Walk the Bible - Genesis 1

First things first, Genesis's author never names himself, but tradition states it was Moses. This is backed up by Rashi in The Talmud, where he is, quoted as saying, " GOD spoke them, and Moses wrote them with tears".  This would have been taught orally, since just about nobody could read or write. With that in mind, let's look at Genesis 1.

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Right away, GOD shows his power and ownership over everything. No, really! Remember that when this is being written, the Hebrews are just a bunch of slaves wandering the desert under GOD'S direction through Moses. They were leaving one pagan culture where they had separate gods who controlled one thing each, like vassal kings of that Era, who ran their town, but in turn, answered to another, more powerful king, who wanted to keep the people in the town that served him underneath him , and less populous than his army so they wouldn't revolt against them. The gods looked nothing like the humans that served them, to another pagan culture where the gods there made humans to serve them, and again didn't want them to get too numerous, lest they overthrow them. In fact, in the Sumerian  culture, the gods made women unable to have children at all! 

     

In Genesis 1, GOD makes the heaven and the earth. Neither the Egyptian nor the Canaanite religions gods could do that The Sumerian religion starts off with fresh and salt water existing. The Egyptian religion starts off with  earth, light and water existing as well, and if that wasn't enough, in verse 2, the spirit of GOD is shown hoovering over the water, as if the spirit is brooding over it, like a bird would over her eggs.  Neither the Egyptian nor the Canaanite gods had any compassion for their people or their world at all. To the Egyptians, the gods had to be reminded to take care of them , otherwise they'd forget their human , or grow too numerous and overwhelm them. The Sumerian gods saw the Earth as a burden, they created it, then created humans to take care of the Earth for their benefit only. 

     Verses 4 and 5 show GOD creating and naming the day and the night. The act of naming something meant you owned it, it was subservient to you. GOD showed he owned the day and the night. To you and I, that's common knowledge,  however, over in Egypt, where the Hebrews came from, the main God would go to sleep at night, like a human would, and he might not hear the cries of his people at night! Oh, and let's not forget that only the pharaoh could wake him up each morning! The Sumerians believed that an eclipse was an omen of evil and would sacrifice a substitute king to correct this. GOD was showing that this was not necessary, as he was still in control during the day or night, that he needed no sleep as people did and didn't need to be awoken in the morning as the gods of Egypt did.

    

 In verses 6 - 8 GOD creates and names heaven, showing that he owns heaven too, so there is no God higher than him, he's nobody's vassal and he needs no one to be a vassal king to him. It's GOD and only GOD in the heaven,  unlike the Egyptian and Sumerian religions. In verses 9 - 10, GOD creates land by his word alone and, again, shows he owns that too, by naming it.  In the Egyptian myth, this required another god causing the wind to blow and this act created only one triangle of land for the head god to stand on. The closest we have is the Canaanite myth of creating the land which involves two gods fighting, one getting killed and split in half, and one half of his body becomes dry land! This is kind of important because he'll later on make us from clay, which is part of that same land! 

     Verses 11-13 show GOD creating plants and trees by just his word alone, and he even sets them up so that they'll produce more of their own kind naturally, then he said all this was good. Neither the Egyptian or the Canaanite gods did this, in fact, they either said it was too much work for them or that they couldn't be bothered with any of this! Verses 14-19 show GOD creating the sun, the moon and the stars,  once again, showing ownership over them by naming them. He also says what they're to be used for. Many pagan religions worshiped the sun or the moon or certain stars or used these things to predict omens GOD was showing us right from the beginning that he owned them, he was greater than them, and they were to be used for seasons, not fortune telling or worship. 

 

     Verses 20 - 23 show GOD creating the animals in the water, showing that he was greater than them too. The Egyptians believed that their gods would reincarnate as animals on Earth, so they certainly didn't own them, and in  fact, would treat them as if they were gods. GOD was showing that he was greater than those animals too, that and he created them by his word alone too and that they were not gods, nor should we worship them. Verses 24-25 shows GOD creating the animals of the land by his word alone. The Egyptians had gods depicted as kites, jackals, cows. The Canaanites had a  god depicted as a bull.   GOD was showing that he was greater than these animals too, therefore the ancient Hebrews didn't have to worry about some other gods in the pagan lands they were going to, GOD made 'em, he' s already greater than them!

 

     Verses 26-27 show GOD creating man in HIS own image.  Remember that none of the Egyptian gods looked human, nor did the Canaanite gods. Neither of them built man (humankind) in their own image at all. In fact, the Canaanite gods built humankind flawed, definetly not in their image, because according to their myths, we were supposed to be slaves to them! 

     In verse 28 it shows GOD blessing us and telling us to be fruitful and multiply. The Canaanite gods did nothing of the kind, according to their myths, in fact they didn't even create us to be able to reproduce. One of the lower gods had to rebel against the Canaanite main god (Marduk) for that to happen. They most certainly didn't bless us either! 

     The Egyptian gods were just a bit better, according to their myth, a goat headed God created us, and his mistress breathed life into us, and the goat headed God told us what what our job was supposed to be and that's it!  GOD showed that he was greater than these gods and even showed that he cared for us and wasn't afraid of us rebelling by blessing us and telling us to be fruitful and multiply (unlike the Egyptian and Canaanite gods!) Verses 29-31 show GOD providing for us and the aninals he created by not only giving us and them food, but by telling us where it is.  The Canaanite myth shows the gods tilling the earth and getting sick of it, so they make humans so they can do the work for them. GOD, by contrast, has the food already there! No tilling needed, the foods ready to eat!! 

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In short Genesis 1 shows us that GOD owns the heavens and the earth, and everything in it. People, places, things are all his. As the owner he has the final word on anything, even our life, because he created that too. 

Just as GOD wanted Adam and Eve to live in abundance, JESUS came so that we could have abundant life too.  Though the Earth was just created, though there was absolutely no flashy jewelry or things on the Earth, it had GOD'S abundant grace, care and love. Just as GOD created life with just his word, he can create new life in you too. If you don't have it, but you want it, feel free to drop me a line and we'll talk! 

Comments and criticisms accepted!