The World God Made: a Fallen
world (Genesis 3)
One of the trials of camping
is insects: this year at Soul Survivor camp, one of the problems was mud, the
other was wasps. Lunch-time is a real
trial: when you’re trying to cope with a jam sandwich and a tumbler of coke,
there they are… it was really fun to watch the different reactions: some of the
guys would jump out of their seats, and run into their tent shouting “gerroff…”
some fothe girls would scream. One or two, on the other hand, are perfectly
calm: they do the sensible thing and sits still… And I would swat the wasps with whatever I have in my hand and
ask the theological question: Why did God make wasps?
And
here’s another: Why did God make the snake?
The people God made are in the world God made and God saw that it was good. And this chapter begins with the
serpent. The very first word… “and the serpent was smarter than anything
else God made.” Why did God make the
snake? And the snake’s wit and charm were not all its own: this was a form that
Satan, the very devil himself, chose to take. Why did God make a devil? Or was
the devil there all along as a threat to God’s good plan and God’s good world?
The answer is “no”, God made him. But
God made him as an angel. Before time
began, he was there, a glorious spiritual being created to worship God. But he said “I will make myself like the Most High”
and as a result God sentenced him to be “ brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit.”(Isaiah 14.
12ff). And along with him, an army of
angels who rebelled against God, were thrown out. (Jude 6) That is where the devil and his demonic forces came
from. They could have been still
singing God’s praises today in heaven. God made them good; they chose to become
bad. So, thrown from the heavens they
are set upon destroying whatever God does; when God makes a world and sees that
it is good, Satan wants to rule it himself.
“Is God good?” So the devil comes to the woman, and asks
“Did God really say, `You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?” “Is God Good? Are you sure he hasn’t
really laid restrictions on your life?” And the woman explains, “We can eat
from any tree except the tree of knowledge of good and evil; if we eat that we
will die.” And the devil says “ Of
course you won’t die. God’s lying to
you. He knows if you eat it you’ll
become godlike; you’ll understand the difference between good and evil” “Is God good? Or is he protecting
himself, keeping you in the dark, depriving you of the opportunity to be like
him?” Devil means slanderer. That’s what he is; that’s what he does. He accuses God, and he accuses us. He loves to sow the seeds of the question “Is
God good?”
That was the point when everything
went pear shaped. Someone called this the saddest chapter in the Bible. When the
woman began to believe what the serpent said, and to suspect God of evil.
“Here the fall took place” “Sin enters at the point of distrust
and suspicion, as unreserved trust is lost” (Leupold) The way the woman sees things is now different. She sees that the fruit looks good.
She sees it will taste good. She sees that it will “make her wise.” Satan sows ideas into our heads that change
the way we see things. He loves to make
us see things his way. He works
on our imaginations. And the woman has
fallen for it. What is in her heart is
to be read in her actions and she eats the fruit and quite literally becomes
the devil’s advocate, giving it to the man who also eats.
And in that moment, the downfall is
clearly seen. The man and the woman
know, but their knowledge isn’t healthy knowledge. When we are healthy we take our bodies for granted. When we are not healthy we know about our
bodies: when I get migraine I know where the blood vessels are in my head that
are dilated, because I can feel them. The first thing the man and the woman realise is that they are naked, and they
feel the need to cover up. The
next thing they realise
is that God is coming. God is moving
around the garden, as he often has; and they feel the need to cover up, so they
hide among the trees. But they can’t
hide; God calls to them and He cannot be ignored. He says “What’s going on guys?”
Not that he needs the knowledge; but humanity needs to face up to its
situation. The man and the woman need
to face their guilt. “We were afraid
because we are naked.” “But who told
you you were naked? Have you eaten the fruit from that tree?” God asks. Again,
he doesn’t need the facts, but the man and the woman need to face the
facts. “Look God, be fair: you gave me
this woman, she just dished me up a fruit salad for dinner.” This is your fault, God. The big cover up has happened. The woman’s explanation isn’t much better:
“the serpent deceived me and I ate…” The
Devil loves to manipulate a situation where someone can say, “this is your
fault, God.”
God has to judge… despite the cover
up, the serpent is judged. The woman and the man are judged, condemned to live
in a fallen world. Why did God allow it to happen? Why didn’t he just blot out these demons? Couldn’t God have stopped Satan from
tempting humanity? Couldn’t he have stopped the woman and then the man from
eating that fruit? Well, yes; but only
by making them into robots without freewill. In the Jim Carrey film “Bruce
Almighty,” Bruce gets God’s power for a while.
But as he uses that power he has to remember free will. He tries to get his girlfriend to love him
just by using his power; standing there, finger pointing, saying “love me…” but
it doesn’t work. God is good. Too good to make us robots. And although we can’t understand all the ins
and outs, all the why’s and wherefores of suffering in our world, we know that God
is good; God promises that the Devil will meet his end: the woman’s
offspring will bruise the serpent’s head.
Centuries later, a man with a mother but no earthly father, “offspring
of a virgin’s womb” would wrestle with Satan, be fatally wounded in the process
but would break Satan’s head. Satan is
condemned; he is defeated, and one day he will be completely disarmed.
And in the meantime, as evidence
that God is good, he offers one first, compassionate act: the first
being in history ever to clothe the naked, is Almighty God. And time and again, is answer to our prayers
and often without any prayers to answer, God steps in.
Why did God make wasps? I don’t know. But I do know that when he made the world it was very good. And I do know that the devil wants to deceive,
defile and destroy as he loves to accuse God and us (and I don’t want to
have anything to do with his lies). And I do know that human beings have made
their choices too. And I do know that God himself suffers with his world and
works in it (and calls us to work with him); and I do know that through Christ
Satan is defeated and God is making a new world where the suffering we know in
the world won’t happen. And I do know that the faith he wants us to have is
always ready to affirm that God is good, even in the dark.
© Gilmour Lilly November 2004