Spiritual messages in first chapters of Genesis

[laptoppop]

OK, this is my attempt at an edifying topic that can bless / teach us all -- and one that we can all agree on (yah, I know that's rare around here).

The Scriptures are a rich mine of spiritual meaning -- with depth upon depth of wonderful things. So:

What meanings OTHER than scientific or historical do you see in the first chapters of Genesis?

Please please please leave the historical or not discussions to other threads. Thanks!

 

[laptoppop]

I'll start with an easy one -

The 6 days of work / 1 day of rest gives a great example of the Sabbath. Keeping the Sabbath was a key element of obedience for the children of Israel -- including the sabbath year for the land.

I believe we have freedom in Christ, and I do not keep the sabbath -- but I've always thought it would be a real blessing to dedicate one day out of 7 to rest and fellowship with the Lord and my family.

 

[Melethiel]

That God is the Creator of all things.

 

[The Lady Kate]

That God is the Creator of all things.

And that all the other "Gods" that neighboring civilizations worshipped were not.

 

[shernren]

I'll start with an easy one -

The 6 days of work / 1 day of rest gives a great example of the Sabbath. Keeping the Sabbath was a key element of obedience for the children of Israel -- including the sabbath year for the land.

I believe we have freedom in Christ, and I do not keep the sabbath -- but I've always thought it would be a real blessing to dedicate one day out of 7 to rest and fellowship with the Lord and my family.

Now, leaving the whole issue of the relationship of freedom in Christ to creation mandates aside ...

More fundamentally, the idea of the Sabbath is undergirded by the ideas of trust and obedience to God. I've always thought of it as a "Look, Mom, no hands!" moment for the Jews where despite having their hands off for a day, everything would work just fine. If one looks at the seven-year pattern described in the Torah (six years of work and one year of resting the land) God seems to make a big deal out of trusting His providence. God assures them that in the sixth year the land will produce enough not only for that year and the year after but even for another year after that.

 

[laptoppop]

And that all the other "Gods" that neighboring civilizations worshipped were not.

How about more details?

 

[laptoppop]

Now, leaving the whole issue of the relationship of freedom in Christ to creation mandates aside ...

More fundamentally, the idea of the Sabbath is undergirded by the ideas of trust and obedience to God. I've always thought of it as a "Look, Mom, no hands!" moment for the Jews where despite having their hands off for a day, everything would work just fine. If one looks at the seven-year pattern described in the Torah (six years of work and one year of resting the land) God seems to make a big deal out of trusting His providence. God assures them that in the sixth year the land will produce enough not only for that year and the year after but even for another year after that.

Amen! Man, it can be hard to let go and trust -- to move beyond and outside my realm of control.

 

[Citanul]

How about more details?

I think what Lady Kate is alluding to is the fact that other civilisations worshipped the sun and the moon. By stating that God created those two, it's setting God above the gods of other people.

 

[shernren]

How about more details?

It may be hard for us to identify with that point because we aren't surrounded with pagans busy sacrificing their firstborns to the Sun or something such. But remember that animism was an important element in people's spiritual practices during the time Genesis was written. People believed that the Sun, the Moon, the stars, etc. were gods or had spiritual power and were therefore to be worshiped.

And then you have a creation story coming along and saying "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth", where God as a spiritual power is above all these things and is their Creator. Overnight all those things were demoted from being demigods to being mere things, as "created" as you and I are, with specific duties assigned by God. This "demotion" is known as the "desacralization" of nature, and it forms one of the keystones of Christianity and of scientific thought.

 

[jereth]

Deuteronomy 4:15ff
15"Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, 16beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, 18the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. 19And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.

Genesis 1 shows that all the various alternative gods were all created by the one true God.

sun, moon, stars - day 4
birds/fish - day 5
beasts of earth, creeping things - day 6
man and woman - day 6

It is worthy of note that Genesis 1 goes out of its way not to name the sun and moon (instead calls them "greater light" and "lesser light") to further depersonalise / de-deify them.

Also, rather than depicting the sun and moon as the source of day and night, day and night are depicted as originating solely from the command of God (day 1). 3 whole days and nights pass before the sun and moon are even made, further diminishing the status of the sun and moon.

 

[japhy]

What meanings OTHER than scientific or historical do you see in the first chapters of Genesis?

I find that the third day in Genesis is a foreshadowing of the Resurrection of Jesus.

Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth vegetation: every kind of plant that bears seed and every kind of fruit tree on earth that bears fruit with its seed in it." And so it happened: the earth brought forth every kind of plant that bears seed and every kind of fruit tree on earth that bears fruit with its seed in it. God saw how good it was. (Genesis 1:11-12)
​

In the context of John 12:24 ("Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.") I think it prophesies the abundance of life that comes from the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

 

[Assyrian]

I believe we have freedom in Christ, and I do not keep the sabbath -- but I've always thought it would be a real blessing to dedicate one day out of 7 to rest and fellowship with the Lord and my family.

Now, leaving the whole issue of the relationship of freedom in Christ to creation mandates aside ...

More fundamentally, the idea of the Sabbath is undergirded by the ideas of trust and obedience to God. I've always thought of it as a "Look, Mom, no hands!" moment for the Jews where despite having their hands off for a day, everything would work just fine. If one looks at the seven-year pattern described in the Torah (six years of work and one year of resting the land) God seems to make a big deal out of trusting His providence. God assures them that in the sixth year the land will produce enough not only for that year and the year after but even for another year after that.

Our freedom in Christ come because Jesus lead us into the fulfilment of the Sabbath, as the writer of Hebrew says we enter God's rest by resting from our own works. For people who naturally want to depend on their own righteousness, this really is 'Look, Dad, no hands', or even 'Catch me, whee!' that every parent knows and dreads

 

[kenrapoza]

OK, this is my attempt at an edifying topic that can bless / teach us all -- and one that we can all agree on (yah, I know that's rare around here).

The Scriptures are a rich mine of spiritual meaning -- with depth upon depth of wonderful things. So:

What meanings OTHER than scientific or historical do you see in the first chapters of Genesis?

Please please please leave the historical or not discussions to other threads. Thanks!

I see the act of Creation as a redemptive act:

The world was formless and void (i.e., a barren wasteland) and God restored it to a state beauty and "goodness."

Darkness (evil) was upon the face of the deep (i.e., abyss) and God shined His Light (first act of Creation) to dispell the darkness and begin His work.

God then takes the time to expand and improve His creation, culminating in the creation of mankind himself, made in God's own image. (We know God loves us because we are the only creatures in Creation that resemble our "Dad" ). To me, this account describes the character of God, that He is good and redemptive and is shown caring for His creation and protecting it from chaos and darkness.