one28 PodcastFraming a Generation
Reasons for Studying Genesis
2008.09.07
one28 Sunday worship
There may be no better book in the Bible to confront our culture’s current issues than the book of Genesis. Our generation’s confusion about the roles of men and women is precarious, as is our understanding of marriage and family. We are a people thirsty for identity and purpose, yet our generation may be the emptiest ever. We are distressed about the condition of our planet, afraid we’ll wreck it or nuke it and deplete all our natural resources, so we campaign to save the whales and save the planet by thinking green. We argue about men descending from monkeys while simultaneously trying to build up their self-esteem. Personal and national standards of morality are weak, if existent at all. We are uncertain and unhopeful about the future, or simply unthinking and apathetic towards it.
We are disconnected. We are disconnected from each other. We are disengaged from dreams and drive and determination. We are dissociated from history and heritage. Most of all, we’re disconnected from God. So we are isolated and aimless. We have little, if any, structure of conviction to stabilize us. We are a wandering, wicked, formless generation divorced from any story.
We need Genesis. In the book of Genesis, Moses tells the story of creation, of life, of humanity, and of God’s people. He doesn’t simply report the historical facts, he frames our entire way of looking at the world. Moses records the story of our ancestors, their relationships and their experiences, their triumphs and their defeats, their strengths and their defects, their rebellion and God’s faithfulness. More than that, he reveals the beginning of God’s eternal story of redemption through generations.
To tell this story, Moses built the book of Genesis on a pronounced literary structure. After a prologue/introduction in 1:1-2:3, the first seven days of creation, Moses weaves together 10 sections, all starting with the heading “These are the generations of X.”
The key word is “generations.” It is the Hebrew word toledot (תּוֹלֵדוֹת). The word refers to that which is born or produced, in other words, the historical result (Hamilton, p. 9). Half of the generation formulas in Genesis initiate a genealogy, a simple list of descendants owing their origin to the head figure (5:1; 10:1; 11:10; 25:12; 36:1). Those family trees establish historical context and credibility.
The other half of generation formulas, however, introduce more than lineage, they launch into “the story of X” (Hamilton, p. 2). For example, “this is the story of” creation (2:4), the flood (6:9), Abraham’s life (11:27), Jacob’s life (25:19), and Joseph’s life (37:2). Moses uses this phrase to frame the narratives of Genesis.
The illustration of framing is probably obvious to most of us. When we frame a picture or painting, we mount the painting with borders that protect and typically accentuate it. When we frame a house, we shape the footprint and the floor-plan and create structural stability. In a figurative sense, we frame an argument or debate by setting the agenda, directing attention on a particular issue, and constructing boundaries so the participants know what is out of bounds.
So Moses framed the broad outline (the Roman numerals) of Genesis by generations. But through the story of ancient generations, he also builds the framework our generation needs for interpreting our observations and experiences, for responding to moral questions and hot button topics, for what it means to live in relationship with fellow creatures and with our Creator.
This is why we need to study Genesis. In the book of Genesis, God–through Moses–builds and defines and supports and sets in place exactly some of the most necessary truths for framing any generation, including our own. Genesis gives six studs that frame our beliefs.
1. Genesis frames our beliefs about HUMANITY.
Human beings have a distinct and unequaled place and purpose on the planet.
Though we are part of God’s creation, Genesis reveals that we are the only part of creation made in God’s image (1:26-27). The sun is dim compared to our light, the oceans cannot roar like we can, no plant in any place, and no animal at any time compares with any man or woman, because men are made after God’s likeness (1:26).
The arms of a tree are not similar in value to the arms of a man. It is more important to save babies than salmon. Humans are not one step of mutation beyond monkeys, we are of an entirely different kind.
In addition to our prominent place at the top of the created order (and food chain), God has given men a purpose and calling unlike any other part of creation. Men are given authority over the earth, to have dominion (control) over fish and birds and bugs and animals (1:26). Men are to subdue (overcome, bring under control) the earth (1:28).
We are God’s image-bearing pioneers and innovators and stewards. Everything on earth is at our disposal. God has given humans, and humans only, the task of dreaming and designing and developing.
That means at least three things in regard to man’s relationship with creation. First, having dominion means we are stewards and shouldn’t fritter away or purposefully ruin our resources. But second, having dominion also means we have freedom/prerogative to use and create and manufacture and build stuff without getting panicked about our carbon footprint, and global warming, and how we’re hurting trees’ feelings, and treading on animal rights. Driving hybrid cars, using energy efficient light bulbs, and recycling our pop cans may be a good use of resources, but we dare not let it become our religion. God didn’t call us to save the planet, He called us to subdue it.
And then third, if our human task is to design and develop, some of use are setting our sights much too low and spending way too much time on the couch. We should get to work making something significant. Science, technology, medicine, art, and education are framed by God’s calling to men. Without Him, they are rotten, knot ridden studs that build an empty, unstable structure.
Genesis frames our beliefs about human beings, our place and purpose in the world.
2. Genesis frames our beliefs about FAMILY.
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 create them for 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.
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. God made men and women different, not for sake of competition but for sake of compliment and relationship. 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 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 compliment, no reproduction. It also sets God against abortion: no multiplication and taking the life of an image-bearer. It also sets God against delayed marriage and selfish family planning. (Muslims often have a better appreciation of children than God’s people.)
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.
3. Genesis frames our beliefs about SOCIETY.
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, p. 45).
Partially in fulfillment of the cultural mandate to multiply and subdue the earth, and I’m sure also for 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. 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 talks about 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 the 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 other nations.
4. Genesis frames our beliefs about HISTORY.
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). 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.
5. Genesis frames our beliefs about MORALITY.
No choice we make is inconsequential. The evolution theory suggests that there is no God, so no universal standard. But evolution is simply a modern mask for suppression of truth in the name of science. Genesis does not allow for such a defiant denial of moral standards.
Because God made us, we answer to Him. Because God made us in His image, we are built to reflect the standard. 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.
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.
6. Genesis frames our beliefs about THEOLOGY.
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, p. 42).
He is the hero of every account. Adam is no hero. Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph are supporting characters, and even 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 us. He is Master (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.
Conclusion
One of the words thrown around Genesis is “worldview.” Genesis frames and defines our perspective and way of thinking about life on earth.
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.
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