Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee-Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. It's day one, and I'm so excited that you're here with me for this. Before we begin, I want to make sure we're all on the same page, literally. There are lots of chronological plans, and if you're using a different one, we'll probably get off track with each other at some point, though it could be months from now. So go ahead today and make sure you're either using the principal plan from our website, thebiblerecap. Com/start, or if you're using the Bible app to stay on track, make sure you're using the plan called The Bible Recap with Tara Lee-Cobble, and it has our logo as the image. Today, we read Genesis 1:3. If you haven't read this yet, hit pause on this podcast and go check that out first. I'll still be here when you finish, ready to recap with you. And just a heads up, today's episode will be a bit longer than usual because we have to set up a lot of what's happening here. Each day, I'll start out by aiming to give you a high level view of where we are in the meta narrative.

If you're not familiar with the word meta narrative, that just means the overarching storyline. There are lots of stories in these 66 books of the Bible, but they all work together to tell one big story. That's the meta narrative. Each day we'll zoom out and then we'll zoom way in and I'll give some specific details about what stuck out to me in that day's reading. At the end, we'll have a section called the God Shot where we look for the picture or snapshot of God's character from that day's reading. The attribute of God that stands out to me and that I reference in this section might be totally different than yours, and that's okay. This is a multilayered book, so don't expect that we'll all notice the same things every time. By the way, we're not looking for our application point here. This isn't your to-do list. This is what you saw about God, what he loves, what he hates, what he does, what motivates him to do what he does, we're looking for him. That's why we call it the God shot, not the me shot. This might be challenging at first because many of us are used to looking for ourselves in scripture instead of God.

And some days will be harder than others, but keep looking for him. He's on every page. As we start out our chronological plan, we'll be in Genesis for the first few days, then we'll pop over to the Book of Job before we come back to Genesis because we're reading in the order that this happened. Anytime we start a new book, we'll recommend a short video overview to help set you up for success. If you're using our reading plan on the Bible app, those videos will appear in that app on the day we start the new book, so it's super easy to find. But if you're not using the Bible app, don't worry, we've got you covered. We'll mention them and link them on the day before we start a new book so you can hopefully arrange to watch them before you do the next day's reading. Since today is day one, we've linked the Genesis overview video in today's show notes. By the way, if you don't know how to find the show notes on your particular podcast platform, try doing a web search of the name of the app plus the phrase show notes.

If your particular app doesn't have show notes, you can find all our show notes at thebiblerecap. Com/links. Let's get started. Today in our reading, we cover God's creation of the world and mankind as well as the fall of man. It's important to note that Genesis has historically been regarded as a book of the law. That's even how Jesus refers to it. It's not a science book or even a history book, though it does tell us a lot about history. This book is 100 % true, but it isn't always 100 % literal. For instance, when Jesus calls someone a dog, that doesn't mean they're a dog. You're possibly going to want to know which is which and when? When is it literal, when is it general? And when is it allegorical? If you struggle with that, I suggest getting a study Bible so you can dig into those things a bit more. All that to say, it's important to hold our scientific conclusions or opinions with an open hand, regardless of what you believe. Honestly, it's even important to hold our questions with an open hand because this book isn't necessarily here to answer them. It's here to reveal God to us.

Part of today's reading is a good demonstration of that. In 1:13-19, we read about the six days of creation. Some people believe this order is accurate, but that these days were prolonged periods of time, probably lasting tens of thousands of years. This is called the day-age theory, and lots of old earth creationists believe it. Those are people who believe God created the earth and in the order Genesis outlines, but that it was done over a longer timeline than seems to be given here. Young earth creationists believe God created the earth and that the timeline given in Genesis is literal. People I love and respect are in both camps. What's clear in scripture is that God created. None of this was an accident. With my open handedness, I'm inclined to think that these six days of creation are either literal or allegorical, that they couldn't possibly be a reductive general summary. Here's why. Plants were created on day three and the sun was created on day four. If the day-age theory were correct, this would mean that plants were on Earth for tens of thousands of years without sunlight, which isn't really a thing. They need that.

You may think, But Tarah Lee, on day one, God said let there be light. Maybe that light sustained the plants. But that was referring to something entirely different. The Bible Project has a great piece on this and we'll link to it in today's show notes, but just know that light isn't the photosynthesis light. You may also notice that God refers to Himself in the plural form. In 1:26, He says, Let us make man in our image. What we see here, as well as in the rest of scripture, is that the three persons of the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit were all present at creation. They each had a role to play here. God the Father gave the creation commands. The New Testament tells us that God the Son is the one who did the manual labor of creating things in response to the Father's commands. Meanwhile, God the Spirit hovered over the creation, sustaining and approving of it all. They work in tandem toward the same goal because they are the same God. The Trinity can be confusing, and we'll discuss more about the three persons of the Trinity as we move through scripture.

But just know God the Son was there in the beginning. Jesus didn't just show up on the scene when he was born in the New Testament. Before God, the Son, ever took on the name Jesus, he existed in perfect unity with God the Father and God the Spirit. He's been here all along, eternally-existent. Not only was he not made, but he made everything. Right after we get a nod to the Trinity, we see an important thing happen, but you'll only notice it if you read with your eyes. If you read with your ears, that's not a problem, but you wouldn't have caught this. Take a look at chapter two, verse 4. Do you see how the word Lord is in all caps? Here's a breakdown of what that means and how it's different from capital L, lowercase, ORD, and all lowercase, L-O-R-D. All lowercase, L-O-R-D can refer to humans, anyone who's in charge of something like your landlord, for instance. Capital L, lowercase, ORD means Adonai, which is the Hebrew word for Master, the person who's in charge. But it's capitalized because it's referring to an actual name of God, not just a general term.

One of his actual names is Master. But when you see all caps L-O-R-D, like we do in chapters two and three, that represents this ancient, unpronounceable Hebrew word. It was spelled Y-H-W-H. You can't really pronounce it because it has no vowels. It's like the names of hockey players. But when people do try to pronounce it, it comes out something like Yahwe or Jehovah. This is God's personal name. By telling us his name, even though he can't really pronounce it, right out of the gate, he's showing us how personal he wants to be with his creation. He's not setting himself apart as one not to be known or spoken to. He tells mankind his name. He wants to be known. Despite that, it doesn't bring him to our level. I've heard that the Jewish scribes who wrote the scrolls of scripture had such respect for the name of God that they would get a new pen every time they had to write his name and they'd only use it to write His name. We live in an OMG culture that doesn't regard God's name very highly, and I think we could stand to learn a few things from how much respect ancient Jews had for the name of God.

Moving on, one of the great things about a sovereign God who is outside of time is that nothing surprises him or throws him off, which is why when Adam and Eve sinned, it didn't thwart his plan. His plan accounted for their sin. In 2:17, he tells them, In the day that you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall surely die. He didn't say if. It implies a certainty that it will happen. When this happens, you will surely die. The rest of scripture supports this, letting us know that God wasn't relegated to plan B after they ate the fruit. It was always part of plan A. When Eve questions God's goodness and buys the lie that he's holding out on her and decides that she would make a better God, which, by the way, that's at the heart of every sin you and I commit, that's when the fall of man happens. There's a fracture in the world and it's still fracturing. Not only do we still believe the same lies they believed, but the curses that were pronounced over them still resonate in our world today. In 3:16, the curse says Eve's desire would be to control and rule over Adam.

We still see this tension today. Women tend toward control and men tend toward passivity. I heard a quote that was attributed to C. S. Lewis that said, Hell is a place where all the pots are boiling over and all the milk is spoiled, and the man's assignment is to do something about it, and the woman's assignment is to do nothing about it. Obviously, that's not true. It's just an illustration pointing out the fallen nature affecting both genders equally. But here's what I love about God, and here's where I saw my God shot for today. Not only is he the creator, we see that. Not only is he Lord over everything, we see that too. Not only does he decide to get personal with mankind, but in addition to his Lordship and his perfection and his strength, he's also merciful. In 2:17, he said they would die if they ate the fruit, but he let them live. He didn't strike them down on the spot. Anytime we see God hedge on His promises, it's on the side of mercy. He doesn't break promises, He exceeds them. We see another example in 3:9, where they're hiding from Him and lying to him.

They didn't even repent yet, but he still pursues them out of love in their sin. He continues to show them both mercy and discipline as he keeps pursuing them out of love. No matter where you are today or what you've done, the capital L-O-R-D is pursuing you out of love. The fact that you're listening to this podcast is evidence of that. What a gift to them and to us that he doesn't give up on us because he's where the joy is. Okay, that's all for day one of the Bible recap. We'll see you back here tomorrow for day two. From the songs your church has been singing on Sunday mornings to the songs you've heard on your favorite Christian radio stations, find out what songs from the year made it into Hope Nation's Best of 2023 song battle. Click the link in the show notes to watch worship leader Cody Carnes and Logan from the band Cain compete to see who knows the songs best.