Things you can learn from Genesis. Part 5

The Serpent

Here is my disclaimer. Maybe. I don’t know. Why is it that we want so badly to give Satan credit for the actions of the serpent when the word of God clearly says that God made the serpent crafty?(Genesis 3:1)

Such an interesting few moments in the garden. Adam and Eve are cruising around, presumably taking care of stuff, doing what they are supposed to be doing and they encounter a serpent. This moment is a forever moment, beyond the forever we ever imagine. Clearly, every single moment that we are in is a forever moment with forever ramifications. However, this moment will change everything for everyone. But here is the deal. Before we can ever tackle sin we need to know what is up with this serpent? Because I am beyond convinced that this moment is taught to us completely wrong and that the way we come to understand this moment is critical to how we will follow Jesus. There, I’ve said it. I want to know what the word of God says about the serpent. I am not interested in things syncing up and making sense with science or explanations that eliminate talking serpents. I just want to know what it says and then move on with that as truth.

I have come to the conclusion that the serpent is not Satan. Most people won’t agree with my conclusion here but I’m pretty ok with that. It’s just too easy to declare a serpent to be Satan just because Satan is referred to as a serpent and a dragon in Revelation. I have also seen these elaborate arguments that show that Jesus is referring back to Satan, in the Garden of Eden in John 8. It’s just too big a stretch to connect the “He was a murderer in the beginning” line to refer to the temptation of Adam and Eve. (Hint, the beginning for Satan comes long before our beginning.) Beyond that, when Jesus is speaking of Satan is verse 44 He says, “he has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies he speaks out of his own character for he is a liar and the father of lies.”  Interestingly enough the serpent never does lie to Adam and Eve. He literally tells them the truth every step of the way.  Read Genesis 3 and see. (More fully addressed in my look at the sin moment coming next entry)

I think the truth is that God’s creation goes off the rails because we choose something other than abiding in Him. It’s that simple. We want for there to be a supernatural excuse for the fall and the reality is that serpents and people make bad choices. End of story.

So that still leaves us with who this serpent is. We are told, “The serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.” Crazy talk. Stop right there and stay on that verse for as long as it takes for you to really hear that God made a crafty serpent. Crazier still: God made creatures and they fell on different scales of craftiness. Note: The serpent was the craftiest. Not the only crafty thing but the craftiest thing. (some people try to argue here that the serpent is not created by God, hence he is craftier than the things God made) We can all agree that God made all things (including Angels  and people who rebel) so arguments like that are for sure heresy or just plain naïve. Take your pick. So we can settle on the truth that the serpent was crafty compared to the other less crafty beast creations. Which is pretty crazy when you start to wonder what was God doing making things have different levels of craftiness. And when it comes to beasts (this excludes man in the debate) the serpent was super crafty. I think we can all agree Man takes the crafty prize. (except maybe in this initial serpent/man throw down)Now what we don’t know was whether or not there were a crew of crafty serpents or just one, but this particular serpent was crafty, that much is clear. Now even more interesting is that this crafty serpent, that God made, could talk. The talking serpent is why people argue that the serpent was Satan or possessed by Satan (good old fashioned demonic possession stuff). But since Satan was not in the serpent and since Satan is not omnipresent it seems pretty clear he had no clue what was unfolding on the day, in the garden. And while he can go where he wants, including the heavens, he cannot be everywhere at once. ( Way to complex and off track for my point here.) Anyway, my point is that this serpent could talk without the help of Satan. My point is that the serpent that Adam and Eve encounter is exactly as God made him, unaltered.

Here are two reasons why I am convinced that Satan was not in the serpent. Reason one is that the word of God indicates that the serpent is acting on his own. (See Genesis 3:1 he’s crafty). Reason two is the serpent gets punishment for what he did.  And in this case everyone who had a part in this moment gets punished but not Satan. It seems he was not part of the moment.

People seem to struggle with talking animals. I don’t really have a problem with Animals talking. It’s in the bible so I’m good there. This is the same struggle people have with talking dirt people. But here is the deal. The crazier it all seems the more it seems to me that God must be in the details. Of course, the serpent talked and of course he must have always talked because on this fine day there was not one second of freak out from Adam and Eve thank you very much.(Again I love the arguments that they were in some kind of trance vexed by a talking Satan serpent. This really would take away the whole free will sin decision of the moment) In fact, what we do see was a pretty seamless conversation between Adam, Eve and a serpent. And just a reminder, the word of God says the serpent was craftier than the other created things. (driving home the crafty aspect of the serpent)Not more mystical or strange on this day but crafty on a daily basis. So this implies thought process so hmmm. Weird but true. Who is this God?

So these theories that a presence entered the garden and took up residence in a hapless serpent to ruin all God’s plans seem to be just theories. (And while I could argue that Satan was in the garden using Revelation and John 8 I believe that argument is the incorrect argument based on the ramification of the fall and the necessity of the fall being a result of man’s sober choice to not choose God but rather to seek something apart from God.) In fact, verse one makes it clear that the serpent was crafty with no help at all from evil. God, for whatever reason, made the serpent crafty, end of story. I believe it is imperative that God’s creation on it’s own conspired with itself to abandon God’s plan and seek it’s own direction. I believe that this is a critical aspect of sin. We choose sin. We are not tricked into sin.

A crafty serpent is at the heart of the fall of man. Now the crafty serpent’s unrighteousness leads to the fall; not some supernatural demon possession. It is for real important that we understand that it is unrighteousness, not a supernatural glitch that leads to the destruction of man. Oh the serpent was serving Satan on this day. Just like the rest of us when we engage in unrighteous activity. (the stuff that separates us from God) And it led to some very big consequences. But the unrighteous are not possessed by Satan and they do not worship him. They just walk with him and do his bidding.  As I once told this super cool daughter-girl. The unrighteous are tools of Satan. Being a tool of Satan is not the same as being possessed by him.

It does not seem to matter whether or not they are people or serpents. It seems unrighteous is unrighteous in the eyes of God.  And this is super critical because the world and perhaps even many of us claiming to be set apart have this misconception that somehow someone who follows Satan does evil things to small animals and children. And while that may be true in some cases the real truth is that everyone who does not follow Jesus follows Satan. That is for sure truth. And that is the truth we better wrap our minds around and soon. Because if they are not redeemed they spend eternity separated from God. That’s going to be a shock for all of them; Even crafty, talking, serpents. Or not. Depending on the whole what happens to animals when they die thing. But I suppose a crafty serpent spends eternity in hell unless he is redeemed. This is me, still not freaking out.

So to my point as to why it matters how we view the serpent. If we believe that the fall is borne out of God’s creation (serpent, Adam, Eve) choosing to make a decision apart from God then we will walk closer to Him. We will hold more tightly His truth and seek to abide in Him, knowing one step away from Him is one step closer to destruction. If we see the fall as emanating from a supernatural deity tricking man then we will always be on the look out to not be fooled into sin by Satan. I believe the latter is the way most of the church functions, which is why we see a church, mired in compromise but convinced of its steadfast love because they are not looking evil. If we see the fall the first way then we are aware when we stray and we run back into His arms. If we see it the second way then we are all good as long as we don’t look evil. Not looking evil is not the same as walking with Jesus. Not looking evil is the same as eating from a tree we shouldn’t be eating from. We put on some clothes, go to church and call ourselves clean. We look pretty but our skin knows the truth. Even Adam and Eve understood that you can’t clean dirt. That’s what God does.

Things you can learn from Genesis part 4

More from Genesis 2

God talks with Adam. What? From the first moment it becomes clear that God did not make man to see what he would do. This was not a crazy lab experiment out in the garden. This was God (the one without lack) choosing to hang out with Adam. So they sit down and have a little chat about the do’s and don’ts for garden living. So in verse 16 God clues Adam into some practical living tips. He wants to just give him one of those little consider yourself warned little talks. So He tells Adam, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden 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.” Pretty straightforward, sort of, maybe. I don’t know. Adam, formerly dirt, hanging out with God, having a chat about trees you can eat from and tree that you cannot eat from. It seems like a pretty easy sit through. Not like sitting with my dad as he would explain the nature of choice and how consequence for poor decision-making would result in something very unpleasant, something to not be experienced. The hint of it should be weighty enough to ensure that there would never be choices that could result in unpleasantries. You know how those talks turned out. Situation 1252: Me on the roof of the church, riding my skateboard, mid service. Made total sense at the time. He couldn’t mean skating on the church roof was a bad idea, was a poor decision worthy of very unpleasant consequence. I’m pretty sure Adam was feeling pretty committed to getting it right at that moment in time. I’m pretty sure he was picking up what God was putting down. How hard can it be? Just don’t eat from one tree. It’s a slam-dunk, a no brainer. Adam’s got this.

And then God drops this crazy bomb on Adam. To paraphrase: Dude, you look bored just hanging out with me all day I’m going to make someone for you to hang out with. Sweet, Let’s go name stuff. What?

Let me wrap my mind around this. God and Adam are chillin’, hanging out, looking at stuff, naming stuff, and God has this moment of clarity where He realizes Adam needs a girl version so He can go subdue and rule with her. Okay, makes total sense. But the thing is that the All-Consuming Fire, The Holy of Holy’s, The Ancient of Days, knows that while there is no lack in Him, there is certainly lack in Adam. Adam has lack because he does not have a trinity. He has him and God and God knows the magic number is not two. It is in fact always and forever three.

So there you go; Basic math at no extra charge. Nice talk God. Nice talk Adam. Let’s go name stuff. Adam’s probably all, “Let’s call that one a sheep.” God was probably like “good call. We’re going to use that one a lot.”

Things you can learn from Genesis part 3

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Genesis 2

How crazy is it that God started making stuff and that He created all these things and then He created man. There are some really wild things inside the second chapter of Genesis. One of those aha moments happens in verses 5 and 6. In these two very cool verses we learn that God did not use rain to water the earth. This is critical knowledge when we get to Noah and that whole mess. Here we learn that God had a watering system that was a mist that arose from the ground. Just super cool evidence that God made science without us getting overly worked up about the whole science vs creation thing. Let’s just be clear that God understood the nuances of evaporation and humidification. He was super into hydroponics. It’s pretty clear that He knew how to grow a thing or two.

That’s an interesting side note but nothing so shocking as the description of how He made Adam. Man was formed from dust and then God breathes life into the dust and then wait for it because this is more shocking than fish suddenly walking and alien DNA and monkeys starting to act all people like. The truth is so much more shocking and cool. The dirt stands up and starts being a person. That just freaks me out, makes me think crazy thoughts, makes me laugh and shout in joy. God does crazy stuff and that is how I know He is real. He breathes on dirt and it stands up and starts talking and walking and doing stuff. (Kinda ironic like that the dirt is getting ready to sin in the next chapter)

Crazy thing next: God brings all the stuff He made and shows all the stuff to Adam, the dirt guy. He brings the stuff, all the coolest first things that ever were. These are things that were not at one moment and then were. And He takes the cool stuff over to the dirt guy and actually lets the dirt guy name everything. What are you doing God? The dirt guy gets to name everything that you made. And that is intense because right there we know the absolute truth about our God. He does every single thing. He for real does it all and then lets the dirt guy give names as if the dirt guy had something to do with the creating of stuff.

This God actually looks at Adam, looks at us and says look at all our cool stuff. He is so crazy like that. He not only shares His toys he actually makes them our toys. He actually treats us as if we were involved in the whole toy making process. God says look at what we have done. And He just never stops saying it. “Look at what we did, dirt guy.” All the while knowing that dirt guy is about to get way off track in just one more chapter. I can just picture Him with His arm around the dirt guy. Just smiling as Adam is naming stuff. Just smiling knowing what happens next. God all outside of time, living in the moment, knowing He has a plan for the next moment where the dirt guy acts like a dirt guy. That’s to be expected from a dirt guy, even if God breathed on Him and let Him name all the stuff. Dirt just does what dirt does.

Things you can learn from Genesis Part 2

Genesis 1:26-30

Here’s the thing about creation. It is an absolutely ridiculous idea. God was and is without lack. In Him there is no thing that He does not have, does not experience. Within the realm of His existence He is fully filled with the relationship of Father, Son and Spirit. He is at all times worshiped by the seraphim and the elders. He is at all times stunning and radiant. He at all times sits on a throne that is surrounded by things of amazement. In Revelation 4 we are told:

And He who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. ⁴ Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. ⁵ From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, ⁶ and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.

  

And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: ⁷ the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. ⁸ And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,

“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
    who was and is and is to come!”

⁹ And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, ¹⁰ the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

¹¹ “Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
    to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
    and by your will they existed and were created.”

To say the least, this is a pretty cool place with plenty of things going on. So to be sure God was doing just fine without birds and trees and creepy things and stuff. So He certainly didn’t need the headache of man. And yet in Him there was such great love, such desire to birth us, all the while knowing the end of the story. Stunning thing A: God made all things according to their kinds. This is critical. All things were created to replicate the kind of thing they would be. So for instance God makes a maple tree and that tree will make seeds to make more maple trees. The maple tree is in and of itself unique. It is a kind of new thing. But there is a critical shift as God readies himself to make man. Stunning thing B: As God is making all the background stuff God is just calling things into existence but He gets to man and says, “Let us make man in our image.” Ok that is stunning thing C as well. Because God readies the other two for this one. He knows He is about to embark on what will be heartache, and rejection and the death of His son and He tells themselves, “Get ready. Here we go.” This is a moment of inhale-don’t breath-look around-silence and then it is started. Stunning thing C is simple and complex and impossible to even comprehend because everything else was made of a new kind, something from nothing. But God looks about and says let’s make man from our image, from our kind. We are His seed, the image of the mighty one, the ancient of days. We are not a new kind. We are made to be like Him. We will make more people just like maple seeds will make more maple trees. We are seeds that were intended to make more image of God people. There is an obvious sidetrack and a squiggly line and a few zig-zags thrown in. But it is clear than when Jesus shows up for project redeem the earth and when He says,  “follow me and I will make you become fishers of men.” He knew exactly what He was talking about because He was there on that day when they all got together and made man in their image. He came to the earth and started creation anew. He intended that we would be reproducers of the image of God and now He came to walk the planet to show us how to do what was always intended.  Make more people in His image. It’s all pretty obvious, sort of.

Things you can learn from Genesis Part 1

Genesis 1:1-2

Who is this God that from all the nothingness of an infinite space made something? He created from nothing all things and He declared them to be good because He is good and from Him comes all that is good. And He lacked nothing but in Him was a desire for something tangibly else from all things He already had. And so we are told in Genesis 1:1-2, “ In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” And this is the God that already was and there was darkness over the face of the deep. And in an instant God is a darkness exterminator.

Things become clear. God, seated wherever He is sitting, decides that He will stop doing whatever He was up to before He decided to start making stuff and then He sees that everything is darkness. The Word is with Him and the Holy Spirit hovers and in an instant they commence the project, they begin the process that has been the plan all along. This is the removal of darkness plan that will not fail because “in Him there is no darkness” and in His light the darkness cannot survive. Even in that first instant of creation “God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.” Can you just see the impact of the light when God releases it upon the dark?

Oh this God who sees darkness and subdues it, makes it His own. He sees darkness and He is so moved that He makes light. And so it is that in the very beginning God was in the business of making darkness into light. This is who He is. He is the ender of darkness. In John 1 we are told,  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. ⁴ In him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” The Hebrew for the word we translate as overcome could actually be better stated as comprehend. We can really read this that the darkness cannot comprehend the light in any meaningful way. Darkness is so defeated and disoriented by the light that it cannot possibly come up with a plan for overcoming it. This is how amazing God’s light is. He looks down on the void that is dark and He makes light and to this day the dark cannot find a way to overcome this new reality is faces. To this day the dark flees the light, is utterly destroyed by it. There will be a day when there is no darkness. Oh that that day would come soon.

Trucker Drummer and a Sunday at Ihop Kc

Sunday at Ihop KC is unlike any other day of the week. Sunday is amateur day. And by amateur I mean all those on worship teams who rarely get a chance to lead. Now let’s be clear: An amateur at IHOP is probably more talented than most worship leaders around the country. At IHOP one could be sitting back row as the back up singer and still have led worship at their home church for several years. If you spend enough time here you will see a drummer who plays bass, then guitar, then piano and eventually they will be leading worship. This is just how it goes. The talent pool in this place is insane.

So Sunday is my favorite because anything can happen. And it usually does. I have a favorite drummer here. I first noticed him two years ago beating the drums, wearing a John Deere hat. I began to refer to him as “trucker drummer.” He honestly looks like Dave Grohl and just might be related. When I did sound at Southlands it was Trucker Drummer who taught me how to make a drum kit pop. I watched him and learned his set up and his sound settings. So if you liked my sound it was trucker drummer who gets the credit. And if you didn’t like it: still trucker drummer.

Last night trucker drummer got one hour, in front, on acoustic. Now this is not the first time he has done this. But last night, oh last night he played his acoustic with a twang and he sang old time hymns and I worshipped before my God who used to pursue me every Sunday morning as we sang these songs.

Church: three songs, announcements, sermon, alter call for the lost, exit song, shake the preacher’s hand on the way out the door.  I look back now and just smile, just think about how much He loved me, even then, when I was  young and stupid and didn’t know much about anything, including Him.

Oh but He is like this in that He is so kind to have trucker drummer sing, “To God be the Glory.” Hymn 33 for those of you with a 1970’s Baptist hymnal lying around. I sang it every Sunday for the better part of my young life. It was Levi Price Jr’s favorite song and we sang it every week before we went out to shake his hand. This God who loves me so much that He reminds me that He was faithful, even then, even when I was lost, in church, in the third row. Even then He knew. Even then He knew who I would be now so He taught me a song so that I could hear it one day at IHOP KC on a Sunday night. All that detail so I could look back and know He was always there, always wooing me, always after my heart.

“To God be the glory, great things he hath done! So loved he the world that he gave us his Son, who yielded his life an atonement for sin, and opened the lifegate that all may go in. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the earth hear his voice! Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the people rejoice! O come to the Father thru Jesus the Son, and give him the glory, great things he hath done!” Amen.

Things you can learn on a Friday night. Part 2

Jesus does not turn into a conquerer while He is seated on the throne making intercession. He does not turn from lamb to Lion as He sits next to God. The truth is that He has been a conquerer from the first, from before the beginning. This is what He does, who He is. He conquers all things, the external and the internal. He can overcome what we do and what we think. He sets us free from the inside out.

The act of creation itself is the conquering of the what did not exist. He turns nothing into something. He creates people and gives them authority to subdue all things. He gives all authority to a nation and tells them to conquer all other people. This is at the heart of all He commands.

When jesus leaves heaven to come to earth He is not coming to be the lamb. He has always been the lamb. This is our Jesus. The truth is that He is not lion on some days and lamb on other days. He is in fact a lion-like-lamb on all days. He is always conquering, always sacrificing. He overcomes all things through his life and through his sacrifice. When Jesus walks the earth He is at all times lion-like-lambing. He is teaching with authority, healing with authority, casting out demons with authority. And all the while He is meek and humble and feeding others and forgiving sins.

This Jesus is broken hearted for the broken and He is strong with the strong willed. The same Jesus who feeds the masses is the same one who patiently forms a whip to clear out the temple. There is no difference, no two sides of a coin. This is who He is.

It is surely amazing that He lives a sinless life. But equally striking is that He never once puts Himself first. (perhaps the key to sinlessness) He never once thinks "what would Jesus do." He is so fully selfless that He only does what He sees the Father do or what would be best for men. This is critical. Make no mistake: He absolutely puts His desire to see us come into perfection before His own desires. Jesus is driven to see that we would have what would be best for us. Now that is crazy talk. He goes to the cross and cries out "not my will but Yours." He does it because He does what the Father says in all things and He wants to do what is best for man in that same instant. He conquers the cross. At any moment He could have come down, saved Himself and given us the hell we all deserve. He is not defeated by the cross to then conquer death. That is an absurd teaching. He conquers all things. That is what it means to be lion-lamb-like.