Last week we introduced our new series on Genesis- back to the beginning, seeing how God establishes life through creation, fall, redemption and repeat. This week we are kicking off the specific verses, going from Genesis 1 to Genesis 50.

If you are familiar with Genesis 1 or remember how it started from last week, this is what we read: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Which means there are a few dilemmas right off the bat with the first sentence of the Bible.

First, some of you are already coming into this discussion with a belief about how God created the heavens and the earth. (hold that thought)

Second, some of you are wondering, how in the world does a “creation” story impact my life today.

Hopefully, by the end of the week, both of those observations will be shifted to something greater.

First of all, seeing Genesis 1 and 2 as a creation story. Let me take you on a brief journey of my understanding of the creation story. I grew up believing, based upon how Genesis 1 was read to me, children’s books, and some studying that God created the heavens and the earth in 7, literal 24-hour days, to the point that I would argue about it with my science friends. Which, some of you here today believe that as well, creation is 7-litearl 24-hour days.

I then went to a Christian college and began to unpack Genesis more and was introduced to deeper teaching; such as parts of Genesis was written like poetry and it was more descriptive than scientific. As well as looking at how the days were created, how did we measure time when the sun, moon, and stars, by which we mark time, weren’t created until “day 4”? So I began to look at days as periods of time, not a point in time.

Then we would have discussion around science and the discovery of fossils and dinosaurs and how could we say that we lived with a young earth (6,000 years old) when that doesn’t count for all the other science questions.

So here we sit, young earth versus old earth, 7- 24 hour day creation, to evolution to somewhere in between. And yet, is that what the author of Genesis is getting our attention with?

What if your idea of the creation story isn’t what you think it is? That Genesis 1 and 2 is actually bigger than that?

Creation story isn’t what you think it is, it’s bigger than that.

Remember, what is bible? Yes, the Bible is the written, inspired Word of God. AND it is an ancient text. What I mean by that, is that Genesis 1 and 2 isn’t a science textbook, it is a recording, inspired by God, of how the ancient people saw and interacted with “the beginning.”

At the time of this ancient writing there were competing beliefs about the creation story. You can read creation accounts from the Babylonians to the Egyptians to the Canaanites, which some of them are wild and I would encourage you not to read them to your children.
Which means, the Israelites had a personal God, YHWH, and they wanted to understand and share how their God, the one and only God created the heavens and the earth, hence we have Genesis 1 and 2.

Because guess what, the ancient people, who recorded Genesis 1 and 2 weren’t asking questions about young earth or old earth, they weren’t looking at theistic evolution or macro to micro evolution. They weren’t asking themselves those questions. They wanted to reveal the One True God.

If we go back to our text, Genesis 1:1- In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The ancient text is telling us what? What is clear? God is creator.

But if your faith rises and falls with being ABSOLUTELY certain about the HOW of creation, then you have a Jesus plus something faith. And that isn’t faith in Christ. That is faith in self or having the right understanding more than having faith in Christ.

For some of you today, you need to lay down your hard-core view of creation as priority and see how God is getting our attention in this ancient, Spirit-inspired text for something more than just a creation story.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying understanding creation isn’t important. I’m saying having the only source of our understanding of creation be based upon Genesis 1 and 2 isn’t the point of the Biblical text. Revealing who God is, that’s the point.

Today, I want you to wrestle with what it means to you for Genesis 1:1- In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. What is important about this declaration? What do you need to lay down about this your assumptions of this declaration?

May this be a prayer for you, “God, as you were revealed on the pages of Gensis 1 and 2, would you reveal to me, who you are and how you want to create in my life.”