I stated in my last “non-Life of Paul” post where I stand on matters of science and scripture, dual revelation, and the age of the earth. As I continue a series of commentary on the creation account in the Bible, I acknowledge that there are other viewpoints other than my own. A couple include:

• Answers in Genesis – They are one of the young-earth advocates and their stance on creation can be found here. I do not agree with many of their assertions.
• Reasons to Believe – I have supported Reasons to Believe for decades and feel they have a good reasoned approach which is close to my own. They have what they call a Testable Creation Model which aligns with their old earth position.

I want to take a few blog entries to discuss some points about the Genesis creation story. Just as I’m doing with my “Life of Paul” series, I feel it is important to not only examine the scriptures, but to also consider the context and original audience. In a sense, this brings up another type of “dual revelation.” When the scriptures were written, they had a specific audience to whom they were addressed. However, they also have a broader audience (the later generations) who benefit from them as well. Just as Paul wrote his letters to specific churches for specific reasons, so also Genesis was written to specific people for specific reasons. We need to acknowledge those contexts first before we start applying the scriptures to our own day and time.

The first five books of the Old Testament (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy – collectively called the Pentateuch) were authored by Moses through direct revelation from the Holy Spirit, with a few supplemental notes added later by Joshua and others. Here is a good article explaining some important concepts about the Pentateuch.

If you think about it, Moses was not an “eyewitness” to any of the events described in Genesis, from creation through the patriarchal families. In fact, Moses didn’t come on the scene until over four hundred years after the namesake (Israel) of the nation and many thousands of years after the time of Adam and Eve. He recorded conversations, events, and details which can only have been revealed directly to him by God. We are told of several instances in which God may have done this (like on Mt. Sinai).

I want us to consider the Pentateuch as Moses’ letter (albeit inspired by the Holy Spirit, just as Paul’s epistles were) to the nation of Israel. They encountered Moses after 400 plus years of captivity and enslavement in Egypt. They were for all practical purposes “Egyptian” in their culture and beliefs and had lost much of their “Israelite” identity. They were polytheistic in their beliefs. Whatever beliefs or knowledge they had about God was through tradition and word of mouth. They had no written documents or scriptures to tell them about God.

When God rescued them from Egypt and brought them to Mt. Sinai to re-affirm his covenant with them – the covenant he had made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel) over four hundred years earlier – they had to be re-introduced to God and His promises. This is the purpose and context for the Pentateuch.

Therefore, before we delve into modern interpretations of the creation story with our emphasis on ages and dates and sequence of events, let’s first put ourselves in the sandals of the Israelite nation gathered around the base of Mt. Sinai and receiving this text for the first time.

The text tells us that God is the Creator and He created everything “in the beginning.” His creation includes everything in the heavens and on Earth. That means the sun, moon, and stars, the mountains, rivers, animals, and people, and any “gods” or materials used to represent those “gods.” The plagues He had used against the Egyptians during the rescue included many of the elements worshipped by the Egyptians, demonstrating His power and control over them.

The ensuing description of the days of creation (which we’ll look at next time) are notably broken down into six days of creation and a day of rest. God gave these descriptions to Moses and the Israelites in the context of the giving of the law, including the ten commandments. In it He commands observance of a Sabbath at the end of a work week and uses the creation story as an example of what He means.

He also pronounces everything He creates as “good”, which again teaches a basic principal about the goodness of God. He also talks about the emptiness of creation and the necessity for it to be filled with things that give the creation purpose. He also explicitly identifies creation’s purpose to meet the needs of people and to draw them to glorify Him for His creation.

I purposefully have not dealt with specifics from the creation story here because I want to emphasize, for now, the intended simplicity and purpose of the story: that God made everything, He made it good, and He made it for us to use and enjoy. He also expects us to honor Him in our use of it. This is the importance of the creation account in Genesis.

Next time, I’ll begin looking at the specifics and how they work within the dual revelations of God.