As we start back over with Genesis, I want to try to introduce new ideas that I didn't cover last time I blogged about the Old Testament. Last time I did a post about
God's Name in the Old Testament
Today I want to expand on my discussion of the creation symbols.
One of the things that the writer of Genesis was trying to do in the creation narrative was to show that the God of Abraham was the God of the whole earth. The people surrounding the children of Israel were polytheists. They had a different god for every aspect of nature and their lives. They had a weather god, a god of agriculture, a water god, a god of home and hearth etc. In contrast, the God of Abraham created and rules all these different elements. He created light and darkness, the sun and the moon, sea and land, plants and animals. The creation narrative distinguished the Hebrews as monotheistic in a polytheistic world thus showing that their God was better than the surrounding gods.
Later, in the time of Jesus, the Jews were again living among polytheists, the Romans. Paul on Mars Hill pointed out the superiority of his One God to all their idols. But the apostles were also trying to convince other Jews that Jesus was the God of the Old Testament incarnate. As the the writers of the New Testament chose which stories to include in the gospels, they conscientiously included the same symbols as are found in the creation story (and in other Old Testament stories I will discuss in later blog posts) in order to affirm to the Jews that Jesus is the very God of their father, and to the Gentiles, that Jesus is the one true God, superseding their pantheon of different gods over different forces of nature. Let's look at the creation symbols and then tie them to stories from the gospels to illustrate this idea.
Days of Creation
1. Separate Light from darkness
A new star appears at Jesus' birth and when he dies, darkness covers the earth for three hours.
2. Separating waters of the ground from waters of the air
Jesus calming the storm (waters of the air) while quieting the waters of the Sea of Galilee (waters of the ground)
3. Creating dry ground and vegetation
Consider the lilies of the field parable. Also, more obliquely, feeding the 5,000 which shows his ability to abundantly supply physical needs for food.
4. Making the Sun, Moon, and Stars appear
(see #1)
5. Creating sea creatures and birds
The fishermen's nets being filled with fish. The tax coin found in the fish's mouth.
6. Creating land creatures and mankind.
Jesus' ability to heal showed his creative power in relation to the human body.
The creation symbols show that the God of the Hebrews is both all-powerful and good. (not all pantheistic Gods were beneficent). He created order out of chaos, light from darkness, abundant vegetation from wasteland, and man out of the dust of the ground, but in his own image. The gospel writers are trying to argue and show that God is not only worthy of our worship because of his omnipotence, but also because of his omnibenevolence.
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