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[Genesis 1-2:3] (read in conjunction with Psalm 104) Scripture: To know what it means, we need to know what it meant. - study the passage in it’s “native habitat” to understand the environment in which it was written, read, and understood. (the difference between a naturalist studying a lion at zoo vs. savannah) “It is not to be wondered at that Mesopotamian society suffered from a malaise which scholars have characterized as “overtones of anxiety.” the nature of the Gods could give no feeling of certainty and security in the cosmos. To make matters worse there were also environmental factors that had to be taken into account. Man always found himself confronted by the tremendous forces of nature, and nature, especially in Mesopotamia, showed itself to be cruel, indiscriminate, unpredictable. Since the gods were immanent in nature, they too shared these same harsh attributes. To aggravate the situation still further, there was always that inscrutable, primordial, power beyond the realm of the gods to which man and gods were both subject. Evil, then, was a permanent necessity and there was nothing essentially good in the pagan universe. The universe was purposeless and the deities could offer their votaries no guarantee that life had meaning and direction, no assurance that the end of human strivings was anything but vanity. History and time were but a repeating cycle of events in which man played a passive role, carried along relentlessly by the stream of existence to his ineluctable fate.” - Nahum M. Sarna People become like the gods they worship. Their gods are their models. So Moses starts at the beginning because understanding God’s creation of the world helps us understand what God is like. - knowing how God initiated our world (and then continues interacting with it) helps us understand our own relationship to God more clearly. - when inserted into its original context, the creation narrative of the Story is less about “How were things created?” and more about: - What is the God of Israel like? - What is the purpose of human existence? - Where do we stand with God and the created world around us? 1. IN THE BEGINNING, GOD… In the Jewish culture, God has no myth about Him, no biography or back-story. - “In the beginning, God…” - There is no parallel to this in any other culture or religion of the time. In the history of religious thought, this phrase was completely unique and revolutionary. - God is not birthed by some magical force or any previous matter. In fact, the author of the story has God shaping and creating things from water. - in the dominant beliefs of the time, water was the element from which things were created (including the gods themselves). - water was a classic symbol of the time for chaos (people living in the river deltas of Mesopotamia and Tigris-Euphrates which were prone to flooding, receding, etc.). Leviathian was an extremely popular symbol in Babylonian and Assyrian myth, always identified with water, and synonymous with cosmic chaos and disorder. - and where does the psalmist place Leviathan in Ps. 104? - where every other religion of the time viewed the universe and reality as chaotic with no sense of order or control, the Jews speak over and against this by having the Creator God taking this chaos (water) and shaping into something that is in order and harmony and relationship. And NOTHING is above him or beyond his control. He is not bound or influenced by anything. Time and time again God speaks, and the author tells us “it was so.” - the idea of a creator God was completely unique, and it’s a huge deal when people all throughout the Bible proclaim their God as being the One who created the mountains and seas and all living things—this just wasn’t a common belief at the time. (you might have a god of the mountain…but the idea that a god created that mountain was out of bounds in ancient religious traditions). The Hebrew God came before all else and from him came all things. 2. …GOD CREATED… God is the provider and sustainer of all things. From seeming emptiness and chaos, this God forms and shapes order and beauty and harmony. Things “fit” together literary structure of creation narrative: when viewed in the original Hebrew, we don’t see the author spelling out a linear timeline, but setting up couplets of things that emphasize their relationship: Day 1 à Day 4 Day 2 à Day 5 Day 3 à Day 6 Day 7 stands alone (which we’ll get to next week) luminaries correspond to the light birds and fish correspond to the sky and water land animals and mankind correspond to dry land
- Moses is not trying to make an argument that some sort of deity created everything (everyone already assumed the world was created by some sort of deity)—he is making a statement as to what kind of God created everything. - this was a God who was deeply involved in His creating of things, and it’s mentioned that his Word is the force responsible for making it happen. “Word of God” - God’s desire, God’s dream, God’s intention. This creation is an extremely purposeful act of a God who is deeply and intimately INVOLVED. Without His involvement, none of it would continue. - we see this in Psalm 104. In the Hebrew, the word for “spirit” and “breath” are the same: ruach. God takes it away and gives it back. All things depend on His Spirit/Breath. 3. IT IS GOOD. God creates all things, and proclaims all of it “good.” Actually, in the end, he says it’s “very good.” - when we hear this, we have the tendency to assume that means PERFECT. - but perfection is a Greek idea, not a Hebrew one. PERFECT: fully-formed, static, no room for growth or change or movement. But what type of plants does God create? seed-bearing What is creation told to do once it’s created? multiply Why are the luminaries created? to mark the changing seasons - creation is given “breath of life,” the ability to “be”…and the command to continue “being.” >>>>>> forward motion >>>>>> Good is better than perfect. Good has the potential to create more goodness—perfection doesn’t allow that. In a “perfect” world, change is the enemy. Progression and flux and creativity aren’t allowed. The very idea of changing seasons is rebellion. But mankind is called the “first fruits” of creation. That phrase assumes MORE fruit. More will come from what currently is. - We have to understand that the author carefully calculated this entire passage. There is so much that we miss that was in the original Hebrew of the writing. The author was amazingly meticulous in the way he wrote and structured this entire passage. - for example, woven into the entire flow of thought is an incredible construction that uses symbolic numbers: 10, 3, and particularly 7. We don’t’ have the time to look at all the triplets and septets that fill this passage. But what I want us to understand is that everything in here is extremely purposeful, and things are repeated for a reason. What happens within each day of creation is book-ended by certain phrases and words that become extremely patterned and predictable as you progress through the narrative (“It was morning and it was evening”). The entire passage becomes very repetitive and formulaic…until you get to the seventh day. On that day—the day God rests—the set pattern regarding day and night (e.g. morning and evening) is left out. - in a passage with so much exact calculation, we’re supposed to take notice of this. So what does it mean? The day was never finished. As far as the author is concerned, it’s still going. Things are created, given the ability to “be” and roam about the yard…and in the end, God leaves the gate open. 4. GOD CREATED MAN IN HIS OWN IMAGE There is so much that could be said here—countless books have been written about it. And, if they’re honest, most Biblical and Hebrew scholars will admit that the phrase “in the image of God” is actually an extremely difficult one to translate and its origin and exact importance hasn’t really been explained. I’m only going to share a few thoughts on it, mostly as they tie-in to what I’ve already talked about. First, this is again a revolutionary idea in the history of religion and mankind’s understanding of himself in the cosmos. - in every dominant narrative of the day, humans were created simply to do the work that the gods were to lazy to do. They didn’t like laboring and slaving away in the sun all day…so humans were created to take care of that. (How convenient this was for nations and empires whose existence depended upon slave labor.) - and in the context of Moses writing Genesis, you have a people whose existence has been work and toil, whose identity was based on how many bricks they could make each day. - they are coming from an existence where your worth and value was equated to your success in production. (which obviously has nothing in common with our modern culture…) But in this Story, man is created as the crowning jewel of creation and is unique in that something of the thing that God is, is reflected in the something that mankind is. As one biblical scholar put it: “The Bible’s concept of the divine image in man thus constitutes another revolutionary break with its contemporary world. No longer is man a creature of blind forces, helplessly at the mercy of the inexorable rhythms and cycles of nature. On the contrary, he is now a being possessed of dignity, purpose, freedom and tremendous power.” Second, the fact that mankind is made an image emphasizes the radical nature of his dependence. - we are defined in relationship to God. In this Story, mankind is to be the created representation of his Creator. So, if mankind is the image of God, the command not to make images of God appears in a whole new light. (story of Abraham leaving his father’s household and false idols) - God has placed his image within this creation, and the service/worship He requests is that mankind tends creation and serves his neighbor…who was also created in that very same image. As Jesus said: “You shall love the LORD your God…and you shall love your neighbor….” The two are inextricably intertwined. How we treat the creation shows how we feel about the Creator. conclusion: The world today, in many ways, often doesn’t seem to have much in common with this story of its creation. But in the ways that it’s broken and corrupted, we are called to partner with God, enabled by His Spirit, to help bring about restoration and new creation. Shalom. Where do we start with all that?
That’s what we’ll look at next week, and why
the seventh day is so important… |
