Journey with Jesus #10

Old Testament - Cosmos 05/21/09

The God of the Exodus is a God of blessing and justice. The exodus, the primary experience of the Old Testament, was an act of liberation, an escape from oppression. The early psalms reiterate this image of God – a fierce, warrior-like God – strong enough to set his people free. In almost all ancient mythologies there is rivalry among the gods (e.g. Greek, Babylonian). Usually the new gods defeat the old. The constant in these stories is the rivalry and violence. The Hebrew God is one, so there is no place for rivalry. This is the most important aspect of monotheism. Archetypal rivalry is removed from God and attributed instead to human beings where it belongs. The Christian Trinity preserves this oneness, but, through the Spirit, makes it community, absolute sharing, relationship.

The God of the creation story in Genesis chapter 1 is a God of intelligence and order. God is an artist. Everything created, all the animals and humans, are good – there is no evil. It is a story of divisions, but without conflict. There is no destruction or demonization. No rivalry or killing. The creative narrative ends with God’s rest on the seventh day. The following chapter in Genesis is the story of Adam and Eve in the garden. When read sequentially there is the sense that the golden perfection of the first creation story is lost by the end of the second. Hence we talk of the “fall”. This leads to the atonement theories that try to restore what has been lost, to reclaim this golden era. God has to make up for the fall by sending his Son.

We need to read these stories historically and not sequentially. That is, read them in the order that they were written. Then we can see that what is happening is a spiritual, human evolution, not a fall.

The second creation story is older yet very important. It illustrates the human origin of rivalry – between us and God and with each other. However, the stories of the Garden and of Cain and Abel also give an ambivalent picture of God. He places the serpent in the garden and sows the seeds for discord by choosing Abel’s gift over Cain’s. The God portrayed in these stories in some ways reflects the human. Animal blood sacrifice is experienced by people as a more powerful mediator than harvest offerings, so in the story God is seen to prefer Abel’s gift of the lamb over Cain’s gift. These older stories, therefore, reveal a great deal about the violent, rivalrous nature of human beings. But they also reveal the God of the Exodus – the God of justice who hears Abel’s blood cry out from the ground and asks “where is your brother?”

Isaiah 40:12-26 gives us another creation narrative. It is written during the exile at a time of suffering and loss. It is a creation narrative for a people who have nothing. The message is clear – do not worry, take comfort – remember that I have done these great things – and will do great things again. The story therefore illustrates the creative, but also the historical power of God. It is written in a specific historical context with a message of historical import. The linking of creation and redemption in Isaiah is illustrated in 42:5-9 - God’s creative power brings life to all. In v.8 he rejects idols. Idols are about violence, but this God has no violence. Instead it is human beings that are in the image of God. In Isaiah 44:24-27 and 45:11-13 the overlapping of the creative and historical continues with God’s overcoming of the magicians (diviners) of Babylon and then his use of Cyrus as his means of liberation. In both these instances it is the creator God that is depicted bringing historical freedom.

The second Isaiah texts are probably older than the creation passage in Genesis 1. Isaiah 45:12 describes the heavenly host – a kind of merging of heavenly beings and stars. God is very much in charge – but there are still remnants of other deities here. In contrast, Genesis 1 does not have any mythological beings – the sun and moon are merely “lamps” to light the day and night, and there is no mention of stars. Isaiah 45:18-19 describes the earth as a formless void. It seems that the Priestly writer was aware of these passages in Isaiah and developed this theme in his story of the seven days of creation. The creation story of Genesis 1 was written later – after the exile in the sixth century. It is a more refined theology, completely eliminating violence or competition from the meaning of God, probably written in the century after the passages in Second- Isaiah, and deeply influenced by them. In Genesis 1 God creates for human good and the good of all. It is a picture of God and creation developed after the stories of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel etc.

If read in this way the creation narratives show the progression of thought and understanding about the nature and creative work of God: from the monotheism of the older stories, to the introduction of the idea of God’s creative work in history in Second Isaiah, to the non-violent peaceful creation narrative of Genesis 1. Reading the passages in this way gives a very different understanding than that of fundamentalism and also linear Christian theology. No longer does Genesis 1 describe the idyllic golden age that existed before the Fall. Instead the creation story becomes the expression of God’s contemporary love and delight in creation and in human beings in particular. The creative force of God works within the story itself – through lessons learned from Jewish history. This continuing revelation of the creative work of God continues in Jesus. Jesus rose on the third day – which would have been a Monday. Monday represents the rest of the week – we live in the eighth day, fulfilling the seventh day of rest and blessing!