1:26 Then God said "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness ...."
- Who is "us ' and 'our '? Is God referring to the trinity when using the plural or is it more like when the queen of England refers to herself in the plural?
- Does it not seem strange that God only created woman after determining that none of the other creatures of the earth were suitable helpers for Adam? I'm sure glad that God and Adam didn't give up when the existing choices dwindled down to nothing. Nuff said.
3:16 To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children."
- If God increased Eve's pain in childbearing after the fall, wouldn't that imply that she had given birth at least once prior to the fall? No where is it said that Cain and Able were her first children. They are the first mentioned. With this in mind, maybe some light can be shed on the question of where Cain found his wife.
3:21 The Lord made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
- What is the nature of the skin used as garments? One suggestion was that humans did not completely come into these bodies until after the fall and that the garment of skin is actually our bodies. While this may contradict 3:7 where Adam and Eve realised that they were naked, it is an interesting thing to ponder.
7:2 (God said to Noah) "Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and it's mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal ....."
- It is presumed that Moses wrote Genesis and would have known all the laws about clean and unclean animals and all the rituals that were required in his time. Nowhere, however, is there any written indication that God had told Noah which animals were clean and which were unclean. No real big deal, given that it can be assumed that many "conversations " between God and Noah and his ancestors were not recorded.
- A song we sing in church says that God doesn't make junk. Every thing God makes is good, including me. If this is the case, why are some of God's creatures considered "unclean" and some considered "clean"? If God made them, aren't they all good? Did he decide at some point that he was not happy with some of his creations and rendered them "unclean". I'm sorry, I just don't get this whole notion. (I'm sure God is just worried to death that I don't understand His logic sometimes.)
Getting ahead of myself a little, there is at least one other similar set of rules that I, again, just don't get. I do not know where exactly where it is in the Bible, but as I recall, there are passages that seem to indicate that about one week out of every four, women are essentially to be treated as pariahs. If God created women and designed all their systems, why is a part of the normal operation of those systems considered in the same realm as having leprosy? (And that's the best way I can think of to dance around the topic and still ask the question.)
Since we are actually reading Job right now, a few observations.
- Isn't it odd that when given permission to mess with Job, the dirtball kills off all of Job's possessions. Everything he has. Everything that is dear to him. Except his wife. My first thought when reading this was something to the effect that sparing the life of his wife was another form of torture for Job, or some other whimsical anti-wife comment only meant for laughs. (Yes, I love my wife and would not want to be without her). But, as I was sitting here typing it occured to me that God may have prohibited the dirtball from taking Job's wife in 1:12 (Then the Lord said to Satan "Very well then,everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself, do not lay a finger.). If it is as it says in Genesis 2:24 (For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh), then old dirtball could not harm Job's wife without harming Job himself.
- Why is it that, unless it is a biblical reference, j-o-b is someplace we go just about every morning to make money? Shouldn't it be spelled Jobe?
2 comments:
These are good questions. I'll take a shot at them.
* Yes, the "us" is the plurality of God. The new testament (Colossians 1:16, John 1:3) confirms this by speaking of Jesus as the creator.
* There are a lot of people who theorize that Adam and Eve did have children before the fall. It is possible. Adam lived for 930 years so there was plenty of time to have kids. Its fairly certain that Cain and Able were not their first children. After Cain killed Able he went into exile. Where did he go? Well he went to another city where he eventually found a wife. Logic tells us that those people were also children, grandchildren, or great grandchildren of Adam and Eve.
* I would imagine that God told Moses what animals were clean and unclean or that this was already known at this point in history. Since God put the animals on the ark though, he wouldn't necessarily have had to tell him. Since Noah did sacrifice after the flood it would seem logical that he did have some sort of concept of clean versus unclean though.
* Clean and unclean animals were largely God protecting man from getting sick. If you look at the list, it is very logical for the time.
* A womans cycles are most likely a result of the fall of man. Sin caused a lot of junk. This is another one of those laws that seems to be there to healthy.
Good questions...One thing I'd add to the timing of Eve's creation. A lot of times God will delay what He knows to be necessary, until we figure out it is necessary. Think how great woman looked after considering the platypus for a partner! If he had discovered the woman first would man have proceeded to "check out" all the others after? Now you're talking some serious pillow talk.
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