Who is our creator?
The book of Genesis contains perhaps the most iconic stories that every Sunday school student would have been taught. From Adam and Eve, to Cain and Abel, Noah and the Ark to Abraham and Sarah, Sodom and Gomorrah, the list could go on and on. The first half of Genesis is foundational to both Jewish and Christian faith, but has become somewhat of a controversy in modern times. Questions like “Did the Earth really come to be in just 7 days, and exactly how old is the Earth?” and “Does Genesis 1&2 disprove evolution?” have been on the minds of Christians for centuries now. Heated debates have ensued, unified churches have split, and now everyone feels as if they must take a stand against some ideology or another. It has caused Genesis to be a source of stress rather than a beacon of hope.
Allow me to suggest a better alternative.
Rather than reading Genesis with these modern day questions in mind, take another read asking different, better questions that would have been asked by the original audience, the Jews.
Imagine, you’re slaving for a guy named Pharaoh, self proclaimed son of the god Re (the sun god), or you’re out in the wilderness following Moses, trusting he’s telling the truth about God. Imagine you’re an Israelite exiled in Babylon, your mortal enemies, surrounded by people who worship the pantheon of gods that vehemently oppose the God of the Hebrews, Yahweh.
You’re being told that your God has abandoned you. What kind of loving God, after all, would let His people enter into captivity? You’re being told that you didn’t appease your God enough, you weren’t good enough, didn’t you make the correct sacrifice, you didn’t work hard enough.
This is why God revealed Genesis. Not as a truth claim to debunk modern science, but for a much higher purpose - to uncover the character of all-powerful, good creator, loving, Yahweh, Elohim Supreme; to give God Himself to His people.
God didn’t abandon His people. Rather, He was on a rescue mission. God never stopped caring about His people, rather, they abandoned Him. God was never in a divine, cosmic struggle with other deities, He was in complete control all along. Humanity was never a nuisance to God, rather we were the subject of creation, beloved companions to God that He Himself created and breathed life into, made in the image of Himself.
Genesis tells us that God created us and everything else wholly good, and despite our disloyalty and lack of faith, He still keeps His promises and covenants. He still chases us down. He still wants us to be in a perfect garden with Him.
So, in the throughs of life, you may feel abandoned. You may feel lonely, like you can’t appease God, like you aren’t working hard enough to earn His eye. You may feel worthless, stressed to the max, at your breaking point. This is what the enemies of God want, to keep you in a self-hatred and God-blaming cycle. Just as Psalm 1:2 reads, “ Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night.”, so must we remind ourselves that the God of Genesis, and the rest of the Bible, is who He says He is.
He is good, He is loving, and no matter where you are in life, He is there with you. In a world that wants desperately to tell us who God is, let’s allow God to tell us through His Word, and ultimately through the wonderful actions of Jesus Christ. He is good, He is just, and He will deliver on every single one of His promises.
Keep up the good work, in Christ.
-Seth
