Genesis 1:1-31 is the account of the creation of the universe, the world, the plants, animals, and mankind. The recurring phrase in this chapter is "And God said...and God called...and God saw that it was good..." God acts by speaking. This reveals to us His authority as God. What ever God does, He first speaks, then it happens. One of the ways of God is; First God says it, then He does it. This is important to know if you are interested in knowing what God is doing in your life or in the world around you. The question to ask is not "God, what are You doing?" The question to ask is "God, what are You saying?" First God says it, then He does it. If you know what He is saying to you, you will know what He is about to do in your life. "And God said..." is one of the most revealing statements in the Bible in knowing God.
The question is sometimes asked, "How do we put together the fact that God created male and female in chapter 1 and then chapter 2 describes God forming Adam from the dust of the ground and then forming Eve from Adam's rib? There are several different interpretations. I have settled on one that relies upon another way of God; God gives through one to many. God created males and females in His image in chapter 1. They were given responsibilities and blessings from God. But in chapter 2 God made one man with something the others did not have; He gave him His Spirit. "Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature." Genesis 2:7. This particular (singular article "the") man, Adam, God gave something the others did not have, a personal relationship with God by His Spirit breathed into Adam's life. Adam had a "living life." I believe that Adam had the added responsibility of sharing the with-God life with the men and women that God created by the way he would care for the garden. Adam was also given the unique responsibility of naming all of the animals and the birds. This gave him the authority to also speak and govern, like God. Adam tended the garden without sweating. He simply spoke what he would hear God say (authority) and it would happen, just like God.
In chapter 3 we see how it all changed, sin entered the world through unbelief. God gave Adam and Eve a perfect place to live in a perfect relationship with Himself. The serpent entered into the garden and Satan spoke through the serpent to Eve requiring an answer from her concerning what God had said, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?'" "What is going on here?" is a question that Adam should have spoken up and said at this point. We do not answer to the animals and birds, they answer to us. We ask the questions and they are to respond, not the other way around. But Adam was silent. Eve tries to answer with what God has said, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, You shall not of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die." Then came the lie. "You will not really die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Much can be said about this. Satan did not tempt Adam and Eve (all of the "you" in this section are plural yous; in Texas we say "yall") to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He tempted them with the lie that they would not die and then tempted them with the lie that they did not need to receive the knowledge of good and evil from God, they could get it on their own. This temptation would then lead them to no longer trust God and what He said. Temptation is always a lie that leads us away from what God has said. This is why it is so important not only to know what God has said, but to speak what God has said, especially when we are being tempted toward something other than what God has said. This is the way Jesus answered the tempter in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11). In answering the tempter with God's word, we invoke the authority of God over the tempter! It is the way of escape that God has provide for us (1 Corinthians 10:13), His Word!
Another point is important in light of this; sin is first of all unbelief. The fruit of unbelief is disobedience, sins. But make sure you keep this clear, the doctrine of sin is unbelief, not disobedience. Why the difference? In studying world religions I discovered that they all have something in common; their doctrine of sin. They all identify sin as disobedience to a deity or deities. They also all have in common the doctrine of righteousness being obedience. This is not hard to figure out. But in Christianity, which is not a religion, but rather a relationship, the doctrine of sin begins with unbelief and the doctrine of righteousness begins with faith. Disobedience is the fruit of sin, unbelief (with serious consequences), and obedience is the fruit of faith (with indescribable rewards).
Chapter 4 tells the horrible story of how this unbelief is passed on the sons Adam and Eve and how one overcame it (Abel) and how the other did not (Cain). Cain killed his brother Abel because he rejected God's correction in how to worship, with faith. God condemned Cain to a life of wandering, but Cain rejected this word by settling down and building a city. Chapter 4 describes the offspring of Cain as being people of great "doing." Adam and Eve have another son named Seth. Seth's descendants don't "do" much, except have offspring and call upon the name of the LORD. One of them, Enoch, walked with God. This is the only thing we see them "doing." Of course, having offspring is doing something. What is the point? Relationships seem to be the only thing they "worked" while Cain's descendants built cities, invented musical instruments, killed people, developed livestock management (a funny way of farming and eating grass), and inventing instruments of bronze and iron (for farming or for fighting?). What a difference there is between the descendants of Cain and of Seth. The lesson is clear that "doing" apart from "being" is to be avoided, and that "being" in accomplished and developed in a relationship. Trust is essential in a relationship. When there is unbelief, the relationship is broken.
Chapters 6-10 describe the world-wide flood that changed the appearance of the earth. Noah, his wife, their sons, and their wives were the only people that were saved, along with birds and animals that God called into the ark. It is important to note that it was not Noah's ark as we sometimes mistakenly call it; it was God's ark that He entrusted to Noah. Noah built it with the specific instructions from God, but throughout the whole story it is simply called "the ark." We are quick to put the apostrophe "s" with our name and call it ours, when in fact all that we have is a gift from God. We don't own it, we are entrusted with it and will give an account one day for everything that God has given to us, beginning with His Son, Jesus Christ, the ark of salvation, not from the water judgment of God but from the fiery wrath of God. Only in Christ are we saved.
We close this section of reading with the story of what happened after the flood and how Noah's three sons repopulated the earth. We are also told of how these descendants of Noah immediately began to fall back into a life of unbelief and disobedience. Instead of spreading out and multiplying over all the earth, like God said (9:7), they decided to gather together and build something. Does this sound like the Cain's descendants? It does. They built a city and began the first skyscraper project, the tower of Babel. Their purpose echoes the first temptation of "on our own." Then they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth." Genesis 11:4. God stopped them in their plans by confusing their speech and they could not understand each other. We are back to the idea of speaking and things happening. They were using their words to be in direct disobedience to God because they did not believe His words. This is an authority issue. They did not recognize God's authority in their lives and so they started speaking and doing their own plans and will rather than God's. God confused, garbled their words (babbled their words) so they could not continue to create their unbelief into more and more sin. The sinful, unbelieving world has continued seeking to understand and communicate with one another apart from communication with God ever since. On our own we have managed to build and produce death, famine, sickness, war, division, unending arguments and problems, all because we have not, will not, listen to God and trust Him. Chapter 12 begins with another word from God, an invitation to Abram.
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