Day One- The Creation Story

Well, I did it!  I've read the Bible one time, so far!  Today's reading:  Genesis 1:1-3:24

I teach Sunday School to middle schoolers who asked about dinosaurs in relation to the Creation story.  Perhaps its a reflection of my naivete that I never thought to ask about this until I was in college.  All those liberal arts classes had me questioning my faith.  I actually called the church office while I was home on Christmas break to make an appointment to talk to the pastor.  I expected to be there for hours as we debated the idea of how dinosaurs fit into the creation story.  What actually happened was I asked my question, the pastor said, "It doesn't say in the Bible that God's days only lasted 24 hours.  God's time may not be the same as our time." Huh.  That honestly never occurred to me!  So while I had budgeted hours for this conversation we were done in about 2 minutes...I stayed for a little while and we talked about other things.

Here are some other things that struck me while reading... not everything is spelled out as far as creation goes.  In verse 1:24 it says, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals..."  It doesn't spell out cows, sheep, pigs, dogs, lions, snakes, bears, skunks...  I don't know if this is important, but I noticed it.

OK- here's a biggie!  1:26- Then God said, "Let's make man in our image."  Um, our?!?!  I have an NIV study bible.  The note for this verse says, "God speaks as the Creator-King, announcing his crowning works to the members of his heavenly court.  Then it listed a bunch of other verses where words like "our" and "us" are used.  This reminded me of a time in fourth grade when I had to look up the meaning of a word in the dictionary, but the definition had a word I didn't know so I had to look up that word...which also had a word I didn't know... hmm...I did look up a couple of these verses, but I worried that if I continued at this rate it would take far longer than a year to read the Bible.  So we'll just leave this one alone for now.

So God says, "Let us make man in our image" (verse 26) then in verse 27:  "So God made man in his own image."  Sounds like some other men I know..."Let's make man in our image, and by our I mean mine"...  I told you I could be irreverent! Let's leave this one alone.

Alright, on to Adam and Eve.  Now, Eve often gets a bad rap for being the first one to take the fruit, so in her defense, I'd like to point out that in verse 2:17 God told Adam not to eat from the tree.  Eve wasn't even made until verse 2:22!  So her hearing not to eat from the tree is actually hearsay, right?  I don't think that would hold up in a court of law!  So the serpent comes to her (not Adam because Adam heard it directly from God) and says, "Did God really say you can't eat from any tree in the garden?" (3:1)  Do you see how sneaky that is?  He knows she didn't hear it directly from God and he deliberately confuses the command.  "Did he really say you can't eat from any  tree in the garden?"  So he's already got her questioning what she heard...interesting.

I also find Adams defense of eating the fruit interesting. Verse 3:12- The man said, The woman you put here with me...."  Like it's God's fault, or the woman's fault...not his own.  This is still a problem with mankind- refusing to accept blame.  So if Eve was guilty of the original sin, Adam is guilty of the original blameshifting.  She gave it to me, you put her here.  And she follows suit, "The serpent deceived me."

3:16 This reminds me of Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories.  This one is the story of "Why Women Experience Pain During Childbirth"

My last comment on today's reading: 

3:21 "The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and Eve and clothed them."  (hmmmm...does PETA know about this?  I'm just saying...)

 Soooo- that's one day of reading.  I hope you'll come back!  You do not need to be Christian to comment, but I do ask that you at least be kind!