The older I get, the more I find there is to learn from the book of Genesis which is, of course, the first Book in the Old Testament. The pre-history stories – the creation, the fall, Noah and his ark, the tower of Babel and so on, continue to inspire because they can speak to every generation.
Some people of faith – Christian and Jewish – take them literally; and that is fine. Some do not; and I am in this second category. I believe them to be true on a much more profound level. I love rereading Othello or Macbeth, not only because the writing is sublime, but because they point to timeless truth: in the case of those two plays, the truth of what happens if you let jealousy or ambition take over your life.
And so, the famous opening chapters of Genesis dealing with Creation sets out our relationship to God, to one another, to the animal kingdom and to the earth itself. If we learnt to live by that story a little better, our world would not be facing many of the challenges it currently does.
I want, though, to focus on the next bit which is known as The Fall (Genesis Chapter 3) – sin leading to disaster. It is both a brilliant and forensic analysis as to how bad things happen and their consequences. It can also help us, therefore, in trying to live a good and loving life.
It begins with God saying to Adam and Eve you can eat of anything in the garden except from the one tree. What then happens is the one tree that most interests them is the forbidden one!! And the wrong starts with listening to the other side, the dark side giving justification for wrong-doing. And this is followed by contemplation of the wrong fruit: “seeing it was pleasant to the eye, and a tree to be desired.” The eating/wrong-doing that then takes place leads to shame, (“the eyes of both were opened and they saw they were naked”), followed by blaming one another and falling out.
I like to think that anyone of Christian faith, other faith or of no faith who reflected deeply on that story would take away profound truth. So much of war or falling out in families is due to wanting something you should not have – evil people manipulating the dark side of life, turning people sometimes to hatred of others. Wrong-doing so often starts with justification and once you are thinking about it, you are half-way there to the actual deed! The result: division and blame.
The most practical things I take from this particular story is that, in our world, there is good and bad: but we have choice and, once we start giving way to the bad, there is likely to be trouble. Once Othello allows Iago to poison his mind, his relationship with Desdemona is going to fail – and please note Shakespeare gives a living image to that particular form of darkness “the green eyed monster”; once Macbeth and Lady Macbeth give way to “vaulting ambition”, the result is murder, a country divided and their eventual deaths. Their hopes for power and all that goes with it, ends with possibly the most despairing lines in all Shakespeare:
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
The other great practical truth I take from this Genesis passage which wise men and women have passed on throughout the generations, is that wrong-doing starts with letting your mind think about that which is best left alone – a seed is sown. The place to stop wrong-doing is to avoid even thinking about it: “I wish I had that,” “that person looks very beautiful or handsome” and, and, and……The apple when they looked at it was pleasant to the eye!!
So, for me, these ancient stories are not only true in that deepest of senses; but have so much to teach about good and loving living. Time perhaps to dust down those early chapters of Genesis and think what their wisdom has to teach us in our day.
Peter