The Story in the story, Part 3

How many creation accounts can you find?

Three

“Did you enjoy the picnic today, dear?” Jake’s mom smiled at her precious son as John merged onto the highway.

“It was better than before. I mean, kind of knowing why we did this each year.” Jake nodded his head. “But did you know that Uncle Ted told the story a little differently from the way you both did?”

“We know.”

“He said that Grandma told him, ‘God told us to get in the cellar.’ Does that mean that God told both of them or does it still mean that God told Grandpa and Grandma used ‘us’ meaning not that God directly talked to her and Grandpa but that the ‘us’ meant to get everybody into the cellar?

“Yes, I’m sure that’s it.”

“Which one?” Jake really wanted an answer.

“Either or both. I don’t know. All I know is that all of us ended up in that cellar and we were all saved from death.” Margaret reached back and put her hands on both sides of Jake’s cheeks. “We all remember what happened from our own point of view.”

“But which is true?”

“Must we choose one over the other? Cannot both stories be told side by side?”

“But Uncle Ted’s kids tell it his way.”

“Jake, that’s how they remember it—the way it was told to them.”

“But when we come together, the stories don’t always seem to fit exactly right together.”

“That’s why we tell them along side each other. It’s not that the stories are faulty, it’s just that’s how we have come to know them.”

“Mom! I can’t believe that you suckered me in! You are leading up to the creation stories in Genesis.”

“That is where we left off before we got on the highway.”

“And you and dad switching, changing story tellers as well as driving duties, was that to make the explanation more kinesthetic?”

“Perhaps, well yes. I’m just amazed that you know that word.”

“Must be a good upbringing.” Jake liked complementing his parents, especially when it was true. 

“And that it be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” 

Jake smiled and nodded picking up quickly on his mother’s reference to the oft forgotten part of the Fifth Commandment—the first with a promise. “It is well.”

“So do you find two or three creation stories in Genesis?” His mother returned to the discussion before all three launched into a Horatio Spafford tribute. 

“Maybe four.”

“Four?” John and Margaret answered in unison once again. “So how to you get four?”

“The first two are obvious to most folks. The account of the seven days in chapter 1 and the account more specifically discussing Adam and Eve in chapter 2 are pretty straightforward. Then jump to chapter 5 and we have an account of the creation in the lineage from Adam to Noah.”

“That makes three, where’s the fourth?” John asked from behind the wheel.

Jake loved that his parents were so interested in his interpretation of the Bible. “OK, turn back to chapter 4 and the birth of Cain. Eve says, ‘with the help of God, I have created a man.’ This was the first baby and Eve describing it as being brought forth or created might just make this a creation account.”

“Inquisitive without being eisegetical.”

“I wasn’t trying to put a fourth creation account into the Bible. It just jumped out at me that this may be a very significant part not just of the lineage but of the creation story.”

“Interesting.” John would ponder his son’s provocation for the next few miles.

“Whether it’s two, three, or four, why not just tie them into one more coherent story?”

“Fidelity.”

“Fidelity?” Jake had perhaps for the first time this day not caught his mother’s train of thought.

“These stories were not put into written form until many centuries later. They were likely not written while God’s people were slaves, or when they entered the Promised Land, or when they had their first kings, or when the tribes divided into two kingdoms. It is very possible, that these accounts were not written down until the Babylonian Captivity. Perhaps Ezra himself put pen to parchment, or may have just been the project officer with others doing the writing.”

“Why so long?” Jake asked.

“Because if it ain’t broken don’t fix it seemed to predate its supposed American roots as an axiom of the people.”

“You mean the telling of stories worked, so why change it?”

Margaret was glad to see her son accepting this fact so readily. Most of Jake’s classmates would probably tell you that Adam wrote Genesis and Moses wrote the other books of the Pentateuch. 

“So what changed, Mom?”

“The people feared that they might lose their identity. Nebechenezzer and his army had not only conquered the Promised Land, they hauled off all the people with any smarts or technical skill to Babylon and other parts of the Babylonian Empire. The people were being scattered and thought that they might not remember that they were God’s chosen people. They had been disobedient to God and feared the worst—some of which they were living.”

“So they started writing down the stories that were important to them so God’s people would know their history.”

Margaret continued, “Much more than history. These stories were a journey of faith, an identity, and relationship unique to the entire world. They let us know that God not only created all things, but that He created all things good. They let us know that God gave to his creation and still gives to his creation—he didn’t make us and bug out. God still claims ownership of his creation and the human family. They tell us that we have freedom within limits. This is where we are told that God created us in his image. This is where we discover that the human family was called to be fruitful, multiply, replenish and subdue the earth. This is where we first learn that we have dominion and stewardship over the earth. This is part of our relationship with God. This is where we also learn how humankind broke relationship with God, but that God did not give up on us.”

“And so every part of that story was gathered and preserved. That makes more sense than trying to consolidate all this into a half hour television program.” Jake nodded that he saw the rationale.

Margaret continued, “There was so much more to be written down. So much more that might have been lost in the oral tradition while God’s people were scattered across the known world. The promises of God to Abraham—land, descendants, being blessed, and being a b blessing to all peoples—needed to be preserved. The things that made God’s people different, not just ethnicity, might have been lost as well. The geographic separation in Goshen, circumcision, oppression, and the moral law set God’s people apart and held them together. These things were part of the faith system, history, and later part of the literature of the people.”

“So Adam didn’t write Genesis?” Jake smiled knowing his mother knew this was only chiding.

“And Moses probably didn’t write it either, though having a title and author for each book made those who translated these books into Greek a little happier.” Margaret was more matter of fact now.

“So we probably don’t have the exact dates when most of these early books were written. The authorship means less that the fidelity of the oral tradition. When these books were actually put into written form, there was no one alive from any of these periods. Scientifically, we would say this is a whole busload of variables and confounding factors.”

“And you would be right.” Margaret made no counter argument. “Except…” She waited for Jake to take the challenge to address the uncertainty that applying the scientific method to this story created.

“Except, this is about the development of a faith system. It is based upon our belief that men inspired by God not only passed our story along, but did it with exceptional fidelity.”

John and Margaret both fought back a smile while making eye contact. They were not yet ready to reveal their delight in Jake referring to this as our story.

Jake continued, “And even those who translated our story centuries later were inspired by God.”

“Very good.”

“And even God’s moral and civil law that had been given to his people helped maintain the fidelity of the story and of the faith of God’s people. Even the priests in a nation of priests helped solidify our faith. The positioning of the Tabernacle in the center of the camp as the people moved across the dessert put God at the center of his people.”

“Continue.”

“Genesis sort of sets the stage for the main action that takes place in Exodus.”

“We could call it a prologue.” John offered after some time of silence.

“Prologue it is then.” His son replied in agreement.

“There is another component that we really have danced around so far.” Margaret added.

“You mean miracles?”

“Let’s call them mighty acts of God.” Margaret replied.

Jake added, “I know that there are some variances in the way words have been translated, but none of the Bibles that I have read mention the word miracle in the Old Testament.   Mighty acts of God sounds better. “

“Which ones come to mind?” Jakes mother looked forward to her son’s response.

“The parting of the Red Sea just seems to hard not to think of first. There is of course, the very creation itself, but for some reason the crossing of this body of water by a couple million people with animals and possession—you know the people didn’t come out of Egypt empty handed—is just hard to top.”

“Any others?”

“The whole burning bush, letting barren women bear children, success in battle, and if we wanted to get out of the Pentateuch, the whole thing with the Elijah and the Prophets of Baal was pretty impressive. It’s even got a little humor, you know, with Elijah taunting the prophets of Baal. ‘Maybe your god had to go the toilet?’   Then dowsing the altar that the one true God would ignite with water--I think we can call what happened at Mount Carmel a might act.”

“OK.”

“The one that comes up the most often is God delivering his people from bondage in Egypt. When you think about it, what country would voluntarily give up such a labor force? Yeah, that was a mighty act too.”

“Good.”

“How about I get a question or two now?”

“Certainly.” Margaret grinned. “Go for it.”

“What’s up with Deuteronomy? It seems like a repeat of stuff in the books before it.”

“Well we can thank the Greeks for conquering the known world and providing a universal language for an extended period, but naming a book, the second law does not do it justice. Look at it as a sermon series. Moses makes three great speeches to his people. He wants to pass on everything he can to them, because…”

“Because he couldn’t go with them. “ Jake paused to reflect on this simple but up to this point evasive epiphany.

“What’s next? You made that one too easy.”

“OK, Joshua leads God’s people into the Promised Land—not all have to cross the Jordan River, but the river crossing is a big event. I could have mentioned crossing the Jordan on dry land among God’s mighty acts, but…”

Margaret intuitively interrupted. “You want to know about the command to kill everyone in the land.”

“Well, it sounds a lot like ‘shoot ‘em all and let God sort them out.’” Jake didn’t use a lot of Cliché’s but this one seemed to fit the moment.

“That’s a tough one. We know that God said if they didn’t, the people would marry those in the land and eventually come to worship their Gods. The killing is still hard to explain, but just remember that God wanted his chosen people to live a special life in loving relationship with him in the land promised to his people. False gods would interfere with this.

“Well, the people seemed to live in the land and live in harmony with each other and with God for a while. There weren’t even any kings, just judges. The patriarchs of the tribes and families sorted things out according to God’s law.   The period of the Judges seemed to be one of relative harmony, for us being in our human nature sinful you know? Eventually, we got kings. Saul, David, Solomon top the list, but even these notable men had flaws. Even in the Promised Land, we just couldn’t keep a good thing going. Our story is one of falling in and out of a good relationship with God. “

“Very Good Jake.” His mother acknowledged the years that accompanied her son’s verbiage.

“And then it seems that the next big part of our story centers around the Babylonian Captivity. By this time, what was once a united kingdom was fragmented into two main elements known as the Northern and Southern Kingdoms or Israel and Judah. The Assyrians to the north and the Egyptians to the west had been the notable powers of the day. That is, until Nebechenezzer decided to conquer the known world. Unfortunately, this wasn’t an ambush. We had plenty of warning. Jeremiah—a young man that didn’t want the job of prophet—was among the most notable. I guess when God tells you that He knew you before you were born and to just quit whining and say what He tells you to say, you have been called.”

“Somethings you just accept.” Margaret nodded for her son to continue.

“What a bum deal for Jeremiah though. He prophesied through three different kings and lived to see Jerusalem leveled, the Temple destroyed, and the people running in fear or carted off in captivity. He didn’t only have to tell our people to straighten up or else, he had to live through the or else. Bummer.”

“Where did that term come from?

“The sixties, of course.” Jake chuckled.

“I meant when did you start using it?”

“Just now. I figured that if our story goes all the way back to God choosing a people, I would pick up a few terms that predate me.”

The cat was out of the bag. Jake knew that he had been referring to the story of God’s people as the story of our people. 

“Were you thinking of learning Hebrew and Aramaic?” John queried.

“Not this year.” Jake’s answer left open the possibility that study in this area was not out of the question.

“Back to Babylon, if you please.” Margaret offered.

“OK, but I have an idea as to why Jeremiah was the weeping prophet?”

“Besides his public weeping?” Margaret was certain that her son’s thoughts went beyond the obvious.

“Yes.” Jake looked at his mother with eyes that asked for a critical evaluation of this thought, or perhaps it was more of a theory. “What if the pain of the destruction of Jerusalem was real for Jeremiah the moment the message was given to him from God. He did not have to wait for it to be fulfilled. God spoke it. It was real.”

Margaret paused before replying. “That’s more than a passing knowledge of our story. That is an understanding that belies your years. May I dare venture the concomitant that if Jeremiah felt the pain, can we…”

“Can we not also live now in the joy and abundant life that we are promised by the one true God and his Son, Jesus!”

“We are living in joy right now at the understanding our son has of our story.” Margaret spoke singularly but the message was unanimous.”

“Now back to Babylon?”

“Go for it.” Margaret smiled even larger than before.

“Like we mentioned before, this did prompt the first few books of the Bible to be put into writing. It also provided some excellent stories of faith. Daniel, Shadrack, Meshack,and Abedigo all were tempted to worship a man over the one true God and they would not do it. God delivered these men from death. Lions and fiery furnaces make for memorable stories and a rich culture, especially when you are 1500 miles from home—and that’s if you tried to walk across the wilderness.”

“How do God’s people get home?”

“God used the Meades and Persians for his purpose this time. The Persian Empire replaced the Babylonian Empire—that’s like being double conquered for the Jews.”

Margaret momentarily stopped her son from continuing. “You used the word Jews.”

“It probably came into usage about this time. It may or may not have been a derogatory term when it began, but it stuck.”

“Touché.”

Jake continued. “Cyrus is the Persian Emperor and he sends the Jews back to rebuild their temple. He also sends back the possessions that had been looted. The rebuilding of the temple resembled a pork barrel government contract more than something that God’s people tackled with purpose. You know we are a people with purpose. We just don’t always remember that. “

Margaret confirmed her son’s observation. “We are indeed a people of purpose.”

“Then we come to Nehemiah who was serving as Darius’s cup bearer or food taster if you will. He got word that the city of Jerusalem still lay with the wall around it—the citadel if you prefer—still in ruins. Not only was the wall in ruins but those people surrounding the city threatened to kill anyone that tried to rebuild it.”

“Sounds gloomy?” Margaret beckoned her son to continue.

“For Darius too. When your food taster comes to work looking down and out, you can quickly lose your appetite. When Darius ask Nehemiah what was wrong and Nehemiah revealed the state of Jerusalem, Darius asked what he could do. This part is classic. In the moment when he is asked by the ruler what he needs, Nehemiah turns to God in prayer. Now there is someone with real presence of mind. He of course tells the King and Queen that he needs to go rebuilt his city, that it will take a good while, and that he will need some support from King Darius. Wow! This is a man with his act together.”

“And did he return?” Margaret knew the answer but truly loved having her son explain what happened in his own words.

“Yes, and with the same astute mindset that he held in the court of the king. He first conducted a night reconnaissance of the city. He then gathered the leaders and devised a system of working concurrently on all sections of the wall concurrently using the rubble to rebuild the wall and all the while maintaining 50% security. Using the concept of interior lines (one that European generals of the 17^thand 18^th centuries would claim as their own), Nehemiah devised a system of signaling by trumpet so that at any given time a specific section of the wall could be reinforced against attack.”

“Sound like that would take a long time?” Margaret’s statement was really an invitation to continue.

“Fifty-one days and they were ready to hang the doors.” Jake spouted out the accomplishment as if he were on the door hanging crew. “And I didn’t even mention the fact that Nehemiah had to contend with something of a fifth column within Jerusalem as well as the hostiles outside the wall. Once this was completed, Nehemiah turned over the management of the Citadel to his brother and the city management to a close friend—one who may have got this ball rolling with his visit to Nehemiah a few months earlier. There were more important things to be addressed, namely the economic bankruptcy of the people as well as their spiritual poverty.”

“Sounds like you didn’t find this part of the story boring at all.” Marge baited her son just enough to get some more of the story.

“This is good stuff. Nehemiah challenged the upper class that had been exploiting the common people for decades to do the right thing. They did. They gave the people back their land and livelihood. Jeremiah would also not take his governor’s portion. This was a time for the first to be last and Nehemiah was leading this servanthood charge.”

“Impressive.”

“That’s not all.” Jake had more to tell. “They built this large platform for Nehemiah and Ezra and the teachers to speak from and they started reading the law. This may have been the first time that the law had been read aloud to our people. The interesting part is that Ezra was there and he may have been the one to put pen to papyrus for what was read and then was there to hear these special words read to our people. This was followed by the feast of booths and did you know that the people had not celebrated this week this way since Joshua. People went out and gathered branches from all sorts of trees and made booths out of them to remember their time in the wilderness.”

“Sounds like things were getting back on track.”

“Sort of, but think about the fact that only in this time had the feast of booths been celebrated with these thatch huts on top of homes, in courtyards, and throughout this newly restored city. The people get their precious city back and then take the time to remember the time of their ancestors in the wilderness. The people wanted to weep and mourn, but they were told by their teachers to rejoice. It seems every time that God’s people return to him, He wants them to rejoice.”

“Jake, I think you have a question on the tip of your tongue. Go ahead, what is it?”

“The people had not celebrated this way since the time of Joshua? Why didn’t David or Solomon do this?”

“The best I can tell you,” Margaret paused, “is that they were men. David after God’s heart and Solomon granted wisdom beyond anyone before or after him, they were just men.”

“That helps. Sometimes when I read the scriptures, Holy Scriptures, I think that the people that we find there should be flawless. That just doesn’t seem to be the case.”

“Remember the lens that we are looking through?’

“Yes, and time has not yet become full.”

“Correct.”

“But we do find men looking forward to that time. The Messianic prophecies in Isaiah and the Messianic Psalms come to mind right away.”

“What does Messiah mean to you Jake?” Margaret felt comfortable with a little more probing query.

“A promised one that would deliver God’s people from their oppressors. Probably most people thought of the Babylonians initially, but the Romans took their place after the people had about a century without being conquered by anyone. With our two millennia worth of hindsight, we can also see that the Messiah would deliver us from sin and death once and for all. These messages were there in what the prophets wrote, but there were also messages that seemed to apply to the age the people lived in back then.”

“Go ahead.”

“The people were looking for a king or military leader with a big army. By the time that Jesus came, that image was probably pretty well established in the people’s minds and in the culture of the Jews.”

“But what about when there was no oppressor?”

“It seems that somebody was always willing to take up the oppression slack.” Jake knew he was moving into something a little more interpretive, but felt that was where his mother was leading. “The Pharisees and other high religious officials made the Law given through Moses a burden. It was meant to be a gift from God and a blessing to God’s people. It was to guide the people in good living. It was as much a gift as the Promised Land and the identity of God’s people.”

“How could such a good gift become oppressive?”

“The religious leaders chose to embalm the law instead of using the gift they were given.”

“Embalm?”

“Let me put it this way. You remember the new baseball glove that you and dad gave me last year.”

“Yes. After getting two big hugs we hardly saw you for the rest of the day. You were oiling and working that glove like there was no tomorrow. You would go play catch for an hour and then come back in and mold the glove some more, then it was outside again. I thought you were going to wear your glove out the day you got it.”

Jake interjected, “But I didn’t wear it out, did I?”

“No, you have taken very good care of it.”

“But it has grass stains on it.”

“I remember how you got one of them.” John chimed in. “Laying out for that line drive in last year’s championship game. That snag saved two, maybe three runs.”

“But it has scuff marks on it too.”

Dad wasn’t going to pass up more baseball commentary. “And some of those ground balls that you dug out of the dirt were incredible stops. The scorekeeper was already writing too hot to handle in the scorebook, but you dug ‘em out and made the plays.”

“So the scuffs and grass stains on the glove that you gave me don’t bother you.”

“No! That’s why we gave you the glove, so you could use it.”

Jake took a slight change of direction. “What if on the day you gave me the glove, I had sealed it in some shrink wrap and put it on the shelf in the den. I could go by once a week and dust around it. Then it would be preserved for a very long time. I would make it a duty to dust it off each week. You could punish me if I didn’t, or at least make me feel guilty.”

“You would have broken our hearts if you did that.” Margaret entered the baseball discussion. John still had a lump in his throat from just thinking about this possibility.

“Why is that Mom?”

“Because we gave you the glove so you could enjoy it, have a fuller life. We know how you love baseball. We wanted you to be so happy and we thought what a perfect gift the glove would be.”

“The Pharisees didn’t have shrink wrap, but they made the law into something of a duty or a burden for God’s people—for us.”

“And you’re saying,” Margaret’s eyebrows arched with this horsehide and leather analogy hitting home with her, “that God must have felt the way we would have felt if you put our perfect gift into a plastic bag to put on the shelf and become a duty instead of a blessing to you.”

“That may be a stretch, but that’s the best analogy I can make.”

“And maybe the best one that I have heard.” John added from the front seat.

“So perhaps the time has become full?” Margaret inquired.

“Maybe there are a few spots yet to fill in.” Jake wanted to talk more.

“Let’s make a pit stop first. This is the only station around so we need to fill and empty our respective tanks.”