“Look for the Melody”

 

We spent the better part of last year reading through the first 25 chapters of Genesis. As we read through the narrative we utilized the Literary Design presented by the Hebrew scholar, Tim Mackey, from Bible Project. The Literary Design helped us to know what to expect as we read through Scripture. To refresh your memory, you can find the Literary Design in your bulletin. 

 

As we begin 2026, we will be reading about Jacob. In order to begin to understand the life of Jacob and make sense of all the bizarre and weird things that happen to him, you need to understand the melody. Once you recognize the melody and how the story fits into the Literary Design the stories begin to make sense. 

 

Let’s see if I can use an example from today. 

What are some of your favorite major picture films that consist of more than three films in a series? 

And have you watched all of the films in the series? 

 

For me it’s Star Wars. I can vividly remember watching the first movie and being drawn in, hook, line and sinker. Here’s where my motif comes in. Throughout the movies, especially in movie two, three, etc. there is a movie score. The music from Star Wars has won numerous awards. As soon as we hear, “dun,di,dun, da, da, da, dun….” We are taken into space. If you have watched Star Wars  you know what I mean. Before the Storm Troopers even come on screen you know they are coming, because of the music. Each scene and even characters have their own theme music. 

By the time you watch the third film you hear three seconds of music and you instantly recall previous scenes. What’s more, you begin to import details from the past into the existing scene. Hollywood has been using music to coordinate with the characters and theme even before they had people speaking. 

 

We all know the importance of having watched the first two movies of a series, or of having to read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone”  first, so you can understand the details in the following books. 

 

Whether it’s music or words, this type of literary design has been used since the beginning of time. 

Why? 

Because it works. 

 

Reading through the life of Jacob will make more sense to us if we look for the melody that has already been presented in the first half of the book. The venue will be different, the characters names have changed, but their personae fits with previous characters. If you are not familiar with the melody, and how the narrative fits in with the literary design, the story sounds strange and the details won’t make a lot of sense. We are going to focus on picking up on the little details, which are often randomly presented, and recognizing how they highlight what is truly going on. 

 

Today I am going to present a short review on the melodies presented in the first half of Genesis. Hopefully you will pick up on them right away. This is in preparation of next week’s launch back into the second half of chapter 25 of Genesis, when Jacob was born. 

 

We have encountered three movements thus far in the Hebrew Scriptures. This morning I am going to focus on the first one. The first main literary movement is from Genesis 1-11. It begins with a dark, watery chaos, a lifeless, disorganized, watery abyss. But God is a master of bringing life and order out of non-life and disorder, a theme that keeps repeating itself throughout both the Old and New Testament. 

 

First we are given a seven day creation narrative, which ends with God creating His image, male and female, who together are called to rule as God’s representative. In chapter two of Genesis we are given another way to look at the beginning and this narrative begins with a lifeless wilderness. God provides a stream in the desert and whenever you have water and dirt, you get mud. So God uses that mud to form “adam,” or “human.” 

After the human we are told God creates a garden in the region called, “Eden,” which in Hebrew means “delight.” Then the narrative narrows the creation down even more to trees. In the center of it all there is a special tree, the tree that brings life. Very close by there is an alternate tree, one that brings death. So in the very center of this delightful garden is a choice, between life and death. 

The human is put in the garden and then split in two, in order that they may become one. Oh, and by the way, also in the center of this garden is a deceiver.  

 

Got the picture?!

 

God has chosen an anointed representative, 

He has put them to rule and steward the blessing and the abundance of the garden that God planted. 

 

Oh, yeah… remember….

 

God didn’t eliminate the darkness on day one - 

He contained it.

 

God didn’t eliminate the chaotic waters on day two - 

He contained them. 

 

God didn’t do away with the potentially dangerous beasts.

He put them under the rule and authority of His image-bearing representatives. 

 

Oh, and we have one that appears, who doesn’t want to be under the rule and authority of God’s image-bearing representatives. 

Actually, this creature wants to usurp their rule. 

This deceiver manages to do just what his name declares, he deceives God’s anointed chosen representatives and they take the bait. 

They violate God’s command and suffer the consequences. They must die and therefore were exiled from eating from the tree of life. 

Out they go!

 

Take One and Take Two, of the beginning. 

 

In the first narrative, we were promised, as the humans were being exiled, that there would be hostility between the seed of the woman and the seed of the snake. Basically there would be snakelings and non-snakelings. The seed of the woman would do away with the deceiver even though the deceiver will strike the heel of the woman’s seed. 

Significant details.

 

We continue the narrative, outside the garden, with Adam and Eve’s two sons. Two seeds, one was chosen as the carrier of the promise. One was not. 

The non-chosen son gets really angry. God even has a conversation with him and warns him that he has a choice, should he choose good, he would be lifted up. However, should he choose not to do good, we are told that “sin was crouching at his door.” It’s pictured like an animal of prey, just waiting to pounce. God tells him that he has the power to rule the animal, but we all know the story. 

Sin wins. 

 

There’s the melody. 

 

The failure of the parents, 

a choice between good and not good 

and an animal that wants to deceive them. 

 

The next generation, 

a choice between good and not good and 

there’s this animal, but in this story it’s called, “sin.”  

Paul recognized the melody. In his letter to the Romans, chapter 7, he calls sin a power, 

a deceiver that takes advantage of God’s commands to you and 

gets you to do the thing that you don’t actually want to do. 

Where does it lead? To death.

 

Back to our story, 

What happened with the rivaling brothers? 

Cain murders his brother, Abel and then he was exiled. Beginning to sound familiar? 

Repeat of the melody?

 

What does exiled Cain do?    

He goes east and builds a city. Things go from bad to worse, actually to even worse than worse. Generations continue to choose not good until God looks down and decides it was time to purify the land of all the bloodshed. At this point we have the reversal of Genesis 1, the undoing of creation. God decides to no longer contain the waters. The waters were allowed to collapse back in over the dry land. The dry land sinks back into the abyss. But there was one guy, Noah, whom God chooses and appoints to be the representative to carry on the seed of the woman and the promise of the blessing. Oh, here’s where it gets interesting, God puts Noah and his wife and family, along with a bunch of animals afloat on a boat. 

 

In the midst of the chaos waters, 

was a little floating Eden. 

 

Months later, God called on the wind again. It came and receded the waters and a mountain was exposed. Noah gets off the boat and the first thing he does is offer a sacrifice to God. 

Note, Noah takes an animal, which at this point in time was a precious resource and offers it up to God.  

What does God see? 

Someone who is sold out to Him and someone He can work with, so God repeats to Noah what He said to humanity in the beginning. God blesses them and tells them to be fruitful and multiply and fill the land. 

 

Check out the melody.

 

The blessing that characterized Eden got turned into a curse.

 

That curse led to exile and led to de-creation. 

 

What human selfishness and sin does 

is it sets a chain reaction of chaos in motion. 

 

Each generation just intensifies it. 

 

For those of you who are familiar with the story of Jacob, can you hear the melody? Can you recognize the outline? 

In fact, the story of Jacob is going to replay this melody about a dozen times. 

 

Jacob, the story of a guy 

• during birth he grabs the heel of his brother, 
• he not only tricks his brother for a birthright, but dresses up in an animal disguise, in a tent, to trick his father for a blessing

With the use of the melody, this narrative no longer becomes a story with strange scenes but one that has a familiar melody that begins to make sense. 

 

The narrator begins Genesis with a very cosmic scope. Immediately it becomes very personal with a couple who were given a choice of good and bad. 

Then they have a family with two brothers who were given the same choice and the melody continues. 

 

The narrative is training us to see that our daily relationships and experiences often have cosmic significance. We are being asked to recognize that our life is invested with much greater meaning than we might suspect. 

 

Check in time.

 

Can you recognize the melody today? 

 

Each of us are humans, with our own tree of knowing good and evil, with choices to make. We are presented with situations that we are called to respond to and we often think, “What am I going to do?” 

 

The Bible becomes a lens for us to see our own experiences. The thing that stands out most in this melody to me is the faithfulness of God. Why God chooses to tie Himself to humanity is beyond me. Generations upon generations intensify the failures of their ancestors and yet God is committed to work with each generation as He finds them. 

 

Jump start to the New Testament and we read about a king killing all the baby boys in the area of where the “King of Kings” was born.  

Just part of the melody. 

Then we get to the part where God gives the ultimate sacrifice, 

Himself. 

No more relying on the image-bearing representatives of the creator. 

God comes to earth and takes our place as the final sacrifice. 

The perfect lamb, taking away the sins of the world. 

 

Today we celebrate this victory with the Lord’s Supper.