Genesis changed the way the ancient Israelites saw God. To a people enslaved in Egypt by the Pharaoh, believed to be a descendant of the gods, Moses brought a tale of a God who lovingly and deliberately created mankind to be in fellowship with him. This was the purpose of all creation, to provide a home for the human race. Man was intimately and lovingly fashioned by God.
When John wrote the prologue to his gospel, he accomplished a number of things by linking it to Genesis. Just like Genesis 1 told Moses’ original audience that God wasn’t who they’d believed him to be for generations, so also John 1 told John’s original audience that God had done something their religion hadn’t anticipated.In Genesis, God lovingly and personally shaped the very first man and woman to be in fellowship with him. In John, the author tells us that the same God who was in the beginning, who was the Creator, came to lovingly and personally reshape mankind so that they could once again be in fellowship with the Creator.
The Creator in Genesis created life - the sun, the moon, the stars, the trees, fish, birds, creeping and crawling creatures, and Man and Woman. In John, this Creator, the Word, is the very source of life - "In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind." This source of life was what came into the world, not as mythological gods did but in humility to serve and love.
As we saw in an earlier post, light is a prevalent image in John. Next time, I'll look at it a little closer.
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