Sin and the Fall

1
Sin and the Fall

• Gen 31-24

2
Whats with the Trees?

• trees represent options and free will.
• but what is wrong with knowledge of good and
  evil?
• or wisdom (26)?
• put question on hold

3
The Wicked Serpent

• No identification of the snake with Satan
  common connection has been made since
  inter-testamental times (Wis. 224)
• The snake was an animal of the fields which God
  made (219-20)

4
The Serpent

• Humans express no fear or shock at snake talking
  
• Snake is an ambivalent symbol here not pure
  evil
• anything in Gods good creation that could
  present options to humans which could draw us
  away from God.

5
The Serpent

• Reader overhears conversation midway question
  about God and the prohibition (31)
• Snake moves conversation along, responds in ways
  that are truthful, or potentially s

6
Serpent tells the truth!

• they do become like God, knowing Good and Evil
  (322)
• they do not die, at least not physically,
• they could eat of the tree of life and continue
  to live 322

7
The Serpents Lie

• Key Phrase that leads to eating God Knows
  (35)
• Has God told the humans the full truth?
• Can God be trusted with our best interests?
• Can they trust that not all benefits are for
  their ultimate good?
• Mistrust in God primary sin, leading to primary
  sin.

8
Serpent and Doubt

• Issue is not gaining wisdom but what kind of
  wisdom
• wisdom which does not stem from fear of God
• but desire for power.

9
Back to the Knowledge of Good and Evil question

• maybe not moral good and evil (tov/rah)
• but success and failure
• wisdom literature success and failure
• how to succeed without God

10
Crafty Serpent

• 31 serpent more crafty (arum)
• play on words with naked (arumim) in 225
• ambivalent term
• human wisdom in self-advancement
• shift from innocence to self-promotion

11
The Buck Stops Here!

• God does not leave humans alone and walk
  elsewhere
• God comes looking for them persistence of
  divine love
• God seeks a response forces them to face their
  decision
• they move to the blame game rather than
  confession.
• One of the most insightful analysis of human
  weakness in relationship to sin
• Tendency to blame rather than confess and take
  responsibility

12
Curses Curses Curses

• The Curse (314-19) descriptive or
  prescriptive?
• descriptive description of what happens in the
  wake of sin
• prescriptive of what God establishes for the
  future as punishment
• language of divine punishment appropriate in this
  sense
• God midwifes the connection between deed and
  effect
• All life touched marriage, sexuality, work,
  food, birth and death

13
Men and Women

• Of particular consequence the rule of man over
  woman (316)
• is a consequence of sin he will rule over you
  future tense
• in the Garden before sin, men and women were on
  equal status
• men ruling over women stands against Gods
  created intention

14
Murder, Flood, DispersionGen 41-1123

• The section depicts increasing alienation of
  humanity from one another
• alienation between animal husbandry and
  agriculturalists
• mostly, alienation of humans to God

15
Cain and Abel Gen 4

• sin expands - murder
• vs. 5 why no regard for Cain?
• vs.7 sin lurking at the door like a predator
• need for redemption

16
Lamechs boast 423-24

• 23 Lamech said to his wives,        "Adah and
  Zillah, listen to me        wives of Lamech,
  hear my words.        I have killed a a man
  for wounding me,        a young man for injuring
  me.
•  24 If Cain is avenged seven times,        then
  Lamech seventy-seven times."
•  25 Adam lay with his wife again, and she gave
  birth to a son and named him Seth, b saying,
  "God has granted me another child in place of
  Abel, since Cain killed him."

17
Noah and the Flood

• Read portions
• 65-8
• 611-22
• 71-5
• ch. 81-19

18
Noah and the Flood

• test case for a composite text J and P sources
  intertwined
• Do the animals go in 2X2 or 7X7 and 2X2?
• 619 animals to be brought by two a male and
  its mate
• 72 seven pairs of clean animals and one pair
  of unclean

19
Why cut-and-paste?

• usually stories are laid out as doublets
• Why cant we have two flood stories?
• Gods promise and the rainbow!

20
Repeated Themes

• Human sinfulness and Divine sorrow - 65 and 821
• God not an angry judge but a grieving parent
• God must judge, but is heartbroken (65-8)
• tension within God between justice and mercy
• Noahs faithfulness becomes Gods excuse to
  choose mercy 68
• Noah's obedience and faithfulness (622 75, 9,
  16 818) leads to new possibilities for creation

21
What Flood?

• The basis for the story severe flood in
  Tigris-Euphrates valley- about 3000 BCE
• basis of the many flood stories from the region
• in OT - response to human sinfulness.
• in AMR anger of the gods that humans are making
  so much noise they cannot sleep

22
Main Purpose of the Flood?

• Main Question What was the purpose of the flood?
• to purge the world of corruption?
• water would be a cleansing agent
• language of blotting out (67 cleansing?)
• a new beginning with purer people, people who
  will not sin?

23
Problem with cleansing theory

• It was a failure people were just as evil
  afterwards
• Did God fail??
• Note 821 makes it clear that humans are just
  as sinful after as before.

24
To Show the Failure of Non-Biblical
Understandings?

• shows superiority of Israelite God to
  polytheistic deities
• the gods send the floods to silence the noisy
  humans cant get any sleep
• or the people were failing to sacrifice enough
  animals flood was payback
• This is certainly part of the answer

25
Utnapishtim vs. Noah

• U is warned by the god Ea that the gods plan to
  destroy people because they are too noisy
• Ea tells U. to lie about the purposes of building
  his ark so the gods will not learn of it
• Genesis God regrets the evil of the world, not
  its noisy people
• Genesis emphasizes justice and mercy as God
  establishes a covenant with as many as came out
  of the ark (98)

26
But What Changed?

• It seems that at the end, everything is the same.
• humans are exactly the same, before and after the
  flood
• the only thing that the flood changes is God!

27
The Rainbow in the Sky

• God chooses to never take a militaristic posture
• God chooses to live with the pain that their evil
  brings forth
• God has put God's bow in the heavens, he will not
  go to battle again

28
Gods Regret

• Gods regret assumes that God did not know for
  sure that this would happen
• this is often seen in OT Gods regret over how
  things work out
• the text provides no support for a position that
  claims that God knew, let alone planned, that the
  creation would take this course
• Open Theism??

29
Gods Suffering

• Gen 65-7 suggests that God takes the route of
  suffering
• he endures a wicked world
• this ensures that God will continue to grieve
• God determines to take suffering into God's own
  self
• foreshadowing for the cross?

30
Tower of Babel

• Babel (ch. 11) represents the ultimate sin of
  over-reach
• Let us build a tower with its top in the
  heavens

31
The Ziggurat bridge to the gods
32
Father Abraham

• After Babel, God makes another attempt to engage
  humanity
• Calling of A Gen. 12
• Set in late Bronze Age (1750 BC)
• anachronisms (Philistines)

33
The Story Narrows

• Second major section of Genesis (12-50)
• focus of the narrative narrows
• the created world and human race now forms
  backdrop
• Story focuses to one particular family and their
  family God

34
Family Focus

• stories of the members of a particular family and
  their journey of faith are unique in ANE
• ANE texts deal with the whole cosmos, gods,
  nations, (aka Gen 1-11)
• ancient literature doesnt narrow in this fashion
  to one family and their journey of faith
• New solution for human alienation a familys
  faithfulness becomes an instrument of universal
  redemption

35
Arguments for Early Dates

• Some scholars dates Patriarchal stories very late
  Judean Court of Solomon (900 BC)
• There is evidence of their early origin
• Gen 2012 notes Sarah is both Abrams wife and
  sister contra Lev. 189 and Deut 2722
• Jacob marries two sisters contravening Lev.
  1818

36
Gen 121-9

• Combination of command (v 1) and promise (vv 2-3)
  implies the necessity of obedience.
• Great nation stands in contrast to Sarais
  barrenness (1130).
• Much of the following tension revolves around
  this unfulfilled desire.
• solution for sin framed in terms of blessing one
  for the sake of another (v 3 cf. Gal 38)

37
The Story Progresses

• Abram (his earlier name) flees to Egypt to escape
  a famine (1210ff)
• Strange blessing, no trusting!
• He lies about Sarah saying she was his sister,
  not his wife.
• puts her in jeopardy to protect himself,
• still lacking in trust in God!

38
The Story Continues (ch 13)

• Abram returns, becomes rich
• Splits from Lot who settles in Sodom
• After Abram has left Lot and settled in Canaan
  then God shows him the land (121)
• God reaffirms his promise of the land grant to
  Abram (1314-18)
• Abram rescues his nephew Lot and is blessed by
  Melchizedek King of Jerusalem (ch 14)

39
Can you count stars, Abram?

• Gen. 15 is one of the most important passages in
  the Bible
• God comforts Abram and assured him of the
  promises previously given (1)

40
Abram counts the stars Gen 15

• Read whole chapter
• note of irony vs. 1
• Abram expressed his doubts twice (vv 2 and 3)
• Why is the promise reaffirmed and clarified?
• your child not adoptee!
• How is it strengthened?
• covenant ceremony

41
Abraham believes God?

• Gen 156 in NT
• Rom 49 and 36 we are justified by faith
• LXX YHWH reckoned him righteous
• Hebrew could be, Abe reckoned YHWH trustworthy.

42
Covenant Ceremony

• ancient practice participants of oath walk
  through dismembered sacrifice.
• to cut a covenant
• who passes through the parts? what could this
  mean?
• God is invoking a curse upon himself lest he fail
  to keep covenant with Abram!
• foreshadowing the cross?

43
Hagar and Sarai Ch. 16

• Sarai suggests Abram bear a child through her
  Egyptian slave girl Hagar
• Hagar gives birth to Ishmael
• causes friction between Sarai and Hagar (Hagar
  got uppity!)
• Sarais harsh treatment drove Hagar away
• The Lord cares for Hagar and her baby El Roi
  (God who sees me)

44
The Covenant Thickens! ch. 17

• read 1-22
• what does this covenant add?
• new names new status?
• new moral component blameless v. 1
• circumcision sign of covenant membership
• specification vs. 19
• Review what all has God promised?

45
Sarah Laughs Gen 18

• The Lord appeared to Abraham again and Abraham
  serves them (angels??) a meal
• Son promised again in due season v. 10
• Sarah laughs inside the tent

46
Sarahs Laughter ch. 18

• Isaac means he laughs
• Is anything too wonderful for the LORD? (v. 14)
• Sarah denies that she laughed but the Lord
  insists that she did.
• Abraham negotiates with God over Sodom

47
Sarah gives birth!

• after the Sodom and Gomorrah story, and the
  second sister/wife story (ch. 20)
• in ch. 21, Sarah gives birth to Isaac
• Hagar and Ishmael are cast out but delivered by
  God

48
The Aqedah of Isaac

• Read text Gen 221-19
• questions
• how could God ask such a thing?
• how could the covenant and promise be fulfilled
  without Isaac?
• why didnt Abraham plead for his own son the way
  he plead for Lot and his family (ch. 18)?

49
Is this faith or insanity?

• How do we interpret the story?
• an etiology to explain why the Hebrews do not
  practice child sacrifice
• Meaning behind animal sacrifice

50
Child Sacrifice in ANE

• known in Israel Jephthah sacrificed his daughter
  in Jud. 11
• Exod 2029-31 - all first-born children belong to
  God and must be redeemed (2410-20)
• Ez. 2026 - Israelites sometimes used the law of
  firstborn to justify child sacrifice
• Carthage to offer a child was to give the
  goddess your most precious possession

51
Theological Reflection

• For Christians, the aqedah prefigures the cross
• Isaac carries the wood like Jesus carried his own
  cross.
• For Rabbis, this preconfigures their sufferings
  at the hands of their enemies Isaac the almost
  martyr
• Land of Moriah is identified as the site of the
  temple (2 Chron 31)

52
The Texts Purpose

• God tested Abraham.
• God allowed Abraham to face the ultimate
  challenge of faith
• testing the covenant itself
• Earlier notions of deity progressive revelation
• Spiritual lesson sometimes God doesnt make
  sense and seems to be asking for us to give up
  even what is his blessing.

53
Briefest Overview of the Story

• Sarah dies and is buried in tomb purchased from
  Hittites?? (Gen 23)
• Abraham sends servant to fetch wife for Isaac
  (Rebekah)
• Rebekah gives birth to Esau and Jacob (25)
• Isaac/Rebekah sister/wife story (26)
• Jacob/Rebekah deceive Isaac and steal blessing of
  the firstborn from Esau (27)

54
Jacob the Deceiver

• Jacob leaves for Haran and is deceived by Laban
  so he marries Leah not Rachel (29)
• Jacob and his wives have 12 children (12 tribes)
  and grows in wealth (30-31)
• Jacob goes back home and meets Esau on the way
  and wrestles with an angel (32)

55
Jacob, the Angel, and Israel

• Jacob wrestles with angel for divine blessing
• He is renamed Israel meaning He strives with
  God.

56
The Patriarchs continue

• Dinahs rape is avenged with deception (34)
• Josephs coat of many colors, sold into slavery
  by older brothers, Jacob made to believe he was
  killed by an animal (37)
• God blesses Joseph in Egypt so that he rises to
  the pinnacle, and becomes the salvation for the
  rest of the family (38-end)

57
At end of Genesis we have a question!

• has the promise of land and progeny been
  fulfilled?
• progeny provisionally
• Jacobs children become the ancestors of the
  twelve tribes of Israel and they have many
  children.
• first chapter of Ex. Hebrew children populating
  rapidly
• Pharoahs slaughter of Hebrew boys direct
  challenge of Gods promise

58
What about the land?

• Gen ends in Egypt!!
• at end of Genesis partial fulfillment
• Theyre having lots of kids,
• but living in a foreign land due to famine
• see Gen 1514f
• But they are being blessed somewhere else
• where does the land promise find fulfillment?

59
Primary Theological Themes

• Election
• God called Abraham to bless him and use him to
  make of him a great nation and in you all the
  families of the earth will be blessed (Gen
  122-3).
• This feature can be very problematic God loves
  these folks more??
• But the point of divine calling was clear from
  the start so that all the families of the earth
  can be blessed through them.

60
Missional Election

• Focus is upon this family being an instrument
  through which his blessing could flow to all the
  nations of the world.
• not based on their righteousness of goodness but
  upon Gods choice and Abrahams obedience.
• Election is primarily a calling to special
  service.

61
Promises Partially Fulfilled

• Gen. 122-3 promises things which are only
  partially fulfilled.
• On his death Abraham has only acquired a small
  plot of ground (Gen 2317-18)
• Isaac hardly is a multitude of descendants
• The family grows rapidly but at the end, they are
  living in a foreign land.
• The promises are still looking forward for
  fulfillment.

62
Covenant - berit

• We saw this repeated in chs. 12, 15, 17 and 22
  with increasingly specificity and re-application
  to new generations.
• Other covenants play important roles later
  Mosaic, Davidic, Christian NT.
• The Mosaic covenant established relationship
  between God and a new nation (as opposed to a
  family)

63
Covenants

• Davidic covenant established bond between God and
  new king in a new nation (2 Sam 7).
• Christ sealed Gods bonded relationship with
  peoples of all nations, tribes and ethnicities
  (This cup is the new covenant in my blood).
• The covenant with Abraham underlies all others as
  a foundation for all Gods further program of
  redemption.