A Kingdom of Kings - Genesis 1:1-31, 2:18-25
July 24, 2011

Genesis 1:1 says that in the beginning, God created two realms: the heavenly realm and the earthly realm. And in fact, if we were to read Genesis 1 in its original language, we'd see that the earthly realm actually comes from the heavenly realm and is therefore designed to reflect the heavenly realm. And we see this especially in the order of creation:

On the first day, God creates light and separates light from darkness.
On the second day, God creates waters and separates the waters from the sky.
On the third day, God creates land and vegetation and separates the waters with the land.

You have continually separations following Genesis 1:1 which states that God created the heavens and the earth. In other words, God creates something heavenly and separates something out it to create the earthly -- thus the heavens and then the earth. Now in following the third day, God fills or provides governance for that which He created on the first three days:

On the fourth day, God fills the expansions He created on the first day with luminaries. These luminaries actually populate the expansions and characterize the expansion to be night or to be day -- the sun acts like a king and determines whether it is day while the moon acts like a queen and decrees when it is night.

On the fifth day, God fills the waters with fish and in fact, these fish populate these waters and rule over it -- some fish rule over other fish but in the end, it is the fish that rule the waters.

On the sixth day, God fills the land that He created by placing on it animals and man who are then told to do the same as the luminaries and the fish: to populate the land and to govern it.

Yet when we skip over to chapter 2:19, we see that man isn't merely like the animals; instead, man is given the authority to govern the animals of the land and the fish of the sea. And all of this ruling over rulers places man at the proverbial top as the king of the kings of the water and the land.

Now what this reveals is that firstly, engrained into the creative order, is this idea of a covenant. When you look at the greater submitting to the authority of the lesser (expanses submit to the luminaries, waters submit to the fish, animals submit to the land, all of these submit to man), you have a framework for an archaic form of treatise and covenant called a Vassal Treaty.

Vassal Treaties occurred when one army submits to another army and sometimes, a smaller army would conquer a greater army and force them into a Vassal Treat (e.g. Gideon's story of a few hundred men versus thousands).

In other words, God did not create you to have a friendship with you. Nor did God create you to have a monarchy with you. God created you and me to have a covenant with you -- a type of relationship that requires friendship as well as service. Not one or the other but both: sometimes you do things for the Lord because you love to and other times you obey and serve Him because you ought to and have to.

Secondly, all of this ruler over ruler talk and the importance of populating and growing is that apart from being a covenantal God, our God is also a God of growth -- everything He creates is designed to grow and expand.

The best example of this is the church -- consider how 11 disciples, through the Holy Spirit and God's sovereign grace, established a church of millions. Why did this occur? Because the disciples were hard working and good people? Not so much -- rather because God is a God of growth and desires you and I to grow.

One thing I love about attending Reformed Theological Seminary is that the first class you are required to take spends a good portions of the first week discussing the reality that if you are growing intellectually or growing emotionally as a Christian but not spiritually, you are not growing at all. I know of friends who have gained enormous amounts of theological knowledge in the last year but spiritually they are still struggling with the same old things they were before -- there hasn't been any maturity in that area. I also know of other people who are ecstatic and emotionally charged up for the Lord but the moment something goes wrong, they go back to their old ways. God is a God of growth and therefore we ought to be growing by Him, for Him, and through Him in Jesus' name with the help of the Holy Spirit -- anything less than that is frustrating God's intrinsic design.

And lastly, what we see here is that man and only man has no king. In many ways, it looks man is the king of himself. And if you look at yourself or at people you know, I'm sure you can name at least five people who believe that there are the kings or queens of themselves and can do whatever they want or desire.

What's funny is that even the Israelites believed this -- that's why, often times, they literally did whatever they wanted, whether it was enthrone their own king, murder, plunder, steal, kidnap, adulterate, or lie. There were Israelites who committed such sins.

Yet what the Bible continuously reveals is that despite how it looks like Israel and mankind are kings of themselves as well as kings of this world, the reality is that there is another -- a greater king -- who constantly helps, leads, and saves these people who constantly think they are their own kings.

And upon realizing this, Nathanael in John 1:49 declares, "Rabbi [Jesus], you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel." -- there is knowledge and affirmation that there is a king over the king of kings and He guides His people and leads his people and governs His people, despite how stupid and sinful they are, as a good king.

Revelation 17:14 says this about the king of kings: "They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings--and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers."

If you are a Christian today, you have a king -- even though you may live your life like you don’t or even if it sometimes seems like you don’t, the Biblical truth is, you do. And this King is unlike any other king in all of man's kingly history because this king has done a few things no other king has done:

1. This king has died for you on the cross to pay the price for your sins. Typically, if you committed a crime, the king would be the one sentence you to death by some certain means; however, this king does the opposite: Jesus Christ, the king of kings, executes Himself on the behalf of your crimes against Him.

2. Therefore, this King is incredibly personal: one pastor noted how in Genesis 1 we have this incredibly awesome and creative God and then in Genesis 2, this powerfully cosmic God becomes intimately personal -- in verse 15, the word "took the man" actually means "led the man," using a word that is used to guide someone by gently holding their hand. Our king is personal and, therefore, every single thing you do in your life is personal to Him: you buy something, you say something, you look at something, you don't say something, you don't look or read something -- all of this becomes personal because our King is partly personal.

3. But thankfully, as personal as He is, He is also creative. John 1 says that all things you and I just read about in Genesis 1 occurred through the king of kings, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as personal as Jesus takes the sins you commit, He is creative and He cannot stop creating you through trials, victories, lessons, His Word, fellow believers, and sermons. Paul says in Corinthians that we are a new creation -- why does he use that phraseology? Because Christ, our king of kings, is creative and is creating us to be new.

4. But not just new -- He is creating us to be like Him. You are all heirs with Christ Jesus and therefore, kings, graciously chosen by His grace to live life as a king, honoring the king of kings and yet doing your kingly duties of governing over the earth.

And why is our king like this? Why is Jesus Christ, the king of kings, such a king like this? Verse 2:18 tells us why…

Have you ever wondered why God thought that wasn't good? Think about this: God is the definition and author and origin of good and after a certain amount of time, interacting with Adam, He saw that His loneliness was not good -- our King saw that man needed help. So what did God proceed to do?

You could say He created a woman but in the following verses you see that woman and man are no different -- Spurgeon once said that a woman wasn't taken from the foot of man to be below him or from the head of man to be above him but from the side of man to be equals with him. So somehow another human being -- a woman -- made everything "good" again by the standards of God's goodness? Not only so but grammatically, verse 18 and 19 are contrasting, not complementing.

I would probably say no, because she didn't help the man… but someone else did and someone else does. The ultimate helper, given by the ultimate king, as the ultimate good.

What is more good to God than His Spirit helping man become more like Himself? Indeed, nothing.

What you have, in other words, in verse 18, is this moment, predetermined, to love man in a way that you and I cannot understand. That in the moment God knew the sons of Adam would crucify the son of God, God still loved us enough to send us help and to help us eternally.

You know what I love most about C.S. Lewis' Narnia books? Aslan the king comes to the rescue and help of the children but the sorceress demands the help of others -- and I believe Lewis is contrasting every other king in this world in comparison to the King of Kings, Jesus Christ; a king who helps, a king who serves, but most importantly, a king who personally and intimately loves.

Is that a king worth serving? Is that a king worth honoring? Is that a king worth obeying? Only you can answer that question.