Why did Moses write Genesis 1-3, and why did the Holy Spirit inspire him to do so? The answer to that question isn't to satisfy modern Western reader's desires to know how and when God created, but rather to speak to the Ancient Near Eastern culture's thirst for the answer to the questions of who and why. In the end, that's what Genesis will give us because it is about the relationship between God and humanity, and ultimately between God and his chosen people. For them, the who was the same God who had led them up out of Egypt to Sinai, and the why they already were experiencing as God laid forth his covenant with them, building on the covenant with Abraham.
Is the earth 6,000 years old or 6 billion? That's not a question Genesis is trying to answer. Did God use evolutionary processes or not? That's not on its radar either. What we do find in Genesis 1-3 is the foundation to answer the most important questions of life: Who am I? Why am I here?
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