I really can’t think of a more controversial place to start
than Genesis 1. Put simply, there is
much battling over the question of how we got here. And there are so many sides to take – I know,
I’ve been on a couple of them. I don’t
think having different ideas about how we got here is necessarily a bad thing. If anything, I think my experiences wrestling
with this question allows me to appreciate that wrestling with questions is just
part of the Christian walk.
There is no end of different views about Genesis 1 – even among
Christians. I think, however, that every
Christian can agree that God created everything. And we can all agree that we really don’t know
how He did it (although we may like to speculate). About the only disagreement among Christians,
in my opinion, comes from how we view the text of Genesis 1. Is it largely poetic/allegorical or largely
narrative/literal.
Before I discuss my thoughts about how to view the text, let
me say a couple things about the importance of how we view the text. First, I really don’t think it matters in the
grand scheme of things. For the
Christian walk, I think it is enough to say “God exists eternally and created
everything” and move from there. Second,
the implications of how we view the text boil down to HOW God did His
creating. Was it over in 6 24-hour days
or billions of years? I think getting caught
up in answering this question is a big distraction.
This doesn’t mean we should never consider or investigate it
but I don’t think we should be consumed with it. Considering how long the Bible is, there
really isn’t a lot of detail about creation.
And there are a lot of details to wonder about! The Bible briefly establishes that God is the
creator of everything and then spends the rest of the time telling of God’s relationship
with Mankind.
If the Bible’s primary concern is our relationship with God,
we might do well to thankfully acknowledge Him as our creator, and, like the text,
move on to discovering and building our relationship with Him. And, if this result is the same whether or
not the text is poetry or narrative, then determining the exact genre of
Genesis 1 seems like a secondary issue in the Christian walk.
However, I admit that I have a preference toward a poetic
interpretation for a couple reasons. The
most significant reason is how a poetic interpretation shows God’s beauty,
power, and character. For a moment, let’s
consider Genesis 1:2 and the days of creation as counterpoints to each
other. In 1:2 it says “the earth was
formless and empty”. And, if we look at
the first 6 days of creation, God spends three days forming the earth and bringing
order out of chaos. He separates day and
night on the first day, separates sky and sea on the second day, and separates
land and sea on the third day. In these three
days, we see a powerful God who is carefully forming a safe place for his
creation to reside. He sweeps away the
chaos of formlessness and replaces it with order, boundaries, and beauty. Now that the Earth is no longer formless, God
fills it with life. Where he ordered
night and day on the first day, he adds lights.
Where he ordered the sky and seas he adds birds and sea creatures. And, where he created the land, God fills it
with plants and animals. This is a
counterpoint to the “void” or lifeless earth found in verse 1:2. So God prepared a place for life and then
filled that place with life. This, to my
mind, shows a picture of a powerful god who operates in reasonable, orderly
ways. A provider who does what is best
for his creation. An artist who is
pleased with his work and calls it good.
This brings us up to around verse 26 – the creation of
mankind. Let’s discuss this next time.
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