Numbers 19, Genesis 1 & 2

July 25, 2020 Uncategorized

And so, with 38 years to kill, Moses sits down around the campfire and begins to unwind a tale about the God who has delivered them from Egypt.

The narratives of the Book of Genesis deserve to be heard in the context in which they were first told and received. Israel has seen their God at work, liberating them from slavery with a great and mighty hand. Now, with time on their hands, there is the opportunity to muse upon and to reflect about who this God is and what it is that he is up to.

Naturally, Moses begins at the beginning. He starts his tale with the famous account of God’s creation.

Is this narrative rightly used as a science book, unfolding the features of God’s created order? Is Genesis 1 & 2 really about the world, or is it more about God? And what is it that Moses’ especially highlights about God? God carefully orders and divides. He is purposeful. God is repeatedly “separating.” He makes things in “their kind” to reproduce in “their kind.” Things are not random or higgledy-piggledy. God is deliberate in differentiating–a very worthwhile observation to make on the heels of Korah’s rebellion, in which the mutineer declared, “All men are equal!”