Introduction Part 1
Christians approach Genesis in different ways. Some read Genesis as literal history while others read it as a metaphorical or literary account that still speaks truth about God, humanity and creation. My aim in this series isn’t to debate those viewpoints but to read Genesis as a narrative theology – Scripture’s way of telling God’s story to help us understand desire, meaning and what it means to hear God.
In pointing back to the earliest humans, I’m not talking about the longings we have today – a sense of purpose, meaning, intimacy, calling or vocation. Long before desire became interpretative, desire was instinctive; quick, physical and necessary.
When Desire Was Instinctive
Our ancestors felt hungry before they had the mental capacity to imagine abundance. They knew fear before they understood courage. They felt the need for safety before they dreamt about being fulfilled. Their desires were driven by basic fight, flight or freeze survival instincts. This was their desire: to eat, escape danger, protect their own and belong to a group that was strong enough to survive.
Certainly those desires weren’t sinful, nor morally right or wrong. They were simply ancient instincts to stay alive. We have the same instincts today; but often needlessly amplified. Fear becomes anxiety. Appetite becomes excess. Self-protection becomes defensiveness. Group loyalty becomes hostility. Desire itself is ancient, but the meaning of desire; its place in the human story, only comes into focus when God steps into the narrative.
Pre-Historic Hearing
Before Genesis was ever written, prior to centuries of stories shaped into Scripture, humanity lived, imagined, and worshiped in a world full of gods and spirits. Our ancestors framed life through myth and symbol, searching for something bigger than themselves but not yet knowing the One who made the heavens and the earth. In that long stretch of human prehistory, God wasn’t absent, but humanity wasn’t yet ready to receive Him with clarity.
Over vast stretches of time, our capacities for self-awareness, moral reasoning, imagination, and relational depth slowly matured. Initially gods were conceived as local and connected with a land and a temple. Eventually humanity became capable of conceiving of a single, universal God above all others. People recognized that the Voice speaking to them wasn’t simply another spirit among many, but the One who lovingly calls.
God Steps Into History
When that revelation finally comes (about 3200 years ago), the arrival isn’t a human discovery; it’s a divine initiative. Old Testament scholar John Goldingay has an intriguing take: “Israel didn’t discover God; they were discovered by God.” The biblical story doesn’t show a people inventing theology (call it the study of God); it shows a God who speaks, walks, calls, promises, covenants, and reveals Himself to those who had long been reaching for something they couldn’t yet name.
This is the world into which Genesis speaks: a world awakening to the reality of the one God, learning for the first time what it means to be His image-bearers. It’s here where I start “The Story of Desire.” Before the Garden, before the first temptation, before the tragic bending of desire away from God; it’s here where we first catch a glimpse of what human longing was created to be.
The Birth of Desire
In this story series, we begin with “The Birth of Desire;” stepping back into that ancient soil. We’ll ask:
What did desire mean for the first humans who walked with God?
How might that original meaning guide us today, as we navigate our own complicated desires in a world far removed from Eden yet still shaped by its echoes?
This is why I believe the Genesis story is so important. It marks more than the biological birth of desire, but the point in which humanity begins to understand desire as initiated by God. It describes how men and women came to see themselves as creatures addressed by God, invited into relationship, and formed for purpose.
As we begin our journey into Genesis, don’t expect this will be your grandma’s garden.