The Meaning of Genesis

 The Bible for Normal People is the Pete Enns podcast that I have been listening to more recently.  

Today the podcast I listened to was a summary of the book of his that I read (Elijah got for my birthday, so cool) called Genesis for Normal People (Now Exodus for Normal People is out and I can't wait to read it).

Enns describes Genesis as a basic retelling of the story of the Israelites, in particular the southern kingdom which was the only Israelite group that survived the Babylonian captivity of 528?.  He gave seven points as to why this is the case.  Each of them fascinating and I plan to go back and listen to the podcast again and take down some notes on it.  But the point of this reflection is to give meaning to this understanding of Genesis, which makes so much sense and gives me reason to want to go back to the Bible and reread these stories after seeing this connection Enns makes.  So, why does it matter that Genesis is a retelling of the Israelite story.  Well, I guess I'm going to have to steal from Enns on this too.  His point is that the Bible is written by people living in their unique situation giving their best effort to make sense of who God is and what activity it is that God is up to.  They were brought through this devastating period of captivity by the Babylonians and then returned to their homeland.  They had to make sense of how God was at work through this remarkable series of events.  

That is not unlike what we should do as we reflect on our lives and the situations that we are in and the situation that the people in our local and global communities are in.  We need to be asking, "how is God at work in these events?, in this situation?  in the pain and in this joy?"

This is important work for those who are faithful to God and trust that through Jesus God is at work to make all things new in our lives and in our world.  

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