Theology in the Raw - 2: Old Testament in the Raw: Week 2

Episode Date: January 30, 2020

Preston started teaching an Old Testament course at an adult Sunday school class at his church and is going to be releasing these talks on this podcast.This week in Old Testament dive, Preston digs deep into Genesis 1 and draws out the main theological theme of the transcendence of God. This theme is correlated with the theme of God’s immanence in Genesis 2. Both themes—transcendence and immanence—forge a robust and complimentary portrait of God that’s fundamental for a Christian worldview. Oh, and we do get into the whole debate about the age of the earth. Support Preston Support Preston by going to patreon.com Connect with Preston Twitter | @PrestonSprinkle Instagram | @preston.sprinkle Check out his website prestonsprinkle.com If you enjoy the podcast, be sure to leave a review.

Hello, friends, and welcome back to another special edition of Theology in the Raw called OT Dive or Old Testament Dive. This is week two of a Sunday school class that I've been teaching at my church on the Old Testament. It's sort of an Old Testament survey where we're just going to kind of comb through or maybe inch our way through the Old Testament. We made it through an introduction to the Old Testament, how to read Old Testament literature, what the Old Testament is all about. We even worked through like a brief timeline of the Old Testament last time. That was two weeks ago. I was out of town the week after that. And then this Sunday we dove into, I was really wanting to get through Genesis 1 and 2, and we didn't really get past Genesis 1. So that's where

we're at. Now, here's the bad news. Oh, this is so frustrating. Technology. Oh my goodness. So I got this little microphone, this little like, I don't know what it is. It's, it's like a, um, it's a little lapel mic that you can plug into your phone. And I use voice memo on my iPhone to record the sessions. And I've, and I've done this several times in different talks I've given elsewhere and it's worked out fine. For some reason, it didn't work out this time. So I look at my phone after the whole thing's done an hour later, and I've got 10 seconds of recording on my voice memo thing. In fact, just for kicks, I'm going to play those 10 seconds for you.

Okay, we're officially getting started, and I'm recording these in case you didn't know. And if you miss a Sunday, which a lot of you are missing, and that was it. I don't know if you could hear that. So yeah, I don't know what happened. So the whole thing's lost. So I was a bit frustrated, needless to say. But we had a little lunch after church. We had a little potluck lunch thing going on. So we did that, had a nice communion time with the community, and then went rock climbing for about an hour, hour and a half. There's a rock climbing gym that I go to, and on our way to church, which is pretty far away, actually, we drive by our rock climbing gym. So a lot of times

I throw my stuff in my car and hit the gym on the way back. So that's what I did. And then now here I'm in my basement. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to redo the entire Sunday school class for you guys. Yeah. So here's the thing, like when you're teaching, if you've ever taught in front of people, you know, that the dynamic of teaching in front of people is different than sitting in a basement in front of a microphone with nobody in front of you except for a computer. OK, so this I'm going to try my best to redo what we talked about this morning in OT Dive week number two. about this morning in OT dive week number two, but I'm sure there's gonna be several things that I'm gonna forget that we talked about, some rabbit trails I went on, maybe some questions that I answered, whatever. It's just not, it's not gonna be the same, but I did want to try to traverse the same ground that we did this morning, primarily because, look, when I released that first week of OT Dive a couple

weeks ago, I didn't know if any of you were going to care about it. Like, it's not recorded very well. It's in a little echoey kind of classroom. And it's a Sunday school class. Like, who cares about Sunday school anymore? But I'm like, hey, I've got a microphone. I'll record it. If anybody wants to listen to it, then just make it available. And I got a lot of really good responses. People saying, thank you so much for doing this. I learned a lot. I'm dying to kind of take an Old Testament class. And this has been really helpful. So because I got a really good response from a lot of you all, I'm like, well, I don't want to let y'all down and skip a week just because my recording didn't work out. So I'm going to redo it for you. Let's dive in. Genesis, the book of Genesis. First of all, Genesis is so incredibly foundational for the entire Bible. It's not just

the first book of the Bible. I mean, it is the found, it is true. I mean, very much the foundation, the source, the, the launching pad for everything else that happens in the Bible. Genesis one and two in particular is so incredibly fundamental to a Christian worldview. It's fundamental to the rest of scripture. The rest of scripture wouldn't make sense apart from understanding Genesis one and two. A lot of times people make sense apart from understanding Genesis one and two. A lot of times people just think, oh, Genesis one and two, it's just, you know, an interesting take on how creation came into being. But it's so much more than that. It's not just a historical record of creation. Rather, it is a foundation for many later theological and ethical themes in scripture.

It's very hard to think Christianly about kind of anything without some, without rooting your thoughts in Genesis 1 and 2. This is why Revelation 20, Revelation 21 and 22, the last two chapters of the Bible kind of look a lot like the first two chapters. Have you ever noticed that? Like Genesis 1 and 2 looks a lot like Revelation 1 and, or Genesis 1 and 2 looks a lot like Revelation 21 and 22. And this is because, you know, God creates humanity, creates this beautiful creation in Genesis 1 and 2, and then enters into a relationship with them. And then Genesis 3 happens, right? The fall, the sin of Adam and Eve, and everything kind of goes south from there. So it's almost like the rest of scripture has a theme of how do we get back to the garden?

And not just the garden, like beautiful flowers and awesome fruit. Well, except for one tree, I guess. But it's more than just that. Like the garden of Eden represents the place where God, the creator communes with his creation. The garden of Eden is all about God's relational presence with humanity. And when that goes south in Genesis three, God's not going to give up. He is going to keep pursuing that relationship until he achieves it. And that doesn't really fully happen until the end of the book of Revelation. So at the end of the book of Revelation, it's almost like God, you know,

wipes his hands, you know, you know, does this kind of, that doesn't make sense over the microphone, but he, he kind of says, I did it. Like I, I, I regained that Edenic relationship that I desired from humanity, from creation as a whole. This is why Genesis, uh, Revelation 21 and 22 looks a lot like Genesis one and two. We've got themes of Eden all over the place. We have a tree of the tree of life shows up again in the new creation in the new Jerusalem in Revelation 21 and 22. The Garden of Eden is all about the relational presence of God. And this is another reason why

the tabernacle, this is kind of a rabbit trail I went off on in our Sunday school class today that, you know, the tabernacle, this tent that, you know, the last part of the book of Exodus is all about building the tabernacle. Okay. And then last chapter, Exodus 40, the presence of God fills the tabernacle. The tabernacle is the place where God meets humanity again. tabernacle. The tabernacle is the place where God meets humanity again. But the tabernacle is described with all kinds of Eden-like imagery. It's almost like the tabernacle is a prototype, not prototype, it's like a symbol of the Garden of Eden. And not just the Garden of Eden, but again, the Garden of Eden as the place where God meets humanity in a relationship. And then 500 years after the tabernacle is built, we have the temple that's built. And the temple basically is like a stationary tabernacle. And then the temple gets

destroyed. And then Jesus comes on the scene several, you know, six, five, well, 500 years after the destruction of the temple, roughly. And Jesus says, I am the temple, destroy this body. And in three days I will raise it again. And then he ascends to the father and then he breathes out his spirit to his people, the church, his disciples, and they are described, the church is described as the temple of the living God. So you have this, this, this tabernacle temple theme throughout scripture, but even the tabernacle temple theme is echoing the garden of Eden, not because God's just into, you know, floral and fauna or palm trees and fruit. He is into communing with his people. And that was the original purpose to design the point of the garden of Eden. And this is why the tabernacle, the temple, the Jesus and the church is reminiscent of that garden of Eden, like presence of God. And then this is again, why the new creation in the church is reminiscent of that Garden of Eden-like presence of God.

And then this is again why the new creation in the book of Revelation is described as the new Jerusalem. What's Jerusalem? Jerusalem is a city where the temple was, where God dwelt. So this theme of God's desire to be in relationship with his people. This is a main point of Genesis 1 and 2, and it continues to be a main thread throughout scripture from Genesis 2 of Revelation. So Genesis is super important. In terms of the structure of Genesis, this is something I, you know, I like to have, I'm the type of guy that when I read a book, I really look at the table of contents. Sometimes I'll even read the conclusion. I read the beginning, the middle, the end.

I kind of want to know where I'm going. And this is something when I drive. Look, I can be going around the corner and I'm typically glued to my map. Like I want to know, like I just want to know where am I going? Where am I headed? What glued to my map. Like I want to know, like, I just want to know where am I going? Where am I headed? What's my goal? How am I going to get there? What are some alternative routes? Like I like to know ahead of time what's going on. Okay. It's just a little way I'm wired. Um, so, so I personally, I like to have outlines of books. I want to know where is this book going? Okay. So Genesis can be divided in terms of, um, it can be divided in terms of, it can be divided in two parts. Genesis 1 to 11, which some people call like universal history, and then 12 to 50, which is patriarchal history.

And there really is a distinct, oh, I don't know, flavor theme focus between, you know, oh, I don't know, flavor theme focus between, you know, Genesis 1 to 11, and then 12 through 50. 12 through 50 is focused on Abraham and his descendants, okay? I mean, Genesis 12 is a major transition in the book. Well, actually, it begins at the end of Genesis 11, where we have the genealogy, which ends up leading to Abraham, or Abram. And then in Genesis 12 is, you know, just right off the bat in first three verses of Genesis 12, you have this massive promise made to Abraham and that becomes so fundamental to the rest of the Bible. So again, I built up, you know, Genesis 1 and 2 as being foundational for the rest of the Bible. Well, Genesis 12 is also incredibly foundational for the rest of the Bible. This is where God's promises gets narrowed in on the person of Abraham and his descendants. Okay, so Genesis 1 to 11, universal history, and Genesis 12 through 50, patriarchal history,

where from Genesis 12 onward, now we are focusing not just on God's relationship with humanity as a whole, but God's relationship with humanity through the person and lineage of, of Abraham. And if you want to break down Genesis 12 to 50, I like to center this section on three major characters, Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph. I'm going to keep wetting my palate here with my beverage. I'll try not to, another pet peeve of mine, when people like chew or drink really loudly. So I'll try not to, you know, slurp and do all that stuff.

It's just nasty. Anyway, but if you hear paper too, you can hear some rattling of paper. I just have my 12 pages of notes in front of me and I'm just gonna, I'm gonna, I'm trying to like reduplicate this lecture as if I was teaching a class, even though there's a microphone in front of me and that's about it anyway. Um, okay. So, so, uh, universal history, patriarchal, patriarchal history under patriarchal history, we have Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph. Abraham is Genesis 12 to 25.

Jacob, Genesis 25 to 36. And then Joseph, 37 to 50. Now, if you are paying attention, you might notice that I didn't mention Isaac. So it should, I mean, if you're just going strictly genealogically, it should be like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and then maybe Joseph. And then, you know, Joseph's just one of the 12 sons of Jacob. So, you know, I guess there could be questions why we're singling, why the author singles him out. And we'll get to that later on.

The reason why I don't mention Isaac here is because Isaac doesn't get a lot of direct ink or attention in the book of Genesis from a literary or even artistic perspective. Isaac would be what some people call a flat character. Okay. You have round characters and flat characters, and this doesn't have to do with like weight distribution or whatever. It has to do with like how, how, how much of this character is really filled out. So Abraham, very complex, filled out character. Jacob, same thing. Joseph definitely has a lot of details about his personality, his behavior, this and that. Isaac is just kind of, he doesn't get a lot of direct attention. You know, he's what, born in chapter, oh gosh's almost killed in 22. Then he goes off and gets married. They find a wife for him. And really that whole chapter where they go off and find a wife is really about

finding his wife. It's not so much about Isaac. He doesn't play a central role there. And then he has a couple of kids and the next thing you know, he kind of dies. Like there's just not a lot of attention given to Isaac like there is given to Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph in the book of Genesis. Okay. So that's the outline. The purpose of Genesis. I, you know, it's hard to summarize biblical books in one sentence, but sometimes these one sentence descriptions can, can be helpful. And I found one. This is from an Old Testament professor. I don't know if he's around anymore. I don't even know if he's alive anymore, but a guy named Richard Belcher. I think he's some reformed Old Testament professor. And goodness, for all I know, Richard could be listening to this saying, you know, I'm not dead yet.

So I apologize that I haven't like followed your work in the last 15 years, but I found this quote a long time ago and I thought it really captures the point of Genesis really well. Here's the purpose of Genesis. To show that Israel's God is the sovereign creator whose purpose to establish his covenant rule will not be hindered by the sinfulness of humanity. To show that Israel's God is the sovereign creator whose purpose to establish his covenant rule will not be hindered by the sinfulness of humanity. So many things going on there that I just love. It's a concise statement, but I love every single word here. I love that he highlights Israel's God, not just God, but Israel's God. And we're

going to come back to that when we understand kind of the context in which Genesis was written. Sovereign creator. I love that he says creator, not just the sovereign God or sovereign Lord, like the sovereign creator. Like that is a main theme in Genesis. God normally creates the heavens and the earth and all that is in it, but he also creates life from the womb. He creates promises and creates miracles to keep those promises. And God is creator. That's a, that's a, that is a distinct focus in the portrait of God in the book of Genesis that he's creator covenant rule not just rule not just covenant but covenant rule God wants a rule over creation but he's also going to make several covenants to establish that rule covenants with

humanity we'll talk a lot more about covenant later on but mean, covenant just is like an agreement, a contract. There's unilateral contracts or covenants where God simply promises to do something regardless of whether the other side of the covenant does anything to follow up. And then there's sort of like bilateral or conditional covenants whereby, you know, the one covenanter will fulfill his promise, will fulfill his commitment if the other party fulfills their commitment. And that's sometimes called like a conditional covenant. You have like unconditional and conditional covenants. Okay. So, um, one more thing here. Um, the God's covenant rule would not be hindered

by the sinfulness of humanity that love the way that's worded. Cause sometimes we could fall into the moralistic trap of thinking that, of thinking that, um, that God is looking down at all the people in the world and is looking for all the really good people, the righteous people, the people that have it all together. And he's like, okay, I need to find a really good person and that's who I'm going to work through. Okay. So then God looks down, he looks at all the sinful people and he passes over them. And then he looks at people who kind of have it all together and says, okay, since you have it all together, therefore I can work

through you. That is one religious perspective. It is not a biblical perspective, or at least it's not a Genesis perspective. Let's just keep it in the book that we're in. Genesis is all about God using really, really bad and evil and wicked and twisted people. And not to say that some of these characters like Noah and Abel and Abraham and Joseph don't have some track record of obedience, but some of these people are even worse than you may think, as we will see. By and large, the main point of Genesis is God working through sinful people, working in and through messed up people to accomplish his purpose. So I love the way this is worded by Richard Belcher, that God's covenant rule, God wants to rule over his creation, over humanity through a covenant or covenants. And that won't be hindered by the sinfulness of humanity. Humans will keep messing up and yet God will establish his covenant rule over creation. Okay, let's dive into Genesis 1 and 2.

In terms of outlining Genesis 1 and 2, there's a really clear outline here. Genesis 1 and 2 can be broken into two parts. The first part is Genesis 1, 1 to 2-4, 1-1 through 2-4. And Genesis 2, or the second part, is Genesis 2-4 through 2-25. So you probably know this, but, you know, chapter divisions weren't in the original text. They were added, you know, a bit later. And so sometimes the division of the chapter doesn't quite capture where the break should be. And in Genesis 1 and 2, there really is a consistent unit of thought from Genesis 1, 1 to 2, 4, and then 2, 4, verse 4 in chapter 2 is kind of like a

summary of what has gone on before and an introduction of what's going to come after. It's a hinge verse. So then you have 1, 1 to 2, 4, and then 2, 4 to 2, 25. As we said last time in OT Dive, when we look at scripture, we need to be asking the question, what does this tax, this event, this transition, this person, what does this passage, what does scripture say about God? That's our main question, not how do I be a better person? What does it say about me? How does this change my life? The main thing we're asking is, what does this passage say about God? So if we have a consistent or clear breakdown from Genesis 1 and 1, 1 to 2, 4 and 2, 4 to 2, 25, then we have to ask, what does 1, 1 to 2, 4 say about God?

And what does 2, 4 to 2, 25 say about God? And this is, again, I would say pretty easy to gather. 1.1 to 2.4 focuses on the transcendence of God. The transcendence of God, the greatness of God, the majesty of God, the sovereignty of God, the otherness of God. So if you're a Calvinist or Reformed, you're going to love Genesis 1. I mean, and you know, Genesis 1 is just focused on elevating the transcendence and otherness of God. Genesis 2, however, and I will say, however, focuses on the imminence, the nearness, the relationality, the personalness of God. Genesis one says that God is king. Genesis two

says that God is a friend. Genesis one says that God is far above all of our, of comprehension, above the universe, above creation. And Genesis 2 says that God walks in creation. God is involved with creation. God gets his hands dirty and forms humanity from the dust of the ground in Genesis 2, 7. seven. There are two distinct, yet not contradictory portraits of God laid out in Genesis one and two. And honestly, I think that, you know, we often talk about the attributes of God, the different aspects of God. God is love. God is judgment. God is holy. God is wrath. God is forgiving. God is this. God is that. I would say that all of those attributes, characteristics of God can be captured under the two umbrella categories of transcendence,

Genesis 1, and imminence, Genesis 2. If all you do is focus on the God of Genesis 1, then you will view God as very holy. You will be probably, probably be pretty scared of God. You'll, you'll live with a lot of fear, maybe some healthy fear, maybe some unhealthy fear. You're going to have a very high view of God. And that's not inaccurate.

We should have a high view of God, but it's going to be very one-sided. You're going to probably fall into legalism. It's going to be hard to truly love God. Um, if all you do is see him as this, you know, transcendent being that's out there, that's sovereign over everything that breathes, that breathes stars into existence. And yet, if all you do is have a Genesis 2 view of God, you're going to probably belittle God. Hey, pops, he's my friend. He's not my king.

You know, you're going to be a little bit too maybe flippant, too trivial with your view of God. This is why Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 and how these two chapters both reveal parts of who God is. This is why both of them are so equally important. Because if you only have one or the other, or just practically, if you only emphasize one or the other, you're going to have a very warped view of God, and therefore a very warped response to God and how you live. So 1.1-2.4, Transcendenceence 2.4-2.25, God is personal.

I feel like I do need to say a word about the age of the earth. Oh my gosh, am I going to go here? I don't want to go here, but I'm going to go here because I went here today in Sunday school class. And I know a lot of Christians have, well, I don't know, a lot, maybe some Christians have really strong opinions about the age of the earth, the meaning of day in Genesis one. Oh gosh. Okay. Let me, let me, let me just sum up how I went about this conversation in class today. And I, to be honest, and if you're listening,

if you're part of the class and you're listening, you're listening now, I'll just, yeah, just be totally real. I was nervous about just even bringing this up because I, most people in the class, I don't know well, or at all, I'm new to the church. So this is a new thing. And I don't know where people are coming from theologically and their tradition. I mean, I was raised in a tradition where if you didn't believe in a young earth, a young earth theology, you might not even be a Christian. Talk about ending the Sunday school class early. My teacher's not a Christian because he doesn't believe in a young earth. So yeah, I'm nervous about having these conversations in a church, in an evangelical church context where I'm not sure where people are at.

And people don't know me. I don't know them. And sometimes that can be hard to hear maybe a view you haven't even, you know, considered because you've thought that it's just not a Christian option. So, yeah. So I was raised in a very staunch young earth environment. If you, to believe in the Bible means you believe in a young earth. In fact, for a while, one of the statements in our doctrinal statement at a Bible

college that I used to teach at, it used to correlate believing in inerrancy with believing in a younger theology. We it. Cause I was like, that's just ridiculous. Like it's fine. Whatever. If you want to believe in a young earth, that's totally fine. That's, you know, um, but don't say that, um, believing in inerrancy or the authority of the Bible demands that you hold to a young earth view. And really that's my, that's my main, that's my main thing. Look, young earth theology has arguments that support it. And some of them are pretty good. And older theology has arguments that support it. And some of them are pretty good. And I have no problem people saying, you know what, for this reason and that reason, and that reason, and this reason, I believe in

young earth, or for this reason, that reason, I believe in old earth. Good solid Christians are going to fall on different sides of this. What I am opposed to is one view, one side, and I will just single out the young earthers here. Typically, the young earthers are the ones that say, if you really believe in the Bible, then you will believe in a younger theology. And that's just not fair or accurate or humble or true. It's just not true. especially Genesis one and two is flexible enough in terms of how creation is presented and the nature of the genre and different things that are said that it allows for both. Like you can't say the Bible only can be read this way.

Obviously I say, Oh, I guess I shouldn't say obviously from, according to most people, you know, the science would support old earth, whether it's, I don't know, 4.5 billion years old, or maybe that's the universe. I really don't, I really don't know. I haven't really kept up with the discussion and the science discussion behind all this. It seems that the science would side much more with young or sorry, old earth. And on the flip side, if the science, well, let's just, let's just say that scientifically, um, it's, you know, that science says that the earth was six to 10,000 years old. If the science had said that, then of course we'd all be young earthers. Like we,

we should all admit that. Like, it is very to read Genesis 1 and 2 through a young earth lens. If all you do is just, you know, read the text. But so science has forced us to revisit Genesis 1 and 2. And I think after we've done that, we see that there are different ways of reading Genesis 1 and 2. And I think after we've done that, we see that there are different ways of reading Genesis 1 and 2. And also just aside from the age of the earth, we now know through studying ancient Near East creation accounts that the purpose of Genesis 1 and 2 is not really to establish the age of the earth. That's not the point that the author had in mind here. As we'll see, the point that the author has in mind is to, um, is to interact with and confront and counter various creation accounts or various versions of how the creation came into being. Like there's something

profoundly theologically combative going on in Genesis 1 and 2. There were no evolutionists, evolutionists, evolutionaries, evolutionists in the ancient world. Like everybody believed in God or the gods, you know, and these gods were responsible for the creation. Like, like it's not like Moses, who I do think wrote Genesis 1 and 2, just for the record. It's not like Moses was trying to confront, you know, Darwin or something. That's not like Moses, who I do think wrote Genesis 1 and 2, just for the record. It's not like Moses was trying to confront, you know, Darwin or something. That's not the point of Genesis 1 and 2. Okay, so in summary with the day, you know, yeah, should I keep going? Let me just give a couple examples.

I mean, on the young earth side, you have, you know, the phrase evening and morning, you know, day one, day two, the first day, evening and morning. And some people say, look, if he just said day one, okay, day, the word day is flexible enough, but he said evening and morning, like how more clear can he be? Okay, I get that. But how do we determine scientifically What's evening and what's morning? Well, when the earth makes a full revolution, right? Like it spins around the full rotation Around the sun and all, you know

But wait a minute The sun and the moon isn't even created until day four So the very thing That the scientific meaning of evening and morning is determined by namely the sun, that ball of fire isn't even created until Genesis four. So what does evening and morning mean in day one, two, and three? And then look, there's, I'm sure there's counter responses to that.

It's just, it's just interesting that, you know, perhaps evening and morning could be, not is, but could be more poetic, more rhythmic, rather than trying to be specifically scientific in the most literal sense of the term, evening and morning. Wait a minute, day means day. Well, day can mean several different things. In fact, in Genesis 2, 4, the word day is used to refer to the creation, the six days of creation as a whole. Actually, the seven days if you count the day of rest. In the day that God created the heavens and the earth in Genesis 2, 4. So their day, in the same context, doesn't mean 24-hour periods. And sometimes day in Genesis 1 refers to

daylight, as opposed to there's day and then there's night. So their day only means 12 hours or whatever, 14 hours of daylight, not 24 hours. So to say that day means 24 hours, no more, no less, doesn't even make sense of Genesis 1 and 2. There's more flexibility going on here. Okay, but that's, again, I don't want to say you must believe in old earth either. I'm just saying that the text, there's enough mystery, difficulties, challenges in the text that should give us the humility to say, okay, maybe there's more going on here than what meets the eye. while I haven't looked into all the scientific evidence and everything, I'm not a scientist. There's the majority of Bible believing solid Christians, really smart scholars who I trust, whose way of reading the Bible I resonate with. The overwhelming majority of those in my, in my journey would hold to a young earth. Sorry,

sorry, sorry. I, an old earth theology, people who believe the Bible, who study Genesis one and two in its ancient Near East context, people like John Walton or John Lennox and Tremper Longman and many others. Um, the majority of old Testament evangelical scholars who have looked into the science along with the text of scripture, the ones that I really respect and resonate with, almost all of them, maybe 95% would hold to an old earth theology. So that would be my, again, I wouldn't take a bullet for anything because I haven't studied it myself, but it's like, man, that it's not like it's even 50, but it's like, man, that it's not like it's even 50, 50, it's like 98% would be older. And there might be a couple that I do respect and I just really value their opinion who would still be

a young earth, hold to a younger theology. I really don't have much time for people that say, if, um, if you don't hold to a younger theology, this is the only way to read the Bible. And you know, therefore don't believe the Bible. If you don't hold to a younger theology, this is the only way to read the Bible. And you don't, therefore don't believe the Bible. If you don't hold to a younger theology, I just, I don't have time. That's just to me,

that's just, that's just in a certain, that comes from a certain tribe of Christianity that I just don't resonate with at all for so many reasons. Okay. Let's move on. Okay. Why reasons why Genesis one declares that God is transcendent.

So let's go back to our theological point. Genesis 1 or, you know, 1, 1 to 2, 4 says that God is transcendent. Why do I say that? Number one, I'm going to give you four points. Number one, I'm going to give you four points. Number one, the use of, well, I'll say the extensive use of Elohim. Elohim is a generic Hebrew word for God, and it's actually plural. So it could be translated gods. El is a singular. Elohim is the plural, but sometimes it can be used of a singular being like it is here. Elohim is used of a singular being is used 35 times in what is it? 31 verses, 35 times. God, God, God, God. It's always Elohim, not Jehovah Jireh, not Yahweh, not, not even like, you know, and he did this and he did that, you know, not even pronouns. Like it's God, God, God, it's Elohim, Elohim, Elohim. It's just repetition of the generic Hebrew word for God, Elohim.

I think that is intentional. When the Bible wants to emphasize something, it can't use italics, bolds, bold, bolds, bold, underline or all caps like our text, you know, um, you broke up with me. I thought you loved me all caps. Like that's how we empty. If you want to yell at somebody, we use all caps. The, the, the scriptures that, you know, they don't have the scriptures, doesn't the biblical writers don't have those options. So instead of, well, not instead of, but if they want to emphasize something, oftentimes they will repeat something. So just the pervasive repetition of Elohim is I think intentional. And so what do we gather from the use of Elohim as opposed to several other

words that could have been used of God? Well, Elohim was often used of ancient Near East tribal deities. It's a generic term that refers, that kind of highlights just the raw power of a deity. Whereas in most ancient Near East religions, you know, they would believe in more of a tribal deity that the God, you know, a God or gods, you know, rule over certain parts of the earth. So Baal, or Baal, B-A-A-L in the Old Testament, you see a lot in the book of Kings. Baal was the tribal deity over kind of Northern Israel and Southern, let's just say modern day Lebanon, and maybe part of Western Syria. I'm a little fuzzy on my modern geography here. But Baal or Baal was the tribal deity that people, you know,

people believed ruled over that part of the land, which is why when first and second Kings is, is talking about, you know, uh, the challenges that face the Northern kingdom, I'm getting ahead of myself here, um, way ahead of myself, but in the divided kingdom where you have the, you know, Israel ruling in the North and Judah in the South, um, most of the trials that the North faces has to do with, you know, is Yahweh God or is Baal God? This is where you have, you know, Elijah on Mount Carmel, Mount Carmel's in the North again, because that's for, you know, non-Israelites. And at that time, many Israelites, you know, they were believing in Baal, Baal more than Yahweh because Baal was the tribal deity of that land. Anyway, what's interesting in Genesis 1 is that Elohim, this very generic term for a raw, powerful tribal deity is used of God, a singular God who is ruling over all of creation.

So here we have against the backdrop of what many people believe at this time, I would say that this is being emphasized. God's sovereignty over all of creation. God is not a tribal deity. Again, we are lifting up this God. He is transcendent. He is transcendent above all other gods or supposed imaginary, not imaginary, yeah, false gods, I'll just say. Number two, another reason why Genesis 1 declares God is transcendent is because

Elohim is the subject of all the verbs. And this is where I hand out notes to my class. So I have lots of stuff written in here that I didn't need to go through because they had it written out in their notes, but loads of action in Genesis one, tons of verbs. So, and God said, God speaking, uh, 10 times in Genesis one, let there be eight times in Genesis one. And it was so seven times and God made seven times. God saw that it was good. So he saw seven times, uh, he names or blesses aspects of his creation seven times. And obviously there's lots of sevens here because the seven is a number of perfection and God. And that,

that, that too says something about God and his creative work. 46 verbs in all Genesis one is saturated in action, but there's only one actor. Okay, number three, another reason why Genesis 1 emphasizes the transcendence of God. Number three, ancient Near Eastern or A-N-E creation accounts. Or let me fill that out. This is just kind of like my title here. A-N-E creation accounts, ancient Near Eastern creation accounts, or let me fill that out. This is just kind of like my title here. A-N-E

creation accounts, ancient Aries creation accounts. My point here is that Genesis 1 elevates the transcendence of God when you read Genesis 1 in light of other ancient accounts of creation. And this is where, um, I know some of you listening or, you know, have two master's degrees in theology and some of you have PhDs. And so some of this might be so well known to you that, that, you know, I don't need to say anymore. You know what I'm getting at, but some people, um, you know, they're, they're encountering this for the very first time. Like what, A&E, ancient Aries, what time. Like what? A&E? Ancient Aries? What does that even mean?

A creation account? Like, I have no clue. I don't even know what you're talking about. So let me really try to explain this so that anybody listening can understand what I'm talking about. Okay. So I believe Moses wrote Genesis. In the scholarly world, that's a minority position, just so you know.

Some people say that Hebrew wasn't even a language in the time of Moses. There's a massive debate about when Moses even lived. Was it the 15th century? Was it the 12th century? And so on. I believe Moses wrote the book of Genesis in the late 15th century. Okay, so Red Sea crossing in 1446. Moses dies, what, 40 years later, so 1406. So I think, oh, I don't have this in my notes. I think according to at least one chronological perspective,

Moses is born in 1526, dies in 1406, probably wrote Genesis in the last 40 years of his life. So late, late 15th century BC. Who is he writing Genesis to? This is really awkward asking questions in a microphone that's not going to speak back. So I don't know. I'll just keep kind of doing the Socratic question asking thing. And you can kind of just, you know, respond in your own mind. Don't raise your hand.

That's going to look weird. You know, you got your headphones in and your kids are kind of glancing over at you. And all of a sudden your hand goes up in the air. I'm going to think you're nuts. Who is Moses writing to? He's writing to Israel. Talk to me or think about the historical context of Israel. Where have they been?

Where are they? Who are they? Well, they've been in the land of Egypt for like 400 years as slaves. 400 years. That's a long period of time. Almost everybody listening to this podcast doesn't even have ancestral lineage in this country for 400 years. This country wasn't, you know, isn't even that old. Just over 200 years old as a nation. I mean, 400 years, this country was, you know, isn't even that old, just over 200 years

old as a, as a, as a nation. I mean, 400 years ago, that's what, 16, 1620. I mean, that, that's, what if you had ancestry in this country since 1620? Like that's all you've known. Like you don't even know of another geographical area. Like most, probably many of you have European, you know, ancestries, maybe three, two, three, four, five generations ago. And you're like, I don't know. I think my grandma was from Poland. She came over in 1890. I don't.

So do you speak Polish? I don't even know Polish. I don't know. I've never even been to Poland. Like it's not even. So Israel has been in Egypt for 400 years. They are so far removed from their land, their culture, their existence prior to their 400 years of slavery. They are, here's the point. They are inundated. They've been inundated, saturated in a, an Egyptian way of thinking, statues and gods and food and all

these things, like they've been living. And even if they preserved some of their Hebrew culture, which they probably did, but they still are just so sad. It's almost like, you know, Christians in America, you know, how much of American culture influences and affects the way Christians think in America? I mean, do you want me to go off on politics here? No, you don't. So no matter how well preserved their Hebrew culture was, they have been saturated in an Egyptian way of thinking, Egyptian way of life.

life. They, in other words, they were exposed to and probably have embraced many other versions of creation. This was just in the air. This is the air they breathe. So when Moses is sitting them down and reading Genesis to Israel for the first time, or let's just say he's writing Genesis to Israel, coming out of slavery, spending 400 years in a non-Hebraic way of life, culture, he's going to need to kind of fix some things in their worldview. So when he writes creation, when he writes about creation in Genesis 1 and 2, he is fixing some things about how they understand creation through various maybe things they've read.

Oh, they're probably not, most of them aren't literate, but you know, stories they've heard, oral tradition, whatever. one and two seems to be written in order to confront, challenge, and rebuke various other versions of creation that existed in the world at that time and were most probably absorbed by Israel, you know, on the eve of when they're coming out of Egypt. Does that make sense? I wish you can say yes or no or whatever. So what do we know about these other ancient creation accounts? And then let me just give you the name of a few.

I'm talking about Enuma Elish, the Gilgamesh epic, epic of Atrahasis. There's a few others. I can't, do I have any other? Those are kind of some of the big ones, especially Enuma Elish. In these other creation accounts, one of the main themes that goes on, one of the main themes of these ancient creation accounts is that the gods struggled and fought with each other and warred against each other. There's lots of conflict and battles. And the one that emerges victorious is declared kind of the sovereign Lord over this part of the

land or whatever. Conflict, struggle, people of equal power, people, I mean, sorry, gods of equal power, more or less are struggling with each other. And the one who wins the struggle, the one who dominates like, um, in, um, in Enuma Elish, you have, this is the Babylonian myth of creation. You have Marduk who is victorious over Tiamat. And when he conquers Tiamat, he divides her body, which represents the seas. So it's almost like he, you know, divides her waterous body, if you will. Waters above, waters below. This is, this is very, it's eerily similar to Genesis 1.5 when it says that God divided the waters. The very language of dividing the waters to somebody living in late 15th century BC

would most probably conjure up images of Marduk's victory over Tiamat. So it seems that Genesis 1 has an eye on those other versions of creation and is trying to portray another version of creation in interaction with these ancient creation accounts. So it's not just a blank slate. It's not like Moses just kind of handed them Genesis one and two and they're like, oh, cool. So this is how it all happened. No, no, he is, he is, um, you know, people call Genesis one and two polemic literature. Polemic has to do with the word war. Paul, Paul, oh shoot, I forget. Anyway, um, it's polemic. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's literature that is fighting against another view of whatever, you know, they're talking about. So the ancient, so, so, so, so when you understand the ancient Near East creation accounts, it just illuminates Genesis 1 and 2.

It puts it in, it's all, it's like putting your 3D glasses on. You're like, oh, wow. So this is what stands out. I mean, and I wish I had a Bible in front of me. Should I get one? In, oh, I forget what the verse, I think it's verse 19 when it says, um, wherever it says that, uh, do I have it here? Oh, well, I mean, in, in, yeah, in verses 14 and 19, it talks about the creation of, of the

luminaries. And, um, you know, it says that God created the lesser light to rule the night and the greater light to rule the day. Oh, and the stars. I think it's verse 16. You can look at it, look at it pretty easily. Well, when you understand the ancient Near East accounts deified the sun, the moon, and the stars, this really puts your 3D lens on when you're reading this account of God creating the sun, moon, and the stars. God effortlessly speaks the moon, the sun, and the stars into existence. He doesn't fight anybody. He doesn't battle them. He doesn't wrestle them. And when I say them, I mean, in the ancient world, the sun, the moon, the stars were often viewed as divine beings, like literally, like those are divine beings up there and they're

powerful. In fact, the sun, you know, must be the most powerful being because that's what gives us heat and life. And, you know, we can't exist without the sun. And when it gets dark, when the sun, when the God kind of turns its face away from us for 12 hours, um, we just, man, that's, that's really scary. And the dark's really scary. And then, and then the sun shines its favor upon us. And then, you know, when the, when it rises up and they thought, you know, that the sun actually rose up. Um, and so they had this view

that, man, these are powerful celestial beings. And so in Genesis one says, oh yeah, the real God, the real Yahweh who rules over all creation, not just some tribal plot up in Northern Israel. Oh yeah. By the way. Yeah. He just, he breathed those into existence. What? He, this God is so powerful that he spoke and that warm ball of fire in the sky that gives me life that allows us all to live. Like that thing just came in a bean and it is a thing. It's not a God. Like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Like come again. Like what you're talking about, Willis? What about all those little tiny twinkling lights out there? Oh yeah. Those are actually massive balls of fire. There's a hundred billion

galaxies, each with a hundred billion stars. These are conservative estimates. The closest star would take, I think, what is it? Five years traveling at the speed of light, which is impossible, probably always will be impossible for a human to travel that fast. Five years at the speed of light to get to the nearest star in one galaxy, one of a hundred billion galaxies, each with a hundred billion stars. Like you start thinking about the vastness of the universe and it should produce humility at the very least. I almost said awe and it should produce awe, but just being wooed by creation isn't the main purpose. I think the main purpose is that you would realize that we would realize how insignificant we are, relatively speaking, and how great God is, which is why the next point is so significant. Okay, so first point, the repetition of Elohim 35 times in Genesis 1.

Second point, God is a subject of all the verbs and there's a whole lot of action going on. Number three, ancient Near East creation accounts like Enuma Elish and Atrahasis and others, where we see a backdrop to Genesis 1. The fourth point is the creation of humanity. Genesis 1, 26 to 28,ity is created in God's image. This is off the chart insane when viewed against the backdrop of other creation accounts. That humanity, male and female, not just male. Okay. So in the ancient world, I mean, it was common, a common belief that men are more important than women. I mean, they're bigger, they're stronger,

whatever. So they can kind of own women. Women were viewed oftentimes as property. I mean, the, do I want to, I don't know, I'm not gonna get political. I kind of did a little bit today in class and I got away with it, but we often, let me just say this. This is all I'm going to say. Whatever level of inequality that exists between the sexes, and it does exist. I'm not denying that at all. It's nothing compared to what was going on in the ancient world. Okay. And that's, that's just not, that's just factual.

So when it, well, in the midst of profound inequality between male and female, the fact that Genesis one says that male and female are both created in God's image. I mean, that is like, that is, that is like 1960s bra burning, hyper-feminist types of stuff that are going on. I mean, it's just, it's, it's,

it's profoundly elevating towards women, boldly elevating towards women. It's also just elevating towards all humanity because, um because even men who are viewed as higher than women weren't considered to be created in God's image. Only kings were referred to sometimes as created in God's image. So Genesis 1, 26 and 28, in the midst of a chapter of a section elevating the greatness, supremacy, transcendence of God. It also elevates humanity and says that God wants to rule over his creation through you, male and female. That is profoundly off the chart, uh, significant for a Christian worldview and also unique in the ancient context of creation. The Epic of Atrahasis. I don't know much about the background of this text.

I used to. Do I need to? You can just Google it. Epic of Atrahasis. A-T-R-A-H-A-S-I-S. Has an interesting account of the creation of humanity, where it has a statement about mankind being created to assume or take on the drudgery of the gods, the lower gods, like the lower, the higher gods and lower gods and lower gods

were commissioned to do all the manual labor, the hard work to do the kind of slave labor for the higher gods, but the lower gods are like, we don't want to do this. So they create humanity and they say, all right, we're going to have these, these, these, these, you know, like these, these terrible little human people. We're going to have them do the drudgery of the gods. It's a very demeaning, derogatory view of humanity. demeaning, derogatory view of humanity. Anuma Elish has a statement about humanity bearing the God's burden so that the gods may rest. The gods, man, look, the gods, they just want to sit around, eat popcorn, drink wine, have orgies, and just, you know, rest and rest and rest and get

fat and happy, whatever. But, you know, work needs to get done. So we're going to create humanity to bear the laborious slave-like labor that we need to keep us happy. What a black and white distinct difference between the picture of Genesis. Genesis not only elevates God higher than the ancient creation accounts, it also elevates humanity much higher than the ancient creation accounts. I mean, this is one reason, well, let me say this. Obviously, Christians don't always live out Genesis 1, 26 and 28 to 28. Racism goes against this profoundly. Racism goes against the very heart, the foundation of a basic Christian view of humanity. Male dominance or misogyny goes against Genesis 1, 26 and 28. It goes against some of the most fundamental, basic ideas about humanity. Oppression, abuse, violence, warfare. I mean, it could go on and on and on.

Like there's so many things going on in the world today that cut against the grain of what Genesis 1 says about humanity. And yes, Christians fall prey to that. Yes, when secular politicians just rip on each other and pursue partisan hackery and grasp for power, regardless of what is the honest evidence, whatever. I'm not, I don't have anything specific in mind. I really don't. I really don't. Because I think most, I don't have anything specific in mind. I really don't. I really don't. Cause I think most, if not all politicians are just grasping for power.

That's why I'm not partisan. And when Christians kind of get on board with that inside with this or that, or no, this is my hero and this person's garbage or whatever. And that person's an idiot. And you start slamming on whoever's in power, whoever's in power that you don't want in power. And you start demeaning the very image of God that exists in that person. You're going against Genesis 1. And we do that all the time. Christians fall prey to things like racism. Or even don't get me started on the whole immigration thing.

I mean, look, and I don't want to get lost in the politics, but I do want to emphasize how incredibly practical the lens of Genesis 1, 26 to 27 is for viewing everything in our culture and politics and things going on today. Or if you have been a victim of abuse, of abuse, of oppression. If you have been into a place so dark that you harm yourself, perhaps even contemplate taking your own life, it can become easy to feel the shame of whatever somebody has done to you, or maybe others of you have done really bad things, and you feel the weight of that shame. And God's image in you is not dependent upon whether something has been done to you or whether you have done something to somebody else or whether you're a good person or a bad person

or whether you're good outweighs the bad. It only depends on whether you are human. If you are human, then you have infinite worth in the eyes of an infinite creator. You are profoundly more beautiful than anything else that God has ever created. You are his masterpiece. You are Michelangelo's statue of David times a thousand. Those a hundred billion galaxies with a hundred billion stars don't hold a candle to how beautiful and worthy and significant you are in the eyes of this transcendent creator. Genesis one is incredibly practical. Personally, I just, when I read this chapter, it's just, it blows my mind.

So let's not get caught up in debates about the age of creation. Not that those aren't important, but let's make sure we don't miss the main thing. What does it mean to bear God's image? Loads of debates about this throughout Christian history. Again, I mean, many books have been written on what does it mean to bear God's image? Some people say it's, I don't want to get into all the details here. You know, some people say it's our rational capacity. The fact that our brains can reason and think rationally, and we can develop language and all the, you know, we clearly are distinct from animals, even like chimpanzees. We're still have a rationality to us that is distinct.

Some people say that's the image of God. Other people say, no, it's our relationality. Karl Barth, one of the greatest theologians in the 20th century, you know, he was big on the image. We bear God's image because we are also relational beings. You know, and all of these, all the different views have, I think, good points. I don't know if any single one exhausts the full meaning of God's image. At the very least, to bear God's image means that we have an exalted status. In the ancient world, I referenced this in passing, some kings were often referred to as bearing God's image because they have a much higher socioeconomic status than the rest of humanity.

I do think the author, Moses, has an eye to that idea that, you know, the Israelites coming out of Egypt would have thought, you know, this Pharaoh and that Pharaoh, they bear God's image. When they heard that everybody, man and woman, bear God's image, they would have, I think that's probably the first reaction that they would have had. They would have said, oh my gosh, so I'm as exalted before the eyes of Elohim as this king, this Pharaoh, who rules the whole entire prosperous country of Egypt. So exalted status, it's not very specific, kind of 30,000 foot level, but I think that's our safest thing to say that the main point here is that humanity is exalted status. I also do like the emphasis on relationship. Genesis 127, in the image of God,

he created mankind, male and female, he created them. There's a, there's a plurality to God. I mean, this is why it says, you know, let us make mankind in humankind. If you, if you prefer that, let us make humankind in our image. There's a plurality within God, father, son, Holy spirit. There's also a plurality among humans, male and female. We are different yet equal. So I, you know, I do think the relational component is there. Also in Genesis 1, 26, especially humankind is made to rule over creation. Let us make humans in our image according to our likeness and let them

rule over the birds, birds of the sky, fish of the sea, and so on. This is another, you know, one thing we're called to do as image bearers, our function as bearing God's image is not just to sit around delighting in the fact that we have such an exalted status with a scepter in our hand and a, you know, lazy butt seated in a throne. No, we are to do something. We are to rule over God's creation. We are to harness God's creation. We are to protect and care for God's creation. This is another thing. We didn't talk about this in class today, but I'll just say it briefly here. Genesis 1 emphasizes both the goodness of creation over and over and over. God saw that it was good. Creation is good.

And we are to rule and care for God's creation as a good creation. So some of my politically conservative friends, I think, tend to swing that pendulum too far. So, you know, those liberals, those lefties over there, you know, they're all into caring for creation and climate change and this and that. And wait till you see what God does with it in the end. He's going to blow the whole thing up. You know, that, that whole pendulum swing, okay. Political, political liberals, or I wouldn't say liberals, you know, the far left is like, you know, um, way too into creation care. So I'm going to swing the pendulum so far in the other direction and say, I can care less about creation. I'm going to blow up animals. I'm going to ruin it. I'm going to, you know, drive my SUV extra far now and put, you know, terrible gasoline in it. And just, that's just, that's just, that's just not, that's, you're

playing into political, political wars going back and forth. Clearly, and I will say, I think it's, I don't know how clear God could have been. Like creation is good. We're supposed to care for it. And in the end, we're not going to live in some disembodied heavenly bliss. We're going to live in a new creation. Physical stuff is good. Creation is good. God wants us to rule over it, to manage it well, to care for it, to harness it, to explore it. I love what David says in Psalm 8. When I look at the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars,

which you have set in place, what is man or mankind, humans, what are humans, that you are mindful of them. I love this verse, Psalm 8 verse 6 captures both the transcendence and majesty of God and the profundity of God's care and love for humanity. Exalted creator, exalted humanity, mediating God's creative rule over his creation. That's Genesis 1, folks. mediating God's creative rule over his creation. That's Genesis 1, folks. And that's pretty much where we ended today in class.

So I hope you enjoyed it. Again, sorry that this had to be a re-recorded episode of Theology in the Raw. I will figure out my mic and app, my voice app situation here, and hopefully next week I'll give you a live recording. But until then, we'll see you next time on Theology in the Room. Thank you.