Word of Salvation – Vol. 35 No. 38 – October 1990

 

The Reason Why

 

Sermon by Rev L Douma on Genesis 3

 

Most of us have heard, or maybe even asked the question: ‘If God is almighty, and He is loving, why is there so much wrong in the world?  Why so much suffering?’  It is a question that comes up in our minds as we struggle with an agonizing ‘why?’ as we hear or read of yet another tragic accident, a national disaster, another murder, protest, war.  Sometimes we groan ‘what is the matter with our world?’  If it is not human beings struggling against each other, or nations warring-then creation itself seems bent on bringing suffering and misery.  As we reflect on a decade’s event, or even just the recent tragedies we are inclined to ask, ‘Why are things the way they are?’

This struggling question of ‘why?’ is not a new one.  It is a very old question.  The question must have been in the hearts of the Israelites as they trudged through the desert to Mount Sinai.  Imagine their situation.  After 400 years of slavery they are now free.  Free because of incredible miracles done by ‘Yahweh’ – the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  This God, ‘Yahweh’, revealed Himself as the almighty maker of everything, even the Egyptian gods, of the sun, moon and river.  And He was revealing Himself as being very gracious and merciful.  He had saved Israel to be his own special people; ‘His treasured possession’.  Yet at the time, Israel was regarded as the lowest people in the known world.  Nothing but a group of slaves.  No culture, no glory.

Imagine the Israelites.  They had no Bible.  And only a vague memory of their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  They are trying to work out their ‘why’ question.  If God, who saved us from Egypt is so merciful and kind, and He is the maker of all, then how come there is so much evil?  How come they suffered as slaves for 400 years?  Moses, writing the Word of God to these Israelites provided an explanation why the world is the way it is.

Genesis 3 provides the explanation of the beginning of our misery and suffering.  Looking first at the context we see in Genesis 1 and 2 that God made everything and it was all very good.  The people God had created had a wonderful relationship with the creation and with God himself.  So Moses makes it clear that the origin of the dreadful ‘why’ did not start with God or His creating.

So, where does it begin?  Genesis 3:1 ‘Now the serpent…!’  It begins with the snake.  But who is he?  Let Scripture tell you.  In Revelations 12:9 we are told that this snake is ‘that ancient serpent called the devil or Satan, who leads the world astray’.  Jesus says of the devil in John 8:44, ‘He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him.  He is the father of lies.’  The point to note in both passages is that the serpent is the liar, not just a liar, but the father of lies, who leads the world astray.  He is the one who started the lie, the lie that is the cause of our suffering and why?  What is the lie?  That the creature of God can be equal with God!  That is where Satan rebelled against God.  As Isaiah shows in Isaiah 14:12-15:

How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn.  You have been cast down on the earth, you who once laid low the nations.  You said in your heart I will ascend to heaven, I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of the assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain.  I will ascend above the tops of the clouds, I will make myself like the most high.  But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit.

Satan was an angel, a ‘star’ (v.12).  But he wanted to be greater than all the rest (v.13) but even more he wanted to be equal with God (v.14).  That is the underlying desire of the devil.  And it is the lie he puts to man.  That is, ‘You don’t have to be a creature, obeying God.  Be God yourself!  Do your own thing’.

This is the lie he was about to put to Eve.

But first notice how he lures the woman (Genesis 3:1b).  He said to the woman ‘Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’.  Notice, the distortion there?  What had God actually said?  God in His goodness said, ‘Every tree is yours except for one.  By that one I will test your love.  But Satan pushes God’s goodness aside.  He drags to the foreground the exception – Did God actually say you can’t eat from whatever tree you want?  There is a limit?  This question is begged of God instead of seeing all God’s provision and grace.  The exception is highlighted to suggest that God is selfish, keeping something from them.  ‘Is God really fair?’  Eve makes a reply against the serpent.  But, if we look carefully, we note the beginning of wavering.  Notice Eve says, ‘we may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden.’  But, in chapter 2:16 God talks of all the trees (but one).  Eve does not stress the all to put back into perspective Satan’s emphasis of the exception.  She could have said, ‘Don’t carry on about the one, as if we can’t eat from any tree.  We can eat from any, all – except one’.  No, she wavers, ‘Yes, we can eat fruit from the trees’.  Notice also the slight change, as she repeats God’s warning.  The Hebrew says: ‘Do not touch it, lest you die’.  That is, she makes the prohibition even tighter: don’t even touch it, and the punishment less likely: ‘in case, you might die’.  The woman wavers, if even so slightly.

But Satan notices and so he pounces.  ‘You will not surely die.’ (vs.4).  No more innuendos and subtleties.  Satan is now going directly against the Word of God.  He is calling God a liar.  He says openly and bluntly, ‘Don’t listen to God.  He can’t be trusted.  He wants to keep something from you.  For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil’. (vs.5).  Do you see it there?  The lie of lies?  There is the cause of all the problems.  The inner desire of the devil to be like God, ‘You will be like God, knowing good and evil.’

There is a half-truth in that statement.  The woman’s eyes will be opened and she will learn something if she chooses to rebel.  She will know the difference between ‘good and evil’, because she will have experienced evil and its results.  But what horrible, useless knowledge.  To sin and then suffer, experience pain, hatred and anger and death.  Yes, she will gain knowledge but she will not be like God.  Knowing the difference between good and evil is not what makes God, God.  He is God because he is almighty – the ‘I am’.  He is the Creator, maker of heaven and earth.  All life, all creatures are dependent on Him.  So, how can mere creature possibly be ‘like God’?  Be God?  It is the ultimate of lies and stupidity, yet it is what Satan holds before Eve.

Will she obey her Creator?  The choice is hers.  She is made in God’s image.  She has her own mind and freedom to choose.  Will she serve God or want to be her own boss? (vs.6).  Well, did they achieve what they wanted by their eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil? (vs.7).  No, they had not gone up in the world and become like God.  They had fallen by siding with Satan and rebelling against God, they smashed all their beautiful relationships.  Now there was fear and shame and guilt.  The man and the woman feared and were ashamed of each other.  And they feared and were ashamed of God’s presence.  Notice in verse 8 how they are now quick to hide from God.

It happened just like God had said ‘When you eat of the fruit of the tree you will die.’  The Biblical idea of death is separation.  All the relationships of creation are torn apart.  We see it in five areas:
  – Man and God – they could no longer face God when He came.
  – Man and woman – see how they were ashamed of each other,
            trying to blame each other for the mess.
  – Man with himself – see how guilt creates fear and shame.
  – Man and creation – see (vs.17) how God curses the earth, and nature.
  – Man and life – (vs.19) man dies in the physical sense;
            his body returns to dust and is separated from his soul.

Yes, it is all here.  Why is the world in a turmoil, when God is almighty and loving?  The anxiety and suffering, the hatred, the fighting and killing, the family break-ups, the natural disasters – they all are the result of man’s rebellion, because mankind raises its fist at God and declares he will be its own god.  We see this attitude still in our approach to science and technology.  So often we think we know it all and can fix it all ourselves.  We see it as people grab for power, as dictators of their country or manipulators of their families.  We see it in our rape of the environment and our selfish use of all we can get our hands on.  And we still blame each other and God for our suffering rather than repent and confess.

But in the midst of this mess there is also hope.  Already right at the fall is a promise of the redemption of the creation. Note vs.15: ‘I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers, he will crush your head, and you will strike his heal’.  Here is the promise of a Saviour.  Yes, when people wonder about the love of God in a mad world, point them to Jesus – God’s gift of love to restore the world we have ruined.  Yes, point them to Jesus, who, though He was God, lowered himself and became man, to restore man back to his place with God.  Man wanted to become God and ruined it all.  God became man to restore it all.

Such is God’s love.

AMEN