"The Creation"

 The Creation

 

April 2, 2022

Larry R Evans

 

Introduction

 

Aristotle (384-322 _B.C), the man who made significant contributions to many areas of human knowledge once said, “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” Aristotle’s work revolves around the idea that wisdom is practical and not theoretical. He stressed that man is a rational animal, and that virtue comes with the proper exercise of reason.  Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) later picked up Aristotle’s worldview and placed revelation and human reason on an equal footing and with it, humanism began to enter more directly into the Church.  Humanists believe that man’s starting point is himself and from that, every problem could be solved. 

 

This quarter we will be studying the book of Genesis. The worldview set forth in this foundational book of the Bible couldn’t be more different than Aristotle’s.  It only takes four words two separate the different worldviews—“In the beginning God.”  Genesis begins with God, not with man and therefore the outcome is both different and affirming. Aristotle’s “proverb”, “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom” is changed in Genesis to “Know first your God and then you will know yourself then true wisdom can be discovered.”

 

Five Major Themes in Genesis

Genesis lays the groundwork for understanding and interpreting the entire Bible.  This is important to note when studying Genesis and all of Scripture. (See Andrews Bible Commentary, pp. 139-140)

 

1.     In the Beginning.  Creation was a movement from seeming disorder to awesome order. Genesis is a reminder that true beginnings require a divine word. (cf Jn 1:1-14)

2.    The Disruption of Creation. The creation was marred by the doubt and decisions created by man. Disorder of all kinds resulted.

3.    Promises and Hope.  God promised a resolution to the conflict created by sin (Gen. 3:15). However, these promises centered on God.  In the midst of sin and disorder, there was hope grounded on the promised One. A new creation reverses the fallen creation.

4.    Personal Piety. Personal devotion and prayer are presented in Genesis is crucial to a life of piety. Examples of the prayers (Abraham, Isaac, and Rachel, e.g.) reveal a God who cares and answers prayer and relates with His creation.

5.    A Cosmic Perspective.  Genesis and Revelation are inseparable. The larger picture of a controversy shown in Genesis has implications that are universal. The God who searches is the God who planted the seed of hope and who has planned a rescue from outside of man and outside of this earth.

 

The meaning of life is grounded/founded in God.  This sums up all ethical rationale in Scripture, all covenants, recreation, and the hope of the Second Coming. In God we have life and in Him we have hope. Aristotle and other humanists sought to find it in man as he “evolved” and in the end, secular pessimism grew.

 

The God of Creation

 

The Bible begins with critical insights about God. Some foundational concepts emerge from the first two chapters and revolve around His name. By doing so, windows through which we can view His character are opened. 

 

In Genesis 1 the name used for God is Elohim and in the second creation account, the name used for God is Yahweh. Elohim speaks of the supremacy, majesty, and strength of God. Yahweh presents God as relational and presents Him as “close-up” and personal. Reading Genesis 1 and 2 leaves us with the clear impression that God is both strong and caring but also our dependence on Him. We are being called to worship as we reflect on the love and magnificence of God. The questions intended for us to ask are not “From what” or “How” but “Why.” Why would God create us? What is His purpose and what should ours be?

 

Marva J. Dawn, suggests that,

The first chapter of the Bible wants to woo us into honoring the Mighty One who brought all of creation into existence—namely, “God”—and it suggests that the rest of the Book will tell us enough about that God to warrant constant trust and confidence, according to the Law of Worship in which everything was made. (In the Beginning, God, p.19)

 

Creation

 

A pattern for each day of creation is recorded. There is 

(a) the creative word, 

(b) the report of its effect,

(c) God’s evaluation of it as “good,” 

(d) at times there was a naming, 

(e) the numbering of each day

 

At each step of the Creation account, God evaluated his work as “good.” The phrase “it was good” means that the Creation was working nicely, that it was beautiful and perfect, and there was no evil in it. This is not just a phrase thrown in randomly. It is repeated for emphasis.  We will see in the remainder of the book that “good” has gradually been replaced with evil to which the relational God must take action to preserve the purpose of creation.  It will be a long arduous journey that will eventually take the life of Jesus. 

 

When we come to Genesis 1:31 we come to these words,

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning —the sixth day.

What’s the difference between “good” and “very good?” Is it possible that something has been added to the previous “goods” that makes what He has done even better—“very good.” Could it be that is only now that the last part has been added that the series is complete? If so, what has been added?

So God created mankind in his own image,

in the image of God he created them;

male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. (Gen. 1:27-28)

One among several things stands out. The creation of humans is the only time of the whole week about there is conversation with the Godhead. What is the purpose? Almost always when the Scriptures repeat something the purpose is so that we will pay extra (very) attention. We get a clue to the purpose when we read in Genesis 1:28, “God blessed them and said to them.”

“The creation of humans on the ‘image of God’ has also been seen as referring to the human function of relationship, that is to our God-given capacity to relate to God and one another.” (Jacques B. Doukan in SDA International Bible Commentary, p.63)

Indeed, from both God’s perspective and the human perspective, the creation of man in God’s image is a “very good” development! The intimate relationship with the Trinity that God offers to us builds to a crescendo as an inspiration and incentive for worship. This worship experience is not only a human experience.  This premise, that the creation of man is the reason for God to exclaim it is “very good” leads to two important foundational landmarks in the book of Genesis and the entire Bible: the Sabbath and the story of Cain and Able.

 

 

 

 

The Sabbath

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. (Genesis 2:1-3)

While the creation of man is “very good,” it is not the pinnacle of creation.  This implies that the motivation for keeping the Sabbath is not only an imitation of God but a unique time to be with God. Man and God enter worship together. The purpose of God and of man merge and from that relationship man is to forth to live out and find fulfillment in the purpose for his existence.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. ” (Gen. 1:28)

The Sabbath was the pinnacle of God’s creation and from that experience, they were given a special vocation. They were to be “keepers” or stewards of the earth. They were to be image-bearers of God as they cared for the earth which had been created for them. 

 

In contrast to idol worship, and in contrast to every other world religion, the first thing to be made holy is not a place, or a thing, but a time.

 

After the Fall, the Sabbath, at the end of the week, points to the miracle of salvation, which will take place only through the miracle of a new creation (Isa 65:17, Rev. 21:1). As one Christian theologian of another faith has written,

 

God has given the gift of the Sabbath as the fulfillment of the design of His creation. We ignore it to our own peril. We celebrate it as a treasured glimpse of Paradise’s perfection. – Marva J. Dawn, In the Beginning God: Creation, Culture, and the Spiritual Life, p. 66.

In the Beginning, There Was Work

The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” – Genesis 2:15-17

 

The creation account in Genesis is unique among ancient accounts of origins. Many cultures had stories about the beginning of the world and human history. One such account is the Babylonian creation story called Enuma Elish. Keep in mind this comes from Babylon!  In this creation story, the world is a result of gods warring with each other--Marduk overcomes the goddess Tiamat and from her remains creates the world. 

 

In the Bible, however, creation is not the result of a conflict. The creation of the earth is not an aftermath of a fight between gods but rather a well-thought-out plan. God made the world as an artist makes a masterpiece.

 

In the Greek world neither humans nor gods had to do any work.  In that paradise the earth simply provided food in abundance! What a marked difference.  In Genesis God worked and as part of his plan for man he too was to work. Work was not a necessary evil. God worked for the sheer joy of it. The book of Genesis leaves us with a striking truth—work was part of paradise. We leave chapters 1 and 2 with the cycle of work and rest as an integral part of God’s purposed plan.

 

A Christian author put it this way,

Work is as much a basic human need as food, beauty, rest, friendship, prayer, and sexuality; it is not simply medicine but food for our soul. Without meaningful work, we sense significant inner loss and emptiness. People who are cut off from work because of physical or other reasons quickly discover how much they need work to thrive emotionally, physically, and spiritually.—(Timothy Keller, Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work, chap. 1)

The Denial of Creation

Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water.—2Peter 3:3-5

The story is told of a young woman who gave birth to a blind son. “I do not want my child to know that he is blind! She informed family and neighbors.  She forbade any to use telltale words such as “light,” “color,” and “sight.”  The boy grows up unaware of his disability until one day a strange girl jumps over the fence of the garden and spoils everything by using all the forbidden words. His world shatters in the face of this unimagined new reality.

 

Many have been taught that science contradicts Scripture, that there is no God, and if there is one, He is oppressive.  God has sent us to bear a different message. A message from Genesis that lays the foundation for seeing both a powerful God but also One who cares and relates.

 

I am reminded of a statement made by Ellen White in the book Education, p.128

 

Since the book of nature and the book of revelation bear the impress of the same master mind, they cannot but speak in harmony. By different methods, and in different languages, they witness to the same great truths. Science is ever discovering new wonders; but she brings from her research nothing that, rightly understood, conflicts with divine revelation. The book of nature and the written word shed light upon each other. They make us acquainted with God by teaching us something of the laws through which He works. 

 

And God said,

“As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,” declares the LORD, “so will your name and descendants endure. From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me,” says the LORD.—Isa 66:22-23