How it All Began

Readings for today: Genesis 1-3, Psalm 1

The creation story of the Bible is unique among ancient near east creation narratives. Most of the other cultures surrounding ancient Israel described creation as a war between the gods and chaos. Light and darkness. Good and evil. Typically, the gods prevail over chaos and literally dismember it in order to make the heavens and the earth. It’s a gruesome, violent depiction. Furthermore, it’s a battle that never truly ends as the forces of chaos are always looking for opportunities to re-assemble and overthrow the natural order of things. This requires constant vigilance which is why so much of ancient near east worship was geared towards maintaining the order of the universe and appeasing the gods so they will protect and provide for humanity. It’s very transactional and mutually beneficial with both gods and humanity benefiting from the arrangement.

Genesis 1 tells a completely different story. God doesn’t battle the formless, empty depths of the waters at the beginning of time. There is no war in heaven as God struggles to impose His will on creation. No, God simply speaks and creation comes into being. Light (Time). Heavenly expanse (Weather). Dry land and vegetation (Food). The very building blocks of life for the people of the ancient near east. Sun and moon and stars to rule over time. Birds to fill the heavens and fish to fill the sea. Animals on the earth. All of it designed by God with humanity in mind. For we are the crown of His creation. The creatures made in His own image. Given dominion over all He has made. Called not to hold back chaos - that’s already taken care of - but to live in covenant relationship with God and care for all He has made. There is no hint of conflict. No hint of violence. No hint of heartbreak, suffering, or pain. At least, not until Genesis 3.

There are two critical takeaways from today’s reading that set up the rest of what we will read this year. First and foremost, we were made to live in perfect relationship with God. We were made to live with God in paradise. We were made to reflect His image and glory to the world. This was God’s great desire at the beginning and it remains His great desire to this day. Because we are made in God’s own image, we are created with agency. Free will. The ability to make choices and be held responsible for those choices. In relationships, love must be freely given and freely chosen or it is not love at all. Sadly, and here’s the second key takeaway, we chose “self” over God and fractured our relationship with Him with devastating consequences. Conflict entered the world for the first time. We now live in conflict with God, with each other, with the land, and even with ourselves. We’ve become agents of chaos now and all that has gone wrong in the world is the ripple effect of our sinful decision to walk away from God. From this point forward, God will re-enter the picture to fight the forces of chaos we’ve unleashed and yet He will never let go of His original dream. He will continue to work with us and through us to bring order and love and life to this world, entrusting us as people of faith to fulfill His original purposes. This is our call, friends, and the rest of the Bible is the story of God’s mission to restore all that was lost.

How can you join Him today?

Readings for tomorrow: Genesis 4-7, Psalm 2

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

Cultivation

Readings for today: Genesis 1-2

Father, by Your Holy Spirit, open Your Word to us that we may hear Your voice, learn what You would have us learn, and grow ever deeper in our faith. We pray this in the name of Jesus, amen. 

Human beings are made to cultivate. Cultivate the earth. Cultivate the Garden. Cultivate and care for all of life. In recent years, most of my focus has been on the creation story of Genesis one. The rhythm of morning and evening. Everything good and perfect. The Lord God speaking the universe into existence. Creating humanity in His own image. Giving us dominion over all He has made. Calling us to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth. However, this year I decided to read the Bible in the old King James English. It translates the Hebrew “be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth…” That word “replenish” stuck with me as I turned the page and began reading chapter two. There it seems clear that humanity has a key role to play in cultivating all God has made. Everything was prepared. The ground was set. The seeds were planted. But nothing had yet grown because there had been no rain and “there was no man to work the ground.” (2:5) This does not mean that somehow God was helpless or too prideful to get His hands dirty, rather it suggests an invitation. A divine plan. God creating us for a purpose. To be the cultivators of all He has made. To be the stewards of all He has formed and fashioned. To care for the good and perfect world He has created. Remember, God is at rest. His work is complete. He now sits enthroned over all He has made and sends us – His servants – out to work according to His sovereign will. It is humanity’s job to work and keep the Garden. It is humanity’s job to name the animals the Lord God has made. It is humanity’s job to make sure the earth is continually replenished and tended and cultivated so that it will reflect the beauty and order and glory God intends.  

So what happened? When did we make the turn from cultivators to exploiters? From stewards to squatters? From those focused on caring and replenishing to those focused on using creation to satisfy our own selfishness and greed? We’ll read about that tomorrow in Genesis 3 but the stage is set here in chapter two. Humanity will only retain her divine vocation insofar as she submits to God. In every instance save one, humanity is able to enjoy the fruit of her labor. As she cultivates, she is nourished. As she stewards, she is fed. As she cares for all God has made, the Garden itself provides for all her needs. However, there is one tree humanity is to cultivate but never taste. There is one tree she is to steward but whose fruit she is to never eat. She is to care for this tree but never experience it’s delights. This is her single act of submission to God. It is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and it’s fruit is forbidden. Who knows how long Adam and Eve passed by this tree as they went about their daily chores? Days? Months? Years? Eons? We have no idea how long Adam and Eve cultivated and tended and replenished the earth under God’s direction. We only know there came a day when they stopped on their way to work. Listened to a crafty serpent. Gave into temptation. And all creation fell into ruin.

Thankfully, that is not the end of the story. In Jesus Christ, we see the 2nd Adam. Humanity as she should be. Perfectly submitted to the will of His Father. A Cultivator. A Steward. A Man who lived out His vocation to care for all God has made. Everywhere Jesus went, life seemed to flourish. The earth and all that was in it was replenished. Diseases were healed. Demons cast out. The unclean became clean. He cultivated humanity and restored her to her original vocation so that we, in turn, could cultivate others including creation itself. This has vast practical implications for our lives. Am I seeking to cultivate or exploit those around me? Am I stewarding the resources God has entrusted to me for the good of the world around me or am I using them for my own personal benefit? Am I seeking to care for the world? Make healthy and good choices? Build deep and strong relationships? Am I seeking to replenish the earth? Jesus summed it up simply when He said, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45) If we are to fulfill our divine vocation to be cultivators of creation, we must commit ourselves to a life of service to those around us and the world in the name of Jesus.

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