God and Humanity

2. WHERE WE’VE BEEN & ARE GOING…
- The Power of Story
- God and Creation
- God and Humanity
- God and Israel
- God and Jesus (and The Church)
- God and New Creation

3. ANCIENTNEAREAST
COSMOLOGY

4. QUESTIONS WE SHOULD ASK:
- WHO was this text written TO? Ancient Israelites
- HOW did THEY understand it? Functional Origin
- WHERE were THEY when it was WRITTEN? Babylon
- WHAT was going on at the time? They’re in exile
- WHAT was the point THEN? Political Polemic/Theology

5. JOHN WALTON
“Viewing Genesis 1 as an account of
functional origins of the cosmos as temple
(i.e. sacred space) does not in any way
suggest or imply that God was uninvolved
in material origins – it only contends that
Genesis 1 is not that story…(God) does
reveal (God’s) work in the world, but (God)
doesn’t reveal how the world works.”

6. JOHN WALTON
“A period of seven days does not pertain
to how long it took to build the house;
it pertains to the process by which
the house becomes a home.”

7. - Adam or Adamah “The Man” or “Of the Earth”
- Eve “Life” or “Living”
- Helper “Ideal Partner”
- Image “Nature” or “Essence” or “Thumbprint”
- Fruitful/multiply “Produce” and “Become many”
- Subdue/dominion “Bring order/purpose/function”
- Good “Functioning optimally in the ordered system”
HELPFUL DEFINITIONS

8. Then God said, “Let us make humankind
in our image, according to our likeness;
and let them have dominion over the
fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air,
and over the cattle, and over all the
wild animals of the earth, and over every
creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”
So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
GENESIS1:26-27

9. God blessed them, and God said to them,
“Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth
and subdue it; and have dominion over the
fish of the sea and over the birds of the air
and over every living thing that moves
upon the earth.”
God saw everything that he had made,
and indeed, it was very good.
GENESIS1:28,31

10. In the day that the YHWH made the earth and
the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet
in the earth and no herb of the field had yet
sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it
to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to
till the ground; but a stream would rise from the
earth, and water the whole face of the ground—
then YHWH formed man from the dust of the
ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life; and the man became a living being. And
YHWH planted a garden in Eden, in the east;
and there he put the man whom he had formed.
GENESIS2:5-8

11. Out of the ground YHWH made to grow every
tree that is pleasant to the sight and good
for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the
garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil. The Lord God took the man and put him
in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.
And the Lord God commanded the man,
“You may freely eat of every tree of the garden;
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you
eat of it you shall die.”
GENESIS2:9;15-17

12. Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that
the man should be alone; I will make him a
helper as his partner.” So out of the ground
YHWH formed every animal of the field and
every bird of the air, and brought them to
the man to see what he would call them; and
whatever the man called every living creature,
that was its name. The man gave names to
all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to
every animal of the field; but for the man
there was not found a helper as his partner.
GENESIS2:18-20

13. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall
upon the man, and he slept; then he took one
of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.
And the rib that the Lord God had taken
from the man he made into a woman and
brought her to the man. Then the man said,
“This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called Woman,
for out of Man this one was taken.”
GENESIS2:21-23

14. The narrative of failed human vocation,
exile from the garden, devolving
pattern of sin/violence, leading to
God’s sadness at the state of the
creation project, the cleansing
and “re-creation” of the earth,
humanity’s ongoing rebellion and
the unresolved question of
what comes next…
GENESIS 3-11

16. • Who are we? Humanity as God’s image bearers
• Where are we? The Garden as localized Temple
• What is wrong? Creation has yet to be filled…
• What is the solution? Humanity as priests
• What time is it? The start of the creation project
• What is the point? God is worthy of worship
A BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW of
CREATION ROOTED in CONTEXT

17. A BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW of
HUMANITY ROOTED in CONTEXT
• Who are we? Marred image bearers & failed priests
• Where are we? Exiled from the garden
• What is wrong? Failed at our human vocation
• What is the solution? Representative family…
• What time is it? Post-garden, pre-covenant
• What is the point? God’s love & creation project

19. One of the scribes…asked him,
“Which commandment is the first of all?”
Jesus answered, “The first is: ‘Hear, O Israel:
the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall
love the Lord your God with all your heart,
and with all your soul, and with all your mind,
and with all your strength.’
The second is this: ‘You shall love your
neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other
commandment greater than these.”
MARK12