The Theme Key
The Theme Key - It's really NOT so hard to understand.
Genesis, “origin,” the book of beginnings. It’s one of our favorite books. It is the first book of the Bible. Men come to this book and they swear that it is about creation, about the flood, about the patriarchs and about racial origins. And, sadly for them, that might be true. But, men can easily miss a whole forest because of their focus on its individual trees. . . That happens a lot when men are concerned about the things of men, and they look with the eyes of men, too much at the actions of men.
Here is what I mean, consider this passage from Geneses 3: 8-9: “And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, "Where are thou?”
Now, typically, a man reads this, and he logs the chronological events of the man; he ate the fruit, he realized he was naked, he sewed leaves together and made clothes, he heard God nearby, and he hid himself. Da dum, da dum, da dum. It’s all as easy as falling down steps, if you don’t mind that the focus is completely wrong.
I’m totally serious. What you are looking at in verse 9 is the actual freakin theme of the whole Bible. It’s our first and maybe most important key to understanding the whole entire thing, but honestly, I’m afraid most people walk right over it like an unmarked grave. Why? Because our focus is so easily on men, and not God. That’s why.
Check this out. God knew Adam and his wife had been deceived. He’s God. He knew what they were doing. He knew where they were at. . .
Does God blast them to cinders with a righteous thunderbolt? - No.
Does God build a wall to keep them out? - No.
Does God humiliate them by calling them out in the bright heat of the day and chasing them around the garden with a switch? - No.
Does God thunder his displeasure from on high with a loud roar? - No.
Does he send angels to them with cryptic messages or condemnations? - No!
What does God do?
God goes to Adam like a good shepherd in search of his lost sheep, that’s what. God makes himself available. God has timing. God waits until the cool of the day. God makes himself small enough to walk around in the garden like a man. God calls out to Adam in a non-confrontational way - for a simple response.
That’s it folks. Re-establishing relationship. That is the genesis, that is the beginning. That is the theme of the Bible. God makes himself available. The rest of the book is like a song; variations on a theme. This same tune just repeats in different ways, at different times, in different places, with different people, over and over, through the whole book.
You don’t have to be an English major to know that it can be helpful to read a book’s ‘Forward’ and learn the intentions of the author so you can keep them in mind as you progress through the various chapters. . . .
"I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away…" Ezekiel 34:16
Jesus said: "I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep." John 10:11
Isaiah’s prophecy, 700 years before Jesus: "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment; and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgressions of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand." Isaiah 53:6-10
When Jesus healed a person on the Sabbath day, the lawyers came to oppose him. They demanded to know if it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath day. Do you know how Jesus responded? He didn’t argue the law with those lawyers. Instead we find basically the same attitude that we see from God in the Garden. Jesus asked them - which one of them, if they had cattle fall into a pit on the Sabbath, would not go pull them out? (Adam, “Where are thou?)
You see, theme and focus are important things.
So let me ask you. Is a relationship with God based on a set of rules? Or is the relationship the primary focus, and the rules simply flow to facilitate that desired theme? Is it the rules that are the most important focus, or the relationship?
If you’ve been paying attention, you should be able to answer that.
(C) RLMcCormick
