Transcript for START HERE: Introduction to the Early World (with Jeff Cavins) - 2021

welcome thank you it's good to it's good to be with you father and you know you kind of feel like remember when you were growing up and you knew that you were going to go on vacation starting in September and it's the night before and do you have everything together where I've just everyone is everyone packed are we ready to go on this And we are. We're launching and congratulations to you. It's going to be an exciting year in an opportunity for people to get the story. As you said earlier, you know, there's a lot of stories in the Bible, but what about the story in putting it all together? And I think over this next year, not only are you going to be able to read through it, but you're going to be able to give people some guidance and some inspiration. And you know, You know, the year 2020 was a big year as far as memory, but 2021 is going to be a real special year as far as new discoveries. So excited about it. And we're going to try to make it as simple as possible for people to read through it. And if you've never read the Bible before, don't worry. There was a time where I had never read the Bible before. So

Sure. Yeah. You know, there was a time where I didn't know really how to read the Bible and I started in Genesis and thought, well, I'm going to go to Revelation at the end. I'm just going to say, man, that was an amazing story. You know, what's next? But I lost my interest in it trying to read it through in chronological order at least. And so What we have put together in the great adventure Bible and the studies is we have made the difficult simple and that's really the key to understanding the Bible is take this incredibly complex book and it's written over you know a few thousand years and and make it simple So that people can they can they can understand it and so what what we did is we divided the Bible up as you said into 12 periods and then out of the 73 books not all books are equal they're all inspired but they don't all do the same thing there are certain books that are narrative there are certain books that are prophetic certain books that are poetry, apocalyptic, you know, all kinds of different genres. So what we are doing is picking out the 14 narrative books as you will be reading through those 14 books in the next year, but you are going to be expertly putting the other 59 books in the historical context. And so When you're reading one of the 14 narrative books, you're also going to be throwing in, for example, the Psalms or the prophets when they speak. And this will be an incredible tool for people to get a taste of these books that up till now are sort of a mystery, you'll give them a place to live and to be understood. So that's what we're going to be doing. And when we look at the early world, you're going to be reading for five different days and going through the first 11 chapters of Genesis. And that is the beginning of our entire journal is the first five books of Genesis. And we give it a color turquoise because it reminds us of the earth viewed from space. If you were to go way up there, you know, in space, look down, you see this beautiful turquoise ball. and that reminds you of creation. And so when you look at the Genesis 1 through 11, there is going to be an awful lot at the very very beginning. And what you're going to encounter in these first five days is you're going to encounter themes and patterns which are going to be revisited as you read throughout the year. It might be in June or might be in September that you're going to think, wow, I've been here before. This is really, really interesting. And so another thing to remember about reading the first 11 chapters of Genesis is that it's a history of the early world, but it's not a written as a type of history that we are used to. You know, we're used to, okay, just tell me the facts and how it happened. But in the first 11 chapters of Genesis, God is going to explain to you the beginning and creation of the world, creation of Adam and Eve, how we ended up falling the introduction, introduction of course of Lucifer, Satan, how we fell, what are the consequences and, wow, where do we go from here? That's what we're going to be covering here, but it is written in Hebrew poetry form. And so when you read about the serpent, and you read about the garden, altru, but it's written in a very creative way. Now does that make it less historical? No. It doesn't at all. It's just the way that God had it written and it's actually very beautiful. Now when you get up to the patriarchs, which you're going to be up into that period pretty quick, that's pretty quickly more of a linear type of history, which we're going to get into.

maybe know our rooted more in this is maybe prehistory one through eleven and then history history and twelve through fifty is that kind of exactly right yeah that's a good way of putting it it is uh... pre pre pre pre it's early world it's the pre it's the beginning of the entire story but it's told in a very dramatic way And you think about it, we're dealing with chapters one and two, we're dealing with creation. And imagine that, all of creation, the entire world out of me, everything is in just a few hundred words. Right. And so we have to ask ourselves, what is God trying to get across in the early world? And basically it is that he has created a place for his greatest creation, which is mankind, to dwell. and he's going to have a relationship with Adam and Eve in the garden and it doesn't go so well, it kind of goes south.

Well, you have to, you have been, it's interesting in the very first chapter. The key here is the first and second verses in the beginning. God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was without form and void. And darkness was upon the face of the deep and the spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. The key there is, is that the beginning is that, as you look at creation, there is no form and it's void. And the creation really deals with the formlessness. And then it fills the void. So for example, when you're dealing with formlessness, you have the first three days of creation that are dealing with the formlessness. For example, on the first day, God is going to create time. On the second day, he's going to create space. On the third day, he's going to create land. So you've got time, space, and land. And then on days four, five and six, God is going to fill the space. And so you have the sun, the moon, and the stars on day four. You have on day five Mark Burns fish. And then on day six, you got the beasts of the field. Yeah. But you got one more thing on day six, too.

Well, if you get into a creation, you have the creation of the world, then you have the creation of Adam and Eve, which they are different than any other creation. They are created in the image and likeness of God, which means that they have a will and they can reason the capacity to love and sacrifice in a great way. And they are created and they're put into the garden of Eden. And there was just a couple of caveats here, you know, where God said to them, you can freely eat of any tree in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it. For in the day that you eat of it, you will die. And so at the very beginning, like any great book at the beginning, we have what's at stake here. You're free to eat of any of them except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat of it, you're going to die. Then comes chapter three where we have a new character. the enemy comes in, Satan was fallen. And he comes in and he says, did God say immediately starts questioning God? And Adam doesn't say anything. And Eve steps in and she says, she said, he says, did God say you shall not eat of any tree? And the woman said, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but God said you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree, which is the midst of the garden. Well, Satan comes right back and says, you will not die. Yeah. That's a lie. You're not going to die. And so God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So this is really interesting is that is that we're created, Adam and Eve are created in the image and lightness of God. yet the enemy kind of sneaks in and says well you see he doesn't want you eating from that tree because if you do you're going to be like him and he doesn't want that and so it's an outright backwards exactly it's it's an outright lie And the key here then is that when Eve looks at the tree, which you're going to be reading and talking about when she looks at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you would think if it's so bad, you're going to see things like bank robbery, adultery, tax evasion, whatever it might be.

Yeah, that really obvious things like duh, but she, uh, which is in Hebrew is duh, but um, she doesn't. What does she say? She looks at it and says, well, this stuff is good for food. It's a delight to the eyes and it makes one wise. What's not to like about that, right? So she ends up eating it and then gives it to Adam. And we have the fall, which is at the center here of this early world. We have the fall. And we can't simplify it. Father, you know, so much so that we just say, well, you know, why did Adam any fall? Well, God doesn't get into fruit.

Right. And so you have to look at the heart of sin is that pride came in and they could take it from here, you know, themselves and they lost their trust. They lost their trust grasping. Yep. And they were grasping for the creation. rather than the creator. Yeah. And this is something that is, everyone is reading along with you is going to encounter that, man, I'm in that same situation, you know. And the moment you make the creation, no matter what it is, you make the creation greater than the creator, you have idolatry. And this is the introduction of mortal sin into our relatives, which affected us, you know, in such a way. But the good news is, is that God has a plan, right? And he has a plan. He's not the end. Yep. He has to start a plan of sheer goodness. The ketochism says in the very first paragraph, and you can see this in chapter 3 and verse 15. And that is that I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed, he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. And so we have this amazing plan that's going to be lived out over the next year with your podcast. And at the end, that's the only time you can say. And it's on the very last one. But as we move on into the early world, you'll see the results of this fall of Adam and Eve.

There is, and that's the good news here. You're going to see with the fall of Adam and Eve that their relationship with God changed. They were afraid. They hid. And a lot of people can identify with this. I'm afraid. I'm hiding from God. It changed their relationship with each other. They didn't trust each other. And it changed their relationship with creation. They no longer looked at themselves as really stewards, but they abused, even. And so it changed every relationship, but God has a plan. He has a plan of shared goodness. And as you see the rest of the early world played out, you run into the beginnings of this great flood. It's almost like God saying, you know, X-ray on the first creation. And he wants to start over, but he takes the family of Noah his wife. and their three sons and their wives, and they build an arc. And while this seems like a children's story in some ways, it's not.

No, it's really a story of reality and the result of sin in our lives, not only in our hiding from God, but in the way that we treat each other. And this was pretty radical, but the remedy for the brokenness of mankind is extremely radical. It is very radical. And we're going to see that later on in the year where God becomes one of us. and he takes the place of us and pays the price as your listeners will learn later about covenants and what those are about but this is really giving us father chapters one through eleven really gives us a snap shot of the plan, the problem with the plan, the remedy for the plan, and from here on out, we're going to be revisiting some of these themes and give you a little hint, a little bit of a hint in that is that at the end of the story, towards the end of the story, we're going to find the solution to this which happened in the garden. We're going to find the solution through someone who's in a garden. Yeah, absolutely. And we have bookends to the entire story. And that's what's going to make this so exciting. And so I just really encourage people to listen and let the Word of God soak deeply into your heart because the Word can change you. The Word of God can change you. And with the advice that you're going to give people This is going to be an experience like none other a year like none other and we know we need it We need a great year where we listen to God and walk with him like like never before so put your seatbelt on and and really prepare for a transformation in your life