The Story: From Beginning to End (Genesis - Revelation)

So God, I thank you so much for just your kindness, for your goodness, for your mercy, and for your grace. God, I thank you that you have given us this word, this text that we can study and delight in, just like Psalm 1 says, God. And so I pray that as we study and delight in it, the word that we would just turn into trees by streams of living water, that would just be bearing fruit in every season, that it would just be like unexplainably good at the things that we're experiencing. And so I pray that you would bless each and every single one of us God, I pray that you would bless me as I teach. I pray that this wouldn't just be a spouting out of information, but that I would also hear the words that I'm saying, and that everybody in here would also hear them God. But again, this is not me speaking. I pray that it would be you using me, and you just imprinting upon our hearts what you want us to learn. So I thank you for this opportunity. Again, I thank you for everyone in here, but you would bless them, and just be with us, this wonderful evening. So we thank you, Lord, we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, I'm going to turn this around. Jump. I am recording. We are-- we're nine minutes in. OK. This is my shirt. Whether or not-- Did you hit your sponsorship? Yeah, this podcast is sponsored by Mountain Dew. Thank you. Mountain Dew, Baha Blast. 21st anniversary this year. OK. All right, so the biblical story is long and confusing. And so we're going to try to just split it up into as easily digestible pieces as possible. And so I want to talk about four things. The biblical story follows this train. It's creation, fall, all race, all. Redemption, and then what? We're turning. OK. Returning, meaning what? Going back down. OK. All right. Any other answers? Revolution. OK. Revolution. All right. New creation. OK. So this is a little tangible thing. Let's go through these and just tell me where you think each of this-- I eat of these balls in a biblical story. So creation, we'll give that-- that's Genesis 1 and 2. I'm going to put my fingers around where those chapters are. All right. So we've got a little testament. Genesis 1 and 2. OK. There's Genesis 1 and 2. There we go. All right. What about fall? Where does that happen? 3. OK. Genesis 3. 2 pages. What about redemption? Where does redemption happen? Then it's OK. There's not a wrong answer. I'm going to shut it out. All right. The whole rest of the book? All right. That's fair. That's good. That's what I was hoping you'd say. But what would you really say? What does redemption really? What does that actually happen? Who Jesus shows? OK. So that's the classic. So that would be the gospels. All right. Then what about new creation? I'll be towards again. I think I'll be really, really. I'll be right back. All right. So what's you? So wonderfully said. Taylor. I guess I'm sorry. I'm getting there. I'm getting there. Give me some grace. I think you're the only one you know. You're right. All right. OK. So yes, exactly. We have creation in fall, which is like two pages. And then we have redemption, which is Jesus' story, who says that. And then we have new creation. So the whole point is, what the heck is the rest? What's this? Why do we even have this? Because the redemption is really all about Jesus' work and new creation is all about revelation. What about everything from Exodus onward? And the whole point is to say that redemption begins all the way back in Genesis pretty much immediately. Before we get there, let's go through creation and fall. Is that right, sir? That's not like no one went on earth. No, good, sure. Thank you, God. Thank you. OK. So creation, we talk about that as the first two chapters in the Bible. It's Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. OK. So Genesis 1 opens up. It's this really cool picture. It's this ideal state that God wants the world to operate in. And so it starts out with the classic thing. How many days of creation are there, guys? There's that. It's that awesome. OK. So-- Technically six. Technically six. Yeah. Technically six. But that all is 47 would be-- [INAUDIBLE] That is the next one. [INAUDIBLE] Right. I wrote in the wall. All right, we'll go down the board there. Yeah, that's not right. I mean, there's a box of the key now. It's about working. It's working. I just-- I can do it. Basically can make no mistakes. All right. So Genesis 1 starts. It's this beautiful picture. It's six days. And we're going to take a little bit of time next time we need to go into a little bit more. But the way they work is the Six Days of Creation. God takes this chaotic unordered state, which is described as tobo-bobobobu, or wild and waste, or formless and void. Really, it's just dark, chaotic, craziest. And that's how the biblical story starts. So it says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now, the way that Genesis 1 1 works, the first verse in the Bible, is more like a narrative heading. It's describing what God is about to do as we move forward. And so the real active creation doesn't begin until Genesis 1, verse 2. So it says, the land, the earth, was without form and void tobo-bobobu. And darkness was over the face of the deep. And the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And so I want you guys to close your eyes and just imagine nothingness. So for us, we have our own sort of view of the universe and what nothing this means. But for the Hebrew Bible-- for the Hebrew authors, the way that they understood nothing that was just this chaotic dark ocean. So just imagine roiling, raging seas. It's dark everywhere. And whatever that means, the point that we're supposed to get is, is this a good situation? Is this somewhere that we can live? OK. Exactly. This is not an ideal situation. And so God sets about to rectify that. And so he's taking chaos and he's bringing it into order. So the first thing he says-- so we have this chaotic ocean. But we also see that the spirit of God is hovering over the face of that ocean. He's waiting. He's waiting to turn it into something. And the first thing God says is-- Let there be light. --that there be light. Awesome. OK. So day one is light. OK. Cool. And he separates the light from the darkness. He calls the light day. And the darkness, he calls night. So we have light separated from darkness. And we'll go into that more when we have time next time. So we have light and dark. And then day two, we have this chaotic water. And God says, let there be an expanse between the waters to separate the waters above from the waters below. And so in Hebrew thoughts, there was water here. And water above the sky. Basically, they said, hey, it's blue up there. Blue down here. That's water. There must be water up there, too. And so they have this idea of this dome. It's like a snow globe where God has created this place where life can hopefully now have a little bit more chance of surviving. Because water and water-- that's going to destroy things. And so he separates the waters. He calls the waters above sky. And the waters below sees. That's day two. Sorry. He saw the light was good. So there's something cool, it's significant. There's no mention of good on day two. Pretty interesting. We'll talk about that more next time. OK. On day three, God says, OK, first of all, we have light and dark. We have sky and seas. But where do we walk on? When do we live on? OK, good. So we've got to get some land here. And so God says, let the waters below be separated into one place so that the dry ground can appear. And so out of the seas, we have this mound of earth. Also, now we have land now. And he saw that the land was good. That separation, that's good. Now, there's a little bit of a bonus creation on day three. God says, OK, now that the land's spring forth, which is plants, let it be abundant, let it be beautiful, let it be amazing. So on the land, there's fruit trees, there's seed bearing plants. It's awesome. Plants that can reproduce on the land. And God says, oh, yeah, that's good. OK, so we have one, two, three, and a bonus. It makes sense? One, two, three, and a bonus. OK. Now we're on day four. And then he says, OK, let there be lights. And day one, he says, let there be light. And day four, it starts with, let there be lights in the sky to govern the day and the night. And to be for signs, for seasons, and all that stuff. And so he creates the sun moon and the stars. And the very thing that God did, he said, hey, let there be light. He separated the light from the darkness. He's now tasking these, the sun moon and the stars. Again, we'll talk about that later. We're doing the same thing. They are now in charge of ruling over the day and the night to separate the things. So that's day four. The sun moon stars. Awesome. That's good. All right, day two. He says, let the skies and the sea just be filled with living creatures. Let there be birds. Let there be fish. And then he blesses them. He tells them to be fruitful and multiply. And it's awesome. And so if we look here, originally, he created the light in the dark. He created day and night. And then he fills that space. Think of day. a night like this time thing, and then God fills the time thing with creatures, with inhabitants. I know it's weird to call the sun and the stars, and have it into creatures, but get in their minds with their respect for the authors. So they imagine that these were beings that they were tasked with ruling. So, as he created a space in day one, he then filled it in day four. In the same way he created the space in day two, and in day five he fills those spaces. So he fills the seeds and the sky with birds and fish. There you go. Yes, Steve? Thank you. How heavy are those fish? Oh, not heavy, I think. They're good. They're very heavy. Those are ninety-two pound bass right now. Yes. Alright, that's day five. That's the mom mother still thought about that. That's good. So we have inhabitants. So let's see if that same friend continues in day six. So he creates a space, he fills a space. He creates a space, he fills a space. The space that he created on day three with the land, and on day six it starts with, hey man, let the land bring forth animals. And so each according to their kinds, we've got animals now. It's wonderful. We've got a letter that is and that creature, someone has a tail and then a little creepy crawly. So he basically creates three, he fills the space he created on the land day three, so the pattern continues. So we've got day six and that's good. But there is an issue because what has not been or who has not been featured in this story at all so far? Exactly. Just like on day three there was this bonus creation, there was land and then plants. Day six teaches the same thing, animals and then humans. And so it says, it God says, let us make mankind in our image so that they might rule. And so he creates mankind in the image. In the image of God, he created him, male and female, he created them. He blessed them and he said, hey, do you fruitful and multiply, rule the earth and subdue it. Okay. And so that's the task that God gives. He says, I'm creating man and woman in my image. And what being the image of God means is you guys are now going to do the thing that I've done here. He says, rule the earth to do it. To take chaos and turn it into order, which is what he just did and be fruitful and multiplied. Make this place abundant, live with life. And that's exactly what he did on that panel. So make sense, you got to see that? Very little to go. Cool. So that's what he said. He said, wonderful setup. Wonderful setup. And then here he says, man, after all that, man, that's very good. So how many good do we have? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. How many days do we have? Seven. Wow. How many Hebrew words are in the first sentence of the Bible? Seven. How about the second sentence? Fourteen. And how about the concluding sentence here? Twenty-one. That's wonderful. We'll go into that more later. So this is the ideal picture. This is the ideal that God has. So his ideal is all these relationships that these certain things have to the world, but their purpose is here. And God has assigned most ultimately humanity, male and female together, ruling as one. He tasks them with, hey, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. So I want to call attention to a couple things here. And so we have a couple pictures of what chaos. I want to have you guys imagine, you close your eyes, it was just chaotic darkness, ruling waters, no land, no cultivated plants, nothing like that. And if you notice, those things are still in the created order, but they have parameters now. And so dark did just go away. It's now just contained by the light. The seas, the chaotic waters, didn't go away. They're just kept back from destroying the land. In the same way, the land, God says that when He cultivates it, He says, that's good, but then He tells the humanity to rule the earth and subdue it. And so there's still some part of the land that has not been touched by God's goodness or it has not been cultivated yet. And so this, that's the reason why this is called good and not perfect. This is not a complete picture. This is not new creation. This is creation. This is the starting point. You guys see that? Because there are still parts here that are kind of issues. The dark is still an issue. The seas in the sky, those are still, or the seas in the water above, those are still a problem, and we're going to see that in Genesis 6. And the uncultivated land is going to be a huge problem after the fall in the garden where humanity is exiled from the garden and now instead of wonderful plants, it's going to be thorns and pistols. And so I want to flip back to Revelation. This is real quick. Just so you guys can see where this is all going. Because this is key. Revelation 21. I have a question in my head, but I think it's going to go. Okay. Which is what would make it perfect. That's the journey we're going to go on. Exactly. That is the journey we're going to go on. That is the journey we're going on. Yeah. Because humanity is invited into that, into that perfection itself. It's getting serious. Don't you love to send a Bible paper? That crinkle? My son, he saw my Bible on the Ottoman the other day and he just opened it and with utterly on his face. He took the very first page and he just, I was like, no! All right. Okay. Well, let's listen to this. Revelation 21. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The word for new there is about refreshed. It's not new in necessarily time. It's a refreshed heaven and a refreshed earth. But the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more. Their shall there be mourning or crying or pain anymore for the former things have passed away." And he who is seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new, not all new things, all things new." And also he said, "Write this down for these words are trustworthy and true." And he said to me, "It is done. I am the alpha and the omega to beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage and I will be his God and he will be my son." But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral sorcerers, idolaters and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. That's not very nice. But it's true. All right. And then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me saying, "Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb." And so we see this new Jerusalem. And in the middle of New Jerusalem is the tree of life. And so now it's like the city is this garden space. It's this beautiful land. There's no more sea. And then it says later on, there's no more sun. Because all of the light comes from the throne of the Father and Lamb. And so all of these things, all these issues, darkness is no more. The seas are no more. And the whole thing is this garden city. And so all these potentials for chaos, like darkness, like the chaotic waters and an uncultivated land, those are all blasted away in new creation. So if this is the starting point, the ending point is this perfected with no potential for any chaos whatsoever. You guys see that? That makes sense? Right? Good. Okay. So the key here is that God invites humanity in with him in that project. Because he says, "Sidu and rule the earth." Okay? Spread out. Make this all of it. Make it more. I'm inviting you guys in. And the key thing is he invites humanity to rule alongside with him and to spread. And so that's Genesis 1. That's a wonderful picture. It's a beautiful beginning and it's a wonderful ideal. And so there's been a massive debate about how Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 kind of like deal, like how are they related to each other? Because Genesis 2 tells the creation story again, but in a different way. And instead of too much water and no land, Genesis 2 starts out with there's too much land and there's no water. So what does that mean? We'll get into that more. But my whole point is that Genesis 1 sets the ideal picture. So I'm going to argue, I don't have to agree with you, but I think this is what makes me understand. Genesis 1 gives the ideal, but Genesis 2 is when the reality starts. Okay? Genesis 2 is all about. And this is going to pick up the face once we get out of Genesis. Don't worry. This is so vital to the rest that we got it. We got it getting there. All right. So Genesis 2 begins with this picture of too much land, not enough water, but it says there are these little streams that would spring up. And when you get water and dust, you get mud. So it's this whole image of God forming the human with his hands and then he breathed the breath of life into him. And then it becomes a Nefesh Kaya living being. And so let's just read it real quick. Before I lose track of my thought about it. Okay, so there's no bush of the field, there's no small plant, it's not cultivated, it's not awesome yet I didn't even rain yet, but God says about again to solve that problem It's chaos and a different variant here again, it was too much water on a land now it's too much land Not enough water, so he forms them in Out here and then in the east in this land called Eden Okay, he plants a garden Garden Eden So the more appropriate tile is the garden in the Eden not the garden of The garden is one spot in Eden and Eden itself is in the east Whatever the heck that means so we have the land as a whole And then we have Eden and then in Eden is the garden good cool All right, so in the land this is where God creates the human Reasons to him the breath of life he becomes a fast fire living being and then he rests the human in the garden And he gives him a cat he says hey Work it work this place and keep this place and so cultivate it and protect it Now it's really cool is that work and keep those two words about a schmar Or the very thing that God tells the Levite to eventually become the priestly family to do in the tabernacle and the temple and so that Well point that little key thing work it and keep it that means we're supposed to look at the garden As a as a temples space or a tablet tabernacle space So let's go back over here and the ancient world the way a creation Mint would work creation story for whatever would work for other cultures It's the same thing it's chaos to order to rest and then they would always end with whatever the chief God is Creating the temple in their specific nation to like Babylon Mardu is their patron God he would subdue the chaos He crushes the chaos dragon he rips it in half to create the water development below and then he just Sadoo's the land and he plants he gives the the plans for his temple that are going to be built in Babylon and it's like yeah Babylon and it it's sweet and so if the Israelite authors have the same thing in mind Their story was it ended with God to doing chaos and then giving the plans for a tabernacle or temple in Jerusalem Because he's there he's there God but that's not here. There's no there's no nation There's no temple or whatever here But there is when you look at the entire thing the seven-day scheme the whole thing is meant to be God's temple That's the entire message here that all of creation is meant to be God's temple all of creation is meant to be heaven and earth Completely overlap completely one but in here in this picture in Genesis 2 only the garden is the temple Do you see that? Let me confess please tell me if I'm going too fast or if I'm being too confusing The whole thing the ideal is that all of creation is a temple Genesis 2 is just the garden that the temple Or is it just what the man could handle? I mean God's God's recipe but the whole point is work it and keep it working the garden and keep it that is Temple language so this So I keep saying this is an ideal state and this is where it all begins it begins here But if all of creation is meant to be the temple what does that mean about the garden? Is the garden meant to stay back? It meant to stay that small No, it meant the what? It meant to spread it's meant to spread the flourish. It's almost as if the humans are meant to Be fruitful multiply fill the earth and subdued it and make all of this thing the garden because when all of this is the garden Then we're a dentist one Okay, so He rests the man in the garden Says work and keep it It's awesome, but then he sees they man not good that this human is alone until he sets about rectified a situation first thing he does He invites the animals to come to the human hot down My proper name is the human they come to him, but no no No helpers know suitable for him, and so God puts the human into a deep sleep. I thought of them up If it's like visionary experience and he sees God take from one of his side It's usually translated as rib but the word is side He takes from his side and he builds the woman and he brings the woman to the man and she is called his aether and aether is Usually translated as helper and that is one of the worst translation you'll ever see because that is so oppressively terrible and Conve a lot of issues even in the Corinthian church, but the whole thing is that if not aeth not helper It's not like she's naturally derivative of the man. It's that aether the only other person who is called an aether in the Hebrew Bible is God himself So aether is a delivering ally It was impossible for the man to do what he was supposed to do by himself And it's impossible for the woman to do what she's supposed to do by herself And it's the two of them together as coat equals in the garden ruling together. That's God's ideal Good Super important we have to do this three and so we have these humans in the garden We learn later if they're named Adam and Eve I can throw that So they're there and it's awesome. It's like sweet. We got a great setup Which it's gonna be awesome now. It's significant as that God never tells He never tells the humans to actually spread the garden all he says is just hey Keep this place protective watch over it But we know that his intention is for humanity to spread But remember when he called when he when he Made humanity He said so God created humanity in his own image in the image of God He created him male and female he created them and God blessed him and God said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and Subduant and have dominion over everything. So their whole thing is to rule is to rule is to rule They're never told to rule or to spread the spreading and the ruling they're like they're they're linked And so they're not meant to rule yet. They're supposed to stay here to stay in God's presence And then we'll just see what happens, okay? So the hope is that humanity will be given what it needs to be able to rule so that then they can take the small Localized garden space and make it all of creation Good raise to start answer your question. Yes, okay Awesome. So humanity is invited and God's heaven and earth unification process And so the good times they last for a page because then in Genesis 3 We have the start of the fall and the fall is Usually thought of it's just one event. It's actually three events and each of the events starts a other trajectory of a problem that then Jesus will come and solve which is pretty cool All right Anybody have any questions so far? Am I going too fast? I'm being too confusing. This is all living in my head So it makes sense to me but Slow me down or whatever I guess they know but I do know all of that I have a very Super so the weird work here This is my gift as an obsessive person to be able to That's fine. You know we're gonna we're gonna go through it even slower next time So like for instance this is going like super fast next class which is in two weeks around being actually quick week after we're just gonna focus on this mixture We're gonna go through really slowly and read it and reread it and all that stuff and it'll actually get into you a little bit easier Have to kind of go You're good a lot a lot of this will yeah a lot of this will make more sense when I can actually go slowly There's like 800 details I have to like save a later so I apologize for giving me we'll get there don't worry all right So we have Genesis 1 we have Genesis 2 And then Genesis 3 Begins what we call the fault and like I said The fault they flicks in three parts the first part is Genesis 3 okay So if we go back to the garden God inside this garden he plants all these amazing trees It's a beautiful place there there are trees that are good for food and legit just trees that are fun to look at And that's awesome that speaks to God just love of beauty just plants trees because you like the way they look But there's two specific trees that the text really focuses in on there at the center there's the middle of the garden Okay, that's the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil That's very very specific and it's the knowledge of good and evil okay, so we're gonna do a little zoom in Here so we have the garden Which is in Eden And then we have the middle of the garden And the middle of the garden there's these two trees Okay, tree of life tree of knowledge and evil and God says hey man to the human He's like dude have a absolute blast each It's all amazing just please Please don't eat in the tree. It's in the middle of the garden the tree of the knowledge of good and evil We're good and bad so the wrong But he's very he's free to eat in the tree of life. It's just this one tree. He's not allowed to eat from And we're gonna talk about that I don't know about you guys, but that's always been a weird, like, okay, if you're not supposed to eat it, why the heck is it even there on the first place? Like that seems like an unfair tantalization on God's part. And the whole point is what I'm going to try to present to you guys is that they were always meant to eat from that tree, but it was always meant to be on God's timing, okay? Because in order to rule, in order to rule, you've got to know the difference between good and bad. You have to. And so for humanity to be able to do what God even called them to do in the first place, both of these trees have to be available to them. But that the problem is, are we going to receive that? Are we going to receive a knowledge of getting evil? Or are we going to cake the knowledge of getting evil? And we'll see. We're going to take it. So we have these two trees, and God says, hey, man, have a blast. Eat from all of them. Eat from the tree of life. It's awesome. The connected to me just don't have to eat that tree. Yes. And then, Genesis 3, it opens up with this cunning and crafty character, this character of the serpent, the nakhash, if you're wondering. That's important. That's important. Nakhash. It's the same word. It's the same root word for bronze. It's the same root word for shiny. And it's the same root word for one who has divine knowledge. And so we're supposed to see more than just a serpent in it. This is someone who has the claiming that divine knowledge is the shining one who has divine knowledge, who's claiming to know the word God. And so this serpent comes up to them. He goes to the woman, and he says this. He says, did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? That's actually the exact opposite of what he said, because he said, hey, eat from every tree of the garden except one. But his question is like a one-two punch. His first question focuses in on what God told him not to do. He said, you shall not eat of any tree in the garden. And the woman said, we may eat of the trees of the garden. But God said, you shall not eat from the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden. Neither should you touch it, or you'll die. So both of these characters misquoke God. The serpent very intentionally focuses in on what did God, what did God not allow you. And he makes that the main thing. They were able to eat from all of the trees except one. But he says, no, you're not supposed to eat from any of them. You see that? That's the implication. He focuses in on what that God said not to do. And then the woman, she also misclose God, not necessarily her fault, if I'm going to try to say. She says, we're not supposed to eat it, or touch it. And so they both get something wrong. There's something happening here where like God's words are getting totally misconstrued. There's a lot of confusion happening. And in the midst of that confusion, the serpent says, oh, you'll not die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open. And you'll be like God, knowing good and evil. And here is the moment. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable for wisdom, he took its fruit and ate it and gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate. And as soon as that happened, their eyes, both of them were open. They knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin cloths. Okay, so see good and take. See good and take. See good and take. We're going to see that time and time again over the course of the Hebrew Bible, because this sets the template for someone who is at their tree moment. In Joshua 7, we see this guy named Aiken. They're like winning battle after battle, but then this one place called A.E., they lose and Joshua was like, what the heck happened? And God said, hey man, somebody took what was devoted for me. And so they capped lots with this weird thing. And Aiken ends up telling the truth. He says, when I saw a Babylonian cloak that was beautiful, that was good. I saw it and I took it. And so that's Aiken at the tree moment. He saw something that was good and he took it. David on his roof of his house when he sees Bashivah, she's beautiful and he takes her. In Genesis 6, we see the sons of God. They see beautiful human women and they take them. And so when people evaluate, when people redefine good on our own terms and take, it's this all over again. It's this all over again. And so this sets the template because this happens all the time. We do this all the time. We see something and we're like, I don't think that's good, but then we think about it for a while and we're like, oh yeah, that's good. And it's like, yeah, that's good. And then we just take it. And it's the same thing. It's this condition that we have. It's awful and we do it all the time. But that's the whole point. That's what this story is telling. And so we see that this relational intimacy that the man and woman have. They were naked in the garden, they had no shame. But now as soon as that happens, they have invited something in which causes them to hide from each other. And they hide with leaves from one another and then, Ray, like I was saying, they then hide from God and they hide in the trees. And so as the importance of the relationship goes, the further the distance they try to hide. And so they hide from each other just with leaves. And then they try to hide from God with like the plant itself, the trees itself. And so we see them hide from one another and then hide from God. And God comes in, he's like, hey guys, where are you? Like it's time for a walk. We're going to walk through the garden. And then the man is terrified. And yeah, so he hid themselves in the presence of God and God called, he said, where are you? And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. And then he says, God said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you to not eat? And then the man said, it was the woman you gave to me with me. She gave me the fruit and the tree and I ate. And then the Lord God said to the woman, what has this you have done? The woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate. And so there's all this blame shifting happened. No one's taking responsibility for anything that they've done. Even though God gives them like four chances to answer. Like he, it's not just like an immediate, I know what you did, get the heck out of here. It's, hey, what did you do? Who told you you were naked? Did you eat from the tree? What did you have done? And none of them. Not a single one of them wants to pass up to what they did. But what's, what I always think is funny is that he gives the human, he gives the human's chances. But as soon as he says, or she says that the serpent deceived me and I ate, it just says the Lord God turned to the serpent and said, because you have done this, curse to you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field. He gives the serpent no chance. Zero chance to explain himself. It's just immediate. Boom, you're done. You're toast. And so we have the most vital, or arguably one of the most important verses, which drives the whole plot for in Genesis 3, 15. I will put this thing to this thing. I will put entity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Okay, so Genesis 3, 15 is this promise, it's the promise of the snake crusher. And so we have some promises over here. Everyone good so far? Making sense? Okay. Snake crusher. Awesome. So chaos, destruction, death, it will be dealt with one day. It's going to happen. The serpent's days and all of the channels, and we're going to see that what the serpent is doing, the serpent is this picture of a chaos creature. It's all of this stuff. It's darkness and seas and uncultivated land. All the stuff that that represents. It's chaos, it's destruction, it's death. It's what this serpent decides for whatever reason to invite in and then channel into God's good world. And then humanity does the same thing rather than push out the chaos, this is supposed to be the heaven and earth space. Chaos can exist in heaven, or in the heaven and space. And so instead of pushing the chaos out, they invite the chaos in which manifests as all of this division between themselves and between God and between creation. Does that make sense? Good? Okay. So division is not a good thing. That's why Paul is so emphatic and the New Testament about unity. He's like, guys, if you allow any sort of division, political division, race division, gender division to exist within the body of the Messiah, you are doing this all over again. You're saying that God's power is in and out, that these things are actually more important than Jesus' work. And you're inviting chaos back in rather than pushing it out. So he's super emphatic. He's like, just don't do that. Seriously, don't do it. Don't do it. Okay. So then to the woman, he says, hey, your pain and childbirth, it's actually in childbearing and creating life in the womb, that's going to be really painful now. It's going to be a lot harder. It's not necessarily, hey, just the act of giving birth to a child is going to be painful. It's going to be bringing about life is now going to be really challenging and really hard. And to the man, he says the same thing. But instead of the womb, he talks about the land. He says, hey man, the land is no longer going to yield its fruit to you. You're going to have to work at it really hard. It's going to be really difficult to bring about life. And so we have these two parallel images of the womb and the land, which is why the word seed is so important in the Bible because that could be either for the womb or for the ground. So life and all of its forms is going to be really difficult now because this is happening. And so he casts the humans out of the garden into eating. Okay. So now humanity is now out here, not in the land of death and eating. So God's still being kind to them because even means the life. It's not the garden, but it's also not the dry, dusty, terrible land. So it's not exactly where they should be, but it's better than where he made the man and brought him in. The land of mortality and death. So it's this constant, it's this, and he exiles them to the east, okay? And so humanity is now out of the garden, and this entire thing just comes to a screeching halt. Because remember, the garden is the temple, the whole creation is meant to be the temple, but now the people who are supposed to make the whole thing the temple are out of the temple. You see that? So that's the issue. The issue is that this is now impossible because of the actions of these people. And so that's the problem. It's sin is horrible, but it's sin is bad because it prevents this from happening. God is so wanting this that sin is just like the complete opposite of cultivating the land, of pushing back chaos instead of inviting chaos in, and inviting division in, which is the antipysis of what God wants to do. And then when they're cast out of the garden, they have, they have some sons, and we're going to pick up the pace a little bit here. All right, so we have these two sons, Cain and Abel, and Cain just completely recreates the exact problem with his parents. But instead of taking the fruit, now it's, okay, let me show that. Okay, so these two brothers, there's one day, they're sacrificing at a door, and one of them, Abel, his sacrifices looked at with favor, but Cain's is not looked upon with favor. That doesn't mean it's an outright rejection, but it's just Abel's favorite, Cain is not. And Cain gets super ticked about this, like pissed. And because of that, he wants to just kill his brother. He's overcome with this rage. And rage guys, again, is division. It's this tendency to want to destroy. And so again, Cain allows the chaos into his heart. God tells him, he says, "Hey, man, Cain, I know what you're going to do. Sin is crouching at your door, and its desire is for you." Oh, sorry. Sorry, let me go back. Another thing, sorry, this is like super vital. So, one of the other consequences for the human, or for the human's folly in the garden, when they're cast out, this relational unity that they had, this equality, this oneness of male and female co-ruling together, that becomes broken. And then it says, so it says, "The woman's desire will be for her husband, but the husband will rule over her." And so in Genesis 4, we see what God means by that desire, because the next time we see the word is what he's telling, "Hey, Cain, sin is crouching at your door, and its desire is for you." Now, sin having a desire for us, is that a positive or a negative thing? Negative thing. Awesome. So, the woman's desire for her husband is not meant to be looked at as this like positive. This isn't God's ideal of the woman's going to desire her husband, and the man's going to rule over her. That's the exact opposite of the ideal. And so it's this image of the woman's going to want to try to subvert her husband, and then the husband's going to treat his wife like an animal, because he members invited to rule over the animals, not each other, but now the man's going to rule over his wife. And so this relational unity, this beautiful picture of oneness, has been completely broken and fractured, and because of this, this isn't God's punishment. And so, you're not saying, "This is how I'm going to punish you guys." It's just as a result of what you did, now this is the reality. And so, there we go. Okay, so that's important too. But back to Cain's animal. Cain is really furious that God is looking about his brother's sacrifice with favor. And so he gets super ticked off about it. God says, "Hey man, sin is crouching at your door, it's desire is for you, but he says, "You can rule it. You can Cain. You can decide to not let this thing dictate your actions." But when he and his brother were out in the field one day, Cain said, "You know what? The better that he's dead?" And he just "Pfft, kills him. Kills him." And the blood cries out, and God again, he comes to Cain. And he says, "Hey man, where's Able your brother? Does that sound familiar? Remember, he asked the human, "Hey, what happened?" And God said, "Hey, where's Able your brother?" And Cain said, "Pfft, I don't know, am I my brother's keeper?" And then the Lord said, "What is this you have done?" Remember what he said to the woman? "What is this you have done?" And now he says the same thing to Cain. The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strengths. You should be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. And Cain said, "Well, I cannot, I cannot bear that. You've driven me away from the ground and from your face, and I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. And whoever finds me will kill me." Then the Lord said to him, "Not so. If anyone kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold." And the Lord put a mark on Cain. Whatever that means, we'll talk about that. Less than any who found him should attack him. Who's going to find him outside the garden? Great question. We'll talk about that. Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod east of Eden. What the heck is Nod? Cain knew his wife, who the heck is his wife. And she conceived and bore Enoch, and he built a city and he named the city in the name of the son, Enoch. Okay, so we have Cain, remember his parents are exiled to Eden. Now we have Adam and Eve. Cain and Abel. Abel gets. No. Abel's name is Hevel. It means Vetra, because he's here one moment. He's here one moment. So Cain then gets exiled even further east. He gets exiled out of Eden entirely. And so every generation is getting further and further from the garden space. Good? So that sets this also in the image of going east. Going east is not a good thing. Going east in the biblical language is not, or the biblical story is not a good thing. East is where Babylon is. Which we'll see. Okay, so we have this issue. We have Genesis 3, which is this complete failure. It's this going off, the rails, it's terrible, and then it lands, or it ends in this place of division of the brothers. One gets killed. The other one gets like chucked out to the land. He goes to this place and builds a city to protect himself. And then inside this city, violence just abounds to the point where there's one guy named Lemek. He's got two wives, horrible. And he's just bragging and seeing about the fact that he just killed the dude for strike. Like he's celebrating this violence. That's terrible. And the cane line is this horrific violent thing. And then we see them give birth to another son named Seth. And so they follow these two lines. And we're meant to see these two things as a narrative depiction of the difference between the seed of the woman and the seed of the snake. Because when God talks about the snake's offspring, he's not talking about humanity being like in conflict with little vipers. He's talking about humanity being in conflict with other humans, and that these other humans are going to take the form of the snake later on in this story. And so both cane and Seth are both seeds of the woman because they're both Eve's offspring. But by their actions, by his actions, cane shows that he's a seed of the serpent, where Seth is a seed of the woman. Okay. So in that city, violence abounds, it's terrible. And then as we go on, we see that that violence actually just continues outside the land. As humanity increases upon a land, so too does their violence. Not a good thing. That's not what God wanted. He wanted them to spread, but not just print violence. So much of the point where God is like, he's genuinely saddened. He's saddened by the state. He's not angry at humanity for what they're doing. He's deeply saddened by it. And so he sets about to fix that problem. And we'll get to stall part two. We got this. We got this. All right. Genesis 6. All right. So Genesis 3, the problem is the serpent. Genesis 6, the problem is the giants. You're just going to have to accept that part of the biblical worldview and should be a part of the worldview also. So Genesis 6 begins with the sons of God who see human women. And they take them and they have offspring with them. And is it also curious that at the same time these Nephilim, these warrior giants, were also on the land? So the implication being that the offspring of this divine and human liaison is a problem. It's an issue. And all of the other cultures around Israel, the giants are like the heroes. They're like the cool dudes. And for the Israelite people, the giants are part of the problem. And so the giants are this improper fusion of divine and human. Where God wants to unite heaven and earth to the sake of humanity, the sons of God, they take it upon themselves to unite heaven and earth themselves. And the giants are created. I love to go into it more, but you can't do that. And because of the giants and they're proliferating, proliferating and spreading violence, God said, I got a wife that's played clean. I got to start over the violence, the blood is just overwhelming. I have to watch this play. But he calls this one guy Noah, Noah, which means rest. He says, hey man, I am going to flood the earth. It's the cries have come up to me. The end of the earth itself has come up to me. And so I'm going to accelerate the process by collapsing the waters above and the waters below back into one. And so the flood is this narrative depiction of all creation, returning back this cosmic collapse, creating a return back to the chaos state. But God says, hey man, Noah, you're cool. You walk with me. You're righteous. You're blessed. to mean I am going to save you and your family so you're going to take you, your wife, your son, their wives, two of every single animal and some birds. You're going to build this massive box, it's called the ark and you're going to line it with pitch and I'm going to send waters on the earth and it's going to flood for a very long time and I'm going to wipe it clean. We'll talk about the difference between a local and a global flood and a cosmic flood when we get there but for now suffice to say that Genesis 6 depicts a cosmic collapse. It's God returning the cosmos back to this chaotic, watery, terrible or the watery state where there's no life and the reason he does this is to wipe it clean to wash it clean of the blood from the violent actions of these giants. Okay, so Genesis 6 says to giants Genesis 11, also the ark is depicted as this place where humanity is living in harmony with the animals, much less the garden. So the ark is the new garden, no, it's the new antif, but even he screws up because once he gets off the boat, he plants a garden and it's like, "Oh yeah!" and then he takes the garden, he gets drunk and he ends up naked in his tent and we'll talk about what happens for that. So Genesis 11 is this like, okay, so after the flood, humanity for some reason decides to stick together, they don't want to spread, which is exactly what God wants them to do, we want them to spread. They say, "No, no, we're going to stick together, we're going to move to the east and we're going to build a city and this city, it's going to be our city, it's going to be for our name, we're going to make our own name great, we are Babylon." And so they said about, they make, instead of taking stones and like mortar, they take brick and tar and they start to just build, build, build, build, build, because now they, much like the suns of God are trying to unite heaven earth by coming down, humanity is trying to unite heaven earth by going up, they're trying to reach the heavens. But what's really cool, my favorite narrative detail is that when God sees this, it says, "And God came down." It's like, they got there, but God's still above it and he still has to come down to their little puny tower. So Genesis 11 is this picture of human arrogance, it's we're going to make our own name great, we're going to make our own city and it's going to be awesome. And so Babylon is this picture of human arrogance and the very thing that they make, the way that they make it, the bricks and the tar is the same way that Egypt later on describes the building of its own cities. And so we're supposed to see Egypt as this new Babylon, it's this new bastion of human arrogance. So yeah, so Babylon is a huge issue, they all speak one language, God says, "Are you know what? If humanity unites in order to do this, there is nothing that they can't do." So he comes down and he scatters them, he makes babbles of them and then they all speak different languages and they go and it's cool. But in Deuteronomy 32 and in Deuteronomy 4, we see that when God does scatter them, and this is probably the weirdest thing that you're just going to have to reflame, is that when God scatters these nations, it says he scatters them according to the number of the sons of God. And so he, a lot, he basically puts these little like spiritual like council members above these other nations to basically steward them to then bring them back to him. Okay? So this is what Paul refers to as the powers and the principalities. So the issue is these spiritual beings were supposed to steward the people well and lead them to God, but they started to accept worship themselves. And these people, the worship of them always results in violence and oppression and like exultation of things that don't matter, like money, sex and power, all of these things cause oppression and it's not a good situation. So Genesis 11, the problem is the powers and the principalities. In Psalm 82, we see God speaking to these beings and he says, "Hey man, you guys are supposed to steward these people well, why aren't you doing it?" And then he says, "Ultimately you're going to be destroyed, you're going to die like that." And so we have three issues. We have the serpent, we have the giants and we have the powers and the principalities. And the story of Jesus, especially in Matthew, is systematically him going after each and every single one of those things. And so in Matthew 4, we see Jesus in the garden and he's having his own garden test with this serpent character and he excels where everyone else fails. And so he defeats the serpent. And again, we're going to have to kind of talk about this, but in the Hebrew mind, demons are the, when a giant was killed, their spirit was what they assume would be demons. And so when Jesus goes across the sea and he's encountered these two demons that that's men and he just tells the demons to go and do her to pigs, they fall onto the sea, we're at storage. We see Jesus has the ultimate power over the giants, the giant slash demons. And then his whole crucifixion is him having, it's him having victory over the power of Rome, over the powers and the principalities. This is how you rule the world. You don't rule the world with an iron fist and like, "Hey, worship me, worship me, worship me, you rule the world by dying for the world." Okay, little aside. All right, let's pick up the pace. So after Babel, God says, "All right, this is a big issue. I really, really, really, really, really, I need to get to this point and you get to a single snake crusher." And because of that, I'm going to, once again, choose one family, one dude that's got a name of Abraham and his wife, Sarah. Super old, super old people. Never been able to have kids. And God says, "Hey, Abraham, I'm going to go to the land I'm going to show you. It's going to be your land I'm going to give it to you. And you are going to be a mighty nation, a wonderful family, all the things that Babel claimed that they were going to have a mighty name because of this tower are the very things that God promises Abraham. He says, "I'm going to give you a great name and you are going to be a mighty nation." And through your family, all the families of the earth will be blessed. So that's key. God is going to bless a single family so that the blessing can then spread to all the families of the earth. Good. Good. Thank God. That would be a horrible breath. If not. So he calls Abraham. Abraham's like, "All right, dude, I got you. I'm going to go with you." So he promises there in their 70s when he calls them. Abraham makes horrendous terrible choices like back to back to back, but God is faithful with him. And eventually, Sarah, Sarah, who gets renamed to Sarah, she gives birth to a son named Isaac. Isaac means laughter. And the whole point of the birth of Isaac is to say that the entire nation of Israel would not exist had it not been for God's divine power. It's by his spirit that he opens up Sarah's womb and then she gives birth to a son. So Israel can never say, "We made ourselves great. We are the reason we exist." The whole point is you would not exist had it not been for God's power to open up the womb of this barren 90-year-old woman. Awesome. Okay. So we have Isaac and his wife Rebecca. He gives birth to, well, he doesn't give birth. She gives birth to two sons. Isaac and Jacob, Isaac means Harry. He's an idiot. He sells his birthright for both stew. Jacob means heel grabber. So the thing that the servant was going to do, which is strike the heel of the snake crusher, Jacob, that's his name. He's going to be the one who strikes. And so the whole conflict with the Jacob story is, how is God going to work through this person who acts like the snake at every single turn? He deceives his brother. He deceives his father. He deceives his uncle. He gets to see the whole bunch of times in the meantime. Then he tries to deceive his brother again by putting his four wives in front of himself so that they'll get killed before he does. And so much so that God has to wrestle with him and punch him in the crotch to this located hip to get him to just wake up, to be like, "Dude, stop." So Jacob, eventually, he's like, "All right, I guess he learns the lesson." And to this day, Hebrew people don't eat the Cindy or the left hip. Isn't that exciting? So we have Isaac. Jacob gives birth with four women. Again, that's not a good thing. This is not like a celebrating thing. To 12 sons, those 12 sons become the family of Israel. And it's great. There's a whole Joseph story where his brothers are super jealous of him. Really, he's kind of a punk. It's like, he kind of deserved it. So they, again, just like, hit their father, Jacob, deceived his father with the skin of an animal. Jacob's sons deceive him with the blood of an animal. So it's like his sin coming back to bite him. Joseph becomes second and command over Egypt. It's really an awesome redemptive story. It's this image of the chosen one going through death so that he can bring life to the nations. Okay, so the whole family, sorry, going real fast. We got 15 minutes. We got this. So they end up in Egypt. Fast forward 400 years. It's not a good situation. They're enslaved. They're forced to make cities. Sword cities for fairy just wants more stuff, I guess. And he's terrible. So the people are crying out to God saying, God, where are you? You promised us this land, not Egypt, the land of Canaan. We're not there. Can you please get us there? Please help us, Lord. And after 400 years, guys, it's probably really easy for them to be like, God is a man in us completely. But just like he heard the outcry of the blood from the ground, he saw the end of the earth coming up to him. God always hears the cry of his people. And he sets about to rectify the situation by calling his one dude, Moses, who, like Noah, was rescued through the waters and the ark of his own, this little basket, which is also lined with tarantage, just like the ark was. So it's this new, it's this new Noah character. It's this new Adam character who God raises up. That's what Moses means. One who was lifted up, one who was raised out. And he says, "Hey, I'm gonna rescue my people through you, Moses." And Moses is like, "Eh, don't really want to do it." He objects five times. And on the fifth time, God gets a little ticked. But he's still a faithful with him. He still works through him. So he goes back to Egypt. He goes to the Pharaoh. He says, "Hey, God said you have to let my people go." And Pharaoh is like, "Psh, who is this God, dude? I don't even know Yahweh. What's up?" And so God's like, "All right, you don't know who I am? I'm a showdowns who I am. I'm a showdown who I am over 10 plagues." And so it's this, whereas Genesis 1 is the ordered account of the ordering of the world, of the cosmos. The plague that Egypt, if this panel of 10, it's the ordered account of the disordering of Egypt. So all of the plagues, and the night plague, it's all my favorite. And Genesis 1, he says, "Let there be light on the night plague." And Egypt, God says, "Let there be darkness." And so it's like this, Egypt is being returned to this chaotic state. And from that chaos, he rescues his people to the blood of the passive of the land. He brings them out to the red sea. So they're, they're, they're come out of the disordered land. And they're brought to this watery death. And they're like, "What the heck are we going to do?" Like, this is terrifying. Pharaoh is now changed his mind. He's coming after us. There's death behind us. There's death in front of us. Like Moses, why did you rescue us? Whether they're not enough graves in Egypt? Like, so they're like super annoyed. Moses says, "Hey, you guys just need to shut up." Okay? Because today you're going to see the salvation of Yahweh. And all those people you see back there, you're never going to see them again. And so in a new act of new creation, he raises the staff, Moses, and God sends an east wind to part the waters so that the dry land can appear so that the people can walk through and be rescued. And then once they're through, he allows the cosmic collapse of the waters to come back on these sneaky figures for the Egyptians. And so that's the picture of what salvation means. And salvation is Yahosua, Jesus' name. That's what salvation is. It's delivered from death through death to be brought to new life on the other side. But as soon as they're over there, they like to immediately start complaining. They're like, "We have no food, we have no water, Moses is why the heck did you rescue us?" Even though they were just crying out for 400 years. And so Moses, he tells God, he says, "Hey, I'm going to send mana. I'm going to give you water from Iraq. It's going to be awesome." He brings them to this mountain. God is a lot more patient with his people getting to Sinai. But as soon as they leave Sinai, it is a different story. When they start complaining, God gets pretty thick. Understandably so. So he brings them to the base of this mountain where in Exodus 19, guys, we are 69 chapters in. And so we are at the base of this mountain. And God says, "Hey, if you guys just listen to me, if you listen to me, you are going to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. You guys are going to be my chosen possession. And through you, I'm going to bless everyone. If you just for goodness sake, listen to me." And all the people are like, "Yeah, we're going to do it. We got this." And so they go to Aaron, Jesus, or not Jesus, wow. They go to Aaron, Moses' brother. And they're like, "We need something to worship." And so Aaron takes the gold from their earrings and everything. He melts it down. And he goes, "I don't know what's going on. I don't know what's going on. They're like, "You know what? We need to just worship something else." And so they go to Aaron, Jesus, or not Jesus, wow. He's going to do the earrings and everything. He melts it down into this golden cap. And he says, "Here are your gods, Israel, who delivered you from Egypt." And they start bowing down to it. They have this weird, sexual, awful, weird party. It's terrible disgusting. And then God is like ticked about this. He has hurt by this. This is the people that he effectively just married. And they're cheating with him on their wedding day. And so he's hurt by it. He's hurt. He's pained. And he says, "Hey." He says, "If you guys don't want to be with me, that's fine. I will destroy you and I will start over with Moses." But Moses is like, "First of all, God, please don't do that." Second of all, if you do that, that's going to send a really weird message to Egypt. They're going to be like, "They're God just delivered them, so they could just destroy them." Like a bad PR. And then he says, "You also made a promise to our forefathers to give us the land that we're going to inherit." And so God's like, "All right, you know what? You're right." So Moses appeals to God's character. And God's like, "Okay, yeah, you're right. I'm going to stick with this people. Despite their unstickiness to me, I'm going to stick to them." And we have this wonderful passage where Moses is floored by this. He's like, "God, I want to know you more. Please show me your glory." And so he tucks Moses away and he passes by him. And he says, "The Lord passed by him and said, "Yahweh, Yahweh, a God compassionate and gracious. Slow to anger, abounding and loyal love and faithfulness." And that verse is the most quoted verse in the entirety of the Old Testament. That is the constant appeal to go back to God's character and say, "God, you are compassionate and gracious. You are slow to anger. You are abounding and loyal love and faithfulness." So please forgive us. Cool. All right, so they decide to stick with it. God says, "Hey, I'm going to give you a bunch of stipulations. These are laws." What's really cool is that the whole mountain is depicted as like this new Eden. And so when he is giving them the knowledge of what good and bad through the logs, it says, "If he is allowing Israel to eat from the tree." Okay? So the whole point is, "Hey, I want you to eat from the tree. I'm going to be with you. You're going to have my life because I'm going to be with you. And I'm going to give you the knowledge that you need in order to be this proper people." And so Israel, in a sense, is given, if given this knowledge that God always intended for humanity, it's just in the context of these laws. It's mission that he gives them. He also gives them the plan for this beautiful tent. It's the tabernacle. And so when Moses is up on the mountain, he God says, "Hey, I want you to build the tent according to the pattern that I'm going to show you." Wonderful, cool thing. And the whole tabernacle, like we said, is a campbell, is just a micro Eden in like architectural form. And so the tabernacle looks like this. So we have an outer courtyard. And then we have the actual tent itself. And the tent is divided into two. And we have the courtyard, the holy, and the holy of holies. And so this three-tier design mimics the three-tier design of the garden. And so we're meant to see these two things as one. And so God, what He wants for all of humanity, He's now giving this one just people. Nothing credible. He's giving them His presence. He's giving them the garden in their midst. Awesome? Cool. What's weird and what the problem is, is that this people are not garden people. They mess up a lot. They mess up a lot because they're out of the garden because they're dying. And so God says, "All right, if we're going to have this relationship, there needs to be a way to rectify the thing that you're going to do." Because your sin is basically like, think of it as like cosmic pollution. That's like splashing up on the tent and on the altar and all this stuff. Like your sin is like polluting my holy space. And so it's this whole sacrificial system, which seems really weird to us. It is weird to us. But we have to remember that in other cultures, sacrifice is always like our gift to the God. Whereas the sacrificial system in Israel, God says, "This is my gift to you." God is the one who's providing the vehicle, the means, to have my sin dealt with. And so that's what this whole thing about atonement. So if someone messed up, broke one of the laws unintentionally. They were supposed to go to the tapernacle. They have a certain sacrifice. They bring to it the priests. What does it? So if the blood comes out. But the blood is the life of this animal. And so God chooses to let this representative holy, blameless life to be the thing that represents the one who's getting it. And some of the blood is splashed on the altar or on the tent itself, on the veil, or on the day of atonement, on the arch of the covenant itself. And if this message of the life, the life of this blameless thing is enough to cleanse the pollution with the effects of sin. Okay? That's the message of the atonement. Again, we'll get there when we get there. So, God, Israel has this amazing calling. They have God's presence with them. They go forth from the mountain. They have a bunch of myths happening on the way. Again, they get to the border of the promised land, which is where God is taking them the whole time. They get to the border of the promised land. They send forth some spies. Ten of them come back and they're like, "We can't do this. They're giant in the land. It's not a good situation." But two of them, their names are Caleb and Joshua, obviously. Yes? They say, "No, we can do it. We got this. God is on our side." And Caleb isn't even an native Israelite. And he's like, "No, God's God. We can do this, guys." And they're like, "No, we can't do this." And so God says, "Okay. All right. If you guys don't trust me enough to go into the land, then this entire generation who's refusing to trust me is going to die off in the wilderness." And they're like, "You know what? No, I think we're going to try it. We're going to do it." So the next day they wake up and they try to go into the land and they just get utterly obliterated. And so God's like, "No, no. We're going to do this." And so for 40 years, for 40 years, they wander around until that entire generation dies off. A new generation rises up and now we're in Deuteronomy. We're in book five, guys. 61 to go. So Deuteronomy is this huge speech. It's a, it's Moses recalling what has happened in the story of Israel. And it's this promise that, "Hey, guys, if you just, if you just follow Yahweh, please choose life. Please choose life. And if you choose life, You're going to remain in the land, you're going to be what God had called you to be. And they're like, "Yes, we commit ourselves." And so Joshua, he leads them. He leads them across the Jordan River. It is parted so the dry ground can appear. Just like it's like a new creation moment. Just like the Israelites cross the Red Sea, now they're crossing the Jordan. They're going. They get to Jericho. They march around at all that story. They are told that when they enter into Canaan, there's going to be these people that they have to either dispossess or destroy. And it's this really visceral language of them just going in and just annihilating people. And it's like it's written straight up genocide. And it's a tough thing to read. The whole point is it's another flood. God promised that He would never flood the earth never again with water. But the people of Israel are this narrative flood going through the land, cleansing it of these snakey canaanite figures. But if they decide like Rahab and Jericho, if they decide to join with the Israelites people, they'll be rescued. So they have that option. But if they refuse to listen to the God of Israel or join the people, they'll be destroyed. So they move in. They possess the land. It is a lot of according to tribe. And Joshua on his deathbed is like, "Guide, please listen to Yahweh. Please just listen to him." And they're like, "We got it. We got it. We're going to be good." But generations pass. And a new generation rises up. Who has never heard of Joshua and has never heard of Yahweh. Like straight up. And they start to just worship other God. They fall into idolatry and sin. And because of that God hands them over to these other nations like the Philistines or whatever. And this is when the, this pouring judges now. And so to deliver the people, God rises up. Who raised up this war cheapening to whatever rescue is people. And the people are like, "Yeah, we're good. We're good with Yahweh." And then like generations pass. And then it's the same cycle over and over and over again. It's rescue idolatry. Rescue idolatry. Rescue idolatry. And the story of judges is the systematic retelling of how each judge is worse and worse and worse and worse. And so Samson, who is like, for some reason is like the coolest judge of all time. For us is like legit, the worst. He's terrible. He disobeyed God pretty much immediately. He's like sex obsessed. It's sorry. We got it. Okay. So that's judges. So it gets so bad that the people are like, "You know what? We just need a king. We need a king so they can be like the other nations." And so Samuel, who's the last judge, takes us to God. And God says that the people have rejected me as king. And so I will give them a king. The king is named Saul. Saul is a very tall guy and he's very handsome. And so we have this conflict. We have, "Oh man, that guy, he looks good. He looks good." And he's tall. I wonder if he's going to be a problem. And he's pretty awesome at the beginning. He fights this guy named Nahash. And that's good. He wins. But eventually he disobeyed God. And his response, saying it was like, "Dude, the king is going to be ripped away from you and give to someone else." And so that someone else is a little shepherd boy named David. He gets anointed when he's young. And he doesn't become king for long. And after, but David is a man after God is in hard. He eventually becomes king. He conquered his own giant who was depicted with bronze, Nahash, Nahash, the Hushet, armor. So Goliath is this like a malgommation of all the issues. He represents this powerful nation. He's a giant and he has serpentine armor on. And so David is depicted as this new image of God character who is taking care of all this stuff. And we're like, "Man, David's the dude. We are getting so close to the snake crusher. It's going to be awesome." But David makes so many mistakes. He's got a lot of wives. He has a pretty big problem with women. When he is king, all of his army goes out to war, but he stays behind. You're not supposed to do that, King. And while he's there, he sees the woman. She's beautiful. He takes her for himself. And then they have a physical liaison. They have a prayer. She gives pregnant. That son gets taken. It's not good, but then they have another son named Solomon. And throughout David's reign, God is faithful to him. He delivers him from his enemies because as many mistakes as David makes, he never ever, ever changes his loyalty from Yahweh. His son Solomon makes a whole lot of mistakes, and he lets his loyalty be divided by a thousand different gods from a thousand different women. And so Solomon, sorry, so we got this guy. We might have to take a pause and do it again two weeks from now. Unless you guys are good to keep going. You let me know. Good? Everyone good? Okay. So we have Solomon. Sorry. We have this promise that God makes to David. He says, "David really wants to build God a temple." He's been living in his tent this whole time ever since the ex-generation. He really wants to build God this temple, this house. And God says, "No, I'm perfectly fine with my tent. Thank you very much. But I'm going to build you a house instead, meaning a dynasty." And he says, "So long as you and your family are like a hear to me, your son's after you listen to me and follow me, there will never be a time when there's not a king of Israel on the throne." And so God we can see this narrowing of his promises. First, he promises Abraham and then Israel, which is one descendent of Abraham. And then he promises one tribe, Judah, and one lineage. So God is, he's narrowing in his promises to be now on this this line of David. Because the whole point is that there's going to be one snake crusher. There's one snake crusher. And so there has to be this sort of narrowing. And so we're looking for an ultimate son of Abraham, an ultimate Israelite and an ultimate son of David. So let's keep track. Let's figure out if that's going to be full of earth if Jesus is up. So we have this promise that God has made now to David. Solomon is his son. He takes the throne. And he does some things right? And he does some things wrong. So in Deuteronomy 17, God says, "Hey, when you get a king, this is what he's not supposed to do. He's not supposed to a mass a lot of wealth. He's not supposed to go back to Egypt for horses. And he's not supposed to have a lot of wives." And Solomon does all of those things. He gets super wealthy. He goes back to Egypt for horses and chariots. And he has not one or two wives, but a thousand women. And that's not awesome. He like takes a layman who is two wives and he just like, does not wife. So Solomon is this really weird conflicting character because he does some things right. And then he does some things horrifically wrong. Like he, the first king, actually put his own people on the slave labor force. He forces them to build God Temple. God Temple, he builds it in seven years, but his own palace, how long does it take? Ooh, like 14 years. And so he takes a lot of time to build God's house, but he takes twice as long to build his own house. So, not good. All right. So Solomon, because of his terrible decisions, God says that this kingdom is going to be ripped. It's going to be ripped. It's going to be separated. It's not going to be the 12 United tribes anymore. They're going to be 10 tribes of North and 2 tribes down south. And that's when you guys read, when you get really confused because they talk about Israel and Judah. It's like, what are those the same things? But now Israel is the Northern tribes. Judah is the two southern tribes that are in the Judah. So Solomon's son, Reha Bohem, makes a terrible decision. He listens to his friends, not his advisors, and he ups the taxes. And because of that, Jeroboam, these nansers are starting to get a little confusing. Jeroboam eventually becomes the king of the Northern tribes. And Jeroboam takes the sin of the Israelites at Mount Sinai and doubles it. He doesn't just make one golden calf. He makes two golden calves, and he posts them in the north and at the border. And he says, these are your gods, Israel, who rescue you from Egypt. So he forces the people to participate in my dollar tree because he does not want his people leaving to go down to Israel or to Judah. So he's a terrible king. And then for the whole rest of the history of Israel, we're going to accelerate here. And the kings just straight up suck. They're terrible. There's like four good kings. That's it. They all make really bad decisions. They get further and further and further from Yahweh. There's conflict constantly. So much so that God sees the wickedness of these northern tribes. And he says, hey, you know what? They're going to be taken care of. A Syria is going to sweep in, take them out, and put people from other nations back into the land of Israel. And so there's this whole Assyrian exile thing. They're like now the ten northern tribes of Israel don't even exist. They're just spread all over the place. And then the prophets down below, they're like, what God, what are you going to do? How are you going to let the Assyrians go? And he says, no, I got it. I'm going to take care of them with the Babylonians. And so the Babylonian sweeping. But then the Babylonian sweeping to take Israel or to take Judah itself because of the broken treaty of this one king is just an idiot. The last one, he gets taken off and changed the Babylon. And so now the people, because of their own decisions and the king's terrible decisions, they're now out of the land. This thing that was promised to them to Abraham, and that was faithfully like said, each and every single promise, because of their own terrible decisions, they're now out of the land. And just like Adam and Eve, now they can't be the thing that God called them to be because they're not where they're supposed to be. And so we have this whole thing. But in the midst of exile, we see these faithful people throughout. And so there's the stories of Daniel and his friends, Shadrach, Mishach, and Abednego. Those are actually their Babylonian names. I can't remember their Hebrew names, but they have cool Hebrew names. So they're faithful in the midst of exile. They were fused about down to the Nebuchadnezzar and his idol. Now we have Isaiah, who is this prophet, who promises there's going to be this suffering servant that God will once again be king. And then we have Ezekiel and Jeremiah, who promise that there's going to be this new covenant that God is going to make with his people. going to take their heart. of stone and place them with hearts of flesh and he's going to pour out his very spirit into them and actually make them the people that he wants them to be and the whole thing is going to be because he's going to forgive his people in his mercy and his compassion and grace God is going to forgive his people and actually make them into the people they're supposed to be. So there's all these promises that are made in the midst of exile and the people are like when is it going to come true? What's going to happen? Then there's this 400 year gap where God's words aren't heard anymore and then we made it. So the story of Jesus is the systematic retelling of how Jesus is the one. He is the ultimate snake crusher because he is the ultimate son of Abraham who keeps the way of Yahweh. He's the ultimate Israelite who keeps the laws not just the letter of the law but the spirit of the law which is what the entire point of the sermon on the Mount is and he's the ultimate son of David who keeps the way of Yahweh the true King of Israel. He is the snake crusher and so we see Jesus he has this amazing birth just like Isaac who is only from the spirit's power we see we see Mary this virgin woman this this teenager in this place where there's no life we see God's spirit hovering to create something new. So we see God's spirit hovering over this girl and she she can see is this miracle child and he's going to be called he's going to be called Yahosua which means Yahweh saves and the angel says call him Yahosua because he will save his people and so we're supposed to say oh call him Yahweh saves because he will save his people. Well who's saving his people is it Yahweh or is it Yahweh saves and that's the whole conflict that's the first claim in Matthew is that Jesus is Yahweh and he is God with us he is a manual and so he but the angel tells and he's going to be a manual also and then at the end of Matthew we see Jesus say hey I am with you and so his name God with us he says I'm with you he's God with us. So so we got Jesus life we see multiple proofs of his ultimate identity as the ultimate human and God incarnate and so my whole argument that's what I'm going to say is that Jesus was is an eternally only or ever will be the only human to ever exist and that we are fully human in him okay that's my claim that's what we're going to get to that's what the backbone of this entire class is that Jesus is the ultimate and true human because he is ultimately God so those two things are together and so so my favorite stories of of Jesus that's Matthew 8 when he walks on the waters he has control over the water yeah yeah sorry not Matthew 8 Matthew 8 and sleep he wakes up he rebukes the wind in the waves and they're calm like that so he steals the chaotic seas the ultimate power over them then he walks over them and then in the wilderness he has the power to create bread and fish and all this stuff healing it's amazing but ultimately his his work is culminated on the cross when he takes the effects of our brokenness of our shame of our horrible decisions upon himself on the cross and he allows them to do their worst to him as the king of Israel as the representative of his people the representative of the representative people Jesus represents us all because he represents Israel and Israel represents humanity and so on the cross we're supposed to see our sin our brokenness and our shame breaking Jesus but specifically so that he can break it by his broken body and his shed blood and with his shed blood he cleanses the the land he cleanses our heart so that we can now be clean just like the temple should have been cleaned so that God's presence can dwell within it we are cleansed by Jesus blood so now that his spirit can dwell within us and make us into true humans make us into into temples ourselves temples individually and temples as a collective and now we are tasked with the same thing that humanity was tasked with which is spreading the garden spreading the temple but now instead of doing that through cultivation to this image of cultivation we are to spread the garden by spreading the gospel the gospel of the goodness of Jesus as king and so Jesus is king he's ultimately more powerful than the powers and the principalities is ultimately more powerful than death because death he never did anything to deserve death to warrant death and so death is an unjust sin and so on the third day he rises from the grave and now death has been utterly defeated to defeat death there has to be a resurrection but there cannot be a resurrection without a death and so Jesus Jesus endures death he experiences it he does something while he's dead talk about that when we get there but ultimately when he rises again death has been defeated and so now we just did redemption okay redemption with Abraham Abraham to Jesus and now new creation which we think we often think new creation is far away it's gonna happen eventually new creation starts the moment Jesus walked out of the tin because now these these two things were death has been defeated and and and and so like the air is the time of death and of chaos and all that stuff should end when death is defeated but now those two things have been overlap where death has been defeated but it's still here and so new creation has already started but it will be culminated through Jesus finished work and through our participation in it and we will eventually see like in Revelation 21-22 like we saw that heaven and earth will be fully one again because because guys because of the work of humanity but because of the work of humanity in the one true human Jesus and so through Jesus finished work on the cross we have freedom from death without no longer in slavery or in bondage to it we can be unshackled from our own mortality and not live according to death not live according to this tendency to channel death into God's good world we can ensure instead choose to channel his life into the world and be truly fully human and so the powers of chaos and death no longer has the final word and no longer has the final word of our God's good world or of us and if we are the new temple people as individuals and as a collective then we must do everything we can to work and to keep this garden to cultivate it and to protect it as the people and as individuals and so when the voices come or when the tendencies come to want to invite us into sin to invite us to chaos whether that's division in ourselves or like within ourselves or division within our our very hearts we can stand up to those powers and say you do not have the final word you have been defeated and I will not listen to you I stand firm because of the victory of the one and thanks be to God it gives us that victory Jesus Christ so new creation started the moment he walked out of the tomb we are participating in that new creation and we look forward to its culmination when having an earth are totally one again and there you go that was a very very quick and big thank you very much hopefully that makes sense I only drew half of that but I can't draw like two thousand years of history all right that so any questions may be perfect all right let's see if this finish recording oh yeah our third