This week we’re going to talk about what kind of Book the Bible is—and specifically Genesis 1-11. The kids will learn about the genre theological history and why it is important to understand before talking about why God started out the Bible with one family instead of many—and what He was teaching us by telling the story that way. We’ll be talking about racism and why it is not compatible with our life in Christ.
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Hi! I’m Miss Tyler and welcome to another episode of Context for Kids where I teach you guys stuff most adults don’t even know. If this is your first time hearing or if you have missed anything, you can find all the episodes archived at contextforkids.podbean.com, which has them downloadable, or at contextforkids.com, where I have transcripts for readers or on my Context for Kids YouTube channel.
(Parents, all scripture is from the ESV unless I say otherwise)
Today we are going to talk about some questions that most people never think to ask. What kind of book is the Bible and how are we supposed to read it? You might say, well, that’s a dumb question, it’s a Bible! But have you ever even thought about what that means? I mean, it’s a unique kind of book that was written to be read in unique ways. We don’t read any other book the way we read the Bible because that wouldn’t make any sense at all. We read the Bible as though it is God’s letter to us—no other book can be read that way. And yet, even in the Bible there are different kinds of books that need to be read in different ways. There is poetry, and history, and proverbs. You can’t read poetry like you would read history! And you can’t read history the way you would read a proverb—which is fancy way of describing all those little sayings that help teach us to be wise. Some of them are opposites though, so we can’t read them the way we would read commandments!
What are we supposed to do with this? Pro 26:4-5 “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.” What the heck? Do we answer someone who is being foolish or not? I guess it depends on the situation. If these were commandments, we wouldn’t know what the heck to do. I still don’t know what the heck to do most of the time.
But what about Genesis? Have you ever wondered why Genesis was written the way it was written? Who was it written to? And especially Genesis 1-11? For those of you who are wondering, that covers all the chapters from the Creation in the beginning, through the Garden story, Cain and Abel, Noah and the flood, and ending with the Tower of Babel and the birth of Abraham. Once Abraham is born, things become very different but since that is a long way off, we will talk about that when we get there.
After Genesis 11, the Bible is mostly a story about how God deals with one particular family, Abraham’s family. Starting with Matthew in the Gospels, the story will change again to show how God deals with first the Jewish people and then the entire world, through Abraham’s descendant Jesus—who was also God’s Creative Word come to life! But up until then, God has been dealing with some very important topics that we need to understand. Why did He create the heavens and the earth? How is He different than the false gods worshiped by other nations? How are people different from animals? How did sin enter the world? Why do men boss women around? Why do brothers and sisters all fight with each other? Does killing everyone solve the problem of sin? Why are there so many different languages and so many different nations and how should we feel about that?
Today we are going to talk about why the Bible begins with the story of only one family. It’s very important because it will tell us how God feels about all human beings and how He wants us to look at one another and, most importantly, how He wants us to love one another. He does this through what scholars call (get ready for a big phrase) theological history and right now you are probably saying, “Oh gosh, Miss Tyler, you can’t just throw big words at us and expect us not to turn off the internet and go read a comic book instead.” But understanding what those words mean will help you understand a lot of mysteries that grownups struggle with when we read this part of the Bible where things can sometimes seem upside down and crazy and even hard to believe. I can admit it, when we really think about it, some of this stuff seems like it can’t be true. But when we understand what theological history is and how it is different from the way we tell stories now and write down modern histories, we can go “Oh yeah, I totally understand it—or at least now I can see why God did it that way.”
You know what the word history means—a history is an account of events in the past. Like, a book about the civil war with dates and pictures and quotes and step-by-step details about everything that happened and what people did. That’s how our modern histories work. Our modern histories don’t talk about God and His involvement in events. We want our histories to be really really accurate and to only include the things we can prove. Back in Bible days, they would have looked at that sort of “history” as ridiculous. They would have asked what the heck good something like that was and who would even care about something that boring. You might actually agree. Maybe you don’t enjoy studying history as much as I always have. But to them, any “history” that wasn’t a story that talked about what their gods were doing would have been ridiculous. That’s how they looked at the world. They fought a war and when they wrote it all down afterward, they talked about how their gods fought for them and helped them and destroyed their enemies. To them, that was history—the story of their people’s relationship with their gods and what their gods did for them and what they did for their gods. And so, the Bible is also that kind of book—the Bible isn’t the story of Adam and Eve and Abraham and Moses and all of those people. The Bible is God’s story and it includes those people because they show us how God was interacting with the world. When we see how God deals with people, we come to understand how wonderful He is. We learn about Him by watching what He does in the human story. And by watching the humans and how messed up they are, all of us, we learn how much we need a Savior. We learn how much we need Jesus.
Theological is a word that means something is related to the study of God. So, theology teaches us about God. So, we would expect that a theological history is a history that is specifically designed to teach us about God. In other words, it is a history because it deals with real people and real events but it is theological because those real people and real events are written about in a way that will teach us about God. Adam and Eve are real people but we are not hearing their story in order to learn about their lives, like we would read a book to learn about Abraham Lincoln or Gandhi or Harriet Tubman or Red Cloud or whoever. Adam and Eve are only mentioned so that we can find out about how God cares for us, that He wants to be in a relationship with us, that He doesn’t start hating us or abandoning us when we do bad things, and about how the story of sin began so that we can understand the rest of the Bible. And the rest of the Bible is the story of how God worked to fix the problem of sin so that we can be with Him again like we were in the beginning. So, were Adam and Eve real? Yes, absolutely. Do we know all about their story? Heck no. Most of their story isn’t even slightly important for learning about God and His plans to fix the problems they made. They are historical people, real people, but they are only important to us because of how God is using them to teach us what we need to know. That’s theological history. I hope it makes sense. If it doesn’t, then just put this all aside on the shelf and think about it again sometime in the future. You really can live without knowing this and you can love and follow God without understanding it.
But there is a reason that God started out with two people and that Adam said all the people on earth would come from Eve. I think there were other people too, but by telling us the story of humans this way God is showing us something very important—God is showing us that in the beginning we were all connected and there aren’t different kinds of human beings based on how we look. They didn’t know about genetics and DNA back then so God couldn’t tell them that they were all the same species. Someone who was white might look at someone who was black and they might think they weren’t even a human at all. And, I am very sad to say that’s exactly what happened because people weren’t paying attention to their Bibles. I am going to try very hard not to cry while teaching you this but it might not work.
There was a time when people knew that humans were all humans, back in the beginning. They didn’t need to know about DNA because they were all created by God and they were all the people on the earth. They knew where everyone came from. So, there weren’t any questions. But then people spread out and people’s appearances began to change because of climate and what they ate and a whole lot of things. But on the inside, in their minds and hearts and bones and muscles and all that, they were still those same humans made in the image of God. I guess we could say that we are all beautiful gifts and only the wrapping paper is different. These different nations created different sounding music, and different types of clothing, different weapons and tools. But the minds and the hands that did these things were 100% human. Their voices were human voices even if the songs and words sounded different. Their bodies were human bodies even if the clothing looked different. Anything one human can do, another human can do. Maybe better and maybe worse depending on what it is because we all have our unique gifts. I am a good singer but I am not beating anyone in a race! I can’t read music but maybe you can. I am a terrible excuse for an artist but I know people who could draw something beautiful while standing on their head and holding the pencil in their toes. Okay, maybe not that but you understand. In the beginning, we were all one people—humanity. But then things got messed up and when people divide into groups, they tend to think their group is the best. We forget that we are all humans and that every group has good and bad people in it—some smart, some artistic, some athletic, some creative, etc. We forget that where a person is from and what they look like doesn’t have anything to do with who they are on the inside but God has never forgotten. He gave us the Bible so we would remember.
I think maybe this is one of the reasons why God told us to never make any graven images of Him, or idols. Once we start doing that, we really like to make God look like us. Have you ever noticed that when people paint pictures of Jesus, that He is whatever color they are? For a long, long time it was hard to find any pictures where Jesus wasn’t a white man and I mean so white that it looks like He never went outside a day in his life. Like he took baths in sunblock 500 sunscreen. And so, for a long time, people who were black thought that Jesus was white! And white people taught that He was white! And you may even think He was white! But when we look at that area of the world where Jesus was born, there aren’t a lot of native white people living there. The white people living there moved in from other places. People whose families have lived there forever are very tan-skinned and mostly have dark hair and brown eyes. I guess we could say that if you averaged the way that all human beings looked, somewhere in the middle you would get someone who Jesus might look like.
But in telling the story of two people and their kids and their descendants, God was giving us an important lesson—He created us all connected and all related. We aren’t different species of humans, we are just different colors of humans with different features. Under the skin, you can’t even tell. And what will the DNA test tell you? 100% pure human. That means that we are the same. That means that the differences between us are very cool and very interesting but they don’t make either of us better than each other or anyone else. I also can’t look at you and tell what you are good at or how smart you are or what kind of music you like, any more than you can look at me and know anything about me. Our differences are wonderful. You may not like the way you look, but I love the way you look. I love the way you look because God made you. He knows you are beautiful and so I do too. I love your hair, even if you hate it. I love your eyes, even if you need glasses just like I do. I love your lips and your nose and your chin and your ears and your skin. I am looking forward to getting to know you when we meet in New Jerusalem. I can’t wait to hear all about your life and learn about what kind of music you like and the things you do with your family and what is important to you and what kind of art you like or sports. We’re going to have a lot of time to learn how to appreciate how different our lives were on earth. Just imagine, being together with everyone who has ever loved Jesus, and we will all be so different. That’s one of the reasons why it will be so wonderful. And no one will think that their way is best anymore because we will celebrate with one another, side by side, holding hands and enjoying each other’s company. And we will wonder why people didn’t do more of that here in this life.
And that’s something I want to talk about today. I want to talk to you about our big human community and how we aren’t living the way God wants us to live with one another. Because that’s the whole reason why God started out the story of Genesis with one family and not a family here who was tan and another over here who was white and another one over here who was black. God could have written that story for us but instead, He told a story where we, all of us, came from the same people. When we live any other way, terrible, evil things happen. Whenever we lie to ourselves and decide that we are superior, meaning better than anyone else, or when we accept the lie that we are inferior, not as good, as someone else—that’s when trouble happens. Our differences are wonderful, beautiful, and they make life so much better. I would never tell you a lie on purpose. I might make a mistake and tell you something that I think is true but isn’t, that happens because we are all wrong about things. But I am telling you the truth when I say that no one is superior to you and no one is inferior to you. No one is better than you are and you aren’t better than anyone else. People might be able to do things better than you can and maybe you can do some things better than other people, but that isn’t the same thing. As soon as anyone starts thinking they are better, they give themselves permission to treat other people like they are less than human and we can’t do that. It’s really hard to love and care for the people you think aren’t as good as you are. You might think that they deserve bad treatment. You might think that you deserve what belongs to them, because you are better.
Slavery, injustice, abuse, oppression, and war all happen when people think they are better and deserve more than other people deserve. At the end of the Bible, we see God’s perfect community set up right here on earth. In that community, we will remember perfectly that we are all family, all connected. We will suddenly know, as soon as we see God, that we were never better than anyone else. There will be no rich people or poor people. The color of our skin and eyes and hair will be interesting but won’t change how we feel about one another. We will trust everyone and everyone will trust us. There will be no hatred and no powerful people stomping on weaker people. But the real question is, “Are we doomed to have to wait until then for things to be like they should?” And the answer is “no!” You see, when Jesus died on the Cross and was raised from the dead, He did that for every human. Let’s look at Revelation chapter 7:
9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
A great multitude. Every nation. Every single tribe of people. Every single language. Right in front of God’s throne waving palm branches and singing. People who look like me. People who look like you. People who look like no one you have ever met in real life. That’s over 7,000 languages!!! God isn’t playing any favorites. And they will have lived every kind of life we can imagine. And we won’t be all in our own separate groups. We won’t care about that anymore.
So, my question is—if we won’t care about all that, all the silly reasons we think weird thoughts about other people now, once we are all in Jesus’s Kingdom, should we care now? Should I look at a person and decide things about them without knowing them? Should I care when other people are being hurt or should I just be concerned with myself? Is it important to help people or should we just wait until Jesus comes back? The answer to that is very simple.
Anything that we will do in the world to come we should be doing right now. Anything that won’t exist in the world to come—like hating people just because they are different—shouldn’t exist right now. If we won’t do it or if we wouldn’t allow it if Jesus was right here, there is no way we should be okay with it or ignore it now. What do we pray every day? We pray the Lord’s Prayer.
“Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name. Your Kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven…” –right there we pray that God’s will, which is what we will experience in the future when Heaven comes down to earth the way it says it will in Revelation, is what should be done on earth and not just up in Heaven. Well, how does His will get done on earth unless we do it ourselves? And more importantly, who can we ask to do His will if we won’t? I know that you guys aren’t going to take that attitude that a lot of Christians have that fixing the terrible problems of racism, poverty, abuse and oppression are someone else’s job. No sir. Its everyone’s job. Maybe you can’t do as much as a multi-millionaire or a politician, but that doesn’t mean you are powerless. We all start out by just praying and as we grow up, God shows us what we can do. But even as kids, you have a lot of power to make the world better just in your own schools and neighborhoods. You are very, very important to God’s plans. You can make a difference in the lives of other kids.
When you stand up to someone who is picking on someone who is a different color, or religion, or is poor, or who has special needs, you are making a huge difference in this world. Jesus always stood up to bullies. He didn’t care who they were. He didn’t care if they were rich, or popular, or famous, or if people thought they were really important. All He cared about was doing God’s work.
He told a story once. He said that someday, He would return and sit on a glorious throne in New Jerusalem. Just imagine what that will look like! And everyone will be gathered in front of Him, and that’s going to be a whole lot of people, boy howdy. And because He is like a shepherd, He will separate people just as He would a flock of sheep and goats. On the right side, and we will learn that whatever is on the right side was considered best (which has nothing to do with being left-handed, okay), will be people who are more like sheep and on his left will be people who are more like goats. He will smile a big smile at the people on His right and He will congratulate them, “I have a special reward for you! You did so many wonderful things for me! You fed me when I was hungry and gave me water when I was thirsty. Even though I was a total stranger, you invited me inside so I could be warm and dry. When you saw that I was wearing rags, you bought me new clothes. When I was sick, you took care of me. And when I was in jail, you weren’t ashamed to visit me!”
And the people will look at each other in confusion. “But we never did anything of the sort!”
And Jesus will say, “Of course you did! Whenever you saw anyone in need and you helped them, you were actually doing it for me! Everything you do to help people in need, especially the people everyone else hated and are mean to, you are doing for me. Come into the city and enjoy your reward!”
And then He will look at the people on His left. He will be very unhappy. “You never helped anyone. You stood by and took care of yourself when people were hungry and thirsty and cold. You didn’t care about sick people and you weren’t merciful to people in prison. You thought that you could be faithful to me while ignoring people who were hurting but you can’t. I told you to love people and you didn’t love the people who needed love the most. You will have no reward at all.”
You see, it’s very important that when we see other people, we see them as Jesus. Jesus died for them, and if they are hungry and thirsty and cold and hurting then He is too. He gave us the job of making sure they are taken care of, as much as we can. That’s why doing good to them is the same as doing good to Him. So, I hope you will spend some time praying about how you can be one of the sheep instead of one of the goats!
I love you. I am praying for you. And I hope you have a wonderful week studying the Bible with the people who love you.