January 14

In this passage (Gen 1:1-2:4) God creates everything known to man, light, darkness, sky, sea, land, living creatures, etc., but this is no scientific account of the formation of Earth. This passage establishes God as all-powerful and as the creator of everything. There is no way we could possibly comprehend how everything came to be, so this passage is told in a very simple way: God says something, and it then exists and is good. After reading this passage, we come to understand the concept of separate days, where God creates each thing. We are told of day and night, each with light and dark, respectively, seasons, and years. Then God creates land and sea for living things to dwell in. When God creates living things, he tells them to “Be fruitful and multiply,” giving us one of our main purposes of existing, reproducing and continuing the existence of life on Earth. God creates humans, male and female, “in [His] image and likeness” and gives us domain over all other living things, establishing us as the highest form of life with the responsibility to care for other forms of life and exercise power over them. On the last day, the seventh day, God rests, not because he is tired, but as an example for us. He blesses the seventh day and establishes it as the Sabbath so that we honor this day and use it to rest from the chaos of every other day of the week and worship Him. The purpose of the creation story is to set up the Bible as a way to teach us basic truths of our existence and rules to live by on Earth. We learn that we are to reproduce and respect and control the Earth God gave us, and most of all, respect and honor Him for the great gifts we have been given.

January 16

In this passage from Genesis, Adam and Eve disobey God and use their free will to eat the forbidden fruit. Before eating the fruit, Adam and Eve lived blissful, innocent lives with God in the Garden of Eden. The tree this fruit comes from represents knowledge and Adam and Eve’s original sin. This first disobedience is an example of the danger of free will and its temptation. The fruit comes from a tree probably because it is a representation of life more grounded and larger than man. Trees represent a quiet wisdom and mystery that humans do not possess and seem innocent and deceitful. Knowledge is important in this story because it eliminates the ignorance and bliss of the garden of eden. Before eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve only knew good, but after, they were exposed to the true juxtaposition between good and evil. Eating the fruit wiped away their in incense and sole awareness of goodness and bliss. Their knowledge makes them more God-like by becoming closer to being all-knowing, but it also destroys their relationship with God by violating His trust. Having knowledge of both good and evil makes Adam and Eve more similar to God, but it puts them both physically and spiritually further from Him because they are banished from the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve “eat” the knowledge because they ingest and absorb it and cannot take back this action, while touching or looking is a less concrete, more passive action. Their sin is know physically inside them, and it cannot be undone. Banishing Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden might be considered merciful because God spares their lives and just gives them lives on Earth instead. Because God is all-powerful he could have made their punishment much more severe, so their banishment to life on Earth is somewhat merciful.

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