Reading Genesis 16 this morning, I was struck by something that would have seemed perfectly normal in Abram’s day.

Sarai says to Abram:

“The Lord has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.” (Genesis 16:2)

To us, it feels strange. To them, it was a recognized solution. Similar arrangements existed in the laws and customs of the ancient world. Sarai wasn’t proposing something shocking. She was reaching for a culturally accepted answer to a deeply painful problem.

And that’s what caught my attention.

So much of the Old Testament takes place within layers we don’t quite understand.

There was the culture of the day, with its customs, laws, and assumptions. God enters that world and begins reshaping it through his covenant with Israel. Over time, additional religious traditions and interpretations accumulated. Layer upon layer.

Then Jesus arrives, and He begins cutting through those accumulated layers, reshaping and realigning them.

“You have heard that it was said… but I tell you.”

Not because everything that came before was wrong, but because people had lost sight of what God was after in the first place.

Jesus kept bringing people back to the heart of God.

Back to grace. Back to mercy. Back to repentance. Back to love. Back to faith.

Back to what life was meant to be.

Sarai’s idea wasn’t out of the ordinary, but it was a surface-level human effort to bring about God’s blessing. She was discouraged and disheartened by her barrenness. Abram was impatiently waiting for God to fulfil his promise. They did what seemed to be a good idea at the time. Of course, they quickly found out that just because something is socially acceptable, it doesn’t guarantee the peace and fulfillment they were looking for.

It’s no different for us today. We inherit traditions, assumptions, political loyalties, church cultures, and personal preferences. Some are helpful. Some are not. Sometimes it becomes difficult to tell where God ends and our layers begin.

Jesus still invites us to look deeper.

Past the noise. Past the assumptions. Past the layers.

Back to the heart of the Father.

And perhaps that is part of what it means to find our way home from east of Eden.