By Jill Roberts and Michael Canalé
As a lawyer, one of the most basic lessons I learned early on was to always make a good record. This extended beyond jury trials and pre-trial motions. I requested a court reporter who would take down every word that was spoken by all concerned at in-chambers jury instruction debates and even at sidebar discussions between myself, opposing counsel and the Judge. Why was I taught to ask for this? Why was I a stickler about it? One reason – somewhere down the months and years, when the spoken words no longer echoed from the courtroom and when memory had long since faded, some very important and powerful non-participants in the matter recorded, were going to review every syllable of what had been said. This was usually Appellate Court Justices who would take that record, apply the relevant law to it and either affirm or reverse what had gone before in court. A record could either be lacking or, if care had been taken, it would be illuminative and the Justices would be transported into the courtroom of an earlier time, into the story of the case, onto the courtroom stage on which we all played out our fairness or lack of it.
God, in sending His Holy Spirit to inspire the Bible and, specifically the Old Testament, was absolutely determined to insure the most comprehensive, solid RECORD ever penned. This was because He looked down the ages, right down to this very moment, after all that took place had long since passed from memory, along with the souls who had gone on from this life and the world of those ancient days. He could well imagine that we would be like this world’s Appellate Court Justice, examining all that had happened and, after a thorough review, forming an opinion about Who God really is. Would Scripture‘s record affirm our faith in Him or would it reverse it?
In saying that our subject should be God’s Love in the Old Testament, Michael saw a problem in search of a solution, i.e. the oft-expressed perception that God the Father in the Old Testament is just not for us in the same way that Jesus is in the New Testament.
When God looked down through time, He saw you and Michael and me and all humanity asking one central question – that is, “Back then, our God, back in the Old Testament, were You a God of love?
So, in asking that he and I write about this subject, Michael has begun us on a journey through the Old Testament. This is the record on which we rely, as He knew we would, to discern the answer to this inquiry. Michael and I will ask the tough questions and not gloss over anything we find in this Book. The record will speak for itself and we will now begin with it.
Thus said, what is it to find the beginning of this Old Testament record? We have written about Adam and Eve, Satan’s temptation and The Fall. We know that God lovingly did not allow these first humans the ability to return to Eden, so as to protect them from going back, eating from the Tree of Life and being forever alive but forever living that life in a sinful condition. Therefore, we last left the story as they entered their new world outside the Garden.
The next question is necessarily this: What is the VERY NEXT THING that happened? Genesis Chapter 3 ends with the Cherubims and the flaming sword preventing their return to Eden. What, then, is recorded in Chapter 4, verse 1? Our readers, to preview this verse, we can only say it is a blockbuster! Right out of the gate of Eden,
“Adam made love to His wife, Eve.”
(Genesis 4:1) NIV
Oh my goodness – really? This Old Testament God of ours, perceived by so many as a cold and harsh God in this Book, has retained sexual pleasure for Adam and Eve. The last verse of Genesis, Chapter 3 has them out of the Garden with its gate guards, and the next verse finds them making love!
At this point, a skeptic might interject, “Before you wax too poetic, God probably just gave them a means of procreation, as His plan included mankind populating the Earth in large numbers. We will concede this fact, but vehemently protest its insinuation. Why? Let’s not forget that this is God, the Creator of EVERYTHING, about whom we are speaking. How many options He had to create a way by which mankind could produce children. The mind can easily imagine an endless number, none of which involve sex.
Back in the Garden, God had given Adam and Eve this gift:
“God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it.”
(Genesis 1:28) NIV.
Out of Eden, in their now fallen condition, God allowed them to keep this blessing. The import of Genesis 4:1 is significant. God’s tender care of Adam and Eve continues:
“Adam made love to his wife, Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “WITH THE HELP OF THE LORD, I have brought forth a man.” Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.” (emphasis added)
(Genesis 4:1) NIV
While one of the consequences of the disobedience of Adam and Eve was a significant increase in the pain of childbirth, (Genesis 3:16), the record of Cain’s birth reveals God helping her through the process. Eve even refers to God as her LORD.
Adam and Eve had left Eden in disgrace, but God is no fair weather friend. He doesn’t write off His children.
Years passed and Adam and Eve’s adult sons each brought offerings to God. Abel’s pleased the LORD but Cain’s, an inferior offering, did not. When God looked with favor on Abel, Cain became “very angry and downcast.” Genesis 4:5) NIV
God went to Cain and gently advised him:
“Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
(Genesis 4:6-7) NIV
What a kind, fatherly tone, God used with him!
How did Cain repay His loving counsel? He lured Abel out into a field, attacked and killed him. It was clearly a case of premeditated murder. Afterwards, he didn’t even feel remorse. ( Genesis 4:8-9) NIV.
Justifiably, God imposed consequences, sending him away with the admonition that he would never successfully farm again and, indeed, would wander the Earth. Cain amazingly protested his sentence. When he cried that someone would find and kill him for the murder of Abel, God said,
“Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.’ Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.”
(Genesis 4:15-16) NIV
The love of God is not a matter of whether there are consequences to egregious sin. In our world today, we are glad when the record reflects a just sentencing following a conviction of a serious crime. Good Judges here on Earth are not codependent enablers. If they were, no one would be safe.
No, the issue we are addressing is not whether God imposes consequences; it is whether, after seeing man fall so far, He is still a God of love. That is, does He wash His hands of us or is His love so much larger than that? Today’s Scriptural record makes it clear that He is tender hearted and long suffering. As the post – Eden era began, He did not abandon mankind, instead becoming more and more involved and committed to His fallen children. Death hangs over their heads, but God has formulated a great and personally costly rescue from the mire into which they have firmly and inextricably stepped.
Last week, we wrote of Michael’s “other side of the tapestry” concept. The side of the weave that is convoluted is the part we see in the time between the two Edens. But, even here, there is, metaphorically, one golden thread, God’s thread, intertwining through all the others. It is the symbol for God, Himself, Who sees the trouble His beloved creation is in and runs toward it, not away from it.
Faithful Father, reliable Friend, through the happy days in Eden and the difficult days outside of it, He is with us. THAT is the record we are just beginning to review. The Old Testament God – God with us, even then.
POSTSCRIPT
I have jury duty next week. If there is no blog, you’ll know what happened.
The books of Deuteronomy and Judges just don’t seem to share that same love. It was surely evident in your blog.