On the seventh day God rests from his work, so what are these seven days about? God’s making his cosmic temple and he’s inaugurating it on the seventh day. The Israelites, they rested after Joshua brings them into the land, why, so they can get to the business of human flourishing. So God is creating his cosmic temple in a sequence of seven sabbath’s cycle and then he rests, why, so he can begin the operation of this wonderfully ordered world that he just set up. The seven days are not given as the period of time over which the material cosmos came into existence, but the period of time God devotes to the inauguration of his cosmic temple, the seven-day cycle, understood in its intended context, has nothing to contribute to the discussion of the age of the earth, this is not a conclusion designed to accommodate science, drawing from an analysis and interpretation of Genesis in its ancient environment. We’re looking at the ancient Hebrew words, the way they use the words, the thought world of the ancient Hebrews and their neighbors that shaped how they would write a story like this. The biblical text supports the view of an old earth, there is no biblical position on the age of the earth, Genesis one, isn’t that story.
The origins of the universe, but when it comes to the origins of humans, the pinnacle moment of the story, God created humanity in his own image, in the image of God he created him. Who’s him, not him male singular, him as a singular reference, generic to the whole of the human species, male and female. Humans have this unique capacity, it’s not about two individual humans being made on the sixth day, it’s about humanity, that one humanity consists of the binary gendered pair, male and female, humanity is being made here, as a entity, as a whole. What is their calling and identity, they are made in the image of God, and God blesses his image bearing creatures, and what does he tell them to do, make more of yourselves, oversee this place. The image is about the humans in their very existence in this one humanity, but this binary pair, they generate life out of their own existence.
Genesis chapter two, what’s that pairing, it’s about this covenant of marriage, when humans covenant to love each other, they choose not to multiply like rabbits with everybody else, just with each other. When they do that out of that covenant of love, new life comes into existence and is the image of God. God’s character, what is God’s essence in nature, love that generates life. They are to rule, to oversee, because there’s all this world with food falling off the trees, and there’s these creatures, harness all of these resources, bring them together and steward them and manage them in a way that creates even more life. The human calling and vocation is the image of God, humanity in Genesis chapter one begins, no sequence and humanity’s made on the sixth day, humanity in chapter two, way back when there was no farming, when no shrubs had appeared on the earth and no plants had sprung up. The Lord God hadn’t set rain on the earth, because there’s no humans there. This story, it’s not a wild and waist, look at this land, there’s all this potential for growth, but who’s gonna produce food here, humans. Why are humans even brought into the story, in Genesis chapter two, it’s so they can be the ones who begin to cultivate order and flourishing out of the world.
Genesis chapter two, so streams come up from the earth, watered the whole surface of the ground, raw materials are there, then the Lord God formed Adam from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Adam, he’s lonely, and so God makes animals and brings them to Adam. What was the sequence of things in Genesis one, which came first, animals or the humans, it was animals then humans in a sequence of days, here it’s human than animals on the same day. Stop assuming these accounts are trying to present to you, a sequential order, there’s something different happening here, this is a totally different depiction. Genesis chapter one was a statement about God’s cosmic temple. Now we’re focusing in on identity and calling of these image bearing humans, we’re restarting the story again from nothing and now focusing on these humans. What’s the nature of Adam, where does Adam come from, dust, humans are dirt and divine breath.
This is Genesis two’s way of talking about the image of God, we’re earthlings, our origins and nature is bound to the earth, but at the same time we’re aware of a calling and an identity of who we are that separates us from the earth. We’re dirt and we’re divine breath, and the dust is not trying to tell us about the physical composition of what we’re made out of, this is a statement about our nature, our mortality and how we’re weak and are frail and our origins about the identity and function of who humans are.
The origins of the universe, but when it comes to the origins of humans, the pinnacle moment of the story, God created humanity in his own image, in the image of God he created him. Who’s him, not him male singular, him as a singular reference, generic to the whole of the human species, male and female. Humans have this unique capacity, it’s not about two individual humans being made on the sixth day, it’s about humanity, that one humanity consists of the binary gendered pair, male and female, humanity is being made here, as a entity, as a whole. What is their calling and identity, they are made in the image of God, and God blesses his image bearing creatures, and what does he tell them to do, make more of yourselves, oversee this place. The image is about the humans in their very existence in this one humanity, but this binary pair, they generate life out of their own existence.
Genesis chapter two, what’s that pairing, it’s about this covenant of marriage, when humans covenant to love each other, they choose not to multiply like rabbits with everybody else, just with each other. When they do that out of that covenant of love, new life comes into existence and is the image of God. God’s character, what is God’s essence in nature, love that generates life. They are to rule, to oversee, because there’s all this world with food falling off the trees, and there’s these creatures, harness all of these resources, bring them together and steward them and manage them in a way that creates even more life. The human calling and vocation is the image of God, humanity in Genesis chapter one begins, no sequence and humanity’s made on the sixth day, humanity in chapter two, way back when there was no farming, when no shrubs had appeared on the earth and no plants had sprung up. The Lord God hadn’t set rain on the earth, because there’s no humans there. This story, it’s not a wild and waist, look at this land, there’s all this potential for growth, but who’s gonna produce food here, humans. Why are humans even brought into the story, in Genesis chapter two, it’s so they can be the ones who begin to cultivate order and flourishing out of the world.
Genesis chapter two, so streams come up from the earth, watered the whole surface of the ground, raw materials are there, then the Lord God formed Adam from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Adam, he’s lonely, and so God makes animals and brings them to Adam. What was the sequence of things in Genesis one, which came first, animals or the humans, it was animals then humans in a sequence of days, here it’s human than animals on the same day. Stop assuming these accounts are trying to present to you, a sequential order, there’s something different happening here, this is a totally different depiction. Genesis chapter one was a statement about God’s cosmic temple. Now we’re focusing in on identity and calling of these image bearing humans, we’re restarting the story again from nothing and now focusing on these humans. What’s the nature of Adam, where does Adam come from, dust, humans are dirt and divine breath.
This is Genesis two’s way of talking about the image of God, we’re earthlings, our origins and nature is bound to the earth, but at the same time we’re aware of a calling and an identity of who we are that separates us from the earth. We’re dirt and we’re divine breath, and the dust is not trying to tell us about the physical composition of what we’re made out of, this is a statement about our nature, our mortality and how we’re weak and are frail and our origins about the identity and function of who humans are.
