Or, Reasons for Studying Genesis
Scripture: Genesis 1:1
Date: February 8, 2015
Speaker: Sean Higgins
Or, The Creation of Worldview Beliefs
Any generation faces trouble that will not allow some core religious practices. In his Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke outlined three practices of religion he believed to be basic to a people.
The body of all true religion consists, to be sure, in obedience to the will of the sovereign of the world; in a confidence in his declarations; and an imitation of his perfections.
What a fantastic outline, though I believe Burke wrote better than he knew. He was arguing that a society should tolerate religious men because religion like that can’t hurt; superstition and faith aren’t worse for a society than irreligion. For Christians, though, we know that true religion worshiping the triune God is the only answer. And for us, our obedience is rooted in His authority as our Creator. Our confidence in His declarations comes from God’s Spirit who interprets His revelation both in the world and in the Word. And our imitation of His perfections begins with our personhood, our relationships, and our work in the world. Our obedience, confidence, and imitation, our entire worldview starts in Genesis 1:1.
We began our look at the first book in the Bible last Lord’s Day by introducing six studs that frame our worldview beliefs. I mentioned the first stud, that Genesis frames our view of humanity. All of the big philosophical questions about identity and meaning in life start in the soil of our created nature.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
(Psalm 8:3–6)
Mankind falls apart when limited to self-referencing or comparing with other creatures. God must define the terms if man wants dignity.
This morning we’ll nail in place the remaining five studs.
Not only did God create males and females in His image, He designed distinct roles for each, instituted marriage between the two, and gave them a mandate to multiply.
Even though God created men and women in His image, He did not assign them the same role with the same responsibilities, nor did He administer the same judgment for their sin.
You’d think that it would be obvious that men are women are different to look at us, or at least to talk with us. We were made for different things. Men were made first, made to lead and work and provide and protect with great strength. Women were made to help and support and care with great sensitivity and be taken care of. Genesis defines and celebrates differences in gender roles. Our value does not come from being the same, just as a hammer and a saw aren’t valued for doing the same task.
Genesis also reveals God’s establishment and endorsing of marriage. Everything about creation before the fall was good except one thing. It was not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18). God made men and women different, not for sake of competition but for sake of complement and companionship. Marriage is one man and one woman in a committed, intimate relationship, and God loves it! Even after the fall God preserved the sanctity of marriage.
God endorses marriage and expects married couples in normal circumstances to multiply. In His original mandate (1:28), three commands come after His blessing and before the command to subdue the earth: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” No doubt that mandate had unique significance to the first couple, but it also communicates God’s attitude toward kids. After the fall, of course, kids can cause their parents many headaches and heartaches, but children are God’s blessing.
That sets God against homosexuality not because of a random rule, but because it misses His original design: no complement, no reproduction. It also sets God against abortion: no partial-multiplication and taking the life of an image-bearer. It also sets God against delayed marriage for selfish reasons and selfish family planning. (Muslims often have a better appreciation of children than God’s people.)
In our generation human sexuality and gender bending is a playground (in the prison yard) because human origins are denied. That’s why both our “What We Believe” and “What We Believe in Brief” deal with male and female, not only because they are doctrines of first obviousness, but because they are doctrines of divine revelation
God is pro-life, and I mean that in its fullest sense beyond the political arena. Husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters, are a priority in God’s plan. God builds generations on and around families, and He began in Genesis.
As families grew, as different families organized themselves together, as relationships were formed and common agreements were made, cultures were created and nations were established with a common people sharing a common land, submissive to a common government/ruler and laws (Waltke, 45).
Partially in fulfillment of the cultural mandate to multiply and subdue the earth, and I’m sure for other pragmatic reasons, men joined together to protect each other and their families, to share the burden of providing for each other, and even to enjoy the bond of friendship with each other. They created tools and weapons, built buildings and irrigation systems. They crafted instruments and wrote music. They made, sold, bought, and traded. No doubt they drafted codes for architecture and systemized principles for agriculture. They enjoyed social life and networks (even without the Internet), and created culture in their generations.
Genesis refers to the Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, Arvadites, Zemarites, Hamathites, and Canannites (10:16-18), the Perizzites, (13:7), the Horites and Amalekites (14:6), the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, and Hittites (15:19), the Moabites (19:37), the Temanites (36:34), the Midianites (37:27), the Adullamites (38:1), the Ishmaelites (37:25), the Israelites (36:31), and the Egyptians.
Assembling themselves together led to some taking charge, to establishing structures of authority and government and politics and laws. Agreements were made and consequences defined for breaking laws or contracts. They mobilized armies, shared language and arts.
Genesis tells the stories of people groups and nations that thrived and others that failed. God made those nations (in fulfilling promises to different sons and in judgment on arrogant men at Babel). Not everything we discover about society in Genesis is something for us to repeat, but we learn that living in community is good, and challenging, and we learn what happens when communities of sinful men collide. Genesis reveals principles that unite and establish societies while also exposing problems that cause wars. Even more, Genesis tells the story of God creating a nation for His very own with a separate and special culture different from the surrounding nations.
That God ordained families and societies leads naturally into a discussion about God’s work in generation after generation. He not only was responsible for what happened with Adam and Eve, but it is His hand at work year after decade after century after millennium. He ordered all creation and He orchestrates every event.
Before Cain and Abel were even born, God promised that the woman’s seed would defeat the serpent (3:15). Everything since has been connected in some way to that promise. God has been working out His eternal plan by providence through the course of families and cultures and nations and generations.
In particular, His calling of Abram (12:1-3) set in motion a course of events that has not yet seen it’s final fulfillment. As the nations of the earth are blessed, as Abraham’s offspring grow numerous like the sand on the seashore, we move closer to God’s full and final saving of Israel.
Plenty in Genesis reminds us that all the nations of history past, and those nations thinking they are history makers at present, are nothing but a drop in God’s bucket are like dust on His scales (cf. Isaiah 40:15).
Consider Isaiah 40:12-17, 18-20, 21-23, 25-26, 27-31. The prophet urges humility before God and proper perspective on history in light of creation.
Do you not know? Do you not hear?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
who brings princes to nothing,
and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.
(Isaiah 40:21–23)
Genesis reveals that history is linear, it has a beginning, it progresses, and it is moving in a particular direction. Genesis reminds us that we are not in control of history and that we cannot separate ourselves from it. We are in dependence on the God of history. Genesis frames our beliefs about history, opening the door of divine perspective on the past and building our hopes for the future on divine promises.
No choice we make is inconsequential. The evolution theory contends that there is no God, therefore there is no universal standard. But evolution is simply a modern mask for suppression of truth in the name of science.
Because God made us, we answer to Him. He rules and He makes teh rules. Because God made us in His image, we are built to reflect the standard, to imitate His perfections. Being formed in His image doesn’t only mean that we work and take dominion. It means we are formed to work and to have relationships in righteousness, a clarification necessary after Genesis 3.
If God is truthful, it is wrong for us to lie. If God is faithful, we must follow through. We must do what He commands. He not only made us with authority over creation, but also under the authority of our Creator.
Morality and immorality are not defined by culture or on a case by case basis. Cultures are incapable of fixing boundaries on right and wrong apart from an external source. That’s why we understand that the standard of morality is given by God. In fact, morality cannot exist apart from the character and commands of God. Genesis frames our beliefs about virtue and goodness and honesty and integrity and justice. It does so by revealing God’s character as well as by portraying the consequences of God’s judgment on those who fail to bear His image properly.
God’s sentence on Adam’s disobedience—the curse and death, His response to worldwide wickedness—the universal flood, as well as to men outstepping their place at Babel—dispersing and confusing, in addition to the judgments of personal tragedy and famines and fighting, show that the consequences for immorality are clear and real. The blessings for obedience are obvious as well. Genesis frames our standard of morality.
Above everything else, Genesis is the first and foundational revelation from God about God. The rest of the Bible builds on the theological frame constructed in the first 50 chapters.
The creation account in Genesis 1-2 not only establishes His authority, it exhibits His capability and creativity. There is no power like the power of God Who makes things out of nothings, shaping a universe with beauty and intricacy and immensity.
The fall and the flood and the tower of Babel in Genesis 3-11 display God’s holiness. He does not stand for disobedience or defiance. There is no righteous judgment like His.
And God’s calling of Abram, and protecting of Abram and giving Abram and Sarai a son and protecting the family through famine and foreign lands and even their own failings, and keeping His promise to Abraham’s descendants in Genesis 12-50 God shows His care.
Genesis frames our beliefs about God’s power, His purity, and His promises. Genesis is the telling of our human story, and the story of God’s redeemed people, but most of all, Genesis is God’s story. “He keeps His promises, rewards the faithful, punishes the evildoer, [and is patient with] the foibles of His people” (Waltke, 42).
He is the hero of every account. Adam is no hero. Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph are supporting characters, and their supporting role is part of God’s sovereign script.
Genesis reveals that “God” (Elohim)(1:1) is transcendent, He is so far above and beyond our understanding and experience. At the same time, the “LORD” (Yahweh)(2:4) is also immanent, operating among us and making covenant with men. He is Master, “Lord” (Adonia) (15:2). He is the Provider (Jehovah-jireh)(22:14). He is the Most High (Jehovah El Elyon)(14:22). He is the God who sees (El Rai)(16:13). He is the Almighty God (El Shaddai)(17:1). Genesis frames our beliefs about who we worship.
These studs are enough to get us started. These studs assume the reality of truth, that truth is knowable, and that truth originates and exists in God. For that matter, these studs assume the existence of God because Genesis 1:1 does. Moses provides no pre-evangelism, no apologetic arguments to prepare anyone to accept God’s life. He says “God created” with no doubts about God.
By framing our beliefs about humanity, family, society, history, morality, and theology, we learn who we are and what we’re to do, we learn where and when we do it, and how and why we do it.
What we think about elections and laws, our convictions about abortion, our attitude toward modesty (clothing, it’s origin and purpose), our perspective on calling and vocation, our appreciation of marriage and family and kids, our approach toward art and culture, our position on the environment and global warming and tree-hugging, our outlook on the past and the future, our dependance on science, are all framed by how we understand Genesis.
Moses framed Genesis by telling God’s story in generations to define and support his generation of God’s people. Genesis does the same for our generation and frames our worldview and God-view. Genesis has divine, inerrant answers for every current cultural debate and international conflict. May God increase the hope of His people in this generation, building them up and framing their beliefs according to His story in Genesis.