Although commonly misunderstood, the early chapters of Genesis are chock full of powerful statements that serve to explain questions such as "Why was the earth made?" and "Who made it and for what purpose?" The answers that Genesis provides are powerful and resonant to the human experience.
Of course, after the modern era people want to ask scientific questions of the text, something that the Hebrew authors wouldn't have had in mind and something that God would have had little need to provide to his people Israel in order to help them fulfill his purposes for them.
The same is also true today, we often miss out on how the Genesis account of creation has the intention of revealing God as the one who created of the heavens and earth for the purpose of filling it with his glory.
The 6 day account, rather than attempting to provide the Hebrews with an unwanted scientific account of "how" God did it, are presenting this powerful truth in temple language. God's process of creation matches the process of building a temple and communicates to the Israelites that God wants to inhabit the earth and mankind is the "image" of himself much like the images pagans would insert into temples to represent gods.
Here are some of the powerful revelations that a proper understanding of Genesis provides to us about mankind and the will of God for his creation:
1) God intends to fill the heavens and earth with his glory through his image-bearers, mankind
Have you ever wondered why God labors so hard to accomplish his purposes with such unwieldy instruments as the Hebrews, Peter, yourself or me? Why Jesus didn't wrap up the whole project after raising from the dead but instead entrusted a mission to his disciples? Why Jesus spent so much of his time on earth teaching and raising up followers before finally getting to the part where he triumphed over death?
Because he is a God of relationship who wants to express himself across the potential barriers of misunderstanding and human failure and is committed to his original Genesis task to fill the earth with his glory primarily through his image-bearers. Hence Abraham's election, hence Israel, hence the incarnation, hence the Church.
Every part of the Bible and every description of God's actions to effect his will on the earth flow from this original intent demonstrated in Genesis.
2) God created the heavens and the earth, they are separate from him and under his authority
There are some definite apologetics at play in the Genesis account. Pagan explanations for life and creation are swept aside in favor of the simple explanation of the first cause who is eternal.
While ancient pagans and modern pagans tend to view the world as a violent place that is pulled this way and that by uncontrollable and unaccountable forces or gods, Genesis stresses that there is underlying order and intention that will eventually break through and win the day. That's good news regardless of the era in which you live.
3) God is committed to his original intentions and they still govern the world
The book of Proverbs describes how Wisdom is an abstract form of the intentions of God in Chapter 8. In verse 27 wisdom speaks to us saying,
"When he established the heavens, I was there; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he made the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was his daily delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man."The world is governed by divine laws, and they include mathematic or physical truths as well as spiritual ones. For instance, when God created them "male and female" that was his intention for how man's relationships would reflect the glory of the creator. When he designed sex, he did it with image-bearing in mind. Mutual submission, partnership, delight, joy, and creation. Sex is a powerful metaphor for God and an important way in which man demonstrates who God is on the earth.
When we try to redefine sexuality, invent orientations, or otherwise twist God's purposes for how humans are intended to interact we are essentially rebelling against God and attempting to deny something as fundamental to creation as the fact that adding two and two will equal four.
Later in Chapter 8 there are warnings for those who despise foundational wisdom:
"Hear instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it. Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors. For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord, but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death."When we attempt to thwart, ignore, or twist God's intention for creation we are working against the will of God and working against the purposes of the Lord that he was willing to give up his son to accomplish. When we ignore God's intentions for life we embrace death. That's not the side of history we want to be on.
4) Creating and stewarding reflect the person of God
God is described in Genesis 1:1 as "hovering over the waters" with the language used to describe a mother bird watching carefully over her nest. When we create and steward children, homes, societies, buildings, etc on the earth we are reflecting the image of God. This is our purpose.
That truth has powerful ramifications for art and culture that we'll have to examine in a later post but it's worth noting that when a non-Christian culture raises children or paint artwork they are demonstrating the glory of God whether they intend to or not.
5) We are free to be a scientific and progressive people
Despite Christians in the west having a major hand in the development of the scientific method and many of the advances that led to the technological benefits we enjoy in our society today, people who believe in Creation are often considered to be at odds with scientific or societal advance.
We can blame this, in part, on those who attempt to treat Genesis 1 as a science textbook instead of God communicating deeper and more important truths. When we grasp the deeper truths of Genesis, we realize that we have license, favor, and ability to see continued scientific and societal advances in society.
As GK Chesterton notes in "Orthodoxy," it's not possible to be a successful progressive unless you understand that God formed the universe with wisdom and there are standards and laws at play.
If you don't believe the universe is orderly and reflects design, you cannot make scientific hypothesis and generalizations to use in understanding how to unlock the potential of our world's resources. You have no guarantee that your discoveries of the world will actually be consistent and allow you to use natural laws to accomplish anything good.
Similarly, unless there is a divine will and intent for the world, we can never progress towards falling more closely in line with that purpose.
Chesterton describes the modern progressive as a man trying to paint the world. On Monday he decides that the world should all be colored blue, so he starts painting everything blue. On Tuesday he realizes it should actually be green, so he goes back and starts painting everything green instead.
Will this artist ever actually progress? No, because he's always changing the standard he's aiming for.
When we believe that the world is created with specific intents and purposes by a divine maker and we have access to what his purposes are, THEN we can work with science, laws, and our own moral choices to try and progress closer to his purposes.
These are some of the main thrusts of Genesis 1, rarely understood or applied within our times as we attempt to find answers the text isn't intended to provide while ignoring the tremendous wisdom it does offer us. When we get this right, the whole Bible and world becomes open to us to discover and delight in.
No comments:
Post a Comment