Genesis and Matthew VIII

Here, the human has become like one of us, in knowing good and evil.


Seeing the crowds, he went up the mountain, and as he sat there his students came to him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying . . .

The God of the early Old Testament is in many ways different than the God of the early New Testament. He is still the same God, still consistent in every way. But as a parent changes his approach as the child grows and matures, so does God change his towards us.

The great crisis of the Garden of Eden story is that humanity went against God's will. We insisted upon our independence. We were created to be be curious, and to want to grow. We want answers, and we want to investigate. So it is that the serpent used reason to get our first parents to disobey God.

Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. Their eyes were opened. This is equivalent to so many things that we still do today, in every phase of our lives. A new idea, or book, opens our eyes. We can have our eyes opened by some new form of music. Charismatic leaders can open our eyes to injustices, as Martin Luther King, Jr., did.

The big gateway to eye opening experiences is the same as ever: sexuality. You can almost tell when a child has crossed that bridge (if done before marriage). Often, a break is formed between child and parent. A mystery once only known by adults, by our parents, is now known by us. We know it all, now, we think. A sense of equality or even superiority over our parents emerges. We have done the one thing they told us not to do, and not only did nothing bad happen to us, it was actually a great experience!

It is only later that we understand why it is better to wait. We would not listen to our parents, and we do not listen to God!

So harsh penalties were required. A noble race does not go off and disobey God! So death entered in. Death (not sin) became the thing from which we needed to be saved!

The approach changes now, in the New Testament. Humanity has been battered around for eons, with the consequences of sin. Death reined since the dawn of time, but not just Death: violence and cruelty became Death's chief attendant! Along comes Christ.

We have a scene more like a college professor teaching a group of young adults. This was God's relationship to us at the time of Christ. The world was ready now, to listen to God. And the time had come for God to teach us, mentor and coach us.

Genesis and Matthew VII

 . . . but from the Tree of the Knowing of Good and Evil - you are not to eat of it, for on the day that you eat from it, you must die, yes, die.


  . . . It is written, "Humanity shall not just live on bread, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God."

The opening chapters of the Old and New Testaments parallel one another. In the Old, the order is established. God is in charge, but God's enemy, called "the serpent", challenges Him. In the New, God's enemy, called "the examiner" seems to have wrested control of the earth from God. He challenges the Son of God, so as to complete his dominance. But the Son of God resists. God is challenging the satanic order. The New Testament is God's counter-punch.

Nourishment, the eating of food, plays an extensive role. We need food to eat. When it is time to eat, we hunger, we crave it. If it looks good, we try it. God gave us all that we need to survive (he still does, if people would pay attention). But in the Old Testament, humanity corrupted the concept of eating for survival, to eating for pleasure. We began to see our need, or drive, for pleasure, as being equal to our need to survive. We began to put ourselves first. Rejection of God and acceptance of ourselves as the ones in charge, became the paradigm. This rejection of God and pleasure-first lifestyle is manifest in sexual immorality.

God's supremacy is encapsulated in the command, "You are not to eat of it". This the line in the sand. Everything that we needed, he provided. But this one thing, this alluring thing that looks good, was prohibited from us, at least for the time being.

Millennia later, the Son of God further defines it. God feeds us, yes. But that is not all He does. His word itself keeps us alive. But the word of God was from the very beginning. The command "You are not to eat of it" is God's Word! When we rejected God by eating the forbidden fruit, we were rejecting His life-giving word itself, that which is more than food; that which later became flesh in the form of the Son of God!

The Tree of the Knowing of Good and Evil was food that killed. It represented that which is good for us, but not yet. We need food to live. This food made us mortal. But it wasn't the food itself that killed us. It was the rejection of God's word.

The hunger problem of the earth is easily solved. Feed on the word of God.

Genesis and Matthew VI

 . . . and YHWH, God, formed the human, of dust from the soil, he blew into his nostrils the breath of life and the human became a living being.

After being bathed, Jesus came straight out of the water. And all of a sudden the skies opened and he (John) saw the breath of God descending like a dove and coming toward him.

We do a great injustice in our most popular Bible translations, in going for "modern relevancy" or adhering to historical or orthdox "correctness."

Take the word normally translated "spirit." In the Hebrew, the word was ruach, in Greek, pneuma. In both cases, the literal translation should be breath.

Spirit brings to mind ghosts, misty-like humanoids floating around . . . quite frightening, really.

But the word breath has a more instant quality. It is immediate. Our breath comes in and permeates our souls; it leaves us and joins the air in our immediate surroundings. Breath is here and now, within, without. Isn't this what we want in our connection to God?

In God's two primal acts of human creation, breath is involved. First he forms a man from the dust of the earth ("Adam" meaning "man of the earth"; "adama" meaning earth or ground, itself.). Then the breath of God comes down and around Adam. It goes into Man's nostrils, and he becomes a living being.

In the second primal act of creation, the continuous development of Jesus Christ from Second Adam into Redeemer of the Race, God's breath is equally present and active. Christ's obedience to the Father, his modeling humility in being baptized by John the Baptist, the washing away of sin by bathing earthly dust and grit from off his body, was highly valued by God. (Water has similar qualities as breath. You go into the water and are completely surrounded by it. This is how we want to be held by God our Father!)

God's breath comes down and fills the place. The surrounding crowd sees the breath of God, His presence, come down gently and peacefully, lovingly (as it did to Adam originally). The visible breath of God is the Father's expression of pleasure in what had transpired.

Everything Christ did, His obedience to God, invited breath of God into his ministry. The breath of God creates, enlivens, animates, blesses, heals, and comforts.

Genesis and Matthew V

 . . . all green plants for eating, it was so.

. . . and his food (John the Baptist's) was locusts and wild honey.

John the Baptizer was a true natural man. He was like an original person created by God, someone within a generation of Adam and Eve. He lived off the land, God truly provided for him and he lacked for nothing. His DNA was very close to that of Adam and Eve's, for he was Jesus' second cousin, and Jesus had (I believe) an identical DNA match to Adam.

John ate food from the land. He did not require offerings. He slept in whatever bed he could find in the field. He wore clothing that came from the hide of wild animals. He killed only to survive, and did not kill warm-blooded animals for food. He had no income, but was rich. He had no job, but was fully occupied. He had no health care plan, for God took care of him.

According to Genesis, we were not originally intended to be omnivores. The early humans were vegetarians. God commands us to eat green plants, but nothing is said about eating meat until later.

John had a great life. He lived as God intended all of us to live. He had no cares, no worries (of himself!). He just followed God and lived well.

Genesis and Matthew IV

God blessed them . . .

"Get up, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt . . . "

In Genesis, God creates humankind, and blesses them. From the moment that God blessed Adam and Eve, it meant something unique and permanent for the human race. He had created them in His own image. They were made to dominate the earth. With good follow-through, it was an excellent arrangement.

How does God go about blessing people? That is, what does this mean, to be "blessed" by God? It means something like receiving His favor. It means we need not worry. If God has blessed us, all is, (or will be) well.

God blessed our original ancestral parents.

God gave them dominion over all the earth, including all living things (except other humans, and this is an important point!)

So, what happens when these people, whom God has blessed, conduct their rulership over the earth in selfish, ungodly, or even wicked ways? What happens when we interpret it to mean we can rule over other humans? (If we rule over someone else, it means that the other person does not have full dominion over earth - someone else is prohibiting their duty to be a steward over earth).

Well, to follow-through on His blessing of us, God needs to teach us, to train us, and like any good educator, to let the learning roll out as we are ready for new lessons. And this is what God's plan, its sequence and timing, is all about! He is not slow - we are!

He also must be active and involved in human history - just enough to keep us alive, and just enough to keep us moving forward, as a people. So - He does little things like protecting the baby Jesus from King Herod.

It is always just enough. He has not withheld His command to us, to have dominion over the earth. He is just keeping us from destroying ourselves! To make it all work - He has to get involved every now and then!

Genesis and Matthew III

God said . . . it was so . . . God saw that it was good.

. . . and they shall call his name Emmanuel (which is translated "God-with-us").

Imagine all the time it took for God to create everything. Yes, we say six days, but how long were the days, before the sun and moon were created (the fourth day)? By the way, on the third day of creation, plant life was created. Plants are life that comes up from out of the ground. They are living things that come out of seeds, which are as good as dead unless activated by outside forces. Christ rose from the dead on the third day.

Was there "time" before God began to create our universe? If there were other beings, angels perhaps, did they fellowship, did they while away the hours, if there were such a thing as "hours"? Did the waiting seem interminable? Did they have to wait, at all?

Once He began creation, it meant He had finally taken a step of completion of the next phase of His Greater Plan. For whatever reason, He wanted creatures not unlike Himself, with intelligence, character, and integrity, with whom to share the Universe. But He began to create. It was the beginning of "God-with-us". (From this point, I will use the actual translation, and not "Emmanuel").

For ages upon ages He created the Universe. Our geologists believe it took millions and millions of years. Maybe it did. Yet it was God-with-us, doing the creating. There had to be an end-game to what He started. God-with-us was here from that beginning, yet God-with-us, the man, did not appear for ages yet to come.

Did some in God's eternal realm grow impatient with His plan? Did they get tired of the waiting? Was impatience the beginning of sin, which some believe first manifested itself in rebellious angels?

Did they say, "You said you would be "God-with-us" but all it turned out to be is eons of creation. The only living things here are these plants. We cannot fellowship with them!

God-with-us began at the moment God created the Heavens and the Earth. When he formed organization and order, out of chaos - before there was even light, before planets, before plants, before animals, before humans, God-with-us was already here. Only much later did God-with-us appear as a man.

We show great arrogance in growing impatient, by suggesting that God got something wrong. His plan is proceeding, whether we understand, or like it, or not.

Genesis and Matthew II

God said:  Let there be light! And there was light.

So the generations from Abraham to David made fourteen generations, and from David to the Babylonian migration fourteen generations, and from the Babylonian migration to Christ fourteen generations.

We see juxtaposed, two descriptions of God at work. He can both speak a thing, and it's done. Even light itself is created, simply because He states it into being.

But the promise made to Abraham, of His seed inheriting the land, took fourteen generations times three. His plan of salvation is as good as done, but it was at least 840 years in the making!

When we get impatient for God to work something out, or to fulfill on His promise, we are missing a very elemental aspect of how God works. You see right there on the page, and can read in under one minute, how God brought light into the world, but it took almost one thousand years from the time of Abraham, before it reached anything close to fulfillment. We then make the assumption that the creation of light, eons before the time of Abraham, happened instantly. Maybe it did. But what if it didn't? What if the creation of light took thousands of years?

I have a friend who has concluded that Jesus Christ is not coming back. He has based it on some book he read, that makes the case that Christ should have returned during the first century, C.E. The fact that he did not, indicates a fundamental inconsistency in Scripture. Jesus, or the writers of the New Testament, lied! The whole biblical case is now to be held in great suspicion. He has lost the light.

It took thousands of years to even get to the birth of Christ! His return is right on time!