God does not need help from anyone or anything to create or maintain the world. No battle with the forces of chaos threatens to undo the creation. God works immanently with his hands to sculpt human bodies Gen. For a helpful discussion of the interpretation of the "Days" of creation, see Bruce K. For a long list of the many kinds of work God does in the Bible, see R.
God is the source of everything in creation. Yet creation is not identical with God. God creates everything, but he also literally sows the seed for the perpetuation of creation through the ages. This gives our work a beauty and value above the value of a ticking clock or a prancing puppet. Our work has its source in God, yet it also has its own weight and dignity. For our purposes it seems best to follow the traditional Christian interpretation that it refers to the Trinity.
In any case, we know from the New Testament that God is indeed in relationship with himself—and with his creation—in a Trinity of love. He was in the beginning with God.
All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. John Nor does it mean that the creation is complete, for, as we will see, God leaves plenty of work for people to do to bring the creation further along.
But chaos had been turned into an inhabitable environment, now supporting plants, fish, birds, animals, and human beings. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude.
And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. God crowns his six days of work with a day of rest. While creating humanity was the climax of God's creative work, resting on the seventh day was the climax of God's creative week.
Why does God rest? But he chooses to limit his creation in time as well as in space. The universe is not infinite. It has a beginning, attested by Genesis, which science has learned how to observe in light of the big bang theory. Whether it has an end in time is not unambiguously clear, in either the Bible or science, but God gives time a limit within the world as we know it. As long as time is running, God blesses six days for work and one for rest.
This is a limit that God himself observes, and it later becomes his command to people, as well Exod. So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. A full theology of the image of God is beyond our scope here, so let us simply note that something about us is uniquely like him. It would be ridiculous to believe that we are exactly like God.
But the chief thing we know about God, so far in the narrative, is that God is a creator who works in the material world, who works in relationship, and whose work observes limits. We have the ability to do the same. The development occurs in two cycles, one in Genesis and the other in Genesis The order of the categories is not exactly in the same order both times, but all the categories are present in both cycles. The second cycle describes how God equips Adam and Eve for their work as they begin life in the Garden of Eden.
The language in the first cycle is more abstract and therefore well-suited for developing principles of human labor. The language in the second cycle is earthier, speaking of God forming things out of dirt and other elements, and is well suited for practical instruction for Adam and Eve in their particular work in the garden.
This shift of language—with similar shifts throughout the first four books of the Bible—has attracted uncounted volumes of research, hypothesis, debate, and even division among scholars. Any general purpose commentary will provide a wealth of details. Most of these debates, however, have little impact on what the book of Genesis contributes to understanding work, workers, and workplaces, and we will not attempt to take a position on them here.
In order to make it easier to follow these themes, we will explore Genesis category by category, rather than verse by verse. The following table gives a convenient index with links for those interested in exploring a particular verse immediately. Genesis Genesis ; As Ian Hart puts it, "Exercising royal dominion over the earth as God's representative is the basic purpose for which God created man Man is appointed king over creation, responsible to God the ultimate king, and as such expected to manage and develop and care for creation, this task to include actual physical work.
As we exercise dominion over the created world, we do it knowing that we mirror God. We are not the originals but the images, and our duty is to use the original—God—as our pattern, not ourselves. Think about the implications of this in our workplaces. How would God go about doing our job? What values would God bring to it? What products would God make? Which people would God serve?
What organizations would God build? What standards would God use? In what ways, as image-bearers of God, should our work display the God we represent? The cycle begins again with dominion, although it may not be immediately recognizable as such. Meredith Kline puts it this way, "God's making the world was like a king's planting a farm or park or orchard, into which God put humanity to 'serve' the ground and to 'serve' and 'look after' the estate. Thus the work of exercising dominion begins with tilling the ground.
From this we see that God's use of the words subdue [3] and dominion in chapter 1 do not give us permission to run roughshod over any part of his creation. Quite the opposite. We are to act as if we ourselves had the same relationship of love with his creatures that God does.
Subduing the earth includes harnessing its various resources as well as protecting them. Dominion over all living creatures is not a license to abuse them, but a contract from God to care for them.
We are to serve the best interests of all whose lives touch ours; our employers, our customers, our colleagues or fellow workers, or those who work for us or who we meet even casually. That does not mean that we will allow people to run over us, but it does mean that we will not allow our self-interest, our self-esteem, or our self-aggrandizement to give us a license to run over others.
The later unfolding story in Genesis focuses attention on precisely that temptation and its consequences. Today we have become especially aware of how the pursuit of human self-interest threatens the natural environment.
We were meant to tend and care for the garden Gen. Creation is meant for our use, but not only for our use. Remembering that the air, water, land, plants, and animals are good Gen. Our work can either preserve or destroy the clean air, water, and land, the biodiversity, the ecosystems, and biomes, and even the climate with which God has blessed his creation. Meredith G. Chisholm Jr. We have already seen that God is inherently relational Gen.
These relationships are not left as philosophical abstractions in Genesis. We see God talking and working with Adam in naming the animals Gen. How does this reality impact us in our places of work? Above all, we are called to love the people we work with, among, and for.
The God of relationship is the God of love 1 John One could merely say that "God loves," but Scripture goes deeper to the very core of God's being as Love, a love flowing back and forth among the Father, the Son John , and the Holy Spirit. This love also flows out of God's being to us, doing nothing that is not in our best interest agape love in contrast to human loves situated in our emotions.
Francis Schaeffer explores further the idea that because we are made in God's image and because God is personal, we can have a personal relationship with God. He notes that this makes genuine love possible, stating that machines can't love. As a result, we have a responsibility to care consciously for all that God has put in our care. Being a relational creature carries moral responsibility.
Because we are made in the image of a relational God, we are inherently relational ourselves. We are made for relationships with God himself and also with other people.
All of his creative acts had been called "good" or "very good," and this is the first time that God pronounces something "not good.
When Eve arrives, Adam is filled with joy. After this one instance, all new people will continue to come out of the flesh of other human beings, but born by women rather than men. Although this may sound like a purely erotic or family matter, it is also a working relationship. The word helper indicates that, like Adam, she will be tending the garden. To be a helper means to work. Someone who is not working is not helping. To be a partner means to work with someone, in relationship.
Clearly, an ezer is not a subordinate. It is a tragic consequence of the Fall Gen. Relationships are not incidental to work; they are essential. Work serves as a place of deep and meaningful relationships, under the proper conditions at least.
A yoke is what makes it possible for two oxen to work together. In Christ, people may truly work together as God intended when he made Eve and Adam as co-workers.
For more on yoking, see the section on 2 Corinthians in the Theology of Work Commentary. A crucial aspect of relationship modeled by God himself is delegation of authority. God delegated the naming of the animals to Adam, and the transfer of authority was genuine. Much of the past fifty years of development in the fields of leadership and management has come in the form of delegating authority, empowering workers, and fostering teamwork.
The foundation of this kind of development has been in Genesis all along, though Christians have not always noticed it. Many people form their closest relationships when some kind of work—whether paid or not—provides a common purpose and goal. In turn, working relationships make it possible to create the vast, complex array of goods and services beyond the capacity of any individual to produce. Without relationships at work, there are no automobiles, no computers, no postal services, no legislatures, no stores, no schools, no hunting for game larger than one person can bring down.
And without the intimate relationship between a man and a woman, there are no future people to do the work God gives. Our work and our community are thoroughly intertwined gifts from God.
Together they provide the means for us to be fruitful and multiply in every sense of the words. Francis A. God could have created everything imaginable and filled the earth himself.
It gives us the first hint of God's provision for redemption from the forces of evil compare with Ro and contains the oldest and most profound statement concerning the significance of faith ; see note there. More than half of Heb 11 -- a NT list of the faithful -- refers to characters in Genesis. The message of a book is often enhanced by its literary structure and characteristics. Genesis is divided into ten main sections, each beginning with the word "account" see ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; -- repeated for emphasis at -- and The first five sections can be grouped together and, along with the introduction to the book as a whole -- , can be appropriately called "primeval history" -- This introduction to the main story sketches the period from Adam to Abraham and tells about the ways of God with the human race as a whole.
The last five sections constitute a much longer but equally unified account, and relate the story of God's dealings with the ancestors of his chosen people Israel Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph and their families -- a section often called "patriarchal history" -- This section is in turn composed of three narrative cycles Abraham-Isaac, -- ; Isaac-Jacob, -- ; ; Jacob-Joseph, -- , interspersed by the genealogies of Ishmael and Esau ch.
Such emphasis on divinely chosen men and their families is perhaps the most obvious literary and theological characteristic of the book of Genesis as a whole. It strikingly underscores the fact that the people of God are not the product of natural human developments, but are the result of God's sovereign and gracious intrusion in human history. He brings out of the fallen human race a new humanity consecrated to himself, called and destined to be the people of his kingdom and the channel of his blessing to the whole earth.
Numbers with symbolic significance figure prominently in Genesis. The number ten, in addition to being the number of sections into which Genesis is divided, is also the number of names appearing in the genealogies of chs. The number seven also occurs frequently. The Hebrew text of consists of exactly seven words and that of of exactly 14 twice seven.
There are seven days of creation, seven names in the genealogy of ch. Other significant numbers, such as 12 and 40, are used with similar frequency. The book of Genesis is basically prose narrative, punctuated here and there by brief poems the longest is the so-called Blessing of Jacob in Much of the prose has a lyrical quality and uses the full range of figures of speech and other devices that characterize the world's finest epic literature.
Vertical and horizontal parallelism between the two sets of three days in the creation account see note on ; the ebb and flow of sin and judgment in ch. It is no coincidence that many of the subjects and themes of the first three chapters of Genesis are reflected in the last three chapters of Revelation. We can only marvel at the superintending influence of the Lord himself, who assures us that "all Scripture is God-breathed" 2Ti and that the men who wrote it "spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" 2Pe All rights reserved.
Used with permission. Plus Toggle navigation. There were no telescopes, space exploration, or means of testing the atmosphere. They relied on what their senses told them. Biblical scholars agree on this understanding of raqia. For some Christians, however, this is troubling. How can the Bible, which is the inspired, revealed word of God, contain such an inaccurate piece of ancient nonsense?
Hence, some invest a lot of time and energy to show that the raqia is not solid but more like the atmosphere. Arguing for a non-solid raqia in Genesis is extremely problematic, for two reasons.
First, the biblical and extrabiblical data indicate that raqia means a solid structure of some sort. The second problem is a much larger theological issue, but is actually more foundational. Regardless of what one thinks of the raqia, why would anyone assume that the ancient cosmology in Genesis could be expected to be in harmony with modern science in the first place?
This second issue creates a conflict where they need not be one. Our understanding of ancient perceptions of the cosmos has not been overturned by more information. The debate exists because of the assumption made by some Christians that the ancient biblical description of the world must be compatible on a scientific level with what we know today. Genesis and modern science are neither enemies nor friends, but two different ways of describing the world according to the means available to the people living at these different times.
To insist that the description of the sky in Genesis 1 must conform to contemporary science is a big theological problem. It is important to remember that God always speaks in ways that people can actually understand.
In the ancient world, people held certain views about the world around them. Those views are also reflected in Genesis. She was in Chezib when she bore him. So Tamar went to live in her father's house. She saw that Shelah was grown up, yet she had not been given to him in marriage. She said, "What will you give me, that you may come in to me?
Now Joseph was handsome and good-looking. How then could I do this great wickedness, and sin against God? He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice; [] and when he heard me raise my voice and cry out, he left his garment beside me, and fled outside.
Please tell them to me. As soon as it budded, its blossoms came out and the clusters ripened into grapes. And Pharaoh awoke.
Pharaoh awoke, and it was a dream. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was no one who could interpret them to Pharaoh. When we told him, he interpreted our dreams to us, giving an interpretation to each according to his dream.
When he had shaved himself and changed his clothes, he came in before Pharaoh. I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it. Never had I seen such ugly ones in all the land of Egypt.
Then I awoke. But when I told it to the magicians, there was no one who could explain it to me. They are seven years of famine. Thus Joseph gained authority over the land of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went through all the land of Egypt. There was famine in every country, but throughout the land of Egypt there was bread. Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, "Go to Joseph; what he says to you, do. And Joseph's brothers came and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground.
They said, "From the land of Canaan, to buy food. He said to them, "You are spies; you have come to see the nakedness of the land!
The rest of you shall go and carry grain for the famine of your households, [] and bring your youngest brother to me. Thus your words will be verified, and you shall not die. That is why this anguish has come upon us. But you would not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood. And he picked out Simeon and had him bound before their eyes. This was done for them. Then I will release your brother to you, and you may trade in the land.
When they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were dismayed. All this has happened to me! Put him in my hands, and I will bring him back to you. If harm should come to him on the journey that you are to make, you would bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.
Have you another brother? Could we in any way know that he would say, 'Bring your brother down'? If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever. Carry back with you the money that was returned in the top of your sacks; perhaps it was an oversight. As for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved. Then they went on their way down to Egypt, and stood before Joseph. So we have brought it back with us.
We do not know who put our money in our sacks. Is he still alive? God be gracious to you, my son! So he went into a private room and wept there. So they drank and were merry with him. Why have you stolen my silver cup? Does he not indeed use it for divination? You have done wrong in doing this.
Far be it from your servants that they should do such a thing! Then each one loaded his donkey, and they returned to the city. Do you not know that one such as I can practice divination?
What can we speak? How can we clear ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants; here we are then, my lord's slaves, both we and also the one in whose possession the cup has been found. Only the one in whose possession the cup was found shall be my slave; but as for you, go up in peace to your father.
His brother is dead; he alone is left of his mother's children, and his father loves him. Only if our youngest brother goes with us, will we go down; for we cannot see the man's face unless our youngest brother is with us. I fear to see the suffering that would come upon my father. Is my father still alive? He said, "I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. Hurry and bring my father down here. Joseph gave them wagons according to the instruction of Pharaoh, and he gave them provisions for the journey.
He is even ruler over all the land of Egypt. My son Joseph is still alive. I must go and see him before I die. The children of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel [] these are the children of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Leah; and these she bore to Jacob--sixteen persons. When they came to the land of Goshen, [] Joseph made ready his chariot and went up to meet his father Israel in Goshen.
He presented himself to him, fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while. Now, we ask you, let your servants settle in the land of Goshen.
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