1. God created the sky and earth
We celebrated the Easter last Sunday and since today, will read Genesis for several weeks. Genesis 1 tells us how the universe was Created. At first, the verses 1-3 describe the original state of the world. ; - In the beginning God created the sky and the earth. The earth was empty and had no form. Darkness covered the ocean, and God’s Spirit was moving over the water.(Genesis 1:1-2)

The world had been a chaos, ; - Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.(Genesis 1:3)
¡È(The earth) was empty and had no form¡É in Hebrew is ¡Èתֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ (tohoowa-vohoo)¡É and the same expression appears 3 times in the Old Testament: in Genesis1, Isaiah 34:11 and Jeremiah 4:23. According to the philological studies, Genesis1was written in around sixth century BC*1 and the contents is based on Priestly source*2 . The kingdom of Judah had been attacked several times by the Babylonian army headed by the king Nebuchadnezzar. Finally, Jerusalem was destructed and Jewish leaders of the time were brought by force to Babylon as captives. The incident is known largely as ¡ÈBabylonian captivity.¡É *3 The captives had to watch there Babylonian Creation plays on the New Year¡Çs Day, which humiliated them. So much so, they tried to see why God let his people perish and handed over to Babylonians. To those people, the prophet Jeremiah said, ; - I looked at the earth, and it was empty and had no shape. I looked at the sky, and its light was gone.(Jeremiah 4:23 )

¡ÈIt was empty and had no shape¡É above is ¡Èתֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ(tohoov-vohoo).¡É The Jewish captives were lost and desperate in the dark. But they could keep hope. Because they believed that God had put the light in the dark. Genesis 1:3 is their witness to God. They believed that the light of Lord would overcome dark and seemingly hopeless reality of the world. Genesis 1 in all consists in the faith and prayers of Jewish people under captivity.

Description of the Creation continues. After the light, God created the world on the second day and divided it into the sky and the earth. On the third day, the earth were separated from the sea. Thus adequate environments for lives were prepared. Then Plants, fish and birds were born at first . Animals and humans appeared on the scene on the sixth day. After those acts, ; - God looked at everything he had made, and it was very good. (Genesis 1:31)

God concluded the Creation with, ¡ÈIt was very good.¡É The writer repeated the same expression 7 times in the chapter 1, which suggests that Jewish captives aspired for ¡ÈBeing good.¡É Though they felt fallen from the good state, they believed that God made them ¡ÈGood.¡É Sinful conducts had obstructed the path to God. Therefore they prayed for salvation and restoration to the original state again. God had made all of his creatures good from the empty and shapeless earth. In that belief, Jewish captives saw the hope .

*1Creation narrative http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_creation_narrative
*2 Priestly source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priestly_source
*3Babylonian captivity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonian_captivity

2. In the image of God
The Creation of human beings begins in Genesis 1:27. ; - So God created human beings in his image. In the image of God he created them. He created them male and female. The word, ¡ÈCreated, בָּרָא (balah) in Hebrew¡É is used 3 times in that short verse.Jerusalem

The emphasis on it suggests that the ultimate aim of God¡Çs creation was the birth of humans. So ; - God blessed them and said, “Have many children and grow in number. Fill the earth and be its master. Rule over the fish in the sea and over the birds in the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth."Genesis 1:2628)

All of humans come to in life with the blessing of God, including the people of sinful Israel and Judah. Therefore even children who were not expected by their parents must be blessed. In any situations, our existence pleases God as the good. Sick and disabled persons are in the right place of life equally to healthy ones. Genesis teaches that the command of God ¡ÈLet there be light¡É casts away darkness of the real world. That is the basis of Jewish faith, which also gives us hope.

¡ÈBeing created in God¡Çs image¡É means that each human has a positive personality. Therefore each of us can communicate with God and he addresses us as ¡ÈYou.¡É In contrast to that, plants and animals are mere living organisms. Among all creatures, humans alone can enter into the personal relationship with God. Jewish captives were slaves there and considered to be inferior to Babylonians. However, God still addressed them as ¡ÈYou,¡É same as to free men. Thanks to that relationship with God, they could keep the hope of getting free again.

That message of Genesis isn¡Çt consists of philosophical reasonings. The first aim of writers wasn¡Çt to tell ¡ÈFrom what and how the universe realized¡É or ¡ÈWhat the human nature was.¡É Pain and suffering of captivity gave birth to the writing. We also live still now in the chaotic world submerged in darkness and despair. But it is not the purpose of the Creation of God. God is waiting for the day when humans raise again courageously and hopefully. That very faith pushed the Jewish people to compile the Book. It must represent encouragement and consolation.

3. Genesis in the context of natural devastation
As Genesis 1 is a message of encouragement and consolation, it must give us now the power to cope with current difficulties. Japan is struggling after the earthquake and tsunami which devastated in the northeast region . So we will meditate the meaning of the disaster and how to restore the severely damaged region through the lecture on Genesis 1. And we chose Jeremiah 4:23-27 as today¡Çs invocation verses which leads us to the meditation. ; - I looked at the earth, and it was empty and had no shape. I looked at the sky, and its light was gone. I looked at the mountains, and they were shaking. All the hills were trembling. I looked, and there were no people. Every bird in the sky had flown away. I looked, and the good, rich land had become a desert. All its towns had been destroyed by the Lord and his great anger. This is what the Lord says: ¡ÈAll the land will be ruined, but I will not completely destroy it.¡É

Genesis 1 begins with the description of the earth which was ¡Èempty and had no shape.¡É We see that the same expression is taken in Jeremiah 4:23 too. Today¡Çs invocation verses gives details of the first scene of the universe. And we find a similarity between it and the recent devastation in Japan: ¡ÈThe mountains were shaking and the hills were trembling,¡É ¡ÈThe good, rich land had become a desert and its towns had been destroyed.¡É Jeremiah was sure that all came from the wrath of God who judged and accused human sin. In other words, human sin resulted in the chaos over the ruined land.

Jeremiah and other prophets understood that the calamity and ruin on the land were caused by sinful conducts of their ancestors. Merciful God had freed the Jewish people from Egypt and painful slavish status. Furthermore, he promised and gave them the fertile land, Canaan. Under the protection of God, they could built the nation there. Nonetheless they forgot God¡Çs grace and began to worship idles. Such an unfaithful behavior provoked the wrath of God. Prophets said that their country perished because the people were ungrateful. And the recent the earthquake and tsunami brought us similar miseries. The earth had shaken and trembled literally. However God said to the Jewish people, ¡ÈI will not completely destroy it.¡É God must say the same to us too.

Jewish captives in Babylon had lost their house and field in the homeland because of wars. Leaders who were brought by force to Babylon, far from the motherland by thousands kilometers, left their family. In early period of the captivity, they might still expected to get back home before long. But that expectation fell short because their country itself perished. The people lost the nation and land. They had nowhere to return to. They should find themselves in darkness. At that harsh time, God¡Çs words were announced to them through Jeremiah: “All the land will be ruined, but I will not completely destroy it.¡É

They lost all but, at least, they were still alive though under hard conditions. They understood the point of the message. Thus they saw a hope behind the preset reality. And that very hope pushed them to realize Genesis 1. After the disaster in the north-east of Japan, victims are deprived of families, houses and jobs. They must feel totally lost in darkness. Indeed, driven to despair, some of them already killed themselves. But the rest of them have to be aware that God makes them alive. Just when Jewish captives recognized the same fact, ¡ÈWe are still living!¡É the path to the salvation opened. That message is very consoling for us who are striving to overcome harsh reality now.

We might have to distinguish natural disasters from those of human causes. The whole Japanese territory is constantly exposed to risks of earthquake, tsunami and typhoon. We cannot avoid those natural calamities. So we learned through the history how to restore devastated regions. Those leanings formed a part of Japanese culture. But, the incidents happened in nuclear reactors exceeded the acquired knowledge. The damages in reactors were much more severe than those directly came from earthquake and tsunami. Nor scholors nor engineers didn¡Çt know how to deal with radioactive fallout.

Jewish nations perished under human invasions. The Babylonian captivity was also conducted by humans. So the people could have found some means to avoid such distresses if they had tried to. And the horrible incidents in nuclear reactors, though triggered by natural disasters, could have been avoided, too. But they didn¡Çt make efforts because of the arrogance. They were so complacent that they pretended to master what they cannot control.

I read a sermon, ¡ÈThe Shaking of the Foundations,¡É by Paul Tillich* in translation and found in it:
— Humans thought that they could utilize the Power which shakes the foundation in order to create peaceful and happy environment for human life. Then they became extremely arrogant. Furthermore, they thought they could continue creation-acts of God. They even said, ¡ÈWe can take the place of God, why not ?¡É Thus they made a huge mistake and used that Power in Warsaw, Hiroshima then Berlin. The result was ¡ÈChaos.¡É

When I read the portion above, Genesis 1:26 came to my mind, ; - Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image and likeness. And let them rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the tame animals, over all the earth, and over all the small crawling animals on the earth.¡É( Genesis 1:26)
God appointed humans, one genre of his creatures, to the manager of the others. Nonetheless humans forgot the fact and tried to take the place of the Creator to undertake his acts. Such arrogance seems to be the original cause of incidents of nuclear reactors. Humans must recognize that they cannot control perfectly the power of nuclear fission and fusion.

As I told before, Genesis 1 doesn¡Çt give scientific accounts of the birth of universe. Instead, it teaches what is now happening in this real world. The questions concern today¡Çs emergent matters. And the given key to answer is, ¡ÈGod created the sky and the earth.¡É

The Jewish people underwent destruction of the nation and the captivity. Facing that chaotic reality, they confessed that the world was created in accordance with God¡Çs will. Thus they recognized that the world and all humans could live thanks to God¡Çs power and mercy. After the creation of the world, God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. Therefore, even though we are practically in the dark, we can believe in the arrival of the light. The world must be hopeful and in order. That is the first message of the Bible.

*Paul Tillich http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Tillich
*2 The Shaking of the Foundations http://www.scribd.com/doc/6935389/Ebook-Tillich-Paul-The-Shaking-Of-The-Foundations-Existential-Spiritual-Sermons-Christian-Library