Parashah בראשית
Parashot Genesis • Sermon • Submitted • 44:29
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· 129 viewsPeople aren’t to make images of God because God has already made an image of Himself. Those who choose to walk with God will bear His image and experience His blessing but those who choose to abuse the image of God will be dominated by sin and experience the curse.
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Parashah בראשית -
Parashah בראשית -
Genesis 1:1-6:9
Genesis 1:1-6:9
Ha-Foke-Ba
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26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness! Let them rule over the fish of the sea, over the flying creatures of the sky, over the livestock, over the whole earth, and over every crawling creature that crawls on the land.”
27 God created humankind in His image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them.
28 God blessed them and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the land, and conquer it. Rule over the fish of the sea, the flying creatures of the sky, and over every animal that crawls on the land.”
4 The serpent said to the woman, “You most assuredly won’t die!
5 For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
23 Lamech said to his wives, “Adah and Zillah: Hear my voice! Lamech’s wives: Listen to my speech! For I have killed a man for wounding me, and a boy for bruising me.
24 If Cain is to be avenged seven times, then Lamech—77 times!”
25 Adam was intimate with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and she named him Seth, “For God has appointed me another seed in place of Abel—since Cain killed him.”
1 This is the Book of the Genealogies of Adam: When God created Adam, in the likeness of God He made him.
2 Male and female He created them, and He blessed them and called their name “Adam” when He created them.
3 Adam lived 130 years, then fathered a son in his likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.
1 Now when humankind began to multiply on the face of the ground and daughters were born to them, 2 then the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were good and they took for themselves wives, any they chose.
5 Then Adonai saw that the wickedness of humankind was great on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their heart was only evil all the time.
6 So Adonai regretted that He made humankind on the earth, and His heart was deeply pained.
7 So Adonai said, “I will wipe out humankind, whom I have created, from the face of the ground, from humankind to livestock, crawling things and the flying creatures of the sky, because I regret that I made them.”
8 But Noah found favor in Adonai’s eyes.
II. Message
II. Message
A. The message of Genesis shapes everything.
i. New series on Bereshit starts today and ends December 30 with the last portion of Bereshit called Vayeḥi ויחי.
ii. Like all the five books of the Torah, Bereshit, is a literary masterpiece. What I mean is this, the book of Genesis was not haphazardly thrown together. The book has a beautiful shape, it has all the signs of literary composition in story telling and arrangement and thought.
iii. For instance, dramatic irony bookends the entire book of Genesis. At the start of the story we are introduced to two trees: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. One tree brings life and the other tree brings knowledge or wisdom.
iv. But we know, Eve and Adam, wrongfully took from the tree of knowledge and as a result lost out on the tree of life and really lost out on the knowledge that God would have given them. They pride fully overstepped their boundaries and lost both life and knowledge.
v. At the end of Genesis, really the last third of Genesis we are introduced to Joseph. A young who faces cruel and unjust suffering but because of his amazing wisdom that comes from God he is able to save lives.
vi. Remember what Joseph says to His brothers at their last meal together in
20 Yes, you yourselves planned evil against me. God planned it for good, in order to bring about what it is this day—to preserve the lives of many people.
vii. At the end of Genesis, Joseph the man who humbled himself to God’s will received God’s wisdom and saved many lives. Joseph, in a dramatic ironic twist, becomes the embodiment of both the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
viii. That is amazing writing. For us it is more than amazing writing. Those last words of Joseph to his brothers is the entire theme of Genesis, “What humankind planned for evil. God planned it for good to preserve the lives of many people.
ix. Or another way of saying it is this: Genesis is God’s rescue plan for a rebellious people through Abraham’s family.
x. This first parashot in Genesis explains “what went wrong” and “what is God’s plan to rescue a rebellious people?”
Rabbbi Vowell Targets Genesis True Purpose
Genesis is secondarily about cosmic origins.
Space: There are only 34 verses from Genesis 1:1-2:3 about the origins of all things. In most Bibles that is less than ½ of an 8 ½ by 11 sheet paper.
a. There are 44 verses dedicated to the Fall of Adam and Eve from the Garden
b. There are 32 verses dedicated to the Genealogy of Adam plus and additional 8 to the intro of Noah totally 40 verses.
c. There are 26 words dedicated to Cain’s family
d. And if you are being honest there are only 5 verses possibly dedicated to cosmic origins – Day 1 – and the rest is dedicated to the creation of Earth.
Repetition: After the initial story of creation, it is not mentioned again. However, the most repeated word in Genesis 1:1-6:8 is the name “Adam” and the most repeated idea: man’s prideful rebellion and wickedness.
Creationism: Yes, I am card holding young earth guy who believes in an intelligent designer but that was not the original purpose Genesis was written. As a matter of fact, we know that when ancient Israel would have heard there God took seven days to create the earth they would have thought, “Why so long?”
I want to rescue Genesis from an unnecessary argument so we can really see the purpose of the Book for Israel and for us. When Israel was in Egypt and coming out of Egypt they were trying to make sense of the world they knew. A world dominated by evil kings called Pharaohs. Israel needed to know “what went wrong” and “what is God’s plan to rescue a rebellious people?”
Moses Stretches the Imagination
C. Moses Stretches the Imagination
If you lived in the ancient world, chances are, you lived under the rule and authority of a king. Kings loved to make images of themselves and put it all over their kingdom and in the countries they conquered and controlled. We do the same thing today. Wherever their image was placed, this is where there “divine kingship” was established.
We All Get This If you lived in the ancient world, chances are, you lived under the rule and authority of a king. Kings loved to make images of themselves and put it all over their kingdom and in the countries they conquered and controlled. Wherever their image was placed, this is where there “divine kingship” was established.
You heard me correctly, “Divine Kingship.” Many of the ancient kings believed they were “gods” and they even called themselves, “the image of God.”
So, since they were the image of God they created statues of themselves that in Hebrew is called a tzelem or “image.”
iv. Here is the thing. In the Hebrew Bible, we are not supposed to makes images of gods, idols, really of anything. God can make images but we are not to make images. Now we are not just talking about drawing faces on money, we are talking about making images that express someone’s ultimate rule of your heart and life. God forbids the Jewish people from making those kinds of images.
Why aren’t we to make images of God especially? Why is this like the one thing God gets really irate over? People aren’t to make images of God because God has already made in image of Himself. He put His image, his likeness in human beings.
vi. (cf. psalm 8).
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness! Let them rule over the fish of the sea, over the flying creatures of the sky, over the livestock, over the whole earth, and over every crawling creature that crawls on the land.”
27 God created humankind in His image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them.
28 God blessed them and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the land, and conquer it. Rule over the fish of the sea, the flying creatures of the sky, and over every animal that crawls on the land.”
The task that once belonged to elite kings now belongs to everyone.
What do God’s image bearers, His little kings and queens do? There are three things in the Garden that receive God’s divine blessing:
a. Work (Guard/Serve)
b. Marriage (Multiply/Love)
c. Rest (Keep a Shabbat).
The Image of God is fully expressed when it is being fully used for the benefit of others. This is our kingship in His image and this was revolutionary to Israel.
Israel only had to look around and it knew from experience, as we do, that we do lots of horrible things with this authority. Rather than using that authority for the benefit of others we more often use it for our own selfish purposes.
Evil strikes the Image of God
Adam and Eve pridefully overstepped the boundaries of the Image of God.
1. They did not want to be Image Bearers, they wanted to be the Image that other people bear. The sons and daughters of Adam were to bear God’s image and enjoy his blessing on their work, marriage and rest but they pride fully overstepped the boundaries of being Image bearers and forfeited God’s blessing.
2. This is why in there is a subtle hint that because of Adam everyone after him no longer bears God’s image exclusively but Adam’s image ( ). This is the language of demotion and not promotion. In order to get back to the Image of God, we must confront now the image of Adam in each of us.
1 This is the Book of the Genealogies of Adam: When God created Adam, in the likeness of God He made him.
2 Male and female He created them, and He blessed them and called their name “Adam” when He created them.
3 Adam lived 130 years, then fathered a son in his likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.
3 Adam lived 130 years, then fathered a son in his likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.
3. In Genesis 1:1-6:8 no where do you find the Hebrew word for nation or gentile nation. Yet, we were the phrase in Genesis 6 “when all of humankind” and “all of humankind was wicked.” The word that is used is “Adam” more specifically “ha-adam.” By the way, when Genesis 6:5 says all humankind had evil thoughts and behaviors that included all the people in Adam’s good line and bad line.
4. We cannot get back to image of God until we first confront the image of Adam. Each story highlights the constant abuse of the authority vested in being image bearers.
5. Israel can now identify “what went wrong” but what is the solution to all of this evil? You see a glimpse in the garden, God sacrifices an animal to cover their shame. God enacts a rescue plan.
The pattern is repeated.
Cain pride fully abuses his authority to “guard” his own interest by killing his brother.
1. Show image on screen.
2. Explain the horror of abusing God’s image by letting sin dominate.
3. Explain the blood avenger.
4. Explain the grace of God on Cain.
23 Lamech said to his wives, “Adah and Zillah: Hear my voice! Lamech’s wives: Listen to my speech! For I have killed a man for wounding me, and a boy for bruising me.
24 If Cain is to be avenged seven times, then Lamech—77 times!”
Gen 4;2
Lamech not only abuses the authority of the image of God he even abuses the grace of God shown to Cain.
1. Show image on screen.
2. Explain the horror of abusing God’s image.
3. Lamek is the seventh son of Adam
Where is the grace side? You have to look on the other side of the genealogy. The other seventh son of Adam on Seth’s side. At the same time that Lamek was raising a war song Enoch was walking with God. His story as small as it is was designed to show us that God had not abandoned his creation. That those who choose to not let sin control their heart but rather walk with God can get back to the Image of God. Get back to the king himself. Noach will be such a man according to Genesis 6:9 which we read about next week.
Noach’s generation takes the most prideful overstepping of boundaries ever ( )
1 Now when humankind began to multiply on the face of the ground and daughters were born to them,
2 then the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were good and they took for themselves wives, any they chose.
3 Then Adonai said, “My Spirit will not remain with humankind forever, since they are flesh. So their days will be 120 years.
4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, whenever the sons of God came to the daughters of men, and gave birth to them. Those were the mighty men of old, men of renown.
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v. Noach was not without sin rather he choose to not let sin dominate him ( ).
5 Then Adonai saw that the wickedness of humankind was great on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their heart was only evil all the time.
6 So Adonai regretted that He made humankind on the earth, and His heart was deeply pained.
7 So Adonai said, “I will wipe out humankind, whom I have created, from the face of the ground, from humankind to livestock, crawling things and the flying creatures of the sky, because I regret that I made them.”
8 But Noah found favor in Adonai’s eyes.
Noach found favor in Adonai’s eyes. Noach’s name is just two letters “nun” and “chet.” The word for favor is really the Hebrew word grace which also made up of two letters “chet” and “nun.”
This is not the first sign of God’s grace. All along the way, God has been rescuing rebellious people. Adam and Eve God rescued with a sacrifice. Cain was rescued with a protective mark. Even Lamek’s family was not immediately judged.
The point of is not to say that Noach only found grace but that God has been showing grace to people but only some choose to respond in obedience to that grace.
Some taste the good gift of God and their hearts are changed and they somehow are able to resist and get victory over that image of Adam even if only temporarily or partially.
E. Yeshua Restores God’s Image
Yeshua Restores God’s Image
God’s rescue plan is so much bigger than just the few stories we have seen. Though we should see that God is madly committed to and in love with his rebellious children.
ii. When Adam and Eve were judged for their rebellion God gave them more than just a sacrifice to cover their shame he gave them a promise that one day a “seed” would come that would defeat the Evil One but that victory would cost this “seed” his life (Genesis 3:15).
When Adam and Eve were judged for their rebellion God gave them more than just a sacrifice to cover their shame he gave them a promise that one day a “seed” would come that would defeat the Evil One but that victory would cost this “seed” his life ( ).
15 I will put animosity between you and the woman— between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel.
This “seed” we will learn in Genesis must come through Abraham’s family.
God knew that to resolve this problem ultimately He would have to become human in order to show what true kingship looks like. He would have to walk amongst us, live amongst us, dwell with us so we could touch and see the true Image of God.
v. So God sent us His son who Rabbi Paul said of Him in
3 This Son is the radiance of His glory and the imprint of His being, upholding all things by His powerful word. When He had made purification for our sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
3 This Son is the radiance of His glory and the imprint of His being, upholding all things by His powerful word. When He had made purification for our sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Yeshua came and showed us a whole new way of bearing the image of God, a totally new way so new that people called it a “new man.”
We never really got a full picture of this image of God in Bereshit. In Adam, we only saw him name things: animals and then his wife. In Yeshua, we see the Image of God so much more clearly.
1. Describe: love
2. Describe: truth
3. Describe: simplicity
4. Describe: death of Messiah
vii. We see in Yeshua that to bear the image of God means to give ourselves for the benefit of others: friends and enemies, in-laws and outlaws, the rejects and the elites.
III. We will move the human project forward because we bear God’s image in Messiah.
What went wrong? Humanity pridefully overstepped our boundaries.
What was God’s plan to rescue this rebellious people? It has never been anything that we could do, it could only be something we responded to: God’s grace.
i. The grace of a sacrifice in the Garden.
ii. The grace of a refuge given by God.
iii. The grace of a patient and loving God.
iv. The grace of our Messiah to die for us so we could not do on our own: bear the image of God.
How does this change anything? The world is a mess! I am a mess!
i. Did you know that you can will yourself to overcome heartbreak. The Journal of Neruoscien found that telling people who recently went through breakups that a placebo nasal spray would make them less sad while viewing photos of their exes did in fact dull their sadness, according to actual brain scans. Apparently, just believing in heartbreak relief has benefits.
ii. If a fake nasal spray can bring relief to heartbreak what can the very real restored Image of God in you do for your life, your family, your work, your community?
iii. I said earlier, People aren’t to make images of God because God has already made an image of Himself for us: His Son Yeshua. Sin destroyed that image but Messiah the seed that crushed the serpent has fully and completely restored that image in His Son. God restores His image in you when you trust in Yeshua. This is his grace for us, this is our hope, confidence, belief that if we want to further the human project for good and not evil it is because we are now bearing the image of God that we see in one of Abraham’s seed, the Messiah.