From Instinct to Intention
If early humans functioned from instinctive desire for survival, Genesis 1-2 introduces something far more profound: desire that’s named, blessed, and directed by God. The creation story doesn’t deny our instinctive desires; instead it re-frames them. Desire no longer concerns itself about not becoming another’s dinner. Desire is now part of what it means to be human.
Genesis opens by telling us; at the beginning of creating the heavens and the earth, God speaks, forms, delights, and calls creation “good.” That repeated refrain sets the stage. Desire now has a context. Human wants and longings are no longer gut level desires drifting in a meaningless universe. Now they have meaning within a world God declares good, purposeful, and relational.
“Wah wah whaaah…wah-wah-wah…waaah”
I admit, this is a difficult series because I want to start from what Scripture says about desire as understood by the original audience. The hard part is that Hebrew anthropology (the study of what makes us human) is like a foreign language to our modern, western sensibilities. If we filter what we read in Genesis through our modern psychological way of understanding, what we hear is like the teacher in a Charlie Brown cartoon.
I attempt to be clearer than mud to explain what Scripture means about desire. I resist the urge to jump ahead in defining desire in more depth in this article because it becomes clearer in Genesis 3. Hopefully this piques your interest to read next week’s article.
Defining Desire
To begin, the Bible doesn’t describe inner emotions and feelings the way Western psychology does. This is probably the largest mistake made when we read an ancient text through the lenses of philosophy and psychology. When we hear “desire,” we understand it as what I feel inside myself but ancient Hebrews heard it as who or what am I leaning toward.
In modern, Western understanding, we see ourselves in a dual nature – soul/body, inner life/outer life, spiritual/material; where the soul is contained in a human body. On the other hand, that idea is foreign to ancient Hebrew thought. Instead a person doesn’t have a soul; a person is a living soul; – a unified whole; no dual distinction of spiritual me/physical me.
Genesis rolls out the idea that desire is about direction. Something like a PPS (Personal Positioning System). Desire describes the movement of the whole person toward someone or something – toward God, creation, the other person or toward one’s self. In Genesis 1&2, desire isn’t good or bad; it’s woven into what it means to be human.
The question isn’t whether we desire, but to where our desire aims. Genesis begins with showing desire directed toward the right place: leaning toward God, one another and the world we are called to care for. Starting in Genesis 3, we encounter distortions in desire; misdirected desire turned inward away from attachment to God, others and creation and toward autonomy of oneself.
1. Desire Becomes Relational
In Genesis 1, God creates human beings “in the image of God,” male and female together. This isn’t a biological component to locate within genetic code. Instead it’s a calling to live into. In displaying God’s image, desire takes on a relational posture – trust, openness and partnership with God and one another.
2. Desire Becomes Vocational
“Be fruitful… fill the earth… cultivate and guard the garden.”
These aren’t survival commands, they’re purpose commands. The story shifts desire from an instinctive appetite (“I need food”) to a covenantal calling (“I’m here for something”). Read Genesis 2 – notice how God drills down on the intention; giving humans meaningful work, partnership, and responsibility.
3. Desire Becomes Moral
Before the garden, human desire had no moral value; only survival value. Desire is neither good nor bad – it just is. But in the garden, desire occupies a moral landscape. Imagine this! Trees to enjoy. A world to satisfy. A boundary to honour.
Now, desire requires discernment. Not every longing is equally good. It’s like a gravitational pull where we need to figure out what desires lead to life and which ones lead away from God. This moral logic isn’t a code or list of rules, but a relationship grown as humans learn to hear, respond and interpret their desires in ways that align with God’s purposes.
4. Desire Becomes Dialogue
For the first time in the human story, desire is something that can be talked about with God.
“Dirt-ling (Adam), where are you?”
“It’s not good for a human to be alone.”
“You may definitely eat from any tree except…”
The Creator calls, blesses, instructs, and warns. Human desire becomes something we interpret in conversation with One who knows us better than we know ourselves.
5. Desire Becomes Trust-Oriented
Animals act out of instinct; humans act out of trust.
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil isn’t a test of willpower – it’s a test of trust.
The question remains. Will humans trust God to define what’s good? Will they trust God’s goodness more than their own understanding? Will they trust the Giver more than the gift?
At this moment, before desire becomes a morally and theologically charged issue, Genesis 1 & 2 offer the first faith-based interpretation of human desire. Something like the Bible’s first Google Map of the human heart.
Drawing Desire Together
Desire is part of the image of God. Furthermore, it’s shaped in a relationship with God.
Desire is vocational and purposeful. Additionally, it’s morally meaningful.
Ultimately, desire requires trust.
Human beings no longer simply have desires; God invites us to understand them. Before distortion, desire is awakened by God’s presence, shaped by God’s purpose and expressed with lavish abundance, relationship and mutual enjoyment in the garden of Eden.
That’s before things went off the rails…