“What am I supposed to do with the first couple chapters of Genesis?” 
Within the last month more than few people have asked me this, so here goes. 

I was born in 1979, prior to my first conscious memories of the wonderful decade called the 80’s, so I can’t speak with any real authority about how old the earth is. It could be billions of years old; it could be less. A careful reading of Genesis 1:1 through 2:4 might reveal that passage to be about something greater than the age of the earth. 

 Around the mid 1800’s the western world became enthralled with science. I am a self-confessed nerd and am fascinated by it. One of the downsides of humanity’s scientific focus was that we began to think everything (including the bible) was actually scientific. You’ve probably heard the adage, “When you’re a hammer everything’s a nail.” Our preoccupation with science led to many wonderful things (medicine, air-conditioning, bug spray, etc.) and not surprisingly, it led to some bad things as well. 

 During this time period, scholars began to subject the bible to modern scientific claims and questions. In doing so, we forgot that the bible was actually written primarily to tell us about who our God is and how we can relate with Him. If you take Genesis to be a document compiled in the 2nd millennium BC, written with an Ancient Near Eastern audience in mind, then it might not do a great job of answering some contemporary questions. 

 For example, the sun is made on day four. How then do we have 24-hour days before the sun is made? Plants are made on day three. How then do we have plants prior to photosynthesis? Six days of creation are clearly described for us only to have Genesis 2:4 refer to the day in which the Lord created everything. To make matters worse the Hebrew word for day can also mean age or era of time. All this means the bible is either not too great at science, or it is trying to talk to us about something else. 

 If you’d like to know what you should think or do with Genesis 1, a helpful question might be: What would this passage have communicated loudly and clearly to an original reader or hearer of the text? 

 Ever notice that the sun and moon (of day four) are intended to rule or govern over the light and the dark (of day one)? Keep that governance in mind as we keep talking about the days for a moment. If you were a semi-nomadic shepherd with flocks of goats or sheep (or I could say – if you were just like the original audience of this text), you knew what happened every time you walked into a new valley full of grass. Your animals swarmed and teamed there until the whole place had been subdued beneath their hooves. 

 The Hebrew words for to fill, multiply, swarm in carry the idea of dominance. If day four rules over day one, watch what happens. The birds and fish (of day five) are to dominate the sky and the seas (of day two). Then the animals (of day six in the morning) are to dominate the land and the vegetation (of day three). All of a sudden, a structure is emerging. Day four governs day one, day five governs day two, and the morning of day six governs day three. During the evening of day six, people are made and we are specifically created to “rule” over it all. God has taken something that was formless and void and brought in not only order, He intentionally created a system of government. 

 What do you envision when you read that God rested on the 7th day? Usually after church on Sundays, if I don’t have a meeting, you’ll find me taking a nap. But if God is all powerful, why is He so tuckered out? You are probably familiar with the concept of homonyms. Words that sound the same but don’t share a meaning: Dear Abby and deer hunter. In Hebrew homonyms function differently. They not only sound the same, they share meaning. 

 The Hebrew word for rest is where we get the word sabbath. Every original reader and hearer of this text would have envisioned something different than a 7th day nap because the Hebrew word for rest sounds exactly the same as the verb that means to be enthroned. That’s no accident. When a really good king took his throne, everyone under his rule or reign could rest. 

 That means there wasn’t a single reader or hearer of this text that thought anything other than that the first chapter of our bible is all about God setting up a kingdom where He is king. And, He wants us to rule and reign with Him. As we do that, according to His design, we experience sabbath rest. If we reject His authority and choose to do things without Him, we are also rejecting any semblance of rest. 

 Could the earth have been made a few thousand years ago in six days? Possibly. Is that what the first chapter of Genesis is trying to say? I doubt it. 

 This past Sunday Carness preached over Matthew 12, where Jesus refers to Himself as the Son of Man, and states that “the Son of Man is Lord over the Sabbath.” This was a radical statement. He was saying that He is God, Lord over all the cosmos. No wonder the Pharisees sought to kill Him from this point forward! 

 My favorite part of Carness’ sermon was when he said the throne “is not a loveseat or a sectional.” As in, there’s only room for one King. What about your days? Does He rule and reign over every aspect of them? Is there an area in which you feel no rest or peace? Maybe that is the Spirit bringing your awareness to an area in which you need to enthrone Christ.