Opening Genesis

OPENING GENESIS
CREATION and COVENANT
Part 1
A study of Genesis Chapters 1-11

To open the book of Genesis is…
 to open yourself to a timeless epic,
 a story of the origin of an abiding covenant of man and God
 and hear God Himself speaking - in and through the universe -
 …a message of caring for all
nature and for all mankind,
 a theme that opens then
dominates all of the books
of the Old Testament…
 …leading, in time, to a new
covenant of love in and
through the life, death, and
resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Not a happy story
 To open Genesis is to open yourself to a great puzzle -
 A puzzle that obviously troubled our spiritual forbearers –
 Why is it that human beings are
so unable (or unwilling) to be
God’s wholehearted partners
in His gracious covenant?
 Is there something in our very
nature (call it “original sin”) that
prevents us from being good
people?

To open the book of
Genesis is ALSO…
 to encounter centuries of
controversy…
 …over a multitude of
interpretive approaches…
 …originating from the clash
of ideas from many
religions,
 and in from Enlightenment
thought…
 and in modern scientific
discoveries,
 All of which challenge
mind, heart, and faith…

Let’s open ourselves to the story anew
 Let’s try to hear the great story again for the first time
 Resist reading back into the account our current scientific
knowledge of cosmology, physics, geology, and biology;
 Allow the text speak with the voice of a people of an age before
science developed, speaking neither history nor myth,
 Telling us about God and our covenant relationship with Him,
 Try thinking of the account as being about “making stuff work”
for our life with God, not just about “making stuff”
 Keep in mind its links to and borrowings from of the creation
stories of other cultures if the ancient Near East
 Be aware of the way the story is shaped by its many literary
sources (“J”, “E”, “P”, “R” and others), and by its strongly
anthropocentric and post-exilic viewpoint

 When: likely built up (collected and edited) from ancient, pre-
literate traditions and rendered into a final written narrative
form after the Exile to Babylon, perhaps in the 6th century BC
 Author: not possible to speak of any single author and of the
many “voices” scholars identify, none are known by name, just
code letters – the four major ones being the earliest, “J” (for
Yahweh), the next “E” (for Elohim), then “D” (for Deuteronomic)
and the last, the post-exilic author “P” (for Priestly)
 Intent: to record the origin stories of the Israelite community as
a means of encouragement in a time of trial and loss, reminding
them of their covenant with God, their uniqueness, and the
superiority of their faith in a God who is involved with them over
the idolatry of the culture of the peoples who surrounded them.
Genesis basics

 When: likely built up (collected and edited) from ancient, pre-
literate traditions and rendered into a final written narrative
form after the Exile to Babylon, perhaps in the 6th century BC
 Author: not possible to speak of any single author and of the
many “voices” scholars identify, none are known by name, just
code letters – the four major ones being the earliest, “J” (for
Yahweh), the next “E” (for Elohim), then “D” (for Deuteronomic)
and the last, the post-exilic author “P” (for Priestly)
 Intent: to record the origin stories of the Israelite community as
a means of encouragement in a time of trial and loss, reminding
them of their covenant with God, their uniqueness, and the
superiority of their faith in a God who is involved with them over
the idolatry of the culture of the peoples who surrounded them.
Acknowledgment
I credit the interpretive structure of these lessons in large part
to the work of John H. Walton, Professor of Old Testament at
Wheaton College as expressed in his book “The Lost World of
Genesis One” (2009, InterVarsity Press).
I also recommend “The Fourth Day” by Howard J. Van Till (1986,
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing), to those interested in further
relatively easy reading relevant to the all-too-often controversial
science v. theology debate of Creation

In the beginning God
created the heavens
and the earth.
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.(NIV)
Genesis 1:1-2

Interpretation issues begin at “Beginning”
• Rendering “bara” as “created” implies the artist who “creates” a
thing of beauty from his imagination, as to satisfy an impulse;
• Yet, there is a purpose, the Creator creates for a reason, an intent,
a goal, a “teleos”…
• …although an artist’s “creation” may emerge gradually and even
surprise the artist when it reaches its final form
• The alternative word, used later in Genesis 1, “made”, implies
work like a craftsman shaping of an object from a raw material
• Christians have long held that there was no “stuff” (matter and
energy) before v. 1 {supported by one NT verse - Heb. 11:3 “By faith
we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so
that what is seen was made from things that are not visible}.
• And so creation must have occurred “ex nihilo”, right?

In the beginning….
…the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the
surface of the deep…
”beginning” suggests time existed – but was there any such
thing as time “before” the creation of anything at all?
Strangely, v. 2 – in which there is disorder, emptiness and the
unknown (“deep”) - does not seem to agree with v. 1 – in which
there is a sense of order and calm. What’s going on here?
Interpretation issues begin at “beginning”
We now know one cannot have time without space.
Which reminds us of the famous joke…What was God
doing before time began?
Why would God create “heavens and earth” that are “formless”,
as if He didn’t get it right on His first try?

In the beginning - when God created the heavens and the earth - the
earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep,
while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. (NRSV)
Alternatively, verse 1 is a kind of preamble
Should we not rather take the opening phrase in the sense of:
“When God put the universe in working order, He did it in the
following manner,” and then each “day” of creation is one further
phase in His making ordering from chaos.
In this view, “created” is taken in the sense of bringing into being an
organization like a company, a college, a club, a nation; then all of
the days (including the 7th day) are about “starting up” the cosmos,
taking what was already there (chaos), assigning tasks and functions,
making it work together as He willed - not about making stuff like
photons, quarks, protons and electrons.

Genesis begins ambiguously
Can read this either way:
a. God created a universe of stuff from nothing by first
creating two big things (heavens, earth) on which He
would build more things (land, seas, sky) and on which
He would place other things (plants, animals, man)
b. Before we talk about God’s interactions with mankind,
we will describe how God set about ordering a fully
functional world so man could live there.
In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth.
Gen. 1:1

The creation
story is about
how God
made “stuff”
work
according to His
will and plan
The creation
story is about
how God
made “stuff”
according to His
will and plan
or

Think “university” not “universe”
In the second view, “created” is taken in the sense of “organizing”
[a university, a company, a club, or even a nation]
• Founding, funding,
planning
• Staffing, obtaining
permits, delegating
tasks, establishing
policies
• Erecting buildings,
arranging for sup-
plies and utilities
• Begin operating-
teaching, manufac-
turing, publishing,

Think “cosmos” not “chaos”
All of the days (including the 7th day) are about “starting up” the
cosmos (ordered universe), taking what was already there (but in
chaos) and assigning tasks/functions, making it work as He willed.
Not about making stuff (photons, quarks, protons, electrons).
Genesis, in this way, is a
book of theology.
It is about God, why God acts
and what God wills.
It is not a science text. Its
views of the physical world
are those of its time and
place, the ancient Near East.

What kind of account is Gen. 1:3-25?
Hearing the account read
aloud, you hear poetry, not
history;
The account of the days
of creation follow a lyrical
pattern as in a poem:
 Command - “Let…”
 Execution - “It was…”
 Assessment - “It was good”
 Time – “There was evening… morning”
So bring your ability to appreciate and interpret music, art, and
literature to the opening chapters of Genesis.

Day One – Gen. 1:3-5
On Day One God created light
Does this make sense according to the “stuff” interpretation?
Light is a form of “stuff” (radiation, photons) but it has no mass
(is not matter) and was poorly understood into the 18th century.
The text treats darkness equally to light - but we say darkness is
not a form of matter or energy (we grant it no ontological status).
Besides, there is no place in the universe free of radiation in
some form.
Furthermore, “day” and “night” are not things.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that
the light was good. He separated the light from the darkness. God
called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there
was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

Day One – Gen. 1:3-5
On Day One God created light
Light is a form of “stuff” (radiation, photons) but it has no mass (is
not matter) and was poorly understood into the 18th century.
The text treats darkness equally to light - but we say darkness is
not a form of matter or energy (we grant it no ontological status).
Besides, there is no place in the universe free of radiation in some
form. Furthermore, “day” and “night” are not things.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that
the light was good. He separated the light from the darkness. God
called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there
was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

Day One – Time to get organized
 Peoples of the ancient world did not know the nature of light
but, as an agrarian society, they would be vitally concerned
with the periods of time that light dominated and periods of
time when it did not and was dark and no work was possible;
 And so it no surprise (in this view) that God names the periods
of light and dark- “day” and “night” (which are not “things”),
 God is- in effect - taking the 1st step in ordering the world’s
operations; Task #1 being to “start up” orderly periods of time.
 And these periods of time are of such a length as to be of
service to mankind, increasing and decreasing in a familiar
repeating cycle, according to His will.
 It is this adequacy that makes them “good”; what was chaotic
is now “working right”; the adjective holds no moral content.

Day Two – Gen. 1:6-8
And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters
to separate water from water.” So God made a vault
and separated the water under the vault from the water
above it and it was so.
God called the vault
“sky (or heaven).”
And there was evening
and there was morning
the second day.

On Day One God created a sky vault
What do you think?

On Day One God created a sky vault
 People of the ancient Near East didn’t know quite what to
think of the sky
 The common view was that it was a crystal dome, a trans-
parent solid, which acted as a barrier to keep water above it
from falling back all at once to the earth and drowning
everybody – it only “seeps” through as rain now and then
 Of course, no such barrier exists; how, then, can one insist that
God created this “vault”?

Day Two – Talk about the weather
 Peoples of the ancient world did not know the nature of the
sky, but - again - as an agrarian society in a semi-arid part of
the world, what was of vital interest was life-giving rain
 So, what God did in Task #2 was to provide for weather.
 “Separating the waters” allowed for periods of rain of such a
length and in such quantity as to be of service to mankind
(though not a reliable as the
periods of light and dark);
 When God sees the result of
this action – that it is “work-
ing” according to His will –
He names the result and
declares it “good”.

And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one
place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. God called the
dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.”
And God saw that it was good.
Day Three – Gen. 1:9-10

On Day Three God created (…nothing)
 God “gathers” the waters (meaning?) so that land can appear,
but doesn’t create any new stuff;
 This, again, makes little sense – again, the peoples of the
ancient Near East would have no idea of how lakes, rivers, seas,
and oceans form and change over time
 But (again) as an agrarian society, what was of vital interest was
habitable and arable land, especially so in a region where the
amount of such acreage was severely limited
 What God did in Task #3 was to provide for living space for
humankind and for agriculture. No surprise, then, what
happens next…

Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing
plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according
to their various kinds.”
And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed
according to their kinds and
trees bearing fruit with seed
in it according to their kinds.
And God saw that it was
good. And there was
evening and there was
morning on the third day.

Here we see God “letting” the land do the work of creation!
It produces plants and trees, and, importantly for mankind, fruit.
The theological lesson is that God “allows” what He brings to
working order the ability themselves to function creatively.
Creations create!
With the machinery humming
(as it were), God steps back
(metaphorically) and takes it
all in and pronounces:
“so far, so good”

Days One-Three (recap)
 Opening Genesis to chapter one, verses 1-10 leads
immediately to great confusion if we think we are reading
about the creation of the material world.
 But it makes a lot more sense if we hear in this account that
God is step-by-step putting the chaos of the primordial earth
(“without form and void”) in order…
 And then “starting up” its operation so when human beings
come on the scene, they will have a place to live and thrive
 The theological lesson is clear if blatantly anthropocentric –
God is organizing the “heavens and the earth” (according to
His will) for the sake of mankind.

OPENING GENESIS
End Part 1

OPENING GENESIS
Part 2
A study of Genesis chapters 1-11

So far, 3 days of creation
 Our approach has been to read the opening verses of Genesis
with care, playing close attention to the text,
 Trying to “hear” what the writer(s) had to say about their God -
Yahweh or Elohim and their relationship to Him, even (then) as
exiles from their Promised land;
 What we are hearing is an epic love poem about how this
almighty and creative God takes a step-by-step approach to put
the chaos of the primordial earth in working order…
 And then “starting up” its operation so when human beings
come on the scene, they will have a place to live and thrive
 And what did people need back then more than anything else
to live and thrive…..?

The pattern of the days of creation
The account of each day of creation in
Gen. 1 follows a simple pattern:
Command - “Let…”
Execution – “It was…”
Assessment - “It was good”
Interlude – “there was evening… morning”

God calls chaos to order
 Of vital concern to the agrarian societies of the ancient Near East
living on the edge, in tribes in semi-arid regions - what they
needed as a matter of survival –
– Times of sunlight adequate for growing crops;
– Quantities of rain that sustained herds and crops but did not
prevent plowing, sowing, and harvesting
– Useful land, places to build homes, fields to grow food
 In the first 3 days, then, God, calls to the primordial muck,
graciously “letting” the “formless” elements get in shape and get
to work to supply these crucial needs;
 And the obedient response of the elements of light, dark, earth,
sky, sea, and land win for themselves names and an assessment,
that they are “good”

Time / Weather / Food : Food / Weather / Time
“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and
harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter,
day and night will never cease.” - Gen. 8:22
This “reading” of Genesis receives support later in Genesis, when,
after God allows chaos to return (we will get to that part in this
study), He restores order with this promise:
(1) FOOD “seedtime and harvest”
(2) WEATHER “cold and heat”
(3) TIME “day and night”

Time / Weather / Food : Food / Weather / Time
“He waters the mountains from His upper chambers;
the land is satisfied by the fruit of his work.
He makes grass grow for the cattle,
and plants for people to cultivate,
bringing forth food from the earth:
wine that gladdens human hearts,
oil to make their faces shine,
and bread that sustains their hearts.”
Ps. 104: 13-15
…and later in Scripture, especially in the Psalms:

Day Four – Gen. 1: 14-15 (NASB)
Then God said, “Let there be lights in
the expanse (“dome”-NRSV) of the
heavens to separate the day
from the night, and let them
be for signs and for
seasons and for days
and years; and let them
be for lights in the
expanse of the heavens
to give light on the earth.”

Day Four – Gen. 1: 16-19
And it was so.
God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern
the day, and the lesser light to govern the night;
He made the stars also.
God placed them in the expanse of the heavens (why?)
- to give light on the earth, and
- to govern the day and the night, and
- to separate the light from the darkness.
God saw that it was good.
There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
Does this make sense according to a “hardware”
interpretation? Or to a “functional” interpretation?

On Day 4 God “made” (not created) lights
 There was already (on Day One) light/day and darkness/night,
but as yet no “governor” of these important operations;
 The “lights” (not named – why not?), likely, the sun and the
moon, are given equal treatment – both, according to the text,
roughly equal sources of light. Modern astronomy tells us that
this is not even remotely correct.
 But from a human point of view the 2 bodies function roughly
equally, in the sense that one dominates the daytime, and one
(when present and, especially, when “full”) the nighttime
 The four functions (signs, seasons, days, and years) are human-
oriented, meaningless to anything except mankind (“seasons”
refers to the right times for planting, sowing, reaping)

Day Five – Gen. 1: 20-23
Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living
creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse
of the heavens.”
God created (bara) the great sea monsters and every living
creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their
kind, and every winged bird after its kind.

Day Five – Gen. 1: 20-23
God saw that it was good.
God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and
fill the waters in
the seas,
and let birds
multiply
on the earth.”
There was
evening
and there
was morning
a fifth day.

Sea and Sky
 On Day Five, the sea is portrayed as a productive realm,
from which emerges new living things, as was the land in
v. 11 (plants);
 Not clear if birds also come from the water or if the text
simply skipped over mention of sky as the source of birds;
 The text introduces a new concept without explanation–
“kinds”- it is,
then, not at all
clear why this
is introduced;

Go Teem
 God orders these new creatures to move around
(“swarm”, “fly”) - something plants don’t do - and
reproduce sexually (“teem”, “multiply”) – also something
plants don’t (apparently) do;
 This “animation” appears to be their only function; it is
striking because God could have simply made lots of
them to begin with – why bother with this reproduction
business?.
 These entities receive God’s blessing, the first time
anything is “blessed” in Scripture, although God does not
name them.

Day Six – Gen. 1: 24-25
Then God said, “Let the earth
bring forth living creatures
after their kind: cattle and
creeping things and beasts of
the earth after their kind”; and
it was so. God made the beasts
of the earth after their kind,
and the cattle after their kind,
and everything that creeps on
the ground after its kind.
And God saw that it was good.

Day Six: creatures of the land
 On Day Six, God orders the land to be the source of yet more new
things, cattle (livestock), creeping things (reptiles? Insects?), and
beasts (wild animals)
 The text is emphasizing where they come from and therefore
where they belong
 Unlike the sea and sky creatures of the previous Day, these things
are not commanded by God to do anything; they appear to have
no function and God gives them no names
 The first “kind” on the list, “livestock” (or cattle), is a curious entry
- how could there be domesticated animals before there were
human beings to tame them? Again, this is not a textbook
 No mention of the most abundant, diverse “kinds” of creatures
representing more than half of all earth’s biomass, bacteria.

Day Concern (Entity) God’s Action Naming Good?
1 Time (Light) Separated light from
darkness
Day,
Night
Yes
2 Rain (Dome/Vault) Separated water into two
regions
Sky No
3 Agriculture
(Land/Earth, plants)
Segregated lower region
water from dry regions
which produce plants
Land,
Seas
Yes
4 Signs and seasons
(Sky-bodies)
Set two great lights and
starts in the dome
Not
named
Yes
5 ? (Sea, air creatures) Asks the seas (& sky?) to
produce creatures that
move and multiply
Blessed Yes
6 ? (Land creatures) Asks the land to produce 3
sorts of land-dwellers
Not
blessed
Yes
Days of Creation – Summary (so far)

Done? Let me check…
Day Six is apparently over – “God saw that it was good”
But wait! God has one more “kind” of land animal in mind –
just one – is this an after-thought? Or has everything else that
God has done was to prepare for creation of this one
more kind of animal….
And so, on Day Six, in
overtime (as it
were) we
read..

Then God said,
“Let us make
mankind in our
image,
according to our
likeness…”

And let them rule over the fish of the sea and
the birds of the sky and over the cattle and
over all the earth, and over every creeping
thing that creeps on the earth.”

God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He
created him; male and female He created them. Gen. 1:27
In Hebrew, “mankind” is ‫אדם‬
(adam) / “image” is ‫צלם‬
(tselem) meaning a shadow,
outline or representation of
an original

Last, not least, of all creation: humankind
 The clustering of the terms “make” (once ) and “create” (bara,
3 times) emphasizes that this new creature is special…
 …even more so does the repetition (4 times) of the terms
“image” + “likeness” – these hit us like hammer blows…
 …and the further
statement that
the new creature
is to come in two
sub-types (sexes)
 Note, also, that
the text does not
tell us how many
of the creatures
are created.

‫ים‬ ִ‫ֱֹלה‬‫א‬ ‫צלם‬ (Tzelem Elohim) Imago Dei
 Whole books are written about that rich expression – what does
“in His image” mean? Perhaps people are like God -
 in physical build; i.e. we have 1 head, 2 legs, 2 arms…?
 in mental capacity; i.e., we can think?
 in language ability; i.e. we can talk, and so express thought?
 in having a moral sense; i.e. we can do good and evil?
 Or is it in something else in the nature of human beings?
 “Image” is striking because throughout its history, Israel
denounced every effort to portray God in some work of craft…
 …even if of pious intent, but especially if it led people to worship
a false god or attempt to control the One Who Is totally free
 Any physical representation of Yahweh is hopelessly inadequate
to express His glory, His Otherness.

Day Six – Gen. 1: 28-31
God blessed them and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and
fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the
birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Day Six – Gen. 1: 28-31
God blessed them and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and
fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the
birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
 God speaks directly to mankind (“said to them”) - no other
creature of His universe is treated so intimately
 As with some of the other creatures of the universe, God
bestows His blessing and the command to multiply
 BUT there is a new command – “rule”: could this be what
“image” means? Mankind must be to living creatures as God is
to the universe?
 The Image is to be like the Creator in having power and
authority not to dominate tyrannically but to order, to manage,
to tend as shepherd tends the flock.

Let them eat plants
Then God said, “Behold, I give you every plant yielding seed that is
on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit
yielding seed; it shall be food for you and to every beast of the
earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on
the earth which has life, I give every green plant for food.”
And it was so. – Gen 1.29-30

Then God said, “Behold, I give you every plant yielding seed that is
on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit
yielding seed; it shall be food for you and to every beast of the
earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on
the earth which has life, I give every green plant for food.”
And it was so. – Gen 1.29-30
Let them eat plants
 Yahweh provides for living creatures of His world unlike the
gods of other peoples of the Levant, who demand creation
serve them
 Oddly, and somewhat amusingly, every beast, bird, and “thing
that moves on the earth” is to eat plants (food is their
function)
 This demonstrates clearly that the opening of Genesis is a
theological story about God ordering the entities of creation
and not a biology text.

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

A long day comes to a close
 The text departs from the standard wording in two ways;
 God sees all that He made, not just what He made on Day Six
 The text tells us that “it” was not just good, it was very good
 Again, this does not refer to some innate quality of the
universe and is not a moral judgment- rather, it is a
declaration that things are
working as God intended.
 As the Architect’s building
matches the Blueprints, as the
Engineer’s production meets
the Specifications, the
Composer’s music sounds
exactly as imagined.

OPENING GENESIS
End Part 2

OPENING GENESIS
Part 3

Last time: Genesis opens to a gracious God
 Ancient Israel grappled with explaining the existence of the
physical world and with...
 ...the existence and status of beings (humankind) capable of
consciousness of it and of themselves
 Israel knew her God [El Shaddai / Yahweh / Elohim] first as a
covenantal God – a
saving, guiding, pro-
tecting, chastising
Presence and only
later, gradually and
by implication, as the
Creator of all.

Genesis opens to a gracious God
 Genesis is the result of a long oral tradition handed down
verbally in Israel then, finally, written down, redacted and
edited starting at the time of the Exile (ca. 600 BC)
 Israel’s creation account took elements from older Semitic
myths and descriptions of Nature from current folk thinking
 But was adapted by them to their faith in one totally
transcendent God who WAS before time itself and IS Lord of
all Nature and mankind,
 Who created by command, graciously, freely, unassisted by
anyone or thing other than Himself, for His own reasons.

Eight commands of God bring Order
out of Chaos and Life out of Darkness
 Time (of light and darkness)
 Rain
 Land (for homes and farms)
 Signs, seasons, days, years
 Creatures of the sea
 Creatures of the sky
 Creatures of the land
 Creature “Adam” (human beings)
Non-Creatures
Living Creatures

Genesis 2:1 – Creation completed?
Thus the heavens and the earth were
completed in all their vast array.
 Creation is “completed” in 6 days
 Nothing constrained God’s action, but the entities God
brings into being are constrained to performing the
functions God orders them to carry out for Him
 Mankind is the last work of God - all that came before
the creation of human beings is in preparation for them
 Human beings, too, have a function, to be God’s Prime
Ministers, governing His creation – COOs, not the CEO

Or just “in the beginning”?
 For human beings to be “agents” in the world God created,
they must be – to some
extent - free, as God is
free – recall Imago Dei?
 God “leaves room” in
the world for the free
choices of the “thinking
things” He created
 There would be no
room in the universe for
human free agency were God to act as a capricious tyrant
 There MUST BE law-like (regular) behavior in Nature
What is God going to do now that His work is done?

The Poetry of Day Seven (Gen. 2:2-3)
By the seventh day
God finished the work He had been doing;
So on the seventh day
He rested from all His work.
God blessed the seventh day
and made it holy, because on it
He rested from all the work
Of creating that He had done.
Note the symmetrical, lyrical poetic structure of these two
verses….something’s going on here of great beauty and majesty

The Puzzle of Day Seven (Gen. 2:2-3)
…so on the seventh day He rested from all His work. God
blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He
rested from all the work of creating that He had done.

The Puzzle of Day Seven (Gen. 2:2-3)
…so on the seventh day He rested from all His work. God
blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He
rested from all the work of creating that He had done.
 Day Seven is a real puzzle! God does NOTHING!
 No commands, no “and it was”
 No “evening and morning” - what, the day is not over?
 And what is this “rest” business – how silly – God doesn’t
need to take it easy, relax, and recuperate!
 Something else is going on here than back-justification of
having a Sabbath Day (from Latin sabbatum, from Greek
sabbaton, from Hebrew shabbāth, meaning to rest)

Not a conclusion…
 In our Western democratic culture, the answer does not
come readily to mind, but an Eastern mind would “get it”
 Think of “rest” as meaning
“reside”, or even “sit” – as
in physics when you speak
of “an object at rest”,
meaning the object is
not in motion
 So think of it this way -
God is “in motion” for
6 days then “comes to
rest” on Day Seven.
 So what we have to ask is “where does God come to rest?”
Where does God reside when creation is complete?

“Let us go to His dwelling place,
let us worship at His footstool, saying,
‘Arise, Lord, and come to your resting place,
you and the ark of your might....
For the Lord has chosen Zion,
He has desired it for His dwelling, saying,
“This is my resting place for ever and ever;
here I will sit enthroned, for I have desired it.
Where does God go to rest?

Creation never ended
 Day Seven is the stunning conclusion of the account of
creation in Genesis chapter 1-2
 Day Seven is not about nothing; rather it is all about
God entering into His magnificent Temple
 God “rests” on His throne, in His temple of the
universe He created…
 …ready to watch over its “good” operation, carrying
out their functions as He ordained
 Day Seven, then, is a grand coronation, and it is not
over – God is in His Temple and even today is present
 Creation turns into doxology!

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth
and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is
in them, saying:
“To him who sits
on the throne
and to the Lamb
be praise and honor
and glory and power,
for ever and ever!”
Rev. 5:11-15
Creation evokes doxology

The Dark Side Of Knowledge And Freedom
Gen. 2:5 - 3:24

The Dark Side Of Knowledge And Freedom
 A sustained (2 chapters), coherent, sophisticated narrative
 A reflection on core issue facing every human being
 Written to probe the question at the heart of every religion
and power with freedom,
must battle merciless forces
of Nature, must struggle to
live, suffering poverty and
sickness, and must still face
bewildering evil and callous
tyranny of other human
beings – and of him/herself?
Why is it that mankind does not live joyfully in God’s presence?
Why is it that mankind, possessing ever increasing knowledge
and?

Six Things the account in Gen. 2-3 is NOT
1. Not compatible with the account of Gen. 1 – different author,
different details, different theme (God is “Yahweh-Elohim”)
2. Not the portion of the OT on which the rest of the OT is built
or depends – not even referred to by other OT texts
3. Not an account of “the Fall” - theology St. Augustine
developed in the 5th century. The OT teaches that mankind
can indeed obey God (see Deut. 30:11-14)
4. Not a treatise on the origin and nature of evil. The text gives
no explanation for evil and is not concerned with it
5. Not a treatise on the origin of death. In fact, no one dies
during this account (despite the threat in v. 2:17)
6. Not about sex – there is no mention of it until Chap. 4,
although there is a curious reference to nakedness.

Drama in four parts
1. Formation of a man, placement in a garden
2. Formation of community
3. Disruption of ordered existence
4. Judgment and exile from the garden
1. Movement into the place of community
3. Disruption of community
4. Movement out of the place of community

A man and a garden (Genesis 2:5-17)
Then the Lord God formed a man from
dust of the ground and breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life, and the
man became a living being. Gen. 2:5-7
 Hebrew “adam” (man) comes from
“adamah” (earth) in fact, we are more
of the sea than of the earth
 Shortly we read similarly Hebrew
“ishshah” (woman) & “ish” (man)
 No “imago Dei” here but repeated
“breathed” & “breath” emphasizes
that same intimate connection of
God and man (the word here is not,
however, “ruach”, translated “spirit”)

The Lord God planted a garden in the east, in Eden. There he put
the man… The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the
ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.
In the middle of the garden were
the tree of life and the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil.
Gen. 2:8-9

The Lord God planted a garden in the east, in Eden. There he put
the man… The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the
ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.
In the middle of the garden were
the tree of life and the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil.
Gen. 2:8-9
Stressed is order, beauty, and usefulness of that
which God’s direct manipulation of the world
brings to humanity.
But does this imply we humans are not really part
of Nature? Note the terms “in” vs. “out”.
Note also that the word “evil” is used the first
time of 296 times in the OT here.

VOCATION
God…put (the man) in the garden … to work it and to take care of it.
PERMISSION
…and commanded…“You are free to eat from any tree in the garden…
PROHIBITION
…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.”
Three Divine grants (Gen. 2:10-17)
There is no explanation of why God placed “dangerous” trees in
the otherwise safe garden or what they symbolized or why He has
slapped a prohibition on Adam. Clearly man has knowledge (how
to take care of trees, how to name animals) but not the
(apparently) valuable knowledge of what is “good and evil”.

KNOWLEDGE
FREEDOM
OBEDIENCE
One human condition (tension)
It is startling that God gives a command that the humans
might be able to NOT obey (no sense of that in Gen. 1).
This suggests that humans live in a condition we call “freedom” –
the stage is set for temptation, the conflicted state of the soul
of human beings when something greatly desired is the very
thing that - if grasped - will greatly damage Divine community .

The Lord God said, “It is not
good for the man to be alone.
I will make for him a suitable
helper.”
He brought {the animals and
birds} to the man to see what
he would name them… so the
man gave names to all the
livestock, the birds in the sky
and all the wild animals.
First Community
• “alone” & “helper”: God
made mankind for a life
with a vocation in
community
• Woman is to help in the
vocation of service to God,
not to serve man
• Both vocation and
community are inclusive of
all other living beings
• Wild animals in Eden – v.19-
20 are likely a late
interpolation (interrupts the
flow of the text), but…

… so the man gave names to all the
livestock, the birds in the sky and
all the wild animals.
Naming the animals – word making order
Just as God brought order from
chaos, so man brings order to the
wild animals by naming them.

So the Lord God caused the man to fall
into a deep sleep. While {Adam} was
sleeping, He took one of the man’s ribs and
… the Lord God made a woman from the
rib… and He brought her to the man...
both {were} naked, (yet) they felt no
shame. - Gen. 2:15-25
But no suitable
helper was found
for Adam.

Making a woman is the crowning event of the account and the
fulfillment of humanity – there is no inequity here of status.
Verse 24 is likely a late gloss. Verse 25 probably implies their
sexual innocence and the absence of a taboo against display
(see 9:22-23)
So the Lord God caused the man to fall
into a deep sleep. While {Adam} was
sleeping, He took one of the man’s ribs and
… the Lord God made a woman from the
rib… and He brought her to the man...
both {were} naked, (yet) they felt no
shame. - Gen. 2:15-25
But no suitable
helper was found
for Adam.

Not ribbing you
RIBS are the long curved bones
that in most tetrapods surround
the chest to protect the lungs and
heart and enable the lungs to
expand, facilitating breathing.
Humans - male & female -
have 24 (12 pairs),
Although some people lack one of
the 2 pairs of lower, or “floating”
ribs, while others have a 3rd pair.

And so we leave the First Community of Eden in peace
God
Adam
Eve
Trees (food)
Rivers (water)
(Animals?)
…but not all
is well
in Paradise!

OPENING GENESIS
End Part 3

OPENING GENESIS
Part 4

Perhaps the best way to understand this
section of Scripture is as a the re-telling – with
considerable revision - of an old tale with
“magical” and “mythic” elements retained, a
story that told of how mankind threatened to
gain knowledge and power and immortality
and thus to threaten God Himself.

Last time: drama in 4 parts / 3-fold charge
1. Movement into the place of community
3. Disruption of community
4. Movement out of the place of community
VOCATION: God… put adam in the garden… to work it and to
take care of it.
PERMISSION: …and commanded…“You are free to eat from
any tree in the garden…
PROHIBITION: …you must not eat from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil...”

So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While
{adam} was sleeping, He took one of the man’s ribs and … the
Lord God made a woman from the rib… and He brought her to the
man... both {were} naked, (yet) they felt no shame. Gen. 2:15-25
The Lord God said,
“..not good for
adam to be alone.
I will make for
him a suitable
helper.”
He brought {the
animals and birds}
to the man…But
{none were a}
suitable helper…

• Making a woman is the
crowning event of the
account and the fulfillment
of humanity
• There is no inequity of
status here.
• v. 24 (“that is why a man
leaves his father and mother
and is united with his
wife…”) is likely an inter-
polation of a later gloss;
• v.25 likely implies sexual
innocence and the absence
of a taboo against display
(see later, Gen. 9:22-23)

And so there is peace and harmony
in the First Community of Eden
God +
Adam +
Eve +
Trees (food)
Rivers (water)
(Animals?)
…but (alas!)
not for long.

Enter the (hiss!) snake
Now the serpent was more
crafty than any of the wild
animals the LORD God had
made.
He said to the woman, “Did
God really say, ‘You must
not eat from any tree in the
garden’?”
The woman said to the
serpent, “We may eat fruit
from the trees in the
garden, but…
God also said, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the
middle of the garden and you must not touch it or you will die.”
- Gen. 3:1-3

Ancient symbol of evil
 The symbol of a serpent (= snake) played important roles in
religious and cultural life of ancient Egypt, Canaan,
Mesopotamia and Greece
 A symbol of evil power and chaos from the underworld as
well as a symbol of fertility, life and healing
 Nachash (Hebrew) is also associated with divination,
including the verb-form meaning to practice divination or
fortune-telling
 Throughout the Bible it is also used in conjunction with
saraph to describe vicious serpents in the wilderness
 Tanniyn, a form of dragon-monster, is also used (in the Book
of Exodus, the staffs of Moses and Aaron are turned into
serpents, a nachash for Moses, a tanniyn for Aaron).

This is one strange creature
serpent was more
crafty (!)
He (!)
said (!)
to the woman (!)
You must not eat
from any tree in
the garden? (!)
The woman.. to
the serpent (!)
But God also
said… (!)
 How did this creature get in to Eden –
clearly not a domesticated animal
 How is it able to talk? (mythic element)
 Why is it “he”? Why it it “crafty”?
 The woman takes it in stride – no
surprise at a talking creature…
 …corrects the serpent – just a little
misunderstanding!
 By the way – are we to assume that at
this time the serpent has legs?
 In any case, he is out to cause havoc in
Eden (why is not explained)

Eyes wide open
“You will not certainly die,”
the serpent said to the
woman. “For God knows that
when you eat from it your
eyes will be opened, and you
will be like God, knowing
good and evil.”
- Gen. 3:4-7

Eyes wide open
“You will not certainly die,”
the serpent said to the
woman. “For God knows that
when you eat from it your
eyes will be opened, and you
will be like God, knowing
good and evil.”
When the woman saw that
the fruit of the tree was good
for food and pleasing to the
eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and
ate it. She also gave some to her husband… and he ate it.
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized
they were naked….
- Gen. 3:4-7

Eyes wide open?
• The woman’s reply tells us
that she knows God’s “law”
• Neither she nor the man puts
up much of a fight against
temptation! {why not?}
• Forbidden fruit eaten, the
humans don’t seem to have
gained much knowledge
other than that they are not
wearing any clothing
• Instead of gaining knowledge
of evil, they seem to only
have gained a knowledge of
shame and guilt.

Then the man and his wife heard
the sound of the LORD God as he
was walking in the garden in the
cool of the day, and they hid from
the LORD God among the trees of
the garden.

Blame the apple, blame the woman,
blame the serpent, blame God
He {adam} answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was
afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
And he {God} said, “Who told you that you were naked?
Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to
eat from?”
The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave
me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you
have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
- Gen. 3:8-13

Blame Guilt Shame - Sin
 The humans offer explanations (weak) but no apology
 The humans do not ask for forgiveness
 The entire account is sparse, tight, lacking in character
development – like a myth rather than an epic poem
 God is very anthropomorphic (walks in the garden, etc)
 Result of first time breaking of a law of God is not
immediate death (as God threatened), nor even a cutting
off of the humans from contact with God
What is God going to do with these
feckless, faithless humans?

Where we left off (a poem)….
Eaten is fruit God forbade them
Eaten is dust (by the snake)
Children are painful when born (and there after)
Growing their own food? Plain work.
Maybe the smarter are
Eve now and Adam
Maybe they like their
new clothing, however,
God is no longer
companion in Eden
And they will return
to the dust of the earth.

Genesis Chapter 2-3
 The Bible’s first story is a story of covenant between God
and mankind
 God intends human beings to be like God - creative,
productive, managers (of living things), and, to the extent
they are able, free to choose to be faithful to God or not
 Covenant must – necessarily - have this “dark side” – or else
“to be in a covenant relationship” is merely an illusion
 The choice to claim to BE God, and not to SERVE God,
other people, and the earth, is always there (this tempted
even Jesus)
 Indeed, the entire Bible is about restoring covenant, again
and again, every time mankind rebels and God is gracious.

And the Lord
God said, “The
man has now
become like
one of us,
knowing good
and evil.
He must not be
allowed to
reach out his
hand and take
also from the
tree of life
and eat, and
live forever.”

So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden.
- Gen. 3:22-23
“Adam and Eve Expelled From Paradise”, Marc Chagall (1961)

Expulsion was, then, not
punishment but protection!

After {God} drove
the man out, He
placed - on the
east side of the
Garden of Eden -
cherubim and a
flaming sword
flashing back and
forth to guard the
way to the
Tree of Life.
“Guardian of Paradise”,
Franz Stuck (1889)

Neverland
This ending of Genesis 2-3 tells us there is no going to a place like
Eden for humanity...
Humankind must never operate with a “retro” vision of a place
and a time when people can live in that kind of effortless
harmony with God, each other and Nature…
Eden is not a place but, rather, a foil for the state of mankind as
we know it – have always known it.
The story is “etiological” – seeking to account for the human
condition – an inexplicable joining in one entity of the best and
the worst, that which is God-like joined with that which is
disobedience and self-destructive.
Perhaps, also, the author was writing an allegory? Perhaps
rebellious adam stood for rebellious Israel and expulsion from
Eden stood for the Exile to Babylon?
.

OPENING GENESIS
End Part 4

OPENING GENESIS
Part 5

First Family (Gen. 4:1-6)
Eve… gave birth to Cain... later
she gave birth to his brother Abel.
Now Abel kept flocks and Cain
worked the soil.

First Family (Gen. 4:1-6)
Eve… gave birth to Cain... later
she gave birth to his brother Abel.
Now Abel kept flocks and Cain
worked the soil.
In the course of time Cain
brought some of the fruits of the
soil as an offering to the Lord.
And Abel also brought an
offering—fat portions from some
of the firstborn of his flock.
The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on
Cain and his offering He did not look with favor.
So Cain was very angry…

First Murder (Gen. 4:7-8)
Then the Lord said to Cain,
“Why are you angry? Why is
your face downcast? If you do
what is right, will you not be
accepted?
But if you do not do what is
right, sin is crouching at your
door; it desires to have you,
but you must rule over it.”
Now Cain said to his brother
Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.”
While they were in the field,
Cain attacked his brother Abel
and killed him.
Cain Slaying his brother Abel Peter Paul Rubens (1600)

First Fugitive (Gen. 4:9-12)
Then the Lord said to Cain,
“Where is your brother Abel?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I
my brother’s keeper?”
The Lord said, “What have you
done? Listen! Your brother’s
blood cries out to me from the
ground.
Now you are under a curse and
driven from the ground…
When you work the ground, it will
no longer yield its crops for you.
You will be a restless wanderer
on the earth.”

Story with a complex & uncertain literary history
 Again from an older origin story, heavily redacted (e.g.
consider the polemical element of herders v. farmers)
 God portrayed as inexplicably arbitrary (why accept Abel
and not Cain? What does “look with favor on” mean
anyway?) yet intimate with Cain (questions him, judges him)
 Anachronistic elements (no one could observe them in the
open country – who is around to watch? Who would be a
threat to Cain?)
 Abel is an insubstantial character (name means “vapor,
nothingness) whereas Cain is a complex character, the focus
of the story (name means “get, create)

First Refugee (Gen. 4:13-16)
Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear.
Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden
from your presence;
I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds
me will kill me.”
Cain, by Henri Vidal, Jardin des Tuileries, Paris
But the Lord said to him, “Not so; anyone who
kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.”
Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one
who found him would kill him.
So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence
and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Story with many interpretations
 First use of the term “sin” [not a moral teaching – story seems
to depend on all knowing that murder is very bad]
 Cain pleads with God for mercy – which is granted
 Mark is a sign of guilt and of grace (protection) [who would
understand it?]
 Meaning “vengeance seven times over”? Would not another
murderer also reach mercy from God? In any case, the story
portrays a hands-on God, not at all a God who distances Himself
from sinful mankind
 Etiological – explains Kenite tribe - apparently cultureless
wanderers (NB: nomadic people were neither cultureless nor
wanderers)

What does this story mean?
 Many interpretations: it is rich with meanings
 Another story speaking to the nature of the conflicted heart
of mankind and of our relationship with God (outside Eden)
 Human beings cannot live alone, struggle to live in community
with their brothers and sisters, and try to ignore the ever-
present God
 God, however, is relentless in maintaining relationship
however imperfect (this is grace) and renewing a covenant,
even a crude one –
 Better ones will come even as mankind remains “Cain”

Genesis Chapter 4-6
 First of two extended genealogies in the pre-Israelite
Genesis material (the other is 10:1-11:29, excluding 1-9)
 Two lines: Seven steps through Cain and ten steps through
Seth. They mIght represent “completion” of the course of
mankind’s history from shameful beginning (the Fall) to
shameful ending (the Flood)
 Adam  Cain -- Enoch – Irad – Mehujael – Methushael –
Lamech (2 wives Adah & Zillah) -- brothers Jabal, Jubal and
Tubal-Cain and sister Naamah
 Adam  Seth -- Enosh -- Kenan -- Mahalalel -- Jared
-- Enoch -- Lamach -- Methuselah -- Lamech -- Noah

Genesis genealogies
 Why? Genealogies are hard to interpret.
 Could be there was a story connected
with each one and the lists
are an aid to memory
 Human pre-history is
established to be far
older than 10 or even
100 generations. Just the
occupation of Europe
took place over 40,000
years ago.
 One thing every one notices is the
longevity of the men and, one must
presume, women of the generations

Old, older, oldest
After he became the father of
Methuselah, Enoch walked
faithfully with God 300 years and
had other sons and daughters….
Enoch walked faithfully with God;
then he was no more, because God
took him away.. - Gen. 5:22-24
“God took him away” Meaning?
Another inscrutable Genesis
story – where from?
Lost to time.

We Built This City On…
Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.
[what language did Adam and Eve speak?]
As people moved eastward,they found a plain in Shinar
(Babylonia) and settled there.
They said to each other, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them
thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar
[this area of the Middle East does not have ready access to stone
quarries and limestone mortar].
They said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that
reaches to the heavens, that we may make a name for ourselves.
Otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.
- Gen. 11:1-4

…confusion!
But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower the
people were building.
The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same
language they have begun to do this, then nothing they
plan to do will be impossible for them. [ a threat to God?]
Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they
will not understand each other.”
- Gen. 11:5-7
Cities have always been seen by some as a seat of
immorality and domination

The phrase "Tower of Babel" does not
appear in the Bible; it is "the city and its
tower" (‫ת‬ ֶ‫-א‬ ‫יר‬ ִ‫ע‬ ָ‫ה‬‫ת‬ ֶ‫ְא‬‫ו‬ - ִ‫מ‬ ַ‫ה‬ָ‫ד‬ְ‫ג‬‫ל‬ ) or just "the
city" (‫יר‬ ִ‫ע‬ ָ‫.)ה‬
According to the Bible, the city received
the name "Babel" from the Hebrew word
balal, meaning to jumble or confuse.
In fact, "Babel" means the "Gate of God",
from Akkadian bab-ilu (from bab "gate" +
ilu "god").

Scattered
So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth,
and they stopped building the city.
That is why it was called Babel, because there the LORD
confused the language of the whole world.
From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the
whole earth. - Gen. 11:8-9

Scattered
We can acknowledge and then set aside the obvious…
(1) etiology of many languages, now know to be woefully incorrect
(2) political polemic against prideful cities in general, not really true
(3) slam of Israel’s place of exile reason for the incorrect etymology
(4) the nod toward the ziggurat as the place of idol worship.
So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth,
and they stopped building the city.
That is why it was called Babel, because there the LORD
confused the language of the whole world.
From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the
whole earth. - Gen. 11:8-9

Consider the story in the light of covenant
Consider the care of the construction of the narrative...
It starts with the people of the “whole world” saying
“let us” because they fear being “scattered” then ends
with God saying “let us”…“scatter” them over the
“whole world”
Might this carefully (poetically) constructed story
of a now abandoned city with its audacious, now
crumbling tower hold deeper universal meaning?

Consider the story in the light of covenant
Home Insurance Building
Chicago (1884) the first skyscraper
Consider the care of the construction of the narrative...
It starts with the people of the “whole world” saying
“let us” because they fear being “scattered” then ends
with God saying “let us”…“scatter” them over the
“whole world”
Might this carefully (poetically) constructed story
of a now abandoned city with its audacious, now
crumbling tower hold deeper universal meaning?
Is this story rather, about, God’s sweep-
ing vision for humankind and human
preference to repudiate it, reject cove-
nant and, instead, construct a small
world based on a blurred vision of false
security and non-inclusive unity?

Scattering the people - not a punishment?
As we saw with the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden, there
is here, perhaps, a Providential consequence - there is no Eden,
there is no way to gain heaven with a great tower
Eden – a Tower; these are our preferred easy solutions to our
spiritual dilemma (we think)….
…which is to choose (being free to do so) close and obedient
Covenant with God or a separate existence in which we…
…reach for:
community (the city) but without God
security (the tower) but without God and
greatness (“a name for ourselves”) but without God.

Sneak peek at the vision of the will of God?
In that day five cities in Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and
swear allegiance to the Lord Almighty…. In that day there will be an
altar to the Lord in the heart of Egypt and a monument to the Lord at
its border; a sign and witness to the Lord Almighty in the land of Egypt.
When they cry to the Lord because of their oppressors, He will send a
savior and defender [to] rescue them. They will worship with sacrifices
and grain offerings and make vows to the Lord and keep them.
In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. Assyrians will
go to Egypt and Egyptians to Assyria [and they] will worship together.
In that day Israel… [will be] along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on
the earth. The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt
my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.”
- Is. 19:18-25

God would build a great city too
Perhaps God wants mankind:
 to be “scattered” (go into all the world where He is before
them) and yet…
 to be united (in Covenant with Him) and
 to be great (in service to the world in obedience to His
command)
 in this way the entire world –man and nature – becomes the
City of God and
 in this His Kingdom
comes on earth as it
is in heaven

As in Acts 2, another “peek” at the will of God for the people of
God – go into all the world unified by the Holy Spirit, hearing the
Gospel in every language, for the healing of the world

The account in Genesis makes no mention of any destruction of the
tower. The people whose languages are confounded just stop building
the city then scatter over the world.
However, in other sources, such as the in the Midrash, it is said that
Where is the tower now?
the top of the tower was burnt,
the bottom was swallowed, and
the middle was left standing to
erode away to dust.
In the Book of Jubilees (ch.10
v.18–27), Josephus (Antiquities
1.4.3), and the Sibylline Oracles
(iii. 117–129), God overturns
the tower with a great wind.

OPENING GENESIS
End Part 5

OPENING GENESIS
Part 6

The Lord saw how great the wickedness
of the human race had become on the
earth, that every inclination of the
thoughts of the human heart was only
evil all the time. (v. 5)

Assessment
The Lord saw how great
the wickedness of the
human race had become
on the earth, that every
inclination of the thoughts
of the human heart was
only evil all the time. (v. 5)
Now the earth was corrupt
in God’s sight and was full
of violence. God saw how
corrupt the earth had
become, for all the people
on earth had corrupted
their ways. (v. 11-12)

Assessment
The Lord saw how great
the wickedness of the
human race had become
on the earth, that every
inclination of the thoughts
of the human heart was
only evil all the time. (v. 5)
Now the earth was corrupt
in God’s sight and was full
of violence. God saw how
corrupt the earth had
become, for all the people
on earth had corrupted
their ways. (v. 11-12)
“Corrupt” is a moral term (to ruin utterly in character or
quality, debase, deprave, or pervert) but the core (heart)
issue is spiritual – mankind is not fulfilling their covenant
role of respecting, worshipping, and obeying God.
Humanity’s first performance evaluation comes in
as “does not meet expectations” to put it mildly!
The words are strong, the matter serious.

Compassion
The Lord regretted
that he had made
human beings on the
earth, and his heart
was deeply troubled
(grieved, in pain). (v.6)
The assessment brings on a crisis,
not for humanity, but for God!
The Hebrew for “grieved” (‘asav) is
the same word used in 3:16 of Eve
when bearing children and in 5:29
for work humans must to to eat.
The repitition of the word “heart”
for mankind and then of God
shows the deliberate structure of
the narrative

Judgment
So the Lord said, “I will
wipe from the face of the
earth the human race I
have created—and with
them the animals, the birds
and the creatures that
move along the ground—
for I regret that I have
made them.” (v. 7)
So God said…, “I am
going to put an end to
all people, for the earth
is filled with violence
because of them. I am
surely going to destroy
both them and the
earth. (v. 13)

Judgment
So the Lord said, “I will
wipe from the face of the
earth the human race I
have created—and with
them the animals, the birds
and the creatures that
move along the ground—
for I regret that I have
made them.” (v. 7)
So God said…, “I am
going to put an end to
all people, for the earth
is filled with violence
because of them. I am
surely going to destroy
both them and the
earth. (v. 13)
The judgment is uncompromising, the situation is
so dire that a comprehensive and radical solution
is called for – un-creation!
God will reverse His creative action of Gen. 1 and
destroy mankind - and nature also!

Just as God says “No Way”, God sees No-Ah!
But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Noah was a righteous
man, blameless among the people of his time; he walked faithfully
with God.(v.8-9). “I found you righteous in this generation.” (7:11)
Noah embodies a new possibility God’s grieving heart, if
not His judgmental mind, desires– mercy, not destruction.
Noah represents that strain in humanity (in us?) that really
wants to “walk” with the Creator and Preserver.
As we will see shortly, Noah also embodies that part of
humanity that can co-exist with the natural world. In the
person of Noah, therefore, Eden is once more a reality.
Look into Israel’s future: God will again agonize over His people…

Heart over Mind
Ephraim has surrounded me with lies, Israel with deceit. Judah is
unruly against God… My people are determined to turn from me.
Even though they call me God Most High, I will not exalt them.
“How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel?
… My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. I
will not carry out my fierce anger…
For I am God, and not a man- the Holy One among you. I will not
come against their cities.
They will follow the Lord; He will roar like a lion…{then} His
children will come trembling from the west. They will come from
Egypt, from Assyria… I will settle them…” declares the Lord.
- Hosea 11: 7-12

So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all
people… So make yourself an ark… I am going to push the
Great Reset Button to clear away everything on earth.
But I will establish my covenant with you. -Gen. 6:13-18

You will enter the ark, you and your sons and your wife and your
sons’ wives…. and two of all living creatures, male and female. Noah
did everything just as God commanded. him. -Gen. 6:19-22

Noah is a type of Jesus
Noah did what God commanded of him. As did Jesus
Noah regarded the commands of God to be life-giving even before
the commands to build an ark, before the command to enter the
ark, before the rains came.
All of God’s commands are life-giving, from the least to the
greatest, all are received with joy by the person of faith and they
encompass the natural world also. The Ark is Eden.
And so FAITH appears in the Biblical narrative for the first time,
faith not showed by Adam & Eve, perhaps implicit in the brief
statements regarding Abel and Enoch but not detailed;
Noah might well have said, paraphrasing what Jesus said many
years later {Jn. 12:50) , “I know that his command leads to eternal
life. So whatever I do is just what the Father has told me to do.”

Heart over mind
The Lord will call you back… “For a brief moment
I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I
will bring you back.
In anger I hid my face from you for a moment,
but with everlasting kindness I will have
compassion on you,” says the Lord your
Redeemer.
“To me this is like the days of Noah…. So now I
have sworn not to be angry with you, never to
rebuke you again.
Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be
removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be
shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,”
says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
- Is. 54:6-10
The etymology of
"compassion" is Latin,
meaning "co-
suffering.“ and is
related to English
“patient” and Greek
“pathos”. More
involved than simple
empathy, gives rise to
an active desire to
alleviate another's
suffering. It is often
the key component in
what manifests in the
social context as
altruism

Flood (Gen.7:1-10)
{when all was ready… God said to Noah} “Go into the ark, you
and your family- and the animals-don’t forget the animals!”
“Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days
and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every
living creature I have made.”
And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.
And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered
the ark to escape the waters of the flood.
Pairs of clean and unclean animals… came to Noah and entered
the ark, as God had commanded Noah.
And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth.

All the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates
of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth…
On that day Noah {his family and the animals} entered the ark.…
Then the Lord shut him in. -Gen. 7:11-13

“{The waters} rose greatly on the earth, and all the high
mountains were covered...”
Then comes a ritualistic 3-fold announcement of doom:
1. Every living thing perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all
creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind.
2. Everything on land with the breath of life in its nostrils died.
3. Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out;
people and animals and the creatures that move on the
ground and the birds- all were wiped from the earth.
Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.
– Gen. 7:19-23
Waters wipe clean the earth

All seems lost! How long can Noah hold out?

Deus ex machina
But God remembered Noah
and all the wild animals
and the livestock that were with him in the ark,
And {God} sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded….
And on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came
to rest on the mountains of Ararat. - Gen. 8:1-4
Danger, death, & despair – Noah may well have thought all was
lost – or soon to be lost – as he was unable to do anything to
save his ship. Then God… remembers! He does not carry out His
plan to wipe out ALL living things. Noah, representing all that is
righteous in humanity and nature, is saved.

Restoration of the land
By the 1st day of the 1st month of Noah’s 601st year, the water had dried
up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and
saw that the surface of the ground was dry…. - Gen. 8:13-14

Restoration of worship
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean
animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. – Gen. 8:20
There is in this account a flow, a movement:
Assessment of mankind as totally corrupt
Noah raising then entering the ark
Inundation of the earth by flood waters
- - - {God remembers} - - -
Receding of the waters, revealing the earth
Noah leaving the ark
Renewal of worship and covenant

Restoration of creation
The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never
again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every
inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood.
Never again
will I destroy all
living creatures…
As long as the
earth endures,
seedtime/harvest,
cold/heat,
summer/winter,
day/night
will never cease.

Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful
and increase in number and fill the earth…
Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just
as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.
I now establish my covenant with you and with your
descendants after you and with every living creature that was
with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all
those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature
on earth.
I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be
destroyed by the waters of a flood. - Gen. 9:1-11
Restoration of covenant

God said, “This is the sign of the
covenant… a covenant for generations
to come: I have set my bow in the clouds -
it will be the sign of the covenant between me and
the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and
the bow appears… I will remember my covenant
between me and you and all living creatures… I will
remember the everlasting covenant between God and
all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
Restoration of peace
God’s battle bow is laid aside, hung up in the clouds for
ever – it now becomes a sign of peace. The promise is
made 3 times, again, as in a ritual or legal pact.

The Epic of Gilgamesh
Noah was probably modelled after
the adventure of the Babylonian folk
hero, Utnapishtim, friend of the
famous hero of the Epic of
Gilgamesh. The Babylonian flood
story (ca. 1,500 BC) was likely
modelled after an older Sumarian
flood story in the Epic of Atrahasis.
Numerous story elements are common to the Babylonian and
Biblical accounts; gods causing a prolonged deluge but warning a
hero in advance who builds an ark and loads it with family, friends,
and animals; when the storm ceases he releases birds to deter-
mine if it is safe to disembark, the boat settles on a mountaintop,
he then offers a sacrifice whose smell pleases the gods.

And so ends the beginning, Genesis, with God accepting mankind as t
are, flawed, erring,
troublesome –
but with the promise
that God will stay with them, suffer with
them and never stop calling them to Himself.

OPENING GENESIS
This ends our study of beginnings

Opening Genesis

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Opening Genesis