Act 1 Scene 1: In the Beginning…

There are times when the first line of a book becomes so famous that becomes part of the culture. Charles Dickens’ opening line for A Tale of Two Cities is one such example: “It was the best of times it was the worst of times.” Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s “It was a dark and stormy night” also comes to mind. God’s Book starts off with a famous line as well: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

Only there is a problem with famous books. The problem is that everyone has read them. And in reading them, everyone has come up with their own view of what the author was trying to say. The Bible is no different.

{I ad-libbed a lot Sunday morning, so I would recommend the audio version}

Let us go back to when the oral story of creation was first told. Let us imagine the camp of the Israelites spread across the desert wilderness. You just left Egypt after having your family enslaved for 400 years…You are sitting around a fire – staring up into the stars, thinking about life, the universe and how everything came to be.

Seated across the firre, one of the elders slowly begins to speak…soft at first, then louder as the story told countless times came to his lips:

Atum, finisher of the world.

Standing on this hill, Atum looked over the waters and realized that he was alone. Spiting onto the hill, Atum created Shu, the god of the air, who in contributed to our principles of life.

Sneezing, Atum created Tefunt – the goddess of the moisture, who brought out the principles of order into the world.

However the power of Nu – the watery chaos – was great and soon Shu and Tefunt were separated from their father Atum. In a state of grief, Atum removed his one eye and sent it to search for his children. After a long time, Atum’s eye found Shu and Tefunt and returned them to Atum. At this reunion, Atum wept tears of joy – and where these tears hit the ground, men grew up out of the dirt.

The time had come for world to be made…so Shu and Tefnut joined together and gave birth to Geb, the earth and Nut, the sky. Geb and Nut gave birth to four children: Osiris, god of fertility and regeneration and Isis, goddess of motherhood, Seth, the god of male sexuality Nephthys, the goddess of female sexuality.

What? This wasn’t the story you grew up with? How about this one:

In the beginning there were two gods, Apsu and Tiamat, who represented the fresh waters (male) and marine waters (female). Coming together they produced a second generation of gods. Soon after this Apsu was having trouble sleeping because of the noise his children were making.

Marduk and his dragon Mušḫuššu, from a Babylonian cylinder seal

Tiamat was angry at the death of her husband, so she plotted revenge on Ea. Taking the god Kingu as her second husband, she gave birth to an army created for revenge.

Getting scared, the other gods appealed to Marduk to save them. He accepted the challenge – on the condition that if he defeated Tiamat, the other gods would make him their chief.

Joining together in battle Marduk and Tiamat fought hard and long.  Finally, Marduk overcame Tiamat in a blazing victory. Capturing’s Tiamat’s followers, he made them his slaves while he cut Tiamat’s corpse in half – creating heaven from one half and the earth from the other. The earlier followers of Tiamat where then ordered to take care of the world on behalf of Marduk.

Shortly after this, Marduk came up with another plan. Freeing his early slaves, Marduk kills Kingu – Tiamat’s second husband – and arranged for Ea to create man out of his blood, destined to serve the Marduk and the gods and to do their work.

What? Still not what you had in mind?

Yet, these are the two main creation stories that the Israelites knew – the first one being from ancient Egypt where they had spent the last 400 years as slaves. The second story was from Babylon – that ancient power of the Middle East.

These are the stories that guided the decisions and the actions of those nations. Humanity, according to the Egyptians, were seen to be the tears of the great sun god, Atum or Ra. They were to live upon the body of Geb and to be subjected to the whims of the great Nile god, who brought both resources and destruction – drinking water in the middle of the desert and annual floods that destroyed all that was close by.

Humanity to the Babylonians was nothing more than the offshoot of a cosmic battle between the gods. Man was created for one reason – to be the slaves of the gods and to do their bidding.

Then there was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – the God of the Israelites who just delivered His people out of bondage – the God who called down the ten plagues and who divided the Red Sea.  Remember – Genesis was written after the Israelites left Egypt  – it is part of God’s message to Moses for the people.

Let us read His story – turn with me to Genesis chapter 1:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

At the very beginning of time, there was nothing but God. He existed when nothing else did – and he created the heavens and the earth with loving hands. It was not the offspring of two minor gods nor was it the body of a dead god…

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.

Notice that Genesis calls it “the deep” – this was because the deep was thought to be the realm of the great Yamm, the nemesis of the gods, and the Leviathan, the evil sea monster. God is showing the Israelites that He is bigger than these so-called-gods. He alone is King.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and 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.

Darkness shall not rule – it shall not have control over light. No, God separated the light from the darkness and called them day and night. This was a directly dismissing against the ancient gods of darkness and light

And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.”  So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so.  God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day

Sky and sea gods were dismissed…

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.

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—the third day.

The earth gods and the vegetation gods were dismissed – modern terms: Mother Earth, the trees….

And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so.  God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.  God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

The sun, moon and star gods where dismissed – notice that Genesis does not name them – instead it is greater light, lesser light  – this was because to the people of this time, to say the name of something was to give it power. It was to make it real. By not naming the sun and the moon, the author of Genesis is dismissing those gods as nothing, not even worthy to be mentioned.

And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.

Fish and fowl gods were dismissed…

And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

Gods of the animals are gone…

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Humanity was NOT an accident – created by the tears of a god – nor were we created to be slaves, doing the work of the petty gods who bicker and fight.   Humanity was created in the IMAGE of God  – they were created to be the image bearers of God to the world.   We will be looking more into this next week…

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

Humanity was not slaves – they were stewards of God, given authority to rule over the animals, plants, and the earth. We were meant to be co-workers with God – we were created to join WITH God – not be ordered around as slaves. No we are friends of God.

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

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

God is King  – THIS is the message of Genesis chapter 1.

It is answering the question of WHO created the world – This is critical in our day and time as we are being told another story. We are being told that the world just happened…one day it was not there and then all of a sudden it was there…

You see, science cannot answer the question of WHO. It only seeks to answer the question of HOW.

Two different questions….If we are to enter into the Story of God, we need to enter into the WHO – join with Him, the one who made everything by simply speaking. Science does not need to scare us or frighten us as we know the One who started everything and created the laws of nature that science studies.

Humanity was made in God’s image – we have a purpose and a plan – we are not an accident or a freak of nature developed over the years. NO – we were – and are made by the King of Kings.

Let us join with Him in His story.

7 thoughts on “Act 1 Scene 1: In the Beginning…”

    1. Thanks. =) Looking at the cultural viewpoint of Genesis really does change the story – in a good way!

      Speaking of changing the story…wait until you hear/read what God has planned for the next two weeks. I am really wrestling with Genesis 2-3 and how the Kingship of God shifts the focus of the story… In fact, I’m meeting with some friends tomorrow to discuss these chapter (and to make sure I’m not too far off base!). =P

  1. Josh – If you are doing a series on Genesis then I suggest you watch this if you have time – http://www.youtube.com/user/AYZTyler?blend=5&ob=5#p/a/u/1/Vn7HuuvqQrU

    Rabbi Michael gave a really great thought regarding the serpent that made me go “whoa. wow” – in fact in the people I’ve talked since then I’ve pretty much not had to re-explain what he said and just mention one teeny little fact and the Holy Spirit Light Bulb goes off.

    If I didn’t think you’d enjoy the rest of the message, I would mention that little fact.

    🙂

    1. I’m actually doing a series on the metanarrtive of the Bible – the big picture of God’s mission to redeem all of creation to Himself. It should be about seven months long and cover the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelations. Fun stuff. 😀

      oh, and thanks for that link – I will try to watch it this week (seeing how the passage in question is coming soon). 🙂

  2. If that’s the theme then yoh really want to watch then. It has to do with the serpent cursed to eat dust….

Comments are closed.