I want to spend a few minutes considering why Genesis is important in light of the context of our contemporary culture.

If I was trying to find a place in the Bible that best describes modern man and the culture we live in, I would turn to Psalm 2 where man is seen raging against God, wanting to throw off the fetters or restraints that God has put on us. Contemporary man does whatever he feels like doing, whatever he wants to do. He throws off all the restraints that God (who doesn’t exist anyway) has put on him. Our culture tells us we can live however we like. Since there is no God, there will be no judgment of our lives when our lives are over. We are not accountable for how we live.……. Contrast that with opening the first book of the Bible, the very foundation upon which the rest of the truths in the Bible rest. Genesis 1:1 says this, “In the beginning God.”

You go all the way back to the beginning and God is there. He is and He has always been. Modern man says we came from random chance. Evolution with a big E leaves no room for God. Classic evolution is not natural selection within a species like we see all the time, big E evolution that states our complex world came about as the result of time plus chance plus nothing. No god as the first cause. Contrast that with Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

Genesis teaches unequivocally that God was in the beginning and that God is our creator. Right off the bat when we read the Bible we learn where we came. Later in Romans 1 Paul tells us when we observe God’s creation, we can learn a lot about Him. Think about some of the things we learn about God from creation. He loves beauty. He loves diversity, have you ever seen the same sunset twice? He loves abundance, He loves order. And when we look at creation we learn about God’s invisible attributes like His incredible power and intellect. He set the stars in space. He laid the foundations of the world. He literally drew a line in the sand and the oceans could go no further. Romans says that when we behold God in creation our proper response is to honor Him and to give Him thanks. So when we observe creation and understand God is our creator our correct reaction is to thank Him and worship Him. Contrast that with contemporary man who doesn’t think God even exists much less that we can in any way relate to Him.

Our contemporary culture is confused, and no wonder. If we are merely a product of evolution then we don’t have a clue about who we are. In Genesis 1:26-27 we learn we are made in the very image of God. “Then God said, Let Us make man in our image, according to our likeness; and God created man in His own image, in the image of God.” This is loaded. One of the many things it means is there is something in us that is like God. We have dignity and purpose. We have a spirit. We can relate to God in a way that no other part of creation can because God made us in His image.

We are also entrusted with responsibilities. God trusts us. He delegated responsibilities to us. He entrusted us with the stewardship of the earth. Genesis 1:28, “God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”” Of all people on this planet, believers shouldn’t worship the earth but we should make it a priority to care for the earth and all that is in it. It is one of the primary things we are called to do.

In Genesis 1:27 we learn that God is not confused about gender issues. He plainly states he created them, male and female. I know that this is an issue that many families are dealing with and we are called to be loving and kind. But in Genesis 1 God weighs in, I am only the messenger relaying what he has clearly said, “Male and female he created them.” God is not confused.

Our culture is also unsure about marriage and families. Marriage and family are God’s idea. (I know many of us have made a mess of our marriages, my larger family knows the devastation of divorce, I am not casting stones. But even when we make a mess of things, God is ready to come into our mess and walk with us.) God set up marriage and families all the way back in early Genesis 2 when Eve was fashioned. Later when God instituted the Jewish feasts in Exodus it is within the context of families that the feasts are to be observed. One generation tells the next about the things of the Lord. This transfer happens in families. Genesis 2:24, “For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.”

Our contemporary culture no longer values life. From the unborn babe to granny in the nursing home we see the degradation of the sacredness of life. We see “self” put above all else. (Isn’t it interesting that this generation is known for taking selfies?) But God sets forth the sanctity of life in Genesis. Life must be valued and protected and Jesus calls us to die to self. We are called to live countercultural lives!

Modern man doesn’t value work. We want more time off. We want more vacations and to retire early. We want checks so we can stay home. But in Genesis 2:15 it says, “Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.” God gave man meaningful work to do in the Garden of Eden. This was even before the fall. Work brings dignity and self-respect. Man needs to have work to do.

In Genesis 2 we see that God has a high regard for man. Adam was given the honor of naming the birds, the cattle and the beasts. He wasn’t just told what they were called, he was consulted and given that authority.

God also had high expectations for man. He demonstrated that by giving man a free will. “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die.” God clearly laid out His will for man, but man isn’t a robot. God gave him a choice of whether to obey or not. The rest of creation was not given a free will, the right to choose. The animals and plants, the moon, the stars, and sun all follow God’s natural laws. Only to human beings does God give free will so that with our wills we can choose to follow Him, or we can choose to refuse to do that and go our own way.

Finally, we are created for purpose and I submit that our number one purpose is to be in relationship with God, to hang out with Him, to know Him and to be known by Him. Genesis 3:8, “They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” This is post fall when they were ashamed and full of fear, but it hints at what things were like pre-fall, that the Lord God used to come and walk with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day, just as later in Genesis 5 God used to walk with Enoch. God created us for relationship with Himself.

Genesis gives us good news and bad news. The bad news is we are all in a mess. Sin entered into our world in Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve used their free will to choose to go their own way, not God’s way. (This is my definition of sin.) From that day forth we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We are separated from God. That relationship we were created for is broken. Modern man thinks if we just spend enough money and have enough programs and educate ourselves enough we will make progress and reach utopia. God says you have a problem, your relationship with Me is broken, you need to acknowledge that problem.

God alone has the solution to our problem.

But first there is more bad news, we are all going to die. We may try to deny or ignore death, but we are all going to die if the Lord doesn’t return first. This is because one of the consequences of sin is death. We are now living out the consequences of the fall. Yes, we will have joyous days and happy news, but inevitably we must face the death of ourselves and our loved ones. Our contemporary culture doesn’t want to talk about death or even acknowledge it.

But, drum roll please, there is good news. Genesis 3 begins to tell the story of redemption. We will see the very first promise of the coming One, the seed of the woman, the One who, when we get to the opening of the gospel of Matthew, we learn this seed of a woman will save his people from their sins. But back in early Genesis 3:15, this is concealed in a veiled promise. You could almost miss it. This coming One will bruise the serpent on the head even as the serpent will bruise His heel. This promise will be clarified and enlarged and repeated through the covenants that God makes with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob throughout Genesis and finally late in Genesis God marks out the line of Judah as the bloodline from which the coming Messiah will come. Genesis shoots straight, it gives the bad news and the good news. We have an issue, sin has separated us from God, but redemption is on the way. Genesis sets forth the hope of redemption.

I believe that our culture is confused and misguided. It feels like we are in a dark place going in circles, not knowing where we came from nor where we are going. But Genesis shines like a bright beacon showing us where we came from, where we are going, who it is who created us, who we are to honor and thank and worship. Genesis delineates what our problem is, how God deals with it and in the meantime how we are to live in a way that pleases God, how to walk with Him, how to trust Him. The sanctity of life, the importance of marriage and family, sorting out gender issues, having meaningful work, why it is important to care for our environment but not worship it…. Genesis is an invitation to step out of the confusion of our contemporary culture to a firm foundation, a place that cannot be shaken.

As the Sermon on the Mount closes in Matthew 7 Jesus tells the story of two men. The wise man built his house on a rock. The foolish man built his on sand. When the storms of life came and the winds blew and beat against their houses, only the house built on the rock did not fall. Jesus went on to basically say, “That wise man is like a person who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice, he obeys Gods words, that man will not fall when all is shaken because his foundation is on the rock.”

I can promise you that if you build your life on the word of God, if you listen and heed it and put it into your life, when the storms of life come, you may be shaken but you will still be standing because you are on the rock.