Welcome to episode one in our Genesis series.

In this episode, we focus on Genesis chapter 1 through the lens of the creation of the world in comparison to the creation of an apartment.

Part 1 (1:10-19:42) We get introduced to the original character in this story: God. With no context, this character is mysterious, all we know is that He is creating the world. One thing that we do know very quickly is that this mysterious God is unique from the gods of the cultures and communities around Israel. Next, we find out that this creation of the world is for the goal of humans, seeing that the chapter culminates in the creation of humans.

Brett explains that we as readers need to consider becoming comfortable with Genesis, especially the beginning of Genesis. This is because the rest of the biblical authors are writing with Genesis memorized and ingrained in their bones, and this comes out in their writing. Being comfortable with Genesis allows us as Bible readers to see the rest of the book come alive. He compares this to watching the first 5 minutes of a movie. If you miss that, it would be very difficult to keep up with the rest of the story, because the first 5 minutes of any great movie lays the foundation for the rest of the movie. Being comfortable with the setting and character development in the first few minutes of a movie makes the rest of the movie come alive.

Part 2 (20:10-44:14) The apartment analogy is introduced. It starts as a mess that you can't even walk in. Holes in the wall and ceiling, baseboards are undone, but there is something there and God saw that it was good. This foreshadows Genesis 3 where humans see something that is contrary to God as good. Next, Matthew and Brett talk about looking at Genesis 1 in a literal sense and discuss the firmament and dry land while wearing their "Hebrew sandals." The apartment then gets an upgrade of walls and new flooring so we can now go inside.

Part 3 (44:44-1:09:34) The guys discuss Genesis 1 as being broken into two halves. The first 3 days are about setting up the spaces for things to dwell and days four through six are about inhabiting the spaces. The apartment gets an addition of lights for night and then it's move-in day. The residents of the apartment are humans. These humans were made by God in the image of God.

Brett and Matthew discuss the "Image of God Paradox" where we are made in the image of God in Genesis 1 but yet we doubt that and try to attain the image of God by doing twisted acts. "It is engrained in the human identity to want to be like God, not knowing that it is already true of us."

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Show Produced by: Matthew Lindh and Brett Johnson

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