Expositions of Holy Scripture.
by Alexander Maclaren.
THE VISION OF CREATION
"And G.o.d said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So G.o.d created man in His own image: in the image of G.o.d created He him; male and female created He them. And G.o.d blessed them: and G.o.d said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
And G.o.d said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And G.o.d saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day G.o.d ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And G.o.d blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it He had rested from all His work which G.o.d created and made."
--GENESIS i. 26-ii. 3.
We are not to look to Genesis for a scientific cosmogony, and are not to be disturbed by physicists" criticisms on it as such. Its purpose is quite another, and far more important; namely, to imprint deep and ineffaceable the conviction that the one G.o.d created all things. Nor must it be forgotten that this vision of creation was given to people ignorant of natural science, and p.r.o.ne to fall back into surrounding idolatry. The comparison of the creation narratives in Genesis with the cuneiform tablets, with which they evidently are most closely connected, has for its most important result the demonstration of the infinite elevation above their monstrosities and puerilities, of this solemn, steadfast attribution of the creative act to the one G.o.d. Here we can only draw out in brief the main points which the narrative brings into prominence.
1. The revelation which it gives is the truth, obscured to all other men when it was given, that one G.o.d "in the beginning created the heaven and the earth." That solemn utterance is the keynote of the whole. The rest but expands it. It was a challenge and a denial for all the beliefs of the nations, the truth of which Israel was the champion and missionary. It swept the heavens and earth clear of the crowd of G.o.ds, and showed the One enthroned above, and operative in, all things.
We can scarcely estimate the grandeur, the emanc.i.p.ating power, the all-uniting force, of that utterance. It is a worn commonplace to us.
It was a strange, thrilling novelty when it was written at the head of this narrative. _Then_ it was in sharp opposition to beliefs that have long been dead to us; but it is still a protest against some living errors. Physical science has not spoken the final word when it has shown us how things came to be as they are. There remains the deeper question, What, or who, originated and guided the processes? And the only answer is the ancient declaration, "In the beginning G.o.d created the heaven and the earth."
2. The record is as emphatic and as unique in its teaching as to the mode of creation: "G.o.d said ... and it was so." That lifts us above all the poor childish myths of the nations, some of them disgusting, many of them absurd, all of them unworthy. There was no other agency than the putting forth of the divine will. The speech of G.o.d is but a symbol of the flashing forth of His will. To us Christians the antique phrase suggests a fulness of meaning not inherent in it, for we have learned to believe that "all things were made by Him" whose name is "The Word of G.o.d"; but, apart from that, the representation here is sublime. "He spake, and it was done"; that is the sign-manual of Deity.
3. The completeness of creation is emphasised. We note, not only the recurrent "and it was so," which declares the perfect correspondence of the result with the divine intention, but also the recurring "G.o.d saw that it was good." His ideals are always realised. The divine artist never finds that the embodiment of His thought falls short of His thought.
"What act is all its thought had been?
What will but felt the fleshly screen?
But He has no hindrances nor incompletenesses in His creative work, and the very sabbath rest with which the narrative closes symbolises, not His need of repose, but His perfect accomplishment of His purpose. G.o.d ceases from His works because "the works were finished," and He saw that all was very good.
4. The progressiveness of the creative process is brought into strong relief. The work of the first four days is the preparation of the dwelling-place for the living creatures who are afterwards created to inhabit it. How far the details of these days" work coincide with the order as science has made it out, we are not careful to ask here. The primeval chaos, the separation of the waters above from the waters beneath, the emergence of the land, the beginning of vegetation there, the shining out of the sun as the dense mists cleared, all find confirmation even in modern theories of evolution. But the intention of the whole is much rather to teach that, though the simple utterance of the divine will was the agent of creation, the manner of it was not a sudden calling of the world, as men know it, into being, but majestic, slow advance by stages, each of which rested on the preceding. To apply the old distinction between justification and sanctification, creation was a work, not an act. The Divine Workman, who is always patient, worked slowly then as He does now. Not at a leap, but by deliberate steps, the divine ideal attains realisation.
5. The creation of living creatures on the fourth and fifth days is so arranged as to lead up to the creation of man as the climax. On the fifth day sea and air are peopled, and their denizens "blessed," for the equal divine love holds every living thing to its heart. On the sixth day the earth is replenished with living creatures. Then, last of all, comes man, the apex of creation. Obviously the purpose of the whole is to concentrate the light on man; and it is a matter of no importance whether the narrative is correct according to zoology, or not. What it says is that G.o.d made all the universe, that He prepared the earth for the delight of living creatures, that the happy birds that soar and sing, and the dumb creatures that move through the paths of the seas, and the beasts of the earth, are all His creating, and that man is linked to them, being made on the same day as the latter, and by the same word, but that between man and them all there is a gulf, since he is made in the divine image. That image implies personality, the consciousness of self, the power to say "I," as well as purity. The transition from the work of the first four days to that of creating living things must have had a break. No theory has been able to bridge the chasm without admitting a divine act introducing the new element of life, and none has been able to bridge the gulf between the animal and human consciousness without admitting a divine act introducing "the image of G.o.d" into the nature common to animal and man. Three facts as to humanity are thrown up into prominence: its possession of the image of G.o.d, the equality and eternal interdependence of the s.e.xes, and the lordship over all creatures. Mark especially the remarkable wording of verse 27: "created He _him_ male and female created He _them_." So "neither is the woman without the man, nor the man without the woman." Each is maimed apart from the other. Both stand side by side, on one level before G.o.d. The germ of the most "advanced" doctrines of the relations of the s.e.xes is hidden here.
HOW SIN CAME IN
"Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord G.o.d had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath G.o.d said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, G.o.d hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For G.o.d doth know, that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened; and ye shall be as G.o.ds, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves ap.r.o.ns. And they heard the voice of the Lord G.o.d walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord G.o.d amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord G.o.d called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. And He said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat And the man said, The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the Lord G.o.d said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? and the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. And the Lord G.o.d said onto the serpent. Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field: upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."--GENESIS iii 1-15.
It is no part of my purpose to enter on the critical questions connected with the story of "the fall." Whether it is a legend, purified and elevated, or not, is of less consequence than what is its moral and religious significance, and that significance is unaffected by the answer to the former question. The story presupposes that primitive man was in a state of ignorant innocence, not of intellectual or moral perfection, and it tells how that ignorant innocence came to pa.s.s into conscious sin. What are the stages of the transition?
1. There is the presentation of inducement to evil. The law to which Adam is to be obedient is in the simplest form. There is restriction.
"Thou shalt not" is the first form of law, and it is a form congruous with the undeveloped, though as yet innocent, nature ascribed to him.
The conception of duty is present, though in a very rudimentary shape.
An innocent being may be aware of limitations, though as yet not "knowing good and evil." With deep truth the story represents the first suggestion of disobedience as presented from without. No doubt, it might have by degrees arisen from within, but the thought that it was imported from another sphere of being suggests that it is alien to true manhood, and that, if brought in from without, it may be cast out again. And the temptation had a personal source. There are beings who desire to draw men away from G.o.d. The serpent, by its poison and its loathly form, is the natural symbol of such an enemy of man. The insinuating slyness of the suggestions of evil is like the sinuous gliding of the snake, and truly represents the process by which temptation found its way into the hearts of the first pair, and of all their descendants. For it begins with casting a doubt on the reality of the prohibition. "Hath G.o.d said?" is the first parallel opened by the besieger. The fascinations of the forbidden fruit are not dangled at first before Eve, but an apparently innocent doubt is filtered into her ear. And is not that the way in which we are still snared? The reality of moral distinctions, the essential wrongness of the sin, is obscured by a mist of sophistication. "There is no harm in it" steals into some young man"s or woman"s mind about things that were forbidden at home, and they are half conquered before they know that they have been attacked. Then comes the next besieger"s trench, much nearer the wall--namely, denial of the fatal consequences of the sin: "Ye shall not surely die," and a base hint that the prohibition was meant, not as a parapet to keep from falling headlong into the abyss, but as a barrier to keep from rising to a great good; "for G.o.d doth know, that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as G.o.ds." These are still the two lies which wile us to sin: "It will do you no harm," and "You are cheating yourselves out of good by not doing it."
2. Then comes the yielding to the tempter. As long as the prohibition was undoubted, and the fatal results certain, the fascinations of the forbidden thing were not felt. But as soon as these were tampered with, Eve saw "that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes." So it is still. Weaken the awe-inspiring sense of G.o.d"s command, and of the ruin that follows the breach of it, and the heart of man is like a city without walls, into which any enemy can march unhindered. So long as G.o.d"s "Thou shalt not, lest thou die" rings in the ears, the eyes see little beauty in the sirens that sing and beckon. But once that awful voice is deadened, they charm, and allure to dally with them.
In the undeveloped condition of primitive man temptation could only a.s.sail him through the senses and appet.i.tes, and its a.s.sault would be the more irresistible because reflection and experience were not yet his. But the act of yielding was, as sin ever is, a deliberate choice to please self and disobey G.o.d. The woman"s more emotional, sensitive, compliant nature made her the first victim, and her greatest glory, her craving to share her good with him whom she loves, and her power to sway his will and acts, made her his temptress. "As the husband is, the wife is," says Tennyson; but the converse is even truer: As the wife is, the man is.
3. The fatal consequences came with a rush. There is a gulf between being tempted and sinning, but the results of the sin are closely knit to it. They come automatically, as surely as a stream from a fountain.
The promise of knowing good and evil was indeed kept, but instead of its making the sinners "like G.o.ds," it showed them that they were like beasts, and brought the first sense of shame. To know evil was, no doubt, a forward step intellectually; but to know it by experience, and as part of themselves, necessarily changed their ignorant innocence into bitter knowledge, and conscience awoke to rebuke them. The first thing that their opened eyes saw was themselves, and the immediate result of the sight was the first blush of shame. Before, they had walked in innocent unconsciousness, like angels or infants; now they had knowledge of good and evil, because their sin had made evil a part of themselves, and the knowledge was bitter.
The second consequence of the fall is the disturbed relation with G.o.d, which is presented in the highly symbolical form fitting for early ages, and as true and impressive for the twentieth century as for them.
Sin broke familiar communion with G.o.d, turned Him into a "fear and a dread," and sent the guilty pair into ambush. Is not that deeply and perpetually true? The sun seen through mists becomes a lurid ball of scowling fire. The impulse is to hide from G.o.d, or to get rid of thoughts of Him. And when He _is_ felt to be near, it is as a questioner, bringing sin to mind. The shuffling excuses, which venture even to throw the blame of sin on G.o.d ("the woman whom _Thou_ gavest me"), or which try to palliate it as a mistake ("the serpent beguiled me"), have to come at last, however reluctantly, to confess that "I"
did the sin. Each has to say, "I did eat." So shall we all have to do.
We may throw the blame on circ.u.mstances, weakness of judgment, and the like, while here, but at G.o.d"s bar we shall have to say, "_Mea_ culpa, _mea_ culpa."
The curse p.r.o.nounced on the serpent takes its habit and form as an emblem of the degradation of the personal tempter, and of the perennial antagonism between him and mankind, while even at that first hour of sin and retribution a gleam of hope, like the stray beam that steals through a gap in a thundercloud, promises that the conquered shall one day be the conqueror, and that the woman"s seed, though wounded in the struggle, shall one day crush the poison-bearing, flat head in the dust, and end forever his power to harm. "Known unto G.o.d are all his works from the beginning," and the Christ was promised ere the gates of Eden were shut on the exiles.
EDEN LOST AND RESTORED
"So He drove out the man: and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life."
--GENESIS iii. 24.
"Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city."
REVELATION xxii. 14.
Better is the end of a thing than the beginning." Eden was fair, but the heavenly city shall be fairer. The Paradise regained is an advance on the Paradise that was lost. These are the two ends of the history of man, separated by who knows how many millenniums. Heaven lay about him in his infancy, but as he journeyed westwards its morning blush faded into the light of common day--and only at eventide shall the sky glow again with glory and colour, and the western heaven at last outshine the eastern, with a light that shall never die. A fall, and a rise--a rise that reverses the fall, a rise that transcends the glory from which he fell,--that is the Bible"s notion of the history of the world, and I, for my part, believe it to be true, and feel it to be the one satisfactory explanation of what I see round about me and am conscious of within me.
1. _Man had an Eden and lost it._
I take the Fall to be a historical fact. To all who accept the authority of Scripture, no words are needed beyond the simple statement before us, but we may just gather up the signs that there are on the wide field of the world"s history, and in the narrower experience of individuals, that such a fall has been.
Look at the condition of the world: its degradation, its savagery-all its pining myriads, all its untold millions who sit in darkness and the shadow of death. Will any man try to bring before him the actual state of the heathen world, and, retaining his belief in a G.o.d, profess that these men are what G.o.d meant men to be? It seems to me that the present condition of the world is not congruous with the idea that men are in their primitive state, and if this is what G.o.d meant men for, then I see not how the dark clouds which rest on His wisdom and His love are to be lifted off.
Then, again--if the world has not a Fall in its history, then we must take the lowest condition as the one from which all have come; and is that idea capable of defence? Do we see anywhere signs of an upward process going on now? Have we any experience of a tribe raising itself?
Can you catch anywhere a race in the act of struggling up, outside of the pale of Christianity? Is not the history of all a history of decadence, except only where the Gospel has come in to reverse the process?
But pa.s.sing from this: What mean the experiences of the individual-these longings; this hard toil; these sorrows?
How comes it that man alone on earth, manifestly meant to be leader, lord, etc., seems but cursed with a higher nature that he may know greater sorrows, and raised above the beasts in capacity that he may sink below them in woe, this capacity only leading to a more exquisite susceptibility, to a more various as well as more poignant misery?
Whence come the contrarieties and discordance in his nature?
It seems to me that all this is best explained as the Bible explains it by saying: (1) Sin has done it; (2) Sin is not part of G.o.d"s original design, but man has fallen; (3) Sin had a personal beginning. There have been men who were pure, able to stand but free to fall.
It seems to me that that explanation is more in harmony with the facts of the case, finds more response in the unsophisticated instinct of man, than any other. It seems to me that, though it leaves many dark and sorrowful mysteries all unsolved, yet that it alleviates the blackest of them, and flings some rays of hope on them all. It seems to me that it relieves the character and administration of G.o.d from the darkest dishonour; that it delivers man"s position and destiny from the most hopeless despair; that though it leaves the mystery of the origin of evil, it brings out into clearest relief the central truths that evil is evil, and sin and sorrow are not G.o.d"s will; that it vindicates as something better than fond imaginings the vague aspirations of the soul for a fair and holy state; that it establishes, as nothing else will, at once the love of G.o.d and the dignity of man; that it leaves open the possibility of the final overthrow of that Sin which it treats as an intrusion and stigmatises as a fall; that it therefore braces for more vigorous, hopeful conflict against it, and that while but for it the answer to the despairing question, Hast Thou made all men in vain?
must be either the wailing echo "In vain," or the denial that He has made them at all, there is hope and there is power, and there is brightness thrown on the character of G.o.d and on the fate of man, by the old belief that G.o.d made man upright, and that man made himself a sinner.
2. _Heaven restores the lost Eden_.
"G.o.d is not ashamed to be called their G.o.d, _for_ He hath prepared them a _city_."