Genesis begins with the story of creation and the beginnings of human society. The stories of the ancestors then set the stage for the birth of a nation that\u00a0would be intimately related to the creator God who continues to create relationships of covenant with people of natural faith (like Abraham<\/b>), people who laugh at the prospect of God\u2019s help (like Sarah<\/b>), people who actively try to bring about God\u2019s will (like Rebekah<\/b>), people who must learn to accept grace only after long struggle (like Jacob<\/b>), and people whose life is tragedy and yet they find a way to show grace (like Joseph<\/b>).<\/p>\n
This ancient text\u00a0does not present us with a simple, easy-to-process picture of God. The creator shows both severity and mercy\u00a0when Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit, decides to destroy humanity when humans behave in ways that destroy\u00a0community, but shows mercy on the few who\u00a0are faithful. In the end, the narrative focusses on God’s relationship to a single family, the family of Abraham, and on a single branch of that family, the children of Abraham’s grandson, Jacob. Again the relationship is complicated. The final hero, Joseph, is not innocent, but is blessed anyway. In fact, multiple times in Genesis\u00a0blessing falls to someone seemingly undeserving, and the book ends with just such a story, the blessing of Joseph’s younger son over his elder brother for no explicitly stated\u00a0reason.<\/p>\n
This complicated picture of the relationship between God and specific characters reflects the lived experience of people of faith around the world. God is not easily explained, though easy and superficial attempts at\u00a0explaining God are abundant.\u00a0There is no systematic theology here, only stories that\u00a0make us\u00a0think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Genesis begins with the story of creation and the beginnings of human society. The stories of the ancestors then set the stage for the birth of a nation that\u00a0would be intimately related to the creator God who continues to create relationships of covenant with people of natural faith (like Abraham), people who laugh at the … Continue reading Genesis: A Concluding Summary<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":193,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-408","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P9FE3j-6A","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bibleatchurch.com\/biblehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bibleatchurch.com\/biblehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bibleatchurch.com\/biblehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bibleatchurch.com\/biblehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bibleatchurch.com\/biblehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bibleatchurch.com\/biblehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/408\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bibleatchurch.com\/biblehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bibleatchurch.com\/biblehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}