And then morning came... (Genesis 1:1-25)

I had a very hard time trying to decide how to resume this blog. Finally, I fell back on the old adage: the best place to begin is at the beginning. Genesis has long been one of my favorite books of the Bible. When I was a kid, it was because of some of the cool stories (talking snakes, a boat full of animals, come on!) As I went through seminary, it became more important to me because it realized how so many of the grand theological themes of the Bible are laid out in Genesis. I think it's fair to say Genesis serves as a foundational text for Christians. This is not to say that it is more important than the Gospels. Rather, the Gospel story of the Christ is the crowning achievement of what Genesis inaugurates. Genesis cannot supplant the Gospel, but it can certainly support and enrich it. All that being said, when I re-read through the first twenty-five verses, what struck me was blatantly un-exigetical. This post is a devotional thought. Nothing more, nothing less. If one were so inclined, it probably wouldn't be too difficult to find fault with the reasoning. Nonetheless, it seems to ring true to larger narrative of Scripture and of our lives. We'll see what you think. It occurs to me that each time God created something, he saw that it was "good." The text tells us as much (1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25) What it doesn't tell us, however, was what I can only assume was implied..."this was good...but God had something better coming." It occurs to me that this is a lesson that's been lost on me many times in life. I reach a point of comfort--be it in a relationship, a job, a city I'm living in, or what have you--and things seem "good." I am quite upset, then, when something happens to disrupt this goodness. When the friendship sours, or the job ends other than I would have wished, or I have to move away. It is at these times that I experience another truth of Genesis. You will notice that after each one of these creative acts proclaimed "good," there was an evening. Perhaps this detail doesn't have much impact on we who live in the age of "cities that never sleep" of electric light...of 24 hour Wal-Mart service...but I wonder what the night time must have represented to the first hearers of the Genesis story. Wasn't night the time of danger? The time when thieves broke in to steal? The time when the wild beasts came nearest to menace family and flock? Yet just as the text tells us that the evening came, it was just as surely followed by another morning. And not only that--it was followed by another morning, with another good thing. This, the story that morning will always come for the Children of God, seems to me to be a fundamental message of Scripture. It's not a simple one to be sure. This is not of the same ilk as modern day "prophets" who would tell us that suffering is in our head, or that the cancer failed to go away for lack of our faith, or some other such rot gut. The God of Genesis does not deny the reality of the evening. He simply refuses to be bound by it. He will not allow it have the final word. Of course, this is the same theological story as we meet on another evening many years later...in a garden called Gethsemane. The evening fell...and with it, the "good" that had seemed so promising was lost. Not only for one day...but for three. Yet in the end, God demonstrated in His most spectacular fashion ever that even if morning tarries, in the end it will always come for those who fear God.

Heart Problems

The book of Proverbs intones: Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. – Prov. 4:23 Tragically, the Judah of Jeremiah’s day failed to attend this most basic instruction.

Despite being murderers, idolaters, thieves, deceivers, (etc.), it would seem that God considered Judah’s fundamental problem to be one of the heart. Five times in this chapter, He addresses the people’s “heart problem.”

Plow up the hard ground of your hearts! – Jer. 4:3
…surrender your pride and power. Change your hearts before the LORD. – Jer. 4:4
…put on clothes of mourning and weep with broken hearts… - Jer. 4:8
…cleanse your heart that you may be saved. – Jer. 4:14
Your own actions have brought this upon you. This punishment is bitter, piercing you to the heart! – Jer. 4:18

Jeremiah was desperately pleading with his people to let God break the shells they had constructed around their hearts to hide their sins and protect them from godly criticism and amendment. As I reflect on the message of this text, I recognize that there is such a shell around my own heart. Like the ancient Judeans, I say that I want God to use me and be present in my life; But is that even possible? What can God really do with an unmalleable heart? What can anyone do with people who refuse to change. How do you teach someone who has already made the decision that they do not want to learn what you’re trying to teach them?

It is far too tempting for us to dismiss our heart problems as regrettable—but not life-threatening. I have frequently heard chronic sin in Christian lives (my own included) excused with the refrain: “Well, what’s it gonna’ hurt? That’s just [insert name here] being [insert name here].” According to Jeremiah—quite literally, everything.

If we repeatedly refuse to address our heart problems, at some point, God will step in and address those problems for us. In Jeremiah 4:23-26, He announced to the people of Judah:

I looked at the earth,
And it was empty and formless.
I looked at the heavens,
And there was no light.
I looked at the mountains and hills,
And they trembled and shook.
I looked, and all the people were gone.
All the birds of the sky had flown away.
I looked, and the fertile fields had become a wilderness.
The towns lay in ruins, crushed by the LORD’s fierce anger.
-- Jer. 4:23-26

Discussion Question:

1. Is there anything significant about the destruction imagery Jeremiah uses in 4:23-26? (Hint: Compare this language to Genesis 1)
2. In what (if any) ways are you hard-hearted?
3. What reason(s) might God have for telling the people to “put on clothes of mourning and weep with broken hearts?” (4:8) Is there anything good that can come of mourning and being broken?
4. Who was responsible for bringing this destruction upon Judah?