GENESIS 3 – The Lost Dreamtime
After buying Mark the movie Olympus Has Fallen, I was surprised to see that Ashley Judd (who played the American President’s wife) was killed so quickly. With 95% of the movie still to go, I wondered how much the producers had to pay her, to play such as small part!
The Book of Genesis begins in a similar way. 
When we’re expecting the Creator to have a lot more to say about His Creation, it seems shocking to have things go so incredibly wrong after only ¼ of 1% of the total storyline in just three short chapters! As Indigenous Australians would say, this is the point at which we lost The Dreamtime, and life experience on Planet Earth has never been the same.
If this was a Play, it’s as if the Creator and Director is now out on center-stage asking His key players what just happened. [v8-11] With accusations being levelled firstly at the Playwright for His choices [v12], I wonder what’s been written between the lines. Then, in my mind’s eye, I hear a murmur stir from the audience as people around me begin to get up to leave. Feeling as though I’m in their way for staying in my seat as they squeeze past me in the dark, I whisper earnestly to those closest to me, “Wait. This can’t be it! There has to be more to the story than this!”
On the second day of this new year, you and I have a choice to make. We can leave now, or stay on for the Creator God’s Epic Play. If you stay, you’ll discover many twists and turns in the storyline as we journey through this year together.
But if you’re looking at the mess on the Creator’s decimated stage, and wondering Where’s God When Life’s So Hard?, I’ve found one thing sure: whatever’s wrong in HIStory, the Creator’s Right Hand carries the permanent solution to fix it! He may not fix the situation the way we expect, and it may be tempting to blame Him for the trouble we’re in – as “man” has done from the beginning. [v12a] But here’s the thing: with every page turned from this point on, and as every scene unfolds, the Creator is guaranteed to be doing something that’s truly out of this world!
So let’s start our journey of discovery together…
If you want to believe that a Creator God exists in the first place, then, looking at what He created will almost certainly indicate to you that He’s incredibly complex. Everything is connected in some way. Everything is important. And, every time you look at something at surface value, it’ll always have a hidden multi-layered context.
So, after the Creator God handed over the ruler-ship of all created creatures (including ruling over the serpent), by giving His authority to His human image-bearers in Chapter 1; and after He proved this authority by allowing the man to name the animals (including naming the serpent) in chapter 2; the Creator God’s Dreamtime was meant to tick along nicely. With unrestricted access to the Tree of Life, The Dreamtime should have gone on indefinitely. However, the “spanner in the works” was the serpent.
The appearance of the character of the serpent on centre stage in Act 1, is actually part of a pre-existing problem that one of the angels had with his Creator God. Throughout this epic storyline, this particular serpent is called satan. Some people from earlier centuries have called him, the Angel Lucifer. And, although that name doesn’t appear in modern English translations of the Bible, he’s as real as God is. In other words, if you believe that there is a Creator God, then you have to believe HIStory – in this case, that satan is an angel who once reflected God’s light but he lost his high position.[a] From start to finish satan’s been the deceiver and father of lies[b] who deceives in order to destroy.[c]
So, Act 1 Scene 3 holds a lot of information for us that will become important later as we make our way through the Creator God’s Handbook to Life on Planet Earth. To begin, there’s ten puzzle pieces that we can lay out on the table from today’s chapter…
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Satan exists, he’s incredibly crafty BUT he’s only a created being. [v1]
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Eve got her “second-hand information” tumbled up. And, instead of turning back to her Father God for clarity and direction, she moved forward with actions based on doubt and doubtful information. [v2-3]
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Adam stood by listening and watching [v6b] instead of taking command. They were both specifically designed to rule over every living creature that moves on the ground[d]. Therefore, both should have ruled over their situation, instead of allowing a subordinate creature to lead them.
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Shame/guilt, sub-standard “DIY fix-up jobs”, and an immediate break in relationship with Father God, all result directly from doubt and disobedience. [v8-10]
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Blame follows shame. Adam blames the choices of both Eve and Father God, while Eve blames the snake. [v12-13]
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God’s judgement wasn’t designed to curse His image-bearers that He fathered. He cursed satan and the ground (the dirt or dust) but all other negative results were only natural consequences caused by the Lost Dreamtime. [v14-19]
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With that said, Father God’s mercy immediately comes to the rescue. Although the man will have to work by the sweat of his brow all the days of his life [v17-19], women will only have pain periodically – in child birth. [v16] Although man will rule over the woman, her desire will be for her husband – thus protecting the family unit. Along with this, an immediate and a long-term course of action is set in motion. [v15b]
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The first clue to the long-term and permanent course of action is like a diamond that’s woven on the fabric of HIStory: “And I will put enmity …between your seed and the offspring of the woman seed; HE shall crush your head, and you shall bruise HIM on the heel.” [v15]
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Then the love and undying compassion of The Source of All Life forces Him to take life. With the first animal sacrifice – in His now less-than-perfect world – Father God clothes and protects His image-bearers to help their predicament. [v21] This however, is the first death and who will pay for this sacrifice? By this death and the catalogue of successive deaths, an equal blood for blood payment will now be due.
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Thinking now of their eternal protection, Father God sends them away to safeguard humanity against eating from the Tree of Life. The tree that they had full access to previously[e], would now work adversely so that we’d be knowing/experiencing [v4] never-ending evil, as well as good. [v22-24]
Today’s chapter ends with Father God placing cherubim (a type of angel) with a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way back, but the plot only thickens from here. Three small chapters into HIStory, our Father God now embarks on an epic journey to save humanity – His children and images of Himself. He doesn’t stop until He pushes through, under the most shocking of conditions, until He brings history – HIStory – and humanity with it, right through to the Book of Revelation.
Make no mistake, this is the beginning of an unprecedented love story like no other in the history of humankind. The Creator God so loved the whole world that He wished for none to perish but for all may have ETERNAL LIFE.[f]
CLICK to return to today’s “Daily Breadcrumbs”
[a] Isaiah 14:12 and Luke 10:18
[b] John 8:44
[c] 1 Peter 5:8
[d] Genesis 1:28b
[e] Genesis 2:9,16-17
[f] John 3:16