The Song of Creation Dr. Timothy J. Keller
"Genesis 1:1-8,
31"
How
questions aren’t as important as Why questions.
Most questions in life you ask why not how. Why did God make the world, not how did it
happen. Genesis is designed to talk
about why not how. It’s not there to
give you details.
Genesis 1
and 2 contradict each other. That’s only
if you don’t read the rest of the bible.
There are usually 2 accounts of things that happen. Exodus & Judges. If you’re writing and essay you don’t repeat
things but when you’re writing a song you do.
Genesis 1
is a poem (you can’t press for more details out of a poem; art.) Genesis 2 is historical reporting.
What does
it teach us about how the world began?
God
created the world, it’s not an accident.
Created is
a word in the Hebrew text that was only used by God, created out of
nothing. It began by God and it began by
nothing.
Ancient
mythology always shows that the earth was created from something, something
that had to already exist.
Ancient
mythology says to avoid pleasure, deny body, deny the earth. Genesis says the world is good, Christian
doctrine says to enjoy the earth, life and pleasure.
Bring heaven to earth. If there
is something wrong with the Earth we fix it, God created Earth. Build your kingdom here. This world is great, pleasure is good, we
believe some day God is going to come back so we need to take care of the
Earth. We enjoy pleasure but we don’t
live for it.
Why did
God create the world?
Clue 1:
God never creates without speaking. He
speaks into creation. God’s word is an
agent, it has power.
Clue 2:
God’s spirit hovered over the waters. In
Hebrew the word "hover" is only used for mother birds who are protecting her
young.
Clue 3:
Let us make man in our image (who is us) Isaiah 40 whom does the Lord take counsel? The reason the father’s word can
actually create is because the word of God is a person. The father’s word is the son. John 1 says the word of God is Jesus. The trinity was there in the beginning. God is a community. Father, Son & Holy Spirit. Circle of Love. 3 persons in one God. One day they decided to expand the
circle. Let us create beings. Remember Genesis 1 is a song. Why is God speaking to creation? Because he wants a relationship. Why does he create us in his image? Because he wants us to reflect his
glory. Moon and stars govern light and
darkness. God created in nature a whole
community of beings who can glorify God.
He keeps saying that it’s good.
He enjoys his creation. A
community of beings that can enter into his circle. The purpose of nature is singing.
Why is
nature so moving to you and me? Sounds of waterfall, thunder, birds, nature,
why is it so moving why does it call you into it? Because nature is constantly singing its praises to God, it draws us in.
We do not merely want to see beauty, though, God knows, even
that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into
words—to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into
ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it . . . When human souls have
become as perfect in voluntary obedience as the inanimate creation is in its
lifeless obedience, then they will put on its glory, or rather that greater
glory of which Nature is only the first sketch
Nature is
a choir. Why is nature so happy and
we’re so sad. We’re drawn to it, we’re
moved by it. They’re singing to God .
Why is the
beauty we sense painful. It calls us in
but we can’t go. It’s painful because we
can’t sing the same song. We have tried
to be our own masters, we don’t want to be under God. Nature can sing this song because they
perfectly reflect God. Nature runs from
us because they know we have a quarrel with our maker. Nature praises God and we do not. The reason nature is singing a song of praise
is because they live under the benediction of God. They know their maker loves them. They know they are good. They know they have no flaws. We can’t sing the song because we know we are
flawed, we question our maker.
Through
Jesus we are made to be able to be a part of the choir. The maker was unmade on the cross so that we
could be made. So God could look at us
through Jesus and say we are good again.
Just like in creation.
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