Power & Promise by Youthworks

Contents Introduction

vii

Day 1

Good news from the beginning

Genesis 1:1–2

Day 2

The song of joy

Genesis 1:3–25

Day 3

Royalty

Genesis 1:26–27

Day 4

Image-bearers

Genesis 1:28–31

Day 5

God’s rest

Genesis 2:1–4

Day 6

Eden

Genesis 2:4–14

Day 7

Work

Genesis 2:15–17

Day 8

The woman

Genesis 2:18–23

Day 9

Marriage

Genesis 2:24–25

Day 10

The evil one

Genesis 3:1a

Day 11

Rebellion

Genesis 3:1b–7

Day 12 Judgement

Genesis 3:8–13

Day 13 The curse of disobedience

Genesis 3:14–19

Day 14 Hope

Genesis 3:20–24

Day 15 Cain and Abel

Genesis 4:1–7

Day 16 Exile

Genesis 4:8–16

Day 17 The image-bearers at work

Genesis 4:17–24

Day 18 A fresh start

Genesis 4:25—5:5 35

Day 19 The family of God

Genesis 5:6–32

Day 20 The godless world

Genesis 6:1–4

Day 21

Genesis 6:5–8

Day 22 A world under judgement

Genesis 6:9–22

Day 23 The door to salvation

Genesis 7:1–16

Day 24 The wrath of God

Genesis 7:17–24

Day 25 Saved

Genesis 8:1–19

Sin and guilt

Day 26 Starting again

Genesis 8:20–22

Day 27 Protecting life

Genesis 9:1–7

Day 28 The rainbow of promise

Genesis 9:8–17

Day 29 Sin and forgiveness

Genesis 9:18–29 57

Day 30 The nations

Genesis 10

Day 31 Babel

Genesis 11:1–9

Day 32 Abraham and Sarah

Genesis 11:10–32 63

Day 33 The gospel and Abraham

Genesis 12:1–3

Day 34 True worship

Genesis 12:4–9

Day 35 The sovereign Lord

Genesis 12:10–20 69

Day 36 Living by faith

Genesis 13:1–18

Day 37 The foolishness of God

Genesis 14:1–16 73

Day 38 True wisdom

Genesis 14:17–24 75

Day 39 True faith

Genesis 15:1–6

Day 40 Amazing grace

Genesis 15:7–21

Questions for group discussion or personal reflection

Days 1–7

Days 8–14

Days 15–21

Days 22–28

Days 29–35

Days 36–40

DAY 1 | GENESIS 1:1–2

Good news from the beginning I was born short-sighted. Growing up, the world was a blur. Getting my first pair of glasses was a revelation. ‘At last! I see!’ I still own those spectacles. The first four words of the Bible—‘In the beginning, God ...’—had the same impact on me: ‘Now I see! Good news!’ Here is the one crucial thing I know about the world. We have been created by one almighty God. Everything after that is detail. The Bible begins with the Beginning. It tells us that there is one God, the maker and owner of all things. He ‘created the heavens and the earth’, that is, everything that exists. Here are our spectacles. The Bible tells us that the one God, who cannot be created or defeated, has created everything, and everything depends upon him for its existence. In this one spectacular phrase, ‘In the beginning, God ...’ the Bible puts our human mythologies and philosophies to flight. Think of some alternatives. In ancient times, you would meet people who dreamed that the world was the product of warfare among many gods, or perhaps sex between the gods. They thought that there are multiple gods and that the world is an arena for their chaotic, capricious and unruly activities. You would soon see that there can be no certainty in our relationship with these powerful beings: they may be vindictive or kindly. By magic, people tried to defend themselves against the gods or to harness them to their needs. What else could they do?

In Genesis, there is one God who makes and owns all things. He puts all other spirits in the shade, where they belong. And you are invited to trust this God who brings order out of chaos and purpose out of confusion. He is good and completely trustworthy. But he will not be manipulated. As we read the Bible further, we understand the good news: there are no other gods. Just one almighty, wise and gracious God. Other philosophies have no room for God. Some think that the universe is somehow self-made or even eternal. Atheists believe in no spirit world at all, no gods and no God. It is thought (wrongly) that science has discovered the absence of any God. We are fragments of meaningless matter on a planet of meaningless matter. Not surprisingly, the mood in our culture is selfish, and the morals relativistic. Once again, the opening words of Genesis are good news for those trapped in the depressing world of materialistic atheism: ‘In the beginning, God ...’ The second verse leaves us poised to see what God would do next. It says that the ‘earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep’. God chose to take his own time to bring order out of this original chaos. The Spirit of God hovered over the creation like a great bird, the agent of God’s wisdom as the work of further creation began. ‘In the beginning, God ...’ These mighty words are good news for you as to how you live in the world.

Prayer Almighty God, Creator of heaven and earth, my Maker and Lord, I worship you with my whole heart and so surrender myself and all things to you with praise and thanksgiving, through Jesus Christ. Amen.

DAY 2 | GENESIS 1:3–25

The song of joy I would love to sing with a great choir. Imagine being there in full song, when God created the earth, and ‘the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy’ (Job 38:7). What a choir was that! Do you also sing for joy when you see his handiwork in things tiny and things huge, things animate and things inanimate, things frail and things powerful, things ugly (to our eyes) and things breathtakingly beautiful? Do you rejoice in his capacity to create such abundant variety within such unity? Every human creation, even those done by masters of their craft, takes what already exists and applies effort, skill and learning. We plant ordered gardens. By contrast, God’s gardening is both profusely disordered (he never plants his trees in straight lines!) and awesomely integrated. Furthermore, this God, this Master Creator, made all things from nothing (Romans 4:17). And he shows his supreme mastery in this—he did it by his Word. He only had to speak and it was so. Look with me at how he did it. We know already that he created water and darkness (1:2). Now, in successive stages, he fashioned a universe. There are two lots of three days each. In the first three days came the foundations: light, sky, seas, dry land and vegetation. To create light, God divided light from the prevailing darkness (1:4). To create the land, God divided the waters (1:6), first by producing a canopy we call ‘sky’, and then by making the waters

recede until dry land appeared (1:9). He thus divided earth from the seas. From the earth came the miracle of life in the form of plants and trees. In the next three days, God built on the foundations of the first three. On day four, the heavens were populated. Some people in the ancient world worshipped the sun and the moon and thought that their fate was written in the stars. Genesis robs the heavenly bodies of all false magic. They are the natural (though splendid) rulers of light and darkness, servants of the living God. Then came the animal world. On the fifth day, birds and fish inhabited the seas and the sky created for them on the second day. They were followed on the sixth day by the earth creatures which use the product of the third day, namely earth and vegetation. The lifeless watery darkness of verse 2 now teemed with light and life. And God saw that it was all good (1:25). Eventually we discover that the Word through whom God created all things is his Son. How astonishing to hear that this Son, this Word, entered the creation, that he ‘became flesh and dwelt amongst us ... full of grace and truth’ (John 1:14). Through the Son of God, we become the children of God by adoption. What does this mean? It means that I have joined the great choir which, with joy, sings the praises of the Creator and the Saviour (Revelation 7:9–10)!

Prayer Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I praise you that from your wisdom and power and love has come the gift of your creation. May I live to worship you always in Spirit and in truth. Amen.

DAY 3 | GENESIS 1:26–27

Royalty People today are ignorant of the purpose of human life and careless of its value. The womb is not safe, the disabled are neglected, the dying are hastened to their end, and prisoners are treated with contempt. The Bible stands as a great bulwark against these abuses. Where Scripture is known, a different approach prevails. Even when Scripture is almost forgotten, we see traces of its presence. The Bible asks and answers the question, ‘Who is man?’ By the sixth day of creation, it was as if everything had been waiting with anticipation for its special king to appear. And now came man. Under God, he was the king. And the amazing thing is that in him we recognise ourselves. When Adam arrived, so did we. To emphasise the unique status and role of man, God used the special language of ‘image’. Man was to represent the living God among the creation. He was to share the Creator’s rule by having dominion over the created order. Think of what this means. First, every human being is an image-bearer of God, set apart from all other animals and with life precious in the sight of God (see Genesis 9:6). This is true of the baby in the womb and the aged on the deathbed, of the corrupt and the ugly. We all have this special status. Second, the image belongs equally to both man and woman. Indeed the coming together of male and female in marriage is one of the ways in which the mandate to rule the world is fulfilled (1:28).

Third, humans are in the world with a purpose, namely to do the will of God in and for the world. We are his delegates in the task of caring for the creation. From this flows our work and culture, and we have been given such special powers as speech and prayer and the capacity for love. Fourth, the world we actually inhabit is different from the original creation because we have sinned. And yet the future of our sorry and fractured world is somehow bound up with God’s future for those who bear his image: ‘For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God’ (Romans 8:19). We are corrupted image-bearers. But we are not hopeless, because: Fifth, there is One who is the perfect image of God. Jesus Christ, the Word of God, is also the true Image of God (Colossians 1:15). He is both true man and true God. As man, he is what we are meant to be. We have hope through him. Jesus is Lord. Having liberated his people through his death and resurrection, he is seated at the right hand of God, ruling the world. Those who belong to him are destined to be renewed in his image, and so reach the perfection of what it is to be human (1 Corinthians 15:49). In Christ Jesus, you and I become the persons we were designed to be.

Prayer Heavenly Father, help us to live as those who are made in your image, and especially care for the young and the imprisoned and the disabled and the dying, in the name of your Son who is your perfect image, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

DAY 4 | GENESIS 1:28–31

Image-bearers There are many jokes (some of them not so funny) about the differences between men and women. Indeed, some tribes believe that we are from altogether different species. That is not what the Bible teaches. Both are fully human, in order to fulfil the task God gives us. And yet, we differ. This reflects the delightful way in which God chooses to fill the earth. We must cooperate. We image-bearers are to rule the world jointly, under him and for him. Of course, we are not little gods. The ‘image of God’ refers to our task rather than our being. God delights to use us as part of his work in sustaining and caring for the created order. Our lives are filled with meaning and purpose. Then there is food. In parts of the ancient world, it was the task of humans to serve the gods by providing them with food. Here, we see God’s wonderful provision. He provides humanity and indeed, all ‘in whom is the breath of life’ with food. For carnivores as well as herbivores, life depends on plants: the point is not to establish ancient vegetarianism, but the harmony of creation and the kindness of God to his creatures. If we were setting out the beginnings of all things would we use the same language? Today, we may well say that the human race has all too successfully ‘filled’ the world with its children and we may say that it is time to stop. Likewise we may well take umbrage at the command to ‘subdue it and have dominion ...’ Modern human beings are predators who have wasted the resources of the earth and have had no respect for the animals.

The world into which the first humans went was not a sheer garden of relaxation in which there was no work, no opposition, no danger, no effort. The joy of God in good creation is the delight of one who sees it as being entirely what he designed. It is possible that he designed it to be tamed and brought to further order by man. But we know from looking at the world today that something— or rather someone—has gone badly wrong. When the Bible uses language like ‘subdue’ and ‘have dominion’ it is speaking of a humanity which would undertake the role which God assigned in a godly way. That is no longer the case. There is no mandate here for the abuse of the world which we see around us. God intended us to have a history, to develop skills and knowledge and character over time. Human culture is the product of the interaction between humans and the natural order as we fulfil our role as God’s image. That is why our devotion to him involves the consecration of our work and our relationships and our recreation to him. Christ is the true image-bearer who now rules the world. As we obey him in leading godly lives together, we share his rule and fulfil God’s intention for our race.

Prayer Creator God, I thank you that you have made us in your own image and likeness. Please help me to live in such a way that I will fulfil your calling to live a godly life in the service of the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name I pray. Amen.

DAY 5 | GENESIS 2:1–4

God’s rest What a great gift from God—a day of rest! Can you imagine life without this provision? And yet many people today ignore or neglect it, even though God himself is seen here ‘at rest’. The seventh day is not an afterthought. It is the climax of the story of creation. It is not that God stopped work (John 5:17). Rather, he had now achieved his purpose, and was ruling a world at peace. Later, after we made such a mess of our world, the Sabbath became a sign of the promised new creation. When this comes, God will again declare ‘good, very good’ over a righteous world. Unlike the other days, the seventh is not said to have had morning and evening. It was where history began. After the Fall, the seventh day rest became both a law and a promise. Under law, God’s people were to cease work. Indeed (and this is something we modern Christians seem not to think about) they were not to demand others work for them (Exodus 20:8– 11). People became so legalistic about this, however, that Jesus reminded us that this Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27). By promise, the land of Canaan was also described as a ‘rest’ for God’s people (Deuteronomy 12:9). In Hebrews, God’s future for us is called his ‘rest’ (Hebrews 4:1–10). Here is the Christian’s ‘Promised Land’. The Sabbath reminds us both of God’s majesty and of his love for us. God’s rest is his kingdom and our hope. With the seventh day, we have reached the end of the story of creation.

Look back over Genesis 1:1—2:4. You will see the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Who else, in so few words, could present a description of the beginning, in a way which every culture can understand and embrace? Praise God for these words! Here we see the basics. There is one God. He is a God of almighty power. He is a God of purpose. He is a God of both Word and Spirit. This one God rules the world and should be worshipped and adored. Today, we can see the continued active presence of God’s Word in the order and purpose of the world. Because God is a God of order, we can examine and analyse the wonders of creation in the laboratories of human science. The Word itself is beyond our microscopes, telescopes or test tubes. How astonishing, then, that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). Since he was one of us, we can examine him and learn from him. Or crucify him. When God hallowed the seventh day, he was revealing that history is full of promise. You could say that history runs along the track created by his promises, especially his promise that the men and women of faith would share his rest, his future. When Jesus said, ‘Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest’ (Matthew 11:28), he invited you into God’s rest. You can enter it, through him.

Prayer Father Almighty, thank you for your gift of weekly rest and your promise of eternal rest. Help me to keep your commands and hope in your promises. Amen.

DAY 6 | GENESIS 2:4–14

Eden What is man? Psalm 8 asks this profound question. How would you answer it? In our corrupt world it is easy for us to idolise ourselves, to think of the human race as gods. We have developed a sense of the sheer power of human beings to dominate the earth. Doctors have observed in conversations with me that patients often express a sense of entitlement, as though they can demand that they be made well. Good health has become a right to be expected, and the doctor who fails to provide it is somehow cheating us. These are signs of a sort of spiritual madness. The Bible contradicts these lofty expectations. We are not gods— indeed we are made of dust, made from the constituent parts of the earth. Unlike God, we need food to survive. Like other animals, we have the breath of life. In our case, however, our unique status is signalled by the fact that God himself breathed into Adam’s nostrils ‘the breath of life’. Any hope we may have of defeating death or experiencing immortality comes not from our inherent powers, but as a gift of God. That gift is symbolised here by the creation of the trees which were ‘good for food’ and by the special tree called ‘the tree of life’. Hope of immortality is a gift to be cherished, not a right to be claimed. The earth was going to require man to work the ground (2:5). But the history of humanity began in a walled park or garden known as Eden. Possibly Eden was the place of testing, to prepare humanity for the task of living in the world as a whole. The

geographical location, with the reference to the rivers means that we are to think of a real Eden; but the obscurity of the references discourages any attempt to discover it, as though we could return to Eden (2:10–14). As part of the testing we hear of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Just as life belongs to God, and we have life as his gift, so too does the knowledge of good and evil belong to him and only him. He is the One who determines right and wrong, good and evil. The Lord was especially present in this garden, as in a temple. It was his Eden, and the humans who lived in it were blessed with fellowship with their gracious Creator. But we no longer live in Eden. We have been expelled. To answer the question ‘What is man?’, we also need to know, ‘Where is man?’ Eden reminds us that God is good and that he intends nothing but good for us. It is now a promise of the glory of our future. The Bible begins in a garden, but its final scene is a city through which there flows a river which has its source in the throne of God and his Lamb. And lo! the tree of life, from Eden, awaits us there (Revelation 22:1–2). Through Jesus, the ones who have been expelled are welcomed back to a home even better than the Eden of old.

Prayer Loving God, help me so to live in this world that I will not forget the glory of the world which is to come. Amen.

DAY 7 | GENESIS 2:15–17

Work Do you long for your ‘golden years’? In our society, retirement from paid work allegedly ushers in ‘the golden years’, where we can suit ourselves in a perpetual holiday. I have even heard people complaining that their golden years are being eroded by their grandchildren. It is as if the height of human achievement is to have no responsibilities—to be free. But we are designed for work (Psalm 8:6), whether such work is growing food, administering a city, driving a truck, visiting the sick, looking after grandchildren, or, supremely the work of prayer. Even the terminally sick can move the world by prayer which God hears and answers. Always, we are to find and do those good works which God has prepared beforehand for us to walk in (Ephesians 2:10). Here is true freedom: to work in the world for God. This is the freedom of finding and doing what we were created for. To our minds, freedom is the right to do whatever we please. But this is not true freedom. In the garden of Eden, the man was given a boundary: there was a tree whose fruit he may not eat: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He knew this because God had told him so. The proper place for man, the place of his true happiness and freedom is under the word of God. Obedience is freedom, for we were created to obey. God’s word to Adam was bounteous. He may eat of any tree—the riches of the garden were his to enjoy. But there was a limit—one tree was forbidden.

We note three things. First, it was the man, Adam, to whom the Lord spoke and gave this command. Adam was taking his place here as the very head of the race, as the one who represented us all. If he fell, all would suffer, all would fall. Second, there are the words that describe the fruit of the tree: ‘the tree of the knowledge of good and evil’. Here is a jurisdiction that God is reserving to himself: it is for God to determine what is right and wrong, what is evil and good, what is sinful and what is holy. If Adam reached for this fruit he would be, in the very act of doing so, defying the word of God and putting himself in the place of God. He would become an autonomous being, selfdetermining. He would believe that he himself was the source of virtue and value and truth. He would set the standards and determine what was the purpose of life. Third, the consequences of disobedience were dire. The very goodness and holiness of God were at stake. For the world to be ‘good, very good’, he must be its Lord and King. Any defiance of his Lordship must in the very nature of things, in the very heart of good and evil, merit punishment. Thus stands the dreadful but necessary sentence: ‘in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die’. Where are your ‘golden years’? Obedience to the word of God remains our true freedom. Walking with Christ is the only golden way.

Prayer Father in heaven, help me to enjoy the freedom of serving you with all my heart. Amen.

Questions for group discussion or personal reflection QUESTIONS FOR DAYS 1–7 1. If you simply had the world to go on, without any revelation, would you think that there was one God, many Gods, or no God at all? Why? What difference does it make?

2. What do you learn about our humanity in these chapters?

3. How does the Bible’s teaching about the Sabbath impact on your life? How do you share in God’s rest?

4. Why does freedom require boundaries?

5. What did Jesus mean when he said ‘the truth will set you free’? (John 8:32)