Our job as Christians is always to “begin from the very beginning,” wrote Karl Barth when describing the task of theology (Karl Barth, John McTavish, and Harold Wells, Karl Barth, Preaching through the Christian Year [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978], 11). We are to begin in the beginning with God. “In the beginning God created . . .” (Genesis 1:1 NIV).
Our series on Genesis begins with God, creating and setting into motion God’s creation. It begins with God’s promise to bless humanity and to depict a God who covenants to share in creation from beginning to end, forming creation out of nothing (Genesis 1:1–2:4a), and creating a unique people where there is no people (12:1-3). Here we discover a God who does not simply stand aloof but steps into creation. Here we find a God who creates a cosmos in which goodness is depicted throughout: “And God saw that it was good” (1:25). Here is a God who speaks creation into being and says, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness,” and who charges humankind to “have dominion” over all living creatures upon the earth (1:26). This God calls humankind to the responsibility of stewardship and care of the earth. This God’s image is stamped into humanity’s very being, and this God commands humanity to be fruitful and multiply (1:28).
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