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The Story in review- Chapter One
“Am I my parishioners’ keeper?” Did you miss the Cain story in your reading of the first chapter of The Story? Remember The Story is the majority of the narrative portions of the Scripture that individually vignettes of the acts of God or the events in the lives of His people and put together help us to grasp the overarching message of Scripture. Or in a visual, rather than verbal, description of the Bible, these narrative stories in The Story are individual threads that collectively form the tapestry of God’s great love for us. Hence, The Story is not intended to take you away from the Bible, but to drive you back to it, yet with a better grasp of how it all fits together.Formation, Fall & Flood, these are the content of chapter one of The Story.God, by use of nothing but His Word, forms everything out of nothing. There was not, then He spoke and there was. There was not, then He spoke and there was: light, land, living creatures and likeness. This “likeness” was the climax of creation. “God created mankind in His own image.” pg. 3 God creates out of love; God acts first in a desire to bless, give, share and fellowship. “And, it was good.” Of course, this goodness lasts but three pages. Even as God is responsible for the formation, man is responsible for the fall. “What is this you have done?” pg. 5 when spoken from the lips of the LORD is not first and foremost an assignment of blame, though that is true, the man, the woman and the tempter, they and they alone are responsible for the fall not the Former; however, God isn’t just assigning blame, nor is He seeking to make a point, when He cries, “What is this you have done?” He is lamenting. This fall will change everything. Including the fact that He will no longer simply walk among what He has formed as its creator but will now choose to enter it Himself, in the second person of the Trinity, by being formed in the womb of woman. “And 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 heel.” pg. 6
Fall leads to flood. The LORD does not simply lament the fall, He
ends up lamenting that He formed to begin with.
“The LORD regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his
heart was deeply troubled.” pg. 8
Yet, God does not wash away
everything! He preserves two of all
creatures and one family, which though fallen in nature, still clings to God in
penitence and faith. The flood sets in stage the dual nature of
God’s relationship to His people; that of Law and Gospel. In one and the same act God condemns sin in
fallen man and grants redemption.
Through the flood God pours
out the fullness of His wrath and at the same time through an ark grants the
fullness of His grace. This chapter not
only sets in stage the rest of the story to follow but provides a pattern of
how our God will deal with that which He has formed.
-Pastor K