Ashly Elias
EGL375
29 September 2014

How God Evolved with Humans
Throughout the Five Books of Moses, God has chosen certain individuals for duties and missions in his name. The interpersonal relationships God has with these select few affects one’s understanding of who he is. Also, his persona wavers from person to person, revealing parts of himself through his actions and emotions. At first God is as an all-powerful creator, an artist designing the world. However, he has a different, fatherly side to him when he creates Adam and Eve. He is happy, content and even hurt and betrayed. God also goes through period of wrath and anger as he copes with the disobedience of man. He slowly changes, and begins to transform with other characters as he starts to have empathy and understand them. Most importantly, he begins to evolve with humans as the timeline progresses.
Before learning about God through his relationships with humans, it is necessary understand who he was before humans existed. The bible begins by saying, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” The immensity of these ten words pulls one into the abrupt beginning of life, and who it is that created it. The very first characteristic stated about him in Genesis is that he is a creator. He has formed the heavens and the earth for mankind to flourish upon. Much can be learned about him through his process of creation. First, God is a god of order. He created life in a matter of six days with specific designs for each day. For example, he made light and firmament on the first two, while creating humans on the last day. Secondly, he is also a separator as much as he is a creator, distinguishing opposite entities of the earth. He divided night by day, the heavens and the earth, water and land. He also created the stars to separate the seasons, to create signs for the days and years. These characteristics about God illustrates his reasoning and vast knowledge.
Not only is God a god of order, he is a god of immeasurable power and authority. God had created all that is with just His word. As he spoke, the land and the seas, the light and dark and all the animals came to life. To be able to create life by simply uttering words depicts God’s competence and his capabilities. He made everything according to how it pleased him. He was content with all that he created, and deemed it as being good. There is no one else that mandates what he should do or how he should create. This reveals his sovereignty. He separates himself from his creation, ruling over everything he has made. “And God blessed them, saying, be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth” (Genesis 1:22). In this verse, he commands the animals and to multiply and be fruitful, exemplifying his vast power and authority. He is the creator, not the created.
His most prominent creation is man. God’s interpersonal relationships begin with this creation, and each relationship reveals more about the character of God. Humanity is the pinnacle of creation since it is the last of his formations and significantly different from the rest. His idea of the earth and man was that man would have dominion upon all living creatures and the earth. God had created Adam out of dust, in his own image. Adam was able to speak and communicate with God. He was able to understand and relate to God through communication in a manner that no other living creature had the privilege of. Humans could love, reason, create, and live at peace and harmony with God. This gives man the ability have a close relationship with God, to understand who their creator is.

So far God is a creator of everything, a God of power and sovereignty, and a God of order. He is filled with knowledge, wisdom and reason. In creating Adam, he evolves into a concerned parent. God says, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him” (Genesis 2:18). Even though he had made animals to give company for Adam, God saw that he was lonely, so he created a woman from Adam’s rib. Adam and Eve lived on earth and had the responsibility to take care of the Garden of Eden. God was pleased up to this point with everything he created. That is, until Adam and Eve disobey him.
Adam and Eve had the free will to make their own decisions, yet God, being the higher authority, wants them to obey his commands. God says, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17). Eve was tempted by the serpent and ate from the tree of knowledge, along with Adam. In this moment they lost their innocence, and were aware of humility. God saw what they had done and felt hurt. Although God did not want them to learn of knowledge and shame, he reveals more of his parental side through this biblical account when he banishes them from the Garden of Eden. “And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21). Even though he is angry with Adam and Eve, he is still fatherly by clothing them after they learned of shame. Yet, God who is well composed, a man of power and order has been deceived by his own creations. This reveals a side of God that begins generations of wrath and regret towards humans.
After the disobedience, a God of judgment emerges. God becomes wrathful, and punishes Adam and Eve. They brought sin upon the world, and all of the generations to come after. First, women would have to suffer tremendous amounts of pain during childbirth, as well as being submissive towards their husband. Man would have to work harder and longer in the field in order to grow food. He would spend the rest of his life with hardship. The ground was also cursed due to sin and the new vegetation would be more difficult to grow. He states, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19). This verse paints a vivid image of God’s anger towards Adam and Eve. His words captures a picture of them working endlessly and suffering with pain until they become no more than the mere particles they once were. God has shifted from being a serene, powerful being that created all that is to life, to a God of anger, wrath and punishment. His personal relationship with Adam and Eve shows a different side of God from who he was before, due to their sinful actions against him.
God begins to change and is not understanding of temptation and sin. This can be seen with Noah. Generations have gone by and all of mankind has become wicked and evil. God sees all of this and becomes merciless, lashing out with fury. God says, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them” (Genesis 6:7). He sincerely regrets creating man; he begins to see them as a canvas that he can destroy. He starts becomes a God who was content with his creation to a God that regrets ever creating man. His orderliness begins to diminish also, as he plans to destroy humans without thinking about how he could fix them. He is beginning to let his rage consume him, controlling his actions and emotions. As he plots to rid the earth of humans, he forms a personal relationship with Noah, and thus begins the metamorphosis of God alongside human beings.
God has chosen an individual to carry out his work and starts to build an important relationship with him. Noah is defined as righteous, according to God. Out of everyone in his generation, Noah was perfect and a just man who walked with God. He tells Noah about how he will destroy humanity by bringing forth a great flood. God is filled with rage, yet he still has a heart to save Noah and his family. He does not want to destroy everything he has created, so he commands Noah to build an arc and to have pairs of each animal to come onto the arc. Noah, his family and all the animals survived the flood as the rest of mankind was annihilated. God begins to evolve from his wrath as Noah makes him keep a promise. God states, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth: neither will I again smite any more everything living, as I have done.” He realizes that sin lies within all humans, and understands it in a new way than he did before. He promises Noah that he would never destroy humankind with a flood and signifies his promise with a rainbow. God who had previously been filled with wrath and fury, understands what he did was wrong through Noah. He starts to empathize with humans. God has now been an orderly god, who then evolves into a god that lashes out fueled by rage, instead of reason. The God with Noah was grieving over the wickedness of man, vengeful and merciless, but turns around and sees that what he is doing is also wrong.
God repeats history once again with a man named Abram. Mankind has become wicked and sinful once more, and God lashes out by separating them. He creates different languages and spreads all the people throughout the earth. He singles out one man though, who he eventually has a close and significant relationship with. Abram and God’s relationship is based of trust and faith. God says to him, “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12:1-3). He tests Abram’s faith by having him completely leave everything he knows behind, and to follow his directions. God promises him in the end that he will make a great nation out of his family. When he states that He will curseth them that curseth thee, it characterizes God becoming a protector of human beings by cursing anyone that stands in the way of the covenant he has with Abram, instead of an annihilator of humans. This is a different God from Noah, who had lost hope in humanity and wanted to erase them. God is further by restoring faith in humans as he begins to empathize with them. He is becoming close with certain individuals in order to have them guide the rest of mankind away from sin.
A characteristic of God that surfaces is that he becomes a god of justice. This is clearly shown through his relationship with Jacob, the grandson of Abraham. Jacob is different from his previous ancestors as he is not faithful like Abraham nor is he quiet like his father Isaac. Jacob is first introduced trying to steal his brother Esau’s birthright from their father. He deceives his father by taking advantage of the fact that he cannot see very well, and misleading him into thinking he is Esau. When Isaac and Esau find out what he has done, it is too late. Although Isaac is upset and dismayed by what had happened, he cannot revoke his blessing he gave to Jacob. A god who has become irrationally wrathful towards the sins committed by humans would be enraged hearing this, but God slowly changes the way he disciplines humans. The consequences he chooses justifies the action in which the individual committed. This is evident when Jacob falls in love with a girl named Rachel. Her father, Laban, agreed that he could marry her after serving him for 7 years. After the years, Jacob was ready to marry her. They gathered together and made a feast, but Jacob took Leah with him to bed. He realized in the morning what Laban had done, and the one who was the deceiver became deceived in the same way Jacob’s father was deceived. Jacob took advantage of his father’s poor eyesight, and he was taken advantage of since he could not see in the dark. God’s righteousness is clear through this personal account.
The powerful God, the creator of everything, is undermined by Jacob as well. God’s sovereignty and will power are tested by Jacob. Jacob states, “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God” (Genesis 28:20-21).
The God who commands his people and tests their faith is in reverse being tested by Jacob. This shows a remarkable characteristic about God in that he has become more willing to reveal himself to humans to build trust with them, rather than them blindly following his footsteps. He wants them to understand the he is a God that will provide for them, and will prove it to them in exchange for their obedience to him. Who God is can be understood from analyzing his relationships with specific biblical characters. Specific characteristics about him are revealed with each of those relationships. He has evolved alongside human beings, understanding them and empathizing with them. He changes his persona of a ruthless ruler to a considerate ruler that desires to be close with his people. The God from the beginning of Genesis has quickly evolved into different God, and more of him is understood by his actions.

Bibliography

Genesis. The Bible: King James Version. Glasgow: Collins, 2008. Print.