Genesis 1 (Message)

Presentation Notes

I’ve been thinking about creation a lot recently. I probably would have spoken about this topic either way, but it’s interesting that Dan’s sermon last week was also about the early part of Genesis.

Symbolic. Agree with what Dan said.

Also in the beginning of Genesis, but going backwards.

Been brewing for a while. I’ve been listening to a few different sources, reading it. Thinking about it. Thinking about biblical cosmology, biblical symbolism, interpretation, textual criticism, and I’ve come to the conclusion that I know a lot about the Bible, and there’s way more that I don’t know.

There is more than one way to read Genesis 1 symbolically.

One is to just read it with the symbolism of the various elements in mind.

This means you’re reading it as history, but you’re also watching for metaphorical or spiritual truths that might be contained in the text.

I think Gen 1 in particular is so full of meaning that it can bear being rung out over and over. There are multiple layers of meaning, and there are linguistic patterns and literary devices that bring emphasis to certain things, and reveal a beauty in the text that we miss when we read it just as a straight narrative.

The beginning of the Bible has to do with creation of course. You could also say that it is bringing order to chaos or in other words, solving a problem. I hope to show how the pattern laid out here is not just a neat story, but can be applied practically.

It’s also the beginning of the world, so you would expect it to contain foundational elements and patterns observed throughout creation, as well as serving as a basis for interpreting symbolism and patterns used throughout scripture.

Again, none of this undermines a literal interpretation, but part of what I’m coming to realize is that being over-focused on the literal interpretation can get in the way of the more traditional ways of reading scripture.

That probably deserves unpacking, because I don’t want anyone to misunderstand what I am saying.

Who were the original readers and how did they read it. That’s probably how it was intended to be read. Textual criticism 101

We come at it from a combative standpoint, because we feel like we have to. It is only because there is an alternative viewpoint that we view the literalness of Genesis as critical to our understanding of the text.

Because we are reading the beginning of Genesis as a response to something else that is (naturalistic worldviews/evolution) we hyper-focus on the literal reading of the text, when that is not what we are supposed to do. All I’m just saying is, don’t read it as if it were merely a historical account.

Why? Because it loses spiritual meaning when we do so. Now, don’t get me wrong. We are not without a symbolic or spiritual interpretation of Genesis. By that I mean that we are already reading it symbolically. This is nothing new, but we can hesitate to delve deep into symbolic readings because we think that it implies that the facts must have been manipulated. Historical events shouldn’t have a lot of meaning because they are happenstance. A historical account is just a record, not a fictional story that can have things like foreshadowing and other literary devices, nor is it necessarily an endorsement of the actions recorded.

However, Genesis 1 different. Not because it’s, “just poetry” or “mythologized”, but for the mere fact that God is the only actor. There’s no human interference. Everything that happens is exactly as God intends. That alone should tell us that it’s safe to not just take it at face value, to look a little deeper.

So let’s look at the first 2 verses first:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Void. Formless. What kind of idea does this evoke? What synonyms can you come up with? …

Empty, disordered – potential.

Darkness was on the face of the deep. How about Darkness? What is that symbolically related to? …

Ignorance, evil, blindness,

Deep – Deep water … This represents chaos, death, destruction in the ancient world, including the Bible. Examples:

Genesis 1
Noah’s flood

Job

Paslm 69

“Save me, O God!

For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, Where there is no standing; I have come into deep waters, Where the floods overflow me.”

Jesus calming the storm after he was sleeping in the boat. … Power over the tempest.

Walking on the turbulent sea … He is able to walk above the sea, with its power of death and destruction.

In Revelation 21:1, the New Heavens and new earth. John sees no sea.

So we have a problem - The earth is without form, void, and dark.

Light

What does light do?- exposes what is there. Allows sight, creates warmth and permits life (which hasn’t arrived yet) and is necessary for it. It “enlightens”, brings us out of ignorance.

So it’s no longer Dark.

Day 2 he separates the water, creating the firmament.

Then day 3 he brings forth the dry land - no longer formless.

But we still have a problem - no life! Ah, but this is also taken care of on day 3. The plants spring forth from the ground on the same day that it was separated from the seas.

This is the beginning of God populating the things that he created.

*Interesting point, the only thing that it mentions Him actually bringing into existence was light until the plants on day 3. Besides that, the land and sea was already there at verse 1, He just hadn’t divided it up yet.

Plants - What do they represent? Life (the life of the plants, and also the life of those that need to eat them). Fruitfulness. A garden is a garden because there are plants there. They represent abundance. Spices come from plants, dyes, fibers for ropes and clothes (though not yet).

I’m not going to go any further just yet, because I want to go back and start applying these symbols to something.

But first, we’re going to look at some patterns and literary structures found quite a lot in Genesis and also throughout the Bible.

Within each day or two there is another chaism.

There is also a duality of the greater and lesser each day. Quiz

1 - Light/dark, Day/night

2 - Waters below/above

3 - land/plants

4 - Sun/moon&stars

5 - fish/birds

6 - animals/plants

We also have a series of 3 that repeats.

The next structure, some of you are probably familiar with this, it’s called chiastic structure.

What is a Chiasm?

What is a chiasm / chiastic structure in the Bible? | GotQuestions.org

“A chiasm (also called a chiasmus) is a literary device in which a sequence of ideas is presented and then repeated in reverse order. The result is a “mirror” effect as the ideas are “reflected” back in a passage. Each idea is connected to its “reflection” by a repeated word, often in a related form. The term chiasm comes from the Greek letter chi, which looks like our letter X. Chiastic pattern is also called “ring structure.”

…

Many passages in the Bible exhibit chiastic structure. For example, Jesus’ words in Mark 2:27 are in the form of a chiasm: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” Using the ABBA form, the words Sabbath and man are repeated in reverse order. Matthew 23:12 is another example: “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted

….

Often, a chiasm includes another idea in the middle of the repetition. By virtue of its position, the insertion is emphasized.”

[First slide]

[Gen. 24]

So it’s very interesting to me that we can have a repeating set of 3, but we can also have a mirrored set of ideas within the same text.

It’s all in what you do and don’t include, and how you group things. So again, here’s the repeating 3.

And here’s the overarching chaistic structure.

[Slide]

Emphasis on that God saw that it was good.

Why is this important? Because it’s in the Bible and it’s intentional. If you look for them, you can see them all over.

When things are True true, they have more depth of meaning than just a face-value lesson or a symbolic meaning, they also have general application

We get that there are lessons in Scripture - God is teaching us through the stories.

We get that there are symbolic interpretations - Prophetically pointing to Christ, etc.

Adam as an anti-type to Christ. First Adam/ Last Adam

But, we don’t tend to pull general, or universal truths out of the text. It’s rich enough in meaning to be able to do that without letting go of literal interpretation.

There are things in the Bible that they are teaching in the secular world and in Christian higher education (textual criticism) that are not being taught or discussed in Churches. So when children go out into the world and people are teaching them things about the Bible that are true, that they never heard, those people can then seem to be more knowledgeable than their parents or pastors, and many of those people don’t believe in the inerrancy of Scripture.

Not that we have to know everything, but we should at least be aware of these things.

It’s a living word. Not that it changes, but things that are new to you will reveal themselves as you study it. No matter how much you already know.

We should be able to ask questions and think critically about the Bible. If it’s true (and it is) it will stand up to testing. Questions linger. They represent things that we don’t yet know, so we are going to have a lot of them. We can push them aside, which we need to do since we can’t know everything, but they may be bothersome. It’s when people stop asking the question and don’t look for answers that they lose faith.

Gospel

Spirit of God moving on the waters.

The Spirit of God first moves on our lost, dark, disordered soul, calling us to him. God is near even in this state, and has a purpose for us, though we don’t know it.

First, God creates the light.

2 Cor 4:3But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. 5For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. 6For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Light of the word, exposing what is chaotic, and void of life. We see the contrast between the Day and the Night, the light and the darkness.

Separating of the waters. The waters below and above. The heavens represent the unreachable.

There is an association of height with things that are worthy, excellent, good.

The spiritual heavens and the physical heavens share the same name because the one represents the other. The high and lofty realm.

God is called the “most high”

We go “up” to God’s city, Jerusalem, regardless of our physical elevation.

Likewise physical lowness is associated with with that which is spiritually or morally low, death, badness.

These two things are separated and each represent the uninhabitable.

Heavens are uninhabitable because they can’t be reached. Representing unreachable righteousness of God.

The waters below representing the force of sin and evil, pulls you downward, drowns you. It’s uninhabitable because it’s destructive, but it’s where you are.

The land is formed, this is the good place where life dwells, represented by it containing life the day it was created, immediately after it was separated from the water.

This is the fruitful land, the habitable place offered by God. The garden.

We have the knowledge, the light showing us good. The evil and chaos within and without has been exposed, We realize we are separated from the highest heights, and we see the reality of the depths, the grave, the pull toward it, the darkness within them. Finally we see where we are made to dwell.

How do we get there?

We are woken up to the spiritual - that which inhabits the heavens.

Birds are interesting because they can be good or bad, depending on what type of bird it is. But in general, they are seen as representing freedom, lofty things.

That which inhabits the heights,

The uninhabitable, high place

The holy spirit is represented by a dove, the dove Noah released was a harbinger of hope. We will soar on wings like an Eagle

Associated with the other winged beings of heaven - angels

Finally, after we are exposed the truth of our own state, we encounter the man who was given dominion over the earth, the one who keeps, protects, and causes to flourish. The ruler of the garden - the man that is the image of God.

Problem

We can create order the same way that God brought order to the universe. Not by speaking it into existence, but we can use the same pattern.

So in this reading we’re thinking about solving a problem or figuring out how to get something done. It might help to have something specific in mind so it doesn’t get too abstract.

So, maybe you have to write a paper for school, or you want to start your own business, or maybe you want to get your family life back in order, or do a home renovation, it doesn’t matter – anything.

So back to the beginning. Where do we start?

Chaos, disorder, darkness – or maybe it’s just the current state of formless potential that is the thing you could possibly do.

...

Light - Shines on the darkness, exposes it. The first step is to look at an acknowledge the problem. Shed light on it. Pay attention to it.

Division of the waters. - This is the beginning of bringing order.

The bringing forth of the land - this further bringing order.

At this point it’s framed in. Framing is important, before we can tackle something, we need to bring order to it. This is why you write an outline when writing a paper. This is why you frame a house before working on the details, or make a sketch of something before you paint it.

You bring order to the formless potential.

It’s good to know exactly what you are and are not doing, what you can and can’t do. You have the boundaries of what is possible, formed by the waters, around that which is desirable and attainable. If you don’t do this, your efforts can be kind of aimless.

Then, when the vision is clear and there’s order, that’s when things start coming together. It starts to look pleasant, possible, like there is life there, represented by the plants

This is where the ideas start to flow - you’re getting creative. What if I did this or that? Oh it would be cool if such and such. But what about yadda yadda yadda?

Then there’s the when, then comes then when and how.

The sun, the moon, and the stars are for what? Times and seasons. This is for ordering things in time. Getting them planned out, what to do first, second, etc. You set when you want the thing accomplished by. We got a full vision of the desired outcome, now we set the goal. And that’s a hard thing sometimes because we’re creating terms of our own success, or failure.

Birds again can be good or bad, depending on what type of bird it is.

The “outside” - representing external forces which are free (outside your control)

Birds can eat the bugs out of your garden, or they can eat up your seed or the fruit from your crop.

They can sing sweetly in the trees, or squawk up a storm, or wake you up in the morning.

They could also represent

Birds - Success, that which closest approaches heaven, the ideal, the highest.

Fish - Failure, that which is in the place of chaos and death, “hell” which is a lake - of fire but a lake none the less.

Finally that which has been assessed and ordered is inhabited by you, the man, the worker to do the work, along with the manifestations and those things which you must watch over, tend, and keep.

It takes practice to see the applicable and universal truths within symbolism that we are unfamiliar with in our rational, post-enlightenment, post-modern era. I’m not presenting just a method of interpretation of Scripture, it’s actually an entirely different way of thinking about the world.

All of history in Genesis

What day did God create the water or the earth?

When did the first day begin?

This doesn’t mean that they weren’t created on the first day, it just means that the account in Genesis doesn’t discuss the creation of the earth or water.

“In six days God created the heavens and the earth…”

I ask these things, not because I think I have the answer, but because I think asking these questions will lead to a proper and more meaningful understanding of Genesis.

Water as symbol of chaos – The Bible's in My Blood (wordpress.com)

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iaNRvJx7hEk/UF-AA1MpaII/AAAAAAAABj8/cwdcuhRTXHM/s1600/biblical+chiasm.JPG

GENESIS (hebraicfaithbible.com)