I believe in God the Father, Almighty Maker of heaven and earth Creation Matters: That, Not How

Transcription

1 I believe in God the Father, Almighty Maker of heaven and earth Creation Matters: That, Not How Ok two weeks ago, I believe the preface words to the Apostle s Creed today, article one Let me put it up on the screen for you to consider and contemplate some big ideas here: As we get into the Creed where we see our limitation in language again, how do you describe God? The Creed starts putting language to the test as the Creed itself summarizes the actions of God in the human story how people have experienced God Let s recite the first article together I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth - OK, start off with God we ve been there Next The Father that is a key understanding in the creed have to remember, the creed/this isn t just about cold facts or theology or heady explanations or explorations of God s nature and character this is a relational framework That s important God isn t someone to keep at an intellectual arm s distance the key to God is relational God s relational definition of our lives comes from eternal relationship (that s the trinity more on that to come in weeks ahead) So, Father is a relational understanding it is NOT a gender identification We are not saying here that God is male God transcends male/female differentiations In fact, God s creation of humanity in HIS image means that there is something vital in each gender of the mystery of who God is Both genders, if you will, are endowed with aspects of God s character and nature that can ONLY BE SEEN and experienced in and through the uniquenesses of the gender Lastly for some of us, that phrase, God the Father pushes us a bit in fact, many people are put off by that. Many people didn t know our dad, or had bad experiences with an abusive or addicted father so saying that phrase is hard at best. But remember, these are not words depicting anything but CONCEPTS remember, God is LIKE a father if you want to put it like this, God is LIKE a father at his quintessential best In other words, ask yourself, what would make a GREAT dad? The ideal dad? The issue here, again, is relational God as Father demonstrates the passion of our God to connect with the depth of the human heart and experience. Next - Maker of heaven and earth that s where we are going to park today I don t know but I may have to solicit some feedback from you I could get REALLY picky with this message series For example, we could camp out for a week on the parenthood aspect of how the creed describes God (Father) and by all means we could talk about what the word almighty means and how that helps us in our understanding of God

2 But as I was looking over the creed the other day, if I took apart EVERY little aspect of it, we d be here for a LONG time So I m making value judgements based purely on subjective means in other words, if you want me to explore something else, TEXT ME NOW! So, I made a decision a couple of months ago, given the questions and comments I ve heard from people over the years, to explore with you the phrase, Maker of heaven and earth Truthfully, I ve talked to many people who get to that point in the Creed, roll their eyes Why? Because obviously that phrase/those words bring up the very t0pic that I ve seen in many argued and debated in many circles (faith as well as otherwise) about how we got this world to begin with in other words, when we look to the beginning of time/this world how did it all start? creation? Evolution? Ever heard that question before? Well the topic I m going to explore with you today deals with, it is increasingly important in this day, the a bit or one element that of the evolution/creation controversy Big idea here and I don t want you to miss it is that it is inherently a Christian key understanding about WHO got this world going in the first place There may be some wiggle room in the specifics but biblical people, a biblical theistic worldview is that which is firmly established on the fact that God created! No matter what you hear over the next 20 minutes or so, don t let that deter you from the big idea God is the creator! Maker designer manufacturer whatever you want to call him God is the creator of what we see (the physical realm that all of us experience) and what we don t see (that which is beyond our senses heaven in creedal language) Got that? Good that s one of the basics non-negotiables Even so, let me tell you about something that happened in 1925 long time ago that is pertinent to the big idea of God as Creator In there was a lawsuit brought against this guy in the state of Tennessee he was getting sued because it was against the law in that state to teach evolution in the public schools. The guy s name was John Thomas Scopes, some of you who know a bit of history know this Scopes was the teacher of evolution and it was the State of Tennessee that sued him in it got to be known as the Scopes trial. The trial was huge, it got national and international attention I can t get into this deeper (old movie title, watch it) what happened was this a trial that was supposed to be about the law and whether Scopes broke it but it didn t cover that rather the lawsuit got turned into a trial about a literal interpretation of Genesis 1 Let s just say this at the time, even now in some respects, the trial s impact on culture and how we see the world was devastating - I think it would be honest to say that the church, faith, the bible all took big hits as a result of that trial.

3 Now what s amazing to me is that this debate is still with us almost 100 years later Now though we don t have JUST a duality of theories it is not just creation or evolution the conversation/debate is more nuanced - Young Earth Creationists, Old Earth Creationists, Theistic Evolutionists, Macro and Micro Evolutionists list goes on Here at Our Savior s/shepherd of the Mountains, I think it is very, very important that Jesus followers believe that God created the world and that He created human beings and that He created human beings in His image - which rules out any idea that all of this is just a matter of time and chance to natural selection (which is a NON-Theistic, secular view) It rules out atheistic evolution for sure. So, that God did it, that God created again, is central. BUT, and I think this is something important to understand - How God did it, is not the point that I believe is central at all. So put this in clearer terms for you - whether you think God s creating action was completed in a literal 6 or 7 days period of time OR whether you think God s creating action took years, even thousands, or millions or billions of years, that is not something I am going to argue about. But on the other hand, that God created that is what is all-important actually consistent with the creed and consistent with the fact that that belief I ll say it again, it is a non-negotiable I believe that through the love of Jesus, and an acceptance of each other we can agree to the fact that there can exist a variety of perspectives. If you are a young earth, or old earth creationist or if you believe that God was instrumental in some sort of evolutionary process that God was the spark, the great unknown factor behind the big bang, that in many respects is Ok in my book All I know is that we have to engage this topic sincerely and openly AND lovingly with each other and culture at large One of the reasons I decided to talk on this today is because I actually want to challenge the perception that some people have that science and faith are not compatible I talked about this almost a year ago It kind of goes like this - if you have faith in the Bible then you have to reject any other theory about how the world came into being The problem with that is this, our western culture in general continues to grow in its respect for science, especially younger people who are steeped in a secularistic worldview and scientific framework for understanding reality Science as you might guess has earned a lot of credibility over the centuries science does a lot of good things But if people see that the Christian faith is antithetical or incompatible with science well then as their respect for science increases, their respect for the Christian faith decreases.

4 Do you get what I m saying? If there is a constant need to pit one against the other, all we are left with is confusion and confirmation bias in other words, we can t talk about things that matter only battle it out and expose ourselves to things that underscore what we already believe This is one of the major reasons why, in one study one of the top reasons why young people are walking away from the church is because of the perception that being a Christian means you have to reject the findings of science. So, one of the reasons unbelievers don't give Christian faith serious consideration is because they assume that you have to accept that this earth is 10,000 years old and for most people that is just not a plausible position to hold. So, as kingdom people, everyday missionaries, all of us who follow Jesus in whatever culture we find ourselves, this has to be a concern of ours. We need to keep the conversation channels open relationships respectful we may not agree with conclusions but if we just keep battling, it isn t going to get us any where SO, whatever your personal views are of this topic whatever studies you ve made or reading you ve done any major wall between science and faith I contend is absolutely unnecessary that wall friends, and you know this because you have had conversations with people in your life about this that wall is barring people from the faith and driving people out of the faith. In fact, one of the reasons I'm passionate about this topic is because I see this happen ALL THE TIME in the college settings that I am in My experience tells me that a lot of kids want to believe, it isn t like they are running away from God to hide some sin in life or something, most kids are hungry spiritually They love the fact that Jesus followers, biblical people can stand on the fact that because of God there is a purpose in life and meaning in life so to go being an atheist where you think life is meaningless, there is no purpose, death is the end of everything, it's not just a sad story to a lot of young people but that isn t necessarily attractive as a foundation to their lives But any version of Christianity that is one that sees science as incompatible with the Christian faith, obviously is going to get their attention negatively and it is something that they might walk away from and never return. So, we need to engage in these discussions honestly, forthrightly, unapologetically we can stand for what WE believe I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth But we also need to open up space in OUR THINKING, whatever your personal views are, we need to open up space as to how one might for Biblical reasons, engage this topic without falling into absolutist traps and perspectives Friends there are ways of looking at this first article about God creating and looking at Genesis 1 in a way where you don t fall into a literalistic trap. So, what I m going to do is this - I'll share my reasons why, on the basis of the Bible, Genesis 1 (which is the foundation of this first article of the creed) why it shouldn't be taken as a literal let alone a scientific account.

5 Would that be Ok by you? I ll do it as succinctly as possible but I do think it can be helpful to a lot of you Now a word to the wise - I don't want to come across as trying to beat up young earth creationists, this is not an anti-young earth creationist sermon, I love you young earth creationists But I would even like you to know the Biblical reasons why someone might disagree with you so that if you confront somebody for whom this is an issue getting in the way of the faith, you are able to show them an alternative way of looking at it, even if you yourself don't believe this. This never should be an obstacle for someone coming to Christ. There are three Biblical reasons why I don't think Genesis 1 is meant to be taken from an absolutist/literal perspective... Now, you don't have to agree with this but I want you to be able to have it in your toolbox so when you need it you can help people over this hump to get in the faith or keep the faith. Again, I talked to two young people this semester for whom this was a huge issue. They were really wondering if they could go on believing the Bible. And parents, please equip your kids so they understand that we are not at war with science, we love science, God uses science and there is nothing incompatible with believing in the Bible and evolutionary theory. Back to the Big idea it comes down to the WHO of creation and the HOW of creation We believe that God is the WHO God created the heavens/the earth what is seen and unseen, experienced in the senses and that which transcends the senses But Genesis 1 is NOT a definitive HOW in other words, Genesis was not trying to compete with any scientific explanation of the creation or origination of the world/universe 1. First reason we can see Biblically that that could be the case has to do with the days spelled out in Genesis 1 a vast majority of people who make it their life story to study and know these things believe that the Days (yom) of Genesis 1 Were Non- Literal 24 hour periods of time Let me explain: The word for day in Hebrew is yom and it sometimes refers to a literal day but it can also refer to a season or even an epic Yom can mean any blocked out or given period of time So for example in Proverbs 25: PROVERBS 25:13 Like the cold of snow in the time (yom) of harvest are faithful messengers to those who send them; they refresh the spirit of their masters. Here it clearly shows it doesn't mean a 24-hour day it means a season and this shows how flexible that word is so when you come upon the word day in the Bible, be careful.

6 Another point is the sun and the moon weren't created until the 4th day so the question is, how do you have a 24-hour day and night before the things that mark out the day and the night? In fact the reason the Lord created those things is found in GENESIS 1:14 And God said, Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years. The purpose we have for the moon and the stars according to Genesis is to keep time, to mark out the times of the days and the nights and the seasons and the years. So clearly you can't be marking out the times and the seasons and the years prior to this time so how can you have 24-hour periods in days 1,2 and 3. That is ONE indication that it is not meant to be taken literally. The other question you have to ask yourself is this, how is it that in Genesis it says the morning and the evening were the first day? And then the evening and the morning were the second day, you have evenings and mornings but you don't even have days and nights until day 4, what's up with that? Good question, in fact impossible question, an unanswerable question if you are taking this as a literal scientific account. In a little bit here I'm going to suggest it isn't meant to be taken that way, it is more of a poem, very very important God- inspired poem that serves a very important function. But the function is not to satisfy our curiosity about how old the earth is or the details of how we all came about. In poetry you don't mind these kind of things. There are literary reasons why the author speaks this way, why there is light and darkness before there is even a sun and a moon and stars, there are literary reasons. The Scripture also says that a day as a thousand years to the Lord and a thousand years is like a day and in the Hebraic world view whenever you come across the word a thousand, just think indefinite because that was just their way of saying on and on and on. So we need to know that He doesn't measure time the way we do. I think there is a sequence in God's experience but He is not tied into some 24- hour period of time and His day can be endless, it can be billions of years. That s the first point Days are NOT Literal days 2. Some Biblical Depictions of Creation Cannot be Literal When God speaks to us He has to come down to our level, wherever people are at

7 At any given time in a given culture, He has to speak their language and enter into their categories because that is what communication is all about. He has to get into their frame of reference. Another reformation dude besides Luther, John Calvin said that when God speaks to us in Scripture, He talks baby talk, it is such a distance for Him to come and speak to us. The struggle of talking to small kids Professor in College one minutes and I m singing about butterflies, and if you are happy and you know it trying to connect with little children on a meaningful level it is VERY difficult at times So this is how God has to come down to talk our language and frankly there are some scientific inaccuracies in the Bible. If God were trying to be scientifically accurate, He couldn't communicate what He was trying to communicate. He wants to create that, now how. That God is in charge, He wants to communicate that but if He got into the how by trying to communicate accurate science, can you imagine God saying to people in the Old Testament, well see, the earth is this giant ball, and it's 25,000 miles in circumference, it's the 3rd from the sun, 93 million miles from the sun, you know it takes 8 seconds for the light of the sun to get to the earth and that's part of the whole solar system which is part of a whole galaxy with billions of stars and it is only one galaxy among billions of galaxies... Whatever else God wants to teach them they would be huh?, what? (major disconnect) Might as well as talk about quantum uncertainty and Heisenberg principle to them, it's just not going to get through SO He has to enter into their view of the world to communicate that He's the one and set aside the issue of how He does it, hoping that later readers will understand what He was up to. So there are a few things in the Bible, we read them and we know they can't be literal and the conclusion we come to is that we have to realize that God was accommodating the perception of the time. So for example, everyone in the ancient Near Eastern world, that whole culture around the Israelites, the Egyptians, the Babylonians and such had a whole lot in common. We know that by studying different literature. They all believed the earth was held up by pillars and so we read many times in the Bible, I SAMUEL 2:8 For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and on them he has set the world. That's how they viewed the world, that the earth was set on pillars and when the pillars shook, that's how we got earthquakes. But the BIG PICTURE is that God holds the world in order is what He wants to communicate, God is the One in charge of the order.

8 To do that in this culture is to talk about the pillars because that is what they believe. Then, they saw the sky as being hard, we actually have drawings of their view of the world and it's like an amphitheater, there is a hard sky up there and the earth is on these pillars. So we read in Job: JOB 37:18 Can you, like God, spread out the skies, hard as a molten mirror? Now if you didn't know any better you'd think that too, that the sky is hard, up there it looks like a giant dome. They didn't know that we are on a planet and that there is all this space out there, they thought that it was a hard dome. It had to be hard they thought because we know that water comes down from up above so it must be holding up a lot of water. This we even get in GENESIS 1:7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above. The word vault there is raqia and it literally means a solid expanse, any solid expanse could be raqia, it could be dome shaped, it could be flat. It is sometimes translated in this passage as a dome or vault of firmament which I actually think is the best one because it's firm. What the author is picturing here at this point in creation is that all you have is water and God is going to create space now so imagine like a cookie sheet, He puts it into the water and then lifts up the water, the water above from the water below and the cookie sheet is the sky. He separates the water above from the water below so it has to be hard. So then, how does it rain? How does the water get through then if it's hard? The answer is duh! Windows! So you read several times in the Bible that God opened up the windows of heaven: GENESIS 7:11 the windows of the heavens were opened. Now we take that as a metaphor but to them this was an actual view of the world. So, I have not yet met anybody who thinks the sky is hard, that the earth is held up on pillars and all sorts of other things like that which we find in the Bible. So the next time someone says, I believe every word in the Bible is literally true, say to them, no you don't, you think you do but you don't and then show them these passages. This concern that everything has got to be literal need not be our concern. Yes, the concern about the resurrection and the deity of Christ and those kind of things are important, well the very genre of that literature is very literal, it's historical.

9 But when we're talking about this sort of thing, being obsessed with things being literal is missing the point I think. Point 2 some things are NOT literal in the bible 3. Has to do with the Function of Creation Stories in the Ancient Near East (see Extra Information below for more on this point): I wish I could take the time and do a deep dive with you on this interesting to say the least and if you want more info, look it up on our website I ll have some things posted on this point We will suffice to say this - it's always important to read the Bible in its cultural context and studying the cultural context of a passage often sheds a lot of light on it. How words are used is how we know their meaning and there are references to various things in the culture, deities or practices in the culture or rituals or whatever and we only know what those are because of studying these other cultures. Well this is true of the creation story, to look at the culture around it to understand what it is about. I hope you find this fascinating - In the last 150 years we have discovered dozens and dozens of creation stories in these other cultures, many of them, in fact most of them predating the Biblical story. The most famous are two - the Sumerian - Enuma Elish which means when above or when on high when translated or the Babylonian Ethic of Gilgamesh The reason I bring these up when you study those stories, it is easy to see WHY God inspired the authors of our First Testament to write down an account of WHO THE GOD WHO MADE THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH really is There are massive differences in the stories and that is intentional It is as if the people of God were saying NO that s not OUR God! Our God didn t create out of bloodshed or epic battles or struggle between good and evil Again friends, the structure of Genesis is reflective of the ancient Near Eastern culture and is brilliant but it's not there to respond to our scientific curiosity. It's there to answer questions like, who are we? What are we called to do? Who do we worship? Who do we trust? Where do WE come from and how is that different from these other crazy stories? And here is where the Bible just hits it out of the park. What it says about those questions, and here is where some scholars think it is mocking those other cultures, because there is nothing like this in the ancient Near Eastern world. The creed biblical account of Creation is ALL ABOUT answering the questions of Who do we worship and who do we trust?

10 This answers it. When chaos rises, when darkness/darkness seen as a raging beast in ancient times when the beast arises, when the deep is submerging us, we look to the one true God whom we worship and who He promises will protect us. The God who never began and will never end, He is the alpha and the omega, He is the beginning and the end, He's the first and the last, He's the King of all kings and the Lord of all lords and the God of all gods! He's the same yesterday, today and forever, His character is invariant, there is no shadow of turning, His promises cannot fail So we the people whom God made in His image look to Him and the One we worship and the One we live for and the One that we trust in when chaos arises. That is the beauty of Genesis 1. We shouldn't cloud the issue with how questions. The people who had this story read to them better yet, read or proclaimed over them, weren't concerned with the how and that shouldn t be OUR primary concern either Here's the bottom line, if you believe the earth is 10,000 years old, fine! But hear me on this please don't make it a litmus test for orthodoxy. But all of us I pray, put this in your toolbox put it in the back of your mind and know when you are having conversations with kids or people who mock the Christian faith because they perceive it is hostile to science you can show them in the bible that there are other ways of looking at this story that is FAITHFUL to the Word and faithful to embracing the faith in God as Creator There are Biblical reasons that Genesis 1 and all the other places in the Bible that some will point to as conflicting with modern science I tell you friends, the Christian faith is not in conflict with science, the Christian faith ought to be loving science because science is just studying God's creation and God's creation is good! So hooray for science! It's a good thing! Embrace it, don't be paranoid. God uses it in wonderful ways. No matter where we stand on this issue, the Bible tells us that we are to be prepared to give an answer to those who ask us questions about the faith and to be able to share with them why we believe, it is no big deal. So let's pray Extra Information on the Biblical View of Creation We will suffice to say this - it's always important to read the Bible in its cultural context and studying the cultural context of a passage often sheds a lot of light on it. How words are used is how we know their meaning and there are references to various things in the culture, deities or practices in the culture or rituals or whatever and we only know what those are because of studying these other cultures.

11 This is true of the creation story in Genesis 1 we need to look at the culture around the story in order to understand what it is about. I hope you find this fascinating - In the last 150 years, scholars and archeologists have discovered dozens and dozens of creation stories from other ancient cultures, many of them, in fact most of them predating the Biblical story (in the case of the Enuma Elish, almost 1000 years). The most famous are two: 1 - The Sumerian - Enuma Elish which means when above or when on high when translated 2 - The Babylonian Ethic of Gilgamesh The reason I bring these up when you study those stories, it is easy to see WHY God inspired the authors of our First (Old) Testament to write down an account of WHO THE GOD WHO MADE THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH really is There are massive differences in the stories and that is intentional. It is as if the people of God were saying, NO that s not OUR God! Our God didn t create out of bloodshed or epic battles or struggle between good and evil Again friends, the structure of Genesis is reflective of the ancient Near Eastern culture and is brilliant but it's not there to respond to our scientific curiosity. And as we study these things well there are major differences but there are also really strong parallels. For example, in the Enuma Elish story, the creation happens in 7 days. It occurs in 7 days and in roughly the same order as we find in the Bible including the detail that the light and darkness are there before we have a sun and moon and stars to mark them out. We find the Enuma Elish shared poetic structure with the biblical story it is written as poem and has the same kind of structure. In the story there is a chief deity, the deity that the Sumerian culture worshiped the most. That deity had a problem to solve and in solving the problem, created the world. Parenthetically - the most important thing that we find out about these poems in this shared culture has to do with their function. These folks were not interested in what we today would call science. They didn't worry about finding out information for information s sake. They weren't wondering how old the earth was or what process was used to scientifically explain things. Rather, through these stories, they answered questions like, who are we, what are we called to do, who do we worship, who do we look to for protection? That's the kind of questions that these stories answered. They would recite them publicly to reaffirm these beliefs and practices that they had. Another example occurs in the Babylonian account, the Epic of Gilgamesh. In the story, we see this god named Marduk and he's the chief god. He has got to be chief god because he beat up all the rival gods, that's how you got to be chief gods in the ancient years.

12 In the story, Marduk has to face the cosmic sinister being named, Tiamat. Tiamat is a she and the root of her name means, the deep or the abyss or chaos. You will find if you study these things that in the Bible and the rest of the ancient world that that is the way they symbolize evil the deep, chaos was the metaphor for evil. That's why, by the way, in the Bible, God is always rebuking the waters rebuking the deep. In the Babylonian story, Marduk battles Tiamat, the chaotic and abysmal one, and he defeats Tiamat. That in the story is Marduk s way to solving the problem of evil. Yet, in the process of this cosmic battle, some of his lower gods got killed, so he has to replace them. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, that's the explanation of why the chief god, Marduk, creates human beings. Now the WAY Marduk creates humans is a little gross but stick with it: First, Marduk carves Tiamat up and out of her belly (or the translation can mean, her womb ) he creates the hard sky. In other words, he creates a place for creation. Then, Marduk carves up the rest of her body and fills that place with stuff, animals, earth and people. So, the bottom line of the story is this Marduk creates us out of Tiamat's body parts and we are created to be slaves of Marduk. According to the Babylonian account, our job is to feed Marduk and to feed the gods. The duty of humanity is to make sacrifices and thus have the gods come down and devour those sacrifices. As we carry out these ritual duties, the payoff is that we get Marduk's protection when we go to war in other words, when Tiamat tries to raise her ugly face again, Marduk will take her on again. Back to the Genesis story - many scholars argue that the Genesis story is written in that genre, it's part of that culture, it serves that function. In fact, some scholars argue, that the Biblical account was inspired and written to refute those other stories (some even argue to mock those other stories). IMPORTANT - One of the things that you find in the Genesis story is that it shares the same poetic structure as these other ancient Near Eastern hymns. GENESIS 1:2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Now the earth was or, it could be translated, now the earth became formless and empty. The Hebrew word for that phrase is, tohu wa-bohu. That Hebrew word is very negative and pejorative. In Jeremiah 4:24, the same Hebrew word is used, tohu wa-bohu as a state of existence after the Lord brought judgment on the earth. Darkness was over the face of the deep, that is the word tehome. Some scholars argue the word tehome has the same root word for Tiamat. SO, we may have a little Tiamat here only Tiamat is not a monster, it's just a part of the created order. And the Spirit of God, in Hebrew, Ruach Elohim, the breath of God, was hovering over the waters.

13 SO, chaos and darkness need to be tamed and ordered by the creative power of God ( he spoke ) and what you are going to see in Genesis 1 is God solving the problem. God is going to, in two stages, create the world. PROBLEM SOLUTION: STAGE 1 SOLUTION: STAGE 2 Formless Void Formless Place (Days 1-3) Filling Void (Days 4-6) Darkness Day 1: Light/Separate Darkness Day 4: Lights The Deep Day 2: Heavens/Separate Waters Day 5: Birds/Fish Formless Earth Day 3: Earth/Vegetation Day 6: Animals/Humans Day 7: Sabbath Rest So, the first problem is the formless void, the tohu wa-bohu and God spends the first 3 days in stage one and the next 3 days in stage 2 creating. God solves the problem of formlessness in days 1-3 by creating space note, God is always creating space, God is imposing order on the chaos. And then God solves the problem of the void by filling the space - God confronts the problem of darkness on day 1 by creating light and separating it from the darkness. Then on day 4 when God begins to fill the space, God creates the lights, the sun, moon and stars. God created the sun to fill the space in the day and the moon and stars to fill the space of the night and to keep the times and the seasons. That's why the sun has to be created after the light. NOW - scientifically it makes no sense at all, BUT poetically it's brilliant. Then God solves the problem of the deep, tehome, by separating the deep, all chaotic waters. God separates the waters above from the waters below. Next, God created the space between the waters and then on day 5, God is going to fill the space above. God creates birds because birds fly in that space and then He fills the space below with fish because fish swim in that space. And then to solve the problem of the submerged earth, this land that is in this tehome, God creates the formless earth by carving out in the waters below a space for land. God pushes the water aside and creates land and then God has vegetation grow on that land because He is preparing space on that land. On day 6 God creates animals and humans to inhabit that land and to eat the vegetation. On day 7, God takes a break which Hebrews 7 says God is still doing. The Sabbath day has been going on since then - which again implies that it is not a literal day. The structure of Genesis is reflective of the ancient Near Eastern culture and is brilliant but it's not there to respond to our scientific curiosity. Rather it's there to answer questions like, who are we? What are we called to do? Who do we worship? Who do we trust? Where do WE come from and how is that different from these other crazy stories?

14 The Bible MAY not answer all our scientific questions BUT the Genesis story DOES answer questions of ultimate meaning and purpose in creation. Here is where the Bible just hits it out of the park, so to speak. It is specifically from this perspective of interpretation of Genesis 1 and 2 is where some scholars think the book is mocking those other cultures this story is UNIQUE in its time there is nothing like this in the ancient Near Eastern world. The structure is the same, the poetry is the same but GENESIS is filled with completely new content. So, to answer the question of, how did God do it? God SPOKE human reality into existence. First, let s start with God. Where in the other stories the chief god has to fight competitors to become the chief god, this story has no such thing. It just starts by saying, GENESIS 1:1,3 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth...and God said, Let there be light and there was light. In the beginning was God, He wasn't born like in those other accounts. God didn't come into being. God always was (and is). You start with God our God is a god who's never threatened. God can't be brought out of existence God just is (the origination of the phrase later shared with Moses when Moses was told that God s name is, I am ). Genesis God doesn't need to create out of the body parts of a defeated enemy to create the world and animals and people no, God just SPEAKS and it is done. God said, Let there be light and there was light. God speaks things into existence. There was nothing like this in the ancient Near Eastern world at the time. It's mind-boggling and it's radical. This God is so great that God speaks things into existence. In answering the question, who are we? The Genesis story is clear - we aren't slaves. In the other accounts in ancient times, human beings are slaves. We are made out of the evil Tiamat. In the Biblical account God creates us and says, It is good ( very good when it comes to human beings), so there is inherent goodness in human beings. Not only are we inherently good but Genesis says we are made in the image of God. GENESIS 1:27...God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. The image of God among other things denotes royalty.

15 We are made in the image of the eternal God who never begins, never ends. We bear God s image and not just men but also women (that was a radical idea at the time). In ancient cultures and even in Hebrew culture, women were subhuman, women were property, women were bought and sold, women were owned by men. Genesis transcends its own culture and says, and this is by the inspiration of God, male AND female are in the image of God. That's so radical the church hasn't caught up with it quite yet! And every person we see are royalty we know via Genesis that they are kings and queens, they were created for that purpose. Maybe they don't know that, maybe they don't think like that or act like that. But we know that and that's why we are called to treat everyone as God would. In other words, we LOVE others because we were created to love others. In answering the question, What are we called to do? Since we are kings and queens, we're called to reflect God's character as we care for the earth and the animal kingdom, spreading His will on earth as it is in Heaven, having dominion over them the way He lovingly has dominion over us. In answering the question, Who do we worship and who do we trust? When chaos rises, when tehome rises, when the deep is submerging us, we look to the one true God whom we worship and who promises to protect us. The God who never began and will never end, God is the alpha and the omega, God is the beginning and the end, God is the first and the last, God who is the King of all kings and the Lord of all lords and the God of all gods this God is the same yesterday, today and forever. God s character is invariant, there is no shadow of turning God s promises cannot fail. So we the people whom God made in His image look to Him and the One we worship and the One we live for and the One that we trust in when chaos arises. That is the beauty of Genesis 1.