Adam Names the Animals: An Insightful and Approachable Reexamination of the Creation Account

By James Andrews

This book is a rather nontechnical, lighthearted summary of creation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Apr 19, 2017
• ISBN: 9781512781021

James Andrews

Mr. James (Jim) Andrews was born in Kansas. His grandparents were farm-folk, and hence many pre-teen weekends and summers were spent exploring rural Kansas creeks, canyons, and rolling hills. These are typically not words used to depict the flat, wheat fields of Kansas, but these features are present in some locations, thus providing Jim with an early sense of creation’s wonderment. After attending a couple aimless years at Kansas State University, Jim ended up in Arizona. Like many baby boomers (as the song says), he was “Looking for Love (his purpose) in All the Wrong Places”. One random evening in 1974, Jim attended an evangelistic church meeting where the speaker talked about God’s holiness and our separation from Him because of sin. His heart was changed that night and he understood that only by receiving Christ’s work on the cross can we enter into a true hope of being reunited with our Creator. That night he received Christ as Lord. A few years later Jim returned to college (this time Arizona State University) where he graduated with honors, receiving his BA in education. This led to a number of wonderful years in the classroom. This was also a time of growing in Christ and settling into his role of husband and father. He currently shares an empty nest with his wife Nancy in Central Illinois. Their 3 fledglings are now out on their own, and they are now proud grandparents of three wonderful grandchildren. Although this is Jim’s first published work, he has written many adult Sunday lessons, a number of songs, a short story, and a few poems. He has started a book on hope and truth; and is also considering co-authoring a fiction novel.

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Copyright © 2017 James ( Jim) Andrews.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means,

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any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author

except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version

(Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic

Reference Bible, Copyright 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible,

English Standard Version (ESV). Copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a

division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-8101-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-8100-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-8102-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017904982

WestBow Press rev. date: 04/18/2017

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would surely leave out a few names if I tried to list everyone who has either read snippets of this book or bantered around ideas with me. However, a few names quickly come to mind, including Christina (also photographer), Thomas, David, Alan, Pat, Tom, Denise, Becky, Brad, and Annie. All of you encouraged me in one way or another, if nothing else, simply by your friendship.

My two superstar editors were Daniel Andrews and Karla Walker, who toiled with me over every sentence in the unwinding and rewinding of this book. Thank you for your pens of correction and your wisdom to temper my passion as needed. You not only helped me to economize but also insisted that I put a bit more meat on a boney section here or there. You also reined me in when I overly beat the horse of a particular point to excess.

Karla and Danny helped keep me energized with their feedback when the reworking of large sections became tedious. No one ever told me that editing never ends. They even pointed out the need to move entire chapters to improve the ebb and flow for the sake of the reader.

Last, to my wife, Nancy - she often looked around, only to see that I had vanished. She would usually find me at the keyboard or scribbling with a pen in the back room. Without her patience, I doubt I could have ever finished. Thank you, Nancy.

PREFACE/INTRODUCTION

Creation - Reading It Again as

if for the Very First Time

One of the biggest stumbling blocks surrounding the Genesis creation account exists because we believe we already fully understand it and have it down pat. When we read through any familiar portion of scripture (Genesis in particular) as part of a personal Bible study, we tend to skim through these passages thinking there are not many new insights to glean. This is especially true of the first two chapters of Genesis, and so we quickly zip through the creation story and move on to the stories of human events - those with which we can intimately relate.

So as we revisit Genesis (reading it again as if for the very first time), we must allow for new revelations and insights to present themselves. We so often just hurry past the creation and then race on to the fall of Adam and Eve. We zip right on to the stories of Cain and Abel, Noah, the Tower of Babel, Abram, and all the other powerful human events of history as laid out in Genesis. Thus it is common to hear someone say, Wow, I never noticed that before! when discussing the biblical creation account.

Far too often, having already made up our minds regarding the events of creation (likely taught to us by well-meaning Sunday school teachers of our youth), it is sometimes hard to see past the surface as we quickly scan these first two chapters in our effort to read through the Bible in a year or when we just quickly read Genesis. Like many portions of scripture, we can easily err by not digging past the surface. Certainly scripture was meant to be taken at face value, but context is king and study is essential.

So my challenge is to dig-in and go just a bit deeper so we may find a few unexpected treasures hidden just beneath the surface, and perhaps mine a few gems that are easily overlooked as one casually reads the creation events Moses has laid out for us. We must try to leave behind the children’s Golden Book version of creation that has been (at least to some extent) imprinted upon most everyone’s memory from childhood. Let’s take a fresh look at the biblical account as if reading it again for the very first time.

CONTENTS

Chapter 1 From Where, to Where

Chapter 2 Putting a Little Light on Things

Chapter 3 Revealing the Lights

Chapter 4 Transforming the Earth

Chapter 5 Too Much, Too Fast

Chapter 6 Caution Is Needed

Chapter 7 Oh, What a Day …

Chapter 8 Happy Days

Chapter 9 Young Men - Old Hills

Chapter 10 A Sizable Age

Chapter 11 Wisdom Speaks

Chapter 12 The Demand of Details

Chapter 13 Blue Jays and Bison and Hares

Chapter 14 Too Soon to Notice

Chapter 15 Hey, Adam, Let’s Go

Chapter 16 What Is Essential

Chapter 17 Final Thoughts

Supplemental Reading

CHAPTER 1

From Where, to Where

Let’s start in the beginning (pun intended) and look at the first two verses:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form and empty, and darkness was on the fact of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters. (Genesis 1:1–2 NKJV)

I would wager that a sizable majority regard these first two verses to be part of what most Christians consider as day 1. However, these two verses are an introductory preface stating that at some time in the past God brought forth (out of nothing) the heavenly furniture, along with our unwieldy planet. We also notice that Moses does not actually begin the description of God’s transformation of the earth until verse 3, when God said, Let there be. For example, day 1 begins in verse 3. Day 2 activity begins in verse 6, and so on - each starting with, And God said. We notice that verses 3, 6, 9, 14, 20, and 24 each mark the start of a creation period with God speaking.

A quick note here to dispel the notion that verse 1 is simply a broad overview of what was to transpire. Some claim verse 1 was intended to preview the coming creation rather than announce the actual act of creation. However the description of the earth’s first condition (v. 2) prior to its overhaul negates this. Not only is the verb created (v. 1) in the perfect tense (already completed), but since we are also told the earth and water were already there, it therefore indicates the initial act of creation had transpired. Many commentators (noted later) insist on the presence of heavenly objects in verse 1.

It is as if the emcee had walked up to the microphone (in front of the curtain) prior to the start of creation play, and after welcoming the audience (the readers of Genesis), he presented us with a two-verse introduction. This is somewhat like a narrator who sets the stage for the play that is about to take place. These first two verses give us the setting (the initial creation event had occurred), provide us with a focus (and the earth was), and describe the earth’s initial conditions (void, dark, empty).

Verse 1 is neither a title nor a pre-summary but denotes the actual initial creation event itself. The stage is set, and we can begin to read of the transformations that God enacted upon earth.

• God had already done something - created the universe.

○ He created the heavens and the earth.

• The setting, the focus, and initial state are established.

○ The earth was a formless void, a dark, unwieldy, watery abyss.

As the houselights grow dim and as the curtain slowly opens, these introductory words resonate within us, and in our mind’s eye we anticipate the coming events. The play now begins as we hear God speak in verse 3. In His opening announcement, God marks the start of His reparations to our planet in His proclamation of the light.

Arrival of Light (When, What, Where)

We are immediately faced with a couple of questions regarding the verse 3 light. We ponder the source of the light and we ask from where and to where the light shines. Perhaps you have not thought much about this before, but we only have two choices regarding the intent of verse 3:

1. Let there be light (for the very first time anywhere in the entire universe).

2. Let there be light (for the very first time on the surface of the earth).

While many Christians hold that verse 3 marks the very moment when God actually created light, the text does not confirm this. Other Christians insist that since God twice mentioned in verse 2 the face of the deep, He intended to direct our focus to the dark condition on the surface of the earth where the Spirit was hovering. Thus the second option was the author’s intent. We must interpret this verse as suggesting that light was now, ‘for the very first time’, visible, arriving, and penetrating the earth’s dark surface (the reader’s point of reference in v. 2).

It is universally accepted that the entire first chapter of Genesis (following v. 2) is focused on the refining/preparing and then populating the earth with plants and animals. The rest of the universe is no longer the focus here, except to remark that God created a host of ornaments (including our earth) in the beginning. God wants us to realize that the earth is of paramount importance, being prepared as the future home for humanity, thus our attention is immediately directed in verse 2 to the surface of the earth.

The most highly respected commentators (below) all agree that there was more out there in verse 1 than just a total empty canopy of nothingness, with only our planet as the sole object in the entire universe. They also all confirm (when referring to verse 1) that it was not just a statement of what