Salvation and the Bible 3: Creation

The day of the conference I was the second speaker. The speaker ahead of me spent the last few minutes of his talk reflecting on The Garden of Eden. He talked about the original perfection and its loss and about God's desire for the world and its inhabitants. He good naturedly and jokingly said, "If anyone says different call them a heretic and burn them at the stake!" Knowing what I was about to say, I was a bit nervous. Let me share it here and my reflections after....

CREATION

Let’s start with creation and look at Genesis. The actual creation accounts are different from the story told in my childhood religious education. In our religion books we had pictures of Adam and Eve. Remember how she tastefully combed her long hair and he modestly stood behind bushes to spare our young eyes anything too revealing? They were usually surrounded by wild animals, most notably a lion and some sheep. In their naked, primal innocence, we learned, everything was perfect. Perfect. Until the apple mishap and ever since….misery! Booo! They blew a perfect deal!

Reading the Bible with that story in mind, it was many decades before I actually saw that the Biblical account was not quite so simple or perfect….

Let’s look at Genesis 1:26

The human is made in God’s image and likeness. For thousands of years people have debated about exactly what it means to be the image of God. Some think it refers to reason. Others free will. Perhaps it is creativity. Recently I read that Jewish Law forbids any images (idols) and the only image of God is us. I think there is something there! Whatever the case, everyone is clear that humans have a unique and special place in creation and image/likeness is a way to express that.

Now, I want to look at the Hebrew words which are usually translated as subdue and dominion. (see the Blueletter Bible for an awesome online resource! http://www.blueletterbible.org/ )

Kabash sounds like cavash (Qal) and means to bring into bondage, make subservient to subdue, force, violate, dominate, tread down

Radah (Qal) to have dominion, rule, subjugate

(both verbs are in Qal)

These are conflictual words which seem to imply that the planet was not totally friendly from the beginning. These words appear numerous times in the OT and usually depict events with a violent edge to them; often times about oppressive invasions. Therefore, it seems that, BEFORE the sin of Adam, planet earth was not perfect or compliant. It has always been a struggle to keep things under control. The original state of things was chaos and perhaps the remnants of chaos were still present.

Genesis 2:15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it. Two more words to look at in Hebrew.

‘abad (sounds like avad) (Qal) to labour, work, do work, to work for another, serve another by labour, to serve as subjects, to serve (God)Shamar (Qal) to keep, have charge of, guard, keep watch and ward, protect, save life

These two words also imply struggle. To do labor and work means one is working and doing labor. It does not mean a free and easy, never ending vacation. And if Adam was to watch, guard and protect the question is: Why is their need for protection? from who or what?

So, from the beginning, the earth seems to have been somewhat challenging. There was a degree of “out of control” and a need for humans to work and struggle and battle to keep control.

And there is one other point: in Genesis 3:8, we read that “they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the Garden in the cool of the day.” While we often see the close intimacy of God with humans here, I think it equally important that we also recognize that the absence of God was apparently the norm during the heat of the day. In fact, we are told that Adam and Eve are able to hide from God, so that He has to call to them.

This picture of God is very anthropomorphic and primitive, but that is the nature of the narrative. It does, however, indicate that from the beginning, even before “the fall”, we had some distance from God, even though He made Himself available. God was simply NOT always around. Human autonomy was coupled with responsibility. We were, at least sometimes, left on our own.

Sadly, with the decision to disobey, things got worse. Human relationships are damaged. Human relationship to the earth is cursed. There is pain in childbirth. There is animosity between man and the serpent. But hidden in all of this, say the Church Fathers, is a promised savior. “He will bruise your head and you will bruise his heal.” This refers to the battle between Satan and Jesus, our salvation.

And so we have the setting to discuss salvation. A world in which challenge and struggle was already present is now a broken and cursed world populated by broken and cursed people. Expelled from the Garden, the humans inhabit a more dangerous world. They get some clothes to wear, but the angel’s sword bars any hope for return to Eden. That way is forever closed. The need for salvation is established.

The Bible indicates that God takes us seriously. We are ordered to dominate and protect the world. Our choices and behaviors play a part in the ongoing creation of the world. God has made room for us and given us freedom. Without freedom we cannot love or obey. We would be little more than glorified sock puppets. A Stepford wife may appear outwardly to be perfect, but she is not human. Hers is an empty and faux-imitation of love and devotion, because she is merely a robot. Any pleasure she brings is a meaningless fantasy.

God wants us to be His loving, obedient children. So He took a chance and set us free. And the rest, for better and worse, has been history.

I think these texts are important for purposes of meditation. What was life like "before" the Fall and how is a material and limited creation going to impinge on "perfection." In explaining my image to the group, and in trying to affirm the previous speaker, I suggested mine was a nuance of his position. Eden was good, it was very good. But probably not complete. It was potentially perfect, but the fact is it was lost. And if it could be lost then in what sense was it perfect? It is certainly our belief that in the end we will not lose "the Kingdom" (usually called heaven). SO the Garden was potentially but not a fully realized experience of the fullness of the Kingdom. And conflict and struggle take on a new meaning if that is our original purpose. Maybe our childhood imaginations have ill-equipped us for the reality of life. We will continue the story of Genesis and its impact on understanding salvation tomorrow...