Christians love studying and talking about eschatology, but as I have said it before, in order to understand eschatology (the study of last things) we need to make an effort to better study and understand the first things, that is the account, purpose and typological relevance of the Creation story.

Before I continue, I must first confess that I shamelessly took some of the ideas contained in this article from Rob Bell's presentation Everything is Spiritual. But Rob's presentation was only a beginning for my exploration of the links between Creation and Redemption; and it very much ties into my earlier article titled Fear, Love and the Kingdom, in which I explored how God has been always furiously pursuing mankind, never giving up on us, never abandoning us, always willing to love, accept and forgive our sin.

Not a God of separation

The first key lesson we learn from the narrative of Creation, is that God is a God that brings order to chaos, and fills what is empty. The original language of Genesis 1 seems to illustrate that God did create Earth out of pre-existing matter. A literal translation of Genesis 1:1 would start like this:

"When God began to create heaven and earth…"[1]

While the point of this article is not to debate this passage, it is worth pointing out the differences in the ancient and modern paradigms. To modern people, the lack of something, or the lack of Creation is "nothingness" while to the ancients, the lack of life was something much worse than "nothingness." It was chaos and disorder. Mircea Eliade also illustrates this very well when he discusses the dichotomy of sacred and profane space. To Eliade, the opposite of the sacred is not merely the profane, but chaos, a territory emptied of ontic substance, emptied even of nothingness.[2] What was lacking therefore was an ontological aspect to Creation, and perhaps not necessarily atoms or matter as we think of it in the physical sense.

The act of creation alone gives us a picture of a God that does not settle for a chaotic existence, but a God that longs for order and structure. In essence, the creation itself took upon the sacred nature of the Creator and thus has become a self-identified space full of God’s notes and messages throughout. This structure is further illustrated through a highly symmetrical creation account that as we all know takes place over a period of six days. Take a look at this pattern presented in the Creation account:

In day one God separated light from the darkness and created light.

In day two God separated the waters from waters and created heaven.

In day three God separated land and waters and created land and seas.

In day four God fills up what he separated in day one.

In day five God fills up what he separated in day two.

In day six God fills up what he separated in day three.

As a result we observe the symmetry of God creating general domains in the first three days of creation, then filling up those domains with their proper inhabitants in the subsequent three days of creation. The theme is recurring throughout the story: chaos to order, death to life, empty to full, separation to unification.

As it is usual throughout the Bible and Hebrew culture, certain numbers are also highly relevant in the creation account. The phrase "And God saw that was good" appears exactly seven times. The word "God" appears thirty five times (seven times five) and the section devoted to the seventh day has exactly thirty five words in it.[3] The entire story also contains exactly 414 words with the most important word – which is therefore the main point of the poem – being located exactly in the middle. The word in this instance is the word "seasons" or "feasts" which is an overt anticipation of the seventh day, a day of celebration and rest. The Creation story is as much a story about God's creation of the world as it is a story about God celebrating the Creation and even anticipating its redemption long before Adam and Even sinned.

There is a bigger story

Many Jewish scholars have pointed out throughout history that the story or poem of Creation[4] closely resembles the story of the construction of the tabernacle.[5] In fact Isaiah, speaking on God’s behalf, is quick to point out that “Heaven is my throne and the Earth is my footstool.” Consequently the layout of the temple was very much presented as a microcosm of the world. As the ziggurat typified a mountain and land, “the sea” typified the sea itself; in essence, the Temple became a very real and literal residence of God, just as the whole Creation has been apparently intended to be.

Evidently, the very act of Creating was meant to teach us a much bigger and more important story, namely that our God is not a God of separation, but one of restoration, not one of division, but one of favor and grace. This is further illustrated after Adam and Eve sinned when God cared for them even after their fall. Whatever shame and nakedness was exposed because of sin, God covered it up.[6] The same is noticed after Cain becomes a murderer. God severely threatens anyone who would attempt to kill Cain, and gives him a sign of protection and grace.[7]

This pattern of one-sided grace and communion on God’s part is strangely present throughout the Scriptures. I say strangely because modern Christianity has conditioned many of us to think of God as a God of vengeance, hate and punishment, a God that can only be satisfied when he finally gets us to pay for our sin and wickedness. But what may seem strange to us really is a normal occurrence in the Scripture. In fact, in my studies I was surprised to see the quick response and relief God was willing to give to mankind as a result of the Fall. We often are being reminded of The Curse God placed on mankind after the Fall, however almost everyone chooses to skip the quick relief given by God not long after.

Thus another quite strange verse appears in Genesis 5, a verse that has been much debated by Rabbis. When Noah was born, Lamech made a very extraordinary proclamation: “This one will give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the LORD has cursed.”[8]

In Genesis 6, a quick account of man’s growing wickedness is given, with God shows regret and sorrow for creating man, yet suddenly Noah’s name appears again: “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.”[9] Jewish scholars have always been quick to point out that Noah’s name (n-h) is simply h-n spelled backwards, which is the word for favor. God has shown favor to Noah, and according to Lamech’s word, has shown favor to all mankind, Noah being in essence a New Adam providing relief from extreme labor and an end to The Curse!

A day of rest

What is surprising about Noah’s story is that in contrast with Noah's purpose given by Scripture, we often enjoy harping and complaining about the “sin nature” of the world, and how hard it is to work and labor to satisfy our most basic needs. But this kind of attitude is illustrative of the greater problem with westerners’ understanding of Jewish Scriptures. We focus on the letters and words on the page, apply strict hermeneutical principles to the passages, work hard at translating words properly yet we completely miss the higher meaning of the greater narrative: in this instance, it is quite evident that what God cursed in Genesis 3, God fixed in Genesis 5. Noah’s birth and arrival brought about the same rest that God longed for after Creation and The Fall: a Sabbath from The Curse. The seventh day therefore, when God rested after creating seems to has been a type for both a Noah's fulfillment of his purpose (to put a stop to The Curse), and the coming of the Kingdom of God, the completion of the New Creation in which all things are fulfilled, all things are reconciled and filled with God's presence and glory. This is no small matter as Christians should realize the fact that we do live in a Sabbath in which prophecy, grace and glory have all been fulfilled, in which we all rest and celebrate liberation from sin and bondage.

To take this to an even greater scale, the New Creation (which many Preterists claim to live in now) is really the loudest example of what our God is all about. In 2 Cor. 5, Paul wrote “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” Paul adds a whole new facet to God’s creative process: God is a God of renewing and filling, a God that does not settle for empty space and separation and chaos. God brings freedom to those imprisoned by old things.

In my last article here I pointed out how Jesus read Isaiah 61 and proclaimed it fulfilled on that day. Isaiah 61 speaks about good news for the poor, sight to the blind and freedom for prisoners. What is interesting though, is that Isaiah is simply reiterating Leviticus 25:10, which defines the Year of the Jubilee, which Israel was to celebrate every fifty years. This was a year when slaves and prisoners would be freed, when separated families would be reunited, and everyone would party and celebrate because the ultimate Sabbath was there.

The Scriptural and historical examples never cease to amaze me. In 586 B.C. Israel lost its land and was forced into slavery, into a foreign land. Exactly fifty years later, Cyrus issued a decree that freed all the Jewish prisoners and allowed them to return home and rejoin with their long-lost friends and families. Therefore the Year of the Jubilee, and Isaiah’s words read by Jesus had a special place in the hearts of the Jewish people. By proclaiming those words fulfilled again, Jesus reiterated God’s absolute and unreserved love for mankind, his crush on us that does not seem to end.

Jesus proclaimed this reunion and recreation when he read Isaiah 61, yet many Christians continue to wait and long for a future that is already here. The poem of Creation has at its Hebrew center a message of celebration and joy, not one of Western desperation and brokenness. The seasons (or feasts of celebration) at the center of Creation are the same seasons and feasts celebrated by Jesus as having been fulfilled; they carry a message of love, joy and grace, a message that fulfills, not one that empties.

God’s crush on us is written all over the Bible. Sometimes he is writing to us in code, like spelling Noah’s name backwards to show us favor in a not so blatant way, to let us want more of him, to not be satisfied with just saying “I love you.” Some other times he cannot contain his love for us and reaches across the separating partition, telling us he longs to be with us. He came to “save sinners” not to destroy those living “ignorantly in unbelief.”[10]

My study of the story of Creation has proven to be one of the most challenging and enlightening studies I have done so far. The first two chapters of Genesis are likely the two most fascinating and complex pieces of literature ever written, with countless levels of significance, and a good deal symbolism and substance found in every word. The story of Creation is really telling us a much larger story, about the kind of God we serve and about his love for his Creation. The message is simple yet complex, powerful yet persuasive, unparalleled yet lowly and humble: What has been separated, God has rejoined; what was divided, God has reunited; what was broken, God fixed. Today, God has filled the Creation with what was missing...himself.

[1] See the Tanakh

[2] Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane

[3] Genesis 2:1-2

[4] Genesis 1:1-2:3

[5] See Exodus 25-31; Exodus 35-40; Genesis 2:1-3 and Exodus 39:32, 42-43

[6] See Genesis 3:21

[7] See Genesis 4:15

[8] Genesis 5:29

[9] Genesis 6:8

[10] See 1 Timothy 1:13,15