Understanding the Bible - Part 1

        Reading the Bible can be a daunting task for any believer.  It is long and filled with difficult to pronounce names.  It contains concepts and imagery that do not always resonate easily in our modern age.  But one need not be intimidated or confused by the Bible.  Indeed, God wants us to understand his message contained in the scriptures.  It is the reason why the book has been preserved over countless generations.

     Understanding the Bible starts with understanding what it is.  It is part history, part poetry, part prophecy, and part law.  But what it really is could best be described as The Story of God and Us.  Biblical scholars have referred to the Bible as “The Grand Narrative”.  It is the story of Creation, the Fall, the revelation of God’s plan and promise for restoration, the execution of that plan, and the final fulfillment of restoration.  The Bible is ultimately a story of love: God’s boundless and enduring love for us.

     Perhaps the best way to study the Bible is to view it as a series of chapters that comprise the greater story of “The Grand Narrative”.  With this in mind, I will break the Bible out into sections, each of which tells a key chapter in the greater story.  In studying each chapter, we will seek the answer to three questions:
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1. What does it reveal about God?
2. What does it reveal about us?
3. What does it reveal about God’s relationship with us?

     By viewing the Bible through the prism of these three questions we will gain a better understanding of God, ourselves, and our place in God’s plans.

 
The Beginning
 
     We begin at the beginning – the start of the book of Genesis and the story of Creation.  Genesis 1:1 through Genesis 2:25 comprise the first “chapter” we will study.  Once you have read that section of the Bible you are ready to consider the three questions.
 
     1.  What does it reveal about God?

• God is the Creator of our universe and everything in it.
• God created everything in 6 days.  It did not take him billions of years to finish his creation.
• God is good.  He called his creation good.  This means that it was perfect, without sin and death.  He did not put the creatures he created in a world where they would suffer or experience pain and death.  He blessed his creation and desired for it to be fruitful and multiply.  This point is critical when engaging with those who question how God could allow so much suffering and so many bad things to happen.  Those conditions do not reflect the nature of God.  Suffering came about through the disobedience of humans, and all the things we point to as “bad” reveal the nature of existence apart from the presence of God.
• God values order.  He created in a specific order.  He created the sun, moon, and stars to establish a cycle of time as part of this order.  He created a hierarchy among the living creatures he created, with humans being at the top.
• God values work.  We see the care and satisfaction he took in his work.  He immediately gave humans work to do (naming the animals, tending the Garden of Eden).
• God values rest.  On the seventh day God rested.  He blessed the seventh day and made it holy to establish a day of rest from that day forward.
• God has rules that must be followed.  In the beginning, God had only one rule – do not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

 
     2.  What does it reveal about us?

• We are made in the image of God.  We are not the end result of an evolutionary process.
• We have dominion (leadership and control) over the other creatures that God created.  We have a special place above the rest of God’s creation, but we also have a responsibility to be good stewards of his creation.
• We were meant to do work – work that is satisfying and fulfilling, not dreary toil.
• We are meant to take time to rest.
• We were made to be creative.  God tasked Adam with coming up with the names for all the animals.
• We were meant to live forever in a perfect world free from pain and suffering.
• We are not meant to be alone.  God recognized this and created Eve to be Adam’s helper and wife.

 
     3.  What does it reveal about God’s relationship with us?

• God desires a relationship with us.  He created us in his image to enable us to relate to him.
• God did not make us to be his slaves or robots programmed to obey him.  He gave us free will so that we could choose whether or not to have a relationship with him.
• While we have free will, God is ultimately in control of his creation.  He sets the rules, not us.  We can choose to break his rules, but we cannot escape the consequences if we break them.  This will become evident in the next chapter.
• God wants the best for us.  He put us in a perfect world and desired for us to thrive.  His plan was that we would live forever in fellowship with him.

 
Key Passage:
 
                “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’”  - Genesis 2:16-17
 
         This passage sets the stage for the Story of God and Us.  The tree of knowledge of good and evil represents a dual test.  It was a test of humans to determine if we would freely trust in God.  Some might think it is unfair that the entire human race should be punished because Adam and Eve failed this test.  But consider for a moment that God is capable of seeing all history from beginning to end.  He has seen the end result of every possible scenario; of every possible decision every human could make.  Nothing takes God by surprise.  And God certainly is not unjust.  My point is, God searched the heart of every human who ever would exist and found in all of us the same exact failing that Adam and Eve were guilty of.

       So while the tree was a test that God foresaw all humans would fail, it became a test for God.  How would he respond to this grave moral failing of his creation?  His response was Jesus Christ.  He would show humans what true love is.  He would remain faithful in the face of faithlessness.  He would pay the ultimate price to restore those who had betrayed him.

          This is why it is important to study and understand the entirety of the Bible.  The Gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ does not begin with the New Testament book of Matthew.  It begins in Genesis.  It is found at the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  It is here where humans reveal their flawed nature and the evil of an existence apart from God.  It is here where we reveal our need for a savior.  And it is here where God reveals his perfect nature and his enduring love.  It is here where God resolves to be the savior we need.
 
Other Notable Points

• In this chapter we see God establish genders and marriage.  While it has become popular to redefine both in our modern world, we can clearly see what God’s plan was.  He created males and females.  He did not leave it up to them to decide at a later date what gender they would be.  He also created the institution of marriage and defined it as a male marrying a female.  You might have your own opinions on these matters, but just understand those opinions are at odds with God’s plan.  God can bring healing to help you overcome any impulses or desires that are separating you from his plan.  There is a grave danger in elevating your opinion of what is right over God’s stated will.  We will see this unfold in the next chapter.
• The concept of shame is a human invention.  We will explore this further in the next chapter.  This chapter ends by telling us that Adam and Eve were both naked and were not ashamed.  That is how perfect and pure God’s creation was.  They did not need clothing to protect them from either natural elements or lustful inclinations.
• The absence of lustful inclinations does not mean an absence of sexual activity.  God commanded his human creations to be fruitful and multiply and to fill the earth.  So there existed in Eden a form of sexuality that is purer and more fulfilling than anything humans have known since the Fall.  I do not mention this to tantalize you.  I bring this up because procreation is an important part of God’s plan and is something that Satan has waged war on throughout the ages.  The reason for this will become apparent in the next chapter.

 
Final Thoughts

• God is the creator of everything, and his miraculous creation process took place over 6 literal days.
• We are created in the image of God.
• God desires a relationship with us that is built on free will and trust in him.
• God’s plan was for us to live forever in a perfect world free from pain and suffering.
• God foresaw the flawed nature of humans and from the beginning resolved to prove his love through Jesus Christ.

 
Companion Study

   To better understand the importance of believing in a literal 6-day creation, I highly recommend viewing the following YouTube video by Ken Hamm from Answers in Genesis:
 
Six Days, the Age of the Earth, and the Authority of Scripture with Ken Ham
https://youtu.be/9oBle1KH7QU
 
     And to gain a better understanding of the evidence for the Biblical account of creation, I recommend the following movie:
 
“Is Genesis History?”
https://youtu.be/UM82qxxskZE