If I could summarize the first 11 chapters of Genesis it would be these four statements – I call it “The Theology of the Beginnings.”

God created and owns the Universe.
God created it all for a special purpose: to live in community with humanity.
Humanity fell from this special purpose.
God put a rescue plan into action to redeem and restore us.

Notice that only number one is really about beginnings alone. . . the other three are about beginnings – but more importantly, they’re about relationships.

Take some time right now to read Genesis 1:1-2:4. This passage sets forth Israel’s belief concerning the origin and purpose of the created order; it is a creed of sorts, a formal summary of the principles of the faith of the people of Israel: God created the Universe; God owns the Universe; God created it all for a special purpose – to live in loving community with humanity.

Let’s talk about God creating the Heavens and the Earth. Some people suggest the purpose for Genesis is simply to insist that God created the Universe – however, they tend to go way overboard on that very narrow piece of the biblical narrative. We should all believe that God created the heavens and the earth – but there is a lot more to the Beginnings than simply that God created the Heavens and the Earth. There are those who only want that specific message out there - which most Bible-believing people already believe – but they want to argue about it as if that is the most important thing. We’re not going to argue about how long ago God created the world – and we’re not going to argue about how long, exactly, it took Him to create; it could be 10,000 years ago, it could be 10 trillion years ago; it may have taken Him seven days, it could have taken Him 7 seconds, it could have taken 7 million years or no time at all.

Don’t misunderstand me. I believe in creation – in “intelligent design,” and that it was our God who intelligently designed it. I also believe God created humanity and that we did not evolve. Oh, I believe in evolution – of cats and dogs and moss and viruses and lower life-forms, but not of humanity, but I won’t fight with anyone about how long ago it took place or about the process of creation or the depth and breadth of any evolutionary process.

Even the so-called, dyed-in-the-wool “creationists” are divided into several camps such as “young earth” with the earth only a few thousand years old and “old earth” with the earth in the hundreds of thousands to millions to billions of years of age. The “young earthers” take the English translation “day” in Genesis to mean a 24-hour period, but the “old-earthers” are familiar with the Hebrew word “yôm” which is translated as “day” in English. The full lexical meaning of the word “yôm,” when used in the singular as it is in Genesis, actually means “day, a number of days, time, and year.” It denotes both a point in time and a sphere of time; used in reference to a period of 24 hours OR a year OR time in general, it carries the sense of “when” – on some particular day, in the timeline of something, OR something with some sense of continuity.

What we must take away from Genesis is that God created! Our God spoke our universe and our world into being – our sun and our solar system, even all of earth’s nature came about because of God’s will and plan. Why is believing that so important? Because there are those who believe someone else – or a pantheon of gods or god-like creatures – created the Universe. Others want us to believe there is no intellect involved in creation – just science. Period.

Genesis 1:1-2:4 sets forth Israel’s creed concerning the origin and purpose of the created order: God created the Heavens and the Earth. This creed also completely rejects the views of surrounding nations. Israel’s neighbors worshipped false, non-existing god. The beliefs these neighbors held regarding the origin of the world are false.

For example, the Babylonians had the Enuma Elish – their own version of creation in which neither heaven nor earth existed and the watery chaos was ruled by Apsu (fresh water) and his consort Tiamet (the sea). These two gave birth to several heavenly twins who all made so much noise that Apsu and Tiamat contrived to kill their offspring, but Ea, the wise earth god killed Apsu before the plan could be put into effect. Tiamat used her creative powers to bring into existence several terrifying monsters, ruled by her son Kingu. But Ea’s son, Marduk entered the frey. He was promised supreme kingship of all the gods if he could defeat Tiamat and Kingu. He won, Tiamat was split in two, and Marduk used half of her body to form the heavens and the other half to form the earth – and some of the other gods were placed in the heavens to be the sun, moon, and stars.

Hmmm.

The Egyptians believed that in the beginning there was only the swirling watery chaos, called Nu. Out of these chaotic waters rose the sun god Atum-Ra. Atum-Ra, sometimes called only Ra, created himself using only his thoughts and will. Ra created more gods because he was all alone in the world. Since Ra had no mate, he made a union with his shadow as a way of procreating offspring. for this reason, Atum-Ra is regarded as a bisexual god and is sometimes called the “Great He-She” – the one and only creative force in the universe.
Here is what the religions of the world taught:
• There are many gods – vying for power.
• These gods used pre-existing materials to form the universe.
• The sun, moon, and stars are gods and goddesses people must worship.
• Humanity is locked into a closed, repetitious cycle of history going nowhere.
• Humanity was an afterthought in the creative process.
• The gods of creation are in some what responsible for creating evil.
• Creation came into existence as the result of a chaotic struggle.
• Continuing order in creation depends upon the rituals people perform.

We – like the people of Israel - reject all of that – and Genesis 1:1-2:4 is our belief statement stating quite the opposite. The Genesis account gives us this:
• There is only one God.
• God created everything by speaking His all-powerful Word.
• The sun, moon, and stars are put in place to provide light.
• History has a beginning, a purpose, and a goal.
• Humanity was the high point or crowning achievement in creation.
• God’s purposes in creation were good, and His creation is inherently good.
• Creation came into being in an orderly fashion.
• Order continues in creation because of God’s Word of command. “It is good!” and “God rested” means He put creation into place and doesn’t have to continue creating.

We’ve said that Genesis 1:1-2:4 is a creed or a belief statement – a formal summary of the principles of the faith of the people of Israel about the fact that God created the Universe for a special purpose. Christians also tend to be creedal people – we have the Apostle’s Creed, for example, to formally summarize the principles of our faith. The Apostle’s Creed states: “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth. . .” Many suggest the Apostles’ Creed might be expressed better if two words were added: “maker - and owner - of Heaven and Earth. . .”

When we read Genesis 1:28-30 we see that God told Adam and Eve to “subdue” the earth, and “rule over” fish and birds and living creatures, and that God gave them every seed-bearing plant and tree to use for food – but he never gave Adam and Eve the earth as their possession. Where we get the idea that the Earth is ours alone is a mystery. In fact, Psalm 24:1 tells us: “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it...” God created the Heavens and the Earth – placed us in it to live in community – but He still owns it!

So – here are the first two key statements in our Genesis Creed:
God created the Universe
God owns the Universe.

When God said in 1:26, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness” He was saying a lot. In the ancient Near East, the gods of the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Egyptians, and the Hittites created for themselves – the world was their environment for their enjoyment and existence. People were created only as an afterthought, when the gods needed slave labor to help provide the conveniences of life (such as irrigation trenches). It’s a very different story in the Bible. In the Bible the world was created and organized to function on behalf of the people that God planned as the centerpiece of His creation. Why did God create the universe? Certainly not to add anything to Himself, since He needed nothing. He created the Universe for us – to live in community with Him!

Warren Wiersbe writes: “Actually, creation limits God, since the Eternal must now confine Himself to work in time and human history.” Yet He loves that limitation! God loves to be confined to us. The crowning achievement in creation was humanity – being made into His likeness and into His image. It’s why He created in the first place – to have you and to have me in His family.

This was a peculiar distinction, the value appears in the words being used twice: in our image – in our likeness. What was this image of God? We don’t see God’s image in the walking, talking, breathing form or features of humanity – and it’s certainly not in our intellect. It’s not even tied to eternity – because God has an eternal past as well as an eternal future. We’re created in the likeness of God in two ways: in the moral nature of our souls - and in God’s desire to have us join the Heavenly Community. We’re capable of being covered in God’s righteousness, and by His living in us, doing great, wonderful things and interacting with a holy God.

We learn a bit more about this relationship with God and with one another in Genesis 2:4-25. Take time to read that account of the heavens and the earth when they were created.

This is not a repeat of the creation account – this is about something else. If it were a repeat – it has some flaws: in the first account in Genesis 1:1-2:4, Adam and Eve were created on the sixth day after plants and trees and after the first rain; in Genesis 2:4-7, Adam is created BEFORE any shrub or tree or rain. But it’s not a mistake – it’s teaching us something different – we’re being taught about relationships, especially our relationship with God and our relationship within the family.

God spoke everything into being except man and woman – these He fashioned with His hands and breathed His breath of life into them. He created man to be in God’s image. It’s the image of a potter molding clay – and then bringing it to glorious life. Nothing else in creation gets this special treatment. It shows just how very dependent upon God humans are for their very breath – but by putting His breath into us, it proves a wondrous relationship never before seen in the creation!

God then made the Garden of Eden and all the animals for man – but it was still not enough: God went to work again to create a suitable helpmate for Adam. But woman was not formed of the earth – like Adam – she is formed of Adam himself, bone of bone and flesh of flesh. She became flesh of his flesh – and Adam was thrilled to have Eve join him and create the first human marriage and the first human family. They were one with one another and one with God. If you read Genesis and all you get is that God created the Heavens and the Earth – you’re missing the most important parts!

It’s about: creation; order; good; meaning and purpose; but it’s primarily about relationships – us with God and God with us!

I mentioned last week that Karl Barth – the great Swisss theologian, once said: “The Church is formed to be a provisional display of God’s original intention.” The Church is meant to be the restored community. We’re to live that way God originally intended. You and I are to enjoy creation, take care of it as a loaned gift, love God, love one another, and live in a peaceful, harmonious, loving community with one another. It’s what God created for us – and it’s what we as Christ’s Church have been restored to do.

Now – here is where a million dollar question arises from Genesis: “If God made all things, owns all things, arranged them in an orderly manner, and made all things good, and intended humanity to enjoy God’s good creation for ever – what went wrong?” Genesis chapters 2-11 answers that big question. Genesis chapter 1 states that God acted only in goodness, wisdom, love, and providence – but Genesis 2-11 states that humanity responded only with open rebellion and ingratitude!

When Adam and Eve choose to separate themselves from God, it was like giant earthquake came along and demolished and crumbled this beautiful home God had built for humanity. You’ve seen the aftermath of horrible tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis: houses blown apart, shattered, disintegrated – in mere seconds. Their contents strewn about; some things in the house never been found again. Later on, you see a contractor trying to pick up all the pieces and rebuild the house.

Genesis 1 and 2 sees God building this splendid house for humanity.
Genesis 3 sees humanity and their sin explode the house into a gazillion pieces.
Genesis 4-11 shows God beginning to pick up the pieces.
The rest of the Bible – the other 99% shows God re-building the house.

In an earthquake – it takes seconds to destroy, and a long, long time to rebuild.

We’ve just recently marked a year anniversary of the big earthquake in Haiti, and yet now, after a full year, millions of people still have no permanent home. Thousands are dying from Cholera from infected water and horrible living conditions in large tent cities that cover thousands of acres. Home destroyed may take 3, 5 maybe 10 years to re-build.

The Bible’s beginnings tells a similar story – the house is humanity, the earthquake is sin, and the builder is God. . . and He’s rebuilding through Christ, and it takes a lot more time to put it back together than it took to knock it down.

The sin of rebellion Adam and Eve chose to embrace spread. It started with the parents, spread to their offspring, then disrupted the relationship between humanity and Heaven. It started in the Garden, caused strife and hard toil in the fields, and caused strife between humanity and all of nature.

God created humanity to live in a loving community – now that is destroyed.
God created man and woman to live as one – now that is damaged.
God created us to live in families – now those ties are broken.
God created us to live harmoniously with animals and the fields – but that is spoiled.

Sin started as a ripple – but became a tsunami. It spread like cancer throughout humanity – and humanity is now held in the grip of sin’s power. It got so bad that God decided to wash the earth clean and allow a smaller remnant of humanity to eke out an existence – so the flood came, Noah saved the animals and a few humans. Those few humans began to repopulate the earth, and those humans decided to force our way back to God – so the Tower of Babel was erected as our way to get back to Heaven, but God caused us to be confused by the disruption of our language.

All of this from Genesis chapter 2 through chapter 11 point us to Abraham – the man with whom God begins to create a specific chosen group of people to become His instruments to put right what went wrong.

God’s salvation can be seen throughout the process.
We sin.
God judges by cursing our existence and barring us from paradise.
Then God provides skins to hide our nakedness and disgrace.
(SIN-JUDGMENT-GRACE)

Cain murders Abel.
God judges Cain by expelling him from community.
Then God provides a sign on Cain to keep people from killing him.
(SIN-JUDGMENT-GRACE)

Demons and humans sin more and populate the earth.
God judges and sends a flood.
Then God sends Noah to rescue a remnant of humanity.
(SIN-JUDGMENT-GRACE)

Our pride and arrogance cause us to build the Tower of Babel to reach God.
God judges and causes us to be dispersed from one another.
Then God calls Abraham to create a NEW COMMUNITY.
(SIN-JUDGMENT-GRACE)

Genesis is all about beginnings – but more importantly, it’s about relationships. It’s not a collection of disconnected stories, but stories of progression showing a unity of purpose, leading to the call of Abraham to become the father of a people who would outnumber the grains of sand on the seashore, and outnumber the stars in the sky and change the world by being a blessing. The over-arching concern in Genesis – beginnings and relationships – is to set the stage for human history and explain why it was necessary for God to call Abraham and form the new community to be God’s chosen people – the beginnings of a rescue plan to save a lost and wandering humanity.

In a nutshell, the theology we’ve learned is simply this:

God created the Universe – and owns the Universe.
God created it all for a special purpose – to live in community with humanity.
Humanity fell from this special purpose.
God put a rescue plan into action.

We were created to live in a love relationship with Him and with one another, but we fell from that great, wonderful plan. God acted in calling Abraham to create a new community – and Christ came over 2,000 years later to usher in a better version of that new community – called the church.

The goal of Christ’s Church in today’s world is to help restore people to that loving community He originally put in place. So we see in the beginnings of the world God working for our good – and now we see that Christ has established you and me as a New Community to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.

Will you answer that call? Will you see the beginnings and the relationships talked about in Genesis as the foundations of the Church we now know today? Will you step up to the challenge of living in the restored community and become God’s instruments for reaching a lost humanity?