Talking to Snakes

When I read the story of the Fall in Genesis 3, there’s always been something that strikes me as a little odd about Eve and her initial response to the serpent. When he sidled up to her and began to talk, Moses seems to report that Eve’s answer was calm and gracious (albeit ultimately flawed.) There was no surprise or fear on her part that a snake was talking to her! She just calmly began engaging the old Devil in conversation and, of course as we all know, things went downhill from there.

But why wasn’t Eve shocked that an ANIMAL was TALKING to her? Apparently, this wasn’t a big deal to her.

I like to toy with the idea that maybe it wasn’t a surprise to her because talking snakes were normal in the Garden. Maybe pre-Fall snakes could talk?! Maybe all animals could talk? Maybe this is part of what we lost when Eve and Adam sinned, an ability to commune more deeply with the other creatures God had made.

Last week during the Bible study I’m leading, we were talking about Genesis and specifically the story of the Fall when I mentioned my thoughts on this. The lady sitting next to me – a lovely elderly lady – looked at me and said very quietly, “Well, she was innocent. She had nothing to be afraid of yet.”

Wow.

What a great insight. This has set me going down a whole different line of thought.

Eve, sans sin, had nothing to be afraid of because she knew and trusted her good and loving Creator-God. She knew He only had good in store for her. Everything she discovered must have been delightful. Any change to her “status-quo” in the Garden was only seen as the next blessing from her Father’s hands to hers.

That’s not usually my experience when new things come into my life, how about you? Even changes that are “good”, I generally have trouble handling. Like The Boy and The Girl getting married last year. I couldn’t have asked for anything better – right timing, wonderful girl, and terrific family. But still – the change was difficult for me.

Now E will be leaving soon for college – a school she really, really, wanted to attend that God has miraculously provided finances for, a school close enough for us to visit but far enough away for her to begin to learn how to be on her own.

Yet.

My heart is fearful as I think of scary situations and negative outcomes for her. My mind races forward, wondering how we will ever be able to continue to pay for her tuition after this first year. God has provided a way this year, but what about the next? And the next?

And there’s more. Job changes and opportunities, changes that come from aging (Yes, friends, your female body really does begin to drastically change at 40!), new seasons of married life, my baby growing into a teenager, friends moving away, new friends finding their way to us. It’s all good, but yet there’s a little tinge of fear in my heart these days that colors the edges of my vision, wanting things to stay the same, being comfortable in the known world around me and just a bit scared of what is to come.

In the Fall, it wasn’t God who changed, it was Man. God is still the good and loving Creator-God that He was in the Garden. It is my sinfulness, my natural enmity toward Him, (thank-you, Eve) that separates me from Him even as I strive to draw near, even as I know in all my striving and all my failings, that He is with me regardless. It is my close-fisted hands that fail to receive with joy and trust the blessings He offers.

So my prayer today is to be like Eve talking to a snake. To not be afraid of new things He brings into my life, to have open hands to receive change. And not just open hands, but hands cupped and ready to receive from Him his plan for my life to its fullest, brim-full hands, not losing one little drop.

Now, knowing what actually came out of Eve talking to the serpent in the Garden, this post may seem a little weird – a prayer to not be afraid of talking snakes! – but so goes the wanderings of my crooked little mind. Forgive the failings in theology or doctrine...

Blessings, bloggy friends!

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The Third Question…

The Bible study group I’m leading right now is in its third week. We’ve answered these two questions over the past two meetings:

• What is the Bible? The inspired, infallible, complete, word of God.
• What is the Bible about? Jesus, from start to finish.

The first question we answered by looking at our denomination’s statement of faith on the Bible.

The second question we answered by exploring some of the promises in the Old Testament that were later fulfilled by Christ in the New. We also took a look at how the stories of the Old Testament show us different facets of Christ. And we watched this video:

Portion of a sermon from Tim Keller, Redeemer Church NYC

Tonight we’ll look at a third question: “What is in the Old Testament?” We’ll discuss geography, storyline, and characters. But first we’ll talk a little about some typical views of God and compare that to what the Old Testament teaches. For example, here are three common “boxes” people put God in:

1. God is a benevolent, grandfatherly gentleman, always ready to pat us on the back and say, “Don’t worry, dear one. It doesn’t matter what you do, I will forgive you.” A German poet and journalist, Heinriche Heine (1797-1856), said this on his deathbed when asked by a priest if he thought God would forgive him of his sin, “Of course God will forgive me; that's his job.” The Russian Empress, Catherine the Great (1762-1796) actually beat him to the punch line, though, when she said, “I shall be an autocrat, that's my trade; and the good Lord will forgive me, that's his.”  Is God a forgiving God? Absolutely! But the Old Testament shows us a God who is also Holy (Isaiah 6:1-10) and Just (Psalm 89:14).
2. God created everything and now He’s just sitting back watching from a distance, if He watches at all. He doesn’t care about my day-to-day life, my decisions, my sufferings, my sin. This would be called a deist view of God. But in the Old Testament, we see a God who is intimately involved with His people, directing them, loving them, disciplining them…. He is a God who speaks, who writes, who commands. He is most definitely a personal God. He intervenes in history and nature to bring His purposes about. The stories that show this in the Old Testament are myriad and way to many to list here. But you could start with the story of Abraham’s call in Genesis 12 and just keep reading!
3. God is a tit-for-tat God. If I do this for Him, He’ll do that for me. If I pray, follow the rules, read my Bible, have my quiet time, God will make sure I don’t lose my job, that my children don’t rebel, and that my marriage doesn’t fail. Definitely in the Old Testament we see God telling His people if you will obey Me, I will bless you. But we see in Genesis 15, where God “cuts a covenant” with Himself, declaring it is up to Him alone to fulfill the promises to Abraham of land, off-spring, and a people through whom He would eventually bless all the nations. In the same way, we are shown in the New Testament that our salvation is not up to us, not up to the “works” we might perform to please God, but it is completely, from start to finish, from God. Even the faith we need to believe in Christ is a gift. (Ephesians 2:8).

What’s your view?

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What is the Bible?

Hope you've had a wonderful Sabbath day, friends! If you're here in the Sandhills of North Carolina, we had an absolutely spectacular day, didn't we? I was happy to spend a few hours outdoors at a local park, walking four miles with a friend, and then having a yummy lunch with our Life Group.

I've spent most of the afternoon working on the first week of a six week study I'm leading beginning this Tuesday. It's called "Unwrapping God's Gift: Understanding the Bible". I'm pretty excited about it. As always, I struggle with how to shrink down and clarify all the goodies I have swimming around in this fishbowl head of mine. Pray for me!

Each week's topic will be a question. This week's is What is the Bible? It's a question that is foundational to the rest of the study.  Putting it a little differently:

• Is the Bible a record of man reaching out to God?
• Or is the Bible a record of God reaching down to man?

Simply, is it man's word or is it God's? The answer is not only crucial to the gals' understanding of the material we'll be covering the remaining weeks, but it's critical to their understanding of themselves, God, and Jesus. 

Since I'm a member of a church belonging to the EFCA, I decided to take their Statement of Faith on the Bible and break it apart:

We believe that God has spoken in the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, through the words of human authors. As the verbally inspired Word of God, the Bible is without error in the original writings, the complete revelation of His will for salvation, and the ultimate authority by which every realm of human knowledge and endeavor should be judged. Therefore, it is to be believed in all that it teaches, obeyed in all that it requires, and trusted in all that it promises.

I'll leave you with a few facts that I'll be sharing as we get kicked off:

• The Bible contains 66 "books" divided up into two "Testaments", the Old and New.
• It was written by 40 different authors over a span of 1500 years.
• It was written on three different continents - Africa, Asia, and Europe.
• It was written in three different languages - Hebrew (OT), Greek (NT) and Aramaic (NT)
• Amazingly, all the books share a common storyline - the creation, fall, and redemption of God's people. 

I'll be blogging more about our lesson this week! Blessings!

Oh! Part of our homework will be to memorize the first ten books of the Bible. Want to join us?

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel

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40 Days

I've fallen about a week behind in my Bible reading plan that will get me through both the Old and New Testaments in 2010. In doing some catch-up work this morning, it struck me in 1 Samuel chapter 17 that, yet again, something happened over the course of 40 days. That prompted me to think about all the other "40 days" I've read about so far and to search for the ones that I've yet to get to. Here's the list:

Having to do with Noah: Genesis 7:4, Genesis 7:12, Genesis 7:17, Genesis 8:6
Having to do with Jacob/Joseph: Genesis 50:3
Having to do with Moses: Exodus 24:18, Exodus 34:28, Numbers 13:25 (also involves Caleb and Joshua), Numbers 14:34, Deuteronomy 9:9, Deuteronomy 9:11, Deuteronomy 9:18, Deuteronomy 9:25, Deuteronomy 10:10
Having to do with David: 1 Samuel 17:16
Having to do with Elijah: 1 Kings 19:8
Having to do with Ezekiel: Ezekiel 4:6
Having to do with Jonah: Jonah 3:4
Having to do with Jesus: Matthew 4:2, Mark 1:13, Luke 4:2, Acts 1:3

Hmm... Just seems interesting to me and might be a good place to settle for a personal Bible study for a few weeks.

Have a wonderful Wednesday out there!

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