Granted there are traditionally four key events at the beginning of Genesis covering chapters 1-11 ; Creation, Fall, Flood and Babble. But there are so many details which are just as important to our mission here on this earth today. Genesis is a rich story, in fact it is two stories. There is the story of man and the story of God’s special plan for a special line of men. These two threads weave all through the Old Testament, which is why it seems like there are two creation accounts in Genesis 1 and 2.
Satan has done a good job of telling a different story these days, and it is so prevalent we take it for granted. Jesus and the apostles did not, they repeatedly appealed to the created order as authority for our ideas about Christ, relations between men and women and ideas about work. If Satan can mess up the story of man he doesn’t have to worry about the story of the special line of men. The earth is not evolving or getting better, it is dying. It is blatant in the tower of Babble, man was too capable so God made him less capable by confusing the language and whatever else happened there. After the flood God reduced the years of man. The gene pool was once stronger, which enabled brother and sister to marry. As we can see from the fossil record there are any number of creatures that no longer walk the earth. And there are any number of ancient creations that we can not explain and probably couldn’t reproduce until very recently.
And the wisdom of ancient man was greater as well. Cain was a builder of cities, Noah built a giant ship. These were no cavemen, as the worldly historians would have you believe. Adam and Eve walked and talked with God in the garden. Oh what they must have talked about. Men lived much longer, it is possible that Noah knew Adam, certainly he knew someone who did. Wisdom could be accumulated for nearly 1000 years before these men died and it was passed down orally to Noah and his sons. I am guessing that they knew more about God than we do, by far.
Madonna and Child with St. Anne. Caravaggio. c.1606
The first event in the story of redemption, in God’s special line, is the promise made to Adam after the fall, known as the Adamic Covenant. In Genesis 3:14-19 God lays out the nature of the new relationships between the snake and earth, woman and man, and man and the Earth. But don’t miss the big one, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” God slips in a small promise, the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. And so humanity looked to the seed of the woman, there had to be anticipation as she bore her first son Cain. Would he be the one? But he failed, killed his brother and was exiled. But God continued to be faithful even when it looked like all hope was lost. God preserved Noah and then he fell into sin, the line of Shem was chosen. The hope was alive. Every mother painstakingly listed in those geneologies, had to be hoping that her son would be the one to save the world from the serpent.
No doubt the hope grew faint in the lines of Ham and Japheth as they strayed farther and farther from their father Noah and his word from God. These are the cavemen, the backward peoples of the earth. For they have gone backward from the Law of God, they became as the animals in their rebellion. They found homes not in a garden but in the wilderness. Then no longer ruled and subdued the earth, they wandered aimlessly as the earth ruled them. These are the tribes and tongues and peoples of the earth to which Jesus told us to take the gospel. No doubt they were ripe, they had maintained some thread of truth from Noah. They knew of God and each attempted to appease him in any number of twisted religions. They did not have the truth but they were ready to come back to it.
Then we come to Abraham and his unlikely wife Sarah. She was past menopause, past the time that the seed of her loins would bring forth the hoped for conquerer of the serpent. But God made them a promise. She laughed at God, but he was faithful and the line of hope continued. The theme of barren women carrying the promise continues through Rebekah. Rachel, Hannah and Sampson’s mother, are outside the genealogy of Jesus but their faithful prayers of hope for faithful sons resulted in Joseph, Samuel, and Sampson who each save the people of Israel in turn. Then after many years, barren Elizabeth gives birth to John the Baptist. And for the final act, God outdoes himself as the pre-barren virgin Mary brings forth the Messiah. Jesus the Christ crushes the head of the serpent once for all.
But this is not the end of the story, for he adds a new task to the original tasks. Women should still faithfully bring forth sons who can crush the head of the serpent. We are to still be fruitful and multiply, rule and subdue this earth. We are still to be human. In addition now we are to go to all the world, to the peoples not in this miraculous line, to the peoples not in the 12 tribes of the Old Covenant, to the peoples not descended from Shem, but to all the world. We are to give them the good news, that the Man promised to Adam and Eve has come, he has crushed the head of the serpent. We are to restore their humanity; put them back in the garden, cover them, teach them to rule and subdue this earth, give up their former ways and pray for His will on earth as it is in heaven.
St. George and the Dragon. Solomon Joseph Solomon. Patron Saint of England
The serpent has come down to us as the dragon of fairy tales and myth, it is a metaphor for our battle today here on this earth. Many pagan traditions all over the earth have similar stories, which is to be expected since we all came from Noah. Though, of course, we should bravely defend each lady from any real dragons, our battle is not only with flesh and blood. We have one foot in heaven and one on earth. We are part of both stories, we are human and we are part of God’s special plan. We are called to multiply from our loins and by the harvest of every tribe, tongue, people and nation. We are part of the old creation bringing forth then new creation, ever hopeful that, Jesus, the seed of the woman shall come again.
Further Reading: The Everlasting Man, G. K. Chesterton