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Chronology of Genesis
- 8,000 BC (or so): Gen. 1—2 records the first seven days.
- 8,000 – 2,100 BC: Gen. 3—11 records from some point soon after day seven until just before Abraham, including the flood and tower of Babel.
- 2,100 – 1,800 BC: Gen. 12—50 records just four generations—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob’s sons, especially Judah and Joseph.
“In the beginning, God created…” This phrase occurs often in the Bible and especially in the Gospel of John. Notice that God’s creative work is the source of time: “In the beginning God created,” past tense. Similarly, in Proverbs 8, before creation, Wisdom (the Son of God) was there.
Creation reveals God to us, as Psalm 19 and Romans 1 remind us. Human beings made in the image of God are able to have thoughts about their thoughts and to communicate those thoughts via language, which requires a physiology capable of articulation and breath that carries the sound. So God the Father is the source of all things: thoughts, will, nature. The Son of God communicates the thoughts, will, and Word of God, as Jesus often explained how He had no thoughts or will or words except what He received from His Father. The Hebrew word for breath also means spirit and wind, something you can’t see, yet moving powerfully. You cannot speak without breath and your breath carries no message without the means of articulation.
The Genesis account of creation reveals unequivocally that there is just one human family. Additionally, each human in this family is a particular creative work of God. Thus, we respect and care for every human as God’s own child. Next, we learn that we are stewards or care-takers of humanity. We have a responsibility on behalf of God to see that each human being reaches its full potential and that we recognize and appreciate what each human being contributes to our learning what the best of all possible worlds looks like. Every single human being is priceless because of the redeeming work of Jesus. God did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all (Romans 8:32). Therefore, a biblical view of creation includes and anticipated redemption, giving us the caring disposition of God for everyone.