Bad People/Good God

By: Adam Thomas

I received a phone call from my mother this week. As she made her way through Genesis in her bible reading plan she noticed a disturbing trend. She asked me to help her understand it. The main characters in Genesis seem to have lives full of sin and yet God continues to bless these people. This theme in Genesis is one that has troubled me in the past. It comes from our tendency to look for the good and the bad guys in the story. However, if we read Genesis in this way it can be confusing. The real over arching theme in Genesis is not about good people and bad people but rather bad people with a good God. It starts in Genesis 3 with the fall and it’s like a broken record that plays out throughout the rest of the book of Genesis and through our lives as well. Cain is a murderer. Noah got drunk which led to a strange sinful encounter with his sons that we are not even clear on. Abraham offers his wife to a foreign king only to have the pagan king teach him a lesson on morality. Lot is captivated by a city so heinous that God destroyed it with sulfur from heaven. Isaac was a father with favoritism planting strife between his sons. Jacob was at trickster who cheated others out of what he wanted. Then there is Joseph, finally an upright man that seems to always walk obediently the difficult path that God lays out for him. But Genesis closes with his funeral. We see in Genesis a merciful God that works his purpose out through sinful people. Even the best and most Godly among man in the end still dies because he is of our cursed race. Genesis ultimately shows us our desperate need of Christ. Because he was a man he faced temptation and won but because he was the God-man he was able to face death and win. I am excited about the coming year as we study Genesis and are humbled by the broken record of sin playing over and over in all of our lives and overjoyed by the savior who through redemption sets the song playing right again.