Renewing the Call

Readings for today: Genesis 8-9, Psalms 12

We aren’t even nine chapters into the Bible and already humanity is a train wreck. Violence. Oppression. Brutality. Their evil is so great that God regrets having made them in the first place. Take a moment and imagine the grief of God? Imagine His disappointment at what the creature made in His own image has become? Imagine the heartbreak of God as He realizes humanity has reached a point of no return? The future of creation itself is at stake unless God acts. So God takes the extraordinary step of flooding the earth. Now whether the flood truly covered the entire earth or was localized to the area where humanity lived at the time is immaterial. The point here is the evil of humanity was so great that God’s justice required Him to give them the death penalty. It’s a stark reminder of how deep our sin runs.

Thankfully, all is not lost. Noah and his family find favor with God and are saved. They are delivered from the flood and, in turn, become deliverers themselves. Through their faithfulness, many species of animals and birds are saved. And once the floodwaters recede, they are able to repopulate the earth. It’s an act of re-creation. God has remade the earth. By sending the flood, the earth became “formless and void” once again while the Spirit of God “hovered over the face of the waters.” Once the waters evaporate and Noah disembarks, he is greeted with a new kind of Eden. An earth that has been profoundly reshaped. And once again, God renews the original mandate He gave to Adam. “God blessed Noah and his sons: He said, “Prosper! Reproduce! Fill the Earth! Every living creature—birds, animals, fish—will fall under your spell and be afraid of you. You’re responsible for them. All living creatures are yours for food; just as I gave you the plants, now I give you everything else. Except for meat with its lifeblood still in it—don’t eat that.” (Genesis‬ ‭9‬:‭1‬-‭4‬ ‭MSG)

God has called us to be stewards of all He has made. There is no “Plan B.” There is no backup if we should fail. God has determined to work in us and through us to cultivate and nourish creation. He has determined to work in us and through us to bring about His plan of salvation. He has determined to work in us and through us to bring blessing and peace upon the earth. We are responsible. Like it or not, we hold dominion and authority over all God has made. And God will hold us accountable for how we exercise such authority. Will we be tyrants? Oppressors? Exploiting others for personal gain? Or will we be servants? Liberators? Caring for and sharing the resources God has given us so all might flourish and thrive?

This is our challenge, friends. How will others experience you today? How will you steward the resources God has given you? Resources of time, talent, and treasure? Will you work today for your own gain or for the gain of others? Will you seek today your own good or the good of others? Will you resist the temptation to tear others down and instead do your best to build them up? Will you be an encourager? A man or woman of blessing? Someone who is generous and kind and gentle? Will you lift up those who have fallen? Pray for those who are hurting? Help bear the burdens of those who are struggling? Every day we have opportunities. Every day we make choices. Every day we have the chance to fulfill the mandate God has given us and help make the world a better place.

Readings for tomorrow: Genesis 10-11

Ancient Near East Cosmology

Readings for today: Genesis 1-2

The doctrine of accommodation is the theological principle that God “condescends” to us and speaks to us in a way human beings can understand and to which they can respond. This is a critically important principle to apply to the first few chapters of Genesis. We have to remember God is speaking to a group of people living in the Ancient Near East who perceive their world in a particular way based upon the particular science of the time and their particular cultural beliefs. Genesis is not written to a people starting with a blank slate. They already have fully formed beliefs about the world around them and how it all came into being. God speaks into their world to reshape their understanding of things. He reshapes their understanding of creation and humanity and reveals His divine purposes to them. He tells them their origin story with Adam and Eve. He reminds them of their high calling to be faithful stewards over all He has made. He helps them understand the “why” behind the “what” of creation.

A close reading of Genesis one and two is confusing for many in the modern world. We know far more about the world and all that is in it than our Ancient Near East ancestors. We have telescopes probing the vast reaches of outer space. We have microscopes unlocking creation on a sub-atomic level. We’ve “thought God’s thoughts after Him” (Kepler) and discovered all kinds of immutable laws, strong and weak forces, dark and light matter, and energy that makes up our universe and we still have so much to learn. The launch of the James Webb telescope has allowed us to “travel” back in time over 13 billion years and see some the earliest moments of creation when galaxies were still in their infancy and stars and plants were beginning to form. It’s truly incredible and yet it can pose all kinds of problems when we come to the Biblical text. Some attempt to resolve this problem by trying to square modern science with the circle of Genesis 1. Some attempt to resolve this problem by rejecting science and/or the Biblical text altogether. A far more fruitful approach - to my mind at least - is to apply the doctrine of accommodation and seek to discern what exactly God is trying to reveal in the opening pages of Scripture.

Here I owe a great debt to Dr. John Walton who teaches Old Testament at Wheaton College. Dr. Walton argues we should take a “functional” approach to understanding Genesis 1. The people living in the Ancient Near East were less concerned with how things came into being and more concerned with the purpose behind them. So God creates light and darkness on the first day, the sky or “atmosphere” on the second day, and the land, oceans, and all plant life on the third day. For a person living in the Ancient Near East, the “functions” of each day were clear. Light and dark represent the creation of time. The sky or atmosphere represents the creation of weather. The land, oceans, and all plant life represent the foundation for a sustainable food source. Then God creates “functionaries.” He creates the sun and moon and stars to govern time and seasons. He fills the land, oceans, and skies with all kinds of different animals to build an ecological system that can sustain life. Finally, He creates humankind in His image to care for and cultivate and exercise dominion over all He has made and He charges them to “prosper, reproduce, and fill the earth.” Again, the point is less about how everything got here - on this point, Genesis 1:1 is clear, “First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—all you see, all you don’t see.” (MSG) - and more on the order and purpose behind God’s creative acts.

When we view Genesis 1 and 2 through Ancient Near East eyes, we can focus less on the unnecessary and completely contrived “conflict” between faith and science and instead focus on why human beings were created and the mandate God has given us to care for His creation.

Readings for tomorrow: John 1:1-3, Psalm 8, 104