SO MANY QUESTIONS
Genesis 1:1–2 (NIV84) — 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
The story begins with the bold declaration that God is the creator of the heavens and the earth. We know those words so well and yet over the course of the next first three chapters of the Bible we realize that these familiar words and stories still leave us with many questions. One reason for that is related to the overall style of the Biblical literature, which is both simple, in terms of how the stories are told, and yet also deeply profound, filled with rich meaning and images meant to point us toward God.
We hear about God creating the earth and taking great care to fashion the land and sea, plants and animals, and then to create man and woman. He pronounced all of the creation good, but he added very good for the Adam and Eve. We see the intimate way in which the Biblical account has God gathering the clay of the earth to mold the first human and then bending to breath the very breath of life into his creation. Clearly the overarching image is of a creator God who chooses to make humanity to be in relationship with us. The story takes a dark turn as we in pride show our distrust of the creator God and break God’s heart through disobedient rebellion.
Still we have other questions. We want to know exactly the process God used to create and in what timeframe. We ask what kind of fruit was on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. We wonder where the snake came from and how could it talk to the first couple. Yes, we are so inquisitive that we sometimes miss the garden for the tree.
The person of faith is being asked to put your trust in God from the very beginning of the story and hopefully we can choose to not keep repeating Adam and Eve’s pattern of distrust. We ask God’s spirit to lead us through our journey of exploring the Biblical text and believe God’s promise that the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth. The details given in the text are meant to keep us looking forward to God’s provision and not to get sidetracked with detours that keep us from focusing clearly on God. It is not that our questions don’t matter, but instead that some questions will indeed help us more on the journey. There is a great video produced by the folks at the Bible Project that explains how the style of Ancient Jewish Literature was designed to point us in the right direction (https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/bible-jewish-meditation-literature-h2r).
Ultimately, the Bible is God revealing God’s self to us and inviting us to be in relationship with God, just as God intended from the beginning. So the most important question is, “Who is God?” and “Who are we in relation to God?’ The Bible will help you discover the answer that you are truly looking for.
