All About Beginnings in Genesis

So I wrapped up a six-ish month tour in the book of Genesis last week. The theme that struck me most this time through was how many starts and re-starts occur in the first several chapters. All of the re-starts come after things bottom-out pretty bad.

Bottom out #1: Genesis 3, Adam and Eve sin and are kicked out of the Garden. Of course, things only get worse as Cain kills Abel and Lamech gets his revenge "seventy-seven fold."

Restart #1: Genesis 5, a recap of the fact that God created male and female in his image (in case you've forgotten it) and a description of the birth of Seth, who somehow makes up for the Cain and Abel debacle.

Bottom out #2: Genesis 6, people are wicked and God's going to wipe them off the face of the earth. Only Noah will be saved.

Restart #2: Genesis 9, and the covenant with Noah--with the familiar command to "be fruitful and multiply."

Bottom out #3: Genesis 11, the Tower of Babel--God gets ticked off at the arrogance of the people, confuses their language and scatters them everywhere.

Restart #3: Genesis 12, the call of Abram and the covenant with him. This is really where the narrative settles down and focuses on this one man, his interactions with God, and the roots of the Israelite nation...as well as the Messiah who is to come, the one who will bless all the nations.

Of course, there's more Genesis/re-start language at the beginning of the New Testament. John's gospel starts with "In the beginning" as a deliberate echo of Genesis 1:1. And there's the beauty and power of the church being launched in Acts 2 as a deliberate un-doing of the Tower of Bable incident. There everyone is re-gathered in the name of Jesus, and the beginnings of all the nations being blessed is seen and experienced at the I.P.O. (that's "initial public offering" for those of you who don't buy and sell on Wall Street all the time like I do) of the Christian church.

Bottom line: I think that our love of new beginnings and our occasional longing for fresh starts is a fractured and murky reflection of God's love of His fresh starts. He loves to do new things. He especially loves to do new things that are in line with His old things.