Sunday School Episode 2: Pioneers in the Garden

Welcome back to my Sunday School series geared for the kid’s Sunday School and new believers. If you missed the introduction in episode one click here to read the first lesson. Otherwise what better place is there to start when teaching the Bible than where it all began?

In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth. Genesis 1:1 Simple and to the point. Now be good Sunday School goers, and do your homework. Read the whole chapter or you’ll be lost. While you’re at it you might as well read over Chapter 2 if you’re an overachiever. You done? Good, now let’s get into the meat of the matter. This is God’s creation. He made every part of the earth, and he made this place for his own purposes. He called his creation good. God didn’t call it perfect. Before we get into that detail let me make this clear. Creation was very good. Very desirable, and well made. Which is why we read repeated statements about how good the creation was and the final statement in Genesis 1:31: “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” So wonderful was God’s masterpiece that his enemies would covet creation for themselves, but that’s another lesson we will get to in the coming weeks. However, as good as creation was, the world was not perfect. Eden was the idyllic Garden, but as can be seen in Chapter 2 and hinted at in Genesis 1 we see that the Garden of Eden was a small section of creation where God walked physically in the world he’d created. We can also see that this wasn’t the final intended state of creation. God had more plans in mind for the world and his created children. And God blessed (man and woman). And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:28 We are commanded by God to fill his creation to be “Fruitful and multiply” so we then can “subdue”, and take “dominion” over the earth. This word, which was pronounced something like kaw-bash (kāḇaš), was mostly used in regards to conquest and war. The other incidents where the word was used the meaning was close to crushing under foot, enslaving people against their will, and possibly sexual assault in Esther case when Hamman was begging for his life. (Esther 7:8, Nehemiah 5:5, Jeremiah 34:11) Question 1: Just like when trying to translate English into Mandarin or French into Swahili meaning is often lost. How do you think this can change the meaning of verses in the Bible being translated into English? Let’s not get distracted. Not everyone finds ancient languages exciting so I’ll get to the point. Man was created to dominate the world, and bring creation into the Kingdom of Heaven both as our inheritance, and as our charge from God. We were made as both warriors and builders meant to tame the wilds and chaotic nature till through us and God’s power and will all of creation became like the Garden of Eden. If I can make things more pop culture for our modern minds, God made a beautiful wilderness, and made pioneers and cowboys to tame his creation. I don’t know why he chose to make the world this way, but this is how he created the world. Perhaps the nature of building something so complex necessitated the chaos and wilds. Maybe he designed it as a test for humanity. Regardless, God doesn’t elaborate on these motivations. Let this be a secondary lesson to go along with our primary lesson. What we know about the world, and God’s plans is clouded and murky. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:12 We look through a glass darkly as Paul says. God is the master of creation, the Earth, and the Heavens. You are a servant. Does the janitor know what strategy the Chief of Staff has for a surprise invasion from Mexico in the White House? Of course not, so naturally we aren’t meant to know everything. Not yet anyway. So don’t trust anyone who pretends to know everything about the cosmos. We don’t know, and what we do know can be misinterpreted. Hang in there. Things aren’t so chaotic. God is fighting a war which we will touch on in the next lesson. God can’t tell every private or lowly cook what his strategy is, and none of the low ranked should expect to know the plan and purpose till after the need for secrecy ends. Just like how a soldier crossing the Delaware didn’t need to know why Washington was making his surprise attack only that he was called to task to see the battle through. Of course today we know why the old general needed a victory to raise morale, and the timing was perfect to catch the Hessians during their drunken stupor. Like that, as Paul said in the above verse, God will tell us the whys and the hows. Question 2: Have you met people with “main character” mentality? Someone who was sure they were the center of the universe? Did you enjoy being around them? Here we come to the central point of our first lesson. God made creation, and made us with a specific purpose. We were made to dominate creation, and bring her into the Kingdom of Heaven taming nature and all the chaos there in. We are both conqueror and caretaker for the Lord’s Vineyard, and one day he will come knocking for the goods produced therein. Not everyone will like the idea that the Lord has laid claim to the entirety of his creation as we will see in next week’s lesson on the rebellion against God. For now remember why you were created. You are a pioneer. You are a cowboy. You are sent into a chaotic world to bring order. To subdue. To dominate nature and creation. This is not a commune full of hippie dippie flower children in Paradise, but a castle full crusaders come to fulfill their Lord’s will on Earth. This is a story of men with their wives, and families braving the wilderness, and building paradise as commanded by their creator. Without God no paradise would be made, but he chose to make servants to see his will done on this world. Much like a master potter at the wheel finishing a pot, and then calling an apprentice to fill in the details God has made a beautiful creation that now needs the rougher edges smoothed over. That’s where we come in. To sum up, God created nature in all its chaotic glory. He then formed man and his helper woman to multiply, and then dominate creation. To bring paradise to all of the world, and not just in Eden. God’s vineyard is planted, but like many of you know not all would go according to plan. Not everyone liked the idea of God’s children dominating creation, and we will explore all of those connotations in the next lesson. Question 3: Was this view on creation, and the role of mankind, new to you? If so does it change your view of the Bible? Why or why not? Thanks for reading!

Click here for Episode Three.

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