The purpose of the book of Genesis is to tell how and why Yahweh came to choose Abraham's family and make a covenant with them. The covenant is the foundation of Israelite theology and identity, and its history is therefore of understandable significance. The book continues the tale of how the covenant was established by detailing the various obstacles to the covenant. Finally, we discover how the Israelites ventured to Egypt, thus setting the scene for the exodus.
The message of the book has several aspects. First of all, it provides an appropriate introduction to the Israelite God, Yahweh. We find that he is the sovereign creator of a world made especially for human habitation. Already in this we can identify an intentional contrast to Mesopotamian theology developing. In the ancient world, something was believed to exist by virtue of having a defined role in an ordered system. Consequently, creation was seen primarily as determining roles and functions for everything in the cosmos. In Mesopotamia this means that creation texts were not as interested, for example, in the material origins of the moon. Instead, the creation of the moon involved its being assigned the role it performed in the cosmos. Since its role was intertwined with the role of the moon god, the origins of both the moon god and the moon itself were linked. Creation referred primarily to this sort of origins. The gods came into being through procreation and as they came into being that to which their role was attached also took its place in the cosmos.
In Israel they shared the belief that creation pertained most importantly to assigning roles (note the description of the roles of the sun, moon and stars in Genesis 1:14). The key difference is that in Israel there was no belief that individual gods were associated with each of the functional aspects of the cosmos. Instead, one God was responsible for establishing all the roles in the cosmos and as a result all of the functionaries of the cosmos become the instruments by which he establishes and maintains order, rather than being viewed as his colleagues or subordinates to whom jurisdiction is delegated.
A second aspect of the message of Genesis concerns the role of people in the newly created world, and again a contrast to Mesopotamian thinking is present. A key message of Genesis is that humans were created in the image of God. The world was created for them and with them in mind. The roles of everything in the cosmos are seen in relation to human beings and they are assessed as being "good" when they satisfactorily meet this criterion. When the first human pair are created, they are accorded dignity and entrusted with responsibility (i.e., given their roles). Genesis insists that all this was the design and intention of God. This is a stark contrast to the Mesopotamian mythology that understands humanity as an afterthought of the gods. In Atra-Ḫasis, for instance, people are created to take over the labor that the gods have tired of doing. There is no sense that all creation was undertaken with people in mind, and there was little dignity to offer when slave labor was the only motivation.
Amid this contrast with Mesopotamian theology, it is not the intent of Genesis simply to debate. The point of the Genesis narrative is to establish that Yahweh was sovereignly pursuing a plan of history. People were created with every advantage and were placed lovingly by God in an ideal situation. This is important, for it moves us to the next point of the message of the book. It was this man and woman, not God, who disturbed the equilibrium and brought about the sad state of our present existence.
It was the continuing failure of humanity as a whole that led Yahweh to send the flood, scatter the people from the plain of Shinar, and eventually work through one man and his family, Abraham. The message of the book is to offer the first eleven chapters as the explanation of why Yahweh has chosen to work through a particular people. It is through them that he plans to reveal himself. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that it was not because of any merit on the part of Abraham that God chose him. Rather, it was an act of God's sovereignty. To Abraham's credit, he responded in obedience and exercised faith that Yahweh would honor his promises.
The message of the patriarchal narratives is that through many difficult situations the patriarchs and, more so, the Lord persevered to result in the establishment of Abraham's family. The text does not hesitate to show the shortcomings of Abraham and his family, but God is faithful and, in his providence, consistently brought good out of intended evil (cf. 50:20).
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