Adam and Eve. It’s a story that we’ve all heard before – they were the first man and woman, created by God in the garden of Eden (Genesis 1 – 2:3). On day one, God makes light and dark. Day two: the ‘waters above’ and the ‘waters below’ – let’s call that the sky and the sea. Day three: land. Day four, God makes the sun and moon. On day five: birds and fish. On day six, Adam and Eve. On day seven, God ‘rests’ (which at first sounded odd – do Gods get tired?!)
Although we could spend a long time arguing about evolution, literal twenty-four hour days and the like, I don’t think that’s what the biblical author intended. Instead, I believe the author wanted us to see a theme..
What we probably don’t realise is that this seven-day story starts to make sense when we organise them into pairs:
- Day One & Four – God makes light and dark, and then the sun and moon to rule those domains
- Day Two & Five – God makes sky and sea, and then the birds and fish to rule those domains
- Day Three & Six – God makes the land, and then humans to rule that domain
The climax of creation is Adam and Eve. Crafted from the dust of the earth, humankind is made in the image of God and given authority to steward God’s creation. Here stands the beautiful divine order: birds to rule the air, fish to rule the sea and beast the land. Humankind, as God’s representatives protect and maintain the earth, with God ruling over all. In Hebrew, Adam means man; Adamah means ground. That’s not an accident. The essence of being human is to create, produce, build and cultivate. Educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom understood this well. He devised ‘Bloom’s taxonomy’ which is still used by teachers worldwide today. Bloom’s taxonomy argues that creation is our highest form of being. Taking things and constructing something original is a human’s highest form of learning. Isn’t this why we all love Lego?
As God creates order out of chaos, we as God’s agents do the same. Paintings from paint. Buildings from brick. Meals from ingredients. Clothes from fabric. We were designed to bring flourishing, peace, beauty and meaning to the world around us.
God with us.
Us with each other.
Us with our world.
As creation is finished, God rests. The word for rest is sabat in Hebrew, from which we get the word sabbath. The idea is not rest in order to recover (as if God needed to), but rather to stop working in order to appreciate that man is not measured by what he does, but who he is – a child of God.
As God creates order out of chaos, we as God’s agents do the same. Paintings from paint. Buildings from brick. Meals from ingredients. Clothes from fabric. We were designed to bring flourishing, peace, beauty and meaning to the world around us.
God rests to commune with us, as we commune with each other in the bliss of God’s beautiful plan. God’s people, in God’s presence in God’s place. There’s a word for this perfect cycle of all cycles: shalom. When everything is as it should be.
Then after the first two chapters, it all goes wrong.
