So we're in Genesis 1 and 2 in the beginning, and our discussion today is going to jump off from our textbook conversation, our textbook, The Epic of Eden by Dr. Sandra Richter, in chapter 4 is where she deals with Genesis 1 and 2, the chapter that she entitles God's original intent. And we're going to use that as a jumping off point, but we're going to take some conversations in slightly different directions as well. So when we think about Genesis 1 and 2, if I asked you or asked students or a congregation, what is Genesis 1 and 2 about?
You're going to say creation. And so I want to get students to get a congregation thinking about what questions do you have about creation? Because we bring our own thoughts, our own ideas to these chapters.
So when I ask students, what questions do you have about creation? Most often what I get is, well, when did creation happen? How long did creation take? Was it seven 24-hour days? What about what science says about how creation happened?
Is that what the Bible says about how creation happened? What about dinosaurs? Those are the kinds of questions that I tend to get about creation.
So I say, okay, you've got those questions that you want answered. So then I hand them a text. How well does this text answer your questions? But here's the thing.
I don't hand them Genesis 1 and 2. Instead, I give them an ancient Near Eastern text like the Enuma Elish. Enuma Elish means when on high, kind of like in the beginning, when on high. Our ancient texts are often named by their first words.
So when on high is the ancient Near Eastern Babylonian text that deals with these themes of creation. And very quickly, I say, how well does this text answer your question? Students get frustrated.
They say, well, this text doesn't seem to be answering my questions at all. Exactly. And the reason I do this exercise is because when we understand the world to which God was speaking when he inspired Genesis 1 and 2, which is the world of the Enuma Elish, then I can begin to let the Bible answer the question.
questions that it actually intends to answer. Dr. Bill Arnold says this is allowing the Bible to set its own agenda, not asking the Bible to answer questions it was never meant to ask. So let me give you a very quick recap of the Enuma Eilish, just some main points.
The Enuma Eilish is primarily a story of the origin of the gods. The first seven or eight tablets of the Enuma Eilish are only focused on the origin of gods. These gods beget these gods, beget these gods, how we get down to kind of our supreme god Marduk that we want to kind of focus in on for the Numa'ela story.
But it's primarily an origin of the gods story in its major emphasis. And when we see how this creation story unfolds, it unfolds out of chaos and violence. So for example, we have primordial waters. the same primordial waters that we see in Genesis chapter 1 verse 2. But what we see is that these waters are actually gods themselves and then other gods spring from these gods as opposed to in Genesis chapter 1 verse 2. The spirit of God hovers over these waters but they aren't the stuff from which creation happens.
So we get this creation out of violence, out of chaos. An example of this is when The gods created the heavens and the earth. Sounds familiar from Genesis 1 and 2. The dome of the heavens and the earth. One god kills another god, slices the body in half, and half of that body becomes the heavens and the other half becomes the earth. Violence.
That's the world, the world, the divine world that exists here. Humankind then doesn't get created until well into the story. And they aren't created even as an afterthought. They're kind of... created as an unintended consequence of this violence.
So one god kills another god and the blood splatter of the dead god creates humanity. Wherever a drop of blood falls on the earth, a human being springs up. And so now the gods kind of have to figure out what to do with all these human beings. And so they make them servants to do some work that the gods don't want to have to do. So humankind as subservient to the gods.
And finally, a major thing that we see here is that the gods have all human traits. only bigger and better or worse. So if the gods are, if humanity can be evil, the gods can be evil only worse. If humanity can seek vengeance, if humanity can betray one another, well, the gods do the same kinds of things, only bigger and worse.
If humanity can love, if humanity can do good deeds, if humanity can have compassion, the gods can do that only bigger. They can love only more passionately. They can do good deeds, only greater deeds that impact, you know, have a greater impact.
all of those kinds of things. So what we see when we think about, okay, I give you this story, what kinds of questions does your text seem to be answering? And the question is, who?
The ancient world wants to know who are the gods. Dr. Richter points this out. Who is God? In the ancient mindset, who are the gods?
They're not asking. how creation happened, when creation happened, where creation happened. Maybe they touch on that a little bit, but those aren't the burning questions.
When we come to creation, we seem to be asking how and when and where, but the ancient world wants to know who. So when we think about Genesis 1 and 2, instead of thinking of them as creation accounts or creation stories, I want us to think about them as the creator. stories because that's primarily what they're trying to teach us. Who is God? And we see in the ancient world that the ancients are creating the gods in their image.
Humanity creating the gods in our image. Whatever we can do, we project into the divine. Obviously, exactly the opposite of what we understand from our creator who creates humanity in his image. So very quickly, let's look at how the ancient world looks at things and just contrast it very quickly with how we understand the Bible. So God is transcendent, whereas in the ancient world, we explain the origins of the gods.
In the Bible, God always existed. In the beginning, God created. Not God was created, but God created.
He is the eternally preexistent God. In the ancient world... The deities are part of the natural order. In the Bible, God is other than natural forces. He is not the God of the sea or the God of the storm or the God of one part of nature.
He is over all nature. He is not just made up of the same stuff that nature is made up of, which is extremely important. So we go to a place like 1 Kings chapter 20 and the Arameans are wanting to attack the Israelites in the valleys because they say, well, their God is the God of the hills. That's...
their perception of the Israelite God. But of course, God can defeat his enemies anywhere because he is above and over and apart from other than the natural order. He is not part, just a part of the natural order. In the ancient world, the gods are limited.
They can trick each other. They can keep secrets from each other. Whereas our God is all-knowing. He is omniscient. He is omnipresent.
He is all- All present. He is everywhere. He is all powerful.
He is omnipotent, right? Whereas the ancient gods are limited. They are not all powerful. There are things that they can't control because they are limited as part of the natural order.
God is completely unlimited. He's all knowing, all powerful, omnipresent. God, likewise, God is the sovereign creator, sovereign.
He is above and over all. Everything falls under his control. In the ancient world, creation happened by taking things that already existed and just repurposing them.
So out of the primordial waters, things were created. Heaven and earth were created out of the two parts of the dead body, those kinds of things. Whereas God creates ex nihilo. He creates out of nothing.
So those primordial waters, though they're present in Genesis 1 verse 2, kind of reflect of this, how the ancient world thought of things, it is not the stuff out of which creation happens. Rather, creation happens by divine decree, fiat, by divine fiat is the Latin word that means divine decree. In the ancient world, creation happens out of conflict, out of violence, the stuff that that is there. And the the calm, peaceful nature of creation by the spoken word is so significant in biblical text. Of course, there's a very low view of humanity over here versus a very high view of humanity.
Humanity as subservient, as not even an afterthought, but just an unintended consequences versus humanity as the very pinnacle of creation. All of Genesis 1 is building toward the creation of humanity and is only after. the sixth day that God looks at everything and it is very good. Until then, it has been good, good, good.
And now once humanity is created, all of creation now is very good, a very high view of humanity, humanity created in the image of God himself. And then there is the orderliness. Richter emphasizes this so well. In sum, Genesis 1 tells us of God's first perfect plan, a flawlessly ordered world infused with balance. and productivity.
This idea takes me to when we think about how do we experience God? What kind of world does this God, the transcendent God, the sovereign creator God, the God of Genesis 1 and 2, this God creates a very specific kind of world for humanity. I take these three Ps of creation from Walter Brueggemann, kind of done a little bit extra with them. But first thing that we see is that God creates a very productive world, a purposeful world for humanity. Genesis 1 and 2 is not just a great vacation spot for humanity to do nothing.
No, we have work and we have purpose. We are to subdue the world and reign over it. We are to work until...
the soil. We have productive work to do, as well as the first three positive commands that God gives to humanity. Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth.
If we weren't speaking in such biblical language, I might say the first commands God gives to humanity are have sex and make babies, right? I mean, this is a wonderful part of God's creation. And in that specific sense, God allows us to experience in some small way his divine nature of creator.
Humanity is created to create, to be fruitful, and to multiply, and to fill the earth. That is part of God's beautiful plan for us. We are like him.
We are in his image. Now, we aren't creator as he is creator. We don't create by divine fiat out of nothing, right? But God allows us a taste. an experience of his, even his nature as creator.
So he creates a purposeful, productive world for us. He also creates a world that is very permissive. Everything in God's creation, Genesis 131 is very good.
He looks at all that he created and it is very good. And that is all that we know. All that we know and experience is the goodness of God. And therefore we have permission to experience all of that divine goodness.
I talk about the extravagance of all in chapter one, verse 29, in chapter two, verse 16. He talks about God. God says you can eat of all the, all the trees of the garden, every, all, each, every, any, all of those words in Hebrew are the same word, kol. So you can eat of any, all, every, each one of these, of these trees, all that God created for us.
was available for humanity to explore and experience in this extravagance of all. And so this permissiveness, though that feels a bit weird for us in our fallen context, in this original intent, this was the very picture of freedom, right? We were free to do and experience and taste and see and know all that God had created for us. Now, you're checking me already in your mind, I know, because yes, there was then the third P of creation, which was the prohibitive nature of God's creation.
But I want to make that really small in comparison, because there is one and only one prohibition. God created one tree and said, you may not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For when you do, you for if you do, when you do eat of it, you will surely you will certainly die. Um. regardless of what you may think, you will die, is what God tells them in this singular prohibition.
But let's not put this above this, right? It's only in light of the fact that we have this vast freedom, this full permissiveness of all, each, any, every. that we are prohibited from the one. And it is in this prohibition that God then ensures our true and complete freedom because we have the freedom to say yes to all of this, but we do have at least one option to say no, right?
To participate in what God has said no to. And of course, that is what humanity chooses. So the God of Genesis 1 and 2 creates this world for humanity to experience. in these creator stories, we also experience God as deeply relational. And Richter hits on this, the book that you read by Eugene Peterson.
There we go. He talks so much about the relational nature of God. And God in Genesis 1 and 2 engages with humanity in time and space.
He is not part of time and space, but God penetrates time and space to engage with us for the purpose of life. relationship. And this is nowhere more beautifully shown than the idea that we are created. Humanity is created uniquely among creation in the image of God. So it's not that we have the breath of life.
Humanity has the breath of life, but we see in Genesis chapter seven that the animals also have the breath of life. Humanity is created with living souls or as living beings, but we see that that Animals are also created as living beings, living creatures often is how it gets translated, but it's the same word. We each are created as living beings, but nowhere else do we have any entity created in the image of God. God created humanity in his image. Male and female, he created them in the image of God.
He created them. all of humanity. So when we think about bearing the image of God, we want to make sure we understand this is only people, that it is unique to humanity, and it is all people. God created them, male and female, in the image.
So all of humanity that existed and that exists are created in the image of God. So it's a very important, significant factor that we see about the image of God. We also see that The fact that we are created in the image of God is what gives humanity sanctity, we are sacred, and dignity, and it is given to all human life.
So this idea of the image of God is actually not used in scripture abundantly, though I think there are so many points of scripture that point to this idea, but the actual phrase image of God. occurs, for example, in Genesis 9, 6, in James 3, 7 through 11, to emphasize this idea that it is because we are created in the image of God, humans, that we are sacred and we give all human life dignity. So in Genesis 9, 6, we don't commit murder.
We don't take human life because we are created in the image of God. In James, we don't speak curses against humanity because All human life is sacred and has dignity. And that's such a key to understanding how then going forward, all humanity is to relate to one another. Why we love our neighbor as ourselves, I would say, is rooted here.
Sexuality in Genesis 1 and 2, how do we think about that as it relates to us bearing the image of God? It's first important. to understand that God himself is asexual.
He is not sexual. This is in stark contrast to the gods of the ancient world for whom sexuality is a huge part of their life because it's a part of human life, right? So of course it's a part of divine life, only bigger, only more significant.
But God himself, there is no hint in the biblical text that God creates out of sexuality or that God himself experience. sexuality as the transcendent God. And so we have to understand that sexuality is created by God for humanity to experience.
And it is part of his very good creation. We want to affirm that in Genesis 1 and 2. But we also see that our sexuality is meant for a monogamous, exclusive union that we understand as marriage, that the two become one flesh, that There is that exclusivity, that monogamy, this joining, a true union that happens in the imagery of two becoming one. You don't then tear it apart, right?
And it is because of this that a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife in the picture of marriage. But I want to emphasize something, that sexuality in all of this goodness is itself. related to this idea that God created humanity, male and female, equal. mutual, relational, co-rulers.
So he said the commands to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, to subdue, to take care of his earth is given to all humanity. And so it is in that understanding of how God created. humanity as male and female to join together for the two to become one is extremely significant.
It's not until Genesis 3 that we get any kind of hierarchy in humanity, just as we don't see hierarchy with God. I'm not going to take time to go through Genesis 2, 18, but God saw that it was not good for man to be alone, and so he created a helper. This idea of helper, it's a great word study word.
You can pick out a few of these. Who is the helper in all of these psalms is a place where the idea of helper comes up most significantly. Who is that helper?
It is God. And so this is not a subservient experience, a subservient word. I would also say it is, it's not a hierarchical ruling kind of word.
Rather, it is the one who, it's the picture of one coming alongside and giving aid, giving help. Just as God does this, God created humanity to do this as to become one for one another. But in this sense, as we think about what our sexuality does look like in Genesis 1 and 2, it's important for us to realize that the sexual relationship that exists, that does exist, and it's part of the very goodness between husband and wife, that is not the answer for human aloneness.
part of creation that is not good for humanity to be alone. God didn't say, oh, humanity is alone. I'm going to create for him a sex partner.
No. He says, I'm going to create for him a helper, an ezer, k'negdo, his equal and his opposite, that equal mutual relationship. Human aloneness, though it was first answered in this monogamous exclusive union that is marriage, That was not going to be the only answer for human aloneness. All of these relationships, generational relationships, familial relationships, friend relationships, all relationships, were going to be part of this ongoing answer for human aloneness, this idea of community, what the church is meant to give to us. And so we don't, when we think about the end of Genesis 2, where it says, and the two of them, the man and his wife were naked and they were unashamed.
I want to propose that that is not a statement related to our sexuality. Rather, that is a statement related to community, related to the answer for human aloneness. All of these relationships would have been naked and unashamed if we had gotten to see them play out.
But we did it, right? Because of Genesis 3, we don't get to see anything beyond simply just the marriage relationship existing as an answer for human aloneness. But let us not make sexuality more than it was meant to be in Genesis 1 and 2. We see sexuality as a jumping off point where we can see pretty clearly.
clearly, when we think about what we know about the image of God biblically, moving to the New Testament, we see that the image of God is marred. It is broken at the fall. Now, it is not eliminated.
Humanity still bears the image of God, as we see in Genesis chapter 9, verse 6. That's why we don't take human life. But it is marred. It is twisted.
It is stained. It is broken, whatever image you want to use. And so when we go to New Testament passages related to the image of God, I'm not going to go through all of these, but let me read 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 4, where it says, The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ.
Hear this. Who is. the image of God. Christ is the image of God.
Christ lived the human life as a 100% human that we were created to live in relationship with God, bearing the full image of his character, expressing into the world what God is. As I. Howard Marshall states, we learn from Jesus. what it is to be human.
And that is because he bears the image of God. So what does that mean for humanity? Well, if I jump back to second Corinthians 3, 18, it says there, and we all, those who have experienced God, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory. Remember the gospel of that displays the glory of Christ. So we contemplate the Lord's glory.
We all are being transformed into his image with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the spirit. And so as Christ is the image of God, we become the image of God. So though the image is marred and broken at the fall, we are in Christ through the spirit created into the image of God. Um. It was John Wesley that used this idea of the image of God being stamped on my heart.
Think of the stamp as in wet clay. And you have a stamp impression made into that clay where that clay is actually formed to look like this, being actually created into the image of God. And this, Wesley says, the image of God being stamped on my heart as I'm being created into God's image, that is holiness.
That is the definition of what it means for us to be made holy, what holiness of life and heart means. I love, holiness has often been talked about in either, you know, in kind of linear terms. So holiness is something that we journey toward. Holiness is kind of, you know, something that I'm climbing toward, I'm seeking to attain, I'm striving for. For me, those images, I don't think, give us the best picture of holiness.
So go with me on this image. Here's an image of, you know, kind of cells, orbs, amoebas, something floating in this substance. And think of this idea that what we're floating in is God. And he's fully expansive, eternally expansive in all areas.
And these are us as we have been. pulled into who God is, as we begin, as we experience who God is, I am made like him, but I am not fully like him. And so instead of thinking of holiness as something that I climb for, I strive for, holiness is about me just allowing the Holy Spirit to get, pull more of himself into me and expand me more into who he is.
And I love the idea of these blobs, these orbs, because then I can be pulled in this direction of who God is. And I can be brought more into the image of who God is in one way. And none of us are going to be in the exact same shape of that.
God might be... moving you into his image in this way. And he's moving me into his image in this way, into his image of love and his image of justice, his image of mercy, his image of compassion, his image of, of peace and goodness, all of these things that he's working in me.
And I'm, I'm becoming more and more expanded into, um, the image of who God is though. I'll never be fully who God is, right? I'll never take up.
all of this space. But as we experience one another, I experience how he is shaping and forming you into that same image, right? We're all contained in Christ in who he is, but he's moving us in different ways.
And so even though, you know, maybe I think of myself, you know, maybe I'm a bigger blob than someone else is because I've been experiencing God longer, more fully. That doesn't mean there isn't something that I can't learn about who God is from anyone on this journey of being in Christ together. We can learn from each other because God is shaping and forming us in who he is in so many different ways.
This image is so freeing for me because it's not about something that I'm attaining. It's not me getting down the road farther on the race or me climbing a ladder. It's much more organic and a much... for me, more freeing picture of just allowing myself to just be in Christ and allowing the spirit to shape and form me, to grow me by infusing more of who he is into who he is creating me to be.
So when we look at the creator stories of Genesis 1 and 2, we see the sanctifying of all of these things. I didn't touch much on Sabbath. Richter does a lot with that. I hit some more on marriage. But this idea of purposefulness, many will say that Genesis 1 and 2 sanctifies work.
Yes. And yet in a Western mindset in particular, that often means, you know, a sanctifying of my career and my work ethic. And I think it's much broader than that.
And if I just reduce it to that, I think I can get some really distorted views of how God potentially thinks about work. But we do have this definite sanctifying this of purposefulness, that God created humanity for a purpose, for purposefulness, for productivity in his particular plans. This Genesis 1 and 2, the creator stories are the beginnings of these conversations.
And we never want, we can't use Genesis 1 and 2 as the be all and end all. of these conversations because Genesis 1 and 2 are so quickly truncated, cut short by Genesis 3. And so we need to then use these. This is the starting point for these conversations, but we need to then look at all the whole trajectory of scripture to really understand all of these conversations. I want to end.
I know I've gone a little further than I meant to, but I'm going to end by talking, jumping on Richter's. definition of God's original intent. God's intent is for God's people. That's in Genesis 1 and 2, that's all humanity. All of us who are image bearers.
I think God's people must going forward be continued to be defined as those of us who are in relationship with God, bearing the image of his character. That's who God's people are. If you aren't that, if you don't bear his image, you aren't his people, right? If you don't look like this God, you aren't his people. So keep that in mind, but it's God's people dwelling in God's place, which in Genesis 1 and 2 is this beautiful garden, this completely free environment where all is good.
And we are free to say yes to all that goodness with full access to his presence in this deep, this union with God. where we experience all of who he is fully, freely. I think maybe one thing is missing.
If I could add something to Richter's definition of God's original intent, I think there is a purpose that is missing. We are God's people dwelling in God's place with full access to his presence for the purpose of bearing his image in, to, and for the world. And yes, maybe that's kind of up here in this idea of God's people, but I want to make that explicit.
Because we want to keep walking out this original intent through the rest of our discussions related to Richter and related to Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. We are, God's intent is for God's people to dwell in God's place with full access to his presence for the purpose of bearing his image in, to, and for the whole world.