by John Holbrook Jr.
A Biblical View, Blog #008 posted September 5, 2016, edited March 9, 2021.
Although few people view the Bible as a script or libretto, it is such and it tells a dramatic and romantic story which has been unfolding for almost 6,000 years now. Moreover, the theme of the story is a familiar one to readers and theater-goers alike.
Any exciting drama requires a protagonist and an antagonist. It is the struggle between the protagonist and the antagonist that gives the drama its meaning and consequence. Moreover, the excitement of the drama is enhanced if the object of contention between the protagonist and the antagonist is a maiden. It is enhanced even further if the maiden is in peril due to the attentions of the antagonist. Then the men in the audience identify with the protagonist, who is struggling to save the maiden from the grasp of the antagonist and win her hand, and the women in the audience identify with the maiden, who fears the antagonist, wants to be delivered from his grasp, and loves the protagonist. Then, when the protagonist personifies all that is good and benevolent, the antagonist personifies all that is evil and malevolent, and the maiden is beautiful and full of grace, the stakes are high and the audience is held spellbound – on the edge of its seats, so to speak. It wants to know, “Will the guy get the girl?”
Now let us consider the drama of Creation as it is described in the Bible.
The main characters in the cast are the following: God is the author of the script, designer and builder of the stage (Universe), and producer and director of the play. God’s Son is the protagonist. Satan is the antagonist. The identity of the maiden will be revealed in due course. As for the remainder of the cast, all men, women, and children play bit parts.
The drama starts with a wedding. God puts Adam to sleep, takes flesh and bone from his side, and creates a woman. He then presents her to Adam to be his bride. Adam calls her Eve. The marriage is spoiled, however, when Satan beguiles Eve into disobeying God and eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. (I am not saying here that Satan seduced Eve in the sexual sense.[1] He wanted Eve to subordinate herself to him as her lord, not to her husband, whom God had given to her to protect her, to provide for her, and to be her lord. Satan calculated that, once he obtained Eve’s allegiance, her guilty feelings would cause her to want some company in her fallen state and press Adam to follow her example, and that Adam’s uxoriousness would cause him to listen to her and follow her example, rather than repudiate what she had done, as was his duty and ability to do.) As a result of their disobedience, Adam and Eve break the relationship between God and themselves and put the earth under the dominion of Satan.
God immediately sets about taking steps to repair the breach between himself and mankind. He indicates that he will send “the seed of the woman” to set things right.
Four millennia later, God enters his Creation in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, who is identified as God-the-Son. He is born to a virgin, lives a sinless life, dies on the cross to atone for the sins of all men, women, and children who acknowledge Him as their Savior and Lord, rises from the grave, and ascends into heaven, where He sits on the Throne of God and rules heaven and earth as “King of kings and Lord of lords.”
Note that, just as God puts Adam to sleep, takes flesh and bone from his side, with which he forms Eve, and then presents Eve to Adam to be his bride, so God puts Jesus to sleep on the cross, takes blood and water from His side,[2] from which he is forming the “Bride of Christ,” who consists of all the men, women, and children who acknowledge Him as their Savior and Lord, and will present her to his Son[3] to be His bride at the Wedding of the Lamb.
Note that the Bible starts with a wedding between the First Adam and his bride[4] and ends with a wedding between the Second Adam and His bride.[5] These weddings are like bookends to the drama. Moreover note that, just as Satan tried to spoil the marriage of the First Adam, which he was able to do, so now he is trying to spoil the marriage of the Second Adam, which, according to the Scriptures, he will not be able to do.
Yes! The Guy will get the Girl! Nevertheless, the tension of the drama for God’s people in the audience derives from the fact that Satan seems to be succeeding in his efforts and only faith in the trustworthiness of the Word of God will sustain her through the trials which Satan has in store for her.
© 2016 John Holbrook Jr.
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[1] Many psychiatrists maintain that sexual seduction is at the root of the Biblical story of Eve’s seduction in the Garden, because psychiatry itself is a derivative of Sigmund Freud’s infatuation with sex and seeks to explain almost all human behavior in psychosexual terms.
[2] God’s tool was a Roman soldier’s lance.
[3] The Lamb of God. (John 1:36).
[4] See Genesis 2:18-25.
[5] See Revelation 19:6 and following.