The 7 Stories of Salvation
A Genesis 1 Rewrite
Inspiration
I was teaching my kids the six days of creation the other day, having them draw pictures in the folded squares of an 8.5 x 11.
A year or so ago, when our church went through the creation story, we learned that God created spaces in the first three days to be inhabited by what was made in the last three days. So the sun, moon, and stars inhabit the light and dark spaces. The fish and birds inhabit the separated waters, i.e., the sea and the sky. Finally, the animals and people occupy the plant-filled land.
This inspired an exploration of the six days of creation using Biblical symbols. Scripture uses light and dark, day and night, sea and mountains to symbolize specific things. Since some of these symbols may seem obscure—after all, what do creeping things mean—I’ve placed my key of symbols at the end with a few explanations.
Another poetic device used in Genesis is repetition, namely in the repeated sentence: “There was evening and there was morning on the _____ day.” When poets repeat phrases, it’s to draw our attention to something again and again so that we see an idea developing as the poem progresses. I have added words to this evening-and-morning phrase to show possible depths to this phrase.
Please keep in mind, this isn’t a translation of scripture. It is roughly base on the ESV.
The First Story
1 In the beginning, God created heavenly life and earthly life. 2 The earthly life was without form and meaning, and ignorance was covering the deep things of God. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the testing waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be My ways here,” and there was God's ways. 4 And God saw that His ways were good. And God separated His ways from what was not His ways. 5 God called His ways Living, and what was not His ways He called Dying. And there was an ending and there was a beginning in the first story of salvation.
The Second Story
6 And God said, “Let there be an area in the midst of the testing waters, and let this area differentiate between the cleansing waters and the drowning waters.” 7 And God made that area and separated the drowning waters beneath from the cleansing waters above. And it was so. 8 And God called the area the Kingdom of Heaven. And there was an ending and there was a beginning in the second story of salvation.
The Third Story
9 And God said, “Let the testing waters in the Kingdom of Heaven be gathered together into one place, and let the Mountains of God rise from these.” And it was so. 10 God called the mountains Salvation on Earth, and the testing waters that were gathered together He called chaotic circumstances. And God saw that it was good. 11 And God said, “Let the Salvation on Earth sprout growth and the fruit of the Spirit in which is God's seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. 12 Salvation brought forth growth, a harvest yielding God’s words according to their own kinds, and fruit of the Spirit in which is God’s words, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was an ending before a beginning in the third story of salvation.
The Fourth Story
14 And God said, “Let there be rulers in the expanse of the Kingdom of Heaven to separate the spiritually living from the spiritually dead. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the whole Kingdom of Heaven to give God’s ways to the earth.” And it was so. 16 And God made the two great rulers—the greater rulers to rule the spiritually alive and the lesser rulers to rule the spiritually dead—and the witnesses. 17 And God set them in the expanse of the Kingdom of Heaven to give His truths on the earth, 18 to rule over the spiritually living and over the spiritually dying, and to separate God's ways from not-God's-ways. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was an ending of one before there was a beginning of another in the fourth story of salvation.
The Fifth Story
20 And God said, “Let the chaos swarm with swarms of civilizations, and let heavenly ideals fly above the earth across the expanse.” 21 So God created the great currents of human movement and every living civilization that moves with which people congregate, according to their kind, with every idea for peaceful living according to their kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the chaos with these civilizations, and let ideas to bring peace multiply on the earth.” 23 And when one ended, another began in this the fifth story of salvation.
The Sixth Story
24 And God said, “Let God's Mount of Salvation bring forth new life according to their kinds—economic gain and infrastructures and creativity on earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25 And God made pioneers on the earth according to each people group and economics according to each economy, and infrastructure inter-connecting everything. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let Us make spiritual men in Our image, after the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And let them have dominion over the chaos and over the ideas of the heavens and over economics and over all the earth and over every infrastructure on earth.” 27 So God begot Christ in His own image, in the image of God, Christ made new men; Christ and His Bride God created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the civilizations in the chaos and over the ideas for peace for the Kingdom of Heaven and over every living movement that alters the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every harvest yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and the Living-Vine with seeds in the fruit of the spirit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to all creativity of the earth and to ideas for peace in the Kingdom of Heaven and to every infrastructure on earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every growing thing for salvation.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was a final ending for there to be an eternal beginning in the sixth story of creation.
Epilogue: Genesis 2:1-3
1 Thus the heavenly kingdom and the earthly kingdom were united, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished His work that He had done, and He lived on the seventh day with all His children that He had transformed. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God lived with all His children that He had transformed through creation.
Symbolism Used
Darkness: ignorance or things that aren’t God’s ways yet
Light: God’s ways or truth
Waters: testing, the cleansing process, trials and tribulations
Day: living
Night: dying
Evening: an ending, i.e., a death
Morning: a beginning, i.e., new life
Sea: chaotic circumstances
Land: salvation, God’s Mountains, Zion (See Gen. 22:14)
Fruit & Seed: fruit of the Spirit and God’s Word to plant in others
Sun & Moon: rulers
Stars: witnesses, this would include Jesus and the prophets
Swarming Sea Creatures: swarms of people in the chaos of the world, i.e. civilizations
Birds: ways to bring peace, think Noah’s dove
Livestock: our use of God’s resources, economy
Creeping Things: I’ve taken creatures that creep or crawl along the ground to mean societal infrastructures because earth’s creepy crawlers, that is, insects, are nature’s roads, pipes, and connection points. Earths infrastructures could include slaves, women, and outcasts as well as cells, atoms, amoebas, and fungi, etc.
Beasts: wild creativity, including the arts, physical feats, and invention
Rest: abide
To read a Genesis 2 rewrite, click the link below.
I would like to chat with you about this.