Advent Day 06: The One to Give Us Rest

Today, we light the Green Candle, the Black Candle, and the Blue Candle. The Green Candle represents life and all that Father God created in Christ, Good and Whole. The Black Candle represents the Evil and Corruption of Sin that entered our World through our rebellion. The Blue candle represents the Hope that comes from the Promises of a future Savior and King.

Genesis 5:28–29
When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. He named him Noah, saying, “This one will bring us comfort from our labor and from the painful toil of our hands because of the ground that the LORD has cursed.”(NET)

Because of their Rebellion, Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden in Eden:

Genesis 3:22–24
Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. (ESV)

In His mercy, The Lord God did not want the Man and the Woman to eat from the Tree of life and live forever in their now fallen state – held captive by sin, corruption and death.

In Genesis 3:20 we find out that the Man named the woman “Eve” because she is the mother of all the living – all humanity. The name “Eve” comes from the root “life.” The Man, however, never really receives a name. The name “Adam” is simply the Hebrew term for “man.” Adam is just “The Man” – the one who failed in his responsibility of overseeing, guarding and tending.

The Rebellion of Adam and Eve is the most tragic event in the Sacred Story. What was created with so much potential for greatness, seems now to be forever lost. And things don’t get any better after the initial rebellion; humanity spirals down further and further in sin and foolishness.

Romans 1:21–22
For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools,…

Adam and Eve’s first children, Cain (whose name is probably related to the verb “acquire”) and Abel (whose name is an allusion to “breath” or “vanity”) only prove that things are not going to go well for the human race. When the Lord accepts Abel’s sacrifice and rejects Cain’s, jealousy moves him toward hatred. Cain kills his brother Abel, showing that the effects of Adam’s sin have spread to all his family.

The reign of sin continues until we come to a turning point in Genesis 6:

Genesis 6:5–6
The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.(ESV)

In response to humanity’s evil, the LORD decides to destroy mankind in a flood and “wash”the earth clean of its wickedness. But in His grace, He spares one Noah and his family.

At his birth, Noah’s father Lamech had some intuition that his son would bring comfort or relief from working on the cursed earth. The name Noah means “rest.” This is a great revelation. Even at this early time, there was some expectation and hope that a deliverer would come to set humanity free from the consequences of Adam’s terrible and disastrous choice. This hints back to Gods’ words foretelling the Seed of the Woman who would come to strike the Serpents head.

Would Noah be this “promised seed”?

Would he be the “seed” who would redeem the wreck and ruin of Adam’s sin?

Would he be the one to bring rest?

After the Lord brings the great flood, The Lord repeats the same blessing to Noah and his sons that He had given to Adam and Eve:

Genesis 9:1-7
Then God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”

Here we see that even in the face of open rejection of His rule, God preserves a remnant of humanity through which He will accomplish His plans. Again, we see that God’s purposes for humanity were greater than the sin that seemingly derailed His plan in Eden and has now brought about the outpouring of His intense judgment.

As we move through the Story, we begin to notice the idea of promise/fulfillment. God gives promises to certain individuals and then provides the fulfillment of these promises. We also see God making covenants which are binding treaties between God and the person with whom He seeks to have a relationship. In Genesis 9, the Lord makes a covenant with Noah and all creation, promising that He would never destroy the Earth with Flood again.

Even though the world has changed radically, the basic blessing of creation is carried forward. Now it would be up to Noah and his sons – Shem, Ham and Japheth – to populate the Earth. In this sense, Noah is seen as the “second Adam”—the new father of the human race.

But Noah was not to be the ultimate Deliverer – the One to bring true, forever rest.

Once again, the spiral downward into sin begins. This rebellion against God comes to a head in Genesis 11 when all of humanity (the descendants of Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth), still united by a common language, come together to build a tower into Heaven. Again, the people rebel against God’s instructions. He had told them (through Noah) to multiply and spread over the face of the Earth. Now, in the plains of Shinar at Babel (ancient Babylon), the people come together to build a tower which would reach right into the presence of the Lord God’s heaven.

The events of Babel mirror the events of the Fall except now on a grand social/cultural scale. The quest to “be like god” once again is undertaken on the wrong terms and winds up in absolute chaos and confusion. In order to quell this latest rebellion, God confuses the languages of the people and this forces them to spread over the earth as He had instructed them.

Once again, humanity shows that it is truly enslaved to sin and rebels against the Word of the Lord. They will not listen to the voice and instruction of their Creator; they will not submit themselves to His Wise and Good rule. It seems that once again history is set on a path where God will have to intervene with judgment.

At the end of Genesis 11, we are waiting to see what God’s next move will be.

And we are still waiting for the One who will give us rest.