(August 28, 2024) Dr Jim McClure succinctly shares some great truths…

I love reading.

And recently I was reading a book by one of my favourite authors and was quite enjoying it until I got to the end when I felt quite frustrated for the ending was so abrupt. It seemed that the author had run out of ideas about how to conclude his story.

A great story has a beginning which sets the scene, a middle that centres on the main theme, and an end which draws it all together.

This article is the first ‘Chapter’ of three in a series which I am calling The Greatest Story and  it is based on a book on that was written over a few thousands of years by around 40 writers. It contains history, philosophy, poetry and religion. It is a story of love and hatred, humility and pride, heroism and cowardice, generosity and greed. It reveals some of the best characteristics of people and some of the worst. All the various parts of the story blend together to uncover truly the greatest story ever told.

We call this book the ‘Bible.’  While there are many amazing individuals depicted in this story, the central character is God! It contains many frightening warnings and wonderful promises. This incomparable book is not a work of fiction. It is true from beginning to end!

There are three main components to every story — a beginning, a middle and an end. Our theme here is about beginnings so, appropriately, we begin with the first verse in the Bible — Genesis 1:1, ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.’

1. Creation
(a) ‘In the beginning God …’ (Genesis 1:1) 

• Those words do not mean that God had a beginning.
• Before time began, God existed.
• God is not limited by time —  He is eternal.

I know that it is difficult for our minds to try to grasp what that means because our very existence is understood in the context of time. Our lives are dominated by it. There is a time to be born, a time to die, a time to go to bed and a time to get up, a time to work and a time to relax, and so on.

We live in a time capsule but God doesn’t!

He exists outside the limitations of time and space. God has had no beginning nor will He have an end! He was not created, He has always existed! If you find this hard to grasp, so do I. I agree that this is something that is beyond the ability of our minds to understand or to explain. But the bottom line is that God is eternal.

(b) ‘God created the heavens and the earth’ (Genesis 1:1)
The Bible quite unambiguously states that God was the source of this creation. The whole universe did not happen by accident. God alone brought it into being.

Of course, there are those who want to write God out the whole creation process. Many contemporary cosmologists tell us that the origin and evolution of the universe began billions of years ago with a massive explosion which resulted in the formation of the stars and galaxies. We are told that an inexplicably tiny dot containing everything somehow exploded and flung it all into space, thereby creating all the stars and planets including earth.

However, the first words of the Bible, ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’, refer to the beginning of time when the material universe came into existence and tell us who made it come into existence.

That was the starting point of the greatest story ever told.God then made the living creatures that inhabit the earth.

(c) ‘Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness”’ (Genesis 1:26)  
Following the creation of the universe and the earth that was designed for the habitation of life in its various forms,  our story as humans begins.

When God made Adam and then Eve, He placed them in a perfect environment with everything they needed. What a uniquely great opportunity they had! They were living in a flawless world in a close relationship with a loving Creator.

Could anything spoil their perfect environment? Could anything intrude upon their happiness? Sadly, the answer to that question is, ‘Yes.’ 

2. Corruption
Adam and Eve had been given a simple instruction from God — do not eat the fruit from a certain tree that was in the middle of the garden! But they deliberately choose to ignore that advice. Instead they decided to follow the deceitful advice of Satan, and that was when the world, as they knew it, began to fall apart. At that point disobedience to God and corruption grasped the human spirit as our self-determination clashed with God’s will.

Ever since that time corruption has found a ready response in humanity and disobedience to God became a lifestyle. From that time people have continued to think that the know better than God. We have been deceived to think that fulfillment in life is found in self-satisfaction and in the acquisition of material things and that we can live perfectly well without a God interfering with how we live.

From that original deception, corruption increased rapidly among men and women and eventually evil was rampant on the earth as the human population grew and spread. In Genesis 6:5-6 we read, ‘The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that He had made man on the earth, and His heart was filled with pain.’ 

But, in the midst of this spiritual degeneration there was one man, Noah, who loved God and lived with integrity. God instructed him to build an ark in which he and his family would survive the flood that He was going to send. However, the flood did not eradicate human corruption which continued to increase throughout the generations.

3. Called people
God did not give up on the humanity. In order to reach out to the world, He established a new nation.

About 4000 years ago God called Abraham, who lived in the area we now call Iraq, to worship, love and serve Him and eventually to reveal His message to a lost and floundering humanity. Abraham was instructed to leave his home and go to another land that God promised to give to his descendants. That land included present-day Israel, the West Bank, Gaza and Jordan.

Abraham was accompanied by his nephew Lot, who settled in the fertile and beautiful area near the Jordan river. However, despite its scenic beauty, the ugliness of moral corruption had particularly captured the population of two towns, Sodom and Gomorrah, where godlessness and homosexuality were rampant. Because of the excessive wickedness of the inhabitants of those two cities, God totally destroyed them by brimstone and fire.

Over the years that followed, Abraham’s family grew considerably. His grandson Jacob was renamed ‘Israel’ by God. The word ‘Israel’ means ‘struggle with God.’  Over the centuries that have followed, Jacob’s descendants also have had their struggles. History gives graphic details  of the intense challenges and obstructions the people of Israel have experienced and their very existence has often been threatened.

They were uniquely chosen by God, not because they were better than everyone else, but to perform a particular task — to reveal God’s message of love, righteousness, truth and salvation to a violent and corrupt world.

In Isaiah 49:6 we read that God told the people of Israel, ‘I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.’

Despite their repeated failings, there were some who fulfilled their special calling. In the courageous examples of their faith-filled lives, and through their God-inspired writings, we have received the written ‘Word of God’ in what we call the ‘Old Testament.’ We are indebted to those ‘called people’ whom God used to reveal Himself and His message to humanity. Those faithful people have played a significant role in the ‘Greatest Story Ever Told.’

4. Commandments
While Jacob and his family were living in Canaan, famine forced them to leave and go to Egypt. Initially all the Israelites were welcomed and treated well by the Egyptians. But many years later, as the Egyptians felt threatened by the increase of the number of Israelites among them, they made them slaves. To reduce their number, Pharaoh demanded that their baby boys be thrown into the Nile.

One baby survived that instruction when his mother put her son into a basket and placed him on the River Nile. By divine intervention Pharaoh’s daughter saw the basket, rescued the child from the river, felt sorry for him, gave him the name ‘Moses’ and reared him as her son in the palace.

Many years later Moses had to leave Egypt after killing an Egyptian who had been beating an Israelite and, for the next 40 years, he lived the life of a shepherd looking after His father-in-law’s sheep. But one unforgettable day Moses had an encounter with God that radically affected his own life and also changed the course of history. On that unique day, God unexpectedly revealed Himself to Moses in a burning bush and he was given the task of leading the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt.

Moses returned to Egypt, challenged Pharaoh and eventually led the Hebrews (also called ‘Israelites’), out of their captivity. Their journey back to the Promised Land through the wilderness was a difficult and lasted 40 years. Many events shaped those people as a nation during those days but one event particularly had a very significant influence not only on them but ultimately on the world and it is still powerfully relevant today.

One day on Mount Sinai God gave to Moses  an amazing summary of the ten most important values by which humanity should live. They were set out for us simply and unambiguously — the ten basic commandments that are relevant for every generation.

The first four instructions are about having and keeping a right relationship with God, and the remaining six commandments centre on our relationships with each other. Those 10 basic, God-given commandments were given to us to provide the guidelines  for living. They were not given as suggestions, or recommendations, or proposal — they are ‘commandments’ given by God for all humanity that from the very beginning has had the inclination to live according to its own changeable and often foolish choices!

5. Current Scene
The Old Testament, which is the beginning of ‘The Greatest Story’, sets the scene by revealing that the moral condition of our world, that is, the hostility, violence, hatred, lies and greed, began by humankind’s rejection of God’s clear direction. From that first act of rebellion as depicted in the opening chapters of Genesis, has flowed an ongoing rebellion against God and all that He has revealed.

In these days, we are seeing an acceleration of that denial of God and rejection of His divine authority. God’s name is used as a swearword. His Word is dismissed and He is mocked. When God is rejected from society, the standards that hold it together disintegrate and the result is confusion, hatred and violence.

How evident is this in today’s world. Let me give you an example. When the Christian message was originally largely embraced by the Western world, not everyone became Christians, but biblical values were mainly acknowledged as valued guidelines for living.

However, in just a few decades, those values have not only been rejected but have been derided and reversed. For example, the precious symbol of the rainbow, which signified God’s grace and new hope for a world corrupted by sin, has been hijacked to declare a message that is wholly opposed to the values that God has clearly revealed. Those values have been largely rejected in today’s rainbow culture. Instead, the popular version of the rainbow symbol reveals spiritual chaos, a reversal of values, human perversion and mockery of God.

How disgustingly evident that was at the opening ceremony of the Olympics when  homosexuality, transgenderism and pornography were presented as something to be celebrated. And Christianity was ridiculed with a drag show performance of the Last Supper that Jesus shared with His disciples before He was arrested and crucified. That vile demonstration was truly a mockery of God… and, as Galatians 6:7 states, ‘God is not mocked.’  Or, as the Good News Bible renders this verse, ‘Do not deceive yourselves; no one makes a fool of God. You will reap exactly what you plant.’

How much we need to ask for God’s mercy and to pray that He will send revival into our increasingly evil world that is rapidly rushing towards chaos!

The ‘Beginning’ of the ‘Greatest Story’ has graphically displayed the confusion and human degradation caused by sin and it continues to be evident today. But that is not all that ‘The Greatest Story’ reveals.

6. Confident Promise
If human failure were the complete story of the Old Testament, the future would look bleak indeed. But the Old Testament also reveals something even more powerful than human sinfulness. Woven throughout that narrative we discover the strong affirmation of the steadfastness of a loving God who continually wants to draw humankind back into fellowship with Himself.

Our God is a God who forgives. In Lamentations 3:22-23ESV, we read these wonderful words, ‘The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.’ What a wonderful affirmation— ‘The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.’  In the chaos caused by human rejection of God and rebellion against God, He never stops loving us and seeks to draw us to Himself.

The Old Testament prophets foretold that there was more to come! They give hints of how God was going to deal with that chaos provoked by Satan and how God planned to draw men and women back into a loving relationship with Himself.

The beginning segment of ‘The Greatest Story’, that is, the Old Testament, ends with a hint of things to come. In the final chapter of the Book of Malachi we read this promise from God, ‘But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall’ (Malachi 4:2).

The Old Testament record is just the beginning of the story – there is much more to come. And with the benefit of hindsight we know that Jesus Christ came in fulfillment of God’s promised rescue of humanity. Hallelujah!

Chapter 2 — The Middle — follows next week.
___________________________________________
Dr Jim McClure, author of several books and Bible studies, offers them free in electronic version in EPUB, Kindle and PDF formats.

Looking for Answers in a Confusing World is particularly recommended.

Questions seeking enlightenment on biblical perspectives are welcomed. Link: jbmcclure@gmail.com
 ____________________________________________