The Book of Genesis is the book of beginnings. It is foundational for Christians – it’s the place to start to understand the world God has made. Part of its genius is that it doesn’t just tell us about our origins. It tells us about our end, too. The creation account begins in darkness, moves through six days of labor wherein God forms and fills the world with ever greater glory, and ends with the glorious, Light-filled, Sabbath-rest of God on the seventh and last day. This is the first of the “last days” Holy Writ talks about, and they all are like this first one.
They all follow a period of history. The first Last Day follows the history of the First Week – six days of labor crowned by a seventh of rest. The Final Day of the Lord follows the history of all Creation – millennia crowned by the Eternal Day. Time and history are important elements of Creation. God has pleased to make Man a time-dwelling being. We begin life small, helpless, and immature. Through time, we grow into greater size, strength, and maturity. We don’t obtain these things in a moment, but after day upon day, week upon week, year upon year. What’s true of a man is true of Mankind, as well. The race as a whole “grows up.” It gets larger, stronger, and more mature. Language becomes more specific. Our power to change things in the world increases. The Church, which is the True Mankind – redeemed and restored to the image of God in Christ – follows this same pattern of maturation. Indeed, the Apostle makes just this argument in Galatians and Hebrews.
This historical character pervades all things human. Our law, philosophy, theology, culture, and so on develop through time as an acorn develops into an oak tree. They change, but remain the same. The order in and by which we live flowers into greater glory with time. Our liberties grow as societies mature and “grow into” them. Just like a son who matures from infancy to adulthood.
History and biography have a particular arc. They begin with an end envisioned. The beginning tells us what we are, and what we are meant to do – children in the House of God, meant to serve in the House. The end is rule with God in His Council. It is judging angels and sitting at the right hand of the High King Jesus. History, and our singular lives, is preparation for this calling. It is where we learn to wield words well – and all the other things like them: swords, axes, plows, to name a few.
A Pilgrim's Missives 