The Story: A Spectacular Drama

Looking at the Bible as a spectacular drama changes one's perspective.  There are some 'boring moments', but by in large each scene keeps you on the edge of your seat. Looking at it from a 'drama' perspective ... for the actors and drama to pull us into the story line, a stage is essential.   

In the first chapter of Genesis, God makes us privy to the design of His stage ... each day He adds a little more ... until the last day of the week--there are trees, oceans, birds, animals of all kinds, butterflies, fruits and nuts.  It must have been spectacular.  Only after God has fashioned the stage, does he introduce the actors.

In Genesis 2 God fashioned one actor ... fashioned after himself--self-consciousness, but not consciousness like animals have, but self-consciousness.  He has personality, rationality, intelligence, and creativity that really sets him apart from the rest of God's works.  Not only is Adam distinctly different from the rest of creation, according to Psalm 8, he is made just a little lower than God, but higher than angels who presently dwell in the very presence of God.  And God gives Adam dominion over all His works--all the animals, all the birds, all the fish ... over everything.

Following Adam's creation, in Genesis 2 we learn that God designs and plants a garden, not a little garden like we might have in our back yards, but a huge garden ... actually a spectacular garden that stretches for miles.  In the center of the garden there appears to have been a mountain, giving one a vast view of the garden in every direction.  Out of the ground God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to look at, and good to eat.  Along with the the vegetation that God planted in the garden two very special trees.  One was called 'the tree of life', and there was called 'the tree of the knowledge of good and evil'.  Both trees appear to have been planted in the middle of the garden.  

It would appear that Adam watched while God designed and planted the garden.  When it was done, God 'put' Adam into the garden with a grand assignment--cultivate it, and 'guard' it.  That is going to be a lot of work.  It's a tropical setting ... plants grow fast.  The garden is lush with every kind of greenery.  There is a lot of cultivating for one man!  But what about 'guarding it'? Is there hidden danger?  Is there a hint of a 'plot' beginning to unfold?

While instructing Adam about 'caring for the garden', he was specifically told that he could eat everything in the garden ... except 'the tree of the knowledge of good and evil'.   It's fruit was the only fruit in the garden that Adam was instructed not to eat.  In fact, God was adamant about not eating the fruit of this tree.  He told Adam specifically, "in the day you eat the fruit of this specific tree ... you will surely die."  God was adamant about this tree.

We have a stage, we have one actor, and the beginnings of the plot to the drama ... well Adam eat from this tree?

The Story: Before The Beginning

We love The Story ... God's Story ... filled with the lives people who have 'walked with God' since the 'beginning of time' ... written to teach and encourage us so that we who follow Christ will persevere and not give up [Romans 15:4].  The Story begins simple enough: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1). 

That brings us to Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

I find it interesting that God begins, not with an explanation of Himself. He starts simply with “in the beginning.” But we are told about some things that were put into place before ‘the beginning’.

1.     Before creation, God laid out our Salvation--1Peter 1:20-21 “He (Jesus) was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.”  We belonged to God before time began. 

2.     Before creation, God was electing His people--Ephesians 1:4, "According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love." before the foundation of the world, and therefore completely apart from any merit or deserving that any person could have, God chose us in Him, “in Christ” (v. 3).

3.     Before creation, God was preparing a kingdom for us--Matthew 24:34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.” 

4.     Before creation, God Promised Eternal Life –Titus 1:2^(NASB95) in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago

He tells us enough … He had a plan before it all started.  It’s a grand drama filled with ‘on-the-edge-of-your-seat’ moments, followed by moments of stillness when nothing seems to be happening at all.  Dramas need a stage.  So in Genesis 1-2 God builds a grand stage from which action unfolds with eternal consequences.  This drama is one of a kind, it pulls the observer into the action.  At times we become one with the actors, seeing the ups-and-downs of our own lives.  Its funny, its sad, its boring.  At the end of each scene you sit before leaving the theater … because the scenes force each of us to reflect on our own lives.

This is The Story, God’s Story … written so that we won’t give up.