The cosmogony of Genesis shows, in opposition to the conceptions widely prevalent in antiquity, that the world was not self-originated; that it was called into existence, and brought gradually into its present state, at the will of a spiritual Being, prior to it, independent of it, and deliberately planning every stage of its progress. The spirituality, not less than the dignity, of the entire representation is indeed in marked contrast to the self-contradictory, grotesque speculations of which the ancient cosmogonies usually consist. “It sets God above the great complex world process, and yet closely linked with it, as a personal intelligence and will that rules, victoriously and without a rival.”—The Book of Genesis, S. R. Driver.
If anyone is in search of accurate information regarding the age of this earth, or its relation to the sun, moon, or stars, or regarding the exact order in which plants and animals have appeared upon it, he should go to recent textbooks in astronomy, geology, and paleontology. It is not the purpose of the writers of Scripture to impart physical instruction, or to enlarge the bounds of scientific knowledge. So far as the scientific or historical information imparted in these chapters is concerned, it is of little more value than the similar stories of other nations. And yet the student of these chapters can see a striking contrast between them and extrabiblical stories describing the same unknown ages handed down from prescientific centuries. Here comes to view the uniqueness of the Bible. The other traditions are of interest only as relics of a bygone past. Not so the biblical statements; they are and ever will be of inestimable value, not because of their scientific teaching, but because of the presence of sublime religious truth in the crude forms of primitive science. If anyone wishes to know what connection the world has with God, if he seeks to trace back all that now is to the very fountain-head of life, if he desires to discover some unifying principle, some illuminating purpose in the history of the earth, he may turn to these chapters as his safest and, indeed, only guide to the information he seeks.—The Christian View of the Old Testament, Frederick Carl Eiselen.
AIM
To present the thought of God as the Creator of all things, the rightful ruler of the universe, and to establish in the child an attitude of reverence toward God as Creator, and toward nature as his work.
LESSON PREPARATION
The best possible preparation for the teaching of this lesson and the accomplishment of its aim is to saturate one’s mind with the God-permeated story of the creation in the lesson passage, and other Bible passages given, in which God stands preeminent as the almighty Creator of the universe.
In the Intermediate period, the four years that follow the Junior, it would be highly interesting, and instructive as well, to discuss with the class the various creation stories that are found in the writings of antiquity, and to compare them with the story as given in Genesis; but these children have not the historical background that would be necessary to enable them to appreciate such discussions. What they are most intensely interested in is the deeds of people. Not what people think or what they are, but what they do, attracts the Junior child; and in like manner it is not the attributes of the Deity, but his power manifested in the universe, creating, ruling, and overruling, that will hold the attention and minister to the spiritual needs of those we teach.