There is a great deal about this world you can figure out just by observing. God has granted a rational facility liberally to mankind. The Bible does not address that much, but addresses those things which are not so readily apparent. The Creation narratives are not aimed at explaining what happened, but what matters. For fallen men to find their way through this world requires they do their best to adapt to God's requirements. Those requirements are not clearly stated most of the time, but indicated in how Creation is told. The assumption in the narrative is the reader will not inductively analyze what man can know about all this, but will absorb the bigger picture. He should deduce from revelation, which supplies those things man can know only by seeking God. He should place that revelation above what he can discern with his own mind, let it rule. The resulting gestalt tells how he should proceed under varying circumstances.
It is far more than Creation as some big slot machine; you don't pull the right levers to get the stuff you want. There is a fundamental moral quality to all of it, as humans are also granted a moral faculty denied all the rest of Creation. The decision to seek God's provision in Creation is a moral decision, and that morality is fundamental to the way Creation operates -- it's built into it. Abide by the covenant requirements revealed in Creation, the story of Noah, and to the Law as applicable, and life will be as good as can be. When you have embraced the moral orientation of these things, you are in a position to look beyond them to what man lost in in the Fall, his access to the Spirit Realm. Take any other route, and you bring the wrath of God upon your head. That wrath is partially pre-positioned in Creation itself -- built into it -- but God remains personally involved.
We find, then, God doing two things at once. On the one hand, He seeks to reveal the path back to Himself. At the same time, He seeks to conform the world to His design assumptions so mankind will have a better chance of finding that path. This dual thread is woven throughout the text of the Bible. This the basic assumption you must hold as you approach the Scripture. Particularly in Genesis, you have to ask yourself, "Why is He telling me this?" If you let that question slip from the forefront of your consciousness, you will easily stumble and get lost in details which aren't themselves all that meaningful. The point in preserving the text over such a vast passage of history is to answer the questions about which this world cares little. If you want to know the facts about the origins of human life, look somewhere else. If you want to know the meaning of life, the Book has the answer, for it records what God wants mankind to know about His Creation.
There are two basic narratives regarding Creation: Genesis 1:1-2:3, and 2:4-25. The first reveals to us what God wants us to know about the pattern of Creation. The first and most obvious moral issue is the seven day rotation. It is hardly apparent to fallen man, but all Nature operates on the assumption of a seventh day of rest. The moral implications are numerous, but what matters here is absorbing that fundamental issue. Second, God says the day starts at sundown, not the human designated midnight by the clock. He also insists each form of life in Nature is bound by DNA -- and we derive the principle genetic manipulation in the laboratory is a sin, while natural cross-breeding is not. The natural rhythm of day and night, months by the moon, seasons and weather changes -- all these things are established in a pattern by God. The order of what was created on each day also establishes a pattern of moral consideration, a why, not merely a recitation of dry facts about how God went about things.
The second narrative carries an entirely different moral message. Mankind was designed to commune with God, the only part of Creation so capable. Thus, in part, a fundamental purpose behind Creation is a place to put humans. It used to be an awfully comfortable place: no weather extremes, no threats, no death, no labor, etc. Death and sorrow were not God's intention. Don't look for a place where those four rivers come together, because nowhere in this world do they; it wasn't meant to be taken literally. There is also something fundamental about human design with two sexes, and the unique union possible in marriage. There was a complete innocence which is so obviously no longer with us. Notice, too, the symbolism in calling these two by Hebrew names which mean simply, Man and Life. What you draw from these clues cannot be delineated in written terms, but provides a fundamental parable from which to build a moral response to events around you in this world.
This is the way honest hearts approach Scripture. When the Spirit of Christ invades your being, He brings with Him a commitment, a loyalty to Your King in Heaven. The commitment is a spiritual faculty, a sense of "knowing" rooted somewhere outside the intellect, but meant to direct the will, in part by informing the intellect. Scripture serves to clarify that link between mind and spirit, to peel away the layers of human conditioning by sin, so we can find the bed rock of conviction. Conviction exists only where the spirit is alive by the presence of the Holy Spirit. The mind grapples with the demands of conviction, seeking to understand how the issues of the moment stand or don't stand on the bedrock of conviction. Your convictions are your best understanding of those things your Eternal King demands of you, things you can't walk away from, things you can't escape. We come to Scripture, knowing our minds can only absorb words from the narrative. All the while, we accept by faith what cannot be perceived with the senses, how the Spirit turns that narrative into spiritual clarity, refining the shape and substance of our loyalty to Christ.
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By Ed Hurst
24 March 2009
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