The Biblical Overture

 

I know it may be hard to believe but, now that our critique of Vignette #9 has been completed, Act 1, Scene 1 of God’s One Big Story has finally come to an end.  We have spent a considerable amount of time on this scene because the part of the Bible that is presented here–covering the first eleven chapters in Genesis–is one of the most important parts of the entire Bible Story.  Some of the reasons for this are…

• • It introduces us to the sovereign God of the Universe;
  • It explains how He brought the Earth and Mankind into being, and how it and we got into the mess that we’re in;
  • It presents, either in literal or figurative form, a number of the Main Characters of the Story; and,
  • It serves as the Overture for the rest of the Story, that is set to begin soon in Act 1, Scene 2.

So, in preparation for that next scene, let’s take a few moments to review each of these four important points.

 

The Introduction of God

Our introduction to God began back in The Curtain Rises on Vignette #1, with the very first verse in the Bible…

…In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth… 

…and from this very brief but powerful verse, we learned some key pieces of information about the Being who is both the Author and the Main Character of the Book…

• • From Elohim, the name used for Him here, we learned that God is a Trinity of Three Unique Persons who are united in One Divine Purpose;
  • From His appearance in our Story before the existence of anyone or anything else, we learned that God is Pre-existent and Eternal—that He was Before all Things, Over all Things, and the Originator of all Things; and,
  • From the things that He does, we learned that God is All-Powerful, All-Knowing, and Present Everywhere at All Times. 

Then, during the rest of this chapter, we learned that…

• • God created everything from nothing;
  • He executes His will through His spoken Word;
  • He evaluates or makes judgments about everything He makes;
  • He orders, organizes, and controls everything—even the darkness and chaos; and,
  • He has the power and will to bless the things that He makes.

The Creation of Earth and Man

As for God’s Creation of the Earth, we also learned in that Vignette that this was accomplished in a very orderly and systematic way over the course of six days, with Him…

• • …during the first three days, calling into being the Kingdoms of Light and Darkness, Sky and the Sea, and the Land; and,
  • …during the last three days, making and creating the Rulers over those Kingdoms in the forms of the Sun, Moon, Stars, Fish, Fowl, and Animals.  

In Between the Vignettes, we learned that this massive undertaking—done with such precision and attention to detail—was for the sole purpose of providing Man, The Capstone of God’s Creation, with an ideal place to live.

Then, in Another Learning Interlude, we learned that once He had their earthly home ready, God set about the task of Creating the Man and Woman who would be living there; fashioning them into male and female beings so much like Himself that they could readily be adopted as His children. But, when we got to the Fundamentals of the Fall, we discovered that just looking like God was not going to be enough to guarantee their adoption into His Family–Man and Woman would have to be Holy like God—something that would only happen if they maintained their innocence in the face of testing.  Unfortunately for them, for the earth, and for us—they failed, and with disastrous results.

 

 

The Characters Presented

Up to this point in our Story, our Cast of Characters consisted of…

God the Father;
God, the Word who, according to John 1:1 and 1:14, is the Son, Jesus Christ;
God the Holy Spirit; and,
Man and Woman.

But with the testing of Adam and Eve, another very shadowy Character made his way onto our Stage.  Initially appearing in the guise of the serpent who tempted the first Man and Woman into sinning, he was none other than Satan—aka Lucifer, the Devil, and the dragon mentioned in Revelation 20:2.

Although he has remained largely invisible, Satan’s activity in and influence upon our Story has been evident throughout it.  As we learned in…

The Fruit of the Fall,
Sowing, Reaping, and the Nature of the Trees,
Fruit Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree, and
Closing the Case on Cain and Abel…

…he was, in no doubt, instrumental in inciting Cain to murder his righteous brother, Abel, and in Cain’s refusal to repent.

As a result, Patterns of Generational Sin and Patterns of Conflict Between the Righteous and the Wicked were established which would go on to wreak havoc in all future generations—something that was made evident to us in…

Our Lineup to the Flood,
Searching for Truth in the First Book of Begats,
But Noah…
Obedience Doesn’t Come Cheap, and
The Washing of the World…

…where life on the earth had become so corrupt that God decided it must be destroyed with a universal Flood.

Later on, in…

A New World, An Old Nature, 
Blessing, Cursing, and Big Time Rebellion, and
More Blessing, Cursing, and Big Time Rebellion…

 …we witnessed Satan’s reappearance on our Stage, initially in the person of Nimrod, the first incarnation of the Antichrist in our Story; and then as the power behind the creation of Mystery Babylon, the spiritual Harlot of false religion who would eventually lure the nations of the world away from worshipping the one true God and into worshipping Satan himself.

 

 

The Overture of the Story

Before our production of God’s One Big Story began, we learned from All the World’s a Stage—and Life Its Cosmic Drama that the device used in its presentation was going to be the same type of “story-within-a story” device so often used in the works of William Shakespeare.  For our purposes, this meant that the stories of real people recorded in the Bible were going to be used by God to tell more than one story. In addition to the Earthly Level Story being recounted, elements from each individual story were going to be used to help tell the Prophetic Story that would be taking place on a Heavenly Level.  In Act 1, Scene 1, this meant that every event from the Creation of the World to the Rebellion at Babel, and the subsequent division of the people into Nations, would have its spiritual level parallel that would form a theme or motif that would be reappearing later in the Story.

This idea will become easier for us to grasp if we think of the first eleven chapters of Genesis as the Overture to the entire Bible.  In much the same way that an overture introduces the musical themes that will be repeated throughout an opera or play, Genesis 1-11 introduces us to the spiritual themes that will be played out in the rest of the Bible Story.

For example…

• • In the story of Creation, we are given a picture of the spiritual process of Re-creation or Rebirth, where we go from darkness to light, chaos to order, and from death to life in response to the Word of God and the “hovering” work of the Spirit.

• • In the story of the First Adam and his wife, Eve, we are given a spiritual picture of the Second Adam, Jesus, and His Bride, the Church—who, like Eve, was fashioned from a “rib” (the disciples) taken from side of the Second Adam as He slept in death on the Cross.

• • In the story of the Two Trees in the Garden, we have a picture of the two faith alternatives available to mankind—either faith in the counterfeit system of works or the genuine system of faith in finished work of Christ—from which we must choose.

• • In the story of Cain and Abel–where God’s acceptance of Abel’s offering by faith and His rejection of Cain’s self-righteous offering provokes Cain to envy, anger, and the murder of his brother–we are provided with a spiritual illustration of the wicked’s rebellion against and persecution of the righteous. We are also given a picture of Cain as a type of Israel—the brother who, following his slaying of the righteous Son, is marked for protection as he begins his wanderings in the wilderness of the world.

• • In the long “Reign of Death” that takes place between the stories of Cain and the Flood, we are shown how living life in the power of the flesh, both then and now, has affected all men and ultimately led to their Deaths.

• • In the translation of Enoch before the judgment of the flood, we have a picture of the Rapture of the saints that will take place prior to the Great Tribulation, when those who are “walking with God” will be translated to heaven without dying.

• • In the lawlessness and demonic activity preceding the Flood, we are given a picture of the conditions existing before the Tribulation, as self-absorbed humanity abandons faith in God, violence increases, and the doors are opened to ever-increasing satanic activity.

• • In the story of the Flood, where the wrath of God is poured out from heaven against the unrighteousness of men while a small righteous remnant in the Ark are being spared, we have a picture of the Tribulation, when the wrath of God will be poured out from heaven against the unrighteousness of men while a righteous remnant is being preserved.

• • In the story of Noah after the Flood, as those in the Ark come out to a new earth and enter into a new covenant with God, they provide us with a picture of the “new world” that will exist when Christ sets up His Millennial Kingdom after the Tribulation–when we, as the righteous remnant, will live on a cleansed earth under a new covenant with God for a thousand years.

• • In the rebellion at Babel, we are shown a prophetic picture of Satan’s final act of rebellion—when, at the end of the Millennium, he is released from his thousand-year imprisonment in order to test those who are born on the earth during that time.

• • And, in the Judgment of the Nations at the Tower of Babel, we are given a picture of the final Judgment of the Nations—when the Lord gathers the nations and judges them according to the way they have treated His “brethren”–separating the “sheep” nations from the “goat” nations and giving each one its due reward.

In the event that this concept still proves to be a little difficult to understand, perhaps this graphic will help show how the events in Scene #1 prefigure some of the most important future episodes in the Story…

 

 

Now that we have an idea of the real meaning and significance of the opening scene of our Story, we can move on better prepared for what Act 1, Scene 2 has to reveal to us.