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And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures…”. “So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds…”. Genesis 1:20a and 21a

2. Temptation and The Fall
Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die.” Genesis 3:1- 4

…she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew they were naked; Gen. 3:6b-7b

And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you; … you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Gen. 3:17-19

This is a split panel: the temptation on the left and the expulsion on the right. I depicted the temptation in considerable detail, but I decided to simply scratch in the aftermath of the fall in the adjacent panel to express something of the despair Adam and Eve must have felt.

3. Cain Kills His Brother Abel
So Cain was very angry… Genesis 4:5b

Cain said to Abel his brother, “Let us go out to the field.” And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against this brother Abel, and killed him. Genesis 4:8

It appears that animal sacrifice was understood as necessary in approaching God after the expulsion. Scripture says that “…without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” [Hebrews 9:22b] But Cain chose his own way and offered the produce of the land; his own “world view”, so to speak. Consequently, because his sacrifice was rejected by God and Abel’s wasn’t, he was enraged by jealously and turned his anger against his brother and killed him.

4. The Flood - Noah's Sacrifice
“…on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights.” Gen.7:11

I used the same method in depicting the flood as I did in the aftermath of the fall by simply scratching in a torrent of lines in order to express something of the chaos. The ark is barely seen. Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you…” Genesis 9:8- 10a

“I established my covenant with you…that never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” “…This is the sign of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.” Gen.9:11-13

Noah sacrificed burnt offerings immediately after leaving the ark. I see them as offerings of thanksgiving. Although he sacrificed a number of animals, I chose a lamb to represent the LAMB “…who takes away the sin of the world”, our Lord Jesus.

5. Tower Of Babel
And the Lord said, ‘Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth… Genesis 11:6-8a

Here, again, I chose a bare scratching to indicate something of the chaos that happened there when the self sufficient arrogance of the race expressed itself in defiance of God’s specific command toe “replenish” the earth.

6. God’s Promise To Abraham
And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, “…your own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he believed the Lord; and he reckoned it to him as righteousness. Gen.15:4 - 6

God told Abraham that his progeny would become a “…multitude of nations”, innumerable as the stars; “Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.” Hebrews 11:12 Abraham represents salvation by faith as opposed to salvation by the works of the Law.

7. Moses Breaking the Tablets of the Law
And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down; for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves; they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them;…”. Exodus 32:7 and 8a

The Law was already being broken even while Moses was receiving it. The people, thinking Moses was dead because of his long delay in returning from the darkness of the mountain, turned to worshiping an idol and to debauchery. The breaking of the tablets of the Law was Moses’ angry response to their breaking of it. In showing this aspect of Israel’s experience at Sinai I wanted to emphasize that “all have fallen short of the glory of God”, as scripture says. All have broken the Law and that, consequently, necessitated the cross. Romans 3:23

8. The Passover Lamb
Your lamb shall be without blemish…and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs in the evening. Then they shall take some of the blood, and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat them. Exodus 12:5a,6,7

For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you, upon the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall fall upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. Exodus 12:12-13

John the Baptist pointed to Jesus and called Him “…the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. John 1:29 Peter refers to Him as “a lamb without blemish or spot”. 1 Peter 1:19 The book of Revelation is filled with references to Jesus as the Lamb; references like a slain Lamb; the wrath of the Lamb; the marriage supper of the Lamb, etc. The whole sacrificial system of Israel, from the lamb killed at the first Passover and the prescriptions under the law is summed up in John’s reference to Jesus as the “Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world”.

9. Jesus on the Cross and the Angels Covering Their Eyes
The seraphs on either side of the cross cover their eyes from the horror they are witnessing; God’s sinless son, on our behalf, suffering God’s judgment against sin. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” II Corinthians 5:21

On the cross Jesus became a curse. The Law said: ‘A curse is on everyone who is hanged on a gibbet,’ Gal.3:13 Christ, who was sinless, nevertheless became “sin for us”, as Scripture has it, by becoming a “technical violator of the law” by being hung on the cross, Since God cannot tolerate sin, His wrath, His resistance against sin, fell on His own Son. That’s the reason for that awful cry of abandonment: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Matt. 27:46

10. Ascension
Jesus, as the Good Shepherd, is holding a lamb as a symbol both of his care for each of us and his role as the Lamb that takes away the sin of the whole world.

“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.” And when he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. Acts 1:8 and 9

I included the communion elements at the base of the panel in order to indicate the connection between the disciples and us and the Lord’s return.