What, one may ask legitimately, is the relation of Genesis 1–11 to Genesis 12–50, to the rest of the Torah, to the rest of the Old Testament, or to the rest of the Bible? The latter questions assume, of course, the existence or possibility of a single plot structure running through the assorted collection of books we call the Bible. Is Genesis 1–11 just the “primeval history” that we have to get out of the way before the real story starts with Abraham in Genesis 12? Some Christians approach putting the Bible together this way.
My thesis in this brief piece is that all of our foundations for life and living are found in the biblical teaching on creation, especially as delineated in Genesis 1–3. From the account of creation, we see that God rules sovereignly over all his works as King. He establishes his rule, moreover, in a bond or relationship of love, loyalty, spirit, and trust with humans. Not surprisingly, then, one of the central themes of the Old Testament is kingdom through covenant.[1]
1. Hence the title of the book I co-authored with Stephen Wellum, Kingdom through Covenant.
The Image of God as a King in Covenant with God
The foundation for kingdom through covenant is laid by the creation of humans as the image of God. Genesis 1:27–28 actually deals with two topics by means of a chiasm or literary sandwich:
(A) in the image of God he created him
(B) male and female he created them
(B´) be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth
(A´) and subdue it and rule over the fish/birds/animals
After the general statement in verse 27a that God created humanity in his image, we have in verse 27b a couple of important footnotes. The fact that humanity is constituted as male and female prepares us for the command to be fruitful, and the fact that humanity is the divine image prepares us for the command to rule over the creatures. Thus, while binary sexual differentiation is the basis for procreation enabling humans to increase in number (the B elements in the chiasm), our status as God’s image is expressed in subduing and ruling (the A elements). Note that our identity as God’s image is expressed as we rule creation on God’s behalf. This identity does not require bearing children, nor is biological gender a necessary aspect of our ability to function as God’s image. Rather, the image of God correlates to men and women ruling over creation.
Careful analysis of the terms “likeness” and “image” in the Hebrew scriptures shows that these words speak of kinship and kingship. Likeness focuses on our relation to God as his obedient sons and daughters while image focuses on the way we represent God to the rest of his creation. These would have been understood as covenantal relationships since family language is invoked to describe covenants in the Bible and ancient Near East. Note as well that according to the grammar of the original text, ruling over the creatures in v. 26b is a result of creating man in the divine image. So, the image has to do with the core of our being and status and is not only or simply functional.[2]
2. For argument and evidence see Peter J. Gentry, Biblical Studies, Volume 1 (Peterborough: H&E, 2020), 1-23 in addition to Peter J. Gentry and Stephen J. Wellum, Kingdom through Covenant: A Biblical-Theological Understanding of the Covenants, rev. ed. (Wheaton: Crossway, 2018), 220–238.
Most occurrences of the word “image” denote a physical statue. Accordingly, mankind is set in the midst of creation as God’s statue. He is evidence that God is the Lord of creation. Mankind exerts his rule not in arbitrary despotism but as a responsible agent, as God’s steward. His duty to rule is not autonomous; it is a copy of the divine king who sits in glory. Hence the concept of the kingdom of God is found on the first page of the Bible.
From the First Adam to the Second
Adam begins to rule the world under God by naming everything created on the earth just as God ruled by naming everything created in the heavens. This understanding of the divine image fits the background of the ancient Near East where the setting up of the king’s statue was the equivalent to the proclamation of his domination over the area in which the statue was erected.
When the descendants of the first man and woman fill the earth with chaos and social violence flowing from the breaking of the covenant by Adam and Eve, God destroys all creatures by a flood and preserves a pair of each kind. God makes a new start with Noah and he is given Adam’s covenant and mandate (comp. Genesis 1:27–29 with 9:1–7). When the family of Noah ends up confused and scattered over the face of the earth because of the curse of Babel in Genesis 11, God chooses Abraham and his family in Genesis 12 to inherit the role of Adam and Eve. If one carefully follows the terms ‘fruitful’ and ‘multiply’ of Genesis 1:26–28 throughout the rest of Genesis, one will see that Abraham’s children are God’s true humanity, and their homeland is the new Eden.
Careful attention must be paid to the language of the promises given to Abraham in Genesis 12 that are later incorporated into the covenant made in Genesis 15. The first promise that God gives to Abram is that he will make him a great nation (Gen. 12:2). The last promise is that in Abram all the clans or families of the earth will be blessed (Gen. 12:3). God speaks of Abram as becoming a great nation through three considerations.
- The term “nation” emphasizes a people as a political entity defined by cultural, ethnic, geographical, or social factors.
- In Genesis 12:3 the nations of the world are not called “nations” but rather “clans” or “families.” The term family emphasises a people with no real political structure and in which no system of final governmental headship or rule operates.
- The background to Genesis 12 is Genesis 11. There we have the history of Babel, where we see a complete confidence and naive optimism about human achievement and effort. Man is at the centre of his world, and he can achieve anything. This philosophy comes under divine judgment. By contrast Genesis 12 presents us with a political structure brought into being by God, with God at the center, and God as the governmental head and ruler of that system. In other words, we have the kingdom of God brought into being by the promises to and covenant with Abraham (comp. Heb. 11:8-10).
When Abram’s family does become a nation, God initiates with them the Sinai covenant or “law of Moses” as a means for the people being rightly related to God, to each other as God’s true humanity, and to the creation as His stewards. Therefore, the covenant is the means for establishing His kingdom. The book of Judges proves that although each person did what was right in his own eyes (Judg. 17:6), the Lord ruled over His people as King. Later God raised up a king after His own heart and made a special covenant with David. The Davidic covenant was God’s king seeking to bring the people of God, and indeed all the nations, under this rule made explicit in the covenant (2 Sam. 7:19). Thus, the king was the mediator of the covenant and the means of extending God’s rule.
3. Cp. Zeph. 1:2 and Deut. 32:22; Zeph. 1:3 and Deut. 28:21; Zeph. 1:4-6 and Deut. 28:45; Zeph. 1:8-13 and Deut. 28:45; Zeph. 1:13 and Deut. 28:30, 39; Zeph. 1:15 and Deut. 28:53, 55, 57.
When the people failed to abide by the covenant, the prophets and the wise men were sent by God to call the people back to the covenant, the terms of God’s rule. Zephaniah, for example, based his warnings on the covenant as found in Deuteronomy.[3] Moreover, the literary structure of Zephaniah is chiastic with 2:11 as the center of the book: “The nations on every shore will worship him, everyone in its own land” (NIV). Zephaniah’s theology, then, can be summed up by the theme “kingdom through covenant.”[4]
4. See Clint Sheehan, “Kingdom through Covenant: the Structure and Theology of Zephaniah,” Baptist Review of Theology, 6/2 (1996):7–21).
Although the prophets sought to bring the people back to the covenant, the Sinai covenant (law of Moses) failed to achieve the goal of establishing God’s kingdom because it did not (and in fact could not) guarantee the obedience of the people of God. Hence the prophets begin to speak of a new covenant (Jeremiah 31; cf. Isaiah 53–55; Ezekiel 36) in which God’s rule is guaranteed by an obedient people. As the failure of the Davidic line of kings became evident in history, the hope for a future king came more and more to the fore along with the promise of a new covenant through which God’s kingship would be acknowledged in the hearts of His people in a new creation—new humanity in a new heavens and a new earth.
The Old Testament ends (in the Hebrew Canon) with Chronicles, a book that focuses on good kings as the ideal of the future Messiah in whom Yahweh will be truly Lord over His people and over all His creation. So the last words of the Old Testament call for a temple-builder from among the people to make this hope a reality—doubtless the Messiah Himself (2 Chron. 36:23)
Isaiah especially shows the connection between creation and the deliverance and rescue of God’s people in salvation. Isaiah 40–55 constitutes the particular section where he describes how God will deliver and rescue Israel from exile: the physical exile in Babylon and the spiritual exile due to chronic disloyalty and breaking of the covenant. To be specific, Isaiah 40:1–11 begins with the good news and Isaiah 40:12-31 grounds the good news in God as Creator. The path of deliverance and redemption moves towards the New Creation in Isaiah 65. What we see then, is that without the doctrine of creation there is no doctrine of salvation. The future does not lie in eternal life in heaven but life in a new creation described at numerous high points in the book of Isaiah (2:1–4, 4:2-6, 11:1–9, 25:6-9, 35:1–10, 54-55, 65:17–25).
The clear connection between creation and the rest of the biblical story is substantiated by the coming of Jesus who summed up his message by the call, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 3:2, 4:17, Mark 1:15). Through the work of Jesus, the broken covenant is restored and God rules in the lives of his people.
Genesis 1–11 points to the fact that God has planned a new creation—a new heavens and a new earth. Unlike the first creation, where he first made the place and afterward the people to live there, in the new creation he is first making the people and afterward the place where they will live. The new creation begins in the midst of the old: when God raised Jesus from the dead, he was the first man in the new creation. And anyone who is joined to Jesus Christ by faith is new creation (2 Cor. 5:17; frequently translated incorrectly as “is a new creation”). This happens first in the inner person and later, at the resurrection, in the outer person.
A Two Way Mirror
Genesis 1–11 is like a two-way mirror for the canon of Scripture. When you read Genesis 1–11 you must read it with the rest of Scripture in mind. Creation and new creation go together. For example, when the first humans violated the covenant relationship with Yahweh, the covenant Lord, the Hebrew Text indicates that they were ashamed and “hid from the face of Yahweh God.” In Revelation 6:16 humans pray “to hide from the face of him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.” But in the new creation, “they shall see his face” (Rev. 22:4). So the solution to the problem is addressed in the new creation.
When you read the rest of the Bible one can always look back to Genesis 1–11, to creation for the foundations. As Jesus announces the good news of redemption, he constantly points back to the creation standards as we see when asked about his opinion on divorce (Matt. 19). Again, as we saw earlier, when Isaiah outlines the great plan of deliverance from sin, he begins with the doctrine of creation. God is not interested in saving only our souls; he wants a whole new creation.