The Imperfections of God Shown in Genesis

Throughout the Bible God shows that he is imperfect disregarding the common belief that God makes no mistakes. Genesis is a creation story explaining how God created everything on earth, but there are many different ways the creation story in Genesis can be interpreted. It says that he made the heavens and earth, light and darkness, and vegetation and animals. He saw that all these things were good but something was missing. There was no one to tend to the land or care for the animals, so God created man. God Said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26). This exact statement puts the idea into readers heads that God made humans to be like him, to do what he does, and to live in the image of himself. If God did not make any mistakes then he would have created humans to be perfect without sin in the world. This raises the questions, if God was the one who created free will, did he know that sin and evil was a possibility and if so; why did he give free will to humans if he knew sin could come from it?

In Genesis 1-2, Adam and Eve were first created not knowing right from wrong. Not until they ate the fruit from the forbidden tree were they aware of sin or realized that they were naked, but God gave them that choice to stay innocent or to go against his word and introduce sin into the world. Some people say that God himself created sin in the world and others say that God only created the possibility of sin in the world. Both statements could be true depending on how you interpret Genesis. God created humans with choice because he created us to be like his children. Children ask their parents for help when making decisions just like humans do to God when they pray or ask him for answers. We know God created us to look up to him as a parental figure because after the flood in the Bible it says, “And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built” (Genesis 11:5). He refers to humanity here directly as his children. Most parents want their children to always make the right decisions but that is not always what happens in the end. This is exactly what God did when he gave us free will. Without choice and free will, humans would be like robots and there would be no individuality or creativity in the world. God gave humans the choice to love him and have faith in him, he does not force people to believe he is there. I believe that this is why he gave Adam the choice to disobey him and eat the fruit or to have faith in his creator and what he tells him. This is like when children disobey their parents. God created the choice of free will and sin in the world even though he knew it could cause pain because it makes Gods love for us even stronger. Some people could argue that by eating the fruit, Adam created sin and others could say that the serpent is the one who created sin for the first time. The serpent said to Eve, “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened” (Genesis 3:5). This particular line shows that the serpent knew God created free will and the chance for sin to be introduced, but made sin seem like something good to eve because she was so innocent and did not realize what she was doing.

Later in Genesis 6, The Bible says, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). This quote reinforces the statement that God created humans perfect but put the chance for corruption into the world with free will. With the gift of free will, came the chance of evil coming into the world. When God created humans, and gave them free will, he did not know what the outcome would be of his creations. God created the flood because he saw so much hate and evil in the world that he created out of his love. This brings some people to ask, if God is “all powerful and all knowing” like he is conceived to be, then shouldn’t he have created a world without sin if he did not want people to be imperfect? I believe an answer to this question could be that it is not that God did not want his creations to be perfect, but he wanted them to know not to destroy the world they were given and treat him with the respect that a parent figure should be treated. He knew that he gave room for impurities in the world but probably hoped that the good would outweigh the evil.

If God would not have put the fruit in the middle of the garden to tempt Adam and Eve then original sin would have never been introduced. But can we blame God for allowing humans the right to make their own choices? The role of the serpent in the story, I believe, is to prove how heavily humans influence one another. Most decisions, good or bad, are not made alone so even though there is free will in the world, people still depend on each other. Also, a lot of times there is not a clear line between what is right and wrong and people turn to each other or God for guidance. In my opinion, God made the line between right and wrong not clear sometimes for a reason. He gave people free will and making them choose between right and wrong is how humans exercise the free will God has given them. This also plays into, again, God being a parental figure. He wants us to ask for help from him to see what choice is good but he cannot stop us from making the wrong choice. Even if God is there that does not mean that people always listen to him. Like Adam and Eve, God told them not to eat the fruit but they did. Situations like this happen every day. This is where the idea of forgiveness of sin comes in. God knows that he put the option of sin into the world and that sometimes people will choose evil over good and need to ask for forgiveness. It is not until after the free will has been exercised, that we sometimes realize we made the wrong choice.

Overall, I do not personally believe that God created sin with the intentions of creating an evil world or that god was the one who even “created” evil at all. He wanted his relationships with his children to be genuine and if humans did not have free will they would have been forced to love him. We all live in Gods image every day and make mistakes just has he does but he loves us no matter what because he knows no one was created to be perfect. If God himself was perfect, he would have created a perfect world with no fighting, disease, or hate. Throughout the Bible it is clear that God is imperfect and has made mistakes himself and does not expect his creations to be perfect although they are good in his eyes.