It makes sense that the first day's reading of the Bible Reading Challenge would contain the account of the very first day - when God created the Heavens and the Earth. It also makes sense that we would read some of the account of Jesus' beginnings.
As I read through these passages, I was struck by some similarities:
1. Both purport to give and account of the "generations" of a creation story.
2. They both culminate in the creation of someone very special - someone with a special relationship with God.
3. Adam, Eve, and Jesus were all directly created by God - and not concieved in the normal fashion.
Does this mean that Jesus was somehow a new creation - that his birth was just as significant as the first creation? Does it mean that Jesus was sent to correct the problems of the first creation - like the sins of Adam and Eve (in Gen 3) and thier children (in Gen 4)?
(By the way - I know the answers to the questions above - but I can't fully answer them without turning to later scriptures - so I'll save the answers for when we get to those scriptures. My point here is just to look at the passages we read...)
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Since the Bible is so interconnected, it is, as you have pointed out, going to be necessary to explore outside of the reading assignment if we are to answer, or try to answer questions raised by the assignment. Thus, with regards to your question, "Does it mean that Jesus was sent to correct the problems of the first creation...(?)," I will submit what John says in 1 John 3:8. And my personal answer to the question is both yes and no. I believe at least some of the problems of the first creation were solved by the flood. Those remaining were solved by the "adjustments" made by God - the revelation of God in the flesh (Jesus) being one. Therefore, the prevalent, and persistant problems facing mankind, i.e., the temptations that we face daily and the resulant consequences we suffer if we succumb, are "corrected," in part, by the sacrifice made by our Lord. Or, as John puts it, "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil."
This is simply a general observation I had while reading through Genesis; Bible trivia, if you will. If the number seven in the Bible denotes completion or perfection, it is most interesting that Noah's father Lamech, who died only five years before the flood, lived to be 777 years old (Gen. 5:31). Could it be that Lamech is representative of the last full generation of pre-flood peoples? Given the numbers in Lamech's age, was God signifying that the old world order was then complete or finished?
Rob - thanks for your comments. I agree that Jesus' coming (and death and resurrection) was certainly the final answer to the problem of sin. This is made clear is other parts of the Bible. But what I didn't realize before - was that Matthew seems to have written the beginning of his gospel similar to the beginning of Genesis - in order to subtly convey that.
Rob - as to your comments on the age of Lamech - I'm not really sure... I will say that I have been taught that the number 7 symbolizes spiritual perfection - something good. The way you are using it doesn't seem like a very good thing to me... But again - I'm not really sure what (if any) significance his age has.
A bit more Bible trivia (Gen. 12:4-16). And it just goes to show you, it's all relative. Abram (Abraham) went to Egypt because of a famine. In doing so he feared for his life because his wife Sarai (Sarah) was "a fair woman to look upon." Sure enough, "the woman (Sarai) was taken into the Pharaoh's house." Now, I will admit that beauty is in the eye of the beholder but, Abram was at least 75 years old at the time of this journey and Sarai was at least 65 years old!!!! How times have changed!!!
In Genesis 18:10 & 14 (KJV) Jesus uses a rather interesting phrase: "according to the time of life." God preceeded, and implies the same thought in 17:21, "at this set time..." Some interesting implications, and questions come to mind. In this case, whose life? Sarah's or Isaac's? Or both? And does this suggest that there are "benchmarks" in the lives of each and very Christian for certain actions or events, "according to the time of life?"
Many people think of the flood as simply being "40 days and 40 nights." Noah and company were, in fact, aboard the ark for a much longer period of time. The easiest way to compute this time is to simply compare Noah's age as given in Gen. 7:11 and again in Gen. 8:14. Remember also that Gen. 7:10 tells us they were on the ark seven days before the flood began. Anyway, Noah was 600 yrs. 2 mo. and 17 days old when the the flood began. He was 601 yrs. 2 mo. and 27 days old when God commanded them to leave the ark. And remember, in the OT a year is 360 days, not 365. So, they were enclosed on the ark 1 yr. 0 mo. and 10 days, or 370 days. Add the initial seven days before the flood began and the total is 377 days.
As for the ark itself, Gen. 6:15-17 gives us the physical description of the vessel. Changing cubits to feet makes the ark was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. It had 3 leves composed of individual compartments. And it was all built by hand. No power tools of anykind! No wonder it took approx. 100-120 years to build.
I believe there may be a judemental aspect associated with the number seven as used in the Bible. Could this relate to spiritual perfection? As it relates to the cleansing of wickedness, I would say yes. For instance, the Tribulation. The Tribulation is the final or 70th week of Daniel's seventy weeks (seventy, of course, being a multiple of the number seven), each week actually being a time period of seven years. Thus, a total of 490 years (again, a multiple of seven). The seventy weeks, or 490 years being a judgment by God on the Jewish people for past transgressions. And many believe that the Tribulation, the final week of the seventy, is yet future and the judgments of that final week are as described in Revelation: the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls.
There are, of course, other sevens in the Bible; the seven pairs of clean animals and the seven pairs of clean birds taken aboard the ark. The year of the Sabbath was every seventh year. The year of Jubilee followed every 49 years of normal activity. And, of course, again in Revelation, the seven letters to the seven churches. There are possibly others but, I don't recall any at this moment. Be that as it may, perhaps Lamech's age was yet another multiple of seven that repersented a cleansing of the old world order and a bringing in of the new, and the spiritual perfection offered in the new world order; obtainable only through God's grace and the sacrifice made by His Son.
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