The Bible for Grown-Ups
Week 2 - “The Beginning”
Genesis 1
Jesus’ death and resurrection made his teaching suddenly more interesting. His teaching made the Jewish scriptures more interesting, which is how we ended up at the beginning in a book about Jesus…
“Genesis” - Greek word for ‘origin’
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. —Genesis 1:1
As it turns out, Genesis is not the only ancient creation account.
At first glance, Genesis seems to
“Everything that has a beginning has a cause. The debate today is whether it was a personal, purposeful, and intentional cause.” —Andy Stanley
Moses (commonly understood to have written the first five books of the Bible) wasn’t trying to explain how God created the heavens and the earth, but
Contrasts:
1.
- “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1)
- Other accounts all involved battles between multiple gods that led to creation as a byproduct of conflict
2.Purpose of humanity - to partner with God and live with God, not to serve the gods so they can be lazy and settle into a life of ease
- “Let us make mankind in our image 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.” (Genesis 1:26)
- Marduk, “I will establish a savage, man shall be his name. Savage man I will create. He shall be charged with the service of the gods. That they might be at ease.”
3.Value of humanity - intrinsic dignity, not an afterthought meant to lighten the load of the gods with no rights, no hope, and no intrinsic value
- “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27)
- *this is a bananas worldview in its time, but we overlook it because of our time - extraordinary value was given to men and women in the beginning
(Then) Babylonians, Egyptians, Canaanites - You were born a slave to serve the gods. There is no redeemer or afterlife.
(Now) The New Atheists - You were born a slave to your DNA with no free will, redeemer, or afterlife
Genesis - You were born on purpose with free will, value and dignity ascribed to you by God himself. We were given freedom to choose and a God who honors our choices, and ultimately, a God who would work on our behalf to reverse the consequences of mankind’s decision to choose against Him.
A radical
Answers why we’re here and why it matters