To be read forty days and forty nights past the Pentecost of 2021, from Tammuz 16-17 5781: https://anchor.fm/sy-adamah
“The quest is to be liberated from the negative, which is really our own will to nothingness.
And once having said ‘yes’ to the instant the affirmation is contagious: it bursts into a chain of affirmations which knows no limit …
To say ‘yes’ to one instant is to say ‘yes’ to all of existence.”
The Affirmationist (Otto Hofman) from Waking Life (2001)
From the very beginning, from our very genesis, God’s quest as Creator has been with the point and purpose of our being liberated away from the negative and aimed towards the positive. A quest where we move away from pure darkness and aim towards light; from complete chaos and towards order; from something pointless towards something with purpose.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
The earth was without form and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Then God said, ‘Let there be light‘: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.”
Genesis 1:1-4 (NKJV)
According to the book of Genesis, God encounters the empty, chaotic and formless waters; He faces the darkness of the deep abyss – the negative. But despite this, God speaks life in the form of light in counter to complete darkness; day-by-day, God speaks truth in order to divide and yet achieve a delicate balance for the universe. A balance between darkness and light on the first day; between the lower and the upper worlds on the second and between the celestial signs (Moon, Stars and Sun) on the fourth.
“ … and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.
[…]
Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven. so the evening and the morning were the second day.
[…]
Then God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also.
God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth,
and rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.”
Genesis 1:4-8 (NKJV)
As witnessed in the book of Genesis, each day is a step in the creative quest to be liberated from nothingness, the negative; and, according to what is written, every evening and morning acts as a link in the creative chain towards something else, the positive.
In essence, the book of Genesis depicts a creative quest that affirms existence with each step taken and a creative chain which speaks life with every link made; in a word, the book of Genesis depicts a creative quest that liberates us from the will to nothingness and a creative chain which evolves us into something new.
Ironically, many of those who affirm faith in God believe (either explicitly or implicitly) that the creative work of Genesis is opposed to the process, or even the possibility of, evolution. However, the creative work of Genesis appears to affirm the opposite. In fact, when we read/look closely and think figuratively, God’s creative work appears to not only affirm but to be the spirit and essence of evolution itself: spiritual evolution.
“Then God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit, according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth’; and it was so.
… And God saw that it was good.
So the evening and the morning were the third day.
[…]
Then God said, ‘Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.’
… And God saw that it was good.
And God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.’
So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
Then God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind; and it was so.
… And God saw that it was good.”
Genesis 1:11-25 (NKJV)
Despite not being explicitly or scientifically biological (i.e. the empirical study of various life forms), the creative work of Genesis appears to affirm the opposite to a world or universe that is static, stagnant or still. In fact, what is written in the book of Genesis appears to affirm a primordial yet poetic process of evolution. A primordial process that is implicitly and spiritually Bio-logical (i.e. the spiritual study of Life Itself) and a poetic process that is actually an appreciation for the layers of life formed by the Source Himself.
“The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way,
Before His works of old.
I have been established from everlasting.
From the beginning, before there was ever an earth.
When there were no depths I was brought forth,
When there were no fountains abounding with water
[…]
When He prepared the heavens, I was there,
When He drew a circle on the face of the deep,
When He established the clouds above,
When He strengthened the fountains of the deep,
When He assigned to the sea its limit,
So that the waters would not transgress His command,
When He marked out the foundations of the earth.
Then I was beside Him as a master craftsman;
And I was daily His delight. Rejoicing always before Him. Rejoicing in His inhabited world. And my delight was with the sons of men.”
Proverbs 8: 22-31 (NKJV)
Both Moses’ book of Genesis and Solomon’s book of Proverbs agree and appear to affirm a primordial yet poetic process, an actual yet spiritually creative quest. A quest where the Word of God travels and transcends the first light on the first day, through the first-fruits (flora) on the third, to then find its final forms (fauna) by the fifth and sixth day.
” … Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness, let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
[…]
Then God blessed them and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; …’
And God said, ‘See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.’
Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and morning were the sixth day.’ “
Genesis 1:26-31 (NKJV)
Ironically, the day-by-day creative work of Genesis appears to oppose stasis, stagnancy or stillness until it is self-imposed on the seventh. So what is written in the Hebrew Bible appears to affirm an ascension, an upward journey, a spiritual sojourn where the Word of God knows no limit yet finds its own summit in the seventh day; an actual yet spiritually creative quest where the working Wisdom of God finds its self-imposed limit in sabbath-rest.
“Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished.
And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.
Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work, which God had created and made.”
Genesis 2:1-3 (NKJV)
In essence, each day of God’s creative labour appears not only to affirm but to be a spiritual sojourn where the Word of God moves towards something else and something new; where the Wisdom of God works towards its point and purpose; where the Father of creation seeks to accomplish the fruit and fullness of finished work: recreation (i.e. a holy day of rest).
“For as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven,
And do not return there.
But water the earth,
And make it bring forth and bud,
That it may give seed to the sower,
And bread to the eater.
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
it shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please.
And it shall prosper in the the thing for which I sent it.”
Isaiah 55:10-11 (NKJV)
Although the seventh day is the crown of God’s creative quest, the crest of His creative rhythm and the crux of creation itself, its place in Genesis works as a break and a bridge between the crescendo of creation and the overture of redemption. A break ushering in God’s redemptive rhythm and a bridge segueing into the story of redemption.
“This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,
before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. …”
Genesis 2: 4-7 (NKJV)
A new rhythm in reverse order. A rhythm that builds on the creative composition that came before; a new story that adds yet another layer to the creative labour that came prior.
Understandably, many of those who affirm a faith in God believe (either explicitly or implicitly) that the creative work of Genesis stops with the seventh day. However, this is not the case, but rather this marks only the ‘end‘ – as in, the point and purpose – of the poetic process (the creative quest) and metaphorically marks the ‘beginning‘ – the idea, the initiation, the inception – of the historic process (the redemptive quest).
” … For the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground;
but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”
Genesis 2:4-7 (NKJV)
When we fast-forward from the book of Genesis to the book of Exodus, we witness the first-fruits of poetic creation in a different form. Through the lens of biblical history, we witness these selfsame fruits as the ‘end’ of God’s redemptive quest to liberate Israel from the negative in the form of Egyptian slavery.
” Moreover He said, ‘I am the God of your father – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.’ …
And the LORD said: ‘I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.
‘So I have come down to deliver [liberate] them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, …’
‘Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.’
[…]
So He said, I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.‘
Exodus 3:6-12 (NKJV)
In Part 1 we followed the biblical roots of Counting the Omer (Sefirat ha’Omer), which acts as an interim between the Passover (Pesach) and Weeks (Shavu’ot), and which emulates the interlude between the Exodus from Egypt and the Revelation at Sinai. An interim and interlude, ordered and orchestrated for the crescendo – the voice of God Himself – heard by the whole of Israel.
“Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud; so all the people who were in the camp trembled.
And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.
[…]
And when the sound of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice.”
Exodus 19:16-19 (NKJV)
So with this additional layer of labour – God’s redemptive labour – the spiritual sojourn is not only one towards the sacred time of Eden, towards an idyllic state of paradise or delight, sought from the first to the seventh day in Genesis. Rather the sojourn is also one towards the sacred space of Sinai, which acts a prototype for the Promised Land, sought from the first to the fiftieth day in Exodus.
If we continue to imagine this as an ascension or an upward journey, we come to realise that the redemptive work witnessed in Exodus expands and evolves from the creative work built from the Genesis. We realise that this latter quest also moves towards something else and something new, towards its point and purpose, and ‘ends’ in the fruit of finished work: the stone tablets of Torah (Law / Instruction).
“Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Come up to Me on the mountain and be there, and I will give you tablets of stone, and the law and the commandments which I have written, that you may teach them.
So Moses arose with his servant Joshua, and Moses went up to the mountain of God.”
Exodus 24:9-10 (NKJV)
Although God’s quest can always be recognised as a sojourn aimed towards both sacred time (e.g. the Seventh Day) and sacred space (e.g. the Promised Land), God’s quest to be liberated away from the negative is not and cannot be limited to a particular point in time (i.e. Saturday) or a particular place in space (i.e. the Land of Canaan).
“I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.”
Ecclesiastes 3:9-11
Instead the quest to be liberated always moves onwards, always works upwards, always ascends and transcends time and space to reach its original point and purpose. The point and purpose being the ‘end’ of creation and the product of redemption: to eat and enjoy the fruit of His labour; to seek and savour the fullness of His freedom.
“Then Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel.
And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very heavens in its clarity.
[…]
So they saw God, and they ate and drank.“
Exodus 24:9-11 (NKJV)
Whether it be the Fiftieth Day after the Exodus from Egypt in 1313 BCE or through Juneteenth with the Abolition of American slavery in 1865 AD, the quest to be liberated continues …
“I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice and to do good in their lives,
and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor – it is the gift of God.”
Ecclesiastes 3:12-13
Bibliography
(Anon.). 1982. The Holy Bible, New King James Version. Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Barrett Sr, L.E. 1988. The Rastafarians. Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon Press.
Heschel, A.J. 1951. The Sabbath. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Johnson, D.K. 2012. Inception and Philosophy: Because It’s Never Just a Dream. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Morales, L.M. 2011. The Tabernacle Pre-figured: Cosmic Mountain Ideology in Genesis and Exodus. University of Bristol: Trinity College.
Peterson, J. 1999. Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief. New York & London: Routledge.
BibleProject.com. (2021) Ancient Cosmology. Available at: <https://bibleproject.com/podcast/series/ancient-cosmology/>
Sy 'Adamah #SageSpeaks 