The God Who Made Everything (Genesis 1-2)

What is the point of Genesis? Jesus says that the entire OT Scripture, including Genesis, is about Jesus (John 5:39; Luke 24:27, 44). John 1:1-3 tells us that Jesus is the Word and the Creator God.

The debates over the symbolism and literary genre of Genesis 1-2, and the debates regarding the relationship to contemporary science is highly complex and confusing not only to the uninitiated, but also to the scholar. But what is the irreducible minimum that Genesis 1-2 must be saying for the Bible to have any coherence at all? Let's see what Genesis 1-2 teach us about God and about man.

Some Things about God

1. God simply is. The Bible does not attempt to prove the existence of God. So, if humans chose to be the measure and judge of all things, the Bible will disappoint them. God is not the object whom we humans evaluate. God is the Creator who has made us, which changes all the dynamics. Cartesian thought begins with "I," which puts me in the center of evaluating all things, including God. But the Bible states that God simply is (Gen 1:1).
   
2. God made everything (that is non-God). My existence is dependent on God. God's existence is self-existence. God has no cause; he just is. He always has been. In contrast, everything else in the universe began somewhere, whether in a big bang or in human conception--somewhere. Everything in the universe apart from God is dependent upon God.
   
3. There is only one of God. Jews recite the Shema (liturgical Jewish prayer) to this day: "Here, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one" (Deut 6:4). Yet there is a hint of complexity to his oneness, when he said, "Let us make man in our image" (Gen 1:26). Could it be that already there is a hint that this one God is a complex being, a complex unity?
   
4. God is a talking God. The God of the Bible is not some abstract "unmoved mover," some spirit impossible to define, some ground of all beings, some mystical experience. God has personality and dares to disclose himself in words that human beings understand. However great or transcendent he is, he is a talking God.
5. Everything God makes is good--very good. In Genesis 1-2 there is no hint of death or decay, of butchery, malice, hate, one-upmanship, arrogance, pride, or destruction. Everything is very good...until Genesis 3.
   
6. God comes to an end of his creative work, and he rests. God wasn't saying, "I'm tired." But he rests and designates this 7th day in a special way. This theme of rest will be picked up later.
   
7. The creation proclaims his greatness and glory. From the vastness of the universe to the intricate complexity of the atom, God reveals his greatness and glory (Ps 19:1-4).
   

Some Things about Human Beings

1. We are made in the image of God. "Image of God" has generated endless discussion over the millennia. What is this image of God? God talks, we speak. God creates, we are creative. God works, we enjoy a capacity to work. Though there are similarities, there are unbridgeable differences between God and us. God is self-existent, we are not, for like everything else in creation we are dependent creatures. Nihilism is seductively attractive. Living as a wanderer with no meaning has an aura about it. Meaning can be found only in being made by God, in his image, and for God, with an eternal destiny. This radically changes our perception of what human beings are. Otherwise we slouch toward "self-referential incoherence"--we compare ourselves with ourselves. We have no external standard by which anything should be judged; we can't find an anchor for our being anywhere. So, we drown ourselves in our activity of choice: intellectual, romantic, career, physical, pleasurable pursuits, etc. However, human beings, made in God's image, were made to work, rule, serve as God's stewards, to be surpassingly God-centered, as his image-bearers.
   
2. We human beings were made male and female (Gen 2:19-24). The woman is equal but different from the man. She is not identical but his sexual and emotional counterpart. In marriage the two become "one flesh."
   
3. The man and his wife were innocent (Gen 2:25). A theory to nudist colonies is the idea that if you could be completely open and transparent in one part of your life (physical nakedness), then sooner or later you could foster openness and transparency in every part of your life, and become wonderfully open, candid, honest, caring, loving people. That's the theory. But it never works. We have so much to be ashamed of; there is so much we need to hide. But in Eden ("delight"), Adam and Eve have nothing to hide, nothing to be ashamed of. This is paradise.
   

God made us, and we owe him. The modern sensitivity finds this extremely highly offensive and infuriating. But if we reject this simple truth, this blindness is itself a mark of how alienated from God we are. It is for our good that we recognize it, not because he is the supreme cosmic bully but because without him we would not even be here, and we will certainly have to give an account to him. The next chapter, Genesis 3 will explain why the simple truth that God created us is so highly offensive.

 Questions:

1. What are some difficulties in studying the creation accounts in Genesis 1-2? How might we address them?

Genesis 1-2 raise so many disputed issues that it is easy to lose sight of the dominant theological emphases in the text. It is worth becoming informed about these issues, so that you can deal with them briefly and return to the most central matters.

The controversies concerning the conflict between Genesis 1 and science: What is the age of the earth? Is the earth 6,000 years young, or billions of years old? Are the days of Genesis 1 24 hour days or long periods of time?

Genesis teaches us who created the world and why, not the how and the when. Science cannot answer the who and the why. Genesis does not answer the how and the when.

A rule of interpretation is that one must hear the OT text as the author intended Israel to hear it. Israel was not concerned about the age of the earth, or how God created the world. These are modern issues that may not be answered by the text itself. Instead of imposing our modern questions on the text, we must hear this creation narrative as ancient Israel would originally have heard it.

2. What is the author's message for Israel (the theme)? Why did he write this message to Israel (the goal)?

Theme: With his powerful word (Ps 33:6,9; John 1:1-3), God created the world as his good kingdom.
Goal: To comfort God's fearful people with the knowledge that our God is the sovereign Creator who controls the world's destiny and ours.

3. Who is God (Gen 1:1; Deut 6:4)? Why did God create the world (Ps 19:1-4)? What does a talking God suggest? Could God be a complex being, a complex unity (Gen 1:26)?


D. A. Carson, The God Who is There, Finding your place in God's story, p 11-26.
D. A. Carson, The God Who is There, Leader's guide, p 21-28.
Sidney Greidanus, Preaching Christ from Genesis, God creates the universe, p 43-61, 478-484.