Walsall & Wednesbury Christadelphians

Imagine Genesis if God approached his work as we so often do:

In the beginning it was nine o’clock, so God had to go to work. He filled out a requisition to separate light from darkness. He considered making stars to beautify the night, and planets to fill the skies, but thought it sounded like too much work; and besides, thought God, “That’s not my job.” So he decided to knock off early and call it a day. And he looked at what he had done and he said, “It’ll have to do.”

On the second day God separated the waters from the dry land. And he made all the dry land flat, plain, and functional, so that — behold — the whole earth looked like Idaho. He thought about making mountains and valleys and glaciers and jungles and forests, but he decided it wouldn’t be worth the effort. And God looked at what he had done that day and said, “It’ll have to do.”

And God made a pigeon to fly in the air, and a carp to swim in the waters, and a cat to creep upon dry ground. And God thought about making millions of other species of all sizes and shapes and colors, but he couldn’t drum up any enthusiasm for any other animals — in fact, he wasn’t too crazy about the cat. Besides, it was almost time for the Late Show. So God looked at all he had done, and God said, “It’ll have to do.”

And at the end of the week, God was seriously burned out. So he breathed a big sigh of relief and said, “That Me, it’s Friday.”

Of course, Genesis looks nothing like that. Instead it throbs with the refrain “God said, … And it was so. … and indeed, it was very good.”

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—	John Ortberg, The Life You’ve Always Wanted (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002), p. 61-2

Bible class summary: Genesis 1

Recently we’re been reading through the first book of the Bible — the book of Genesis — and discussing what we learn about God from it, and about our relationship with him.

What follows is a summary of some of the things we learned from Genesis ch. 1:

God’s word is powerful: He speaks and things happen. This theme took us to Psalm 33 and Hebrews 4. That God was speaking suggests his desire to communicate, teach and influence. There is a mixture of descriptions after God spoke: sometimes ‘it was so’, sometimes ‘God made…’ - implications: God commands are to be obeyed and God works to create as he desires. God’s word expresses his intention and that intention becomes reality by obedience and/or his work.
Without God’s command stuff is formless (v2): we saw in this a strong parallel to human life without God: “vanity of vanities, all is vanity!”
God was ‘careful’ in his creation: We wondered if the hovering of the Spirit of God over the waters (v2) implied:
~ an emotional concern for the earth (cf. Deut 32:11: the eagle fluttering);
~ an intimate involvement with the earth (Luke 1:35: HS overshadowing Mary);
~ an initial deliberation on the state of the earth and what he was about to do in banishing the chaos/desolation (i.e. creation was not just a whim on God’s part).
God has a lasting interest in creation (he sees that it is good after he has created; he names things, implying an acknowledgement of responsibility and ownership); he works with an order; he is methodical - it doesn’t all happen in one big cosmic lighting bolt but over a period there is a preparation of the earth for a purpose. We thought God is revealed in Gen 1 more like a architect/builder/gardener than a flashy magician. We thought ahead to chapter 2 and wondered if Adam’s naming the animals and work in the garden was to give him opportunity to be like God in positive ways.

We have a Bible class on Sunday evenings (at about 5pm; Dingley Rd) and Tuesday nights (7:30pm; location varies, so best to get in touch if you’re interested to come). You’d be very welcome to join us.