My title may be the best part of my post this go around, so don’t judge me, lol. I’ll do the best I can.
This week in our Old Testament Learning Event 2015, we focused on the Pentateuch – The Documentary Hypothesis. Pentateuch is apparently the more modern name for the Torah, which according to Bandstra in “Prologue to the Torah,” is the groundwork of the Hebrew Bible. The Hebrew Bible is made up of the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings which are collectively individual books. The Torah, comprises Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
Bandstra states…”None of the five books of the Torah state who the author was. Other books of the Hebrew Bible use phrases such as “the Torah of Moses,” but in light of the ambiguity of the term torah, this does not necessarily imply the Mosaic authorship of any particular biblical book. In the absence of specific claims, the authorship of each book can only be based on hints and clues contained within the books themselves. Scholars offer many proposals as to the dating and authorship of the books of the Torah, but they have not achieved final agreement. As with much biblical scholarship, research can greatly increase our understanding of the text, but results are typically provisional and subject to refinement. As we will see, this is especially the case with Pentateuchal investigations.” This segues into this week’s creation discoveries.
We were asked to read the following texts and list what we found that connects to creation. Here’s what I found:
Isaiah 51:9 – YHWH awoke, cut Rahab in pieces and pierced the dragon (jigga who, jigga what?)
Job 9:4-14 – YHWH removes/overturns mountains in his anger, causes earthquakes, commands the sun to rise, fastens the stars in the sky, put forth the heavens, compressed the oceans/sea, creator of the constellations Bear, Orion and Pleiades, he moves unknown to human eyes, he cannot be tamed, and Rahab’s helpers show obeisance to him. (The “passing by without seeing him, moves on but I do not perceive him” in Job 9:11, reminds me of the Moses/YHWH scriptures found in Exodus 33:22 and 34:6, 8)
Job 26:7-14 – YHWH extended the north and created earth in a abyss; he created precipitation; he made the clouds to mask the moon by day; he placed boundaries around the waters of he earth; he established night and day; calms the sea, struck down Rahab and cursed the serpent; YHWH whispers (speaks).
Job 38:1-11 – YHWH laid the earth’s foundation, determined its dimensions (measuring line), decided/laid its foundation, compressed the sea/set its boundaries
Psalm 8:1-9 – YHWH created the moon and stars, cares about humankind, made humans slightly lower in rank of angles (slightly lower than God) yet honored them by granting them authority over creation (animals, environment, etc).
Psalm 74:12-17 –YHWH divided the sea, broke the heads of dragons in water, crushed Leviathan giving him as foods for “creatures” in the wilderness, opened springs and torrents, and dried up streams, day and night belong to him; he established the sun/its light; he set boundaries for earth and created seasons (summer and winter).
Psalm 89:8-10 – YHWH controls the raging of the sea, he crushed Rahab and scattered enemies with his mighty arm.
Psalm 104:1-9 – YHWH is surrounded by the light of glory, honor, and majesty; he extended the heavens, set reflections of his space on the waters, made clouds to hold his matters, and revealed himself in the works of creation – wind, fire, etc.; he stabilized earth as he created it, he covered it with waters that existed above the mountains but withdrew to the leveled parts at his command. Rain occurs and at the sound of thunder (both by his command), water goes where he appoints it.
Psalms 136:1-9 – YHWH has performed great wonders. With wisdom he created the heavens; he spread the waters out over the earth; he made the sun the light that rules by day and the stars and moon the lights that rule the night;
Proverbs 8:22-31 – Wisdom was created before the earth’s creation; it was brought forth before oceans/seas, springs, mountains, hills, fields and soil; wisdom was present at the creation of the heavens, when he created the oceans/sea and set its boundaries; he created the skies above and characterized the foundations of the earth.
Here’s the tricky part. We were then asked to compare our findings to the creation story in Genesis 1-2 then create our own version of the creation story. So here goes.
YHWH, in his glory and majesty didn’t like all the empty dark space. Wisdom was with the Angels playing trivia and YHWH called to her and said, “It’s too dark in here. There’s too much unoccupied space – let’s do something about it.” YHWH then immmediately declared “Let there be light” and it appeared. He thought “hmm, this is nice. I’m on to something.” In “swype” mode, he created a line of division that separated the light from the dark. Then he decided to fill the space up. YHWH then took a few measurements to decide how big of a project this would be, then went on to form what we know as earth in the abyss of space. He added a bit of heaven with it and and called it the sky. He began to form lots of hot spheres called stars and some of them form constellations known as Bear, Orion and Pleiades. Those couldn’t be compared to his biggest star – the sun. He decided to position it in the day light. Made of balls of fire, it displaying elaborate rays shooting out of it’s cyclical shape. It was magnificent. So the dark wouldn’t be left without design, he created another cyclical shape called the moon to light up the night. Each day it would vogue a different shape.
“Coool,” said Wisdom, “what’s next?” Then YHWH took the spatial waters, sectioned them into oceans, seas, streams and springs, and then compressed them into the earth like clay in a ball, to keep them from spreading around all willy nilly. Because YHWH had an abundance of water he began creating beautiful, white puffy shapes to hold water. He called them clouds. The clouds would serve a dual duty purpose by hiding the moon during the day. “Everything’s looking good,” said Wisdom and YHWH replied “It is good, but there’s still something missing.” He turned and looked at the Angels and decided to create inhabitants for the earth. He created sea creatures for the waters, birds for the sky, and all other moving creatures for the land in order to expand throughout the earth. He thought this was a good addition, but wanted someone to control these wandering creatures. YHWH then looked down at the soil, bent down and took some in his hands and began to form tan odd two legged creature, unlike the one’s formed previously. This one pleased him and he called it humankind. Just like a mother who sees her child for the first time, YHWH cared for humankind and made him/her slightly lower than the angels. He also gave humankind authority to rule over the earth. This pleased YHWH and it was good.
As YHWH rested from his glorious work, he was disturbed by the noise of Rahab, Leviathan and the serpent. Wisdom, in hearing the commotion, ran to YHWH and said “Satan is on earth filling those creations of yours with lies and their now trying to challenge all you’ve created.” YHWH, already having had his fill of Satan’s foolishness, approached Rahab, smacked the —- out of her, crushed her with his baby toe, then cut her and pieces. Leviathan began to slap his tale in the waters as to intimidate YHWH. YHWH pierced him with his forefinger, crushed him too with his baby toe, then told the rest of the animals…”Feeding time!” That was the ended of that problem.
The serpent, already a coward, tried to run, but YHWH cursed him so that he couldn’t use his legs anymore. All he could express was “*#&@*!! He got me.”
All this over only 7 days! You can only imagine what happened over the next 2000+ years.
Hope you enjoyed my wacky story. Have a great day and God’s Blessings to you!
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