Genesis I. Is Truth Veiled In Allegory

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 55, 6 March 1943, Page 4

Genesis I. Is Truth Veiled In Allegory

]V/TANY people express -intense sur- ■"•*• prise when I tell them that I still read the "Genesis story of creation" in church, and preach about it, too. My belief in it increases as my appreciation of its literary merit deepens. That happens every time I read it. I marvel, first of all, at the audacity and impudence of the unknown person who first dared to render such an account upon clay tablets, or upon

By Rev. C. W. Chandler

whatever other substance was then used to give a degree of permanence to men's ideas. Whoever he was, he must be considered the father of modern journalism, in possession of the greatest "scoop" the world has ever known. What a story! Good enough for a serial, and yet he dis-. posed of the whole theme in about 800 words. Taken as a standard of literary excellence, it is. unsurpassable. It's as simple as the "twice times table," and yet oceans deep in its profundity. "And the evening and the morning were the first day," and so on through the six da3 r s of creation this chorus is repeated. Concerning these "clays," Josephus, on the first page of his "Antiquities of the Jews," makes this interesting remark: "Moses says it was one day, the cause of which I am able to give even now; but because I have promised to give such reasons for all things in a treatise by itself, I shall put off this exposition till that time," which clearly means that before the close of the first century, A.D., serious doubts were held about the actual length of the days indicated in Genesis I. "The day of temptation in the wilderness" in Psalm 95 was forty years. Hence the day need mean nothing more than a definite period of time.

Satisfaction—the Reward "And God saw that it was good" comprises another of these oftrepeated passages, which repetitions modern writers would scrupulously avoid if "writing it up" for a modern journal.

One can picture the Almighty looking down on His handiwork and gloating over it much as I do over my cabbages with hearts the size of your head. How utterly satisfying it is to sit down and handle the finished product, be it a toy aeroplane or an eight-day clock. I am convinced that this sense of satisfaction is the only real reward of labour. Money received by way of wages is merely incidental —important, maybe, but only incidental. Unless we can see that it is "good," a sense of failure will haunt us until we tackle the job again. "We shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied," said the prophet Isaiah concerning the coming Messiah. Where modern industrial development has robbed the worker of this possibilitjr of being "satisfied" with his handiwork there has a great injury been done, but an injury which is not irreparable. To sit at a bench punching holes in an endless chain of articles, with the same precision as the machine which carries the punctured articles away, is to be reduced to the level of the machine itself, and to be robbed of that sense of satisfaction which is the only real reward of labour. This deficiency can be remedied in sparetime occupations of a constructive and creative character. In front of me at the moment stands a model of an Elizabethan fully-rigged sailing ship. It was made by a boy of twelve in his spare time. It is admired by everyone who sees it, and it is stamped with the character and genius of the lad who made it, as is the universe itself with the character and genius of God.

Agreement with Science And lastly, what is more surprising still, is the order of creation set forth.' A nebulous void, then twilight over a silent deep until dry land appears, upon which grass and herbs, bearing seeds in themselves, gradually spring forth. Then the great amphibian, the whale, and fishes in the sea, and boasts that rove the world, and finally man. the head and crown of things. With this order of creation modern science is in complete agreement. Behind it all "is exhaustless energy harnessed to an infinite idea." When we come to Genesis 11., the picture is even more satisfying, as the simple and child-like allegory of creation unfolds. It will outlast all the text books of science, and all the petty doubts of little "brain-proud" mortals who vainly try "to mete out heaven with a span, and comprehend the dust of the earth in a measure, and weigh the mountains in scales, and the hills in balances." A large part of the trouble with modern unbelief lies in the fact that most rationalists are hopelessly out of date in their theology. • They ascribe to modern Biblical scholarship ideas that belong to a former age, and pour ridicule upon scriptural passages which, for their beauty alone, are eternally true, for "truth is beauty, and 'beauty is truth." But avaunt this talk. To read the Bible, and to know it, is to have a perpetual stream of life-giving water ever at your feet, and a light, withal, to guide you through the darkest days of doubt and fear. Let beauty speak for herself in sunsets and- flowers, in poetry, in music and in songs, and loudest of all in the inspired utterances of those who, in these sacred books, have written under the compulsion of the Holy Spirit. ...