GENESIS: The Creation

Creating God, you continue to make new life, a new world, and a new community. Let these ancient stories be occasions for wonder rather than reasons for argument. Let them proclaim you creative and renewing power, and let our hearts and minds respond in awe. In Jesus’ name. Amen

Genesis is not a book of history or science, it is an explanation of God’s plan and relationship between humans and God, nature and each other.

“What is the literary genre of this text? [Genesis 2 – 3} Clearly it is not an eyewitness account, nor is it instruction in history of geography. Rather, it is the reflection of wise ones whoa re raising the great human questions. Where do we come from” Where are we going? What is the reason for life, suffering death? Why the mysterious attraction between the sexes? What is the relationship between us and God, us and rather, us and the persons around us?

To try to reply to these questions, the author(s) relies on personal reflections, but also on those of the wise ones of other civilizations. Above all, the starting point for reflection is faith: believers before had already meditated on the Exodus and the entry into Canaan; in these events they discovered something of the aspect of their God. And it is above all in terms of what he already knows about God in this way that the author tries to respond.” Etienne Charpentier How to Read the Old Testament

FIVE AFFIRMATIONS REVEALED IN GENESIS
ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GOD AND CREATION
God creates creation and has a specific purpose for it.
The relationship between God and creation develops through speaking and listening.
God’s word to creation is a sovereign call, but it is the kind of call which invites obedience rather than demanding allegiance.
God loves creation, but creation refuses to let God be God.
The relationship between God and creation is marked by tension between God’s purposes and creation’s resistance to God’s purposes.

A Word Study of key words from the text:
1) Formless: From an unused root meaning to lie waste; a desolation (of surface), that is, desert; figuratively a worthless thing; adverbially in vain:—confusion, empty place, without form, nothing, (thing of) nought, vain, vanity, waste, wilderness.

Spirit/Wind: wind; by resemblance breath, that is, a sensible (or even violent) exhalation; figuratively life, anger, unsubstantiality; by extension a region of the sky; by resemblance spirit, but only of a rational being (including its expression and functions):—air, anger, blast, breath, cool, courage, mind, spirit ([-ual]), tempest, ([whirl-]) wind (-y).

The earth was a formless void. God forms and orders the world out of existing, chaotic matter. The deep … the waters. In the mythology of Canaan and Mesopotamia the waters were the symbols of chaos which the more powerful beneficent deities had to bring under control.

God Called: A primitive root (rather identical with H7122 through the idea of accosting a person met); to call out to (that is, properly address by name, but used in a wide variety of applications):—bewray [self], that are bidden, call (for, forth, self, upon), cry (unto), (be) famous, guest, invite, mention, (give) name, preach, (make) proclaim (-ation), pronounce, publish, read, renowned, say. The power of God to achieve his purpose is evident when he speaks his intention and it is accomplished.
Light: llumination or (concretely) luminary (in every sense, including lightning, happiness, etc.):—bright, clear, + day, light (-ning), morning, sun.


God separated the light from the darkness. The ordering of light and darkness establishes the rhythm of time, with evening followed by morning, which is the principle of Israelite days beginning at sundown.

Dome: properly an expanse, that is, the firmament or (apparently) visible arch of the sky:—firmament.

And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning…

Genesis 1: the creation of the human being
26Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”
27 So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28God 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 air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” 29God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. 30And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Dominion: A primitive root; to tread down, that is, subjugate; specifically to crumble off:—(come to, make to) have dominion, prevail against, reign, (bear, make to) rule, (-r, over), take.

Image: From an unused root meaning to shade; a phantom, that is, (figuratively) illusion, resemblance; hence a representative figure, especially an idol:—image, vain shew.

2) “then the LORD God formed man

from the dust of the ground
and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life;
and the man became a living being.”

Breath; a puff, that is, wind, angry or vital breath, divine inspiration, intellect or (concretely) an animal:—blast, (that) breath (-eth), inspiration, soul, spirit. –Nephesh
Life; alive; hence raw (flesh); fresh (plant, water, year), strong; also (as noun, especially in the feminine singular and masculine plural) life (or living thing), whether literally or figuratively:— + age, alive, appetite, (wild) beast, company, congregation, life (-time), live (-ly), living (creature, thing), maintenance, + merry, multitude, + (be) old, quick, raw, running, springing, troop.

The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it
Till: A primitive root; to work (in any sense); by implication to serve, till, (causatively) enslave, etc.:— X be, keep in bondage, be bondmen, bond-service, compel, do, dress, ear, execute, + husbandman, keep, labour (-ing man), bring to pass, (cause to, make to) serve (-ing, self), (be, become) servant (-s), do (use) service, till (-er), transgress [from margin], (set a) work, be wrought, worshipper.

Keep: A primitive root; properly to hedge about (as with thorns), that is, guard; generally to protect, attend to, etc.:—beware, be circumspect, take heed (to self), keep (-er, self), mark, look narrowly, observe, preserve, regard, reserve, save (self), sure, (that lay) wait (for), watch (-man).

GOD’S PLAN IS REVEALED AT THE END OF CREATION. GOD HAD CREATED HUMANS TO LOVE AND SERVE AND LIVE IN COVENANT HARMONTY WITH EACH OTHER AND ALL OF CREATION. HUMANS WERE TO HAVE AN INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP OF PRAISE, LOVE AND OBEDIENCE TO GOD. BUT LOVE CAN ONLY BE REAL IF HUMANS HAVE CHOICE


THE FALL…Humanity breaks its relationship to God by choosing to disobey God’s limits

CAIN AND ABEL….Humanity breaks its relationship to each other. Cain and Abel also reflect Israel’s (Shepherds) competition and conflict with their neighbors (farmers)

THE FLOOD…Return to Chaos and Creation… God begins again.
But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the domestic animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided;

BABEL…Humans try to create a stairway to Heaven to become God’s equals.

The central problem presented at the beginning of the Bible is that people do not trust God to take care of them…so instead of offering love and service to others they try to force others to love and serve them.