Redemption Initiated

So, we've screwed up. Bad. Really bad. How bad is really bad? Well, creation, including us, are now corrupted by sin and under stewardship of Satan. And all for what? A piece of fruit!? If you want to be mad at someone, be mad at Adam and Eve cause really everything bad that happens right now is because of their screw up! But is God giving up on us?

Hell no!

Look at Gen. 3:15:
And I will put enmity
    between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and hers;
    he will crush your head,
    and you will strike his heel."
Notice where it says he will crush your head and you will strike his heel? That's the first prophecy for Jesus! God punishes us, but also gives us a promise of hope for the future. The serpent is known to be Satan, or at least a minion. This passage shows that man and Satan will have "enmity" or "deep-seated, often mutual hatred" (www.dictionary.com). We will hate Satan as much as Satan hates us. We will constantly be in conflict with one another. Satan's demons and our children will always be at odds. But, there will be offspring which, even though Satan will strike his heel, that offspring of man will crush your (Satan's) head. 

If we look further along to Gen. 6, we see what has happened in just a few generations of sinful corruption:
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. he LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them." (vs. 5-7)
God tried to keep communicating with us, but we wouldn't listen. We again wanted to do our own thing, and we were making a mess for ourselves. God hated seeing His children this way, but His message wasn't reaching them.

Time to start again.

But God didn't want to destroy His beloved creation. So, God's answer lay in Noah. Using Noah, God preserved creation through two of each kind of all creations. Bringing forth the flood, God washed the earth clean of the filth we had been making of it (literaly). God is so grieved by this though, that He promises to never do it again.

And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth." (Gen. 9:12-16) 

God establishes His convenant again with man, and man with God. But, only 4 verses later Noah himself falls into sin when he becomes drunk. Again, things spiral downhill and man once again falls away from God. Then, the tower incident occurs.

Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."
But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."
So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel —because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth. (Gen. 11:1-9)

Now I understand you, now I don't. See, God had told Noah and his decendants to multiply throughout the whole earth. These guys wouldn't let go of mommy's skirts and do what they were told. They also sought to prove themselves to God. Why? Pride. They wanted a 'name' for themselves. They wanted to be known on Earth and in Heaven. Notice though, where it says the Lord came down to see the city adn the tower that the men were building? These guys thought what they were doing was so great, yet God had to come down from Heaven just to see the thing! (Am I the only one with a funny mental image of a giant watching an ant who is trying to build a mountain so it will be as big as the giant? Hehe . . . squish!) So, God decided to help them out a little. Again, man tried to prove his autonomy. He just didn't get the point that when he tries to do things alone, he screws up! Guess they hadn't yet learned that two heads were better than one.

So, time to switch battle plans. Rather than attempting to reach man as a whole again, He focuses on one group of people, one nation, and that nation begin with Abram. A childless old man with a barren wife named Sarai. From him, one of the greatest nations on earth would spring.

The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.
“I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
And you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And whoever curses you I will curse;
And all peoples on earth
Will be blessed through you.”
So Abram lefts, as the Lord told him . . . . Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out form Haran. He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. (Genesis 12:1-5)

Why does God choose Abram? Because Abram listened when God called to him. We don’t know if God tried to call others before Abram or not, but we do know that when God did call, Abram listened. He was a nomad, a wanderer that lived in tents with his clan, of which he was the head, but with no children for an heir. Yet, from this man God promises a great nation will spring forth. God promises that Abram’s children will be greater than the starts in heaven and the sands of the seashore. God even changes Abrams name to Abraham; Abram meaning exalted father, to Abraham meaning father of many. Sarai's name likewise, is changed to Sarah.(Recall the previous discussion on the importance of names).

Notice, also, how God promises Abraham that through his descendants “all peoples on earth Will be blessed through you”? Christians see that as another promise for Jesus, since Jesus was a Jew, a descendent of Abraham, whom was sent for all people on earth.

However, after a few years Sarai and Abraham get impatient for this promised child. So, they decide to help God along by having Abraham impregnate Sarai’s Egyptian servant, Hagar. (For more information on slavery of this day, please see What the Bible Means By Slaves/Servants. There is a great difference between ancient forms of slavery/servitude and contemporary forms/understandings of it.) Hagar becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son called Ishmael. This is the lineage Muslims trace their origins back to, though there are many more complexities to go along with this which this wiki is not designed to address. (Apologies for disappointment this may cause).

When Abram was ninety-nine years old . . . God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. . . . Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sing of the covenant you are to keep.

Circumcision is brought into the picture, as a part of the covenant with God. Why the need for circumcision? There is much debate over semantics, but it generally comes down to separation; circumcision is a permenant symbol of God’s promise for what He has, and is going to do. It is the “initiation” if you will, to become God’s chosen people, a reminder that they are to be set apart from the rest of the nations. Abraham’s descendants are to be a priestly nation set apart for God, and a light to all other nations.

God also tells Abraham what will happen to his descendants before they are able to take this promised land.
Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions . . . . To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt (Wadi) to the Euphrates-the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites. (Genesis 15:13-21)

Sure enough, 4 generations later found his descendants in Egypt with Joseph. One generation after the death of Joseph, Pharaoh enslaved the Hebrews in which they remained until Moses is raised up 400 years later. Lets finish Abraham’s story before we look at Moses though.

The next year, when Abraham was one hundred, Isaac was born to him. Then comes one of the most famous, and controversial, accounts in the Bible;
The God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountain I will tell you about.” (Genesis 22:2) 

Known as the Binding of Isaac, God tells Abraham to kill his only son, the son which he has waited so long for. Many people view this as an example of God's cruel sense of humor. Others view is as God telling Abraham to commit murder, showing that God isn't as good and moral as Christians and Jews claim.

However, both Christians and Jews agree that this is a test of Abraham’s obedience. Many point out how child sacrifice is condemned when the law is given under Moses, and is continually said to be despicable to God by the prophets. God is setting a precedent; never will He ask this from man. Never would He demand a child sacrifice. This is huge in these times; the gods worshipped in every other nation demand child sacrifices either regularly or for granting particular requests. It is the ultimate gift one can give to their god. Our God is showing here that He will never demand this of His followers, for their children are also His children.

Do not lay a hand on the boy" (God) said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son. . . . I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants . . . will be blessed because you have obeyed me." (Genesis 22:12-18)

Christians take it further, applying it to God’s later sacrifice of His only Son, Jesus for man. Just as Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac for God, God went further and did sacrifice His son for man.

Moving our story along, we will pass by Isaac, Jacob and Joseph's lives, and come to Moses.

Ah, the wonderful story of Moses, which so many cite as false. Even scholars are unsure of the dates of Moses. Contemporary Chronology (CC) place Moses during the time of Ramesses II in the 13th century BCE (1400s). Archaeologist David Rohl (an atheist archaeologist) proposes a New Chronology (NC) of Egypt's timeline between the 21st and 13th centuries BCE, placing Moses in the 15th century (1600's). More on this debate can be found in an essay at http://www.writersco.com/416.Essays.Historical%20Analysis%20of%20Exodus%203%3A10.

Setting aside the historical debate, let's look at the theological significance.

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