Rob's Thoughts

Occasionally the point of a biblical passage can be obscured by controversy surrounding the text.  Sometimes the controversy regards the historical accuracy of the text, other times it may be the theological implications of the text, while still other times people may dispute the alleged authorship of the text.  In the first three chapters of Scripture there is controversy over in all three of these areas – and many more.  While often times controversy can serve to sharpen and hone our understanding of Scripture, other times it serves only to distract us from the central thrust of a passage.  Many will read the account of a serpent convincing the woman to eat a forbidden fruit and ask the question, “How can a snake talk?”, while totally missing the larger theological truth.  Satan is giving the woman an alternative word to God’s word and presenting her with a decision that will determine the course of human nature for millennia: submit to God’s creative word or Satan’s destructive word.  In fact, the motif of God’s word is massive throughout scripture.  Established in chapter one, the motif becomes more and more prevalent the further into the Bible we read.  It then finds its greatest fulfillment in Jesus.  Over the next week I intend to unpack this theme as it relates to the first three chapters in Genesis.  This first blog will deal with the cause of creation and the goal of creation. The following day I will continue to trace the point of Genesis 1-3.  Below you will find a summary of what is to come.

Fundamentally, Genesis chapters one through three follow a pattern of creation, decreation, and re-creation.  In chapter one we see God overcoming chaos and creating the cosmos by the power of his word.  This first chapter culminates with a divine imperative calling humanity to pursue the same program of bringing order to the whole earth.  Humanity is specially equipped for the task as God’s image bearers.  Implicit in the charge to rule and subdue is that mankind must employ God’s image in such a way that His image/glory accomplishes their task.   Chapter two presents rest as the ultimate goal of God’s creative word.  The author displays this rest both in the paradise called Eden and in the harmonious relationships that Adam and the woman share with each other and with God as he dwells with them in the garden.  Chapter three presents sin as an act of decreation resulting in more decreation.  Mankind, instead of pursuing the program of ruling and subduing the earth by the glory and image of God, now will be ruled by the earth.  However, chapter three also shows us that God recreates by the power of His word.  He promises that He will regain the rest that sin lost, and He will do it through humanity.  This time, Adam believes God’s word and salvation is born in him.  In short, the thesis of this blog series is, God created the world by the power of his word, rebellion against that word (sin) was an act of, and resulted in, decreation, but God recreates by the power of his word.

Creation

Original creation finds its definition in the bringing about of order from either chaos or nothing.  When we look at the cosmos and see order we are beholding the handiwork of God wrought by the power of His word.  Order exists in the celestial bodies, in the atomic structure, in the physiology of animals and humans all because of the mighty word.  But the order God created, originally, went far beyond the physical world.  Originally, God’s word also ordered a rest to which we have been trying to return since being vanquished from it.  Originally, God’s word brought forth a humanity that was marked with His very own image.  It is to this subject of creation – the bringing of order – to which we now turn.

Cause of Creation: God’s word

Genesis opens with a display of raw sovereign power.  There was no cosmic battle, no mustering of strength, and no question as to whether or not God’s purposes would stand.  There was only a word.  God willed to create, and His will was accomplished through the might of His word.  With abject authority His word went out and completed His purpose.  Mathew Henry describes earth as the “immense mass of matter out of which all bodies, even the firmament and visible heavens themselves, were afterwards produced by the power of the Eternal Word[1].”   What did God’s word actually do though?  Was anything overcome?  Henry argues that chaos was overcome.  He notes that the author employs the terms “‘Toho’ and ‘Bohu,’ confusion and emptiness…. It was shapeless, it was useless, it was without inhabitants, without ornaments, the shadow or rough draught of things to come and not the image of things…. There was nothing to be seen but confusion and emptiness[2].”  If we accept Henry’s notion of the state of matter after it was created but before it was formed, we are led to understand that integral to the creative process is a bringing of order. The creative process is a development from chaos and confusion to arrangements, categories, and types of things.  These arrangements, categories, and types can now be clearly seen by the human mind, as science testifies.  But there was once a time when science would have been impossible, a time when chaos ruled.  But the Word overcame the chaos.

Goal of Creation: Rest

Of course, the goal of all that God does is ultimately and supremely His own glory[3].  In a day where this theological jewel is lost on many, this cannot go without being said.  However, for the remainder of this treatment this reality will be assumed allowing us to turn to a goal subservient to that greater one: rest.  The author writes in Genesis 2:1-3: “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.  And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done[4].”  Essential in understanding the goal of creation is understanding what God did after creation: he rested.  When a carpenter finishes a project, in order to understand the purpose of what the carpenter built you must see what he does with it.  He will live in a house.  He will store things in a cupboard.  He will sit on a bench, and so on.  Its function serves to reveal the builder’s intent.  In the same way, we observe the goal of God’s creation in the function that it served for God: rest.

Now it is important to note that when many of us think of rest our ideas are vastly different than God’s.  When we think of rest we think of a Sunday afternoon nap or a Saturday morning cup of coffee while reading the paper.  Additionally, we tend to equate the rest of Genesis 2:1-3 with a particular day of the week.  But what is original rest?  What is biblical rest?  Conspicuously absent in the seventh day narrative is any mention of morning and evening.  Many scholars view this omission as an indication that the seventh day rest was not limited to a twenty-four hour period.  Rather, this rest was ongoing and realized in three ways: God dwelling in His creation, harmony in relationship between God and man, and the paradise called Eden.

Rest as God’s dwelling. First we see God dwelling in His creation.   The language used in 2:19 seems to indicate that the Lord was physically with Adam in the garden bringing the animals to Him.  If the Lord existed as some ethereal spirit in an unknown dimension it seems the author would say something like, “the Lord caused the animals to go to Adam,” or “the Lord sent the animals to Adam,” but that’s not what he says.  Rather, it says the Lord brought the animals to Adam.  So it seems that we have good reason to believe that the physical presence of God was dwelling in the garden with Adam in some way.  We also see a more direct indication of God’s dwelling with man in 3:8 when “they heard the sound of God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.”  Clearly, this is the physical presence of God since His walking creates a noise that both Adam and the woman hear.  We must be careful not to go beyond what the Bible teaches here.  There is great mystery entwined throughout the narrative.  We aren’t told exactly what this means, only that God existed in some way inside His created order.

Rest as harmony between God and man. The second component of rest was harmony in the relationship between God and man.  Not only did God abide in some way in His rest, but He also communed harmoniously with mankind in His rest.  They lived in harmony. Their relationship was full and complete.  There was no conflict.  So harmonious was the relationship between God and man that the Bible notes the blessing that God gave to mankind[5].  We see later in Scripture that God’s blessing is the result of keeping the covenant (God’s people living in God’s place, under his rule) with God.  In other words God achieved with Adam what He attempted to achieve with Noah, Israel, David, now what He has achieved with us through Christ, and what He will achieve more fully when Christ returns.

Rest as a land of paradise. The third part of rest depicted in original creation is the land of paradise called Eden.  The land of Eden will turn out to be an integral part of every covenant that God makes from Eden onward.  The most essential thing about this paradise is already noted above – effectively, that God dwelt there in harmony with mankind.  Though it is also instructive that, not only was God in harmony with mankind, Eden/creation was also in harmony with mankind.  Man was lord of Eden.  We arrive at this conclusion if we allow the curse on the ground[6] to mean the ground was, at one point, obedient to man’s will and only became contrary to man after sin.  Originally, it did what man wanted it to do.  Additionally, we must understand that the term Eden is simply the transliteration of the Hebrew word meaning delight or paradise. Helpful on this topic is Bavnik who says, “This Eden (delight, land of delight) is not identical with paradise but a region in which the garden was planted.  [Once planted] this paradise is then called ‘the garden of Eden.[7]’”  So, according to Bavnik, Eden was a region which, when part of it was planted by God, became paradise for God and man to dwell.  So a synthesis of what we understand is that Eden is the paradise where God dwelt in harmony with man.

To recapitulate, the cause of creation is God’s magnificently powerful word.  The goal of creation was rest.  Rest can be summed up through God dwelling in His paradise with humanity.  Check tomorrow for more on Genesis 1-3.

[2] Ibid

[3] Herman Bavnik, Sin and Salvation in Christ vol 2 of Reformed Dogmatics, ed. John Bolt, Translated by John Vriend.  (Grand Rapids: Baker Academics), 2007. 430

[4] Genesis 2:1-2

[5] Genesis 1:28

[6] Genesis 3:17

[7] Bavnik, Sin and Salvation in Christ vol 2, 527