By Dix Winston
Imagine reading the great Russian novel War and Peace by starting at the book’s midpoint. It would make no sense to you. Who is Pierre Bezukhov, or Audrey Bolkonsky, or the Kuragan and Rostov families? And why is Napoleon invading Russia? It would be difficult, if not impossible, to understand the author’s reason for writing. You would miss the connections and implications of people, places, and events.
One reviewer noted: “The two key themes in the novel are spirituality in the main characters and family as the ultimate reward for spiritual suffering.”i If you skipped the first hundred pages of this 1,200-page book, you would miss this thematic structure.
A book’s beginning serves a purpose. In it, the author introduces the antagonist, protagonists, conflicts, and themes that will propel the story forward.
This is true of the Bible. While it is so much more than a mere narrative (i.e., the revealed Word of God), it is still a book with an ongoing story. It has a beginning, middle, and end. To understand the Bible, you must begin at the beginning—the first three chapters of Genesis.
THE PROTAGONIST
Any good book quickly introduces the reader to the protagonist––the leading character. In the Bible, we meet Him in Gen 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” God is the One beginning, superintending and eventually ending the Biblical narrative.
Therefore, He is eternal and without beginning or end. He speaks, and worlds come into existence. He is the Creator; everything else is created. Therefore, the Bible is His story. As the story begins, He creates a man, Adam. He then creates a woman, Eve, and places the man and woman in a garden.
THE PRECEPT
He entrusts them with a monumental task: “Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth’” (Gen 1:28). This is called the creation mandate.
Our first parents were God’s stewards or caretakers of planet Earth. He blessed or enabled them for this work and then charged them with four responsibilities. First, they were to have lots of children. Second, this was to continue until the earth was filled with human beings. Third, they were to subdue the earth and its animals, bringing all under their control. Finally, they must rule over God’s creation.
THE PROHIBITION
And there was one prohibition, “…the Lord commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die’” (Gen 2:16-17).
Without this prohibition, Adam and Eve would have had no choice or free will in the garden. Instead, there would have been only blind, robotic obedience. There would have been no consequences for disobeying by disregarding God’s word. The prohibition allowed Adam and Eve to demonstrate their faith in God’s word.
However, they did not fully comprehend the cost of disobedience and unbelief.
THE PROBLEM
God permitted the evil one to come into the garden. But Adam and Eve allowed the Serpent’s word to come into their hearts. He convinced them that God was withholding something from them, that He could not be trusted, and that He is not a good God, but a bad God. When God looks bad, sin looks good. Doubting both God and His Word, they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Dr. Elliott Johnson insightfully frames Adam and Eve’s rebellion and the problem it caused, saying:
Unexpectedly, the serpent appears (Gen 3:1) to induce humanity to question God’s Word which warranted rebellion against His Word (Gen 3:1-5). This conflict between the Creator and His creatures was spawned by God’s enemy, the serpent. Rebellion against God’s Word was rebellion against the structure God had spoken into existence in creation. When Adam took a bite of the fruit, his relationship with God died (Gen 2:17). When Adam listened to the serpent, the serpent’s word took control of Adam and the realm he once ruled was lost to the enemy. Under God’s permission of evil, His universal kingdom remained intact, from which judgment against the serpent was pronounced (Gen 3:14-15). And this verdict framed the conflict that would inform the interpretation of history.ii
THE PROMISE
This transgression would not derail God’s plan. As Johnson points out, God is still God, and He judges rebellion in His garden. While invoking a curse upon the Serpent, He promises that the Seed of the woman will triumph over the Serpent’s seed (Gen 3:15). This “Seed War” ends with the Serpent’s being “cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Rev 20:10). It would be through the Seed of the woman that our Lord and Savior would come, and with Him, His eternal kingdom.
He promised them that a solution to the rebellion in their hearts would be solved by the offspring of their union. In what has been called the protoevangelium (first Gospel) God promises a future solution. To the Serpent He says, “And 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” (Gen 3:15).
God was not done with Adam and Eve. As they obeyed the creation mandate to procreate, the Savior would one day come.
Even though no child had been conceived at this time, Adam—recognizing God’s extreme mercy—named the woman Eve “because she was the mother of all living” (Gen 3:20). Adam believed God’s promise that the solution would come through Eve. Of course, this promise is fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ.
These three chapters are essential to understanding the rest of the Bible. We meet our Creator—the only One who can solve the problem of sin. We understand that there is an evil being who will always oppose God’s work in our lives. And we learn that God is always good and always great!
While you may never get to the end of War and Peace, I hope you will get to the end of the Bible and its final promise: “I am coming quickly,” to which we all should say, with the Apostle John, “Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:20).
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Dix and his wife, Cynthia live in Colorado and have been married for nearly five decades. Dix and Bob Wilkin have been friends since their seminary days, having graduated from DTS in 1982.
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i Jordan Gray, “War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: Summary, Themes & Analysis” at https://study.com/academy/lesson/war-peacethemes-analysis.html#:~:text=War%20and%20Peace%20by%20Leo%20Tolstoy%20(1869)%20provides%20a%20broad,ultimate%20reward%20for%20spiritual%20suffering. Last accessed 9/10/24.
ii Elliott Johnson, A Dispensational Biblical Theology (Allen, TX: Bold Grace Ministries, 2016), p. 35.