Intro

personal history with the class

(for the teacher...when did you first take the class, etc)

assumptions of the study

god exists, has revealed himself to man, and that the bible is a record of these revelations.
the bible isn't a work by a single author, but a collection by many of the revelations of god. it records the work of god.

focus of the material

what it's not?

not a topical bible study like the purpose driven life;
nor a biblical survey either (OT survey)

what it is

we are trying to look at how god reveals himself and his plan to redeem/save humans.
the continuity of god's plan through the diversity of scripture

how to use the class

for people who don't know the bible well

for people who already know the bible well

Progress Events

1. God Alone And Together

Before Humans, the Universe, or anything else we know, God existed.

Before math, physics, or biology, there was theology.
Do your best to imagine :

- that nothing had been created yet (no earth, stars, space, or even light)
- that it had been this way forever.

2 important facts for our story :

1. Everything is dependent on God.

You have to start here; thinking about the beginning will often give clues about the ending.

2. God is beyond our understanding.

God is completely unlike anything we are familiar with

- eternity is beyond our understanding

How long was there before creation?
What did God DO for all that time?

- creation is beyond of our understanding

organization we understand, but true creative ex nihilo creation we don't

- deity is beyond of our understanding

what does it mean to be 'God'?
it is fundamentally beyond us.

God is the only truly self-sufficient being.

What can we say?

- God was with himself

- God is utterly unlike anything we can relate to (conceive of?)

For some reason, God decided to change this perfect state.

2. God Creates The World And Man

God ends his singular existence and creates the universe.

1. God decides to take 6 days.

no arguing about creation / evolution

note : six days? literal, day age, metaphor...not the topic. just be sure the motive isn't to avoid the bible. i think that the whole thing happened in 6 days for a number of reasons which won't be discussed here.

- day one : God creates light
- day two : God creates heaven by 'separating the waters'
- day three : God creates dry land, vegetation, and trees
- day four : God creates the sun, moon, and stars
- day five : God creates birds and fish
- day six : God creates animals and...man
- day seven : rest

2. Especially, God creates Man.

(this story is repeated with different details in Gen 2)
a. man is created to rule over all the animals (Gen 1:28)

man even gets to name the animals

b. man is created to be in god's image (Gen 1:27)

nothing else created is like this...

Creation starts what turns out to be the story of mankind - the Bible

If this was written by dolphins, you'd expect to see a whole lot more dolphins factoring into the story.
If this was a story about angels, the protagonists would be angels every time.
Instead, the rest of the Bible (and history) is about man and God's revelation and relationship to man.

3. Man is placed in the garden of Eden.

There are two notable trees in this garden, mentioned in 2:9.

The tree of life.
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

3. God Creates Woman

God says, "It is not good for the man to be alone." (Gen 2:18)

the solution : "i will make him a helper/companion suitable for him"

God puts man to sleep (the first use of anesthesia)
God 'borrows' one of man's ribs and makes a woman

interesting point here! God could have just created the woman, but he uses a rib to do so rather than going 'from scratch'.
is this to emphasize our dependence and connectedness?

God presents the woman to the man...and they are joined

Genesis 2:23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man."
For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.

the result : "for this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife"

God creates marriage; the first act outside of the creation of matter...

idea: when things are good, relationships are good.

our barometer of sin will be bad relationships.

Application

A. God is in charge

Why did God interrupt 'eternity' to create universe and mankind?

a. There is no definite answer

'why?' is a question the Bible frequently doesn't answer

- no mention of 'why' is given in Genesis
- for that matter, Job doesn't get a 'why' from God, and Paul doesn't give one in Romans 9 about why God does what he does either.

Isaiah 55:8, 9 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.

An understanding of 'why' God has done something in our lives may not always be offered.

Job's example is huge here...
That's a hard thought;
but there is a difference between not knowing the reason and there not being one.

B. God is not in a hurry

God, who existed for inifinite time before creation, certainly views time differently than we do.
That will come up again and again in the Bible and history.

C. God is loving

God created humans to need love.

Adam was incomplete in paradise alone.

this starts to move towards 'why were we created'?

a. Why? Because. (probably the most sensical answer with god)

God is his own reason
- an important principle in life (and in the bible) is that god is his own reason. bearing in mind that things are the way they are because God wants them to be so will make things much easier.

b. Relationships? Did God create the universe so that he might have relationships with us?

- possibly. the rest of history is the story of God seeking after a relationship with us, at extrordinary cost.
- God is a trinity; perfect fellowship has been between God for eternity... does that mean that fellowship as a sort of core value/attribute of god? guesswork here...

We need to value relationships as much as God

It is amazing to think that God created marriage on day 6 to meet adam's need for a companion.

- we need to make sure we treat our relationships as important and necessary; man's need from the start was a meaningful relationship

we don't count them as productive compared with other things...
we build relationships that don't offer the help/companionship spoken of here.

reading this story should force us to evaluate our perception of our needs and priorities.

if you are married, do you value your spouse in a way that corresponds to the value shown here?
if you are single (or married), do you value your relationships as highly as you should?

Conclusion :

1. This is a prologue to the story

the major characters in our story will be God and man.
A few themes have been introduced: relationships are important, some things are unknown/unknowable, and some things are revealed.

2. God has always had a plan for people

A. things in the bible are always changing, always building

we live in "the last days" - per hebrews, the revelation we have exceeds anything else seen before (christ as god made flesh).
progress seeks to help you understand how things have changed through biblical history - god reveals new pieces throughout the bible
it's hard for us to see since we know things...we assume they have always been that way.

B. participating in god's plan has always been the same

so though revelation has been building through history, the essential aspects of god and man have remained the same

the problem of sin (hopefully you will see to what extent the bible shows the sin of it's heroes)
the mercy of god (mercy is apart of the story as soon as sin is)
the means of salvation (a gift, received through faith)

romans 3 and 4 makes this very clear.

C. progress hopefully will help you see the conflict (and resolution) between A (always different) and B (always the same).

as the story builds, god gives answers to questions that people maybe didn't even know to ask (before the answer was given)
e.g. how are we forgiven/justified? clearly noah received the grace of god...but until christ you have no idea 'how'.
progress will seek to explore these threads of the story...

Bible Sections Covered