This being the first blog is quite lengthy. No doubt they will get shorter as time moves on.

It seems fitting that on the first day of the year and the first day of our journey through the Bible that we begin with the first chapters of both the Old and New Testaments. They both start at the beginning of their respective stories also.

Chapters 1 and 2 of Genesis provide two varied accounts of the creation story.

The account in Genesis 1 is believed to be written by Jewish priests during the time of the exile in Babylon. It is written specifically to be used in worship.  It sounds like liturgy one would repeat during worship with the repetition of key phrases: And God said, “Let there be ____”; …and there was ____ (or and it was so); And God saw that ____ was good; And there was evening and there was morning, the ____ day.

We notice in Genesis 1 that this presents the cosmic God (Elohim) who creates just by speaking things into existence. God has an order about His creation. First, He creates the arenas in which specific objects are set: Day 1 – light and darkness; Day 2 – sky and earth; Day 3 – the seas and dry land, complete with plants. Then God fills the arenas:  Day 4 – the lights in the sky; Day 5 – swimming creatures in the seas and birds in the sky; Day 5 – everything that creeps on the earth.

On Day 6, God also creates human beings. Humans are special because they are created in the image of God. Michael Weinrich, a theologian, makes an interesting point that when humanity was created in the image of God it was created in the plural: male and female. We were created to be in relationship just as God is in relationship in the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Genesis 2 was written by those who concentrated on the personal Yahweh God. When you see the word Lord spelled in all capital letters it signifies the name for God which is most commonly shown in Hebrew consonants only: YHWH. Yahweh is the God who as my one professor Ron Tappy used to say was God with dirt under His fingernails. Yahweh walks among us. My personal opinion is that Yahweh is the second Person of the Trinity, the Son, who later becomes Jesus.

While Genesis 1 says that humans are special because they are created in God’s image, Genesis 2 says that humans are special from the other creatures because Yahweh breathed life into the man. This word “breath” in Hebrew is also translated as “spirit” so God puts His spirit into us with His breath.

God provides for all the needs of humanity. The man is given freedom to walk throughout the garden and eat of every tree in the garden…almost. Even in freedom there are limitations and God places one limit on the man: he may not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

As God seeks to provide a companion for the man He determines that only a being like the man will be sufficient. Therefore, the woman is made from the same stuff as the man. She is to be his helper and partner. The word “helper” is not to be considered a subordinate term. God is called our helper in various passages in the Old Testament. The woman is merely to be considered a partner for the creature man who should not be alone (created for relationship, as in chapter 1).

Matthew 1 begins with the genealogy of Jesus. It clearly connects him to King David and to the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. While there are many familiar and unfamiliar names in the list, it is most unusual that five women’s names are included: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, the wife of Uriah (Bathsheba), and, of course, Mary. Tamar was a Gentile who conceived twins by her father-in-law Judah (Gen 38). Rahab was the Canaanite prostitute in Jericho who helped Joshua and the Israelites capture the city (Josh. 6). Ruth was the Moabite widow who returned to Israel with her mother-in-law Naomi and married Boaz, a kinsman, to save their lives. Bathsheba was the woman who committed adultery with King David. Mary was the young virgin who was chosen to be the mother of the Messiah. Even in Jesus’ family tree sinners, foreigners, and outcasts are brought together with the faithful and righteous.

The chapter concludes with Jesus’ birth narrative focusing on Joseph, Jesus adoptive father. The mercy that Joseph extends to Mary is the first act of love and acceptance offered in the name of Emmanuel, “God is with us.”

Already in these beginning chapters we meet a God who is full of surprises doing the unexpected. These passages reveal a God who is quite different from the gods of the gentiles. This is a God who is personally involved in the lives of His creatures. He is a God who includes those who would otherwise be considered unworthy. He is a God who goes out of his way to provide for His people.