The Divine Crash

Today we are starting a new and fresh look at Genesis 1.  For the month of May we will study only 3 chapters of Genesis.  Feel free to listen and download on iTunes.  I would encourage you to listen because some of it is not in the notes.

 

Genesis 1:1

Talk about Moses writing Genesis.

- 2500 BC

 

Talk about Verse 1

- Not about In the beginning about saying this how it is but

- It is better “When God began to create” because it was this is what I know to be true and it was more of telling a story than anything else.

 

It is like a grandfather drifting off to tell a story of when he was young. Telling a story of what happened to him because he was there. It was taught as if it happened to them.

 

Maybe if we did the same thing and thought as if it was our story it would make all the difference in our lives, our friends, and our kids?

 

This verse 1 says that God is over all of it. That Elohim is on top of it and has been since he created it.

 

But there is an oddity of it. Elohim is plural but not plural at the same time.

 

In the first verse of the opening of the Hebrew Bible, in a time when Moses is trying to lead thousands of people through the wilderness after leaving a lifetime of slavery he is trying to remind them that God is over all, That God created them and will not leave them alone and that God is in this wilderness with them and God is in all things with them.

 

We also see Moses putting the literary smack down on every other god in existence.

 

From the very beginning the story of the Bible is dangerous to the government and the people in charge.  When you say that “your god is false and my God is the one true God.” it will get you in trouble.

- When you say My God is bigger than your god that says foresake everything to get the promotion, it will get you in trouble.

- When you say My God is bigger than your god that says do whatever feels good, you will get in trouble.

- When you say My God is bigger than your god that says “I will kill you if you don’t bow down” you will get in trouble.

 

Last week, in China an underground church was told “If you meet you will be arrested.” They believed God is bigger than the government and 30+ people have been arrested and the pastor is on house arrest.

 

In 1983 during the height of communism in Poland Pope John Paul 2 went to Poland.  The political leaders were nervous but let it go on so they didn’t show weakness over “one man.” They thought if they played it down and didn’t advertise no one would show up.  They were wrong, when he arrived in June over 2 million people were there to visit and ends his talk with “We must never abandon ourselves to despair.  We are an Easter People and Hallelujah is our song.”

 

Depending on your region you worshipped other gods

- Baal

- Enki

- Tiamat

- Ninkasi the sumerian Goddess of Beer

- Borne of the flowing water,

Tenderly cared for by the Ninhursag,

 

you are the one who handles the dough [and] with a big shovel,

Mixing in a pit, the bappir with [date] – honey,

 

you are the one who bakes the bappir in the big oven,

Puts in order the piles of hulled grains,

 

you are the one who waters the malt set on the ground,

The noble dogs keep away even the potentates,

 

you are the one who soaks the malt in a jar,

The waves rise, the waves fall.

 

 

you are the one who spreads the cooked mash on large reed mats,

Coolness overcomes,

 

You are the one who holds with both hands the great sweet wort,

Brewing [it] with honey [and] wine

(You the sweet wort to the vessel)

Ninkasi, (…)(You the sweet wort to the vessel)

 

 

Ninkasi, the filtering vat, which makes a pleasant sound,

You place appropriately on a large collector vat.

 

 

Ninkasi, you are the one who pours out the filtered beer of the collector vat,

It is [like] the onrush of Tigris and Euphrates.

 

Imagine Their church services with communion?

 

This becomes important for Abraham.

Story of Abraham leaving father

- this is the first occassion in the Bible of Oh Snap!

 

 

Maybe sometimes, maybe we are like the father, maybe we serve multiple Gods?

- Maybe we are like Abraham and serve the god’s we are taught by our parents?

- School? Grades? Friends? Boyfriend/Girlfriend? Video Games? Money? Music?

- Job? Spouse? Kids? Retirement fund? Stuff?

- Maybe God is the one who created all of those things to show you how he works and wants you to use them responsibly and worship him, not them?

 

So then, if Elohim is over all and created all then all of the things we so often think are worthy of our worship. become less worthy of worship. They fall far short. My Ipod never created the heavens. My wife never put the mountains in place. My bank account didn’t put 6 million leaves on each oak tree. But God did, and that God is the God who is over all and in all.

Sermon Audio

 

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