In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (Genesis 1:1-2)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1:1-5)
Ask any professional what the ‘secret’ to this game is, and many will respond, ‘a repeatable swing.’
If you didn’t know Jim Furyk, you probably wouldn’t imitate his swing, especially after hearing David Feherty say it looked like “an octopus falling out of a tree.” But here’s the thing—it repeated like a Rolex watch.
A repeating swing is key! Turns out, seeing repetition in Scripture is key to profitably reading these ancient texts, too.
Scripture is not only 66 books written by 40+ authors over thousands of years but also one book written by one author who sequences and interprets historical events into a single overarching narrative.
We shouldn’t be surprised, then, that the heavenly Author inspired the earthly authors to develop the overarching storyline through recurring patterns. Let’s explore an extraordinary one.
The “In the beginning” of Genesis and John’s Gospel is a clue to a major recurring pattern. These citations are bookends, with many ‘new beginnings’ in between.
After the original “In the beginning” of Genesis, things went terribly wrong. Six chapters later, Yahweh ‘begins again.’ God returns the earth to its primordial state—darkness and water once more cover the world (Genesis 1:1-2; 7:17-19).
Just as God separated the waters from the waters and dry land appeared “In the beginning” (Genesis 1:9), he also drove back the floodwaters with a strong wind, and placed Noah on dry ground to “begin again” (Genesis 8). Moses presents Noah as “new Adam.”
God commanded Adam to “be fruitful, and multiply and fill the earth, subdue it, and have dominion” (Genesis 1:28). He repeats this same command to Noah, “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Gen. 9:1).
Adam ate from the fruit of the tree and, in sin, misdirected God’s purposes. Noah, too, drank from the fruit of the vine, and so God would begin again—this time with another son.
By the time we reach Exodus, we discover that Israel, like Adam, is referred to as “the son of God” (see Ex. 4:22-23; Hosea 11:1; Luke 3:38). A corporate son, nonetheless.
It is far from coincidental that, yet again, “darkness covers the land” in the Israel narrative (Ex. 10), and God’s east wind blows, separating the waters of the Red Sea (Ex. 14), so dry land appears, allowing God’s Son (Israel) to move forward, multiply, and fill the earth (Ex. 14).
In each narrative, God’s ‘sons’ emerge from water: Adam after the chaotic waters of creation, Noah after the waters of judgment, Israel from the Red Sea, and Jesus from the waters of Jordan. And in each case, they are to “multiply, fill, and subdue” the enemy. All but one failed!
Adam, Noah, and Israel, as “creaturely sons,” broke their covenant with God (Hosea 6:7), but this Son kept the covenant to the point of death—the new covenant ratified in blood.
The Last Adam emerges from the waters of Jordan into the wilderness, but unlike the First Adam, he did not succumb to the devil’s enticements; instead, he trusted God’s word all the way to the cross (Matthew 4).
Like Noah, Jesus emerged from the waters of baptism to “multiply, fill, subdue, and rule” over all powers, authorities, and dark forces. Unlike Noah, in obedience, he drank the sour wine (fruit of the vine) representing God’s wrath (Psalm 75:8) so that his offspring could live forever in a new heaven and earth cleansed of all unrighteousness.
Like Israel, God’s corporate son, this Son came out of Egypt (Matthew 2:15), passed through the waters, entered the wilderness, fought the enemy, and entered into what the Promised Land foreshadows—the new heavens and the new earth.
Unfortunately, the original “In the beginning” of Genesis came to an abysmal end. The last “In the beginning” found in John’s Gospel is an ever-increasing, never-ending story in which the groom and bride “live happily ever after!”
Prayer: Lord! Teach us to see the repeating patterns embedded in these ancient texts. Open our eyes to see they all culminate in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 1:20; Luke 24:25-27, 24:44).