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Tag: Genesis

  • SPEAK and TELL in Genesis

    Represents speak in Genesis. A plate in the floor of U.S. House of Representatives indicating the desk location of Abraham Lincoln, a person known for speaking truth.

    The words “speak” and “tell” in Genesis affirm truth. Truth as the ground on which life will flourish. Speaking and telling may be the most difficult of the actions in the Bible to grasp but on the flip side, possibly the richest to ponder and wrestle with.

    To speak

    “Let me take it upon myself to speak to my lord, I who am but dust and ashes.”

    Genesis 18:27

    This quote of Abraham’s comes from an extraordinary story of speaking up to the forces in the world more powerful than our own. Abraham questions God. They have real talks, like in this story of Sodom and Gomorrah. (Genesis 18: 16 – 33.)

    Every detail of this story is a challenge to us in our responsibility to speaking truth, even when it means questioning authority and risking our security. Here is some of what this story offers.

    • Abraham remained standing before the Lord. We are doing ourselves no favors if we don’t admit to having “lords” above us. It is only children in their innocence who think they rule the world. We need to acknowledge and then stand before that authority and speak truth.
    • Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Here Abraham speaks to his knowledge of God’s character as the basis for his questioning, appealing to God’s better self.
    • And the Lord went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place. I think this is my favorite sentence. First, that God took time for Abraham and Abraham had the courage to stand his ground. Secondly, we each have a place distinct from each other and life comes with accepting that.

    There is so much this Genesis story can offer on what it means to speak. Sit yourself down with others. Speak. Together consider this hypothetical that is rich enough, universal enough, real enough to bring you together in speaking of truth.

    Represents tell in Genesis. A photo of a rooster telling of the truth of a new dawn.

    To tell

    God said, “Who told you that you were naked?”

    Genesis 3:11

    This is a stunning statement. We expect to read, “You have sinned,” when God finds out that Adam and Eve have eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And this simply is not true and never has been. We let others, authority in particular, do the reading for us. Don’t.

    To me, God is speaking here as a parent. A cry from the creator who gave paradise to Adam and Eve, now hurt with the truth that they are not suited to it. “If I can shield you from other voices I can’t control. If I can shield you from feeling shame. If I can shield you from the world, I would, because I know death and pain and misery await you.”

    This is a creation story that’s power and truth comes from the insight in this first cry from God; that our fate as humans hangs on our tellings. Both what we choose to tell and who we choose to listen to. Is not the first story after creation about Cain? A story about a man who tells lies and denies the truths spoken to him by God.

    To speak and tell beyond Genesis

    In some sense, all the writings in the Bible, including beyond Genesis, are painful and joyous tellings. To speak and to tell in the Bible reflects the reality that we make choices to speak truth or tell lies every day. No different now than 2,000 years ago.

    When you choose a story from the Bible to read or share in study with others, and always select a whole story, not a single verse, note who is talking and to whom. Especially be keen when the word, “speak” and its various forms are used as it usually is a moment with truth in it. And when the word, “tell” and its derivatives are used? These are often moments when a choice is made between life and death, turning towards truth or turning away. Go ahead. Ponder and wrestle. You will be given riches.

    Check out another posting on what the Bible says about speaking:

    2 Kings 1:9-15 Life is Precious

    Read blog posts on other action words of the Bible

  • SEE and HEAR in Genesis

    The words “see” and “hear” in Genesis speak to peace. When we forget these actions, or do them poorly, reality is hidden. Injustices are overlooked, the poor are not heard and the powerful take much. Peace cannot come. Likewise, if a person looks and hears, there is the possibility of peace. But only in real seeing and hearing can we build towards a peace that is real.

    A photo to represent seeing in Genesis. A close-up of a pair of simple wire frame eye glasses set on a simple table in the light coming from a window in the background.

    To see

    And God saw that it was good.

    Genesis 1:10

    The importance of seeing is in the very beginning of creation told in Genesis, chapter one. At the end of each new day, with the exception of the second day when God made the sky to separate the waters above and below it, God looks and sees that his work is good.

    Now the creation story could have just had God say, “and it was good.” But that is not what this story says. First God takes a look at the work and sees that the work is good. It is the act of seeing that establishes that it is real. It is not about thinking, it is about seeing.

    “And God saw that it was good.” A sentence so simple we might skip over it. Missing the power of it. One sentence repeated six times in this story saying what a creator needs to do upon creating: To look to make sure that in the real world, what you created is in fact good. How often do we do that? How often are worlds built that aren’t good, just by our looking away. Refusing to see. How often do we say, “Oh, I am just fine” when we know there is something not right in us. Really looking at the impact of our actions on the world is one of the hardest things to do. And looking away from it, one of the easiest.

    Consider the importance of a creator seeing what is real. Whether the creation is the universe, or a community, or a life.

    On the sixth day God completes creation with the making of humans and the gift of food to all life that breathes. Then, “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.” Surely peace is possible.

    Represents hearing in Genesis. A closeup of a large whelk shell on a sandy beach holding the "sound of the ocean" if you put it up to your ear and listen.

    To hear

    They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze…

    Genesis 3:8

    This is the first time in the Hebrew Bible that the act of hearing is told. The one earlier phrase that you get any sense of sound is in the second verse of Genesis at the very beginning of creation when “a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.” But there was no living creature yet to hear.

    And then God puts Adam and Eve in a garden and hearing enters creation. And what a knock-out-of-the-park this first telling is. Can’t you just hear the sound of the steps softened by the green under foot and the gentle breeze that only evening can bring? Written two thousand years ago and still speaks to us. But this is the beauty of this ancient book. We have all very simply known this moment told here. A moment of peace when we hear something greater than ourselves.

    And that leads to another observation. The first sounds heard in the creation story are not big thunderbolt superhero sounds but quiet sounds. Definitely sounds that cannot be heard if you are making a lot of noise. They are sounds requiring your silence and attending to the sights and sounds of the real world around you.

    To see and hear beyond Genesis

    Some people think of God as outside reality. Rosy glasses stuff. But a close reading of the earliest writings show God rooted in reality. Demanding us to look at and listen to all of creation in its realness. There is never a time for covering our eyes or plugging our ears and yet, the rest of the Bible records us doing just that.

    Take a deep dive with someone you know. The Bible is many things to many people. Which is the beauty of this old, old collection of testaments to the challenge and amazement of being a one-off human being. The Bible passes from hand to hand across human time and human space.

    Share, with the hope that a story in the Bible will be a stepping stone to seeing and hearing another person’s insights into the questions the Bible demands that we ask.

    Check out another posting on what the Bible says about seeing:

    Amos 8:1-2 Looking deeper at America

    Read blog posts on other action words of the Bible

  • KNOW and MAKE in Genesis

    In Genesis, to know and to make lead to life. Of course the stories of the making of life are in Genesis. But for creation to continue, we need the knowledge necessary to sustain life.

    A close-up of a sphere of letters making imprints in sand with a middle ground vase of poppies and a blurred open book in the background. Visualizing knowing as told in Genesis.
    Alphabet Sand Sphere by Olander Earthworks

    To know

    But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die, for God knows that when you eat of it [the tree of the knowledge of good and evil] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:4

    The third verse of the first book of the Hebrew Bible is a story on the power of knowledge, not the committing of a sin, specifically the first sin, as it is usually said.

    First, a quick look back to the verse before when God commands the first man not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because if he does, he will die.

    Consider that the tree isn’t the “tree of evil,” it is the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” What is so powerful about knowing of good and evil that only the gods have it? Why is a knowledge of good, bad? Is it? And why did God tell the man he would die?

    And turning back to the third verse, the questions continue to pile up. Why does the serpent know something that humans don’t? Gaining knowledge causes the man and woman to hide their nakedness. From God who made them?! Why was the punishment so severe, or was it? They didn’t die. And a big one for me, what was lost when we lost innocence? Was there something gained with that loss?

    Finally, what does having knowledge of good and evil mean once taken from the gods and laid in the minds of you and me and every human body? Will we be able to sustain life? A question we need to be considering together. Gather a group of friends to ponder this incredibly rich story of what it is to know of good and evil. Give yourselves some time.

    An image of emptiness, expressing the act of making asa told in Genesis - something from nothing.
    The blank page

    To make

    And the Lord God made garments of skins for the man and for his wife and clothed them. Genesis 3:21

    Now, I cheated here. This story is not the first in the Hebrew Bible that the word “make” or its variants is used. That goes to the story of creation. It boggles the mind to think of the power that was necessary to create the totality of the universe as we know it.

    But, by the Creator having this extraordinary power doesn’t it play with your mind to imagine that same Creator making clothes for the first man and woman? Has some wonderful artist made an image of this? Certainly if considered deeply, the image of Creator as Maker of clothing challenges our idea of what power is. And what makes up life.

    To know and make beyond Genesis

    I’m looking forward to exploring beyond the creation stories in Genesis as the writers of the Bible grapple with what it takes to continue life outside the garden. A garden where humans were caretakers but not makers, doing our tasks without knowing. Quite a transition to make. From what we read in the Bible and what we see today, taking on these two big responsibilities for life hasn’t been a walk in the park. [Pun not intended, but I like it.] Many marvels and many mistakes.

    Read other blog posts on the action words of the Bible