Genesis: how it all began
John 8:58 Jesus said to them, "I assure you: Before Abraham was, I am."
Isaiah 45:18 For this is what the LORD says--God is the Creator of the heavens. He formed the earth and made it; He established it; He did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited—“I am the LORD, and there is no other.”
Isaiah 45:9 "Woe to the one who argues with his Maker--one clay pot among many. Does clay say to the one forming it: What are you making? Or does your work say: He has no hands?”
At some point we must cease the eternal questioning and accept what we cannot understand: that God did what He said He did, and that it is a great mystery that may, or may not, be revealed to us in heaven. But we must believe; that is the beginning of our peace “that passes all understanding.” Not wealth or health, but spiritual well-being.
Genesis has been interpreted, misinterpreted, taken literally, taken as an allegory, dismissed, and yet is quoted endlessly by the believer and non-believer alike. The term “Genesis” has been used broadly to refer to the beginning of any given thing it is applied to. But no one can pretend to forget that it is derived from the Bible and the Torah; that it describes what can not be captured as effectively in other terms: our cosmic and human conditions being ushered into physical existence. Before this there existed only God (in the pre-existent form of the Trinity) in whatever state that “being” was. This, of course, is a matter of personal faith and much conjecture. Suffice it to say that we came out of something and from somewhere, and I choose to believe it was not accidental or mistaken. It came out of a direct willingness by God that we would exist as we do to praise and glorify Him. That He might also be loved by His creation, not robotically served by it. We have free will beginning with God’s desire to bring us into existence so that we are not mere marionettes on strings.
With Adam and Eve we first establish the paradox of free will and God’s ability to know all things at all times. This ability to choose (even against our God) is played out with the deadly relationship of Cain and Abel, the desire to meet God in His heaven at the Tower of Babel, the wickedness of the people drowned in the flood that spared the family of Noah in an Ark, and the travails of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar and their offspring.
Again, this is where the Bible, the Torah, the cosmos and our faith begin. What are your thoughts on this based on personal experience, church culture, and your secular upbringing? God allows this to be a matter of personal revelation. Yet, we by nature, are bound together as believers with a common thread … sewn into a cloth that is the fabric of the Church: the Body of Christ. That is why leaders are lifted up to carry on the task of retaining and teaching the Gospel or “Good News.”
Faith is not about knowing, but believing what cannot be known.
Genesis 1:1-31 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness.
God called the light "day," and He called the darkness "night." Evening came, and then morning: the first day.
Then God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters, separating water from water."
So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above the expanse. And it was so.
God called the expanse "sky." Evening came, and then morning: the second day.
Then God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear." And it was so.
God called the dry land "earth," and He called the gathering of the water "seas." And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, "Let the earth produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit with seed in it, according to their kinds." And it was so.
The earth brought forth vegetation: seed-bearing plants according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it, according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
Evening came, and then morning: the third day.
Then God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night. They will serve as signs for festivals and for days and years.
They will be lights in the expanse of the sky to provide light on the earth." And it was so.
God made the two great lights--the greater light to have dominion over the day and the lesser light to have dominion over the night--as well as the stars.
God placed them in the expanse of the sky to provide light on the earth, to dominate the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good.
Evening came, and then morning: the fourth day.
Then God said, "Let the water swarm with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky."
So God created the large sea-creatures and every living creature that moves and swarms in the water, according to their kinds. He also created every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
So God blessed them, "Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the waters of the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth."
Evening came, and then morning: the fifth day.
Then God said, "Let the earth produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that crawl, and the wildlife of the earth according to their kinds." And it was so.
So God made the wildlife of the earth according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and creatures that crawl on the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the animals, all the earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth."
So God created man in His own image; He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female.
God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth."
God also said, "Look, I have given you every seed-bearing plant on the surface of the entire earth, and every tree whose fruit contains seed. This food will be for you,
for all the wildlife of the earth, for every bird of the sky, and for every creature that crawls on the earth--everything having the breath of life in it. I have given every green plant for food." And it was so.
God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. Evening came, and then morning: the sixth day.
Genesis is the first of 5 books called the Pentateuch, the Hebrew Torah or law. The two Hebrew words b’re’sit mean “in the beginning.” This is the creation story, the beginning of the Mosaic Law: words given to Moses, and completed or transcribed by Joshua (?) … based upon the premise or assertion that the Law was dictated by God, and in its retained literal and chronological order, the source of the embedded Bible code. (28B; from The New World Dictionary Concordance)
The Torah provides a brief eulogy for Moses: “Never again did there arise in Israel a prophet like Moses – whom the Lord knew face to face.” (34.10) (39B;pg 153)
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
All things were created through Him, and apart from Him not one thing was created that has been created.
Life was in Him, and that life was the light of men.
That light shines in the darkness, yet the darkness did not overcome it.
The doctrine of the Trinity is already formed in Genesis 1 and reiterated by John placing Christ there as the Word incarnate in his Gospel. What is intimated in the Old Testament is defined in the New Testament as prophecy realized.
Psalm 90:2-4 Before the mountains were born, before You gave birth to the earth and the world, from eternity to eternity, You are God.
You return mankind to the dust, saying, "Return, descendants of Adam."
For in Your sight a thousand years are like yesterday that passes by, like a few hours of the night.
Genesis 2:1-9 So the heavens and the earth and everything in them were completed.
By the seventh day, God completed His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done.
God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, for on it He rested from His work of creation.
These are the records of the heavens and the earth, concerning their creation at the time that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.
No shrub of the field had yet grown on the land, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the LORD God had not made it rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground.
But water would come out of the ground and water the entire surface of the land.
Then the LORD God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.
The LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there He placed the man He had formed.
The LORD God caused to grow out of the ground every tree pleasing in appearance and good for food, including the tree of life in the midst of the garden, as well as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Genesis 3:1-5 Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You can't eat from any tree in the garden'?"
The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden.
But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, 'You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.'"
"No! You will not die," the serpent said to the woman.
"In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
Genesis 3:14-15 Then the LORD God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed more than any livestock and more than any wild animal. You will move on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life.
I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.
(Passages above are from the e-Sword website by Rick Meyer and the Holman Christian Standard Bible)
There are actually two views of creation in Genesis that are complimentary aspects. They are 1:1-2:4a and 2:4b-24. They appear to be a detailed version and a sort of recap or a summation. The second version actually presents the location of Eden, although this “exactness” has been bantered about in academic and theological circles. (See the map) I suspect that they could be interwoven and be effective. However, since the Torah was/is the Word of God given to Moses, it cannot be altered as it is presented; it is as it must be. God has a method, and it is its own perfection. If the Bible Code exists, then we must accept the order as it is.
As the Jews see it, and I do not disagree, the exactitude of the words, phrasing, etc., must be preserved at all costs. And yet, the Scripture is often a combination of allegory and history. I think that often what we cannot verbalize about why and how God acts, He has provided versions of what He has wrought in terms that our minds can cope with. We cannot hope to wrap our minds around the shear time and complexity of the creative process in God’s hands. That is why we often attempt to take literally the things we do not understand.
I recommend looking into Rabbinical writings at www.beingjewish.com for insights into beliefs that Christianity was built upon and grew out of. We will take a look at Satan from a Jewish perspective, which is to say, an Old Testament perspective. It should be no surprise that this is also the Christian perspective of Job and other such wisdom writings. The serpent in Eden was also of the same ilk. This also does not conflict with views in Bible studies I have recently facilitated. Let’s take a look.
The Hebrew word “Satan” means “Hinderer.” To hinder someone means to hold him back, to try to prevent him from doing something. G-d created the Hinderer to give us work to do in this world. Satan is here to make things difficult for us, so we can overcome our evil temptations and PASS the test. That is the purpose of Satan. Satan is an angel whose purpose is determined by G-d.
The ability to choose between good and evil is what gives us free will.
Temptation is there to try and deter us. It gives us the ability to do the wrong thing. More importantly, it gives us the ability to look at evil and refuse to do it. By presenting us with the opportunity to do evil, it gives us the ability to choose between good and evil.
Satan is our evil inclination (Yetzer Hara). The Evil Inclination tries to prevent us from doing good, because Hashem has commanded the Evil Inclination to do that. Why? To give us free will.
Job 1:6-12 One day the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them.