On Point OUTLINE

Week 3 (9/16)

Genesis and the Ancient World

There are numerous parallels between Genesis 1 and various creation
accounts from Egypt and Mesopotamia. What are they and what do
they mean?

In many of these accounts we find:

- Water/darkness/chaos at the beginning

- Separation of the waters
- Placement of the luminaries
- Specific roles for humans
- Same substance for making humans
- The use of the image of God

This means that any ancient person hearing the Genesis account would
have related to much of it since it overlapped his own understanding of
how the world came into being. However, it is the differences that
would have drawn attention and it is the differences that God seems to
have wanted his people to grasp.

How are the accounts different?

- No explanation for the origin of YHWH

- No mention of other gods and no conflict or challenge to YHWH’s
power
- YHWH controls every element of the universe and determines its
function
- Man is made not as a slave to do what the gods do not want to
do, but made in the image of God in order to rule over God’s
creation

The following three items are main points of Genesis 1:

1. It demonstrates that God is all powerful and distinct from

creation, and he alone is creator

2. It demonstrates that man is at the pinnacle of God’s creation, the

only created entity to be made in God’s image and the only one
made to rule. Man thus has an inherent dignity.

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3. God created everything “good” and under his control

God’s Absolute Power

God is Infinite. He is unlimited and unlimitable. In other words, he is in

himself boundless, unrestricted, and limitless, and no one or nothing in
all existence can limit God in any way.

Space (omnipresence; 1 Kings 8:27; Psalm 139:7-12; Proverbs 15:3;

Amos 9:2-4; Jeremiah 23:23-24; Acts 17:27-28)

Time (eternality; Gen 1:1; 21:33; Ps 29:10; 45:6; Heb 13:8; Ps 48:14;
90:2, 4; 102:25-27; Is 40:28; 44:6; Rev 1:8)

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Knowledge (omniscience; 1 Sam 2:3; 16:7; Job 37:16; Ps 33:13; 94:9-
11; 139:1-4, 15-16; Pro 8:22-23, 27-30; 15:3; Is 40:13-14, 27-28; 46:10;
Rom 16:27; He 4:13; 1 John 3:20)

Power (omnipotence; Gen 17:1; 18:14; Ps 115:3; Jer 32:17, 26-27; Mat
19:26; Luke 1:34, 37; Eph 1:19-20; Rev 19:6)

Made In the Image of God

Privilege of man:

Not physical representation (Ex 20:4; Dt 4:15-17; Is 46:4-7):

Idols were described as images:

Reproduce:

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Rule:

It may also signify the following, but this is partly conjectured:

• Spirituality: God is spirit. As far as we know, only humans have

spirits.

• Rationality: God has the capacity for wisdom and

understanding and logic, which belong to man alone, not animals

• Morality: God is holy, perfectly good. Only man can make moral
decisions. Animals cannot. This would include the idea of
conscience

What does this mean?

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To treat one another as image bearers (Gen 9:6; James 3:9).

To think and reason as image bearers (Eph 4:17-5:1).

To take responsibility for standing up to evil and bringing it under the

dominion of the king we represent, to be holy in all our actions.

To care for this creation as image bearers.

Conclusions

1. Christ is the full and complete image of God (2 Cor 4:4; Phil 2:6;
Col 1:15; Heb 1:3). Christ is everything that God is. The full
glory of God can be seen in Christ. He treated people as God
would treat them. He thought and reasoned as God thinks and
reasons. He stood up to evil and was holy in all his ways. He
reflected God in every way (John 14:9).
2. God’s goal is that we would become like Christ (Rom 8:29; Eph
4:24). We were originally created in God’s image and still bear
that image. However, it was never to the fullness that Christ
bears the image of God and after the Fall that image has been
defaced, marked up, and damaged by sin. But we are being
renewed in the image of God (Col 3:10) and are on a course to
become like Christ (Rom 8:29).
3. Our responsibility is clear. We are image bearers of the Most
High God and have a privilege and a responsibility to live out
that calling. We are also aware that God is remaking us, fixing
us, bringing back to being closer and closer to his image in
Christ. We can fight this or embrace it. We can become what
God made us to be or we can back down and settle for
something far less.
4. Can God be seen in you? Does the way you treat others, the way
you reason about situations, the motives you have, the way you
treat the earth, the poor, the hurting, do these thing reflect the

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God you stand for, the image you were made in and are being
renewed in?

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Everything God Made Was Good

What was the world like when God first made it? Was it different from
how it is now on the other side of the Fall? In the following we will
explore some of the characteristics of a world that has not been
around for a very long time. Our study comes from Genesis 1 and 2,
the only chapters in the Bible where we see a pre-Fallen world.

1. Order: “a condition in which each thing is properly disposed with

reference to other things and to its purpose; methodical or
harmonious arrangement”

God overcame the chaos of the unformed world and put

everything in order. Everything was as it should be. The world
was designed and running as it should. All living creatures were
in their place and in right relationship with one another. The
world was a place of harmony.

• “God separated the light from the darkness “

• “God made the expanse and separated the water under the
expanse from the water above it “
• “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place and let
dry ground appear”
• “Let the land produce vegetation: plants yielding seeds
according to their kinds, and trees bearing fruit with seed in it
according to their kinds”
• “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the
day from the night, and let them be signs to indicate seasons
and days and years, and let them serve as lights in the
expanse of the sky to give light on the earth”

2. Peace: “a state of mutual harmony between people or groups,

esp. in personal relations; cessation of or freedom from any strife
or dissension; a state of tranquility or serenity; stillness”

It is not only that everything was rightly related and functioning

in it proper way, but also that harmony existed between man and
man and between man and animal. There was no jealously, no
greed, no envy, and no war. Each living being experienced a
freedom from strife from within and without. Self doubt and
pride were unknown in the world of man. People had peace with
one another and with themselves. There was a serenity to life.
• God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and
multiply! Fill the earth and subdue it! Rule over the fish of the
sea and the birds of the air and every creature that moves on

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the ground.” 1:29 Then God said, “I now give you every seed-
bearing plant on the face of the entire earth and every tree
that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 1:30
And to all the animals of the earth, and to every bird of the
air, and to all the creatures that move on the ground –
everything that has the breath of life in it – I give every green
plant for food.”
• The Lord God took the man and placed him in the orchard
in Eden to care for it and to maintain it
• The man and his wife were both naked, but they were not
ashamed

3. Beauty: “the quality present in a thing or person that gives

intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind, whether
arising from sensory manifestations (as shape, color, sound,
etc.), a meaningful design or pattern, or something else”

Everything God made was good. The garden and the trees he made
for man were pleasing to look at and good for food. It was a world of
majesty, of splendor, a world of beauty. There was beauty in the
objects God had made and beauty in the relationships between the
objects God had made. Each thing fulfilled its purpose.

• God saw all that he had made – and it was very good!
• The Lord God planted an orchard in the eas t, in Pleasure
(Eden); and there he placed the man he had formed
• The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow from the soil, every
tree that was pleasing to look at and good for food.

Conclusion

YHWH, not Marduk, not evolution, not the any other force or entity in
all the world is responsible for our existence and for the way in which
our universe is put together. There is nothing in the entire universe
that compares with the creator. He is distinct, yet intimately involved.
He showed is power by speaking into existence all that is, but giving
this world form and function, by filling it – it is all by his Word and it is
all held together by his Word.

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God is not distant. This is his world. Even today this world is run by
him and him alone.

Human beings have inherent dignity as those made in the image of

God. We are not an afterthought in the mind of a lazy God or a slave
created for no other purpose than to feed a fat, irresponsible deity. We
are made in the image of the one God, created to rule and care for this
world. We cannot treat one another poorly without offending God in
whose image he on is made.

This world is really messed, but God did not make it that way. When
he created, everything had purpose and meaning. When he created,
everything was in order, in peace, and beauty dominated the universe.
When he created, he made it all good. That was his plan; that is what
he wanted, but man, those made in his image given authority over the
world, chose a different path. God allowed them that choice and in
Jesus Christ he comes to redeem man from his choices.

God’s plan, God’s power, God’s special creation of man – it is all part of
Genesis chapter 1.

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