"In the beginning was the word..." - John 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth..." Genesis. 1:1
Welcome to the beginning.
Beginnings are often the hardest things to get right. They provide the foundation for what comes afterward. This is one of the things that makes them so hard. If you start wrong you won't finish well. There are two beginnings I want to talk about today. The first is this blog. A blog is a place to write down your thoughts and feelings or different ideas about almost anything. It could be about the food you eat for a year, the weather, politics, whatever you want. So at the start we probably need to provide some focus for this particular blog or else it will get messy in a hurry. We don't have to pare it down to one particular thing that we will always and forever talk about, but some guidelines might be nice. Since this is the blog for our church, Community Chapel, we'll of course discuss the Bible. We could do this in many different ways such as a devotional thought (which is kind of where I'm going with this particular post by the way) a discussion of all things church (from the completely practical right on over to the so-far-out-there-why-would-this-ever-matter), and even into personal thoughts from me about my life. This will give you guys a glimpse into what it's like to see the world as I see it (hopefully). The reason this is all really important is that I want to know about you. I want you to tell me what you're thinking. This is not just my blog, it's open to you guys to comment on posts, give me feedback, tell me what you're thinking. That's really important to me because it's one of the reasons Community Chapel exists. We are here to know and be known by each other and through that to come to a fuller understanding of who God is.
With that said, I find us back at the beginning. Up above, you'll see two verses I've picked out. One is from the very beginning of the Bible (makes sense) and the other is from the beginning of one of the gospels about Jesus (specifically John). Like I said before, I think it's crucially important to get beginnings right. If you don't understand the beginning, you won't get the ending right at all. This is more true in the Bible than almost anywhere else. So let's get started.
There have been theories, many and varied, over the years that try to explain the beginning of the Bible to us. There have been some theories which try to account for dinosaurs, some which try to explain the first chapter as describing geological eras, even some who say that between verses 1 and 2 Satan and his angels fell and the earth was recreated (I'm not a big fan of this one - it's called the Gap Theory). I'm going to take a bit of a different approach to this chapter. You see, I find more and more that how I understand this first chapter influences my whole understanding of the Bible (I'll provide some examples for that in a second). But first, let's talk about what the first chapter of Genesis is saying. You see, the Bible has a story to tell. Two things to keep in mind while reading the Bible are that it is true and that it is a story focused on one thing: The crazy love of God for His people. This leads to a long story about how this God is trying to redeem his people. Now, we can argue back and forth about this point but this is the lens through which I view the entire Bible and I think it's a good one. Why? Because that seems to be the message of the Bible from the beginning to the end. From Genesis in the garden all the way to the New Jerusalem in Revelation we find a God with this crazy desire to dwell among us. In fact, you can track that theme all the way from Genesis in the garden, to the Israelites in the desert with God dwelling in a tent among his people who were dwelling in tents, then to a temple in Jerusalem when this people finally settled in Palestine. In the New Testament, Hebrews speaks of a God who dwells (the word there could also be translated "tabernacled") among us through His Spirit. This God is also preparing the New Jerusalem to once again bring Christians who have chosen to dwell with Him back to Him where we will dwell forever. Sorry about dragging you guys through the whole Bible in about a paragraph but like I said beginnings are important. Now that we've laid the groundwork for the first chapter let's take a look at the verses themselves.
Ever wondered about that first chapter of Genesis? Ever stopped and taken a good long look at it? If you ever had you'll know that there are some weird things going on in that first chapter. Take a look at these verses (v. 4 - v.5):
Welcome to the beginning.
Beginnings are often the hardest things to get right. They provide the foundation for what comes afterward. This is one of the things that makes them so hard. If you start wrong you won't finish well. There are two beginnings I want to talk about today. The first is this blog. A blog is a place to write down your thoughts and feelings or different ideas about almost anything. It could be about the food you eat for a year, the weather, politics, whatever you want. So at the start we probably need to provide some focus for this particular blog or else it will get messy in a hurry. We don't have to pare it down to one particular thing that we will always and forever talk about, but some guidelines might be nice. Since this is the blog for our church, Community Chapel, we'll of course discuss the Bible. We could do this in many different ways such as a devotional thought (which is kind of where I'm going with this particular post by the way) a discussion of all things church (from the completely practical right on over to the so-far-out-there-why-would-this-ever-matter), and even into personal thoughts from me about my life. This will give you guys a glimpse into what it's like to see the world as I see it (hopefully). The reason this is all really important is that I want to know about you. I want you to tell me what you're thinking. This is not just my blog, it's open to you guys to comment on posts, give me feedback, tell me what you're thinking. That's really important to me because it's one of the reasons Community Chapel exists. We are here to know and be known by each other and through that to come to a fuller understanding of who God is.
With that said, I find us back at the beginning. Up above, you'll see two verses I've picked out. One is from the very beginning of the Bible (makes sense) and the other is from the beginning of one of the gospels about Jesus (specifically John). Like I said before, I think it's crucially important to get beginnings right. If you don't understand the beginning, you won't get the ending right at all. This is more true in the Bible than almost anywhere else. So let's get started.
There have been theories, many and varied, over the years that try to explain the beginning of the Bible to us. There have been some theories which try to account for dinosaurs, some which try to explain the first chapter as describing geological eras, even some who say that between verses 1 and 2 Satan and his angels fell and the earth was recreated (I'm not a big fan of this one - it's called the Gap Theory). I'm going to take a bit of a different approach to this chapter. You see, I find more and more that how I understand this first chapter influences my whole understanding of the Bible (I'll provide some examples for that in a second). But first, let's talk about what the first chapter of Genesis is saying. You see, the Bible has a story to tell. Two things to keep in mind while reading the Bible are that it is true and that it is a story focused on one thing: The crazy love of God for His people. This leads to a long story about how this God is trying to redeem his people. Now, we can argue back and forth about this point but this is the lens through which I view the entire Bible and I think it's a good one. Why? Because that seems to be the message of the Bible from the beginning to the end. From Genesis in the garden all the way to the New Jerusalem in Revelation we find a God with this crazy desire to dwell among us. In fact, you can track that theme all the way from Genesis in the garden, to the Israelites in the desert with God dwelling in a tent among his people who were dwelling in tents, then to a temple in Jerusalem when this people finally settled in Palestine. In the New Testament, Hebrews speaks of a God who dwells (the word there could also be translated "tabernacled") among us through His Spirit. This God is also preparing the New Jerusalem to once again bring Christians who have chosen to dwell with Him back to Him where we will dwell forever. Sorry about dragging you guys through the whole Bible in about a paragraph but like I said beginnings are important. Now that we've laid the groundwork for the first chapter let's take a look at the verses themselves.
Ever wondered about that first chapter of Genesis? Ever stopped and taken a good long look at it? If you ever had you'll know that there are some weird things going on in that first chapter. Take a look at these verses (v. 4 - v.5):
"And God said, 'Let there be light and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night."
So far so good right? Well check out verse 14 and verse 16:
"And God said, 'Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night."
"And God made the two great lights - the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night - and the stars."
"And God made the two great lights - the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night - and the stars."
Ok if you're paying attention it's time to do a double take. Here we go >_> >_> (My impression of a double take). Alright so check this out. God creates the light and the darkness on the first day.... then on the fourth day he creates the SUN and the MOON. Anyone else a little confused right now? I know I was when someone first pointed this out to me so I had to go get some answers. So I chased down my Old Testament professor and asked her about it. The answer she gave me blew me away because it makes perfect sense. Now, most of you have probably grown up thinking that this chapter describes 7 literal 24-hour days. But you see that's not how the Hebrews thought back then. They weren't concerned so much with the order of events as they were with why events were important. Do you see the difference? One (the order of events) is concerned completely with the time of the events. When did this happen? Ok, then this happened and then this happened... that kind of thing. You following me? I hope so because it's important. Describing something by talking about the importance of events is completely different. You do this every day you just don't think about it. You'll skip large blocks of time and sometimes even put things out of order so you can talk about the important things you want to say. You're not going to discuss that run to the grocery store to pick up snacks while you're telling them about the big game you were watching. It just doesn't matter enough to worry about it. The same thing is going on here in Genesis 1. The writer has a purpose and he's not particularly concerned with the specific time in which the world was created. This helps because if you believe that this chapter is talking about the literal creation of the world you've got some explaining to do. How did the light and the darkness get there when we know that light comes from the sun and the darkness from the turning of the earth? Tough question if you think Moses cared about depicting a scientific, time-oriented creation. So what was the writer's purpose?
Let's flip this upside down for a second and think about it as if it wasn't written to 21st century Americans. Let's assume instead that it was written to a bunch of slaves who had just been rescued from the terrible rule of a tyrannical Pharaoh. All they've known their whole lives has been bricks. Make this many, in this amount of time or else I'm going to beat the snot out of you kind of ruler. Not much time for anything else other than brick making I would think. So they come to Mt. Sinai (This is the book of Exodus by the way if you don't know what's going on) and Moses goes up to speak with God. The Israelites actually spend a year there while Moses chats with God about all kinds of things from a political system, to an economic system, all the way to the creation of the world. Now, from this perspective does Moses (or God for that matter) care about the specific scientific order of the universe? Is that what God is trying to communicate to Moses? I wouldn't think so. Instead, starting with Genesis 1, God is putting together a picture for Moses and the people of Israel about how the world works. And it starts with giving the Israelites a picture of mankind that is about how they are worth more than just brick makers. Hop back to Genesis chapter one with me for a second and check this out. This chapter is set up very deliberately. First, God explains what controls what, or better what rules over what. If you organized what God created on what day and put it in side by side lists it would look something like this:
- Day One - Light and Darkness
- Day Two - Sky and Ocean
- Day Three - Earth and Plants
Ok, now let's look at the last three days -
- Day Four - Sun, Moon, and Stars
- Day Five - Birds and Fish
- Day Six (a) - Animals
Very interesting.... Do you see it? God is giving the Israelites a way to view the world. It may be simplistic to us today but it's accurate (And scientifically correct if that's your cup of tea) Sun, Moon, and Stars rule over Light and Darkness, Birds and Fish rule over the Sky and the Ocean, and Animals rule over the Earth and Plants. So why does this matter to the Israelites? Or for that matter to us today? Because at the end of the sixth day God creates the pinnacle of His creation. And what is that pinnacle? Let's read verse 26 -
"Then (bold added) God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth"
God makes man the pinnacle of his creation. Incidentally, man stands for the whole human race (Men and women, see v. 27). Do you understand what this does for the Hebrew slave coming out of Egypt? It gives him worth. God Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth just declared him more than a brick maker. He is created in the very image of God. Do you see why this matters for you? You are made in the very image of God and no matter who you are, you have worth to God. He cares about you. God is not trying to communicate the scientific process through this chapter, He's communicating something much more important. He's telling you He loves you and that no matter how circumstances or even other people may try to define you, you can know that you are created in the image of the invisible God, the One who on the seventh day rested and put Himself as ruler over all creation. You are made like Him. Amazing.
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