I sent Chris a number of questions that were posted on this blog, and he has very kindly started to answer them. This is what he said:
Gen 1 v 6-8 – what is it about the second day that means God does not say it is good
Calvin says - Moses has not affixed to the work of this day the note that “God saw that it was good:” perhaps because there was no advantage from it till the terrestrial waters were gathered into their proper place, which was done on the next day, and therefore it is there twice repeated.
So Day three may well be carrying the Day 2 “good” (1:10 and 1:12).
Gen 6 v1 - what is the difference between the sons of God and the daughters of men?
Context is always helpful, so consider this: the spread of sin is traced by four major narratives:
1) Cain and Abel (4:1-16),
2) the sons of God and the daughters of men (6:1-4),
3) the flood (6:5ff.),
4) the tower of Babel (11:1-9).
Each of these narratives (and the narrative of Genesis 3) follows a similar pattern:
a. Sin (e.g. 4:1-8; 6:1-4)
b. Declaration of God's judgement (e.g. 4:9-12; 6:5-7)
c. Grace, with some reduction in the severity of judgement (e.g. 4:13-15; 6:8-7:10). Only in the Babel narrative (11:1-9) is there no movement of grace as there is in the other narratives.
So we are witnessing the steady spread of sin in the world. The details of this time are not clear to us. We live in a time of precision but we are witnessing in Genesis 1-11 a time of very broad brush strokes.
Derek Kidner (Tyndale Old Testament Commentary - IVP, pp 83-84) is good for us at this point because he is so concise. Let me quote him:
The point of this cryptic passage, whichever way we take it, is that a new stage has been reached in the progress of evil, with God’s bounds overstepped in yet another realm.
The Sons of God are identified by some interpreters as the sons of Seth, over against the sons of Cain. By others … they were taken to mean angels.
(But) more important than the detail of this episode is its indication that (humanity) is beyond self help, whether Seth-ites have betrayed their calling, or demonic powers have gained a stranglehold.
So what is the difference? I don’t really know but I do see that the creation is slipping deeper into sin and God’s response is both judgement and grace.
Gen 11 v6 - God deliberately sets confusion at the Tower of Babel because He seems worried that "nothing they propose to do will be impossible for them" - seems strange to me - like God deliberately tries to make life difficult.
Hmmm …
Start with context again.
We are looking at the narratives tracing the spread of sin. In each episode there is an act of divine grace:
a) Adam does not immediately die;
b) Cain is marked for his protection;
c) the flood will never recur.
Only in the Babel narrative do we look in vain for such a note of divine grace. Coming at the end of the sequence, this narrative assumes a special significance and it raises a question as to whether the human race will even continue.
The account assumes the age-old human dream of one common language, one social culture, a racial union and common economic ties. It almost sounds like a League of Nations! It is a human attempt to form a “peoples” without God. Yet God comes down and “frustrates” this god-less ambition.
To think God is deliberately holding back a clever group of creative planners means you have to believe that heaven (i.e. God) is a threat to their ‘progress’. On this view the whole narrative is about the age-old human dream of a world in which, by human co-operation, a utopian heaven on earth is built. But it is always an impossible dream when God is left out of the plans, as in Genesis 11:1-9.
This view is interesting but improbable.
What is “frustrated” (and condemned) is that arrogant self assertion (v. 4 ‘we may make a name for ourselves’) which seeks to promote human unity on the social, cultural and economic levels yet ignores God. This also fails to recognise that human unity will only really be found in a common expression of allegiance to the kingship of God.
If, therefore, Genesis 3 pictures the fall of humankind, Genesis 11 pictures the fall of human society. So, Babel shows the total spread of sin and provides the logical conclusion to the episode that opened in Genesis 3.
God isn’t deliberately making life difficult for them. He is saving humanity from making life difficult for themselves because they want to leave him out!
I mentioned earlier that there was no immediate response of grace by God after Babel. That is true if you close the book at chapter 11 but the genealogy of Shem, from which Abram (later called Abraham, 17:5) stems (11:10-32), leads us to the new beginning in Abram. Genesis 12:1 recalls the ‘and God said’ of Genesis 1:3. Genesis 12:1-3 pictures Abram as the ‘new creation’, and so presents God's response to Genesis 3-11. In reply to the men of Babel who want to make a great name for themselves, God himself will make Abram's name great (12:2).The unity and community (the nation?) desired by the Babel builders will come from God through Abram.
So God makes nationhood possible but it has to be on his terms. He will be the King. Humanity cannot leave God out of the picture or make secret plans to create a world of harmony without him It’s his world! That is the same issue you find in Isaiah 29:15-16 – (the New Living Translation grabs the feel quite well) What sorrow awaits those who try to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their evil deeds in the dark! “The Lord can’t see us,” they say. “He doesn’t know what’s going on!”
How foolish can you be? He is the Potter, and he is certainly greater than you, the clay!
Likewise the human race cannot say, “We will make ourselves great – stuff God! Hey, let’s build a tower while he’s not watching …”
No comments:
Post a Comment