Creation in Genesis City Hope, May 4th 2014

I want to begin with a very simple illustration from Aesop’s fables.

In the original fairy tale, the point is what you see here – “Don’t be deceived by flattery!” For our purposes, this old tale serves as an illustration of the importance of context. When we only have a little piece of the story, it is really hard to understand what is going on. Without context, we are prone to all kinds of misinterpretation, and we are prone to miss the real importance of details. When Jeremy asked me to offer a message on creation this morning, he said that he wanted me to keep it simple and just give a sense of what the original author wanted to convey to the original readers. So that is what I am going to do.

Christians do not believe in a “dictation theory” Muhammad Joseph Smith Christian particularity – Mystery of the incarnation The question for us is: what particular context lies behind the creation story? Temple destroyed in 6th century Must now become a people of the book – OT takes shape Much of what we see in Genesis is meant to distinguish the Hebrews form others and especially from the Babylonia This is a picture from the Enuma Elish Many Gods – sun, moon, stars, rivers, oceans, etc. are all gods. Gods reflect Babylonian culture They have very human relations with each other and bear children They plot and scheme and go to war with one another In fact the heavens and earth are created out of the murdered body of a Babylonian God And humans, in the Enuma Elish, are created to be nothing more than slaves for the Gods. We need to stop and think about this. What does this creation story say about the Babylonian view of the world? And about themselves in it? About where they come from and where they are headed? How does this story shape Babylonian hopes and aspirations? It says, only the strongest and most violent will overcome. It says that sin, evil, and violence are written into the very fabric of creation. It says the world is chaos - it comes from chaos, and it will remain in chaos. This is not a good world – there is no peace. And humankind is merely a pawn in the hands of violent Gods.

Genesis 1:1-5 1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. Now, I think we can see the contrasts between these two stories almost immediately. In Genesis, there is only one God, and everything that is made owes its existence to him. There is no violence here – no struggle through which the world is made. In Genesis, God simply speaks and creation springs forth. This is an orderly world, and most importantly, it is a good world. One of the things that we can easily miss in an ancient book like this is the use of numbers as symbols. Like all ancient cultures, the Hebrews believed that certain numbers had important symbolic value. Thus, the numbers 3, 4, 7, 12, 24, etc. signified goodness and wholeness. The number 6 stood for incompletion. When we read Genesis 1 in the ancient Hebrew language, paying attention to the use of numbers, the message is very clear. 7 Day Framework for Creation The Word God occurs 35 times (7x5) Earth – 21 times (7x3) “and it was so” and “God saw that it was good” – 7 times each Genesis 1:1 contains exactly 7 words Genesis 1:2 – exactly 14 words We should stop and think about this for a moment. The Hebrews had been destroyed. Their world was anything but good. But the God of their ancestors had given them a worldview unlike any other in the ancient world. And they clung to it in hope. The Number 6 = incompletion Humankind created on the 6th day To find completion only in the seventh day of rest in God

Genesis 1:26-28 26 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Again, the contrast between the babylonian and the hebrew account is striking. The Babylonians believed that humans are made to serve as slaves to the gods. In Genesis, humans are the pinnacle of creation, and after they have been made, God says – not only that it was good, but that it was “very good.” Humans have been made in God’s own image, and this tells us a great deal about how we are to treat one another. According to Genesis, humans are of the utmost value. If we have all been made in God’s image, then who among us is dispensable? When is it ever ok to be callous about the suffering of another? When is it ever right to objectify another person, or to commit violence against someone who bears the image of God? Also, in Genesis, the image of God is shared communally. God doesn’t create the man alone in his image or the woman alone. Rather, it is humankind, both man and woman together, who bear the image of God. This truth is supported in Genesis 2 when Adam is portrayed as incomplete until his companion has been made. Having been made in God’s image also suggests much about our relation to God’s world. To be an image bearer of God is to serve in God’s place in the world. We are like vice-regents or stewards, made to do God’s work on his behalf. Genesis says that we have “dominion” which means not only authority over but responsibility for God’s good world. We have been made stewards to care for the world that God has made. In other words, creation care is written right into the fabric of the biblical story from the very beginning. Creation care is one of those no-brainer issues for Christians, or at least it should be. So why have humans been made, according to Genesis? We have been made for worship – on the 6th day. We have been made to give and receive from one another – to love, in other words. We have been made to obey God and to serve as his stewards in creation. And, of course, we have been made to flourish and to enjoy peace – this is the point of all the 7s.

Genesis for Us Context helps us avoid missing the point. The Hebrews were not concerned about our scientific questions. Context can also help us to see just what the point is: Our world is not so different from the ancient world. Violence, Sin, Suffering. And all kinds of ways to justify our behavior. Genesis opens our eyes and reveals what we know deep down as creatures made in God’s image: The world was made by a good and benevolent God. Humans are made in this God’s image and are endowed with great dignity and worth. We have been made stewards over this world. In this world, sin and violence have no place. Sin is not natural – it is an aberration and the consequence of human rebellion. But our God is entirely sovereign – he spoke creation into being. And with this same word, he will remake and redeem what he good in the beginning.