Strangers on Earth

I've been told before that Jesus is on every page of Scripture, but I never really thought that this included Genesis. I thought Genesis was just a book about the creation of man, the forbidden fruit, a serpent, a sinner, a murderer, an old man who built an ark, and a golden child's "coat of many colors." All of the classic Sunday School stuff - but nothing really all that significant to my life.

I'm not sure if I should laugh or cry over the way I used to see it.

As it turns out, Genesis might be the most life-changing study that I've ever encountered.

Through these stories in Genesis, I've learned so much about Who God is, and - much to my surprise - I've found that yes, even in Genesis, Jesus IS on every page.

When Adam and Eve sinned, God created coverings for them that were made from the skins of an animal. In order for there to be animal skin, there had to be an animal who's life was sacrificed. Even in this first part of Genesis, I was taught that since the beginning of time, God has been pointing His people to the reality that in order for our sins to be covered, there had to be a blood sacrifice. Surely Jesus - the Lamb of God Who would one day shed His blood to atone for my sins - was on that page!

Another thing that I learned through the revelation of God's plan of redemption was this: this was not God's backup plan. God's plan to send His Son to pay the price for our sins was His "Plan A" all along.

1 Peter 1: 18 - 20 says, "For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life...but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world..." This means that before the world was ever formed, God's plan of salvation was in place - a plan that had always required the shedding of blood for the atonement for sin. This was demonstrated first in Genesis, and finally on the cross at Calvary.

Through Noah I was reminded that obedience can be costly, but that obedience in God's will is the safest place for us to be. As Noah faithfully obeyed God's command to build the ark, he had to grow tired and he had to have been humiliated. But when God's judgment was poured out on the world around him, he realized that God had provided for him the perfect place of safety. When God's wrath consumed every other man and woman, God himself closed the door to Noah's refuge. The story of God's plan to save Noah from the flood points undeniably to the way of salvation that He offers through Christ. The imagery of God being the One to close the door behind Noah illustrates the New Testament truth that Jesus Himself is the Gate through which we, like Noah, enter to find a place of refuge.

John 10: 7-10 says, "Therefore Jesus said again, 'Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.'"

And I can't talk about Noah without at least mentioning the rainbow. What once just seemed to be a sugary, sentimental story about God and Noah's "pact," became a significant, visual reminder that God is a God Who remembers the covenant He made with His people, and He is a God Who keeps His promises. What a precious reminder of His faithfulness... and to think that He sends that kind of reassurance after a storm. His timing is always perfect.

Then there was Abraham. It was through the life of Abraham that I really began to understand what the word "faith" meant. It's an essential concept to the life of a believer, but it's a word that is often trivialized in our culture. To study Abraham, however, is to understand that faith in the Living God is life-changing... even history-making. Abraham is remembered, not for his moments of weakness (though he certainly had a few), but for his radical faith in the God he trusted completely with every part of his life.

He trusted God when he was called to leave his family and country behind, and simply follow the Lord's leading. He trusted God when God promised him that he would be the father of many nations - even though he and his wife had not been able to conceive a child and were aging quickly. He trusted God when God sent him a son named Isaac and the age of one hundred... and he trusted God when God asked him to do the unthinkable.

This is where I have to pause and just say that the first time I read this story, I wanted to stop reading. I couldn't understand the cruelty of this requirement. I am so glad that I was guided through this passage this year. There is such a rich, redemptive story here.

In Chapter 22 of Genesis, God told Abraham to "take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering..." It's important to know that Isaac would have been in his late teens or even early twenties at this point in his life. He wasn't forced against his will - remember his father was old. Isaac could have easily over-powered Abraham or out-run him. Instead, this is a story of two men, who obediently walked a long, sad road to what they thought would end in a father watching his son die a painful, sacrificial death.

As Abraham raised the knife to slay his son, the angel of the Lord (Who is Jesus) called to him and said "Do not lay a hand on the boy...Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." And then Abraham saw what might have been the most precious sight of his life: a ram caught by its horns... a substitutionary sacrifice. Wouldn't you agree that Jesus was on this page??

God showed Abraham that although the pagan cultures all around them participated in the disgusting practice of child sacrifice, God would NEVER require a father to offer his son as a sacrifice. The only thing thicker than the irony of this story is God's grace: God would never ask that of an earthly father, but God the Father would send His only Son to die a painful, sacrificial death.  Only God would bear that burden. God was demonstrating to Abraham - and all of mankind - that just as He sent a substitutionary sacrifice to die in Isaac's place, He would do that again years later - on a cross on a dark, Friday afternoon. That final substitutionary death would not just be on behalf of one man, like the ram had been for Isaac - but for all men (and women!) who would repent and believe.

Then there is Joseph, a young shepherd who was hated and betrayed by his very brothers, sold for a small bag of silver, falsely accused, taken from a high position to the most lowly position, restored once again to a position of great authority, and then, in his God-given wisdom, saved the lives of many. Then, when his brothers who once wanted him dead stood before him, he not only forgave them completely, he spoke kindly to them and met their every need. Don't you see Jesus in that pattern?

Romans 5 says, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life!"

Joseph graciously met the needs of his enemies. Christ gave His life for His enemies. These Old Testament servants of the Lord lived in such a way that their stories, in many ways, prepared the hearts of God's people for Christ's ministry.

It was pointed out to me this year that Genesis starts with the creation of life and it ends with a coffin. For me, Genesis served a great purpose: it made me want to live in such a way that between the beginning of my life and the day of my death, that I would, like these Old Testament believers, live obediently, tell of God's faithfulness, trust the Lord's timing and plan, forgive freely, and then finally - like Jacob did - worship the Lord with my final breath.

Hebrews 11:13-16 says, "All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; the only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country - a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them."

I have begun to feel like an alien and a stranger is so many ways lately, but Genesis was such a sweet reminder that the way has always been narrow, and it has always been a little lonely. This isn't unique to me. One of the ways God specifically encouraged me was to remember the way that Egyptians (who often represented "worldliness") viewed shepherds. They looked down on them and wanted nothing to do with them, but throughout Scripture, it was often the shepherds who were called to do God's eternal work. And through these Patriarchs of the Bible - many of whom were shepherds -  I've learned to trust that God doesn't call us because we are especially talented or equipped to serve Him. He calls us - ordinary, sinful, lowly people - and then He equips us as we depend on Him. The world might think of me in a similar way to the way the Egyptians regarded the shepherds, but if it can be said of me someday that "God is not ashamed to be called her God," that won't matter much any more.

C.S. Lewis once wrote: “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”