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Parashah בראשית -
Genesis 1:1-6:9
Genesis 1:1-6:9
Ha-Foke-Ba
, , , , ,
II.
Message
II.
Message
A. The message of Genesis shapes everything.
i.
New series on Bereshit starts today and ends December 30 with the last portion of Bereshit called Vayeḥi ויחי.
ii.
Like all the five books of the Torah, Bereshit, is a literary masterpiece.
What I mean is this, the book of Genesis was not haphazardly thrown together.
The book has a beautiful shape, it has all the signs of literary composition in story telling and arrangement and thought.
iii.
For instance, dramatic irony bookends the entire book of Genesis.
At the start of the story we are introduced to two trees: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
One tree brings life and the other tree brings knowledge or wisdom.
iv.
But we know, Eve and Adam, wrongfully took from the tree of knowledge and as a result lost out on the tree of life and really lost out on the knowledge that God would have given them.
They pride fully overstepped their boundaries and lost both life and knowledge.
v.
At the end of Genesis, really the last third of Genesis we are introduced to Joseph.
A young who faces cruel and unjust suffering but because of his amazing wisdom that comes from God he is able to save lives.
vi.
Remember what Joseph says to His brothers at their last meal together in
vii.
At the end of Genesis, Joseph the man who humbled himself to God’s will received God’s wisdom and saved many lives.
Joseph, in a dramatic ironic twist, becomes the embodiment of both the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
viii.
That is amazing writing.
For us it is more than amazing writing.
Those last words of Joseph to his brothers is the entire theme of Genesis, “What humankind planned for evil.
God planned it for good to preserve the lives of many people.
ix.
Or another way of saying it is this: Genesis is God’s rescue plan for a rebellious people through Abraham’s family.
x.
This first parashot in Genesis explains “what went wrong” and “what is God’s plan to rescue a rebellious people?”
Rabbbi Vowell Targets Genesis True Purpose
Genesis is secondarily about cosmic origins.
Space: There are only 34 verses from Genesis 1:1-2:3 about the origins of all things.
In most Bibles that is less than ½ of an 8 ½ by 11 sheet paper.
a.
There are 44 verses dedicated to the Fall of Adam and Eve from the Garden
b.
There are 32 verses dedicated to the Genealogy of Adam plus and additional 8 to the intro of Noah totally 40 verses.
c.
There are 26 words dedicated to Cain’s family
d.
And if you are being honest there are only 5 verses possibly dedicated to cosmic origins – Day 1 – and the rest is dedicated to the creation of Earth.
Repetition: After the initial story of creation, it is not mentioned again.
However, the most repeated word in Genesis 1:1-6:8 is the name “Adam” and the most repeated idea: man’s prideful rebellion and wickedness.
Creationism: Yes, I am card holding young earth guy who believes in an intelligent designer but that was not the original purpose Genesis was written.
As a matter of fact, we know that when ancient Israel would have heard there God took seven days to create the earth they would have thought, “Why so long?”
I want to rescue Genesis from an unnecessary argument so we can really see the purpose of the Book for Israel and for us.
When Israel was in Egypt and coming out of Egypt they were trying to make sense of the world they knew.
A world dominated by evil kings called Pharaohs.
Israel needed to know “what went wrong” and “what is God’s plan to rescue a rebellious people?”
Moses Stretches the Imagination
C. Moses Stretches the Imagination
If you lived in the ancient world, chances are, you lived under the rule and authority of a king.
Kings loved to make images of themselves and put it all over their kingdom and in the countries they conquered and controlled.
We do the same thing today.
Wherever their image was placed, this is where there “divine kingship” was established.
We All Get This If you lived in the ancient world, chances are, you lived under the rule and authority of a king.
Kings loved to make images of themselves and put it all over their kingdom and in the countries they conquered and controlled.
Wherever their image was placed, this is where there “divine kingship” was established.
You heard me correctly, “Divine Kingship.”
Many of the ancient kings believed they were “gods” and they even called themselves, “the image of God.”
So, since they were the image of God they created statues of themselves that in Hebrew is called a tzelem or “image.”
iv.
Here is the thing.
In the Hebrew Bible, we are not supposed to makes images of gods, idols, really of anything.
God can make images but we are not to make images.
Now we are not just talking about drawing faces on money, we are talking about making images that express someone’s ultimate rule of your heart and life.
God forbids the Jewish people from making those kinds of images.
Why aren’t we to make images of God especially?
Why is this like the one thing God gets really irate over?
People aren’t to make images of God because God has already made in image of Himself.
He put His image, his likeness in human beings.
vi.
(cf.
psalm 8).
The task that once belonged to elite kings now belongs to everyone.
What do God’s image bearers, His little kings and queens do?
There are three things in the Garden that receive God’s divine blessing:
a. Work (Guard/Serve)
b.
Marriage (Multiply/Love)
c.
Rest (Keep a Shabbat).
The Image of God is fully expressed when it is being fully used for the benefit of others.
This is our kingship in His image and this was revolutionary to Israel.
Israel only had to look around and it knew from experience, as we do, that we do lots of horrible things with this authority.
Rather than using that authority for the benefit of others we more often use it for our own selfish purposes.
Evil strikes the Image of God
Adam and Eve pridefully overstepped the boundaries of the Image of God.
1.
They did not want to be Image Bearers, they wanted to be the Image that other people bear.
The sons and daughters of Adam were to bear God’s image and enjoy his blessing on their work, marriage and rest but they pride fully overstepped the boundaries of being Image bearers and forfeited God’s blessing.
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