June 2, 2024
When considering primary texts that have risen to the surface through my years of being a pastor, I must begin with the book of Genesis. It was my Introduction to Old Testament professor Dr. David Dilworth who speculated about the placement of this book of beginnings within the Torah of the Jewish people. He said, “The Book of Genesis was most likely the 4th book to be written.” His presentation went like this:
Exodus was most likely first. It chronicled the birth of Moses, how he became Israel’s deliverer and then the first year of the Exodus.
The second was Leviticus. It outlines the second year after leaving Egypt and presents behaviors for how to survive while traveling in a large mass of people through the desert.
The third was Numbers…how many of us are there after all, what do you do now that you have an additional 38 years of wandering?
Then, as the Israelites had earned those additional years of wandering in the wilderness Moses had the time to address the question, “How did all this begin? Where did we come from? How did we get to Egypt in the first place? Who are these ‘patriarchs’ that we keep talking about? Genesis.
Finally came Deuteronomy. In essence, this book was Moses’ memoirs during the last months of his life. Written in the format of the ancient Suzerain Treaties, it describes God’s Covenant with his people.
As the name says, Genesis is about the beginning. I have kept coming back to its insights as I believe they are from God through Moses. Here are some that have been important for me.
“In the beginning…” In the beginning of what? Of the ‘Big Bang?’ In the beginning of God? In the beginning of the story of the shaping of the Milky Way Galaxy amongst all others? In the beginning of human beings? We aren’t told. The Apostle Paul believed that it referred to the very beginning for he comments in Romans 4:17 that God is the God who creates out of nothing, ex niholo. It could just as easily have been that God ordered the already existing elements to organize or act in a particular way thus creating what we presently know.
God. The picture of God in these opening verses of the Bible is central to my beliefs. God is The Orderer behind the order of the universe. This thought is not unique to me. It was the fifth proof of the existence of God that Thomas Aquinas wrote about in his The Summa Theologica. His reasoning was that when you see order you must assume an orderer. When you see a building, you must assume an architect, engineer, etc., as well as a construction crew. When you see a watch (especially pre-digital) you must assume a watchmaker. Genesis simply presents God as that orderer.
It is amazing to me how the first of the creation stories outlined by Moses in the 2nd century BC (and we will deal with the second story in the next blog) parallels the steps outlined by evolutionary theory. The difference between Genesis and evolution is two-fold: God vs. autonomous matter and six allegorical days VS. a process of billions of years (this is not to say that God could not use process such as the theory of theistic evolution promotes). Of course, if you take an all-powerful being out of the equation you must create periods of time so that an intricate and complex system can evolve.
One of the foundational issues that comes from this question of “Is there an Orderer” is that if there is an order then there most likely will be a design under which that order must function. If there is a design for creation then maybe human beings are designed to live in a particular fashion. I often think of a moment when Volkswagen came out with their first diesel engine for a car. A friend purchased one and was getting much better gas mileage than my gas guzzling beast. I thought, maybe if I simply put diesel in my car I will get better mileage. Unfortunately, my gas fed car would not operate on diesel. It was not designed to run on diesel. In fact, if I put diesel in my car it would probably kill the car. I never tried the experiment. I lived within the design created by the Ford Motor Company. Even though I lost the mileage race I drove my car for years to come.
For those who do not want someone telling them how they ought to live, the idea of an Orderer is not a pleasant thought. I want my freedom to choose. I want to be the master of my own destiny. I want to be in control of me. I want to do what I want to do when and how I want to do it. Evolution opens the door for the exercise of MY free will. And if I don’t succeed then what? I have only proved the truth of evolution…Natural Selection…survival of the fittest…the God-less Universe squashes me.
This all leads me to the third emphasis that has become important to me from this Book of Beginnings…man. There is so much that could be said from Genesis’ creation account. Books have been and will continue to be written about what is said. I will only make a few points.
“So, God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created him. Male and female God created them.” Genesis 1:27 ESV
Man does not mean men. In the 1970’s, Paul K. Jewett wrote a book titled, Man: Male and Female. In this book which shocked the very conservative client base of Fuller Theological Seminary he asserted that there is no ‘mankind’ without the intricate balance of the male and female roles. When a man feels he must dominate a woman, or, when a woman feels she must dominate a man in whatever fashion this takes place, God’s creation is broken. Each has a part and the parts make a whole.
Man…male and female…are created in the image of God. Today there is a whole movement in the realm of human counseling called, Imago Dei, helping people discover how the image of God is reflected in them and in each other. Part of the Image of God according to our understanding is that God is relational, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Each part of the God-head has a role and each respects the role of the other. So it is with people.
Being created in the Image of God also comes with great power. Of all parts of the creation, only humans have the ability to create and destroy (although there is some question in the higher mammals about their abilities to create). It is destruction that occupies most of our thoughts these days. Destruction through war, through nuclear weapons, environmental crisis, greed, physical and emotional abuse, genetically engineered viruses, the list could go on. We have within our power the ability to destroy this world in which God has placed us.
There is so much more that I have learned from this opening chapter of the Bible. I will not drag this out any further. I trust you can see the implications of “The Beginning” of scripture. Let me conclude with this thought:
It was only within human beings that scripture teaches that God place his image. With privilege comes responsibility. We need to act like it.
Until next time. Paul
I like the thought you put into these blogs Paul Hayden. You are a gifted writer, thank you for sharing!!!