So Why Does the Bible Begin With the Creation Account?

This morning I was happily reading "The Meaning in the Miracles" by Jeffrey John. Mr. John was commenting on Jesus' healing of the crippled woman in Luke 13:10-17. In this particular healing account Jesus is rebuked by the leader of the synagogue for curing the poor woman on the Sabbath. This is just one such account of Jesus misbehaving himself on Sabbath Day.

Mr. John in his commentary on this healing made an observation that transfixed me for a moment. He writes: "They (meaning the Jewish leaders) have forgotten the original meaning and purpose of the Sabbath- to bring people release and freedom, not further burdens of oppression- and in doing so they have become instruments of oppression themselves."

The Bible begins, in Genesis, with the account of God creating all that is in six days. On the seventh day, God rests from his labors. One interpretation for why the six day creation account with the seventh day rest time even appears in Genesis is that the entire account, Genesis 1:1-2:3, helps to explain not just God's creation of all things, but also, why, precisely Jewish people rest on the Sabbath.

One can imagine a child asking his father or mother in long ago Israel, "Papa, Mama, why do we, unlike our neighbors, rest on the Sabbath?" The good parent might very well have launched into the story told in Genesis. After reporting that the Almighty Lord himself rested the parent may have said, "As God rested, so we too take our Sabbath rest."

All well and good. The account does indeed seem to offer a justification or a rationale for Sabbath rest.

However, when I read Mr. John's fine book I was struck with something else and even had something of a "Eureka moment". Mr. John's contends that the meaning of Sabbath is "release and freedom, not further burdens of oppression." Is it not the case that the story, the whole story that both the Old and New Testaments will tell is God bringing freedom and release to his people? The Bible begins with a story then, in its first pages, of God bringing freedom and release to his people through the gift of the Sabbath. As the story then continues from Genesis through Revelation we will see God continually bringing freedom and release to his people.

The first creation account in the Bible might very well be providing us with a lens to read the rest of scripture through. God as the lover of all people brings freedom and release from all the foul powers that would enslave us. I think this account is setting us up for that.

So, the purpose of the first creation isn't merely an explanation for how all things came to be (any faithful person will know that all things came to be through God) nor is a mere explanation for taking the seventh day off. No, I think as we remember what the purpose of Sabbath originally was, to bring freedom and release, we will see as we keep reading through the Bible's pages precisely how God brings freedom and release to all people.