: Identity, Genius, and Mission,” in Paul
C. Vitz, ed., <i>The Complementarity of Men and Women: Philosophy,
Theology, Psychology, and Art</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Catholic University of America Press, 2021), </span>105.</span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote24">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote24anc" name="sdfootnote24sym">24</a> From
the title of John Gray, <i>Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus:
A Practical Guide for Improving Communication and Getting What You
Want in Your Relationships</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(HarperCollins, 1992).</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote25">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote25anc" name="sdfootnote25sym">25</a> Bohuslav
Ostadal and Naranjan S. Dhalla, <i>Sex Differences in Heart Disease</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Springer, 2020), ix.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote26">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote26anc" name="sdfootnote26sym">26</a> David
C. Geary, <i>Male, Female: The Evolution of Human Sex Differences</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
3</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;">rd</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
ed. (American Psychological Association, 2021), 303-30; </span>Paul
C. Vitz, “Men and Women: Their Differences and Their
Complementarity: Evidence from Psychology and Neuroscience,” in
Paul C. Vitz, ed., <i>The Complementarity of Men and Women:
Philosophy, Theology, Psychology, and Art</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Catholic University of America Press, 2021), 187-188.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote27">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote27anc" name="sdfootnote27sym">27</a> Paul
C. Vitz, “Men and Women: Their Differences and Their
Complementarity: Evidence from Psychology and Neuroscience,” in
Paul C. Vitz, ed., <i>The Complementarity of Men and Women:
Philosophy, Theology, Psychology, and Art</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Catholic University of America Press, 2021), 190-193.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote28">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote28anc" name="sdfootnote28sym">28</a> David
C. Geary, <i>Male, Female: The Evolution of Human Sex Differences</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
3</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;">rd</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
ed. (American Psychological Association, 2021), 326.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote29">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote29anc" name="sdfootnote29sym">29</a> David
C. Geary, <i>Male, Female: The Evolution of Human Sex Differences</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
3</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;">rd</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
ed. (American Psychological Association, 2021), 301.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote30">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote30anc" name="sdfootnote30sym">30</a> David
C. Geary, <i>Male, Female: The Evolution of Human Sex Differences</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
3</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;">rd</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
ed. (American Psychological Association, 2021), 341.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote31">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote31anc" name="sdfootnote31sym">31</a> Iain
W. Provan, <i>Seriously Dangerous Religion: What the Old Testament
Really Says and Why It Matters</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Baylor University Press, 2014), 87; Lawson G. Stone, “Garden of
Delights and Dilemmas: The Old Testament on Sex,” in Jerry L.
Walls, Jeremy Neill, and David Baggett, eds., </span><i>Venus and
Virtue: Celebrating Sex and Seeking Sanctification</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Cascade Books, 2018), 11.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote32">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote32anc" name="sdfootnote32sym">32</a> Abigail
Favale, <i>The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Ignatius Press, 2022), 39. </span></span>
</p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote33">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote33anc" name="sdfootnote33sym">33</a> J.
Budziszewski, “The Meaning of Sexual Differences,” in Paul C.
Vitz, ed., <i>The Complementarity of Men and Women: Philosophy,
Theology, Psychology, and Art</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Catholic University of America Press, 2021), </span>14.</span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote34">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote34anc" name="sdfootnote34sym">34</a> Abigail
Favale, <i>The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Ignatius Press, 2022), 41.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote35">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote35anc" name="sdfootnote35sym">35</a> Antonio
Malo, <i>Transcending Gender Ideology: A Philosophy of Sexual
Difference</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, translated by Alice
Pavey (Catholic University of America Press, 2020), 86.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote36">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote36anc" name="sdfootnote36sym">36</a> Christine
de Pizan, <i>Book of the City of Ladies</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1.11.1, in Christine de Pizan, </span><i>The Book of the City of
Ladies</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, translated by Earl
Jeffrey Richards (Persea Books, 1982), 31.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote37">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote37anc" name="sdfootnote37sym">37</a> Antonio
Malo, <i>Transcending Gender Ideology: A Philosophy of Sexual
Difference</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, translated by Alice
Pavey (Catholic University of America Press, 2020), 91.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote38">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote38anc" name="sdfootnote38sym">38</a> Hesiod,
<i>Theogony</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> lines 570, 590, in
Catherine Schlegel and Henry Weinfield, tr., </span><i>Hesiod:
Theogony and Works and Days</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(The University of Michigan Press, 2006), 41.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote39">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote39anc" name="sdfootnote39sym">39</a> Aristotle,
<i>On the Generation of Animals</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
II.1 732a and II.3 737a, in C.D.C. Reeve, tr., </span><i>Aristotle:
Generation of Animals, History of Animals I, Parts of Animals I</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Hackett Publishing, 2019), 72, 82.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote40">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote40anc" name="sdfootnote40sym">40</a> Aristotle,
<i>Politics</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> I.5.3 1254b, in
Trevor J. Saunders, tr., </span><i>Aristotle: Politics, Books I and
II</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Clarendon Press, 1995), 7.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote41">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote41anc" name="sdfootnote41sym">41</a> Josephus,
<i>Against Apion</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 2.201, in
</span><i>Flavius Josephus: Translation and Commentary</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
10:284.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote42">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote42anc" name="sdfootnote42sym">42</a> Philo
of Alexandria, <i>On the Creation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
21 </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">151,
in David T. Runia, tr., </span><i>Philo of Alexandria: On the
Creation of the Cosmos According to Moses: Introduction,
Translation, and Commentary</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Brill, 2001), 87.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote43">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote43anc" name="sdfootnote43sym">43</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>Literal Meaning of Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
9.5 </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">9,
in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/13:380; Thomas Aquinas, </span><i>Summa theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I, q.92, a.1, in </span><i>Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
13:35-37.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote44">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote44anc" name="sdfootnote44sym">44</a> Thomas
Aquinas, <i>Summa theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> I,
q.92, a.1, </span><i>ad</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 2, in
</span><i>Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
13:39.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote45">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote45anc" name="sdfootnote45sym">45</a> Isotta
Nogarola, <i>Dialogue on the Equal or Unequal Sin of Adam and Eve
</i><span style="font-style: normal;">(1451), in Margaret L. King and
Diana Robin, </span><i>Isotta Nogarola: Complete Writings</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(University of Chicago Press, 2004), 150.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote46">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote46anc" name="sdfootnote46sym">46</a> For
instance, Paul Nathanson and Katherine K. Young, <i>Spreading
Misandry: The Teaching of Contempt for Men in Popular Culture</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(McGill-Queen's University Press, 2001), 4, 7, argue that “in our
time, surprising though it might sound, belief in the full humanity
of </span><i>men</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> has been
dangerously undermined by stereotypes based on ignorance and
prejudice,” a prejudice ('misandry,' hatred of men) they detect
“in almost every genre of popular culture – books, television
shows, movies, greeting cards, comic strips, ads or commercials, and
so on,” especially from the 1990s onward.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote47">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote47anc" name="sdfootnote47sym">47</a> Christine
de Pizan, <i>Book of the City of Ladies</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1.14.3, 1.27.1, in Christine de Pizan, </span><i>The Book of the
City of Ladies</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, translated by
Earl Jeffrey Richards (Persea Books, 1982), 37-38, 63.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote48">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote48anc" name="sdfootnote48sym">48</a> Christine
de Pizan, <i>Book of the City of Ladies</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2.30.1, in Christine de Pizan, </span><i>The Book of the City of
Ladies</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, translated by Earl
Jeffrey Richards (Persea Books, 1982), 142.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote49">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote49anc" name="sdfootnote49sym">49</a> James
McKeown, <i>Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, Two
Horizons Old Testament Commentary (Eerdmans, 2008), 34.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote50">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote50anc" name="sdfootnote50sym">50</a><span style="font-style: normal;"> Thomas
Aquinas, </span><i>Summa theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I, q.92, a.3, in </span><i>Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
13:43: “The woman should never </span><i>'have authority over the
man'</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> [1 Timothy 2:12], and
therefore she was not formed from his head; nor should she be
despised by the man as though she were merely his slave, and so she
was not formed from his feet.”</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote51">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote51anc" name="sdfootnote51sym">51</a> Christine
de Pizan, <i>Book of the City of Ladies</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1.9.2, in Christine de Pizan, </span><i>The Book of the City of
Ladies</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, translated by Earl
Jeffrey Richards (Persea Books, 1982), 23.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote52">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote52anc" name="sdfootnote52sym">52</a> Christine
de Pizan, <i>Book of the City of Ladies</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1.48.1, in Christine de Pizan, </span><i>The Book of the City of
Ladies</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, translated by Earl
Jeffrey Richards (Persea Books, 1982), 97.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote53">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote53anc" name="sdfootnote53sym">53</a> Christine
de Pizan, <i>Book of the City of Ladies</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2.54.1, in Christine de Pizan, </span><i>The Book of the City of
Ladies</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, translated by Earl
Jeffrey Richards (Persea Books, 1982), 187.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote54">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote54anc" name="sdfootnote54sym">54</a> J.
Budziszewski, “The Meaning of Sex Differences,” in Paul C. Vitz,
ed., <i>The Complementarity of Men and Women: Philosophy, Theology,
Psychology, and Art</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Catholic
University of America Press, 2021), </span>13.</span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote55">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote55anc" name="sdfootnote55sym">55</a> Deborah
Savage, “Woman and Man: Identity, Genius, and Mission,” in Paul
C. Vitz, ed., <i>The Complementarity of Men and Women: Philosophy,
Theology, Psychology, and Art</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Catholic University of America Press, 2021), </span>106.</span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote56">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote56anc" name="sdfootnote56sym">56</a> Victor
P. Hamilton, <i>The Book of Genesis, Chapters 1-17</i>, New International Commentary on the Old Testament<span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eerdmans, 1990), 176.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote57">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote57anc" name="sdfootnote57sym">57</a> Abigail
Favale, <i>The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Ignatius Press, 2022), 40.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote58">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote58anc" name="sdfootnote58sym">58</a> Antonio
Malo, <i>Transcending Gender Ideology: A Philosophy of Sexual
Difference</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, translated by Alice
Pavey (Catholic University of America Press, 2020), 192.</span></span></p>
</div>
JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13108158469007498050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442509839497082978.post-50062488044946925022023-11-05T11:17:00.002-05:002023-11-06T10:05:57.954-05:00Discover and Define<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">It was shaping up to be a
good year for Carl. It was late May 1753, and the first volume of
his latest book was rolling off the presses at Lars Silvius'
workshop. The second volume would be ready in August. This wasn't
his first book – not by a long shot – but it would make history.
Carl – or 'Carolus Linnaeus,' as he styled himself in Latin –
taught at Uppsala University in eastern Sweden, over 300 miles from
the village where he was born and raised. There in Uppsala he lived
with his wife, 12-year-old son, and four younger daughters in a
little wooden house next to his orderly botanical garden, his 'living
library of plants' all laid out in neat rows, with its menagerie of
monkeys, parrots, and more. It was, in a way, his paradise to walk
about in.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote1sym" name="sdfootnote1anc"><sup>1</sup></a>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The wayward son of a
Lutheran pastor, having absorbed less of piety and more of botany,
still Carl's deepest thinking had been shaped by the Book of
Genesis.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote2sym" name="sdfootnote2anc"><sup>2</sup></a>
He was fascinated by what the world around him preached about “the
Author of Nature” who had covered this earth with such diverse
delights.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote3sym" name="sdfootnote3anc"><sup>3</sup></a>
And now, in his newest book, <i>Species Plantarum</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
he proclaimed that “the world is the theater of the Almighty,
adorned on all sides with the highest miracles of omniscient wisdom.”
The human being is here, he said, as God's house guest. But any
guest, wrote Linnaeus, is unworthy of the hospitality if he doesn't
“know how to look at and appreciate the great things of the owner.”
So, to acquit ourselves of being awful guests, it's only right to
“research these creations by the Creator” so that each creature
can be “clearly grasped and clearly named.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote4sym" name="sdfootnote4anc"><sup>4</sup></a>
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Out
of his deep passion for nature, Linnaeus was on a mission to
systematically organize all human knowledge about plants, animals,
even minerals. For that reason, in this book he'd set out to catalog
every known species of plant in the world, over 7300 of them, and
give each a name – a scientific name in Latin with just two words,
a genus and a species. Linnaeus' strategy, binomial nomenclature, is
what we still use today. If you've ever heard of a </span><i>Tyrannosaurus
rex</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, well, that's its binomial
nomenclature. Linnaeus was the first person to call you a </span><i>Homo
sapiens</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> – he came up with
binomial nomenclature for us, too. Every living thing in the world,
once we discover it, gets a name in Linnaeus' style, from </span><i>Felis
catus</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (cat) and </span><i>Canis
familiaris</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (dog) to our national
bird </span><i>Haliaeetus leucocephalus </i><span style="font-style: normal;">(bald
eagle). And for this scientific language of praise, he's gone down
in history.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Seven
years before this book came out, when he was already on that crusade
and was several years settled into his garden home, a rival, Albrecht von Haller, had
sarcastically accused Linnaeus of having “considered himself the
second Adam.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote5sym" name="sdfootnote5anc"><sup>5</sup></a>
And to understand why, we're going to need to reflect on this
morning's passage.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Last
Sunday, we learned that for Israel's neighbors, the phrase 'image of
a god' was their way of setting the king apart from the slave-like or
beast-like status of human beings before their gods. When Genesis
proclaims the human being, the everyman, as made 'in the image and
likeness of God,' then, it's a revolutionary declaration that we are,
in our very identity, the royal species on earth. As the image of
God, it's our royal responsibility to subdue the earth, to claim all
the earth as our own and to steward its resources, cultivate it, and
bring life and order to what once was dead and chaotic. It's also
our royal responsibility to exercise dominion, to govern all the
other living creatures around us, not as tyrants but as caring and
compassionate kings and queens of nature.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
now, in today's passage, we have the scene where Adam's dominion is
first put to the test, given its original opportunity to shine. </span><i>“Out
of the ground, the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens.”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
Then what? </span><i>“He brought them to the human being”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 2:19). They come obediently, come willingly, come in
fellowship and friendship and even play.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote6sym" name="sdfootnote6anc"><sup>6</sup></a>
This isn't a quick display; this is a one-by-one introduction. God
is “calling on Adam to examine each animal carefully.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote7sym" name="sdfootnote7anc"><sup>7</sup></a>
Adam was, in the words of one old saint, “at once immersed in the
study of all natural things,” which the animals here represented.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote8sym" name="sdfootnote8anc"><sup>8</sup></a>
Adam isn't being spoonfed by the Lord. God wanted Adam – wants us
– to learn some knowledge through our own effort.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote9sym" name="sdfootnote9anc"><sup>9</sup></a>
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">So
Adam has to meet each and every kind of animal. He has to get to
know each of them, not in theory but in experience. He has to look
at them, listen to them, observe them, study them. So the man in the
garden meets all these animals, with the expectation that he's going
to use his authority, use his dominion, to understand them and name
them. “Adam would have had to study the animals to name them
appropriately.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote10sym" name="sdfootnote10anc"><sup>10</sup></a>
And as a pair of biblical scholars put it, “if we are to rule
wisely and well in creation, we need to learn all we can about the
earth and other creatures for whose care we bear some
responsibility.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote11sym" name="sdfootnote11anc"><sup>11</sup></a>
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Later
in the Bible, we meet a man named Solomon. The son of David, he's a
king, and God answers his prayers for wisdom. God giveth in
abundance: Solomon was </span><i>“wiser than all other men”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(1 Kings 4:31). And one of the expressions of that, and of his
kingship, was how much he knew and understood about God's world.
We're told in the Bible that King Solomon </span><i>“spoke of
trees, from the cedar that's in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out
of the wall; he spoke also of beasts and of birds and of crawlers and
of fish”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (1 Kings 4:33). In
his proverbs King Solomon professes that God might be glorified when
he buries his deep mysteries beneath the surface appearances of
creation, but the royal glory of a king like Solomon is </span><i>“to
search things out,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> to
investigate, to uncover by study the truth about the world that God
has buried there, waiting for it to be discovered (Proverbs 25:2).
One expression of royal glory, one mode of exercising dominion, is to
study and learn, to inspect and investigate, to explore and discover.
The early scientist Francis Bacon quoted that very proverb of
Solomon as applying to “the sciences which regard nature.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote12sym" name="sdfootnote12anc"><sup>12</sup></a>
Because that's what Bacon saw Adam doing in the garden.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Here's
something that might surprise you, especially if for decades you've
been hearing people pit science and faith against each other. At the
dawn of modern science, the story of Adam in the Garden of Eden was
crucial to how modern science got started. A tradition had developed
where Adam, the prototype human being in the garden, had incredible
insight into the natures of things.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote13sym" name="sdfootnote13anc"><sup>13</sup></a>
Francis Bacon referred to “that pure and uncorrupted natural
knowledge whereby Adam gave names to the creatures according to their
propriety.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote14sym" name="sdfootnote14anc"><sup>14</sup></a>
Even Linnaeus later said that “Adam knew them all and named them
all according to their kind, species, and nature.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote15sym" name="sdfootnote15anc"><sup>15</sup></a>
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But
it was obvious that, east of Eden, learning didn't work so smoothly.
And so, to compensate for what they believed Adam lost in terms of
knowledge, sensation, and dominion when he sinned, the early modern
scientists decided we'd need to carefully use our reason, we'd need
to verify everything with experiments, we'd need to create tools to
magnify our weakened senses, and so on.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote16sym" name="sdfootnote16anc"><sup>16</sup></a>
And when they developed the scientific method, they said explicitly
that their goal was to try to relearn what Adam knew and redo the
sorts of things Adam did. Bacon believed that “the first acts
which man performed in Paradise consisted of the two summary parts of
knowledge: the view of creatures and the imposition of names.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote17sym" name="sdfootnote17anc"><sup>17</sup></a>
Their goal was to exactly that, to repeat what they called “the
first service that Adam performed to his Creator, when he obeyed him
in mustering and naming and looking into the nature of all the
creatures,” because praises are better aimed “when they are
offered up to heaven from the mouth of one who has well studied what
he commends.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote18sym" name="sdfootnote18anc"><sup>18</sup></a>
Their hope was that sin's interference in human dominion over
creation could be at least “in some part repaired... by arts and
sciences.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote19sym" name="sdfootnote19anc"><sup>19</sup></a>
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Linnaeus
couldn't have said it better. And that's how Linnaeus, in von
Haller's eyes, “considered himself a second Adam” who “gave
names to all the animals after their distinctive marks,” thus
assuming an “unbounded dominion.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote20sym" name="sdfootnote20anc"><sup>20</sup></a>
Linnaeus was imitating the man in the garden. This passage in
Genesis has been recognized as “the biblical root of scientific
taxonomy and all the natural sciences.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote21sym" name="sdfootnote21anc"><sup>21</sup></a>
And Adam has even been called “the first scientist.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote22sym" name="sdfootnote22anc"><sup>22</sup></a>
Dominion calls us to science, to philosophy, to history, to art, to
exploration.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">In
learning about God's world like that, Isaiah says that such a person
is being instructed by God (Isaiah 28:26). Isaiah describes the
agricultural science of his day – things learned by reason, by
experience, by trial-and-error – and boldly announces: </span><i>“This
also comes from the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
of Hosts! He is wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Isaiah 28:29). When scientists do science well, when historians do
history well, when philosphers do philosophy well, God is the one
teaching them things in their experiments and explorations, in their
surveys and their studies. And that blows apart any ability we have
to imagine that faith calls us to ignore them. Because that would be
ignoring the Lord's own voice of instruction to us. So don't listen
to the science-versus-faith folks, inside the church or outside of
it. Because God wants us to strive to learn all that's good to know.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">We
have a biblical commission to learn about God's world: </span><i>“An
intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks
knowledge”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Proverbs 18:15).
We have a biblical commission to encourage others to learn more about
God's world: </span><i>“The tongue of the wise commends knowledge”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Proverbs 15:2). We have a biblical commission to pass on what we
learn about God's world: </span><i>“The lips of the wise spread
knowledge”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Proverbs 15:7).
We have a biblical commission to live our lives using what we've
learned about God's world: </span><i>“Every prudent man acts with
knowledge, but a fool flaunts his folly”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Proverbs 13:16). And we have a biblical promise that using
knowledge is a richer way to live: </span><i>“By wisdom a house is
built, by understanding it is established, and by knowledge the rooms
are filled with all precious and pleasant riches”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Proverbs 24:3-4). </span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But
back to Genesis. What is God up to in chapter 1? Creating things –
and naming them. </span><i>“God called the light 'Day,' and the
darkness he called 'Night'”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 1:5). </span><i>“God called the firmament 'Heaven'”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 1:8). </span><i>“God called the dry land 'Earth,' and the
waters that were gathered together he called 'Seas'”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 1:10). It's by both creating and naming, a two-part action,
that God makes reality be what it is. So it should be pretty
surprising that God then seems to take a step back. He brings all
the living creatures to Adam, to humanity, </span><i>“to see what
he would call them”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Genesis
2:19).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">That
presumes, of course, that the human being </span><i>can</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
call them something. If we read through the text, this is the first
hint, in biblical order, that the human being has such capacity. No
other animal besides the human animal could name the animals. A
chimpanzee has no chimp word for a lion or an ant, and certainly
could never try to define 'lion' or 'ant.' But we humans have
language. We humans have concepts, reason, intellect. St. Augustine
said that “to distinguish [creatures] and differentiate between
them by naming them is something only reason can do by making a
judgment about them.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote23sym" name="sdfootnote23anc"><sup>23</sup></a>
We can classify animals because we have concepts of their natures
and the ability to express those concepts, and ideas about those
concepts, in communication, in language. Alone among the earthly
creatures, we have the power to name, the power of language creation.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">So
God is content, in this case, to yield the floor to Adam. God gave
him the chance to choose how to call each critter. </span><i>“And
whatever the human called every living creature, that was its name.
The human called names to all livestock and to the birds of the
heavens and to every beast of the field”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 2:19-20). That's something God didn't have to let Adam do.
God could have dictated these names, could've said the final and only
word on their reality. Instead, God lets Adam flex the power of
language. God made humans to be what one scientist calls “compulsive
classifiers.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote24sym" name="sdfootnote24anc"><sup>24</sup></a>
So Adam crafts names, crafts words, crafts a language that, to his
sinless mind, both suits the world as God created it but also shapes
the world that God created. In a way, Adam's naming creates a
“second world,” a world that mirrors and overlays the world as it
came from the hand of God.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote25sym" name="sdfootnote25anc"><sup>25</sup></a>
What we have to remember is that meaning in our world isn't
delivered by God on a silver platter, but neither is it totally up to
us, as if the world could be just whatever we choose for it to be.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote26sym" name="sdfootnote26anc"><sup>26</sup></a>
Adam uses language to see the world as God made it and then, based
on that truth, to decide “the social and functional place of each
animal.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote27sym" name="sdfootnote27anc"><sup>27</sup></a>
Adam verbally partners with God in constructing the reality and
meaning of life.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote28sym" name="sdfootnote28anc"><sup>28</sup></a>
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Naming
– language – is often a display of power, an assertion of
dominion. The psalmist points out that mighty kings had a practice
of </span><i>“calling lands by their own names,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
thereby claiming a lasting dominion (Psalm 49:11). Even something so
seemingly simple as naming is “a form of acting on the world” to
claim it and change it.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote29sym" name="sdfootnote29anc"><sup>29</sup></a>
And so Adam naming the animals was “a symbol of his dominion”
over them, an assertion of power.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote30sym" name="sdfootnote30anc"><sup>30</sup></a>
But for him, it was also a display of recognition, even of
relationship – recognizing a shared reality between the human and
the living creature, and using language to help bind that shared
reality together.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote31sym" name="sdfootnote31anc"><sup>31</sup></a>
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">It's
up to us whether we use our power to name to control and manipulate
or to acknowledge and relate. Sadly, it's a power we easily misuse,
especially when we name the world in ways that are at odds with the
nature of things God made. There was a man named Victor Klemperer, a
language professor in Dresden; he was in his fifties when the Nazi
Party took power in Germany. Victor was, by birth, Jewish, the son
of a rabbi. Forced into retirement in 1935, he only survived the
Holocaust because of his German wife. During those agonizing years,
he carefully studied the ways the Nazi regime manipulated the German
language so as to skew the ways Germans were able to think about the
world – “making language the servant of its dreadful system,”
Klemperer called it.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote32sym" name="sdfootnote32anc"><sup>32</sup></a>
“The language of a clique became the language of the people: it
seized hold of all realms of public and private life,” until
everybody was speaking with “the same clichés and the same tone.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote33sym" name="sdfootnote33anc"><sup>33</sup></a>
Publishing his studies immediately after the war, he insisted the
only way to heal German minds was to unlearn “the language of
Nazism.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote34sym" name="sdfootnote34anc"><sup>34</sup></a>
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Between
that 'language of Nazism' and similar distortions of language in the
Soviet Union, the novelist George Orwell in 1949 sketched a
terrifying vision of a future state determined to rule the very souls
of its citizenry through a revised version of English called
'Newspeak,' which was intended “not only to provide a medium of
expression for the worldview and mental habits proper to the devotees
of [the state ideology], but to make all other modes of thought
impossible.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote35sym" name="sdfootnote35anc"><sup>35</sup></a>
He pictured Newspeak as full of newly invented words that encoded
value judgments – for instance, ideas consistent with the approved
state perspective are called 'goodthink,' and forced-labor camps are
called 'joycamps,' while Oldspeak words like 'science,' 'religion,'
'morality,' 'justice,' and 'democracy' had “simply ceased to
exist.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote36sym" name="sdfootnote36anc"><sup>36</sup></a>
Big Brother perverts language to keep souls under its dominion.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">In
much lesser ways today, various social forces have made language an
arena for their struggle after power, engaged in a battle to shape
people's language so as to reshape the world we see ourselves in.
And they can do that because they're perverting a real human power, a
power given by God: to exercise dominion over creation through the
gift of language. We're meant to do it faithfully. We're meant to
do it, not to amass power for ourselves at the expense of others, but
to reflect God-given reality while ministering God's love and God's
truth to the world. Building along the grain of what God has spoken,
we should be naming the world without greed or corruption, but in
holiness of mind and tongue. But we must name the world, name the
things in the world. Because part of our dominion is the royal call
to discover and define the world around us.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Which
leads us to our Overlord, the One who wields supreme dominion, the
One in whose footsteps all such human dominion is lived out: the Lord
Jesus Christ. Before the world began to be, Jesus was the Word who
was in the beginning with God, as fully all that God was (John
1:1-2). Jesus is the Word in whom the Father created all things,
</span><i>“and without him was not any thing made that was made”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(John 1:3). </span><i>“And he is before all things, and in him all
things hold together”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Colossians 1:17). They find their source in him, their substance in
him, their coherence in him. Jesus is at the root of creation, and
so all our study of the world, all our reasoning, exploring, is a
great quest whose destination is ultimately Jesus Christ. As the
Word that holds the universe together at the widest and smallest
scales, Jesus is the Goal toward which all science is aiming, from
Adam to Einstein, from Bacon to Linnaeus to Darwin and beyond.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
if he's the Word </span><i>“full of grace and truth”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(John 1:14), then he's the One in whom God speaks realities that all
our language can't erase, but can only embrace him or pass away. His
is the Name above any name Adam or Linnaeus ever gave. Jesus is the
True Language of God, and only when we'll fully have Christ for our
vocabulary and fully have Christ for our grammar will we name the
world in trustworthy and true ways that stand the test of eternity.
When we were sinners groping blindly in the dark, we heard him say:
</span><i>“I name you, though you do not know me”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Isaiah 45:4). And after all's said and done, </span><i>“his
servants he will call by another name”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
at long last (Isaiah 65:15), a </span><i>“new name”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
unsullied by all the language games of the past, a name that gives us
a new world (Revelation 2:17). In hope of his promise, go learn
something about God's world this week, go speak of it in truthful
ways, for the praise of the God who has made all things in the wisdom
of his love!<span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<div id="sdfootnote1">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote1anc" name="sdfootnote1sym">1</a> Gunnar
Broberg, <i>The Man Who Organized Nature: The Life of Linnaeus</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Princeton University Press, 2023), 194-204.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote2">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote2anc" name="sdfootnote2sym">2</a> Gunnar
Broberg, <i>The Man Who Organized Nature: The Life of Linnaeus</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Princeton University Press, 2023), 367.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote3">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote3anc" name="sdfootnote3sym">3</a> Carolus
Linnaeus, <i>Hortus Cliffortianus: Plantas exhibens quas In
Hortistam Vivis quam Siccis, Hartecampi in Hollandia, coluit Vir
Nobilissimus et Generosissimus Georgius Clifford, Juris Utriusque
Doctor, Reductis Varietatibus ad Species, Speciebus ad Genera,
Generibus ad Classes, Adjectis Locis Plantarum natalibus
Differentiisque Specierum [= The Garden of Clifford, Exhibiting the
Plants that Live and Dry in the Gardens at Hartecamp in Holland,
Cultivated by the Most Noble and Most Generous Man George Clifford,
Doctor of Both Laws [i.e., Civil Law and Canon Law], Referring the
Varieties to Species, Species to Genera, Genera to Classes, Adding
the Native Places of the Plants and the Differences of the Species]</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Amsterdam: n.p., 1737), dedication </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">1,
translated in John L. Heller, “Linnaeus' </span><i>Hortus
Cliffortianus</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,” </span><i>Taxon</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
17/6 (December 1968): 667.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote4">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote4anc" name="sdfootnote4sym">4</a> Carolus
Linnaeus, <i>Species Plantarum, Exhibentes Plantas Rite Cognitas, ad
Genera Relatas, cum Differentiis Specificis, Nominibus Trivialibus,
Synonymis Selectis, Locis Natalibus, Secundum Systema Sexuale
Digestas [= Species of Plants, Exhibiting Plants Properly Known,
Relating to Genera with Specific Differences, Trivial Names,
Selected Synonyms, Native Places, Classified According to the Sexual
System]</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Laurentii Salvii,
1753), 1:3.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote5">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote5anc" name="sdfootnote5sym">5</a> Albrecht
von Haller, letter dated 8 April 1746, quoted in Gunnar Broberg, <i>The
Man Who Organized Nature: The Life of Linnaeus</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Princeton University Press, 2023), 305; and more fully Peter
Harrison, “Linnaeus as a Second Adam? Taxonomy and the Religious
Vocation,” </span><i>Zygon</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
44/4 (December 2009): 879.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote6">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote6anc" name="sdfootnote6sym">6</a> Michael
S. Northcott, “Reading Genesis in Borneo: Work, Guardianship, and
Companion Animals in Genesis 2,” in Nathan Macdonald, <i>et al.</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
eds., </span><i>Genesis and Christian Theology</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eerdmans, 2012), 201.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote7">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote7anc" name="sdfootnote7sym">7</a> Daniel
I. Block, “To Serve and to Keep: Toward a Biblical Understanding
of Humanity's Responsibility in the Face of the Biodiversity
Crisis,” in Noah J. Toly and Daniel I. Block, eds., <i>Keeping
God's Earth: The Global Environment in Biblical Perspective</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(IVP Academic, 2010), 131.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote8">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote8anc" name="sdfootnote8sym">8</a> John
Cassian, <i>Conferences</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 8.21.4,
in </span><i>Ancient Christian Writers</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
57:306.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote9">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote9anc" name="sdfootnote9sym">9</a> John
C. Lennox, <i>Seven Days That Divide the World: The Beginning
According to Genesis and Science</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Zondervan, 2011), 29.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote10">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote10anc" name="sdfootnote10sym">10</a> Robert
C. Bishop, et al., <i>Understanding Scientific Theories of Origins:
Cosmology, Geology, and Biology in Christian Perspective</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(IVP Academic, 2018), 65.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote11">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote11anc" name="sdfootnote11sym">11</a> Douglas
J. Moo and Jonathan A. Moo, <i>Creation Care: A Biblical Theology of
the Natural World</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Zondervan
Academic, 2018), 80.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote12">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote12anc" name="sdfootnote12sym">12</a> Francis
Bacon, <i>The Great Instauration</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(1620), in Jerry Weinberger, ed., </span><i>Francis Bacon: New
Atlantis and the Great Instauration</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
2</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;">nd</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
ed. (Wiley Blackwell, 2017), 17.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote13">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote13anc" name="sdfootnote13sym">13</a> Peter
Harrison, <i>The Fall of Man and the Foundations of Science</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Cambridge University Press, 2007), 19; Mark A. Waddell, </span><i>Magic,
Science, and Religion in Early Modern Europe</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Cambridge University Press, 2021), 24.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote14">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote14anc" name="sdfootnote14sym">14</a> Francis
Bacon, <i>The Great Instauration</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(1620), in Jerry Weinberger, ed., </span><i>Francis Bacon: New
Atlantis and the Great Instauration</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
2</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;">nd</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
ed. (Wiley Blackwell, 2017), 17.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote15">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote15anc" name="sdfootnote15sym">15</a> Carolus
Linnaeus, lecture on minerals, 1748, quoted in Gunnar Broberg, <i>The
Man Who Organized Nature: The Life of Linnaeus</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Princeton University Press, 2023), 209.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote16">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote16anc" name="sdfootnote16sym">16</a> Peter
Harrison, <i>The Fall of Man and the Foundations of Science</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Cambridge University Press, 2007), 6.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote17">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote17anc" name="sdfootnote17sym">17</a> Francis
Bacon, <i>The Advancement of Learning</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(1605), Book 1, VI.1.6, in G. W. Kitchin, ed., </span><i>Francis
Bacon: The Advancement of Learning</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Paul Dry Books, 2001), 36.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote18">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote18anc" name="sdfootnote18sym">18</a> Thomas
Sprat, <i>The History of the Royal Society of London for the
Improving of Natural Knowledge</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Royal Society of London, 1667), 349-350.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote19">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote19anc" name="sdfootnote19sym">19</a> Francis
Bacon, <i>Novum Organum</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (1620),
quoted in Joseph Agassi, </span><i>The Very Idea of Modern Science:
Francis Bacon and Robert Boyle</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Springer, 2013), 53.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote20">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote20anc" name="sdfootnote20sym">20</a> Albrecht
von Haller, letter dated 8 April 1746, quoted in Peter Harrison,
“Linnaeus as a Second Adam? Taxonomy and the Religious Vocation,”
<i>Zygon</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 44/4 (December 2009):
879.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote21">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote21anc" name="sdfootnote21sym">21</a> Michael
S. Northcott, “Reading Genesis in Borneo: Work, Guardianship, and Companion Animals in Genesis 2,” in Nathan Macdonald, <i>et al.</i>, eds., <i>Genesis and
Christian Theology</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Eerdmans,
2012), 198.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote22">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote22anc" name="sdfootnote22sym">22</a> Christopher
Watkin, <i>Thinking through Creation: Genesis 1 and 2 as Tools of
Cultural Critique</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (P&R
Publishing, 2017), 108.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote23">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote23anc" name="sdfootnote23sym">23</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>On Genesis Against the Manichees</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2.11 </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">16,
in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/13:82.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote24">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote24anc" name="sdfootnote24sym">24</a> John
H. Langdon, <i>Human Evolution: Bones, Cultures, and Genes</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Springer, 2023), 40.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote25">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote25anc" name="sdfootnote25sym">25</a> Leon
R. Kass, <i>The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Free Press, 2003), 76.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote26">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote26anc" name="sdfootnote26sym">26</a> Christopher
Watkin, <i>Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible's Unfolding Story
Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Zondervan Academic, 2022), 99-100.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote27">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote27anc" name="sdfootnote27sym">27</a> William
P. Brown, <i>The Seven Pillars of Creation: The Bible, Science, and
the Ecology of Wonder</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Oxford
University Press, 2010), 108.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote28">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote28anc" name="sdfootnote28sym">28</a> Iain
W. Provan, <i>Seriously Dangerous Religion: What the Old Testament
Really Says and Why It Matters</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Baylor University Press, 2014), 88.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote29">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote29anc" name="sdfootnote29sym">29</a> Leon
R. Kass, <i>The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Free Press, 2003), 75.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote30">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote30anc" name="sdfootnote30sym">30</a> John
Chrysostom, <i>Homilies on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
14.19, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
74:190.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote31">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote31anc" name="sdfootnote31sym">31</a> Richard
Bauckham, “Humans, Animals, and the Environment in Genesis 2-3,”
in Nathan Macdonald, <i>et al.</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
eds., </span><i>Genesis and Christian Theology</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eerdmans, 2012), 186.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote32">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote32anc" name="sdfootnote32sym">32</a> Victor
Klemperer, <i>The Language of the Third Reich: LTI – Lingua Tertii
Imperii: A Philologist's Notebook</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
translated by Martin Brady (Bloomsbury, 2013 [1947]), 16.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote33">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote33anc" name="sdfootnote33sym">33</a> Victor
Klemperer, <i>The Language of the Third Reich: LTI – Lingua Tertii
Imperii: A Philologist's Notebook</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
translated by Martin Brady (Bloomsbury, 2013 [1947]), 19-20.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote34">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote34anc" name="sdfootnote34sym">34</a> Victor
Klemperer, <i>The Language of the Third Reich: LTI – Lingua Tertii
Imperii: A Philologist's Notebook</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
translated by Martin Brady (Bloomsbury, 2013 [1947]), 2.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote35">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote35anc" name="sdfootnote35sym">35</a> George
Orwell, <i>Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Harcourt, Brace, & World, 1949), 303.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote36">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote36anc" name="sdfootnote36sym">36</a> George
Orwell, <i>Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Harcourt, Brace, & World, 1949), 307-309.</span></span></p>
</div>
JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13108158469007498050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442509839497082978.post-26557349050279944612023-10-29T10:36:00.089-04:002023-10-29T15:19:35.730-04:00Crown of Creation<p></p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I'd like to invite you to imagine a scene with me.
It's set twenty-six centuries ago now. Just past the north wall of
Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar has ordered a second palace to be built for
himself, deeming the massive one already standing inside the city walls insufficient to do justice to his own royal majesty.<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote1sym" name="sdfootnote1anc"><sup>1</sup></a></sup>
Among the thousands of workers building for the king with all their might, I picture three laboring by carrying
baskets of baked bricks to the bricklayers. And they begin to talk amongst themselves.
Tar<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">ī</span>bu, born and bred in
Babylon, says to the others: “Can you really be surprised that this is
what we do? In the beginning, the Igigi-gods did this sort of labor,
until they grew weary of it and threatened to wage war against the
higher gods. So the decision was made to 'create a human being, let
him bear the yoke..., let man assume the drudgery of god.'<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote2sym" name="sdfootnote2anc"><sup>2</sup></a></sup>
And thus the gods imposed their slaving toil onto humans, 'and set the
gods free.'<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote3sym" name="sdfootnote3anc"><sup>3</sup></a></sup>
We are merely slaves before these gods, mass-produced like these
bricks from the kiln so that the gods might have leisure and joy. But the king is
not like us. Is he not, like Tukulti-Ninurta, 'the eternal image of
Enlil'?<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote4sym" name="sdfootnote4anc"><sup>4</sup></a></sup>
Is he not 'the image of Marduk,' and is not his 'word... just as
final as that of the gods'?<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote5sym" name="sdfootnote5anc"><sup>5</sup></a></sup>
As we are slaves of the gods, and as the king is the image of a god, what could be
more natural than to toil at Nebuchadnezzar's new palace, a great shrine for this living image of a god?”</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The second man,
Pa<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">ṭ</span>-Isiri, answers him:
“Friend, you know that I was taken here captive from the
battlefield, that I was born in Egypt. We had a saying when I was a
child, that all of us men of flesh and blood are simply the cattle of
the gods. Like cattle they raise us, like cattle they tend us, like
cattle they view us, like cattle we may be slaughtered at their
pleasure. This is only right. But the pharaoh, like your
Nebuchadnezzar, he is not like us mere men. He is 'the living image
of Amun.'<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote6sym" name="sdfootnote6anc"><sup>6</sup></a></sup>
To the pharaoh alone it is said by the god Amun-Re: 'You are my beloved
son who came forth from my members, my image whom I have put on
earth; I have given you to rule the earth in peace.'<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote7sym" name="sdfootnote7anc"><sup>7</sup></a></sup>
So what could be more natural than to build great pyramids like his
slaves, we cattle who bear these burdens to serve the image of the god?”</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Through all this, the
third man had kept his silence. But after a pregnant pause,
Shelemiah, taken into captivity from Jerusalem, begins to speak: “It
is not as you say. In the beginning of the creation, when the
eternal L<span style="font-size: x-small;">ORD</span> God made
humanity, he did not make us merely to be slaves, merely to be
cattle. For God has no needs to be met. Nor did he one day make the
commoner and another day form the king. For it is written: <i>'God
created the human in his own image. In the image of God he created
him; male and female he created them'</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 1:27). And all heaven resounded with the cry: </span><i>'Adam
– in our image, after our likeness!'</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 1:26). It was not the Son of David in Jerusalem who alone
heard, 'You are the image of God.' This word is for the farmer in
his field, the digger in his ditch, the mother tending her children,
the merchant peddling his wares, the slave dreaming of freedom, the
infant drawing that precious first breath. For Adam, in whom was every human –
Adam, whose life lives on in every child of every nation – was
created in the image of the God higher than highest heaven, the God before whom your Marduk and Amun-Re are but dreams of dust. We
humans fall but an inch short of godhood on the earth, offspring of a
Creator who crowned us with glory (Psalm 8:5). What you say in awe
of your mightiest kings, I dare – in the name of God – to say of
myself and my children, and of you and yours. What you deny
yourself in fear and trembling, I call you freely and openly, in common with all from highest to lowest, of
every tribe and every tongue. Honor your king, yes, but know we are
all of royal blood, created not to toil in slavish abjection but to
reign in honor by each other's side. Shake off these chains that bind your souls, take my hand, and come walk in the light!”</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Let's
take leave of our three men now, and return to ourselves. For weeks
we've been learning about what it means to be human – not just </span><i>what</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
we are, but </span><i>who</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> we are
and </span><i>why</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> we're here.
In a world where phrase 'image of a god' was a way of setting the
king apart as the keystone of human society whom all subjects were
bound to serve, as being the one man who had absolute rights, and who
ruled his world with the authority of the gods... well, it's in that
world that Genesis snaps us out of their royal spell. Because what
they said to distinguish the king from all other men, Genesis
proclaims boldly for <i>all</i> human beings.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote8sym" name="sdfootnote8anc"><sup>8</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
It's quite a revolutionary declaration, don't you think?<br /></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Humanity,
as such, is fundamentally the </span><i>royal</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
species, set apart from the nearest others as much as the king on his
throne was sacredly set apart from even the noblest houses. And we
are a royal species, an image-of-God species, as “the most
godlike... of the creatures.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote9sym" name="sdfootnote9anc"><sup>9</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
It's a sharp contrast to the way Babylonians and Egyptians saw us.
It's also a vast contrast to all the modern ways of thinking that see
humans as interchangeable units of production or consumption, or as
self-authored individuals, or as empty intersections of identity
classes.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote10sym" name="sdfootnote10anc"><sup>10</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
We are so much more than all of those reductive, demeaning lies. As one scientist puts it,
humanity is “a species... both trivial and terrifying..., the only
linguistic and industrial species with the power to save or destroy
our environment.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote11sym" name="sdfootnote11anc"><sup>11</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
In a way no other creature on earth can be, “the entire human race is God's royal
stand-in,”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote12sym" name="sdfootnote12anc"><sup>12</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
“the image of the highest glory and the representation of divine
authority on earth.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote13sym" name="sdfootnote13anc"><sup>13</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
as royalty on the earth, you and I have tasks that are both
powers and responsibilities. No sooner did we get proclaimed as
God's image than God blessed us and said to us, </span><i>“Be
fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 1:28). It's that last bit we're talking about: </span><i>'subdue
the earth.'</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> The verb for
'subdue' in this verse literally means to put something beneath your
foot. A related noun was used for the golden footstool attached to
Solomon's throne (2 Chronicles 9:18). The prophets use this verb to
show what God does with our sins: he crushes them underfoot, stomps
them to little bits (Micah 7:19). More generally, it means to tread
down the land, laying claim to it as your own. When Israel invaded
Canaan at God's direction, the goal was for </span><i>“the land
will be subdued before you”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Numbers 32:29). And so, when they assembled at Shiloh under Joshua,
</span><i>“the land lay subdued before them”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Joshua 18:1). It could also apply to conquering a neighbor nation
to put them in a subordinate position, as with </span><i>“all the
nations David subdued”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (2
Samuel 8:11).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">This
is a surprisingly militant verb, “the language of conquest.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote14sym" name="sdfootnote14anc"><sup>14</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
When we get to Genesis chapter 3, we'll get a better clue </span><i>why</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
the language here is so militant.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote15sym" name="sdfootnote15anc"><sup>15</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
For right now, we can say that subduing even a peaceful earth isn't
necessarily effortless. To take possession of the earth, to make it
part of the human kingdom, might take real work. We're born by
nature with assertive impulses, but those innate passions are to be
turned not toward conflict with each other, competing over land or
vying for power over our fellow man, but – first and foremost –
toward achieving God's will in making this world a most proper
habitat for humanity.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote16sym" name="sdfootnote16anc"><sup>16</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">In practice, how would
Adam and Eve have done that? Most likely by farming – tending,
shaping the land and its growth, harnessing its fertility in healthy
ways – and also clearing modest space for settlements, quarrying
stone and mining metals, diverting the course of rivers, and various
other ways of shaping the earth that lay open around them.<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote17sym" name="sdfootnote17anc"><sup>17</sup></a></sup>
They would have marched as glad-hearted warriors of hope, claiming
their global home armed not with swords but with seeds. After all,
when God subdued the earth by his word in creation, he made it green
with life – so how could his images subdue earth otherwise?<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote18sym" name="sdfootnote18anc"><sup>18</sup></a></sup>
For the earth we're called to subdue is the same of which it's said,
<i>“The earth is the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>'s,
and the fullness thereof”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Psalm 24:1). Nor are we called to monopolize for our human selves that Lord-owned earth, which by
God's word of command we share with so many other species as our natural neighbors (Genesis
1:20-25).</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote19sym" name="sdfootnote19anc"><sup>19</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
so each of us, in our own little place, is to make our royal mark in
God's name and in God's way, claiming our home, stewarding its
resources, cultivating it, bringing order to chaos.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote20sym" name="sdfootnote20anc"><sup>20</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
One way ancient kings laid claim to greatness was that they planted
the prettiest possible gardens in their capital cities, proving the
king was gardener-in-chief by subduing the earth to shape a space of
supreme beauty.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote21sym" name="sdfootnote21anc"><sup>21</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
The proof of human greatness is for us to be God's
gardeners-in-chief, subduing the earth to shape spaces of beauty and
benefit. Israel's mission to subdue their land was a trial run for
subduing the promised earth to make it all fruitful and flourishing.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote22sym" name="sdfootnote22anc"><sup>22</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">If we're supposed to make the earth fruitful and flourishing, sadly we
often achieve the opposite in practice, but there's no doubt we've certainly subdued the
earth. One biologist called us “the first species to become a
geophysical force.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote23sym" name="sdfootnote23anc"><sup>23</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
We've reshaped the earth into “a world created by human energies and
activities.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote24sym" name="sdfootnote24anc"><sup>24</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"> As one modern environmentalist confessed, “ours is the only species in all the long period of life on
earth that has ever spread around the entire world, occupying every
continent and nearly every island, effectively subjugating all the animals and plants
natural systems it has encountered, and, over a relatively short period of time, establishing itself in vast
numbers as the single most dominant species of all.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote25sym" name="sdfootnote25anc"><sup>25</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Speaking
of 'dominance,' that brings us to the second royal task Genesis tells
us about. When God plans us, he plans us for a purpose: </span><i>“Let
them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the
heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every
creeping thing that creeps on the earth”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 1:26). And as soon as we show up and hear God tell us to
subdue the earth, he explains that that includes achieving and
exercising dominion over the animals of sea, sky, and soil (Genesis
1:28). This word, 'exercise dominion,' could apply to the
relationship between a boss and his workers (1 Kings 5:16), or
between a master and his servants (Leviticus 25:43), between a king
and his subjects (1 Kings 4:24). At heart, it's a political term, “the language of
government,”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote26sym" name="sdfootnote26anc"><sup>26</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
a rule ideally imposed on those who welcome it and see its wisdom,
but imposed regardless, whether embraced or resisted.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote27sym" name="sdfootnote27anc"><sup>27</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">As the royal species, the
psalmist says to God about us: <i>“You have given him dominion over
the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Psalm 8:6), that “nothing on earth is greater than the human
being, under whose authority everything falls.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote28sym" name="sdfootnote28anc"><sup>28</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
And so we “work with, breed, and care for plants and animals in
ways only hinted at in other species,” making us “a species
marked by its ability to tame and domesticate other species.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote29sym" name="sdfootnote29anc"><sup>29</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">A tall order! It's easy to see how we have dominion over horses,
sheep, chickens, cats, any of the few dozen species we've truly
domesticated</span><span style="font-style: normal;">. We rule by caring for our pets and livestock, in training and
protecting them and, to what extent we employ them, using them
humanely; and because of our care, not a single domesticated species is endangered</span><span style="font-style: normal;">.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote30sym" name="sdfootnote30anc"><sup>30</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"> It might be a bit harder to see how we exercise dominion
over lions, tigers, and bears (...oh my...), but we keep predatory wild animals at
bay, yielding them their natural food chains away from our pets and
livestock; and as for the creepy-crawlies of the earth, our buildings
from barn to bedroom are aimed at keeping them out, not always as
successfully as we'd like.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote31sym" name="sdfootnote31anc"><sup>31</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
The beasts, birds, creatures of the deep, even species we've yet to
discover – we'll have dominion (Psalm 8:7-8).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">James
wrote that </span><i>“every kind of beasts and birds, of reptiles
and sea creatures, is subdued and has been subdued by humankind”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(James 3:7), and now it's been said “even the insects and the
bacteria fall increasingly under human control.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote32sym" name="sdfootnote32anc"><sup>32</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"> In the words of one conservationist, we're “the sole superdominant species.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote33sym" name="sdfootnote33anc"><sup>33</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"> Even Darwin conceded that the human being, at his least technologically advanced, would still be “the most dominant animal that ever
appeared on earth,” such that “all others have yielded before
him.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote34sym" name="sdfootnote34anc"><sup>34</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But
Israel's kings were condemned when they </span><i>“exercised
dominion over”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> Israel </span><i>“with
force and harshness”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Ezekiel
34:4). In Israel, a king's first act on taking the throne was to
write out God's Law, reminding him how he too was under authority
(Deuteronomy 17:18). He was warned </span><i>“that his heart may
not be lifted up above his brothers”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Deuteronomy 17:20), that is, not to take his special position as a
cause of prideful boasting but to consider it a ministry of service
in leading and guiding those who were fundamentally his family. And
he was charged not to acquire excessive horses, wives, silver, or
gold (Deuteronomy 17:16-17), that is, not to exploit his position for
personal enrichment at the expense of his subjects or the cost of his
mission.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
if that's the rule for David's dominion, then why would Adam's look
any different? We may be the royal species, but we remain a species
under authority. The authority we have over creation is a gracious
gift of God, to whom we're accountable and whose character we're
meant to reflect. As animals animated by a spiritual soul, our
dominion is exercised over creatures who are partly our brothers and
sisters, born of the same creation at the call of the same Creator.
We merely have “a natural vocation of headship that guides and
governs so that things can flourish according to their proper
purposes.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote35sym" name="sdfootnote35anc"><sup>35</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span><i>“Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his
animal”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Proverbs 12:10). We
aren't meant to puff ourselves up for being the image of God in a way
ants and eels and apes ain't. Nor are we to exploit the earth to
enrich ourselves at the cost of our calling. In the same breath God
grants us our food, he grants all creatures theirs (Genesis 1:29-30).
</span><i>“Every beast in the forest is mine,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
he says (Psalm 50:10). So they therefore are “not at our disposal for
unbridled greed or the pursuit of pleasure.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote36sym" name="sdfootnote36anc"><sup>36</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Even
the pagans, at their best, recognized a king was there to care for
his subjects, in the likeness of a god “who like a shepherd cares
for all living creatures.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote37sym" name="sdfootnote37anc"><sup>37</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
One such king said his “shepherdship of his nation” was given by
his god to “care for the living ones like a shepherd, to make their
land safe, to establish water in their midst, to make their days
long.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote38sym" name="sdfootnote38anc"><sup>38</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Well, if we're all in the image of a Good-Shepherd God who rules his
creatures by feeding them, sheltering them, delighting them, and
blessing them (Psalm 104:27-28; Psalm 145:15-16; Genesis 1:22), then our dominion is
given us for making earth safe, providing food and water and delight and shelter,
promoting life on the earth and blessing it.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote39sym" name="sdfootnote39anc"><sup>39</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Born
of the special love of God, humankind was created the crown of creation,
“God's supreme creature, capacitated and blessed to control and
dominate the natural world” for the world's own good and God's own
glory.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote40sym" name="sdfootnote40anc"><sup>40</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Of course, we know we've smeared the dust of death all over our glory –
a sad truth we've yet to reach in Genesis, but it's coming. By our
refusal to subdue the serpent, sin and death laid claim to dominion, for death-birthing sin was enabled to </span><i>“reign
in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Romans 6:12). And only once we have dominion each over our own
hearts and bodies, only once we subdue sin and death underfoot, can
we at last unveil the shining crown of creation again.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
so God sent into the world his Son, taking up the human calling to
overthrow these false dominions. If you want to know what it means
to be human to the utmost, God's image to the utmost, to subdue and
rule beyond all Adam lost, just look at Jesus Christ. </span><i>“To
him belong glory and dominion forever and ever!”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(1 Peter 4:11). And </span><i>“if we endure, we will also reign
with him”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (2 Timothy 2:12),
restored to the fullness of all we were meant to be. So go, shake
off your chains, take Christ's pierced hand, walk into the light, and abide there. Live like the
crown of creation you were and, though now opposed, still are. Govern well the slice of the
world where you've been put. Subdue it, cultivate and harness it for
God's glory. Reign over the creatures not with cruelty but with the
compassion of Christ. Embrace the royal family being even now
restored in him. For it is written: </span><i>“They will reign
forever and ever”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Revelation
22:5)! Amen.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><u>Prayer</u><br /><i>O Lord, our Lord and Father, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavenly heights. But when we stand in awe of your shining heavens, we can't help but wonder what we humans are, that you would bother being mindful of us. And the answer you reveal is that in you we are more than we think. You crowned us in the beginning with glory and honor, you put all things below your heaven under our feet, you gave us dominion over all these works of your hands, from the monumental to the microscopic.<br /><br />Amidst them all, you made us the royal species, images of your authority, and you commissioned us to conquer and control, but only ever in your name and only ever in your way. For if we be governors of this worldly realm, yet you are King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We may be the crown of creation, crowned with honor, but we cast our crowns before you, lost in wonder, love, and praise for your creating and shepherding and redeeming love.<br /><br />You sent your Son to save us, to be for us all we were meant to be and more, for from the beginning humanity was modeled after him, who is eternally the True Image of the Invisible God. He is the Son of Man in humanity's unbroken fullness, and to him belongs all dominion on earth beneath and in heaven above. He sends forth his Spirit to subdue our hearts and banish sin, to make righteousness rule and reign in those who believe. So not only birds, bugs, and beasts bow now before him, but we spiritual animals, with all angels also, crown him with all the crowns we can, our Matchless King, our Perfect Man.<br /><br />We thank you, Father, that he is not ashamed to call us his brothers and sisters, we who are being redeemed, we who are being prepared for our fuller dominion yet undreamt. We thank you for the hope that, by enduring these days of death's dominion, we may yet share with the Son of Man the human kingdom as it becomes at last the kingdom of God and of his Christ, whose praise can never fail throughout eternity. Amen.</i> <br /></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"></span></p><p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<div id="sdfootnote1">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote1anc" name="sdfootnote1sym">1</a> Nebuchadnezzar
II, stone tablet, viii.27-ix.45.
<<span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="http://oracc.iaas.upenn.edu/ribo/babylon7/Q005473/html">http://oracc.iaas.upenn.edu/ribo/babylon7/Q005473/html</a></u></span></span>>.
</span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote2">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote2anc" name="sdfootnote2sym">2</a><i> Atra</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>ḫ</i></span><i>asis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
ii.195-197, in Benjamin R. Foster, </span><i>Before the Muses: An
Anthology of Akkadian Literature</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(CDL Press, 2005), 235.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote3">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote3anc" name="sdfootnote3sym">3</a><i> Enki
and Ninma</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>ḫ</i></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
i.30, and </span><i>Enuma Elish</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
vi.34, in W. G. Lambert, </span><i>Babylonian Creation Myths</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eisenbrauns, 2013), 337, 113. See also Jean Bottero, <i>Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia</i> (University of Chicago Press, 2001), 100-103, and Iain Provan, <i>Seriously Dangerous Religion: What the Old Testament Really Says and Why It Matters</i> (Baylor University Press, 2014), 78-79.<i><br /></i></span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote4">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote4anc" name="sdfootnote4sym">4</a><i> Tukulti-Ninurta
Epic</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> i.18', in Benjamin R.
Foster, </span><i>Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian
Literature</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (CDL Press, 2005),
301.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote5">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote5anc" name="sdfootnote5sym">5</a> Adad-shumu-usur,
letter to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal: <i>Letters of Priests</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
46, lines rev. 11-12, in </span><i>State Archives of Assyria</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
13:43.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote6">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote6anc" name="sdfootnote6sym">6</a> The
literal meaning of the name 'Tutankhamun' (King Tut) – see
<i>Writings from the Ancient World</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
33:106.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote7">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote7anc" name="sdfootnote7sym">7</a> Inscription found near the mortuary temple of Amenhotep III,
quoted in David J.A. Clines, “The Image of God in Man,” <i>Tyndale
Bulletin</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 19/1 (May 1968): 85.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote8">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote8anc" name="sdfootnote8sym">8</a><span style="font-style: normal;"> Nahum
M. Sarna, </span><i>Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 12; Bruce K. Waltke, </span><i>Genesis:
A Commentary</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Zondervan
Academic, 2001), 66; Bruce T. Arnold, </span><i>Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Cambridge University Press, 2008), 45; William P. Brown, </span><i>The
Seven Pillars of Creation: The Bible, Science, and the Ecology of
Wonder</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Oxford University
Press, 2010), 42; J. Gordon McConville, </span><i>Being Human in
God's World: An Old Testament Theology of Humanity</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Baker Academic, 2016), 19; and many more.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote9">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote9anc" name="sdfootnote9sym">9</a> Leon
R. Kass, <i>The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Free Press, 2003), 37.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote10">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote10anc" name="sdfootnote10sym">10</a> Christopher
Watkin, <i>Thinking Through Creation: Genesis 1 and 2 as Tools of
Cultural Critique</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (P&R Publishing,
2017), 101.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote11">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote11anc" name="sdfootnote11sym">11</a> John
H. Langdon, <i>Human Evolution: Bones, Cultures, and Genes</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Springer, 2023), vii, 37.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote12">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote12anc" name="sdfootnote12sym">12</a> Richard
Lints, <i>Identity and Idolatry: The Image of God and Its Inversion</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(IVP Academic, 2015), 70.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote13">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote13anc" name="sdfootnote13sym">13</a> Cyril
of Alexandria, <i>Glaphyra on the Pentateuch</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1.2.2, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
137:56.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote14">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote14anc" name="sdfootnote14sym">14</a> Iain
Provan, <i>Seriously Dangerous Religion: What the Old Testament
Really Says and Why It Matters</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Baylor University Press, 2014), 225.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote15">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote15anc" name="sdfootnote15sym">15</a> Seth
D. Postell, <i>Adam as Israel: Genesis 1-3 as the Introduction to
the Torah and Tanakh</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Pickwick
Publications, 2011), 100.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote16">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote16anc" name="sdfootnote16sym">16</a> Martin
Sicker, <i>Reading Genesis Politically: An Introduction to Mosaic
Political Philosophy</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Praeger,
2002), 4; </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">William P. Brown, </span><i>The
Seven Pillars of Creation: The Bible, Science, and the Ecology of
Wonder</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Oxford University
Press, 2010), 47-48.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote17">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote17anc" name="sdfootnote17sym">17</a> J.
Richard Middleton, <i>The Liberating Image: The Imago Dei in Genesis
1</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Baker Academic, 2005), 60;
Richard Bauckham, “Humans, Animals, and the Environment in Genesis
2-3,” in Nathan MacDonald <i>et al.</i>, eds., </span><i>Genesis and
Christian Theology</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Eerdmans,
2012), 180-181; Iain Provan, </span><i>Seriously Dangerous Religion: What the Old Testament Really Says and Why It Matters</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Baylor University Press, 2014), 227.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote18">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote18anc" name="sdfootnote18sym">18</a> Douglas
J. Green, “When the Gardener Returns: An Ecological Perspective on
Adam's Dominion,” in Noah J. Toly and Daniel I. Block, eds.,
<i>Keeping God's Earth: The Global Environment in Biblical
Perspective</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (IVP Academic,
2010), 270.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote19">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote19anc" name="sdfootnote19sym">19</a> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Richard Bauckham, “Humans, Animals, and the Environment in Genesis
2-3,” in Nathan MacDonald <i>et al.</i>, eds., </span><i>Genesis and
Christian Theology</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Eerdmans,
2012), 181; </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Douglas
J. Moo and Jonathan A. Moo, <i>Creation Care: A Biblical Theology of the
Natural World</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Zondervan
Academic, 2018), 76.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote20">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote20anc" name="sdfootnote20sym">20</a> G.
K. Beale, <i>We Become What We Worship: A Biblical Theology of
Idolatry</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (IVP Academic, 2008),
128.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote21">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote21anc" name="sdfootnote21sym">21</a> Douglas
J. Green, “When the Gardener Returns: An Ecological Perspective on
Adam's Dominion,” in Noah J. Toly and Daniel I. Block, eds.,
<i>Keeping God's Earth: The Global Environment in Biblical
Perspective</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (IVP Academic,
2010), 272; </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Catherine
L. McDowell, <i>The Image of God in the Garden of Eden: The Creation of Humankind in Genesis 2:5-3:24 in Light of the </i><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">m</span></i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">ī</span></i></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">s
p</span></i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">î</span></i></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
p</span></i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">ī</span></i></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">t
p</span></i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">î</span></i></span><i>, and wpt-r Rituals of Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eisenbrauns, 2015), 139-140.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote22">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote22anc" name="sdfootnote22sym">22</a> Ellen
F. Davis, “Propriety and Trespass: The Drama of Eating,” in
Stephen C. Barton and David Wilkinson, eds., <i>Reading Genesis After Darwin</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Oxford University Press, 2009), 209; Richard J. Clifford, “Election
in Genesis 1,” in Gary A. Anderson and Joel S. Kaminsky, eds., </span><i>The Call
of Abraham: Essays on the Election of Israel in Honor of Jon D.
Levenson</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (University of Notre
Dame Press, 2013), 20.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote23">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote23anc" name="sdfootnote23sym">23</a> E.
O. Wilson, <i>Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Vintage Books, 1998), 303.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote24">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote24anc" name="sdfootnote24sym">24</a> Patrick
Manning, <i>A History of Humanity: The Evolution of the Human System</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Cambridge University Press, 2020), 3.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote25">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote25anc" name="sdfootnote25sym">25</a> Kirkpatrick
Sale, <i>After Eden: The Evolution of Human Domination</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Duke University Press, 2006), 1.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote26">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote26anc" name="sdfootnote26sym">26</a> Iain
Provan, <i>Seriously Dangerous Religion: What the Old Testament
Really Says and Why It Matters</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Baylor University Press, 2014), 225.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote27">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote27anc" name="sdfootnote27sym">27</a> John
Goldingay, <i>Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Baker
Academic, 2020), 36.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote28">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote28anc" name="sdfootnote28sym">28</a> John
Chrysostom, <i>Homilies on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
8.9, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
74:110.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote29">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote29anc" name="sdfootnote29sym">29</a> Justin
L. Barrett and Tyler S. Greenway, “<i>Imago Dei</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
and Animal Domestication: Cognitive-Evolutionary Perspectives on
Human Uniqueness and the </span><i>Imago Dei</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,”
in Christopher Lilley and Daniel J. Pedersen, eds., </span><i>Human
Origins and the Image of God: Essays in Honor of J. Wentzel van
Huyssteen</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Eerdmans, 2017), 72.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote30">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote30anc" name="sdfootnote30sym">30</a> Marcello
R. Sanchez-Villagra, <i>The Process of Animal Domestication</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Princeton University Press, 2022), vii, 6.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote31">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote31anc" name="sdfootnote31sym">31</a> Richard
E. Averbeck, “The Meaning and Importance of 'subdue' (<i>k</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>ā</i></span><i>ba</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>š</i></span><span style="font-style: normal;">)
in Genesis 1:28,” in James K. Hoffmeier </span><i>et al.</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
eds., </span><i>“Now These Records Are Ancient”: Studies in
Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical History, Language, and Culture in
Honor of K. Lawson Younger, Jr.</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Zaphon, 2022), 20-23.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote32">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote32anc" name="sdfootnote32sym">32</a> Patrick
Manning, <i>A History of Humanity: The Evolution of the Human System</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Cambridge University Press, 2020), 3.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote33">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote33anc" name="sdfootnote33sym">33</a> David
Western, <i>We Alone: How Humans Have Conquered the Planet and Can
Also Save It</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Yale University
Press, 2020), 136.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote34">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote34anc" name="sdfootnote34sym">34</a> Charles
Darwin, <i>The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
2 vols. (D. Appleton & Co., 1871), 1:131.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote35">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote35anc" name="sdfootnote35sym">35</a> R.
R. Reno, <i>Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Brazos
Press, 2010), 54.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote36">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote36anc" name="sdfootnote36sym">36</a> Paul
Copan and Douglas Jacoby, <i>Origins: The Ancient Impact and Modern
Implications of Genesis 1-11</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Morgan James Faith, 2018), 58.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote37">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote37anc" name="sdfootnote37sym">37</a> Sin-iqisham,
inscription E4.2.11.1, in <i>Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia:
Early Periods</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 4:190.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote38">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote38anc" name="sdfootnote38sym">38</a> Warad-Sin,
inscriptions E4.2.13.20 and E4.2.13.21, in <i>Royal Inscriptions of
Mesopotamia: Early Periods</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
4:239, 242.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote39">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote39anc" name="sdfootnote39sym">39</a> Raymond
R. Hausoul, <i>God's Future for Animals: From Creation to New
Creation</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Wipf & Stock,
2021), 34-35.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote40">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote40anc" name="sdfootnote40sym">40</a> Paul
O'Callaghan, <i>God's Gift of the Universe: An Introduction to
Creation Theology</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (CUA Press,
2021), 252.</span></span></p>
</div>
JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13108158469007498050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442509839497082978.post-4735930254671468052023-10-22T22:32:00.001-04:002023-10-29T14:36:02.834-04:00Holy Offering<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">In this past month of
exploring Genesis, we've learned some pretty surprising things, I
think. Genesis taught us to look at the entire world, not as just
any ordinary place, but as a temple God built for his own habitation.
God indwells his universe to rest and rule and reign. This God
beyond the world fills and claims the world, down to each and every
subatomic particle, field of energy, measure of space-time. And in
planting a garden as a special kind of sanctuary on earth, there,
after a long process of anticipation, he set up material images of
himself so that he could properly be reverenced by his creation. But
no mere statue could represent the liveliness of the God who is pure
act, the God who's all life. No, only a thinking, perceiving,
feeling, moving animal, a body animated with rational mind and
spiritual soul and breath of life, would do the trick. So he created
humanity, alone among all species of his material universe, to be his
active images, holy icons of his life and love.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Not only that, but God
ordained these humans – and therefore every human – to a
priesthood, giving humanity a special priestly calling, to be the
priests of all creation. It is our most fundamental work, as human
beings, to be the mouthpieces and messengers of all the visible
creation's worship to God. We were put in the garden for the sake of
serving the Lord in worship and guarding the holiness of his temple,
which leads us to work on his world in his name and to tend it
carefully and lovingly according to his vision for the flourishing of
its beauty.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">As those who share in the
common priesthood of humanity itself, we were made to bring to God
all manner of praises and prayers, all sorts of oblation and
adoration, and to turn back toward creation with instruction and
benediction. These worshipful actions weave together in a liturgy,
an orderly pattern of worship that shapes our hearts through our
bodies and bears witness to the holiness of God. And the liturgy was
meant to vary from morning to evening, from day to day, in accordance
with the calendar God wrote with the sun and moon and stars. Through
the varieties of ritual and celebration, there in the garden we were
meant to worship our Maker in feasts of day and week and month and
year, season after season, in holy communion with the Holy One.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">And part of those
liturgies, at least some of the time, would have been the worship
action of oblation, offering some kind of gift to God. What kind of
exterior oblation Adam and Eve could have given, we can only guess.
Maybe they would have gathered the finest firstfruits of all the
trees of the garden which God had made so lovely and so tasty, and,
before eating any of it themselves, would've brought it to the L<span style="font-size: x-small;">ORD</span>
when he descended in the breeze of the day (Genesis 2:9; 3:8). Could
there have been any higher offering than to pluck fruit from the Tree
of Life, just to lay it at the feet of the Life of Life as a holy
offering?</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Outside the Garden, where
the wrong tree put us into this torn-up world, the same L<span style="font-size: x-small;">ORD</span>
God came to once more dwell with humanity. He replanted the garden
in their midst, and called it the tabernacle. He gave them once
again a chance to worship before his very face, and that meant
oblation – offerings and sacrifices. Through a holy offering of
food and drink, it was possible once again to encounter God.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">In the humble tribute
offering we read about this morning, an Israelite would bring a bowl
full of oiled-up flour seasoned with fragrant frankincense (Leviticus
2:1-2). One handful with all the frankincense would be burned up,
its aromas rising toward heaven; the rest was added to the food of
the priests (Leviticus 2:2-3). The tribute offering showed personal
love and loyalty to the L<span style="font-size: x-small;">ORD</span>
in a gift, but the one who brought it couldn't eat from it.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">But then there's this
peace offering we read about. And its purpose wasn't merely a
one-way expression of love and loyalty. It moved beyond that to
declaring peace between God and man. It was an opportunity for
actual fellowship, for festive communion with God.<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote1sym" name="sdfootnote1anc"><sup>1</sup></a></sup>
Unlike the tribute offering, this one had a bloody cost. In order
to declare peace with God, to enjoy fellowship with God, something
would have to die. In Israel, an animal received the laying on of
hands, being set apart for this special purpose; and only then was
its life laid down as a victim by sacrifice (Leviticus 3:1). Its fat
and organs were taken out and burned up, barbecued into smoke that
could ascend to heaven (Leviticus 3:3-5), while its lifeblood covered
the sides of the altar (Leviticus 3:2).</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">And in the case of a
regular peace offering, that was enough. For everyday fellowship
with God, it was enough that the life had been laid down, that Israel
have peace with her Lord on the back of that harsh surrender. But
there was a special version of the peace offering that took more.
That was the special case of the thanksgiving sacrifice, the thank
offering. And here, the body of the victim had to be augmented by
holy bread – unleavened wafers, unleavened loaves, and even
leavened loaves of bread (Leviticus 7:12-13). Leavened bread seldom
had a place in Israel's worship, and the inclusion of both leavened
and unleavened bread together was strange and rare, suggestive of
“rich communion between God and worshipper.”<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote2sym" name="sdfootnote2anc"><sup>2</sup></a></sup>
One of each kind was given specifically to the priest who had slain
the sacrificial victim (Leviticus 7:14). But the rest of the holy
bread, along with the body of the victim that was slain, was shared
and eaten on the very day of the offering (Leviticus 7:15).</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">This wasn't just a meal
for the ordained priesthood of the sons of Aaron. This was a meal
for every Israelite who would come, so long as they came in a state
of cleanness. <i>“All who are clean may eat the meat, but... if
anyone touches an unclean thing... and then eats meat from the
sacrifice of the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>'s
peace offerings, that person shall be cut off from his people”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Leviticus 7:19-21). This communion was not common. And yet, to the
clean, the table was no less open, the invitation was no less
universal. All who were clean in the sight of God were free to
receive, free to fellowship, free to feast with the Lord of Love.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
then Christ came, the true </span><i>“high priest appointed to
offer gifts and sacrifices”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Hebrews 8:3). And what he gave was nothing less than his whole self
– Christ the Victim, Christ the Priest. </span><i>“He appeared
once for all, at the end of the ages, to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Hebrews
9:26), </span><i>“a single sacrifice for sins”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
on the cross (Hebrews 10:12). He is the flesh of an eternal
sacrifice; he paid the bloody cost. So </span><i>“through him, let
us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of
lips that acknowledge his name”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Hebrews 13:15). 'Sacrifice of praise' was how Greek-speaking Jews
translated the term for a 'thanksgiving sacrifice.'</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">From
the beginning, Christians brought Christ's sacrifice forward, week
after week, as part of their holy liturgy of worship, and they laid
down their lives with him, and the fruit of their lips, on the altar.
And we've done that by bringing there the holy bread – the bread
of peace, bread of fellowship, bread of communion.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote3sym" name="sdfootnote3anc"><sup>3</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Israel had her thank offering, her sacrifice of praise; and so do we
now in Christ. He already offered his body and blood; we offer it up
with holy bread and wine in thanks. We do it because we are, in the
words of one early Christian, “already, without a doubt, conscious
of [our] own salvation.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote4sym" name="sdfootnote4anc"><sup>4</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
And because we know the salvation we have in Christ, we crave to
taste that salvation on our tongues, to taste and see the infinite
depths of the Lord's goodness – to consume and be consumed by that
glory of holiness that burned before the first dawn of creation.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
so we raise this holy offering to the Lord – the thanksgiving
sacrifice in Christ, the eucharist, in which the Lord Jesus Christ is
himself the flesh and the blood. </span><i>“Unless you eat the
flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in
you,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> no peace and fellowship
with God (John 6:53). But in this holy offering, all of us may have
the joy of eating and drinking our holy communion with God and with
his holy people. And all we must do, all you must do, is believe and
come in cleanness. Thanks be to God!<span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<div id="sdfootnote1">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote1anc" name="sdfootnote1sym">1</a> Matthew
Levering, <i>Sacrifice and Community: Jewish Offering and Christian
Eucharist</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Blackwell, 2005),
64-65.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote2">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote2anc" name="sdfootnote2sym">2</a> Nobuyoshi
Kiuchi, <i>Leviticus</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, Apollos
Old Testament Commentary 3 (InterVarsity Press, 2007), 138.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote3">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote3anc" name="sdfootnote3sym">3</a> Matthew
Levering, <i>Sacrifice and Community: Jewish Offering and Christian
Eucharist</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Blackwell, 2005),
82-90.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote4">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote4anc" name="sdfootnote4sym">4</a> Origen
of Alexandria, <i>Homilies on Leviticus</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2.2.6 (third century), in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New
Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 83:43.</span></span></p>
</div>
JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13108158469007498050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442509839497082978.post-33651550924333564802023-10-15T10:25:00.000-04:002023-10-29T14:31:55.457-04:00Feel That Holy Rhythm<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Over these past few weeks,
Genesis has been shedding some light on a few mighty good questions.
Like, who did God intend for us human beings to be? What's our
purpose for living? We began to unravel what it means to be made in
God's image: to be the physical way he makes his living presence
manifest in his temple which is the world, especially in the garden.
At heart, you and I are here to worship. Last week, as we explored
praise and prayer, adoration and oblation, instruction and
benediction, we found that these priestly works of worship can
combine together in regular patterns we call liturgy, “an ordered
means of engaging with God.”<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote1sym" name="sdfootnote1anc"><sup>1</sup></a></sup></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">But now we've got a loose
end to tie up in the Bible's opening chapter, something we passed
over before. <span style="font-style: normal;">God didn't just make
linear time – past and present and future – but God also makes
cyclical time, time with patterns and repetitions, so that the
present can </span><i>match</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
something from the past or the future.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote2sym" name="sdfootnote2anc"><sup>2</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
A Tuesday can match other Tuesdays, a July can match other Julys.
As St. Augustine put it, “were time to run on without being
distinguished by any precise moments... marked by the course of the
heavenly bodies, time could indeed run on and pass by, but it could
not be grasped and articulated by human beings.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote3sym" name="sdfootnote3anc"><sup>3</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
So humans have been watching since the Stone Age, learning how to
conform our time to what patterns we track in the skies above.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote4sym" name="sdfootnote4anc"><sup>4</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Sun
and moon </span><i>“rule over the day and over the night”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 1:18). God put them in the sky </span><i>“for days and
years”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Genesis 1:16). A day
is made by earth's rotation against the sun, while a year is how long
it takes the earth to orbit the sun and get back to the same relative
position as before. That takes slightly less than 365¼ days. But
Israel's years were focused on natural months – which is to say,
moons. The moon doesn't look the same from night to night. Hebrew
months start at a new moon, where the side facing earth is dark. But
slowly the crescent waxes fatter until, at mid-month, it becomes a
full moon, a circle of light. From there, it can wane 'til the next
new moon. All these measures were governed </span><i>naturally </i><span style="font-style: normal;">by
the skies, “created by the one true God when he commanded that the
stars he had set in the heavens should be the signs of seasons, days,
and years.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote5sym" name="sdfootnote5anc"><sup>5</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">So
Genesis also says the sun, moon, and stars are up there </span><i>“for
signs and seasons” </i><span style="font-style: normal;">(Genesis
1:14). Or, at least, your Bible probably says 'seasons' here. But
that might be misleading, because the word here in Hebrew never
refers to something like spring or fall.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote6sym" name="sdfootnote6anc"><sup>6</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
It comes from a verb meaning 'to appoint,' as in the Tent of
Meeting, the appointed place to gather with God. But it also refers
to God's recurring appointments with his people, times he wanted set
apart with him as holy time – holidays. That here is “the
primary purpose of the host of heaven,”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote7sym" name="sdfootnote7anc"><sup>7</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
for “to follow the celestial calendar was to live on earth with the
cadence of heaven.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote8sym" name="sdfootnote8anc"><sup>8</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Since
these signs let them coordinate their schedules with their gods, it
was vital for people to do the right rituals on the right days.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote9sym" name="sdfootnote9anc"><sup>9</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
The trouble was, every pagan nation dedicated their calendars to
false gods with whom one oughtn't keep appointments. So when God
called Israel out of Egypt, he taught them the dates he actually
wanted to make with them: </span><i>“These are the appointed feasts
of the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
that you shall proclaim as holy convocations”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Leviticus 23:2). These would sanctify Israel's experience of time
to their God of Love; and these dates each combined sacrifices,
celebrations, and rituals into a beautiful liturgy special to that
time.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote10sym" name="sdfootnote10anc"><sup>10</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Every
day, of course, the rising and setting of the sun established times
for morning and evening daily offerings (Exodus 29:38-42), each an
'appointed time' for Israel to meet her L</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ORD</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
over a sacrificial lamb (Numbers 28:2). Beyond that daily rhythm,
there was a holy day every seventh day, the sabbath, which defined
the course of a week (Leviticus 23:3). Not linked to any particular
sign in the sky, it itself was </span><i>“a sign between me and you
throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>,
sanctify you”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Exodus 31:13).
The sabbath, a day mandatorily free of work, was a weekly celebration
of God's enthronement in his world, their privilege to join him in
his righteous rest, a sign “to eat and drink and bless the One who
created all things” (</span><i>Jubilees</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2:21).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">After
daily offerings and the weekly sabbath, the third-most-frequent
appointment was the start of each month, which by definition was the
sighting of the new moon, that first sliver of a new crescent of
light after the dark. Nobody back then had a calendar hanging on the
wall, with a fixed number of days in the month. The only way to tell
when the next month would start was to watch the night sky. Once the
priests had verified the moon was new, then they'd announce it with
gladsome trumpets so all Israel could hear the verdict (Numbers
10:10).</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Then,
throughout the year, came other appointed feasts, likewise each
heralded by trumpets and observed in a liturgy of sacrifice. The
first holiday was Passover, at the first full moon of spring
(Leviticus 23:5), recalling how God had judged Israel's oppressors
but mercifully spared them by the blood of a lamb (Exodus 12:27). By
this time of year, Israel's barley crop was just barely ready to
harvest, so they brought the firstfruits of the barley to a priest to
present to God in thanksgiving (Leviticus 23:9-11).</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote11sym" name="sdfootnote11anc"><sup>11</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Not until giving God their barley firstfruits could they eat from it
themselves (Leviticus 23:12-14), kicking off a week of making
unleavened bread. After Passover, these were seven days of special
offerings to God, bracketed by holy convocations, community days when
work was banned (Leviticus 23:6-9). And during this time, not only
would they have brought the barley firstfruits, but also the
firstborn of all their livestock were given as a gift to God (Exodus
34:19-20).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">After
allowing seven weeks to finish the barley harvest, there came the
next big appointment, the Feast of Weeks (Leviticus 23:15-16). This
was early in their third month, the late-spring wheat harvest. Here
there was another holy convocation and, freed from regular work, each
Israelite would bring two loaves of leavened wheat bread to the
priest as firstfruits (Leviticus 23:15-22). Since this also roughly
marked the anniversary of when God gave the Law to Moses, later Jews
used the feast as a time to “renew the covenant in all respects,
year after year” (</span><i>Jubilees</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
6:17). Since it was fifty days from Passover, Greek Jews called this
feast 'Pentecost.'</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The
Law left the summer months without holidays besides sabbaths and new
moons. But the new moon of the seventh month was special, kicking
off the fall season with the Feast of Trumpets, </span><i>“a day of
solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with the blast of trumpets, a holy
convocation”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Leviticus
23:24). Most new moons were rung in with glad trumpets, but this was
a trumpet of alarm, reminding Israel of the crisis of her sins. This
opened nine days of solemn reflection until an intense day of sorrow
and penance called Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement (Leviticus
23:26-32), which was three weeks ago. Among the many offerings were
two goats. One was chosen by chance to be slain as a sin offering,
after which the high priest entered the Holy of Holies – the only
time he did – and, as he used the blood to cover all impurity, he
called God by name. After exiting, he laid all Israel's sins on the
live 'scapegoat' and expelled it into the desert (Leviticus 16:1-28).
In this way, </span><i>“atonement may be made for the people of
Israel once in the year because of all their sins”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Leviticus 16:34).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Five
days later – just past the full moon, if all went right – began
the last and biggest feast in the Law. The full moon heralded an
intense week bracketed by holy convocations, with over seventy bulls
sacrificed, one for each of the Gentile nations (Numbers 29:12-38).
This was the close of the fruit and vegetable harvest after the
summer growing season and before the onset of rainy winter (Leviticus
23:39). So it was another harvest festival, </span><i>“the Feast
of Ingathering at the year's end, when you gather in from the field
the fruit of your labor”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Exodus 23:16). They'd go to present </span><i>“the firstfruits of
our ground and the firstfruits of all fruit of every tree, year by
year, to the House of the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Nehemiah 10:35).</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote12sym" name="sdfootnote12anc"><sup>12</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
But it was also the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles, because,
recalling their life in the desert, they'd build open-roof huts to
eat and sleep in, where they could look up at the stars and see how
God had led them all their way (Leviticus 23:42-43). It's inspired
by this Feast of Ingathering, which for our Jewish neighbors ended a
week ago, that we today have our Harvest Home.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“<i>Thus Moses declared
to the people of Israel the appointed feasts of the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Leviticus 23:44). After these came plowing and planting, and the
early and late rains in the eighth and twelfth months prepared the
growth for the next year. But to this cultic calendar, Israel could
later add extra days of fasting in memory of the Babylonian
destruction of Jerusalem, as mentioned in Zechariah (8:19); Purim, in
memory of God's rescue of exiled Jews from Persian genocide, as told
in Esther (9:20-28); Hanukkah, in memory of the rededication of the
Second Temple after its defilement by Greeks – Jesus celebrates it
in the Gospel of John (10:22).</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote13sym" name="sdfootnote13anc"><sup>13</sup></a></span></sup></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But
for all this, still they emphasized that it was always God who
“designates the seasons and feasts,” so out of a year's days,
“some he exalts and sanctifies, and others he lists as ordinary
days” (Sirach 33:8-9). Israel aimed to be careful to celebrate the
right rituals on the right days, “neither to advance their holy
times nor to postpone any of their prescribed festivals.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote14sym" name="sdfootnote14anc"><sup>14</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
And the prophets bore witness that these holy rhythms would always
matter, for </span><i>“from new moon to new moon, and from sabbath
to sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship me, declares the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Isaiah 66:23). But it's only in Jesus Christ that this prophecy can
find its truth.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">When
the gospel first caused Israel's faith to burst beyond the bounds of
the Law, there was a lot of confusion of what to make of the rhythms
of time. There were Jewish Christians who, having been raised that
way, insisted on still observing the same festivals as before. There
were Gentile Christians who saw that keeping all Israel's festivals
literally would mean becoming Jewish to be Christian. In that
context, St. Paul cautioned: </span><i>“Let no one pass judgment on
you,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> either way, </span><i>“with
regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Colossians 2:16). </span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The
apostle added that all the appointed times of Israel had been </span><i>“a
shadow of the things to come, but the body belongs to Christ”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Colossians 2:17). For Jesus fulfills all those feasts: he's the
Lamb whose blood shields us at Passover; he's the Firstfruits of the
resurrection harvest, lifting himself to God as a promise of more to
follow; he's the Lawgiver who pours down his fiery Spirit at
Pentecost; he's the Prophet whose trumpeting voice warns of a coming
judgment; he's the High Priest pleading his completed work in an
eternal Day of Atonement; he's our Tabernacle we shelter in through
all this earthly journey; he's the Harvester who'll gather us in and
present us to his Father at last; he's the Heavenly Rest of our
everlasting sabbath when all life's work is done. Like Paul said,
the true meaning of Israel's appointed times </span><i>“belongs to
Christ”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Colossians 2:17).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Now,
there are some Christian groups today who leave it there, and think
that any holy rhythm of time belongs to the mere shadow. Some early
Christians sadly went there when they mocked Jewish neighbors about
“their constant observation of the stars and moon to keep track of
months and days, and the distinctions they make in the divine
orderings of the world..., setting aside some times for feasts and
others for mourning.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote15sym" name="sdfootnote15anc"><sup>15</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
But despite that rhetoric, the Church as a whole was already
discovering how Jesus was revealing a </span><i>new</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
holy rhythm.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The
sabbath itself was eclipsed by a new weekly day of worship. With
respect to our Seventh-Day Adventist neighbors or to the Seventh-Day
Baptists who founded Ephrata, the New Testament shows that Jewish and
Gentile Christians joined together on a holy feast appointed under
the new covenant. This was </span><i>“the first day of the week,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
beginning from the resurrection and continued by the apostles (John
20:19; Acts 20:7). They also called this “the Lord's Day”
(Revelation 1:10; </span><i>Didache</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
14.1), explaining that Christ would “make a beginning on the eighth
day, which is the beginning of another world; thus, we also observe
the eighth day in gladness.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote16sym" name="sdfootnote16anc"><sup>16</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">In
time, Christians came to begin their year with a feast celebrating
the birth and the baptism of Jesus, which they later split into two
separate feasts twelve days apart: Christmas and Epiphany –
Christmas being preceded by an extended time of fasting in
preparation, which we call Advent. And Passover continued to be
observed as Easter, itself preceded by a penitential season called
Lent. Easter, the New Passover, they called “the brightest
festival of all.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote17sym" name="sdfootnote17anc"><sup>17</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
But even in the new covenant, its date</span><span style="font-style: normal;"> –
which took a while to reach agreement on, and was a messy process we don't have time to explore more deeply today, much as I'd love to</span><span style="font-style: normal;"> –
</span><span style="font-style: normal;"> is still fixed by sun and
moon: it's the first Sunday after the first full moon after the
spring equinox when the sun moves north across the celestial
equator.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote18sym" name="sdfootnote18anc"><sup>18</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Closing
a seven-week season after Easter, we still celebrate the Feast of
Weeks, or Pentecost, to mark the giving of the Holy Spirit and the
firstfruits of the harvest of the world for the gospel. And although
we characterize the time after Pentecost as 'ordinary time' or
by counting out dozens of 'Sundays after Pentecost,' actually the whole Christian calendar has
come to be littered with observances relating to the life of Jesus
and those close to him. Early on, when a Christian died for Jesus,
those left behind would annually “commemorate the birthday of his
martyrdom, both in memory of those who have already engaged in the
struggle and as a training and preparation for those who are about to
do so.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote19sym" name="sdfootnote19anc"><sup>19</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
It wasn't controversial: Christians “celebrate the passions and
days of the martyrs with an annual commemoration.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote20sym" name="sdfootnote20anc"><sup>20</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Later, this was extended to others worth remembering not just
locally but globally.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Today,
for instance, is the feast of the missionary nun St. Thecla, who
helped nurture communities of faith in Bavaria; the missionary bishop
St. Bruno, lynched in Lithuania by those he came to save; and the
Spanish mystic St. Theresa, whose visions bore fruit in profound
precepts on prayer. Tomorrow will be the feast of the French abbot
St. Bercharius, who, when fatally stabbed by a disciple he'd
corrected, used his last breath to advise his killer how to get right
with God; the French bishop St. Bertrand, who spent his days
reforming a corrupted local church; and the Polish duchess St.
Hedwig, who gave her fortune to serve the poor, sick, and alone, and
who died 780 years ago today. The Church scattered people like these
around the calendar so that, as their legacy seeps into us year after
year, their example and influence can help us learn how to be holy
too.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
that's the gift of holy rhythms. The Lord's Day, the great feasts of
salvation history like Christmas and Easter and Ascension and
Pentecost, the penitential seasons like Advent and Lent, and even
lesser-known commemorations like the Circumcision and the
Transfiguration and the upcoming Feast of All Saints – and, any day
we care to think about it, days honoring just a few of the holy
forerunners who made it to heaven ahead of us and are eagerly
cheering for us to join them in due time. These are all special
appointments we can keep with God, letting us dive into a deep vault
of holiness to haul up treasures week after week, month after month,
year after year. “Over the centuries, the Church has fittingly
sacralized time by means of the liturgical calendar with its
practices and celebrations, and we can fruitfully appropriate this
pattern in our personal discipleship and devotion.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote21sym" name="sdfootnote21anc"><sup>21</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
God's holy rhythms refuse now to let any day be merely generic.
Some are higher, some are lower, but all are occasions to meet Christ
who works in history, who directs the flow of time, who writes the
calendar.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">These
days, we remember the big feasts that are hardest to ignore, and
maybe we change the colors of the altar cloths – just token
gestures, really. But American culture has calendars all its own,
full of federal holidays and observances dedicated to this or that
theme or cause. Our hearts were made to be discipled by a calendar,
and for generations we've so emptied out the church year that we
can't help but be discipled by calendars of the world more than the
calendar of Christ. If we want to turn it around, we're going to
have to relearn time itself.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">All
this is about what some call 'living liturgically,' living in such a
way that our whole lives are bound up with Christ's calendar of
worship, that all our days and all our hours become his in the
special ways he wants, and so we become conformed to “the cadence
of heaven.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote22sym" name="sdfootnote22anc"><sup>22</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
As one convert testified, “I want the Christian story to shape
everything I do, even how I reckon time. … Almost more than
anything else, living inside church time has formed me in Jesus'
story.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote23sym" name="sdfootnote23anc"><sup>23</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
And I hope that's what you want, too. May the holy rhythms of the
rich, rich church year, what the very heavens above are written for,
guide you deeper into the holiness of Christ. Amen.<span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<div id="sdfootnote1">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote1anc" name="sdfootnote1sym">1</a> Bobby
Gross, <i>Living the Christian Year: Time to Inhabit the Story of
God</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (InterVarsity Press, 2009),
19.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote2">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote2anc" name="sdfootnote2sym">2</a> Zvi
Grumet, <i>Genesis: From Creation to Covenant</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Maggid, 2017), 10-11.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote3">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote3anc" name="sdfootnote3sym">3</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>On Genesis Against the Manichees</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1.14 </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">21,
in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/13:52.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote4">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote4anc" name="sdfootnote4sym">4</a> Andrea
D. Lobel, “Diviners in High Places: On Interpreting the Night
Skies of the Ancient Near East,” in Jaqueline S. du Toit,<i> </i><span style="font-style: normal;">Jason
Kalman, Vanessa R. Sasson, and Hartley Lachter, eds., </span><i>To
Fix Torah in Their Hearts: Essays in Biblical Interpretation and
Jewish Studies in Honor of B. Barry Levy</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Hebrew Union College Press, 2018), 24.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote5">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote5anc" name="sdfootnote5sym">5</a> Bede,
<i>On the Reckoning of Time</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 2,
in </span><i>Translated Texts for Historians</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
29:14.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote6">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote6anc" name="sdfootnote6sym">6</a> Walter
Vogels, “The Cultic and Civil Calendars of the Fourth Day of
Creation (Gen. 1:14b),” <i>Scandinavian Journal of the Old
Testament: An International Journal of Nordic Theology</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
11/2 (1997): 165.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote7">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote7anc" name="sdfootnote7sym">7</a> Jeffrey
L. Cooley, <i>Poetic Astronomy in the Ancient Near East: The Reflexes of Celestia Science in Ancient Mesopotamian, Ugaritic, and Israelite Narrative</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eisenbrauns, 2013), 316.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote8">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote8anc" name="sdfootnote8sym">8</a> Michael
LeFebvre, <i>The Liturgy of Creation: Understanding Calendars in Old
Testament Context</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (IVP
Academic, 2019), 24.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote9">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote9anc" name="sdfootnote9sym">9</a> Eibert
Tigchelaar, “'Lights Serving as Signs for Festivals' (Genesis
1:14b) in <i>Enuma Elish</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> and
Early Judaism,” in George H. van Kooten, ed., </span><i>The
Creation of Heaven and Earth: Reinterpretations of Genesis 1 in the Context of Judaism, Ancient Philosophy, Christianity, and Modern Physics</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
Themes in Biblical Narrative 8 (Brill, 2005), 35.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote10">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote10anc" name="sdfootnote10sym">10</a> Bryan
C. Babcock, <i>Sacred Ritual: A Study of the West Semitic Ritual
Calendars in Leviticus 23 and the Akkadian Text Emar 446</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Eisenbrauns,
2014), 117.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote11">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote11anc" name="sdfootnote11sym">11</a> Michael
LeFebvre, <i>The Liturgy of Creation: Understanding Calendars in Old
Testament Context</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (IVP
Academic, 2019), 40-44.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote12">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote12anc" name="sdfootnote12sym">12</a> Michael
LeFebvre, <i>The Liturgy of Creation: Understanding Calendars in Old
Testament Context</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (IVP
Academic, 2019), 49-50.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote13">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote13anc" name="sdfootnote13sym">13</a> John
Goldingay, <i>Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, Baker
Commentary on the Old Testament: Pentateuch (Baker Academic, 2020),
32.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote14">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote14anc" name="sdfootnote14sym">14</a> 1QS
1.14-15, in Donald W. Parry and Emanuel Tov, eds., <i>The Dead Sea
Scrolls Reader</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, 6 vols. (Brill,
2004-2005), 1:3.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote15">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote15anc" name="sdfootnote15sym">15</a><i> Epistle
to Diognetus</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 4.5, in </span><i>Loeb
Classical Library</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 25:139.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote16">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote16anc" name="sdfootnote16sym">16</a><i> Barnabas</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
15.8-9, in </span><i>Popular Patristics Series</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
41:80.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote17">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote17anc" name="sdfootnote17sym">17</a> Dionysius
of Alexandria, letter quoted in Eusebius of Caesarea, <i>Ecclesiastical
History</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 7.22.4, in Jeremy M.
Schott, tr., </span><i>Eusebius of Caesarea:</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span><i>The History of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(University of California Press, 2019), 363.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote18">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote18anc" name="sdfootnote18sym">18</a> Alden
A. Mosshammer, <i>The Easter Computus and the Origins of the
Christian Era</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Oxford
University Press, 2008), 52.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote19">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote19anc" name="sdfootnote19sym">19</a><i> Martyrdom
of Polycarp</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 18.3, in </span><i>Loeb
Classical Library</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 24:393.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote20">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote20anc" name="sdfootnote20sym">20</a> Cyprian
of Carthage, <i>Letter</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 39.3, in
</span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
51:100.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote21">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote21anc" name="sdfootnote21sym">21</a> Bobby
Gross, <i>Living the Christian Year: Time to Inhabit the Story of
God</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (InterVarsity Press, 2009),
21.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote22">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote22anc" name="sdfootnote22sym">22</a> Michael
LeFebvre, <i>The Liturgy of Creation: Understanding Calendars in Old
Testament Context</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (IVP
Academic, 2019), 24.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote23">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote23anc" name="sdfootnote23sym">23</a> Lauren
F. Winner, foreword to Bobby Gross, <i>Living the Christian Year:
Time to Inhabit the Story of God</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(InterVarsity, 2009), 9-10.</span></span></p>
</div>
JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13108158469007498050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442509839497082978.post-25116207259429898292023-10-08T10:21:00.038-04:002023-10-29T14:25:11.251-04:00Sanctifying Service<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">It was morning.
Elizaphan had been up the last part of the night, keeping watch from
the south, and now he shuffled counterclockwise before the dawn to
open the gate to the court around the tabernacle, making a way for
his cousin Aaron, the bleary-eyed high priest of Israel, to pass
through. He watched as Aaron passed by the altar of sacrifice, still
crackling low with flame through the night, and into the tent to tend
the golden lampstand and burn fragrant incense in the sanctuary.
Another priest stopped at the altar, sweeping the ashes of
yesterday's evening sacrifice away. Heaping fresh wood onto the
flames, he changed clothes and carried the ashes out of the camp.
Soon it was time for the morning offering, another lamb slain and
aflame on the altar, while another of the priests poured out beer
inside the grounds of the tent, beside the smoldering incense.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">As the hours of morning
ticked away, other Israelites approached the court with this or that
animal, bird, bread, wine. It kept the priests busy serving at the
altar, their special responsibility to keep. The Levites were busy
carrying out various ministries around the tent of meeting. Some
stood guard at the gates, verifying that people and items were
ritually clean to enter. Some wrangled the animals, making sure none
broke loose. Then there were those who kept track of the treasures.
Others shadowed the priests as bodyguards, making sure they could
safely carry out their holy ministries, while yet others attended to
the priests' needs, fetching supplies and water as the day grew hot.
Still others kept peace in the court between bickering clans, or sang
or prayed or taught.
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Elizaphan, as an older
Levite, was no longer tasked with the more physical responsibilities.
As he stood by the tabernacle gate, his mind wandered back to the
day he'd been consecrated <i>“to serve the service of the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
how he'd been shaved head to toe, washed clean, ordained by the
laying on of hands, and separated from Israel's midst as a special
gift to God and the priests. “The community of Israel must be
plotted, fenced, and plowed with the laws of purity,” Elizaphan
thought, “so that she can bear the fruits of holiness.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote1sym" name="sdfootnote1anc"><sup>1</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">But
we've been in not Leviticus but in Genesis, before the rise of
Israel. And there we've found a special place, a luxurious garden.
There's where God put the human being who, as our prototype,
represents us all. As we've explored this garden, we've learned that
it's no ordinary park or grove or jungle. It's also holy ground.
It's sacred space. It's the first sanctuary, an especially holy
patch of earth, sanctified by proximity to God's own presence. It's
the space God has chosen to freely walk among us, and us with him.
That's why it's so alive.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Last
week, we saw that Genesis depicts God crafting the human being –
Adam, and me, and you – in much the same terms by which the pagans
in Israel's world carefully carved and ceremonially commissioned
their idols. And indeed, Genesis uses the same word for us that they
used for their idols: 'image,' the image of God. Into an original
sanctuary, we humans were placed as holy images of God, so that, in
the reverence with which creation treated us, God himself would
receive the honor – which is why this weekend's atrocities in the
Middle East, as with all violence against human beings, is such
devastatingly wicked sacrilege.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But
now we can say even more, if you can believe it. Because as soon as
we're placed in this garden-temple, as soon as we set foot on holy
ground, we're given a job: </span><i>“the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
God took the human and rested him in the Garden of Eden to work it
and to keep it”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Genesis
2:15). Genesis uses two very specific Hebrew words here, </span><i>'abad</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
and </span><i>shamar</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, and
there's one other major context in the Bible where they come together
– and that's where Moses describes what Aaron does, what Eleazar
does, what Elizaphan does (e.g., Numbers 3:7-8; 18:5-6). These are
Levite words, priest words. The human being is in the garden, not
just like a farmer or a vinedresser, but to be there everything a
Levite or priest was in the tabernacle in the desert or in the temple
on Zion.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote2sym" name="sdfootnote2anc"><sup>2</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">This
isn't a new insight, either. An old Christian poet sang that “in
the beginning, when the Lord created Adam, he made him a priest so
that he might stand in his service.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote3sym" name="sdfootnote3anc"><sup>3</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
So, as another put it, “we are born on the following terms: that
we present our just and due obedience to the God who creates us, and
that we acknowledge and follow him alone.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote4sym" name="sdfootnote4anc"><sup>4</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
“Religious impulses are not the chance creation of particular
kinds of societies,” but rather, as one modern scholar points out,
scientists are now “making the bold empirical claim that they are
the starting point for everyone..., an integral part of the very way
we have come to think,” indeed, of “human nature.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote5sym" name="sdfootnote5anc"><sup>5</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Being 'religious' isn't a personality trait some people just do or
don't have, or a hobby some folks pick up. Religion is a human
virtue, the right use of inborn faculties, because “natural reason
dictates that man should give reverence to God.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote6sym" name="sdfootnote6anc"><sup>6</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
There's such a thing as natural religion, arising once people's
God-instinct blooms into awareness, because “knowing God comes
first, and worship of him is the consequence.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote7sym" name="sdfootnote7anc"><sup>7</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">So
let's go back to Adam's job description, </span><i>our</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
job description, and pick up with the second word, </span><i>shamar</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
that is, to keep or guard what's holy. That's something that was
expected of Israel's Levites and priests. How would we have done
that in the garden? How do we do that now in this wide world we've
come into? Well, first, the human mission is to maintain the garden
as an orderly and suitable place for an encounter with the living
God.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote8sym" name="sdfootnote8anc"><sup>8</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Second, relatedly, we're told to care for all the garden's
God-ordained contents, to keep them fit for holy purposes. We're
bringing God's order and God's beauty into the world, arranging earth
in a way that creates space to encounter him in his holy love.
Whatever we do in the world, we should minister structure, order, and
beauty in harmony; our acts should make room for God and people to
interact in healing ways.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Third,
like the Levites, our mission is to protect all who lawfully enter
the sanctuary space, seeing to their safety and security. There's an
age-old tradition of being able to run to holy ground for protection
from pursuers. That means that it's part of the human vocation
itself to cultivate sanctuary, to establish a refuge for everything
that rightfully belongs in God's world. When we stand up for God's
good creatures, when we provide shelter for people or animals or
trees, when we give them refuge and sanctuary in God, we're doing our
job as humans.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The
corollary is, fourth, that the human mission is to preserve the
garden from defilement, “keeping out anything that would compromise
or corrupt the sanctity of sacred space.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote9sym" name="sdfootnote9anc"><sup>9</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
For example, should a ritually unclean animal – ...say, a certain
serpent... – slither its way in, then the human responsibility was
to judge it as unclean, block its way, and banish it.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote10sym" name="sdfootnote10anc"><sup>10</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
In our world, the apostles said </span><i>“we shouldn't call any
person... unclean”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> by nature
(Acts 10:28), nor any critter </span><i>“unclean in itself”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Romans 14:14). But they aren't shy about calling for </span><i>“unclean
spirits”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> to be </span><i>“cast
out”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Matthew 10:1), or
labeling certain behaviors as </span><i>“uncleanness”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Galatians 5:19). Our mission calls us to oppose the powers of
uncleanness, starting first and foremost in our own lives.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Fifth,
the human, as keeper of the garden, was to sanctify the garden on a
routine basis, “seeing to the continual state of holiness of all
that was within the sanctuary.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote11sym" name="sdfootnote11anc"><sup>11</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
In our world, this would mean bringing holiness to bear in every
sphere of life Of course, that means that </span><i>“as he who
called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(1 Peter 1:15). But more than our example, it means repeatedly
offering up our people, our places, our things, to God as his
rightful own. It means consecrating them to him through the
authority he's given us to sanctify in his name, by invoking his
Spirit, giving them over to him to the extent they've been entrusted
to us.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">And
sixth, the human, as keeper of the garden, was to defend and
encourage devotion to God there. The Levites and priests who carried
out this calling in ancient Israel were to defend the tabernacle and
other devotion to God wherever it was lived throughout the camp. And
in our world today, this human calling means a responsibility to
defend religious liberty, guarding the rights of God's people to
answer their responsibility to pursue him and live for him. This is
more than a meager 'right to worship,' as if religious liberty begins
and ends at the church door. Guarding religion is asserting the
natural right of every human being to actually live for God, not just
in private settings, but publicly as a whole person. And guarding
religion in such a way is a responsibility for every human being. It
goes beyond that, too, to encouraging devotion to God as a positive
good, exhorting the world to turn to the Lord for salvation, to be
better attuned to his holiness, to look toward him and love him.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Those
are all the sorts of things that might have fallen within the remit
of a priest or Levite as they carried out their guardianship of holy
things, keeping and maintaining holiness in the holy spaces among the
holy people. And so, </span><i>“by the Holy Spirit who dwells
within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(2 Timothy 1:14). But then there's that other half of Adam's job
description, </span><i>'abad</i><span style="font-style: normal;">.
Some Bibles translate it as 'work,' but it's the word for service; it
was commonly used for how priests and Levites would serve the service
of God, minister the ministry of God, in the tabernacle and its
court. So too, “part of Adam's function was to worship God.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote12sym" name="sdfootnote12anc"><sup>12</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Every
human person is supposed to serve God, first and foremost, within his
own heart, mind, soul. All human beings are, by human nature, to
“offer a devout mind to God,” to “be bound to God as our
unfailing principle,” to “unceasingly choose him as our last
end.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote13sym" name="sdfootnote13anc"><sup>13</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
These “internal acts of religion are principal and essential,
while the exterior acts are secondary and subordinate,” but our
bodies assist and extend our souls' worship of God.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote14sym" name="sdfootnote14anc"><sup>14</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Second,
every human person is supposed to serve God by giving voice to
praise. One eighth-century Christian said that in the garden, “God
wanted us to... have one task: that of the angels, which is to praise
the Creator ceaselessly and uninterruptedly, and to enjoy his
contemplation.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote15sym" name="sdfootnote15anc"><sup>15</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
The angels, in their non-bodily way, live their whole existence as
unbroken praise for God's infinite goodness; and we were made to join
their delight in God in our bodily way. All created things – storm
and flame, tree and river, bird and beast – praise God (Psalm
148:3-10). But, like conductors of a choir, we've “been charged
with the sacred task of aiding all creation in its symphony of praise
to God.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote16sym" name="sdfootnote16anc"><sup>16</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span><i>“Sing to the glory of his name; give to him glorious
praise!”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Psalm 66:2).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Third,
every human person is supposed to serve God through adoration, that
is, using our bodily postures as a way to express our position with
respect to God.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote17sym" name="sdfootnote17anc"><sup>17</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
All of creation is meant to joyfully humble itself before its God,
recognizing him specifically as God, as the One to whom every
conceivable honor is owed. The psalmists tell us </span><i>“all
things are God's servants”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Psalm 119:91), all things are by nature God's worshippers, all
created realities are naturally disposed toward the adoration of the
Most High.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote18sym" name="sdfootnote18anc"><sup>18</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Every created thing is in a position that tends toward trusting
submission to God – toward adoration. And so, as priests of the
visible creation, we lead that creation in bowing to God, in
“exterior humbling of the body” to show “awe and submission to
God.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote19sym" name="sdfootnote19anc"><sup>19</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span><i>“Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel
before the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
our Maker!”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Psalm 95:6).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Fourth,
every human person is supposed to serve God through oblation.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote20sym" name="sdfootnote20anc"><sup>20</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
That's a fancy Latin word for offering – whether sacrificial or
not.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote21sym" name="sdfootnote21anc"><sup>21</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
While there was no animal sacrifice in the garden, there probably
would've been oblations of firstfruits, maybe the burning of incense
(cf. </span><i>Jubilees</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 3:27).
The point is, we were always meant to express our devotion to God
through giving him gifts, even in paradise. In our worship today,
</span><i>“ascribe to the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts!”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Psalm 96:8).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Fifth,
every human person is supposed to serve God through prayer. It's
been said that “through prayer, man offers reverence to God because
he subjects himself to God and professes that God is the source of
all that he is and all that he has.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote22sym" name="sdfootnote22anc"><sup>22</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Prayer is part of the human mission – communicating with God,
speaking to God, giving him thanks, interceding with him. We
interact with him, mind to mind, through our voices.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Sixth,
every human person is supposed to serve God through teaching. The
Bible says that </span><i>“the lips of a priest should guard
knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he
is the messenger of the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
of Hosts”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Malachi 2:7).
Another of our religious acts, even in the garden, would have been
“to mediate access through instruction.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote23sym" name="sdfootnote23anc"><sup>23</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
That's especially about who God is and what it takes to live in his
holy presence, how to think after God's thoughts and love after God's
loves, how to worship him with a worthy worship. And seventh, a
responsibility of the priests who ministered in the tabernacle was to
pronounce God's blessing on those they were priests for (Numbers
6:22-27), so still another of our religious acts, even in the garden,
would've been the responsibility, “as priests of creation,” of
“actively mediating divine blessing to the nonhuman world” as
well as to each other, bringing all creation “under a divinely
planned cultivation.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote24sym" name="sdfootnote24anc"><sup>24</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
it's likely that, even in the garden, all this praise and adoration,
this prayer and oblation, this instruction and benediction, would
have come together into what we might fairly call 'liturgy.' Our
word 'liturgy' comes from the word that Greek-speaking Jews used to
translate how priests and Levites worked in the tabernacle (e.g.,
Exodus 28:43 LXX), and it's come to mean a public ritual of worship
with an organized rhythm, a structured order of worship. One scholar
describes liturgies as practices that “aim our love to different
ends precisely by training our hearts through our bodies,” and so
he defines humans as, in our deepest character, “liturgical
animals” like no other.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote25sym" name="sdfootnote25anc"><sup>25</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
In being called to worship, we humans are called to liturgies that
express and uplift the holiness of God's service and aim our love
toward God, training our hearts through what our bodies do. We're in
the middle of a liturgy right now – more elaborate than some, less
elaborate than others.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
that liturgy is all about Jesus. He lived his entire life on earth,
and his eternal life in heaven, the way Adam should have but didn't.
He's our </span><i>“Great High Priest”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Hebrews 4:14), the true worshipper of his Father. He has </span><i>“obtained
a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
one of Adam or of Aaron </span><i>“as the covenant he mediates is
better”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Hebrews 8:6). It's
Jesus who maintains the world as a suitable space for God, who cares
for all the world's contents, who protects all who come to him, who
banishes defilement by his cleansing blood, who sanctifies his garden
by his Spirit, who exhorts us to devotion. It's Jesus who, from the
depths of his soul perfectly united to his divinity, offers to his
Father the truest praise and prayer, the truest adoration and
oblation, for </span><i>“through the eternal Spirit he offered
himself without blemish to God”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Hebrews 9:14). It's Jesus who turns to us and to all creation with
unfailing instruction on his lips, irresistible blessing in his
hands, inconceivable mercy in his eyes, unquestionable love burning
in his holy heart. </span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Jesus
is, again and again, the One sent to live out the human vocation in a
way more perfect than even a sinless Adam and Eve could have. And in
Jesus Christ, </span><i>“our Liturgist in the holy places”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Hebrews 8:2), we're </span><i>“being built up... to be a holy
priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through
Jesus Christ”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (1 Peter 2:5),
equipped with holiness </span><i>“for the work of ministry”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Ephesians 4:12), with a gospel to </span><i>“proclaim in all
creation under heaven”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Colossians 1:23). So </span><i>“let us offer to God acceptable
worship, with reverence and awe”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Hebrews 12:28), and cultivate in his garden, in all his holy courts,
</span><i>“a harvest of righteousness”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
unto the very end (James 3:18). Thanks be to God for this holy
ministry to serve and keep his holiness in Christ! Amen.<span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<div id="sdfootnote1">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote1anc" name="sdfootnote1sym">1</a> R.
R. Reno, <i>Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Brazos
Press, 2010), 69.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote2">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote2anc" name="sdfootnote2sym">2</a> See
G. K. Beale, <i>The Temple and the Church's Mission: A Biblical
Theology of the Dwelling Place of God</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(IVP Academic, 2004), 67; Scott W. Hahn, “Worship in the Word:
Toward a Liturgical Hermeneutic,” </span><i>Letter & Spirit</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1 (2005): 107; Seth D. Postell, </span><i>Adam as Israel: Genesis
1-3 as the Introduction to the Torah and Tanakh</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Pickwick Publications, 2011), 112; Iain Provan, </span><i>Seriously Dangerous
Religion: What the Old Testament Really Says and Why It Matters</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Baylor University Press, 2014), 37; Catherine L. McDowell, </span><i>The
Image of God in the Garden of Eden</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eisenbrauns, 2015), 141; Tremper Longman III, </span><i>Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Zondervan Academic, 2016), 49; Brian Neil Peterson, </span><i>Genesis
as Torah: Reading Narrative as Legal Instruction</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Wipf and Stock, 2018), 33; Gregg Davidson and Kenneth J. Turner,
</span><i>The Manifold Beauty of Genesis One: A Multi-Layered
Approach</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Kregel Academic,
2021), 109; and more.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote3">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote3anc" name="sdfootnote3sym">3</a> Jacob
of Serugh, <i>Memra</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 5.1-2, in
</span><i>Texts from Christian Late Antiquity</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
71:28.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote4">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote4anc" name="sdfootnote4sym">4</a> Lactantius,
<i>Divine Institutes</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 4.28.2, in
</span><i>Translated Texts for Historians</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
40:275.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote5">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote5anc" name="sdfootnote5sym">5</a> Roger
Trigg, “Human Nature and Religious Freedom,” in Roger Trigg and
Justin L. Barrett, eds., <i>The Roots of Religion: Exploring the
Cognitive Science of Religion</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Routledge, 2016 [Ashgate, 2014]), 222.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote6">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote6anc" name="sdfootnote6sym">6</a> Thomas
Aquinas, <i>Summa theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
II-II, q.81, a.2, </span><i>ad</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
3, in </span><i>Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
39:17.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote7">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote7anc" name="sdfootnote7sym">7</a> Lactantius,
<i>Divine Institutes</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 4.4.3, in
</span><i>Translated Texts for Historians</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
40:230.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote8">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote8anc" name="sdfootnote8sym">8</a> G.
K. Beale, <i>The Temple and the Church's Mission: A Biblical
Theology of the Dwelling Place of God</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(IVP Academic, 2004), 68.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote9">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote9anc" name="sdfootnote9sym">9</a> John
H. Walton, <i>The Lost World of Adam and Eve: Genesis 2-3 and the
Human Origins Debate</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (IVP
Academic, 2015), 108.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote10">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote10anc" name="sdfootnote10sym">10</a> Bruce
K. Waltke, <i>Genesis: A Commentary</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Zondervan Academic, 2001), 87; G. K. Beale, </span><i>The Temple
and the Church's Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place
of God</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (IVP Academic, 2004),
69; Steven C. Smith, </span><i>The House of the Lord: A Catholic
Biblical Theology of God's Temple Presence in the Old and New
Testaments</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Franciscan
University Press, 2017), 41, 78.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote11">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote11anc" name="sdfootnote11sym">11</a> Steven
C. Smith, <i>The House of the Lord: A Catholic Biblical Theology of
God's Temple Presence...</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Franciscan University Press, 2017), 83.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote12">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote12anc" name="sdfootnote12sym">12</a> G.
K. Beale, <i>The Temple and the Church's Mission: A Biblical
Theology of the Dwelling Place of God</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(IVP Academic, 2004), 69.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote13">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote13anc" name="sdfootnote13sym">13</a> Thomas
Aquinas, <i>Summa theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
II-II, q.85, a.4; q.81, a.1, in </span><i>Thomas Aquinas: Summa
Theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 39:13, 123.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote14">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote14anc" name="sdfootnote14sym">14</a> Thomas
Aquinas, <i>Summa theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
II-II, q.81, a.7, in </span><i>Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
39:29.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote15">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote15anc" name="sdfootnote15sym">15</a> John
of Damascus, <i>On the Orthodox Faith</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
25, in </span><i>Popular Patristics Series</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
62:125.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote16">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote16anc" name="sdfootnote16sym">16</a> Daniel
I. Block, <i>For the Glory of God: Recovering a Biblical Theology of
Worship</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Baker Academic, 2014),
58.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote17">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote17anc" name="sdfootnote17sym">17</a> Thomas
Aquinas, <i>Summa theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
II-II, q.84, preface, in </span><i>Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
39:103.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote18">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote18anc" name="sdfootnote18sym">18</a> J.
Richard Middleton, <i>The Liberating Image: The Imago Dei in Genesis
1</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Baker Academic, 2005), 87.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote19">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote19anc" name="sdfootnote19sym">19</a> Thomas
Aquinas, <i>Summa theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
II-II, q.84, a.2, in </span><i>Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
39:107; David G. Peterson, </span><i>Engaging with God: A Biblical
Theology of Worship</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (IVP
Academic, 1992), 58.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote20">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote20anc" name="sdfootnote20sym">20</a> John
H. Walton, <i>The Lost World of Adam and Eve: Genesis 2-3 and the
Human Origins Debate</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (IVP
Academic, 2015), 108.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote21">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote21anc" name="sdfootnote21sym">21</a> Thomas
Aquinas, <i>Summa theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
II-II, q.85, a.3, </span><i>ad</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
3, in </span><i>Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
39:121.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote22">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote22anc" name="sdfootnote22sym">22</a> Thomas
Aquinas, <i>Summa theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
II-II, q.83, a.3, in </span><i>Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
39:55.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote23">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote23anc" name="sdfootnote23sym">23</a> John
H. Walton, <i>The Lost World of Adam and Eve: Genesis 2-3 and the
Human Origins Debate</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (IVP
Academic, 2015), 112.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote24">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote24anc" name="sdfootnote24sym">24</a> J.
Richard Middleton, <i>The Liberating Image: The Imago Dei in Genesis
1</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Baker Academic, 2005), 90;
R. R. Reno, </span><i>Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Brazos Press, 2010), 69.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote25">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote25anc" name="sdfootnote25sym">25</a> James
K. A. Smith, <i>Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and
Cultural Formation</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Baker
Academic, 2009), 25, 40.</span></span></p>
</div>
JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13108158469007498050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442509839497082978.post-63777408383211422152023-10-01T10:35:00.000-04:002023-10-02T11:07:39.445-04:00Idols with a Pulse<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">A man named
Nabu-nadin-shumi woke up that morning in Babylon with a mix of
exhilaration and exhaustion, and mused on the chain of tragic and
fortuitous events that had led him there. Long ago, when Samuel was
judge in Israel but Adad-apla-iddina was king in Babylon, the wicked
Arameans and Sutians had plundered their way through the land,
“overthrew all the temples,” and, when they'd come to Sippar,
“the ancient city, abode of the great judge of the gods,” they
profaned the great temple E-babbar.<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote1sym" name="sdfootnote1anc"><sup>1</sup></a></sup>
They'd stolen the sun god Shamash from his 'shining house,' and so
“his appearance and his attributes had vanished beyond grasp” –
his cult statue was lost.<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote2sym" name="sdfootnote2anc"><sup>2</sup></a></sup></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The years passed, and
while Saul was king of Israel, Simbar-shipak rose to be king in
Babylon. Determined to appease the gods, Simbar-shipak had yearned
to restore Shamash to his temple, but what could he do? No way
appeared to “discover his image and his attributes;” no new
statue could be made. So Simbar-shipak enshrined a sun-disk, an
abstract symbol of Shamash, in E-babbar; and he tasked the priest
Ekur-shuma-usharshi to resume the regular offerings.<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote3sym" name="sdfootnote3anc"><sup>3</sup></a></sup>
Everyone knew, though, this was only “a special expedient for an
emergency situation.”<sup><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote4sym" name="sdfootnote4anc"><sup>4</sup></a></sup>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">That was a century and a
half ago. Now had come a year that you or I might know as 856 BC,
the days of Elijah, with Jehoshaphat on the throne of David in
Jerusalem, and Ahab and Jezebel raging from their palace in Samaria.
But to Nabu-nadin-shumi, none of those names meant anything. An heir
of Ekur-shuma-usharshi, Nabu-nadin-shumi was <i>shangu</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
priest at the E-babbar in these days when Nabu-apla-iddina was king
in Babylon. And now a baked clay relief bearing the lost image and
attributes of Shamash had come to light, dug up from across the
river, a seeming miracle out of the earth.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote5sym" name="sdfootnote5anc"><sup>5</sup></a></span></sup></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The
priest had gone to show it to the king, and the king had been
overjoyed, tasking Nabu-nadin-shumi with assembling craftsmen to make
a new cult statue using this image.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote6sym" name="sdfootnote6anc"><sup>6</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
And so the craftsmen labored hard, finding just the right kind of
tree, carving everything out of wood, plating it with fine gold and
precious jewels like lapis lazuli to reflect the heavenly glory of
Shamash.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote7sym" name="sdfootnote7anc"><sup>7</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Nabu-nadin-shumi had been in charge of the whole process. And now,
in the sacred Ekarzagina garden on the bank of the Euphrates in
Babylon, the rituals were underway.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote8sym" name="sdfootnote8anc"><sup>8</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Yesterday,
the favorable day, he'd spread out red and white cloths, led the
statue to the river bank, positioned it facing west, hurled a ram's
thigh into the river, put the statue in an orchard, mixed holy water
and poured it into a tamarisk trough, made offerings to all the gods
they could think of, and recited all sorts of incantations. It was a
heavy day of opening and purifying the statue's mouth.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote9sym" name="sdfootnote9anc"><sup>9</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Now,
this morning, having set out food and drink, burned incense, recited
more incantations, he whispered into the statue's left ear, “From
this day, let your fate be counted as divinity; among your brother
gods may you be counted.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote10sym" name="sdfootnote10anc"><sup>10</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
He assembled the craftsmen who made the statue, bound their hands,
and ritually mimed cutting them off while they swore oaths that the
statue was built by the gods, not by their own mortal hands.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote11sym" name="sdfootnote11anc"><sup>11</sup></a>
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">After
a ritual to open the statue's eyes, proclaiming it a “statue born
in heaven,” he led it in procession north from Babylon to Sippar,
to the doors of E-babbar.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote12sym" name="sdfootnote12anc"><sup>12</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
“In the temple, may your heart's joy continue daily!” he chanted
as, with sacrifice, he admitted Shamash to his own innermost shrine.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote13sym" name="sdfootnote13anc"><sup>13</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
With final offerings, washing the statue's mouth for the final time,
by night it was time to dress and crown the image with all “the
trappings of divinity.” It was done – “let the evil tongue
stand aside” – for the sun god was back in E-babbar!</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote14sym" name="sdfootnote14anc"><sup>14</sup></a></span></sup></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Alright,
at this point in our story, you might be asking, “Pastor, what </span><i>on
earth</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> does any of this
Babylonian claptrap have to do with the Bible, much less with
Genesis?” Okay, fair question! But thanks for bearing with me.
We've been exploring, for these past few months, the grand saga of
creation. And at <a href="http://iron-in-fire.blogspot.com/2023/08/six-seven-rest.html">the end of August</a>, we saw that Genesis chapter 1 is
encoded with seven upon seven upon seven to communicate to us that
the entire universe God creates is a temple, the biggest temple in
the world because it </span><span style="font-style: normal;"><u>is</u></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
the world; and the seventh day is a declaration that God has come to
indwell this temple, rest in this temple, reign from this temple.
But then we moved to chapter 2, a new story that lends a different
perspective on the works of the Creator. Here, we get an earthier
angle on those works, and we find that there's a land the author
calls 'Eden' where God plants a special garden. <a href="http://iron-in-fire.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-garden-of-delight.html">Two weeks ago</a>, we
established that if the world was a temple, this garden was its holy
of holies.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Now,
suppose Nabu-nadin-shumi showed up here right now, stumbling through those church doors. After he hears
what we've learned so far, there's one natural question he's going to
have. To him and most people in his world, the most natural
expectation is that a temple houses an image. The whole point of a
temple, to them, is to offer the god service through the idol and to
thereby contact the god through the idol.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote15sym" name="sdfootnote15anc"><sup>15</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
As one Old Testament scholar puts it, “no pagan temple in the
ancient Near East could be complete without the installation of the
cult image of the deity to whom the temple was dedicated.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote16sym" name="sdfootnote16anc"><sup>16</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
So, Nabu-nadin-shumi will ask us, if this garden is the sanctuary,
where's the idol, the statue?</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">And
what we should tell him, when he asks, is to hold onto his hat,
because he's in for a surprise – starting with these verses we read
this morning. Now, remember the sequence of events from before.
First, Nabu-nadin-shumi assembles his craftsmen to make a new statue
out of a wooden core enclosed within gold and jewels. The physical
material has to be given shape in the workshop. Well, what happens
in Genesis? Somewhere on earth, as if in God's workshop, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“the
L</span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></i></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">
God formed the human from the dust of the ground”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 2:7) – physical material being given the right shape. In
Babylon, what did Nabu-nadin-shumi do next? An elaborate series of
rituals in a garden, all meant to open the mouth of the statue. What
does God do next? He takes this shapely dust and </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 2:7). And in doing so, God opens the human's mouth,
bringing him ritually to birth. Nabu-nadin-shumi thinks that the
result of his rituals is that the statue comes to life, becoming a
god. And in Genesis, we're told that after God does the work of
craftsman and priest, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“the
human became a living creature”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 2:7).</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote17sym" name="sdfootnote17anc"><sup>17</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
From here on out, the human is everything Nabu-nadin-shumi imagined
his statue of Shamash would become, and it's now widely agreed by Old
Testament scholars that the Genesis depiction of human origins
intentionally mimics those types of rituals.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote18sym" name="sdfootnote18anc"><sup>18</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">And
the word for the clay relief Nabu-nadin-shumi showed to the king, and
then for the big statue he designed on its basis, was – in Akkadian
– </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">tsalam</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">.
Hebrew has a similar word – </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">tselem</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
– which could be likewise refer to “cultic statuary,”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote19sym" name="sdfootnote19anc"><sup>19</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
any “physical object intended as a sign of foreign gods” from
Israel's point-of-view.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote20sym" name="sdfootnote20anc"><sup>20</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
But God announces: </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“Let
us make man in our tselem, after our likeness. … So God created
man in his own tselem; in the tselem of God he created him”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 1:26-27). The </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">tselem</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">,
the image, that God makes is the human being – it's me, it's you!</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">And
in the same way that Nabu-nadin-shumi then walked the supposedly
enlivened statue to E-babbara, where he ritually installed it in the
innermost shrine, so, after the human being is brought to life, we
read that </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“the
L</span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></i></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">
God took the human and installed him in the Garden of Eden”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 2:15). The verb here is exactly the same verb the Bible
uses for how idolaters would 'install' cult statues in their high
places or shrines (Isaiah 46:7; 2 Kings 17:29).</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote21sym" name="sdfootnote21anc"><sup>21</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
What they do with their idols, God does with us in the garden.
We're the true idol!</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Now,
to Babylonians like Nabu-nadin-shumi, an idol wasn't just a </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">reminder</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
of the god it represented; it actually, so they thought, manifested
that god on earth, by being brought to life as an extension and
expression of the god in his essence, so it was “a physical, living
manifestation of an otherwise invisible reality,” present as “the
main conduit of divine self-disclosure.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote22sym" name="sdfootnote22anc"><sup>22</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
An idol was considered as an item of revelation and action, believed
to be indwelt by the god's spirit so that the god could receive
service through it and give blessing for the city and territory
around the temple.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote23sym" name="sdfootnote23anc"><sup>23</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
To them, once all the rituals were done, it was imagined as no
longer just a statue but somehow the god himself, made really present
in that place.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote24sym" name="sdfootnote24anc"><sup>24</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">But
the witness of Scripture shows why idolatry is silly. </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“Claiming
to be wise,”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Paul comments, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“they
became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images
resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Romans 1:22-23). But “in Israel, there were to be no carved
images </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><u>because</u></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
God had already made a concrete image both visible and tangible to
all who would look.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote25sym" name="sdfootnote25anc"><sup>25</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Idols are pointless because God already made and installed the only
'idol' that works! So the prophets mocked behavior like
Nabu-nadin-shumi's, because although he played pretend that his idol
was carved by his gods, the prophets kept hammering home the
inconvenient truth that this was mere make-believe, that </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“the
idols of the nations are... the work of human hands”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Psalm 135:15), </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“all
of them the work of craftsmen”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
who are regular joes with human frailties (Hosea 13:2; Isaiah 44:12).
Where Nabu-nadin-shumi waxed poetic about the special purity of his
materials, the prophets waxed polemic about how under all that fancy
dressing is nothing but </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“wood
that will rot”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Isaiah 40:20). And where Nabu-nadin-shumi was convinced his
incantations could turn wood into deity, the prophets insisted his
rituals were powerless to give life. Such idols </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“have
mouths, but do not speak; they have eyes, but do not see; they have
ears, but do not hear, nor is there any breath in their mouths”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Psalm 135:16-17). The result is a doll of dependence, a passive
object of human deeds, unable to act on the world (Jeremiah 10:5).</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">After
the prophets, the point was made that somebody like Nabu-nadin-shumi
is a person “living on borrowed breath..., and what he makes with
lawless hands is dead. For he is better than the things he worships:
at least he lives, but never his idols” (Wisdom 15:16-17). And
when Paul makes his way to Athens, he explains patiently that the
real God, the Creator God, is too infinite to be confined to an
artificial temple. No matter how big or grand, it's merely a
gesture, and a potentially misleading one. Nor is this God in a
position of dependence on our services, since he's the provider of
all we have in the first place, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“life
and breath and everything”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Acts 17:24-25). Paul continues that thought by quoting even a Greek
poet's confession that human beings as God's offspring. And if
that's so, Paul asks, then how could anything subhuman – something
as lifeless as mineral or wood – ever fittingly represent our
Father (Acts 17:28-29)? God is pure action, so how can he be imaged
by an idol that's purely passive? If God's the Way, how can he be
imaged by something that can't move itself? If God is Truth, how can
he be imaged by something fake to its core, a thing that by its very
nature is </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“a
teacher of lies”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Habakkuk 2:18)? If God is Life, how can he be imaged truly by
something breathless, dormant, dead? </span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">It's
no wonder the prophets call such things </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“abominable
images”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Ezekiel 17:19), </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“worthless
things”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Psalm 31:60, for they steal a job that they can't possibly perform.
But we are “the living representation pointing to a living and real
God... unlike the lifeless images of other deities made by human
hands.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote26sym" name="sdfootnote26anc"><sup>26</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
No wonder, too, then, that one early Roman Christian responded to a
pagan friend trying to lure him back to idolatry by asking: “What
image would I fashion for God, seeing that man can be rightly
considered as himself the image of God?”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote27sym" name="sdfootnote27anc"><sup>27</sup></a>
But, as Paul told us, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“you
know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to mute idols,”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
away from our true human calling (1 Corinthians 12:2). </span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Worse
still, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“those
who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Psalm 135:18). Because we really are far better than the works of
our hands (whether that means a physical cult statue or a cherished
technology or a cultural or societal phenomenon we cause, like a
government or an economy or an ideology – we're better than them
all), the only way to magnify our manufactured works as our gods is
to shrink ourselves down low, subhumanly low, until we can at last
look up to them – that is, the only way to carry out idolatry is to
become spiritually deformed, recast into the likeness of something
ill-suited to the image we're made to bear. </span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">This
wrongful likeness poisons us, blinds and deafens our hearts, by
making us more like the blind and deaf and dead things we put our
foolish trust in.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote28sym" name="sdfootnote28anc"><sup>28</sup></a>
To trust what we can manufacture is to conform our lives to
something so much less alive than the God who is Life, so much less
true than the God who is Truth, so much less good and beautiful than
the God who is Goodness and Beauty. </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“Those
who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Jonah 2:8), rejecting the incredible privilege and responsibility
that comes from being a living representative of the living God.
</span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“Therefore, my
beloved, flee from idolatry”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(1 Corinthians 10:14)! Only a living human being can image God;
nothing less is up to the job. It takes idols with a pulse.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">And
it's not just that we're alive, but even though we're in one sense
animals, we're made to reflect God in a way no other creature on
earth can. “The image of his own nature he made us” (Wisdom
2:23). We have an inner self, a spiritual soul, that's “invisible,
incorporeal, incorruptible, and immortal,” analogously to how God
lives.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote29sym" name="sdfootnote29anc"><sup>29</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
We're thinkers with reason and intelligence, reflective of God.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote30sym" name="sdfootnote30anc"><sup>30</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
We're inventive, for “in imitation of his Creator, man also
creates houses, walls, cities, harbors, ships, dockyards, chariots,
and countless other things.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote31sym" name="sdfootnote31anc"><sup>31</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
We're intrinsically relational like God, with a “capacity for
interpersonal communion” no other earthly creature has.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote32sym" name="sdfootnote32anc"><sup>32</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
We bear God's image in our natural virtue, for “that soul is well
painted in which resides... the reflection of its paternal nature.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote33sym" name="sdfootnote33anc"><sup>33</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Across the infinite gulf between creature and Creator, God made you
so profoundly that, where every other animal was made </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“according
to its kind,”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
you weren't; you were made </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“after
the image and likeness of God”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 1:25-26). Family resemblance to a heavenly Father </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><u>defines</u></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
the human 'kind.' </span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Idols
are fake, yes. But you, with your living family resemblance to a
heavenly Father, are the real deal. You and I exist on earth, are
installed in the garden, “to represent and mediate the divine
presence on earth.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote34sym" name="sdfootnote34anc"><sup>34</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
You were put here with the intent that you would be indwelt by the
true God's Spirit. </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“Do
you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within
you, whom you have from God?”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(1 Corinthians 6:19). That's what we were all made for! Each person
is </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">supposed</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
to have God's Spirit in us, is supposed to be a walking, talking
manifestation of God's real presence. You are created to be a
conduit of God's self-disclosure. You're more than a reminder;
you're a revelation! You are created to be a body through whom God
himself receives service through the actions of others, and you are
created to be a point from which God's blessing radiates out to the
world around, as his glory is made visible through you. That's what
it means to be made in the image of God!</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">One
old Christian poet dared to say that this made the human being “a
fitting image, a beloved icon..., a god of flesh.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote35sym" name="sdfootnote35anc"><sup>35</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Modern scholars looking at this say we're given a “status of near
divinity,”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote36sym" name="sdfootnote36anc"><sup>36</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
“endowed with the power of God's presence” and due “reverence
from the rest of creation.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote37sym" name="sdfootnote37anc"><sup>37</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
And if that's so, what are we due from each other? How should we
treat each other and ourselves, if we're “gods of flesh,” the
image of God on earth? </span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Human
life, human health, human dignity then are holy things, not to be
violated. To mistreat a human being isn't just violence; it's
sacrilege! How much sacrilege there is, then, in the world's
senseless wars, in our gun-cluttered streets and our so-called
'clinics' of dismemberment, in our abuse-rife penal system, in our
exploitative entertainments, in the gaping jaws of our medical
mammons and our mass-media behemoths and our legal leviathans, in all
our vast structures of oppression! How much blasphemy in our words
spoken with contempt, reducing a splendid image of the Lord God
Almighty to a mere label for a hue of pigmentation, an economic
stratum, a developmental benchmark, a social group, a legal standing,
an action, a temptation! </span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">And
not only these active offenses of sacrilege and blasphemy should
pierce our hearts with sorrow, but consider: how does a god take it
when his image is neglected? Nabu-nadin-shumi could tell you that
avoiding service to a cult statue “was akin to high treason; it
jeopardized peace, prosperity, and life.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote38sym" name="sdfootnote38anc"><sup>38</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
So, do we neglect our neighbor, next door or around the globe? Do
we treat each other with indifference instead of reverence? Can we
gaze at the image of God and be bored, or avert our gaze and reduce
the image of God to a statistical aberration? That passive cruelty,
even (or especially) to the least and the last – is it not akin to
high treason, withholding from the Most High God what his image on
earth is owed? </span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">To
see humans as images of God, as holy idols with a pulse, is to become
zealous servants of those around us, realizing that a measure of our
service to God is to be found in how we treat them – including how
we treat ourselves. Such a vision calls for a radical respect for
their and our dignity as God's image, glorifying God for how he
discloses himself through their and our humanity. So what if we
treated each other with the sacred regard and reverent attention
God's living image is naturally due? What if we lived out of that
vision? What might come of such a life of loving God through his
image?</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Alas,
the powers of this world that hold themselves forth as if gods –
thereby jeopardizing peace, prosperity, and life on earth – do
their best to blind people's minds </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“to
keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ,
who </span></i><i><u>is</u></i><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">
the Image of God”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(2 Corinthians 4:4). Above us all, it's the Eternal Son who most
perfectly reflects the Eternal Father, being </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“the
radiance of his glory and the exact stamp of his essence”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Hebrews 1:2), who can say, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“I
am in the Father, and the Father is in me”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(John 14:10). In Christ the Image, we see God utterly accessible and
irrepressibly active. It is Jesus who, in human flesh, defines what
it means to be truly and fully human; he images God in a way not even
Adam and Eve could, for in the sight of God (who sees without
restriction of time), “the first Adam is the imitation of the
Second.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote39sym" name="sdfootnote39anc"><sup>39</sup></a>
What it means to be human, what it means to be God's image, is
defined by Christ, the Eternal Word, our template before time began.
And though we became dilapidated and damaged images stripped of
glory, our likeness to God effaced, in Christ we find a new humanity
</span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“which is
being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Colossians 3:10). Thanks be to God! Amen.<span></span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<div id="sdfootnote1">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote1anc" name="sdfootnote1sym">1</a> Simbar-<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">š</span>ipak,
inscription B.3.1.1, lines 10-13, in <i>Royal Inscriptions of
Mesopotamia: Babylon</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 2:73
(“during the reign of Adad-apla-iddina, king of Babylon, hostile
Arameans and Sutians, enemies of Ekur and Nippur, who desecrated
Duranki, upset in Sippar – the ancient city and abode of the great
judge of the gods – their cultic rites, plundered the land of
Sumer and Akkad, and overthrew all the temples”); compare this to
a Babylonian chronicle translated in </span><i>Writings from the
Ancient World</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 19:285 (“the
Arameans and an usurper rebelled against Adad-apla-iddina...,
profaned the holy cities, as many as there were in the country; they
destroyed D</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ē</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">r,
Nippur, Sippar, and... the Suteans took the offensive and carried
the booty of Sumer and Akkad into their country”).</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote2">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote2anc" name="sdfootnote2sym">2</a> BM
91000, lines i.1-12, in Christopher E. Woods, “The Sun-God Tablet
of Nab<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">û</span>-apla-iddina
Revisited,” <i>Journal of Cuneiform Studies</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
56 (2004): 83. On </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">É</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">-babbar
as the 'Shining House' of Sippar, see Andrew R. George, </span><i>House
Most High: The Temples of Ancient Mesopotamia</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eisenbrauns, 1993), 70.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote3">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote3anc" name="sdfootnote3sym">3</a> BM
91000, lines i.13-23, in Christopher E. Woods, “The Sun-God Tablet
of Nab<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">û</span>-apla-iddina
Revisited,” <i>Journal of Cuneiform Studies</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
56 (2004): </span>83 (“Because he [Simbar-<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">š</span>ipak]
could not discover his image and his attributes, he enshrined the
sun disk, which is (now) before <span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Š</span>ama<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">š</span>,
established regular offerings (for it), and entrusted (them) to
Ekur-<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">š</span>uma-u<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">š</span>ar<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">š</span>i,
the <span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>š</i></span><i>angu</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
priest of Sippar, the diviner”).</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote4">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote4anc" name="sdfootnote4sym">4</a> Tryggve
N.D. Mettinger, <i>No Graven Image? Israelite Aniconism in Its
Ancient Near Eastern Context</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Almqvist & Wiksell, 1995), 48.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote5">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote5anc" name="sdfootnote5sym">5</a> BM
91000, lines iii.19-25, in Christopher E. Woods, “The Sun-God
Tablet of Nab<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">û</span>-apla-iddina
Revisited,” <i>Journal of Cuneiform Studies</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
56 (2004): </span>85 (“a relief of his image, a fired clay
(impression) of his appearance and attributes, was found across the
Euphrates, on the western bank”).</span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote6">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote6anc" name="sdfootnote6sym">6</a> BM
91000, lines iii.26-iv.20, in Christopher E. Woods, “The Sun-God
Tablet of Nab<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">û</span>-apla-iddina
Revisited,” <i>Journal of Cuneiform Studies</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
56 (2004): </span>85 (“Nab<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">û</span>-n<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">ā</span>din-<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">š</span>umi...
showed that relief of the image to Nab<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">û</span>-apla-iddina,
the king, his lord; and when Nab<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">û</span>-apla-iddina,
the king of Babylon..., beheld that image, his countenance
brightened, his spirit rejoiced. To the fashioning of that image,
his attention was directed...”).</span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote7">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote7anc" name="sdfootnote7sym">7</a> Gregory
K. Beale, <i>We Become What We Worship: A Biblical Theology of
Idolatry</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (IVP Academic, 2008),
130.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote8">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote8anc" name="sdfootnote8sym">8</a> BM
91000, lines iv.19-28, in Christopher E. Woods, “The Sun-God
Tablet of Nab<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">û</span>-apla-iddina
Revisited,” <i>Journal of Cuneiform Studies</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
56 (2004): </span>85-86 (“With reddish gold and lustrous
lapis-lazuli, he properly prepared the image of <span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Š</span>ama<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">š</span>,
the great lord. By the purification rite of Ea and Asarlu<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">ḫ</span>i,
before <span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Š</span>ama<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">š</span>,
in the Ekarzagina, which is on the bank of the Euphrates, he washed
its mouth, and there it took up its residence...”).</span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote9">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote9anc" name="sdfootnote9sym">9</a> BM
45749, lines 1-36, in Christopher Walker and Michael Dick, <i>The
Induction of the Cult Image in Ancient Mesopotamia: The Mesopotamian
M</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>ī</i></span><i>s P</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>î</i></span><i>
Ritual</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Neo-Assyrian Text
Corpus Project, 2001), 77-79.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote10">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote10anc" name="sdfootnote10sym">10</a> BM
45749, lines 37-49, and Incantation Tablet 3, Section C, lines 6-10,
in Christopher Walker and Michael Dick, <i>The Induction of the Cult
Image in Ancient Mesopotamia: The Mesopotamian M</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>ī</i></span><i>s
P</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>î</i></span><i> Ritual
</i><span style="font-style: normal;">(Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus
Project, 2001), 80, 152-153.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote11">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote11anc" name="sdfootnote11sym">11</a> BM
45749, lines 49-52, in Christopher Walker and Michael Dick, <i>The
Induction of the Cult Image in Ancient Mesopotamia: The Mesopotamian
M</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>ī</i></span><i>s P</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>î</i></span><i>
Ritual </i><span style="font-style: normal;">(Neo-Assyrian Text
Corpus Project, 2001), 80 (“You position all of the craftsmen who
approached that god, and their equipment..., before Ninkurra,
Ninagal, Kusibanda, Ninildu, and Ninzadim; and you bind their hands
with a scarf and cut them off with a knife of tamarisk wood.... You
make them say: 'I did not make him; Ninagal who is Ea, god of the
smith, made him'”).</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote12">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote12anc" name="sdfootnote12sym">12</a> BM
45749, lines 53-59, in Christopher Walker and Michael Dick, <i>The
Induction of the Cult Image in Ancient Mesopotamia: The Mesopotamian
M</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>ī</i></span><i>s P</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>î</i></span><i>
Ritual </i><span style="font-style: normal;">(Neo-Assyrian Text
Corpus Project, 2001), 80-81.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote13">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote13anc" name="sdfootnote13sym">13</a> Incantation
Tablet 4, Section B, line 35, in Christopher Walker and Michael
Dick, <i>The Induction of the Cult Image in Ancient Mesopotamia: The
Mesopotamian M</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>ī</i></span><i>s
P</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>î</i></span><i> Ritual
</i><span style="font-style: normal;">(Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus
Project, 2001), 187.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote14">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote14anc" name="sdfootnote14sym">14</a> BM
45749, lines 60-65, and Incantation Tablet 5, Section C, line 18, in
Christopher Walker and Michael Dick, <i>The Induction of the Cult
Image in Ancient Mesopotamia: The Mesopotamian M</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>ī</i></span><i>s
P</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>î</i></span><i> Ritual
</i><span style="font-style: normal;">(Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus
Project, 2001), 81-82, 206.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote15">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote15anc" name="sdfootnote15sym">15</a> Michael
B. Handley, <i>Gods in Dwellings: Temples and Divine Presence in the
Ancient Near East</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Society of
Biblical Literature, 2013), 69.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote16">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote16anc" name="sdfootnote16sym">16</a> J.
Richard Middleton, <i>The Liberating Image: The Imago Dei in Genesis
1</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Baker Academic, 2005), 87.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote17">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote17anc" name="sdfootnote17sym">17</a> Gregory
K. Beale, <i>We Become What We Worship: A Biblical Theology of
Idolatry</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (IVP Academic, 2008),
132.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote18">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote18anc" name="sdfootnote18sym">18</a> See
especially Catherine L. McDowell, <i>The Image of God in the Garden
of Eden: The Creation of Humankind in Genesis 2:5-3:24 in Light of
the m</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>ī</i></span><i>s
p</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>î</i></span><i>, p</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>ī</i></span><i>t
p</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>î</i></span><i>, and
wpt-r Rituals of Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eisenbrauns, 2015).</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote19">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote19anc" name="sdfootnote19sym">19</a> Stephen
L. Herring, <i>Divine Substitution: Humanity as the Manifestation of
Deity in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013), 114.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote20">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote20anc" name="sdfootnote20sym">20</a> Richard
Lints, <i>Identity and Idolatry: The Image of God and Its Inversion</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(IVP Academic, 2015), 75.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote21">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote21anc" name="sdfootnote21sym">21</a> Catherine
L. McDowell, <i>The Image of God in the Garden of Eden: The Creation
of Humankind in Genesis 2:5-3:24 in Light of the m</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>ī</i></span><i>s
p</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>î</i></span><i>, p</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>ī</i></span><i>t
p</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>î</i></span><i>, and
wpt-r Rituals of Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eisenbrauns, 2015), 150.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote22">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote22anc" name="sdfootnote22sym">22</a> Stephen
L. Herring, <i>Divine Substitution: Humanity as the Manifestation of
Deity in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013), 121; Catherine L. McDowell, </span><i>The
Image of God in the Garden of Eden: The Creation of Humankind in
Genesis 2:5-3:24 in Light of the m</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>ī</i></span><i>s
p</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>î</i></span><i>, p</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>ī</i></span><i>t
p</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>î</i></span><i>, and
wpt-r Rituals of Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eisenbrauns, 2015), 85; Michael B. Dick, “The Mesopotamian Cult
Statue: A Sacramental Encounter with Divinity,” in Neal H. Walls,
ed., </span><i>Cult Image and Divine Representation in the Ancient
Near East</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (American School of
Oriental Research, 2005), 43.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote23">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote23anc" name="sdfootnote23sym">23</a> Iain
W. Provan, <i>Seriously Dangerous Religion: What the Old Testament
Really Teaches and Why It Matters</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Baylor University Press, 2014), 78.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote24">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote24anc" name="sdfootnote24sym">24</a> Michael
B. Dick, “The Mesopotamian Cult Statue: A Sacramental Encounter
with Divinity,” <span style="font-style: normal;">in Neal H. Walls,
ed., </span><i>Cult Image and Divine Representation in the Ancient
Near East</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (American School of
Oriental Research, 2005), </span>51.</span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote25">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote25anc" name="sdfootnote25sym">25</a> Richard
Lints, <i>Identity and Idolatry: The Image of God and Its Inversion</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(IVP Academic, 2015), 82.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote26">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote26anc" name="sdfootnote26sym">26</a> Mark
S. Smith, <i>The Priestly Vision of Genesis 1</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Fortress Press, 2009), 101.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote27">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote27anc" name="sdfootnote27sym">27</a> Minucius
Felix, <i>Octavius</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 32.1, in
</span><i>Ancient Christian Writers</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
39:111.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote28">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote28anc" name="sdfootnote28sym">28</a> Gregory
K. Beale, <i>We Become What We Worship: A Biblical Theology of
Idolatry</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (IVP Academic, 2008),
45-46.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote29">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote29anc" name="sdfootnote29sym">29</a> Origen
of Alexandria, <i>Homilies on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1.13, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
71:63.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote30">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote30anc" name="sdfootnote30sym">30</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>On Genesis Against the Manichees</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1.17 </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">28,
in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/13:57; Thomas Aquinas, </span><i>Summa theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I, q.3, a.1, </span><i>ad</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 2, in
</span><i>Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2:23.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote31">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote31anc" name="sdfootnote31sym">31</a> Theodoret
of Cyrus, <i>Questions on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
20.2, in </span><i>Library of Early Christianity</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1:53.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote32">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote32anc" name="sdfootnote32sym">32</a> Matthew
Levering, <i>Engaging the Doctrine of Creation: Cosmos, Creatures,
and the Wise and Good Creator</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Baker Academic, 2017), 145.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote33">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote33anc" name="sdfootnote33sym">33</a> Ambrose
of Milan, <i>Hexaemeron</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 6.7
</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§§</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">41-42,
in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
42:254-255.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote34">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote34anc" name="sdfootnote34sym">34</a> J.
Richard Middleton, <i>The Liberating Image: The Imago Dei in Genesis
1</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Baker Academic, 2005), 87.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote35">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote35anc" name="sdfootnote35sym">35</a> Jacob
of Serugh, <i>Memra</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
71.2151-2154, in </span><i>Texts from Christian Late Antiquity</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
59:46.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote36">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote36anc" name="sdfootnote36sym">36</a> William
P. Brown, <i>The Seven Pillars of Creation: The Bible, Science, and
the Ecology of Wonder</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Oxford
University Press, 2010), 42.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote37">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote37anc" name="sdfootnote37sym">37</a><span style="font-style: normal;"> Andrei
A. Orlov, </span><i>Embodiment of Divine Knowledge in Early Judaism</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Routledge, 2022), 29.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote38">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote38anc" name="sdfootnote38sym">38</a> Michael
B. Hundley, <i>Gods in Dwellings: Temples and Divine Presence in the
Ancient Near East</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Society of
Biblical Literature, 2013), 77.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote39">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote39anc" name="sdfootnote39sym">39</a> Nicholas
Cabasilas, <i>The Life in Christ</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
6.12, in Carmino J. deCatanzaro, tr., </span><i>Nicholas Cabasilas: The Life in Christ</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1998), 190.</span></span></p>
</div>
JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13108158469007498050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442509839497082978.post-50645317639903759172023-09-24T10:21:00.001-04:002023-10-02T09:35:01.224-04:00Gardening a Good Earth<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">In these past months, as
we've taken Genesis as our guide, we've sought and seen the mighty
hand of God work his generosity throughout all his works of creation.
From the spark of a universe formless and void to the dawn of light,
from the birth of stars and planets to the formation of our earth,
from the diverse realm of plants to the fabulous lives of animals,
and now to us strange creatures between ape and angel, established in
the innocence of original righteousness and crowned with gifts beyond
all expectation, God has simply been relentless in his inventive
prowess and his kindly care. And every step of the way, Genesis has
treated us to God's assessment of the fruits of his labor. Over and
over again, he says that light and sky and sea and earth and plants
and sun and moon and stars and fish and birds and livestock and wild
things and even creepy-crawlies were good (Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18,
21, 25). <span style="font-style: normal;">As Paul said, </span><i>“everything
created by God is good”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (1
Timothy 4:4). </span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
now, with the creatures of the earth in place, and <a href="http://iron-in-fire.blogspot.com/2023/09/dust-of-earth-wind-of-heaven.html">us made</a> <a href="http://iron-in-fire.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-garden-of-delight.html">where and how</a> the Lord of all wants us, he looks at this completed and crowned
creation, he </span><i>“saw everything that he had made, and
behold, it was very good”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 1:31). Not just good, but very good, exceedingly beautiful
in the eyes of the Lord, precisely suited to his purposes for all
things. It's true that the world was plenty good before we stepped
onto the scene. Already, even on their own, God said these things
were all good, all valuable in themselves without any reference to
us, valuable for far more than their mere usefulness. God already
had touched the earth with beauty as he saw it.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">But
when we were added, that's when things fulfilled their deeper
potential. That's when nature reached its high point. Creation is
far more beautiful for having us in it than it is on its own –
that's what God says. There are contributions we make simply by
existing, simply by being here as that final slot between ape and
angel in the great chain of being. But there are further
contributions we make to this beauty by what we do.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Last
Sunday, we began to meditate on life as it was meant to be for us.
God had planted a special garden in an area called Eden, which means
'delight' or 'luxury.' We talked about the flourishing of fruits and
flowers, about the abundance of waters in their freshness, about the
open-handed provision that would meet all our needs. We heard how
early Christians always pictured this life as care-free and at ease,
a relaxing place of deep pleasure in which we could flourish beyond
every daydream and every vacation.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But
if we stop our thoughts there, we're liable to have a misconception
of the Eden lifestyle. In God's process of creation, Genesis picks
up its second look in a land where things yet fall short of their
full potential because </span><i>“there was no human to work the
ground”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Genesis 2:5). Only
then does God respond by shaping the dust and breathing it to life
(Genesis 2:7). We were an answer to a shortfall of goodness, and gap
would take work to close. In that much, the Bible answers the myths
of Babylon, which imagined that originally the lower gods were forced
to do the grunt work until they went on strike and rebelled, after
which peace was only restored when their bosses invented humans to
“assume the drudgery of god.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote1sym" name="sdfootnote1anc"><sup>1</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
But where the pagans portray us as slaves created to do forced labor
in a harsh world, Genesis shows us created to be caretakers of a
gracious home. And so </span><i>“the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
God took the human and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 2:15).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">To
some of us, if we – like the Babylonians – identify work too
closely with hardship and drudgery, this is going to sound wrong.
How could there be work in paradise? Isn't it a world without
responsibilities we're longing for? But when early Christians read
Genesis, they explained that “had Adam been relieved of all need to
work, he would have fallen victim to great indulgence and at once
slipped into sloth.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote2sym" name="sdfootnote2anc"><sup>2</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
And that wouldn't have been a healthy condition. It would have
corrupted his original righteousness. After all, “the mind is
something that is in constant motion and incapable of total
inactivity” – that's just how God made us, and so “there is in
us a natural bent for work.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote3sym" name="sdfootnote3anc"><sup>3</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
We are not naturally meant to just sit around and do nothing with
our whole lives. And so our perfect garden couldn't have been a mere
vacation home with nothing to do but laze about. And God did not put
us there to be passive recipients of its splendors and enjoyments.
God made us for more than that.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
so, as one saint put it, “like a loving father who prevents his
young child from being unsettled by great relaxation and freedom from
care by devising some slight responsibility appropriate to the
situation, the Lord God in like manner ordered the task of tilling
and guarding for Adam so that, along with all those delights,
relaxation, and freedom from care, he might have – by way of a
stabilizing influence – those two tasks to prevent him from
overstepping the limit.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote4sym" name="sdfootnote4anc"><sup>4</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
God made us to do these initially simple things for our own good.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">That
doesn't mean that we exist to work, that we live to work. No: we live
toward the sabbath of God. But sabbath takes its meaning from the
fact that we have six days to do our works in, to face God's world to
minister to it, and therein does sabbath's sweetness grow all the
sweeter. Even in Eden, weekdays were workdays. Work in itself isn't
a dirty thing; it's pure and holy and good. A life with zero
responsibility, zero activity in the world, isn't natural. Naturally
speaking, we crave some sort of responsibility and activity, to the
measure of our ability.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
the church taught this wasn't just natural but virtuous. They said
</span><i>“whoever works his ground will have plenty of bread”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Proverbs 12:11), but </span><i>“whoever is slack in his occupation
is a brother to him who destroys”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Proverbs 18:9). They taught people to </span><i>“do their work
quietly and eat their own bread”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(2 Thessalonians 3:12). The church said Christ's faithful “should
be constant in your work, so that through the course of your entire
life, you are either continuing in the Lord's affairs or laboring at
your work, and are never idle.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote5sym" name="sdfootnote5anc"><sup>5</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Now,
that doesn't necessarily mean </span><i>paid</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
work, a 'job.' We're not just talking about economic work measured
by use-value added to goods and services.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote6sym" name="sdfootnote6anc"><sup>6</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
We're not fussing over labor market participation rates.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote7sym" name="sdfootnote7anc"><sup>7</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
But even when not working for room and board, it's still natural to
engage in some work. Being deprived of an obvious outlet for that
impulse can be a big identity crisis in sickness or in the modern
stage of life called 'retirement.' But as one author on aging points
out, “retirement from one set of responsibilities and cares frees
[us] to explore another set of obligations and to assume another set
of concerns..., to assume more fulfilling work.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote8sym" name="sdfootnote8anc"><sup>8</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Working
– not being employed, but working – is natural to what it means
to be humans on earth. In the garden, though, it would have been
obvious that this charge to work wasn't a burden. Early Christians
pictured it as “some work that was painless and without
difficulty,”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote9sym" name="sdfootnote9anc"><sup>9</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
bringing with it “no stress of wearisome toil but pure exhilaration
of spirit.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote10sym" name="sdfootnote10anc"><sup>10</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Even Martin Luther suggested that “work... in the state of
innocence would have been play and joy.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote11sym" name="sdfootnote11anc"><sup>11</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
That sounds like fulfilling work none of us would have minded.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
for Adam and Eve, working the garden would have been a fairly simple
task at first: digging and planting seeds, watering the plants with
short irrigation canals, pruning the vines, other basic orchard work.
Maybe they would have been charged with making God's garden even
more beautiful and diverse than they found it: finding new plants to
bring in, breeding them, arranging them in decorative ways, trimming
shrubs into fun designs.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote12sym" name="sdfootnote12anc"><sup>12</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
As one medieval Christian asked, “What could be more playful than
cultivating paradise?”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote13sym" name="sdfootnote13anc"><sup>13</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Then,
beyond Eden, human history has been a story of increasing division of
labor into all sorts of different kinds of tasks, different ways of
working on the world.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote14sym" name="sdfootnote14anc"><sup>14</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
In Israel, every man would </span><i>“go out to his work and to
his labor until the evening”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Psalm 104:23), and those words encompassed not just what farmers did
but also vinedressers and weavers and hired hands and everybody else.
Later on, when Jews translated Genesis into Greek, they recognized Adam's
task as quite broad, using the same word here as they used elsewhere to cover the economic labors of a
housewife and her home business (Proverbs 31:18), the design work
that went into the tabernacle and its art (Exodus 31:4-5), and more. </span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">So
our charge here in Genesis is to “cultivate the earth” through
“creative, constructive work... expended for the glory of God and
the benefit of others,”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote15sym" name="sdfootnote15anc"><sup>15</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
to pour our imagination and skill into God's world to bring it toward
fullness.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote16sym" name="sdfootnote16anc"><sup>16</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Work covers all kinds of disciplined activities that give input into
God's world and leave an impact on God's world, ideally in ways that
“bring out the natural fruitfulness and productivity” God seeded
in it.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote17sym" name="sdfootnote17anc"><sup>17</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
By that definition, carpentry is work, cooking is work, sewing is
work, driving truck is work, treating illnesses is work, teaching is
work, organizing is work, coordinating the work of other people is
work, researching and writing is work. Even hobbies can be such work, if
they harness effort for input into and impact on the world.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">We
humans have reshaped the world around us in profound ways, and that
in itself is a good thing, the way God intended it to be. It's good,
too, for us to harness and harvest what God has sown in his creation,
whether crops or minerals or other resources. Giving input and
extracting a harvest are legitimate work, and so the Bible tells us
that </span><i>“everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in
all his toil – this is God's gift to man”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Ecclesiastes 3:13). It's God's gift for us to take pleasure in
shaping God's world and harvesting from its bounty.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But
we also know that not all inputs and not all impacts we can have on
the world are the kind God calls for. It is possible for there to be
work that rubs against the grain of creation. One author says that
“at its most basic level, a righteous job is one that does not
exist to commit or promote sin, but to accomplish the tasks God gave
to humanity from the beginning.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote18sym" name="sdfootnote18anc"><sup>18</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
And not all work done out there, let alone the way it's done, fits
that bill. Some speak, rightly, of the need to “align our labor with our
human dignity.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote19sym" name="sdfootnote19anc"><sup>19</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"> But we can go further than that, even. “Good work,” it's said, “tends and conserves both the
conscience and the spirit of those who engage in it as well as the
creatures among whom it is performed.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote20sym" name="sdfootnote20anc"><sup>20</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
That's why, in the early church, there were rules laid down such
that a person doing certain kinds of work would have to quit before
they could be considered as candidates for baptism as Christians.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote21sym" name="sdfootnote21anc"><sup>21</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">To
clarify good work, Genesis tells us that </span><i>“the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
God took the human and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it </i><i><u>and</u></i><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">
keep it”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 2:15). That last word there in Hebrew has the sense of
watching over something. It's used for what a bodyguard does for his
client (1 Samuel 28:2), what a shepherd does for his flock (Genesis
30:31), what a friend does if you give him a prized possession for
safekeeping (Exodus 22:7). These are all acts of protection and
preservation which require some measure of attention, being wary of
potential threats, whether external (like attackers and thieves) or
internal (like decay and neglect). The psalms mentions how, by God's
grace, a righteous person under attack </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“keeps
all his bones; not one of them is broken”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Psalm 34:20). That is, God's act of 'keeping' the bones means that
they're preserved intact, undamaged, in a healthy condition.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">What
might it have looked like for Adam and Eve to not only work the
garden but to keep it? They'd have been watchful of the garden,
attentive to it, observing and learning from it, so as not to force
on it a vision detached from its God-given reality. They'd have
taken pest prevention measures, keeping harmful influences outside
the garden. They'd have been careful not to chop down thoughtlessly
whole groves of trees, but made sure that their impact kept the
garden as a garden. They'd have maintained a healthy balance in the
garden's ecosystem, not letting one kind of plant or animal run
rampant at the others' expense. They'd have watched to make sure
that none of the valuable species of animals or plants God had
entrusted to them went extinct on their watch, and that none of the
mineral resources ran out. They would have protected everything from
misuse, abuse, or overuse so that it could be healthy and flourishing
now and as each future generation entered the scene.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote22sym" name="sdfootnote22anc"><sup>22</sup></a></span></span></sup></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Too
often, our society has been obsessed with working, but not with
keeping the garden. Because if human activity is supposed to keep
God's creation healthy down through the generations, our performance
review isn't exactly promising. Our voracious hunger has been
slicing down forests faster than ever to make room for cattle ranches
and soybean fields, our farming practices wipe away topsoil ten to
forty times as fast as it forms, our fuel-burning industries have put
more carbon dioxide into the air than there's been since before God
made us, and the damage to earth's climate is on track to becoming
unbearable.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote23sym" name="sdfootnote23anc"><sup>23</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
One marine scientist says that “few if any residents of the sea
can escape the toll that has been wrought by humankind... literally
killing the lifeblood of the oceans.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote24sym" name="sdfootnote24anc"><sup>24</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
On the whole, it's been estimated that since 1970, the population of
earth's animals has shrunk by more than half.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote25sym" name="sdfootnote25anc"><sup>25</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Just this year, a conservation research group estimated that four in
ten animal species in the United States, along with one in three of
our plant species, is at risk of going extinct.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote26sym" name="sdfootnote26anc"><sup>26</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> Actively or passively, we are choosing that, and worse, as the cumulative impact of our everyday decisions, callous and careless.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Does
any of this sound like what we're here to do? Is this the impact God
wants our work to have? At best, Adam's kids have fallen asleep on
the job; at worst, we've switched sides and become the arsonists of
Eden. If we are not caring for the world God made, if we are not
serving it and keeping it, then in our work we are disobeying the
purpose for which God put human beings onto this earth in the first
place.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote27sym" name="sdfootnote27anc"><sup>27</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
And there's a word for disobeying God's purpose for us. It's sin.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">It
was because of just such disobedient hearts and hands that we needed
a sinless Savior. As Jesus faced the cross, he proclaimed in prayer
that, with the entirety of his life, he had </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“accomplished
the work that God gave him to do”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(John 17:4). Yes, Jesus was a worker – and all his work was good
work, work that saved, work that redeemed, work that kept and
restored what was broken. And we were what he found broken. So, in
doing his work, he said he'd </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“kept”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
his disciples for his Father. If God had placed the First Man in a
paradise to work it and keep it, God placed the Son of Man into a
world polluted by sin to work its salvation and to keep us. And he
means us to learn from this Last Adam how to work and keep the
goodness of God. In Christ, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“the
L</span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></i></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">...
has blessed you in all the work of your hands,”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
if your hands work the works of his hands (Deuteronomy 2:7). </span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">
What are you and I on earth to do? We humans are gardeners of God's
good earth. God puts us where we are, each one of us, with a charge:
to work the world while keeping the world, to be forces
simultaneously of change and conservation, of production and
protection, of impact that leaves the world intact. That's what good
work looks like: tidying the garden, farming the land, fixing the
broken bridge, getting essentials cleanly from place to place,
maintaining order and health in the world, all in ways that respect everything that God pronounced very good.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">We
know that, in a sad and broken world, sometimes we find ourselves
pressed to work for a mere paycheck, whether or not the job is
pleasant, whether or not the job is dignified, whether or not the job
is meaningful. Then we hear the command: </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“Whatever
you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Colossians 3:23). But then sometimes we find ourselves asked to do
work that's <i>less than good</i> for us, <i>less than good</i> for our neighbors,
<i>less than good</i> for God's good earth. That's a hard place to be in,
and it's easy to rationalize things to ourselves we maybe oughtn't
make a living doing; perhaps you've been there, and never even thought about it. Whether it's pays the bills or not,
</span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“those who
have believed in God must be careful to devote themselves to good
works”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Titus 3:8). And a good society</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"> – the human society we're all responsible both to call for and to cultivate</span><span style="font-style: normal;"> – </span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"> is a world where everyone has, not
just <i>some</i> work, <i>any</i> work, to do, but <i>good</i> work to do, to the measure of their
ability, and where everyone can truly <i>live</i> off of doing their good work to
the benefit of creation and the glory of God.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">May
we, each in our own lives and all together, do our part to be a good
humanity, to </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“be
joyful and to do good as long as we live”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Ecclesiastes 3:12), to work and keep God's good earth, until that
day all the world shall </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“be
radiant over the goodness of the L</span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></i></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">,
over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the
flock and the herd; their life shall be like a watered garden, and
they shall languish no more”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Jeremiah 31:12). Amen.<span></span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<div id="sdfootnote1">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote1anc" name="sdfootnote1sym">1</a><i> Atrahasis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I.197, in Benjamin R. Foster, </span><i>Before the Muses: An
Anthology of Akkadian Literature</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(CDL Press, 2005), 235</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote2">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote2anc" name="sdfootnote2sym">2</a> John
Chrysostom, <i>Homilies on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
14.8, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
74:185.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote3">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote3anc" name="sdfootnote3sym">3</a> Symeon
the New Theologian, <i>Discourses</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
10.3, in </span><i>Symeon the New Theologian: The Discourses</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Paulist Press, 1980), 164.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote4">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote4anc" name="sdfootnote4sym">4</a> John
Chrysostom, <i>Homilies on Genesis </i><span style="font-style: normal;">14.10,
in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
74:185.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote5">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote5anc" name="sdfootnote5sym">5</a><i> Didascalia
Apostolorum</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 2.63.1, in Alistair
Stewart-Sykes, tr., </span><i>The Didascalia Apostolorum</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Brepols, 2009), 181.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote6">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote6anc" name="sdfootnote6sym">6</a> See,
e.g., Chris Tilly and Charles Tilly, <i>Work Under Capitalism</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Westview Press, 1998), 22.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote7">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote7anc" name="sdfootnote7sym">7</a> See,
e.g., Nicholas Eberstadt, <i>Men Without Work</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
post-pandemic edition (Templeton Press, 2022 [2016]).</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote8">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote8anc" name="sdfootnote8sym">8</a> Will
Willimon, <i>Aging: Growing Old in Church</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Baker Academic, 2020), 29.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote9">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote9anc" name="sdfootnote9sym">9</a> John
Chrysostom, <i>Homilies on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
14.8, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
74:185.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote10">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote10anc" name="sdfootnote10sym">10</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>Literal Meaning of Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
8.8 </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">15,
in </span><i>The Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/13:356.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote11">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote11anc" name="sdfootnote11sym">11</a> Martin
Luther, <i>Lectures on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2:15, in </span><i>Luther's Works</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1:103.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote12">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote12anc" name="sdfootnote12sym">12</a> Gregg
Davidson and Kenneth J. Turner, <i>The Manifold Beauty of Genesis
One</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Kregel Academic, 2021),
46.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote13">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote13anc" name="sdfootnote13sym">13</a> Remigius
of Auxerre, <i>Exposition on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2:15, in Joy A. Schroeder, </span><i>The Book of Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eerdmans, 2015), 70.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote14">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote14anc" name="sdfootnote14sym">14</a> Jan
Lucassen, <i>The Story of Work: A New History of Humankind</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Yale University Press, 2021), 4-5, 66.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote15">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote15anc" name="sdfootnote15sym">15</a> Nancy
Pearcey, <i>Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural
Captivity</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Crossway, 2004), 48.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote16">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote16anc" name="sdfootnote16sym">16</a> Christopher
Watkin, <i>Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible's Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Zondervan Academic, 2022), 98.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote17">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote17anc" name="sdfootnote17sym">17</a> R.
R. Reno, <i>Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, Brazos
Theological Commentary (Brazos Press, 2010), 68-69.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote18">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote18anc" name="sdfootnote18sym">18</a> James
M. Hamilton Jr., <i>Work and Our Labor in the Lord</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Crossway, 2017), 22.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote19">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote19anc" name="sdfootnote19sym">19</a> Jonathan
Malesic, <i>The End of Burnout: Why Work Drains Us and How to Build
Better Lives</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (U. of California
Press, 2022), 169.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote20">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote20anc" name="sdfootnote20sym">20</a> Michael
S. Northcott, “Reading Genesis in Borneo: Work, Guardianship, and
Companion Animals in Genesis 2,” in Nathan MacDonald, Mark W.
Elliott, and Grant Macaskill, eds., <i>Genesis and Christian
Theology</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Eerdmans, 2012), 197.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote21">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote21anc" name="sdfootnote21sym">21</a> See,
e.g., Hippolytus of Rome, <i>On the Apostolic Tradition</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
16.2-12, in </span><i>Popular Patristics Series</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
22:100.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote22">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote22anc" name="sdfootnote22sym">22</a> Joseph
E. Coleson, <i>Genesis 1-11: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Beacon Hill Press, 2012), 96.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote23">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote23anc" name="sdfootnote23sym">23</a> Douglas
Moo and Jonathan Moo, <i>Creation Care: A Biblical Theology of the
Natural World</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Zondervan
Academic, 2018), 202-215.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote24">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote24anc" name="sdfootnote24sym">24</a> Ellen
Prager, <i>Sex, Drugs, and Sea Slime: The Oceans' Oddest Creatures
and Why They Matter</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (University of Chicago
Press, 2011), 146-147.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote25">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote25anc" name="sdfootnote25sym">25</a> Douglas
Moo and Jonathan Moo, <i>Creation Care: A Biblical Theology of the
Natural World</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Zondervan
Academic, 2018), 199.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote26">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote26anc" name="sdfootnote26sym">26</a> Brad
Brooks, “Huge chunk of plants, animals in US at risk of
extinction,” <i>Reuters</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, 6
February 2023.
<</span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/huge-chunk-plants-animals-us-risk-extinction-report-2023-02-06/"><span style="font-style: normal;">https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/huge-chunk-plants-animals-us-risk-extinction-report-2023-02-06/</span></a></u></span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">>.
</span></span>
</p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote27">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote27anc" name="sdfootnote27sym">27</a> Douglas
Moo and Jonathan Moo, <i>Creation Care: A Biblical Theology of the
Natural World</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Zondervan
Academic, 2018), 78.</span></span></p>
</div>
JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13108158469007498050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442509839497082978.post-11630645258645874462023-09-17T10:30:00.001-04:002023-09-17T23:15:19.516-04:00The Garden of Delight<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Last Sunday, when we
began again our study of the works of the God of Genesis, we talked
about what it is we are – what a human being is, what God made us
to be. And on the one hand, whether in one step or many, God
sculpted us from the dust of the earth, from the chemical properties
of the matter beneath us. It was in this connection that we examined
what Christians, both before and after Darwin, have consistently
believed about our life in the body. It is good to have a body
derived of dust, good to have senses and impulses and all this
biological baggage. On the other hand, God caught this dust of earth
up in the wind of heaven – we're set apart from other animals
because ours is a spiritual soul, able to judge and contemplate and
wonder, able to know and will and love beyond what any matter can
itself sustain. We're each that odd overlap between angel and ape.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Today, we have to ask the
question about where God ought to put such an odd critter as the
human being. What place would be healthy for a miniature universe to
be? What kind of life did God want for us from the outset? What's
our natural – and more-than-natural – habitat? And now Genesis
rolls on. For <i>“the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
God formed the man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature;
and the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
God planted a garden... and there he put the man whom he had formed”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 2:7-8). It wasn't inside the garden that the human being
got its start – it wasn't the garden's dust from which he rose,
wasn't the garden's trees between which he came to life – but God
led him there, put him there.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">So
maybe the first question we'd best ask is, what's a garden? The
Hebrew word for one, </span><i>gan</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
comes from a verb that means “to be enclosed, fenced off,
protected.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote1sym" name="sdfootnote1anc"><sup>1</sup></a>
To their mind, the defining feature of a garden was the notion of
life within boundaries of protection, a cultivated space with
structure, shape, capable of being locked or unlocked (Song of Songs
4:12). Later on, Greek-speaking Jews picked up a new word to
translate this. The Persians had a word, </span><i>paridaeza</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
a space surrounded by an enclosing wall, which the Greeks reimagined
as a royal park cultivated to be a pleasant place for a king to take
a stroll.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote2sym" name="sdfootnote2anc"><sup>2</sup></a>
Many kings took pride in getting exotic plants from all over for
their personal pleasure park in their capital city, like a botanical
garden.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote3sym" name="sdfootnote3anc"><sup>3</sup></a>
And it's from such </span><i>paradeisoi</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
and this original garden of God pictured as one, where we get our
English word 'paradise.'</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">So
God himself is pictured as the king planting his royal garden, his
special paradise. Where? </span><i>“In Eden, in the east, and
there he put the man whom he had formed”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 2:8). So somewhere east of Israel, the garden is inside a
larger territory called 'Eden.' We're also told that </span><i>“a
river flowed out of Eden to water the garden,”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
and that this river </span><i>“divided and became four heads”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 2:10). That's probably not a view downstream at a river
that flows into four; it's likely looking upstream at four rivers
merging into one River of Eden.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote4sym" name="sdfootnote4anc"><sup>4</sup></a>
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">When
early Jews and Christians read this, some took it as pure allegory,
saying the rivers represented the four cardinal virtues of prudence,
justice, fortitude, and temperance.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote5sym" name="sdfootnote5anc"><sup>5</sup></a>
But most insisted that Eden was a real place on earth.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote6sym" name="sdfootnote6anc"><sup>6</sup></a>
And Genesis spends several verses trying to explain where, by
mentioning four rivers. The last two are easy. </span><i>“The
name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 2:14). The Tigris rises in eastern Turkey and flows into
Iraq. It's over a thousand miles long, and Nineveh and Baghdad are
on it. </span><i>“And the fourth river is the Euphrates”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 2:14). Further west than the Tigris, it's formed in
southeast Turkey by two rivers called the Karasu and the Murat, and
then it passes through Syria, picking up a few smaller rivers that
join it there, before getting to Iraq and flowing down to meet up
with the Tigris just before the Persian Gulf. It's over seventeen
hundred miles long, and Babylon was built on its banks.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">So
far, so good, right? But </span><i>“the name of the second river
is Gihon, the one that wound through the entire land of Cush”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 2:13). And </span><i>“the name of the first is the
Pishon, the one that wound through the entire land of Havilah, where
there is gold, and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx
are there”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Genesis 2:11-12).
Before modern times, most people guessed that the Gihon was the Nile
in Egypt and the Pishon was the Ganges in India – even though these
four never touched.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote7sym" name="sdfootnote7anc"><sup>7</sup></a>
But prehistorically, the Tigris, the Euphrates, a third river that
flowed through Cush in western Iran, and a fourth river that flowed
through the gold-rich territory of Havilah in Arabia used to all come
together in a single river valley full of freshwater springs. Where?
In what's now the bottom of the Persian Gulf, but which – long,
long before recorded history – was a massive oasis.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote8sym" name="sdfootnote8anc"><sup>8</sup></a>
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">So
what if you could go back? What if you could step through your Bible
like a door, and find yourself in the garden as Genesis pictures it?
The name 'Eden' comes from a verb whose primary meaning is “to make
abundant with water supply.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote9sym" name="sdfootnote9anc"><sup>9</sup></a>
One early Christian understood it as “a most delightful place...,
shady with groves of fruit trees..., rendered fertile by a huge
spring.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote10sym" name="sdfootnote10anc"><sup>10</sup></a>
Another pictured it “thick with evergreen trees, full of
fragrance, flooded with light, and surpassing any conceivable
sensible loveliness and beauty.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote11sym" name="sdfootnote11anc"><sup>11</sup></a>
They all imagined life there was one of “enjoying the beauty of
visible things... and gaining much pleasure from that enjoyment.
Consider, after all, how great a thrill it was to see the trees
groaning under the weight of their fruit, to see the variety of the
flowers..., and all the other things you would be likely to chance
upon in a garden, especially a garden planted by God.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote12sym" name="sdfootnote12anc"><sup>12</sup></a>
In other words, Eden is Longwood on steroids, “a rich mosaic of
wetland environments, river floodplains, mangrove swamps, and
estuaries.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote13sym" name="sdfootnote13anc"><sup>13</sup></a>
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But
while the gardens around Middle Eastern temples were there so humans
could grow food to feed and care for their gods, this garden is
different, because God planted it so that </span><i>he</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
could feed and care for his humans!<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote14sym" name="sdfootnote14anc"><sup>14</sup></a>
In this realm of special protection, we were meant to live off of
perfect providence. To meet your every need, just reach out and take
what God has grown. Unlike even in the promised land, there was no
need to dig a well – the river's so close, the springs are all
around you.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote15sym" name="sdfootnote15anc"><sup>15</sup></a>
To eat, we've got </span><i>“every plant yielding seed that's on
the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 1:29), so </span><i>“eat of every tree of the garden”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 2:16), to pluck all the veggies, harvest all the spices.
With provision like this, early Christians pictured a life there of
“wearing a body yet being fortunately rid of any bodily needs.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote16sym" name="sdfootnote16anc"><sup>16</sup></a>
They imagined the garden as “a wonderful existence..., a life free
of any care,”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote17sym" name="sdfootnote17anc"><sup>17</sup></a>
a “state of perfect ease.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote18sym" name="sdfootnote18anc"><sup>18</sup></a>
We were meant for that peace!</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
the mention of precious minerals like gold and precious stones up the
river also suggests a place of luxury and wealth, of the fine things
in life. In fact, the word 'eden' entered Hebrew as a common noun
meaning luxury like fancy clothes (2 Samuel 1:24), even a delicacy
like gourmet cuisine on your dinner plate (Jeremiah 51:34), or the
pleasure of an ice-cold drink on a warm day (Psalm 36:8). So it was
“a life of freedom and great affluence.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote19sym" name="sdfootnote19anc"><sup>19</sup></a>
Every vacation you've ever taken or ever wished to take, every
daydream of enjoyment and satisfaction – that's a glimpse at what
God wanted to give us, of where we were meant to be.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But
better than </span><i>where</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> we'd
be is </span><i>how</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> we'd be. If
nothing had ever taken us away, if you'd been born and raised in the
garden, what would it be like to be that version of you? For
centuries, Christians have spoken about “that original
righteousness wherewith at first we were created.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote20sym" name="sdfootnote20anc"><sup>20</sup></a>
Sometimes the same phrase was also translated as “original
justice.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote21sym" name="sdfootnote21anc"><sup>21</sup></a>
“And this rightness of man, as he was divinely established at the
beginning, consisted,” it was said, “in the lower parts of his
nature being subject to the higher, and the higher not being hampered
by the lower.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote22sym" name="sdfootnote22anc"><sup>22</sup></a>
With everything in you working as God intended, there'd be no virtue
you wouldn't have had, and so you would've had “not only an exact
purity from all spots of unrighteousness, but also a disposition to
perform cheerfully all offices of charity and justice.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote23sym" name="sdfootnote23anc"><sup>23</sup></a>
There'd be no good thing you wouldn't find it delightful to do!</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">You
in the garden would've been </span><i>“blameless in your ways from
the day you were created”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Ezekiel 28:15). However many lived in the garden, there'd be “no
domineering pride, no malice, no envy, no falsehood, no brawls or
contentions among them, but all harmony and love, each seeking the
welfare and happiness of his fellow-creatures as well as his own.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote24sym" name="sdfootnote24anc"><sup>24</sup></a>
There'd be no arguing, no shame, nothing to stop us from fully
enjoying everybody else's company, nothing to stop us from fully
enjoying just being ourselves. You would be thrilled just to be you.
And God meant for this blamelessness, this original righteousness,
to be a gift handed down as an inheritance to all generations,
both“divinely bestowed upon all human nature in the first parent”
and “transmitted along with human nature to the descendants.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote25sym" name="sdfootnote25anc"><sup>25</sup></a>
Had all gone right, you were meant to live all that!</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Not
only that, Ezekiel pictures those in the garden as </span><i>“full
of wisdom and perfect in beauty”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Ezekiel 28:12). In some traditions, these came to be called
'preternatural gifts' that came along with original righteousness –
gifts of God that are beyond human nature, but which he wanted us to
have even in our life on earth in the garden. “No distresses of
body afflicted them,”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote26sym" name="sdfootnote26anc"><sup>26</sup></a>
so that in the garden people didn't get sick or hurt, much less die
in any sense we'd recognize. We would have just “kept suffering
away,”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote27sym" name="sdfootnote27anc"><sup>27</sup></a>
or, to whatever extent some sort of pain as “a disturbance of the
nervous system” might have been necessary and healthy for us, it
would've not only preserved our comfort but been more than balanced
by the great pleasure of being alive.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote28sym" name="sdfootnote28anc"><sup>28</sup></a></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Because
of how God would've kept you ordered inside, in the garden you
wouldn't have been troubled by out-of-control passions or feelings,
but would've always had total control of your inner self.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote29sym" name="sdfootnote29anc"><sup>29</sup></a>
All your inclinations would have been directed consistently toward
the best good, instead of toward other lesser goods.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote30sym" name="sdfootnote30anc"><sup>30</sup></a>
Nothing about you would be out of order or out of control or bent
out of shape, nothing about you would be selfish, nothing in you
would settle for being only kind of kind or for chasing after
trifles. You'd have integrity.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
not only have Christians pictured life in the garden as one of
immortality, impassibility, and integrity, but also one of infused
knowledge. Think about it: Adam doesn't waste his time in baby talk.
He doesn't wake up and spend his first few hours trying to guess
what a stick is. Genesis doesn't picture him learning as slowly as
we do. As a gift, God had directly infused into him “all that
knowledge both of God and creatures which was needful for his
happiness.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote31sym" name="sdfootnote31anc"><sup>31</sup></a>
And it's likely that, had we stayed at home in the garden, had we
inherited original righteousness, then from birth you would have
simply </span><i>recognized</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> the
world, recognized </span><i>God</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
in the world, had a deep and profound insight into the nature and
character of everything around you. You would've just 'gotten it.'
You'd have had the light of God shining in your heart and mind from
the instant he formed you there.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote32sym" name="sdfootnote32anc"><sup>32</sup></a>
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">In
giving us these gifts, God would've been throwing grace all over us,
pouring out his Holy Spirit to sanctify us and make us holy, lifting
us up toward our supernatural purpose found only in him. In the
garden, you'd always have been moved by a supernatural trust in God,
expectation of God, love for God. As Isaac Watts put it, a human in
the garden would have been graced so “his will must have an inward
bias and propensity to holiness and virtue..., an inward inclination
to please and honor that God who made him, a supreme love to his
Creator, and a zeal and desire to serve him, a holy fear of offending
him, with a readiness to do all his will.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote33sym" name="sdfootnote33anc"><sup>33</sup></a>
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">And
that's fitting, this holiness, because Genesis presents the garden as
more than a garden. Think back on how Israel's temple in Jerusalem
was decorated like a forest, coated in gold and jewels, and how the
prophets even imagined a river running from it.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote34sym" name="sdfootnote34anc"><sup>34</sup></a>
No wonder some Jews said “the Garden of Eden was the Holy of
Holies and the dwelling of the Lord” (</span><i>Jubilees</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
8:19). This is a garden of “holiness in which all was perfect,
ideal, and unblemished, immune from the ravages of time.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote35sym" name="sdfootnote35anc"><sup>35</sup></a>
To understand the garden, look to the tabernacle. What did God say
in Leviticus? </span><i>“I will make my tabernacle among you...,
and I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my
people”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Leviticus 26:11-12).
And that's because it was an echo of Eden, where we'd have daily
</span><i>“heard the sound of the L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
God walking in the garden in the breeze of the day”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 3:8). </span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Yes,
the best thing in the garden wasn't the protection or the provision
or the pleasure, not the loveliness or the luxury, not even the gifts
that exceed our nature. The best thing about the garden was that it
was a place to meet God without shame or reservation, to live with
him as his people. To live there was a nearer and dearer walk with
him, a clearer hearing of him, a better sighting of him, than I can
even imagine. I doubt even Moses and Elijah, for all they lived and
heard and saw, could have even fully gotten their minds around it.
This garden was a place where God would be with us every day,
available for us to walk with him and talk with him and hear that
we're his. He'd have been with us there as our best friend, as a
Father to whom we'd all have been born as sons and daughters. We
could have interacted with God, and with each other, on a basis of
uninterrupted friendship and fellowship, of radical trust, of
unobstructed intimacy.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">I
like the way one old hymn put it, and I sorely wish I'd come across
it sooner, else we'd have sung these words today: “There was an
Eden once on earth / beyond conception fair, / where mortal beauty
had her birth / ere sin had entered there. // What flowers perfumed
the balmy gale / all bursting into bloom! / What fruits enriched the
happy vale of cool, but grateful gloom! // There our first parents
clothed in grace / the velvet verdure trod, / and loved in all they
saw, to trace / the vestiges of God! // Oh! life divine – when day
retired / and closed her golden eye, / and genial evening gently
fired / the curtains of the sky, // then would the Voice that made
them all / flow downward from his throne, / and sweetly on his
creatures call, / to walk with him alone! // Holy communion!
matchless joy! / How freely it was given – / that bath of bliss
without alloy, / an antepast of heaven!”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote36sym" name="sdfootnote36anc"><sup>36</sup></a>
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">That's
the life we were meant to live, with God and with each other,
blameless and growing in grace, enjoying perfect delight with our
perfect Lord. And as the Lord Jesus bled and choked on the cross for
us, with what words did he comfort a crook who saw this neighbor in
crucifixion as King of God's kingdom? </span><i>“Truly I tell you:
Today you will be with me in paradise”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Luke 23:43), to “repose in Eden-land,”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote37sym" name="sdfootnote37anc"><sup>37</sup></a>
in that “spiritual garden..., that immaterial and intellectual
meadow which never grows old and is never defiled.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote38sym" name="sdfootnote38anc"><sup>38</sup></a>
May you, even now, begin in spirit to be with God your Gardener; and
live in “fervent hope of receiving again the Paradise in Eden, as
well as the dawn of the brightness of the second coming of Christ our
God, from the east.”<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote39sym" name="sdfootnote39anc"><sup>39</sup></a>
For there's no limit to the beauty and goodness you were made for.
And if you cling to Christ in faith, and settle his spiritual
paradise called the Church, you won't miss out. Thanks be to God!
Amen.<span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<div id="sdfootnote1">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote1anc" name="sdfootnote1sym">1</a> Bruce
K. Waltke, <i>Genesis: A Commentary</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Zondervan Academic, 2001), 85.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote2">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote2anc" name="sdfootnote2sym">2</a> Jan
N. Bremmer, “Paradise: From Persia, via Greece, into the
Septuagint,” in Gerard P. Luttikhuizen, ed., <i>Paradise
Interpreted: Representations of Biblical Paradise in Judaism and
Christianity</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, Themes in
Biblical Narrative 2 (Brill, 1999), 1-19.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote3">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote3anc" name="sdfootnote3sym">3</a> Douglas
Green, “When the Gardener Returns: An Ecological Perspective on
Adam's Dominion,” in Noah J. Toly and Daniel I. Block, eds.,
<i>Keeping God's Earth: The Global Environment in Biblical
Perspective</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Apollos, 2010),
271-272.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote4">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote4anc" name="sdfootnote4sym">4</a> Joseph
E. Coleson, <i>Genesis 1-11: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Beacon Hill Press, 2012), 92.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote5">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote5anc" name="sdfootnote5sym">5</a> See,
e.g., Philo of Alexandria, <i>Allegorical Interpretation of the Laws</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1.19-23 </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§§</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">65-72,
in </span><i>Loeb Classical Library</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
226:189-195; Ambrose of Milan, </span><i>On Paradise</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
3 </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§§</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">14-18,
in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
42:296-298.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote6">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote6anc" name="sdfootnote6sym">6</a> See,
e.g., John Chrysostom, <i>Homilies on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
13.13, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
74:175.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote7">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote7anc" name="sdfootnote7sym">7</a> See,
e.g., Flavius Josephus, <i>Antiquities of the Jews</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1.38-39, in </span><i>Loeb Classical Library</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
242:21; Ephrem the Syrian, </span><i>Commentary on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2.6.4, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
91:100-101 (though he thinks the Pishon is the Danube, not the
Ganges); Epiphanius of Salamis, </span><i>Ancoratus</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
58.2-3, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
128:142; and many others.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote8">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote8anc" name="sdfootnote8sym">8</a> Kenneth
Kitchen, <i>On the Reliability of the Old Testament</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eerdmans, 2003), 429; C. John Collins, </span><i>Genesis 1-4: A
Linguistic, Literary, and Theological Commentary</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(P&R Publishing, 2005), 120; </span>Jeffrey I. Rose, <i>An
Introduction to Human Prehistory in Arabia: The Lost World of the
Southern Crescent</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Springer,
2022), 246.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote9">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote9anc" name="sdfootnote9sym">9</a> David
Toshio Tsumura, <i>The Earth and the Waters in Genesis 1 and 2: A
Linguistic Investigation</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (JSOT
Press, 1989), 136.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote10">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote10anc" name="sdfootnote10sym">10</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>Literal Meaning of Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
8.1 </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">4,
in </span><i>Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/13:347-348.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote11">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote11anc" name="sdfootnote11sym">11</a> John
of Damascus, <i>On the Orthodox Faith</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
25, in </span><i>Popular Patristics Series</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
62:125.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote12">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote12anc" name="sdfootnote12sym">12</a> John
Chrysostom, <i>Homilies on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
14.12, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
74:187.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote13">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote13anc" name="sdfootnote13sym">13</a> Jeffrey
I. Rose, <i>An Introduction to Human Prehistory in Arabia: The Lost
World of the Southern Crescent</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Springer, 2022), 247.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote14">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote14anc" name="sdfootnote14sym">14</a> Iain
W. Provan, <i>Seriously Dangerous Religion: What the Old Testament
Really Says and Why It Matters</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Baylor University Press, 2014), 38.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote15">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote15anc" name="sdfootnote15sym">15</a> Anwarul
Azad and Ida Glaser, <i>Genesis 1-11</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
Windows on the Text (Langham Global Library, 2022), 101.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote16">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote16anc" name="sdfootnote16sym">16</a> John
Chrysostom, <i>Homilies on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
13.15, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
74:177.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote17">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote17anc" name="sdfootnote17sym">17</a> John
Chrysostom, <i>Homilies on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
13.15, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
74:177.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote18">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote18anc" name="sdfootnote18sym">18</a> Isaac
Watts, <i>The Ruin and Recovery of Mankind</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
2</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;">nd</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
ed. (James Brackstone, 1742), 3.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote19">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote19anc" name="sdfootnote19sym">19</a> John
Chrysostom, <i>Homilies on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
13.15, in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
74:177.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote20">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote20anc" name="sdfootnote20sym">20</a> John
England, <i>Man's Sinfulness and Misery by Nature</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(J. Heptinstall, 1700), 7.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote21">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote21anc" name="sdfootnote21sym">21</a> Edward
Reynolds, <i>A Treatise of the Passions and Faculties of the Soul of
Man</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Robert Bostock, 1656),
429.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote22">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote22anc" name="sdfootnote22sym">22</a> Thomas
Aquinas, <i>Summa theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> I,
q.94, a.1, in </span><i>Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
13:89.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote23">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote23anc" name="sdfootnote23sym">23</a> James
Ussher, <i>A Body of Divinity; or, The Sum and Substrate of
Christian Religion</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, 7</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;">th</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
ed. (Nathaniel Ranew, 1677), 319.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote24">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote24anc" name="sdfootnote24sym">24</a> Isaac
Watts, <i>The Ruin and Recovery of Mankind</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
2</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;">nd</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
ed. (James Brackstone, 1742), 6.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote25">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote25anc" name="sdfootnote25sym">25</a> Thomas
Aquinas, <i>Summa theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I-II, q.81, a.2, in </span><i>Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
26:15.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote26">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote26anc" name="sdfootnote26sym">26</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>City of God</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 14.10,
in </span><i>The Works of Saint Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/7:115.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote27">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote27anc" name="sdfootnote27sym">27</a> Thomas
Aquinas, <i>Summa theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> I,
q.97, a.2, in </span><i>Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
13:141.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote28">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote28anc" name="sdfootnote28sym">28</a><span style="font-style: normal;"> Paul
O'Callaghan, </span><i>God's Gift of the Universe: An Introduction
to Creation Theology</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (CUA
Press, 2021), 327.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote29">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote29anc" name="sdfootnote29sym">29</a> Thomas
Aquinas, <i>Summa theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> I,
q.95, a.2, in </span><i>Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
13:113.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote30">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote30anc" name="sdfootnote30sym">30</a> Paul
O'Callaghan, <i>God's Gift of the Universe: An Introduction to
Creation Theology</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (CUA Press,
2021), 327.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote31">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote31anc" name="sdfootnote31sym">31</a> Isaac
Watts, <i>The Ruin and Recovery of Mankind</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
2</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;">nd</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
ed. (James Brackstone, 1742), 4.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote32">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote32anc" name="sdfootnote32sym">32</a> Paul
O'Callaghan, <i>God's Gift of the Universe: An Introduction to
Creation Theology</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (CUA Press,
2021), 327.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote33">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote33anc" name="sdfootnote33sym">33</a> Isaac
Watts, <i>The Ruin and Recovery of Mankind</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
2</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;">nd</span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
ed. (James Brackstone, 1742), 5.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote34">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote34anc" name="sdfootnote34sym">34</a> G.
K. Beale, <i>The Temple and the Church's Mission: A Biblical
Theology of the Dwelling Place of God</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(IVP Academic, 2004), 71-73; John H. Walton, </span><i>The Lost
World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(IVP Academic, 2009), 81-82.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote35">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote35anc" name="sdfootnote35sym">35</a> Gregg
Davidson and Kenneth J. Turner, <i>The Manifold Beauty of Genesis
One</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Kregel Academic, 2021),
102.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote36">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote36anc" name="sdfootnote36sym">36</a> Matthew
Bridges, “The Garden,” <i>The Passion of Jesus: A Collection of
Original Pieces...</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Richardson
and Son, 1852), 14-15.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote37">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote37anc" name="sdfootnote37sym">37</a> Samuel
J. Stone, <i>Lyra Fidelium: Twelve Hymns on the Twelve Articles of
the Apostles' Creed</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (SPCK,
1866), 42.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote38">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote38anc" name="sdfootnote38sym">38</a> Anastasius
of Sinai, <i>Hexaemeron</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
7b.5.8-6.1, in </span><i>Orientalia Christiana Analecta</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
278:261-263.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote39">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote39anc" name="sdfootnote39sym">39</a> Germanos
I of Constantinople, <i>Ecclesiastical History and Mystical
Contemplation</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">11,
in </span><i>Popular Patristics Series</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
8:65.</span></span></p>
</div>
JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13108158469007498050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442509839497082978.post-56827011847160520002023-09-10T10:23:00.002-04:002023-09-15T12:11:20.462-04:00Dust of Earth, Wind of Heaven<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“What does it mean to
be human?” That's what the words on the wall asked me to consider.
The other week, as you all know, my wife and I went on vacation to
our nation's capital, and while we were there, we spent a few hours
in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Now, among
the permanent exhibits there is a section known as the David H. Koch Hall of Human
Origins. I wanted to be there, to see it for myself, before I came
back to preach this sermon today. We've been working together for a
while now through the Book of Genesis, God's word on beginnings. But
to many American Evangelical Christians today, when they think of
Genesis, one thing looms large: controversy. That controversy is
often put in the language of 'creation' versus 'evolution.' And as
much as I originally wanted to preach through Genesis without this
topic, I realized that it isn't really possible. As I walked through
the Hall of Human Origins, it was obvious that Christians from the
same church could stroll those same exhibits and have very different
reactions to the fossils and artifacts and reconstructions and, above
all, the answers the museum offers for how we got here and, more
daringly, what it all means.
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">To <i>some</i>
Christians, the story of humanity the Smithsonian tells is helpful
and largely true, even if incomplete. These Christians <i>agree</i>
that all living things stand in a family relation going back through
several billion years, and that the human branch emerged only with
millions of generations of processes like mutation and natural
selection, but all of which took place in the hands of our loving
God, the God of Genesis. Meanwhile, to <i><span style="text-decoration: none;">other</span></i>
Christians, the story of humanity the Smithsonian tells isn't just
incomplete but fundamentally false, maybe even deceptive. These
Christians <i>deny</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> one big
family tree for all life; they say we've got one all to ourselves,
and that God's creative work toward making the first humans involved
no suffering at any point along the way. </span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Each
position faces its assorted challenges. Those who reject
evolutionary stories, especially if they do so in the name of a
'literal' reading of Genesis, have to deal, on the one hand, with
tricky questions about apparent gaps or oversights in the Genesis
text (e.g., Cain's wife), about the anthropocentric description of
the world it presents (e.g., animal kinds coming pre-divided into
domestic vs. wild), about Genesis' commonalities with ancient Near
Eastern mythical accounts, and about preserving a literalist reading
while not resorting to too many 'background miracles' not suggested
by the author; and, on the other hand, with the overwhelming weight
of scientific consensus drawing on the many lines of scientific
evidence cited in favor of evolution, such as developments recorded
in the fossil record, genetic linkages among creatures (including
indications that the second human chromosome is a fusion of two ape
chromosomes preserved as distinct among chimpanzees), etc., etc.<br /></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Meanwhile,
those who accept evolutionary stories have to deal with tricky
questions about how to harmonize those evolutionary stories (with
their preference for gradualism) with the theological significance
that the Church has always read in Genesis, including at least two
necessary non-gradual events of spiritual or moral significance: the
transition from pre-human hominins not made in God's image to full
theological humans made in God's image, and the transition from a
state of original righteousness to a fallen condition of sin that
needed a Savior. Some Christians who accept evolutionary origins
will do so at the cost of one or both of these necessary events.
Thankfully, others refuse to abandon clear historic Christian
teachings – but they may come up with some different suggestions on
the related questions of when Adam could've lived or even what
biological species he might have been.<a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote1sym" name="sdfootnote1anc"><sup>1</sup></a>
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The
point here, though, isn't for us to get sucked too deep into all the
nitty-gritty details. It's to remind us that each position has real
questions to wrestle with. As for which camp is right, I don't think
this pulpit's put here for me to spout off my latest opinions. I
</span><span style="font-style: normal;"><u>will</u></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
say I've known pastors in our denomination who are convinced strongly
</span><i>against</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> the kinds of
evolutionary stories you'll see at the Smithsonian, because they're
deeply concerned to uphold the Genesis story as God's inspired word.
I </span><span style="font-style: normal;"><u>will also</u></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
say that I've known other pastors in our denomination who are
convinced strongly </span><i>for</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
those same sorts of evolutionary stories, and who are just as
comfortable championing Genesis as the inspired word of God. And
what goes for our pastors goes for our people. It's not a reason to
divide fellowship or be suspicious of our fellow believers. We can
(and should!) pose each other the tough questions without losing the
spirit of unity in Christ.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The
reason we bring this up is that in today's text, we're introduced to
Genesis' close-up look at </span><i>what</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
a human being is. (Questions about </span><i>who</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
a human being is, or </span><i>why</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
a human being is, will unfold over the next couple months.) Among
our brothers and sisters in Christ who might feel least at ease in
the Smithsonian's Hall of Human Origins, sometimes one of the many
motives for that discomfort is the sense that there's be a big
problem for human dignity if the ancestry of our bodies included
lower lifeforms. In the years after Charles Darwin published his
book </span><i>On the Origin of Species</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
one critic expressed umbrage at “tracing descent from an ape,”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote2sym" name="sdfootnote2anc"><sup>2</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
another critic called “degrading” any theory that “herds us
with all four-footed beasts and creeping things,”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote3sym" name="sdfootnote3anc"><sup>3</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
while a third adamantly rejected any “genealogical table which
begins in the mud” and which would tie the human family to “a race of
obscene and dirty little brutes.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote4sym" name="sdfootnote4anc"><sup>4</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
In 1925, when the whole thing got tied up in court, the Christian
prosecutor of evolution insisted that for humans to “have come from
below” and to “link their ancestors with the jungle” would be
an unacceptable demotion from “the high plane upon which God put
man.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote5sym" name="sdfootnote5anc"><sup>5</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">So
what does Genesis say? </span><i>“The L</i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>ORD</i></span><i>
God sculpted the man from the dust of the ground”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Genesis 2:7). First, we can see this involves at least </span><span style="font-style: normal;"><u>some</u></span><span style="font-style: normal;">
figurative language – Christians always knew God doesn't </span><i>literally</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
have hands for sculpting with or a mouth to breathe out with.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote6sym" name="sdfootnote6anc"><sup>6</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Second, we should see Genesis describes human creation this way
because it would be easy to understand. In Israel's neighbors'
stories, human beings were often sculpted by the gods out of clay.</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote7sym" name="sdfootnote7anc"><sup>7</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Long before evolution was on anybody's radar, Christians pointed out
that Genesis uses the images it does because it was, they said,
“written for a primitive people.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote8sym" name="sdfootnote8anc"><sup>8</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
In this case, the image of God as a potter emphasizes his total
authority over what he's shaping: </span><i>“Who are you, human, to
talk back to God? Will what is molded say to its maker, 'Why have
you made me like this?'”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Romans 9:21).</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">So,
third, as much as some of us worry about outside ideas that would
make our human ancestry 'lowly,' our own Bible's psalmists confess
that </span><i>“we are dust”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Psalm 103:14), Job's friends describe humans as </span><i>“pinched
off from a piece of clay”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Job
33:6), Paul says we're </span><i>“from the earth, of dust”</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(1 Corinthians 15:47), and Jesus says humans are naturally </span><i>“from
below”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (John 8:23). It's hard
to see how an ancestor swinging in a tree would be any lower than an
ancestral dirtball! Really, it's Genesis we should find humbling!
And early Christians saw it that way, saying: “From these words
spring no little instruction in humility... whenever we consider
where our nature derived the beginning of its subsistence.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote9sym" name="sdfootnote9anc"><sup>9</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
Our “genealogical table,” either way, “begins in the mud.”</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But,
fourth, where does Genesis picture animals coming from? In chapter
1, God commands, </span><i>“Let the </i><i><u>earth</u></i><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">
bring forth living creatures”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 1:24). Here in chapter 2, we read that </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“out
of the </span></i><i><u>ground</u></i><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">,
the L</span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></i></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">
God shaped every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 2:19). The earth produces, but it's God who sculpts –
from the same ground whose dust is also where Genesis gets us from.
This is actually one of the things that sets Genesis apart from the
creation myths of Israel's neighbors: the emphasis on how much humans
have in </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">common</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
with the animal world.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote10sym" name="sdfootnote10anc"><sup>10</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
So no matter which camp of Christians we fall into on the evolution
question, the Bible binds us </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><u>all</u></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
to agree that, in some way, God made us from the same stuff as other
creatures.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">That's
why, </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">long</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
before Darwin hit the streets, it was Christians who were saying
that, when it comes to the human body, “man and the other animals
have the same kind of origin,”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote11sym" name="sdfootnote11anc"><sup>11</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
that “the human being takes the beginning of its composition from
the earth, as do the plants and the irrational beings.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote12sym" name="sdfootnote12anc"><sup>12</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
And now we know, after all, most life shares with us the same basic
cell structure, with nuclei, membranes, mitochondria. As animals, we
live by breathing oxygen and by consuming organic material. You can
map the bones in your hand onto those in a bat's wing or a dolphin's
flipper. We have similar eyes and ears, mouth and stomach, liver and
lungs, kidneys and brain – in fact, almost every animal has the
same eleven organ systems you or I do. Martin Luther said, in light
of all this, that in such bodily functions “there is no difference
between man and beast.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote13sym" name="sdfootnote13anc"><sup>13</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">And
none of this is bad, shameful, or unchristian! It was </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">good</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
that the Potter made his clay into animal bodies with beautiful
biology. God didn't decide to give us “affinity with lower bodies”
without a reason.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote14sym" name="sdfootnote14anc"><sup>14</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Early Christians testified that God wanted to “link together the
different natures by small differences, so that the whole creation is
one and akin, by which it is particularly evident that the Creator of
all things is one.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote15sym" name="sdfootnote15anc"><sup>15</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Yet the human body was “made in no other way than by the great
wisdom of God,”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote16sym" name="sdfootnote16anc"><sup>16</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
and “if there seems to be any fault in the human body's
constitution, it must be taken that such a fault is a necessary
consequence of the material used.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote17sym" name="sdfootnote17anc"><sup>17</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Or, as Darwin put it, “man still bears in his bodily frame the
indelible stamp of his lowly origin.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote18sym" name="sdfootnote18anc"><sup>18</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
But even such a body, in the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “belongs
to a person's essence. … People who reject their bodies reject
their existence before God the Creator.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote19sym" name="sdfootnote19anc"><sup>19</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">God
made us bodily, biological beings with a grand purpose. That isn't
to be rejected, no matter what condition your body has come to, or
what design improvements you might have suggested for it. The human
body is part of what God proclaimed </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“very
good”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 1:31). And biologically, it makes sense to understand the
human body as animal. Early Christians read even Genesis as teaching
that “your body is related to the beasts.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote20sym" name="sdfootnote20anc"><sup>20</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
The Bible itself, in Ecclesiastes, directly warned that God tests
human beings </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“so
that they may see that they themselves are animals”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Ecclesiastes 3:18). But we are, in one scientist's words, “the
paragon of animals.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote21sym" name="sdfootnote21anc"><sup>21</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">So
if we hear people in the world say that humans “are animals and
subject to the same rules and limitations... as all other forms of
life,”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote22sym" name="sdfootnote22anc"><sup>22</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
or that scientific research can “shed light on the question of what
it is to be human,”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote23sym" name="sdfootnote23anc"><sup>23</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Genesis reminds us that that's at least partially true. ...But only
partially. Because there's a lot to our existence that Genesis
reserves as only partially touchable by science, whether by biology,
chemistry, physics, psychology, sociology, anthropology – these can
only get so deep into the human mystery.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">The
day after visiting the Smithsonian, my wife and I headed to the
Museum of the Bible, which happens right now to have a special
exhibit on </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">Scripture
and Science</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">.
Little sooner had we set foot there than the wall asked us a
question not unlike the Smithsonian's: “What makes me human?”
And as you might guess, the Museum of the Bible reminded its
visitors, without rejecting anything from the Smithsonian, that
there's still more to the story: that, though humans and other
animals share “close similarities,” yet “our sense of morality
discerning what is fair and just, our spirituality and worship,
storytelling, and our unique accumulation of knowledge and culture
over time sets us apart from other species,” for “only humans are
made in... 'a little lower than angels.'”</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">In
this, they're echoing the many scientists who admit that “there are
innumerable ways... in which we human beings are distinct from even
our closest relatives in nature,”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote24sym" name="sdfootnote24anc"><sup>24</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
that even our nearest parallels are “incapable of making
sophisticated tools or using conceptual language,”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote25sym" name="sdfootnote25anc"><sup>25</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
that “human beings, alone among the creatures, speak, plan, create,
contemplate, and judge,” or “can think about the whole, marvel at
its many-splendored forms and articulated order, wonder about its
beginning, and feel awe in beholding its grandeur and in pondering
the mystery of its source.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote26sym" name="sdfootnote26anc"><sup>26</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
I think my cats are precious and personable (and full of 'personality,' though not personhood), but God didn't place
eternity in their hearts like he did in yours and mine (Ecclesiastes
3:11). You'll never meet an elephant engineer, a poodle poet, or a
horse historian. We've sent chimps to space, but none ever knew what
space was. There's no such thing as an eel with existential dread, a
philosopher piranha, or a penguin priest; neither will you find a
sinful skunk or a sainted squirrel. But humans can know and will the
infinite.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote27sym" name="sdfootnote27anc"><sup>27</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Different from all other animals “in kind and not in degree,” we
are, it's been said, “not merely an evolution but rather a
revolution.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote28sym" name="sdfootnote28anc"><sup>28</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Why?
Because there's more to us than dust. The myths of ancient Babylon
agreed, but they thought the other ingredient was the blood of a
sacrificed god.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote29sym" name="sdfootnote29anc"><sup>29</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
But listen to Genesis: </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“the
L</span></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">ORD</span></i></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">
God... breathed into [the human being's] nostrils the breath of life,
and the man became a living creature”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 2:7). Not violence, but gentleness! And Christians
understand this other ingredient to be, not demon blood, but the
human soul. Now, every living creature has a soul of some kind, a
“primary principle of life” that “actuates its body.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote30sym" name="sdfootnote30anc"><sup>30</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
If you've ever asked whether animals have souls, consider that the
word 'animal' literally comes from the Latin word for 'soul'! Yes,
every animal has a soul, from mammoths to mosquitoes. But we're
unique in the </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">kind</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
of soul we have. Other animals have “souls... produced by a
certain material force,”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote31sym" name="sdfootnote31anc"><sup>31</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
souls “coextensive with matter,”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote32sym" name="sdfootnote32anc"><sup>32</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
but ours is described as a 'rational' or 'intellectual' or
'spiritual' soul. It isn't made from stuff or produced by stuff.
For each human who's ever lived, God directly created their spiritual
soul out of nothing at the very start of their lives.</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote33sym" name="sdfootnote33anc"><sup>33</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
God </span></span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;">“breathed
into him the breath of life”</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
(Genesis 2:7), and Christians always said that “this became the
origin of the soul's being.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote34sym" name="sdfootnote34anc"><sup>34</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Because this soul is the special form of the body, even our bodies,
with all they share with animals, are a suitable “instrument” to
“raise a fitting hymn to the Lord.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote35sym" name="sdfootnote35anc"><sup>35</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span>
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Since
the start, Christians always defined the human being as “the living
thing composed of soul and body.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote36sym" name="sdfootnote36anc"><sup>36</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
On this account, it's been said that, if in our bodies our nearest
parallels are apes, in our souls our nearest parallels are the angels
and archangels, powers and dominions, cherubim and seraphim! Think
about that: for all science might ever discover about what parallels
they can draw between you and other animals, the story isn't complete
until we factor in all the parallels between you and the host of
heaven! Between ape and angel, simian and seraph, chimp and cherub,
we're the unique and miraculous overlap of two vastly different ways
of being God's creation. That's because God saw it fitting that “a
combination of the two should take place... as a kind of binding
together of the visible and invisible natures.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote37sym" name="sdfootnote37anc"><sup>37</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Each of us is a sampler platter of the creation, “material and
spiritual at the same time,” with “one foot on earth and one foot
in heaven.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote38sym" name="sdfootnote38anc"><sup>38</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
It's almost incomprehensible that you are “such an earthquake as
the image of God in dust..., a cloud of dust shaken up into a
shocking miracle of life.”</span></span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote39sym" name="sdfootnote39anc"><sup>39</sup></a></span></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
But this dust of earth has caught the wind of heaven, and it can
never be the same.</span></span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The
mystery is that we're “made from dust and yet destined for glory.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote40sym" name="sdfootnote40anc"><sup>40</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
And the main place the Church, down through the ages, has worked out
these truths of what a human is, is in one place above all: Christ.
What did the Son of God take on to become one of us? In the Church's
most solemn answers, she said that “the Word... united to himself
flesh animated by a rational soul,”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote41sym" name="sdfootnote41anc"><sup>41</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
and so became “truly man, of a rational soul and body...,
consubstantial with us in respect of the humanity.”</span><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><a class="sdfootnoteanc" href="#sdfootnote42sym" name="sdfootnote42anc"><sup>42</sup></a></span></sup><span style="font-style: normal;">
In Jesus Christ, who as God is beyond every category and is from
above, he became also from below, condescending to a genealogy of
mud, to the indelible stamp of a lowly origin, to adopting our </span><i>Homo
sapiens</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> biology with its 23
chromosome pairs, its common chemical composition, its history
stretching back to the dust by whatever route ours took from there,
and hence he came to share with every animal who ever lived a common
physical source in the earth, herded with four-footed beasts and
creeping things and you and me even as he himself is </span><i>“the
man of heaven”</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (1 Corinthians
15:48). And along with that flesh, he took for its form a real human
spiritual soul, a soul he created the same way he makes yours and
mine. Anything less than everything laid out in Genesis, and he
wouldn't have been human.</span></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;">That's
why we talk about this. To know what we are, what a human being is,
is to know not just an earthquake but a heavenquake: that the hands
nailed to the cross had the same bone layout as the foreleg of a
lamb, that the flesh and blood that bought our salvation was animated
by a spiritual soul like yours and mine, that a 'human animal' body
with brain and heart has been raised from the dead and taken up in
splendor, that his humanity – now a </span><i>“life-giving
spirit” </i><span style="font-style: normal;">(1 Corinthians 15:45)
– is hope and awe to every ape and to every angel. And so he
pronounced our dusty bodies of earth, our windy souls breathed from
heaven, the entire miniature world that each one of you is, to be too
good to leave outside his glory if you're willing to come in.
Glorify him! Amen.<span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<div id="sdfootnote1">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote1anc" name="sdfootnote1sym">1</a> For
suggestions connecting Adam to <i>Homo sapiens</i> living during the
later Neolithic era, between 9,000 and 6,000 years ago, see Denis
Alexander, <i>Creation or Evolution: Do We Have to Choose?</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
rev. ed. (Monarch Books, 2014)</span>, 290; S. Joshua Swamidass, <i>The
Genealogical Adam and Eve: The Surprising Science of Universal
Ancestry </i>(InterVarsity Press, 2019), 25; John Garvey, <i>The
Generations of Heaven and Earth: Adam, the Ancient World, and
Biblical Theology</i> (Cascade Books, 2020), 67; and Andrew Ter Ern
Loke, <i>The Origin of Humanity and Evolution: Scripture and Science
in Conversation</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (T&T Clark,
2022)</span>, 136. <br /><br />For suggestions connecting Adam to <i>Homo
sapiens</i> living during either the later Upper Paleolithic or the
earlier Neolithic era, between 20,000 and 12,000 years ago, see
Justin L. Barrett and Tyler S. Greenaway, “<i>Imago Dei</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
and Animal Domestication: Cognitive-Evolutionary Perspectives on
Human Uniqueness and the </span><i>Imago Dei</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,</span>”
in Christopher Lilley and Daniel J. Pedersen, eds., <i>Human Origins
and the Image of God: Essays in Honor of J. Wentzel van Huyssteen</i>
(Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2017), 74-75. <br /> <br />For suggestions connecting Adam to
<i>Homo sapiens</i> living during the earlier Upper Paleolithic era,
between 50,000 and 40,000 years ago, see James P. Hurd, “Hominids
in the Garden?”, in Keith B. Miller, ed., <i>Perspectives on an
Evolving Creation</i> (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2003), 230; and Matthew
Levering, <i>Engaging the Doctrine of Creation: Cosmos, Creatures,
and the Wise and Good Creator</i> (Baker Academic, 2017), 228. <br /> <br />For
suggestions connecting Adam to <i>Homo sapiens</i> living during the
later Middle Paleolithic era, between 100,000 to 60,000 years ago,
see C. John Collins, “Adam and Eve as Historical People, and Why
It Matters,” <i>Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
62/3 (September 2010): 160;</span> Kenneth W. Kemp, “Science,
Theology, and Monogenesis,” <i>American Catholic Philosophical
Quarterly</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 85/2 (Spring 2011):
235;</span> Ian Tattersall, “The Acquisition of Human Uniqueness:
How We Got from There to Here, and How We Did It So Fast,” in
Christopher Lilley and Daniel J. Pedersen, eds., <i>Human Origins
and the Image of God: Essays in Honor of J. Wentzel van Huyssteen</i>
(Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2017), 35; Nicanor Pier Georgio Austriaco,
“Defending Adam After Darwin: On the Origin of <i>Sapiens</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
as a Natural Kind,” </span><i>American Catholic Philosophical
Quarterly</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 92/2 (Spring 2018):
346</span>; Gerard M. Verschuuren, <i>At the Dawn of Humanity: The
First Humans</i> (Angelico Press, 2020), 182; and Matthew J. Ramage,
<i>From the Dust of the Earth: Benedict XVI, the Bible, and the
Theory of Evolution</i> (Catholic University of America Press,
2022), 15. <br /><br />For suggestions connecting Adam to <i>Homo sapiens</i>
living during the mid-Middle Paleolithic era, perhaps between
200,000 and 100,000 years ago, see David L. Wilcox, “Finding Adam:
The Genetics of Human Origins,” in Keith B. Miller, ed.,
<i>Perspectives on an Evolving Creation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2003), 249; Kenneth W. Kemp, “Science, Theology,
and Monogenesis,” </span><i>American Catholic Philosophical
Quarterly</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 85/2 (Spring 2011):
235</span>; David L. Wilcox, “A Proposed Model for the
Evolutionary Creation of Human Beings: From the Image of God to
Original Sin,” <i>Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
68/1 (March 2016): 39</span>; Richard Potts, “The Religious Sense:
Human Uniqueness, Human Evolution, and the Origins of Symbolism and
Culture,” in Christopher Lilley and Daniel J. Pedersen, eds.,
<i>Human Origins and the Image of God: Essays in Honor of J. Wentzel
van Huyssteen</i> (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2017), 99; Matthew Levering,
<i>Engaging the Doctrine of Creation: Cosmos, Creation, and the Wise
and Good Creator</i> (Baker Academic, 2017), 156; Fuz Rana, in “The
Anthropological Evidence: How Are Humans Unique?,” in Kenneth
Keathley, J. B. Stump, and Joe Aguirre, eds., <i>Old-Earth or
Evolutionary Creation? Discussing Origins with Reasons to Believe
and BioLogos</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (InterVarsity
Press, 2017)</span>, 209, 217; David L. Wilcox, “Updating Human
Origins,” <i>Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
71/1 (March 2019): 46</span>; and Andrew Ter Ern Loke, <i>The Origin
of Humanity and Evolution: Scripture and Science in Conversation</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(T&T Clark, 2022)</span>, 145. <br /> <br />For suggestions connecting Adam
to early <i>Homo sapiens</i> living between 400,000 to 300,000 years
ago, or even to late <i>Homo heidelbergensis</i> living between
650,000 and 500,000 years ago (and so ancestral to <i>Homo sapiens</i>
as well as to Neanderthals and Denisovans), see Marcin Edward Uhlik,
“Could There Have Been Human Families Where Parents Came from
Different Populations: Denisovans, Neanderthals, or Sapiens?”,
<i>Scientia et Fides</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 8/2
(2020): 209-210</span>. <br /> <br />For suggestions connecting Adam to early
<i>Homo heidelbergensis</i> or a predecessor <i>Homo</i> species
(e.g., <i>Homo antecessor </i><span style="font-style: normal;">or</span><i>
Homo ergaster</i><span style="font-style: normal;">)</span> between
1,000,000 and 700,000 years ago (and so, again, ancestral to <i>Homo
sapiens</i> as well as to Neanderthals and Denisovans), see Dennis
Bonnette, “The Impenetrable Mystery of a Literal Adam and Eve,”
<i>Nova et Vetera</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 15/4 (Fall
2017):</span> 1034-1035; and William Lane Craig, <i>In Quest of the
Historical Adam: A Biblical and Scientific Exploration</i> (Wm. B.
Eerdmans, 2021). <br /><br />For suggestions connecting Adam to <i>Homo erectus</i>
or to some other early representative of the <i>Homo</i> genus
living between 2,100,000 to 1,800,000 years ago, see Kenneth W.
Kemp, “Science, Theology, and Monogenesis,” <i>American Catholic
Philosophical Quarterly</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 85/2
(Spring 2011): 234-235</span>; William Stone, “Adam and Modern
Science,” in Hans Madeume and Michael Reeves, eds., <i>Adam, the
Fall, and Original Sin: Theological, Biblical, and Scientific
Perspectives</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Baker Academic,
2014), 78</span>; and Matthew J. Ramage, <i>From the Dust of the
Earth: Benedict XVI, the Bible, and the Theory of Evolution</i>
(Catholic University of America Press, 2022), 14 n. 37. <br /> <br />Finally,
for an eccentric and non-evolutionary suggestion connecting Adam to
species that predate the genus <i>Homo</i>, such as perhaps a member
of the genus <i>Australopithecus</i> living around 3,300,000 years
ago or even a member of the genus <i>Sahelanthropus</i> living
around 7,000,000 years ago, see Michael Chaberek and R<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">ô</span>mulo
Carleial, “Human Origins Revisited: On the Recognition of
Rationality and the Antiquity of the Human Race,” <i>Studia
Gilsoniana</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 11/2 (April-June
2022):</span> 278-280.</span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote2">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote2anc" name="sdfootnote2sym">2</a> Samuel
Wilberforce, quoted in Ian Hesketh, <i>Of Apes and Ancestors:
Evolution, Christianity, and the Oxford Debate</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(University of Toronto Press, 2009), 81.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote3">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote3anc" name="sdfootnote3sym">3</a> P.
R. Russel, “Darwinism Examined,” <i>The Advent Review and
Sabbath Herald</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 47/20 (18 May
1876): 153.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote4">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote4anc" name="sdfootnote4sym">4</a> Horace
Lorenzo Hastings, <i>Was Moses Mistaken? or, Creation and Evolution</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
The Anti-Infidel Library (H. L. Hastings, 1896), 25-26.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote5">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote5anc" name="sdfootnote5sym">5</a> William
Jennings Bryan, in <i>The World's Most Famous Court Trial: Tennessee
Evolution Case: A Complete Stenographic Report of the Famous Court
Test of the Tennessee Anti-Evolution Act, at Dayton, July 10 to 21,
1925, Including Speeches and Arguments of Attorneys</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(National Book Company, 1925), 174-175.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote6">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote6anc" name="sdfootnote6sym">6</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>Literal Meaning of Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
6.12 </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">20
(early fifth century), in </span><i>Works of St. Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/13:312.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote7">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote7anc" name="sdfootnote7sym">7</a> See,
e.g., <i>Enki and Ninmah</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> II.32,
in Wilfrid G. Lambert, </span><i>Babylonian Creation Myths</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eisenbrauns, 2013), 337; </span><i>Atrahasis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I.210-211, in Benjamin R. Foster, </span><i>Before the Muses: An
Anthology of Akkadian Literature</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(CDL Press, 2005), 235.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote8">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote8anc" name="sdfootnote8sym">8</a> Thomas
Aquinas, <i>Summa theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> I,
q.91, a.1, </span><i>ad</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 4
(thirteenth century), in </span><i>Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
13:21.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote9">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote9anc" name="sdfootnote9sym">9</a> John
Chrysostom, <i>Homilies on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
12.13 (late fourth century), in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A
New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 74:164-165.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote10">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote10anc" name="sdfootnote10sym">10</a> Raymond
R. Hausoul, <i>God's Future for Animals: From Creation to New
Creation</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Wipf & Stock,
2021), 18.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote11">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote11anc" name="sdfootnote11sym">11</a> Thomas
Aquinas, <i>Summa theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> I,
q.75, a.6, </span><i>ad</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 1
(thirteenth century), in </span><i>Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
11:31.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote12">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote12anc" name="sdfootnote12sym">12</a> John
Chrysostom, <i>Homilies on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
12.14 (late fourth century), in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A
New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 74:165.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote13">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote13anc" name="sdfootnote13sym">13</a> Martin
Luther, <i>Lectures on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(sixteenth century), in </span><i>Luther's Works</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1:85.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote14">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote14anc" name="sdfootnote14sym">14</a> Thomas
Aquinas, <i>Summa theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> I,
q.91, a.1, </span><i>ad</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 1
(thirteenth century), in </span><i>Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
13:19.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote15">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote15anc" name="sdfootnote15sym">15</a> Nemesius
of Emesa, <i>On Human Nature</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 1
(late fourth century), in </span><i>Translated Texts for Historians</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
49:37-38.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote16">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote16anc" name="sdfootnote16sym">16</a> Irenaeus
of Lyons, <i>Against Heresies</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
5.3.2 (late second century).</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote17">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote17anc" name="sdfootnote17sym">17</a> Thomas
Aquinas, <i>Summa theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> I,
q.91, a.3 (thirteenth century), in </span><i>Thomas Aquinas: Summa
Theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 13:27.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote18">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote18anc" name="sdfootnote18sym">18</a> Charles
Darwin, <i>The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(John Murray, 1871), 2:405.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote19">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote19anc" name="sdfootnote19sym">19</a> Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, <i>Creation and Fall: A Theological Exposition of
Genesis 1-3</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (1933), in </span><i>Dietrich
Bonhoeffer Works</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 3:76-77.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote20">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote20anc" name="sdfootnote20sym">20</a> Ambrose
of Milan, <i>Hexaemeron</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 6.7 </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">43
(late fourth century), in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New
Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 42:256.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote21">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote21anc" name="sdfootnote21sym">21</a> Adam
Rutherford, <i>Humanimal: How Homo Sapiens Became Nature's Most
Paradoxical Creature: A New Evolutionary History</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(The Experiment, 2019), 214.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote22">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote22anc" name="sdfootnote22sym">22</a> John
H. Langdon, <i>Human Evolution: Bones, Cultures, and Genes</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Springer, 2023), 28.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote23">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote23anc" name="sdfootnote23sym">23</a> Lesley
Newson and Peter J. Richerson, <i>A Story of Us: A New Look at Human
Evolution</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (Oxford University
Press, 2021), 1.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote24">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote24anc" name="sdfootnote24sym">24</a> Ian
Tattersall, “The Acquisition of Human Uniqueness: How We Got from
There to Here, and How We Did It So Fast,” in Christopher Lilley
and Daniel J. Pedersen, eds., <i>Human Origins and the Image of God:
Essays in Honor of J. Wentzel van Huyssteen</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2017), 25.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote25">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote25anc" name="sdfootnote25sym">25</a> David
Reich, <i>Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New
Science of the Human Past</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Oxford University Press, 2018), 25.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote26">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote26anc" name="sdfootnote26sym">26</a> Leon
R. Kass, <i>The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Free Press, 2003), 38.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote27">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote27anc" name="sdfootnote27sym">27</a> Gerard
M. Verschuuren, <i>At the Dawn of Humanity: The First Humans</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Angelico Press, 2020).</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote28">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote28anc" name="sdfootnote28sym">28</a> Gilbert Keith Chesterton, <i>The Everlasting Man</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(1908), in </span><i>Collected Works of G. K. Chesterton</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
2:158, 166.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote29">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote29anc" name="sdfootnote29sym">29</a> See,
e.g., <i>Atrahasis</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> I.224-231,
in Benjamin R. Foster, </span><i>Before the Muses: An Anthology of
Akkadian Literature</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> (CDL Press,
2005), 236; and </span><i>Enuma elish</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
VI.31-33, in Wilfrid G. Lambert, </span><i>Babylonian Creation Myths</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Eisenbrauns, 2013), 111-113.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote30">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote30anc" name="sdfootnote30sym">30</a> Thomas
Aquinas, <i>Summa theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> I,
q.75, a.1 (thirteenth century), in </span><i>Thomas Aquinas: Summa
Theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 11:7.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote31">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote31anc" name="sdfootnote31sym">31</a> Thomas
Aquinas, <i>Summa theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> I,
q.75, a.6, </span><i>ad</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 1
(thirteenth century), in </span><i>Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
11:31.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote32">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote32anc" name="sdfootnote32sym">32</a> Gerard
M. Verschuuren, <i>At the Dawn of Humanity: The First Humans</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Angelico Press, 2020), 175.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote33">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote33anc" name="sdfootnote33sym">33</a> Augustine
of Hippo, <i>Literal Meaning of Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
7.28 </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">§</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;">43
(early fifth century), in </span><i>Works of St. Augustine</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I/13:345.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote34">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote34anc" name="sdfootnote34sym">34</a> John
Chrysostom, <i>Homilies on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
12.15 (late fourth century), in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A
New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 74:166.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote35">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote35anc" name="sdfootnote35sym">35</a> John
Chrysostom, <i>Homilies on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
13.9 (late fourth century), in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A
New Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 74:173.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote36">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote36anc" name="sdfootnote36sym">36</a> Didymus
the Blind, <i>Commentary on Genesis</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
1 (mid-fourth century), in </span><i>Fathers of the Church: A New
Translation</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> 132:62.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote37">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote37anc" name="sdfootnote37sym">37</a> John
of Damascus, <i>On the Orthodox Faith</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
26 (early eighth century), in </span><i>Popular Patristics Series</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
62:129.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote38">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote38anc" name="sdfootnote38sym">38</a> Stephen
K. Ray, <i>Genesis: A Bible Study Guide and Commentary</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Ignatius Press, 2023), 53.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote39">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote39anc" name="sdfootnote39sym">39</a> Gilbert Keith Chesterton, column, <i>Illustrated London News</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
11 April 1908, in </span><i>Collected Works of G. K. Chesterton</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
28:79.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote40">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote40anc" name="sdfootnote40sym">40</a> Iain
W. Provan, <i>Seriously Dangerous Religion: What the Old Testament
Really Says and Why It Matters</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
(Baylor University Press, 2014), 87.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote41">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote41anc" name="sdfootnote41sym">41</a> Cyril
of Alexander, second letter to Nestorius, adopted by the Council of
Ephesus (431), in <i>Translated Texts for Historians</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
72:118.</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="sdfootnote42">
<p class="sdfootnote"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="sdfootnotesym" href="#sdfootnote42anc" name="sdfootnote42sym">42</a> Council
of Chalcedon, <i>Definition of Faith</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
22 October 451, in </span><i>Translated Texts for Historians</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
45:2:204.</span></span></p>
</div>
JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13108158469007498050noreply@blogger.com0