God’s Goodness
Early in Marilynne Robinson’s book, Reading Genesis, she reflects on the differences between the story of creation in Genesis 1 with two ancient Babylonian narratives of creation, the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Enuma Elish. While biblical scholars tend to compare these stories to see what the Genesis story may have borrowed from the more ancient Babylonian myths, Robinson, a novelist, reads them to see what the stories tell us about God and ourselves.
In Babylonian mythology, the gods are fickle, Robinson writes, “indifferent and hostile to humankind.” Human beings have no real power. They are subject to the capricious desires of the gods. “The Babylonian epic [Enuma Elish] describes wars between rival armies of gods. For them ‘good’ seems to be the order that comes with the triumph of Marduk.”
The first chapter of Genesis paints an entirely different picture of the relationship of God with creation. Over and over God looks at what has been created and proclaims that it is good. “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31)
“To say that God is the good creator of a good creation is not a trivial statement,” Robinson writes. “The insistence of Genesis on this point, even the mention of goodness as an attribute of Creation, is unique to Genesis.”
In no way does this insistence on goodness deny the reality of evil. From Genesis 2:4 to 11:32 we read of the fall of Adam and Eve and their exile from the Garden of Eden; the murder of Abel by his brother, Cain; the flood God initiates to destroy “the wickedness of humankind” (Genesis 6:5), saving only Noah and his family; and the building of tower of Babel and the scattering of the people.
Yet, Robinson writes, “in Genesis, from the first, good is intrinsic to the whole Creation.” Throughout scripture, God continually brings good out of the worst and most tragic of situations. But God rarely does this alone. While Babylonian mythology suggests humans exist only to appease the gods, the “God of Genesis is unique in His having not a use but a mysterious, benign intention for [humanity].”
Having been created in the image of God and invited to partner with God in the work of stewarding God’s creation, we become the revealers and bearers of God’s goodness in the world. In the face of the evil we see and the injustice we witness too often in our world, we must continue to insist on the intrinsic divine goodness in creation and work for the common good of all.
We are not powerless. We are not subject to the capricious whims of gods or anyone else. We are created with the divine spark of goodness, a spark which fills us with the power of a loving and gracious God. This same God equips us and calls us to share God’s goodness with our neighbors and all of creation.
