Genesis - and not the one from Hyundi

There's growing hype on Hyundi's new luxury car Genesis, especially where I live - someone is getting a new one for the first time almost monthly. When I bought mine I wondered why they picked that name. What could Hyundi be trying to communicate to car buyers with this name. For most of history Genesis has been associated with the first book of the Bible. I looked up genesis in 1828 Webster's dictionary, the first dictionary published in USA and the one I used in college (jk). The first reference of meaning was that Genesis is the first book of the Bible. I had always thought genesis primarily meant "the beginning". However, the only other reference to meaning of genesis in 1828 was an application in geometry, "the formation of a line, plane or solid by the motion or flux of a point, line or surface."

Here we see that in part genesis reflects the notion of beginning but more importantly denotes the act of formation. Formation is a bit more substantive than just the beginning because formation denotes source and intent, not just beginning. I guess buying a Hyundi Genesis represents not just a new beginning but the formation of a new driving experience desired by the engineers at Hyundi.

In the Bible Genesis then is not just the beginning of God's story but the formation of history as God desires it to be. The creation is God's original intent, His ordinances prior to sin, the fall of mankind. In the creation story we see God gives us His intent in at least 3 areas - work, worship, and relationship. The Fall of man contaminates these three areas of our life and the Cross redeems them back to the original design or genesis of life.

The creation account in Scripture has often been the central component of the scientific perspective of the origin of the universe. Does one day really mean 24 hours? How does theory of evolution contradict Genesis 1? However, references in the rest of Scripture doesn't seem to worry itself about these questions but rather we find the essence of the creation account - God sovereignly did it and it was good - as the basis for worship and pastoral endeavors. In other words the intent of Genesis 1 and 2 is not to answer the scientific debate on origin of universe but to establish the formational intent of life as one established by God for His purposes according to His ordinances. Its man who has attempted to imagine life as intended and sourced by other means, for other purposes, and with other ordinances.

Tim Keller once said unless "your God can outrage you and make you struggle will you know that you worship the real God and not a figment of your imagination." Those who reject Genesis (God's formational intent of life) have done so because their own imagination provides a comfort to them and does not challenge the notion that man alone is sufficient to deliver the soul's well being.

If our faith does not cause us to struggle against our carnal mindedness, then our imagination provides for us comfort in the illusion that we are the sovereign one ...........