genesis bible commentary

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Contents

Foreword v

Preface ix

Why read Genesis? xi

BEGINNINGS: Of the Cosmos

Part 1: The God who creates (1:1–2:3) 1

1. Creation 3

2. Thinking it through (i) 14

Part 2: The story of Creation (2:4–6:8) 25

3. Life in the garden 27

4. Thinking it through (ii) 41

5. In exile with the first family 54

Part 3: The story of Noah (6:9–11:26) 65

6. The flood 67

7. After the flood 74

BEGINNINGS: Of Israel

Part 4: The story of Abraham (11:27–25:18) 83

8. God does it again 85

9. Abram and Lot 97

10. The covenant with Abram 111

11. Waiting for God 119

12. Covenant again 128

13. Full marks, Abraham! 137

14. When the grace of God rules 148

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1

Creation

The book of Genesis was written for a world filled with godsand deities of all shapes, sizes, and dispositions. Each onecontrolled a different part of human or natural existence.This made the ancient world a place of fear. If you lived inthat world you constantly needed to ask yourself whomamong the gods you should worship, placate, honour, fear orlove. A lot hung on your decision. A wrong answer mightmean your crops wouldn’t grow, you wouldn’t find ahusband, your wife might not bear children, and you mightnot find your proper place in life.

Most of us probably regard this sort of thinking asprimitive. Nevertheless, the modern world is no less a placeof deities than the ancient world. We might think we aremore sophisticated because we no longer worship the sun,the stars, or rainbow serpents. We might not peer at theentrails of chickens looking for answers (although I haveknown people to peer at tealeaves in the bottom of a cup!)or consult wizards and soothsayers. Nevertheless, we searchfor somewhere to place our allegiance in return for meaningand identity. Our gods are largely material, social, andideological. Our lives are shaped by the possessions we ownor covet, the social standing we have or aspire to, the ideasthat give us form and meaning. We give our allegiance topolitical ideologies, psychology, various religions, ourcareer, and relationships. One particular television characterI have enjoyed observing gives his allegiance to the searchfor extraterrestrials, and this search very significantlydetermines who he is and how he fits into the world.

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Just as the gods of the ancient world posed threats, so doours. Deep underneath our search is a fear that if we don’tget things right then we won’t find our proper place in life.There won’t be fulfilment, we won’t reach our full potential,we won’t succeed.

It was for a world of fear that the book of Genesis waswritten so long ago, and it is to such a world that it comestoday. As we will see, the opening chapter of Genesisaddresses these very issues.

GETTING TO GENESIS 1

A bird’s eye view of Genesis 1 The basic elements of Genesis 1 are clear:

• God creates the world for humans in six days.• God rests on the seventh day. (In Hebrew thought the

number seven has the sense of importance,completeness and climax, with the implication herethat the high point of God’s creative work and its finalobjective is rest.)

These two events make up the first week of human history.The structure of the chapter is built around what wascreated, and what it was for, as in the following diagram:

Formless Water and Night (1:1–2)

Form Use

Day 1: Light (day and night) Day 4: Lights in Heaven

Day 2: Water and Sky Day 5: Fish and Birds

Day 3: Land and Vegetation Day 6: Animals and Humans

Day 7: God Rests

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A note on verses 1–2

In the beginning God created the heavens and theearth. now the earth was formless and empty,darkness was over the surface of the deep, and theSpirit of God was hovering over the waters.

(Genesis 1:1–2)

The New International Version (NIV) follows the oldest andmost commonly accepted translation of the original Hebrewwords. It fits with the rest of the Bible, which indicates thatcreation was ex nihilo (‘out of nothing’; compare Hebrews 11:3).

This interpretation indicates that after the creation theearth was ‘formless and empty’ (chaotic and dark). Thiscould be so either because that is the way God made itbefore going on to a further stage, or because somethinghappened to God’s original creation to make it formless andempty (the second interpretation may find support in Isaiah45:18–19). In either case, Genesis 1:1–2 tells us that Godmade the world we now see in two stages. First, God createdthe universe as a whole and then, second, he gave order tosomething that was formless and void.

Putting Genesis in perspective The writer of Genesis lived in a world where people hadgrappled with the question of origins. We have discoveredvarious accounts that were written by such people. Theirviews were probably well known in the ancient world, justas most of us know basically what Charles Darwin said in hisbook on the question of origins. We may never have readThe Origin of Species, but we live in a world coloured byDarwin’s theories. Even if we don’t believe Darwin wasright, our neighbour probably does.

Ancient stories of origins look a lot like AustralianAboriginal creation stories. They involve animals, and seas,and bodies of water, and skies, and all sorts of naturalphenomena. These natural phenomena are personalised,and become the central figures in stories that are told andretold in highly imaginative language.

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The function of creation stories The style and content of these creation stories indicates thatthey had a definite purpose or function. This could be:

• To describe how a nation’s familiar gods came into being. • To explain familiar cosmic phenomena. • To explain how a particular culture’s society functioned,

and to give some credence to the people who wereimportant, by explaining where their power came from.

• To validate the position of a particular deity in relationto other deities.

• To explain a nation’s experience of the lifecycle of theearth, and therefore the religious rituals and celebrationsenacted in their religion.

A distinctive presentation The Genesis 1 account is simple and solemn and in so manyways quite the reverse of the creation stories being told in theworld at the time. Were the people who were used to theseother creation stories to read Genesis 1, they could not helpbut notice striking differences. In fact, there are someindications that the writer of Genesis is taking on and speakingagainst these other accounts. For example, in Genesis 1…

• God doesn’t come into existence. He simply is. • Rather than matter pre-existing God, God pre-exists

matter. • The sun, moon, stars and sea monsters, all of whom

were powerful deities according to the creation mythsof the surrounding nations, are merely creatures orentities who display God’s power and skill.

• Human beings are not an afterthought of the gods, norare they created by the whim of the gods for theirpleasure and service. Rather, humans are central in God’sworld and the world is provided for them and their use.

By taking a different approach, the writer makes a very clearpoint. For him, God’s creative activity primarily has thewhole world in view. This can be seen in the fact that:

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• There are no political overtones. • There are no references to the nation of Israel,

Jerusalem or the temple. • The account does not seek to validate particular

people, ideals or institutions.

What comes first with God is the world, not Israel. What willcome last with God is the world, not Israel (think about theway the Bible ends in Revelation 21–22, with all the nationsand a new creation!).

Genesis 1 is therefore an ancient example of apologetics.The writer is doing something similar to what Paul does inActs 17. During the course of his wanderings in Athens, Paulnotices an altar with the inscription, TO THE UNKNOWNGOD. When he finally gets an evangelistic opportunity tospeak to the Athenians, he reminds them of the statue andsays to them, ‘What you worship as something unknown I amgoing to proclaim to you.’ From this beginning, he proceedsto explain that in fact he proclaims the God who actuallymade the world and is responsible for the way it functions.

The writer of Genesis is facing a world that worships thecreation or the creature. To that world he declares the trueGod who creates (compare Jeremiah 10:11–12; Psalm 96:5).In a sense he is saying,

‘You worship many gods and think that they are responsiblefor the world and society. You are misguided. There is onetrue and living God who is the creator of all these thingsyou worship and who stands over all others. He alone isworthy of worship. This, and not the mythological worldrepresented in your stories of origins, is the true reality.’

The power of words

And God said… and it was so.

Another striking characteristic of the biblical account iscreation by the spoken word of God. There is no hint of magicas in the mythological accounts, but in its place the record

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of God speaking an effortless, omnipotent, unchallengeabledivine word that accomplishes what he commands. The powerof the word of God doesn’t come from its magical content, butfrom the person who speaks it. The God of Genesis 1 is theCreator, with all creation subservient to him. He only has tospeak and it obeys.

Male and female In many other ancient accounts sexual differentiationexisted before the world came into being and all the godswere themselves male or female creatures. This is not so inGenesis. The very association of gender with God is utterlyalien to the God of the Old Testament. Sexual differentiationbetween men and women is something God created.

The pinnacle of Creation

So God created man in his own image, in the imageof God he created him; male and female he createdthem. God blessed them and said to them, ‘Befruitful and increase in number; fill the earth andsubdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birdsof the air and over every living creature that moveson the ground.’

(Genesis 1:27–28)

Remember that we saw that the final objective of God’screative activity is rest. Nevertheless, it also has a secondaryobjective—humankind. Humans are the pinnacle of thecreated world and the world is made for them. They aremade to live in and rule over God’s created world and theyare made for rest with him.

But what is the function of human beings in God’s world?Verses 27–28 make this clear by saying that they are created‘in the image of God’.

In the Ancient Near East, setting up a king’s statue (or‘image’) was equivalent to proclaiming his dominion. Itdeclared him lord over the area in which the statue waserected (compare Daniel 3:1, 5–7). So, when God creates

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humanity in his image, he is saying that humanity is God’sstatue—the evidence that God is the Lord of creation.

But this is not all. These verses also make clear thathumanity is not just a passive statue. Humanity not onlyrepresents God’s rule but also exerts God’s rule. This is whatverse 28 means when it talks about the subduing of theworld. Psalm 8, a commentary on this passage, makes thesame point—humanity is God’s ruler over God’s world.

Since humanity’s rule derives from God it also must drawits shape from God. Psalm 145 and many other psalms tellus that God’s rule always has the best interests of hissubjects in mind. So humans must also be characterised notby arbitrary despotism, but by loving care that has the bestinterests of those being ruled as its primary concern.

Therefore, ‘image’ in Genesis 1 points to humanity’sfunction as ruler of the rest of creation. This is primarilywhat it means to be the image of God. Genesis 1:26 indicatesthat this function is not given to any individual, but tohumankind as a whole.

As we go on in Genesis we will see just how humans rule.We will find that humans can use the materials of the worldto make things. For example, they can produce musicalinstruments and learn the arts of playing harp and flute(Genesis 4:21). They can mine and fashion minerals and iron(4:22), cultivate the vine (9:20), and invent materials whichmake it possible to put up giant buildings (11:3–4). But, as weshall see, these very same inventions can easily dominatehumans and rule them rather than the reverse. So it is thatthe good gift of wine can deprive Noah of his willpower andput him at the mercy of his son’s shamelessness (9:21–27).The very act of constructing a grand building draws humansinto the intoxication of selfpraise (11:4b), or into otherprojects motivated by fear (11:4c).

Wherever the things that they are meant to overpoweroverpower them, humans become inhuman. This isgraphically portrayed in Daniel 2 and 4. King Nebuchadnezzaris spoken about in language reminiscent of Genesis 1 andPsalm 8 (Daniel 2:36–38)—he is God’s appointed ruler. However,

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he then lifts himself up and praises himself, rather thanthe God who gave him dominion (Daniel 4:28–30). God’sjudgment is that he becomes a beast of the field (4:31–33),no longer ‘human’ in the true sense. It is only when he liftshis eyes to heaven, acknowledging the givenness of hisdominion and the humanness of his humanity, that he isrestored (4:34–35).

The nature of God

And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there waslight. God saw that the light was good, and heseparated the light from the darkness. God calledthe light ‘day’ and the darkness he called ‘night’.And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

And God said, ‘Let there be an expanse betweenthe waters to separate water from water.’ So Godmade the expanse and separated the water underthe expanse from the water above it. And it was so.God called the expanse ‘sky’. And there was evening,and there was morning—the second day.

(Genesis 1:3–8)

Polytheism, the belief in many gods, produces a confusingarray of ethical values. Where gods compete for theworshipper’s allegiance and devotion on the basis of theirvarious characteristics and interests, there will inevitably bedifferent conceptions of what is good and what is right. Thisis complicated by the fact that the gods of the creation mythswere often morally indifferent, and pagan worshippers hadno assurance that the decrees of their god/s would be just.Moreover, in the ancient world the gods were innatelycapricious and so any absolute authority was impossible.

The picture is very different in Genesis 1. As he goesabout his work, God is without peer and competitor anddoesn’t have to engage in battle with other deities to asserthis right to rule. The sun and the moon are not rivals, butcreations. He is omnipotent—he speaks and it is done.

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In addition, God is presented as a lawgiver. He divides lightfrom darkness and land from sea, naming them andappointing stars for signs and for the fixing of time.Boundaries are set for the natural order. The animate creationis commanded to perform in a certain manner. Species haveset roles. The seventh day is made holy. The God of Genesisis not morally indifferent—morality and ethics constitute thevery essence of his nature.

And it was good!

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

(Genesis 1:31)

The Hebrew word ‘good’ used here can have a broad rangeof meaning. Here it appears to have the sense of somethingsuited for the purpose for which it is being prepared,corresponding to its goal. In other words, the creation isgood for that for which God intends it. The world which Godcreated is the world in which history can begin and reach itsgoal and so fulfil its purpose. But what is its purpose?

The seventh day

By the seventh day, God had finished the work hehad been doing; so on the seventh day he restedfrom all his work. And God blessed the seventhday and made it holy, because on it he rested fromall the work of creating that he had done.

(Genesis 2:2–3)

It is clear from Genesis 1 that the days of work have their goalin a day that is different from them. There are two sorts ofdays—the everyday and the special—and the everyday reachesits goal in the special. Notice that the word shabat meaning ‘tocease from labour’ is used here. The idea of the Sabbath is linkedto this passage and we will discuss this further in Chapter 2.

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Notice verse 3 where God blesses the day, endowing itwith the potential to be the day which he has intended forhuman experience. He then hallows it, or makes it his ownday. The clear hint here is that if other parts of creationwere designed for humans, so was the Sabbath (compareMark 2:27). By implication, just as God’s work was not hisgoal, so work is not the goal for humans. God’s goal is theeternal rest foreshadowed in the rest of the seventh day.Similarly, rest is God’s goal for humanity.

WRAPPING THINGS UP

‘Who’ not ‘How’ One of the great modern problems with interpreting Genesisis that we want the passage to answer our questions. Ourquestion is often, ‘How did God create?’ This is because welive in a world that is interested in the ‘how’ question, andwhere everyone has an answer to this question.

Although the writer of Genesis is not totally uninterestedin the question of ‘how’, it does not appear to be his primaryinterest or the primary interest of his ancient audience. Helived in a world where everyone wanted to know, ‘Whocreated?’ Genesis offers an answer to this question. The trueand living God is the creator of the universe, even of thethings that some of his creatures worship as gods.

The fear of living Do you remember where we started? We talked about thefear that ancient people had about living. What does Genesis1 say to the people of God as they look out at this world?

Genesis 1 says these things:

• The things other people worship are not gods. • They are the creation of the one true God. • They have no spiritual influence and power. • They offer no threat.

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• They are merely physical entities under God’s dominion,placed in their proper position by God, doing his will.

This message is just as relevant to us in our world. God’sword to us is that the things other people worship have nopower. God, the creator of heaven and earth, is the only onewho can give purpose. He alone sustains the universe. Hecreated human beings and he created their minds that thinkup their ideas. He created their relational ability that formstheir social structures and he created the wood and steel outof which their material gods are carved. Truth andsignificance are only found in the one true God.

A powerful word There is one final message to draw out of this passage. Whatwas one of the most striking things about God as he wentabout his work in Genesis 1? What is the thing thatoverwhelms you at every turn as you read the passage?Surely it is the fact that God speaks. God is not hidden andinaccessible but known and accessible in his word. He is thespeaking, communicating, relating God. And in Genesis 1 weare told how life is to be lived before this God. Life in hisworld is not a hit and miss affair. Life is shaped by the Godwho speaks. The message is clear. If we want to know how tolive life in this world then we need to firstly be listeners tohis word. Being created, formed, shaped, and guided by theword of the living and true God is the core of life in his world.

Creation


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