“Your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart.” Too many of us have seen that message. We don’t know precisely what went wrong, but we do know it signals trouble. Real trouble.
The computer choked on one of the millions of bytes it consumes each moment. Only restarting from the beginning will clear the blockage.
Genesis tells us that after the Creation, came the Fall, and that “bug” in the system cascaded until the whole system broke down. So God re-booted it. The Creation began with a planet covered in water. And by chapter 7 waters covered the earth again.
Before a re-boot, the system has to close down. And then we need to make sure the same errors don’t happen again. Computers keep an “event log” so we can reconstruct how a crash happened. And the early chapters of Genesis provide something similar. We can trace the progress of the original boot up—Creation itself.
The Event Log, in Genesis, shows that the boot up was good—very good. It started with nothing. No light, no dry land, no life. Nothing but God.
God’s Spirit contemplating the waters. Seeing beyond the chaos, the barrenness, to the glory He is about to reveal. And the event log records every step forward.
First, a period of light He called “day,” which provided the framework of the entire creation. Day one.
Next He separates the waters, creating a space where non-aquatic life can thrive. Second day.
Then the waters are gathered, and dry land appears, and with it vegetation, the first life. Third day.
So far, the event log records a flawless process.
Day one gave us a period of time, the cycle of evening/morning. With plant life established, time itself must be ordered. God designates a greater light to rule the day, and a lesser light to rule the night, and many other small lights. Together they regulate signs and seasons, days and years. Fourth Day.
With the world fully organized and regulated, God fills the featureless expanse of sea and sky with life. Fifth day.
The Sixth day begins like the others, where God says “Let there be . . .” as He fills the dry land with living things. But then something unprecedented takes place. God says “Let Us make . . .” Instead of just acting, He describes what He will do! He not only creates humankind, He gives them a commission: to rule over the created order, and to be fruitful and multiply. And he goes further, describing what humankind and the animals shall eat.
With Creation completed, God celebrates, blessing and sanctifying it with its very own day.
Our event log indicates a successful boot. Humanity possesses a clear purpose and an ideal operating system.
In the next chapter something remarkable happened: “God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the sky,” He then “brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.” Look closely at that. God made the animals, but the man named each one—and that was its name. God didn’t tell the man what the name was, the man told God!
Pascal said that God gave humanity “the dignity of causality”—the ability to make choices that alter reality. And naming the animals verifies that role. The system works as designed.
God granted humankind real power. The only question is how will they wield that power?
If you’d like Ed to speak at your church, contact him at
BibleJourneys@Yahoomail.com
Put “Speaking Inquiry” in the subject line.
