Genesis Overview

Genesis Info:

Written by Moses

Two major sections: 1-11 and 12-50

Crucial for interpretation

Key Doctrines

Creation- ex nihilo

Trinity

Original Sin

Image of God

God’s sovereignty and providence

Major Themes:

God’s creation

God is a God of covenant

The seed

Types of Christ

God is the one who provides a way for his people

Chapter Breakdown

Chapters 1-3

Creation

Occurs in seven days, God models the Sabbath as a day of rest

Mankind is created in God’s image, and charged to exercise dominion over the land.

Edenic Covenant- Mankind may have all from the garden and is called to work the land and make it more productive, they in return are forbidden from the one tree.

The Fall

Mankind eat of the tree after being tempted by the serpent, thus breaking covenant with God and bringing sin into God’s good creation.

God makes another covenant, the Adamic Covenant- work will be hard, childbirth will be painful, and mankind will know physical death, but God will provide a redeemer who will crush the head of the serpent.

Big Idea: The Seed of Adam and Eve is introduced.

Chapter 4-5

Cain and Abel

Cain kills Abel

Decendents of Cain:

Seed is now traced through Seth

Geneology from Seth to Noah.

Chapters 6-10

Corruption had reached the point that God was going to wipe mankind from the earth, except Noah and his family.

Flood comes and subsides

The Ark serves as a type of Christ where God warned and provided a way for salvation.

Noahic Covenant

Rainbow

Reiteration of creation command, be fruitful and multiply

Creation renewed

Noahs Son’s and descendents

Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan

Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras

Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram

This is the Son whom the seed is traced through

Chapter 11

Mankind tries to create a tower and make a name for themselves

God scatters

End of early history, now flashing forward many generations to Abraham.

Who is Abraham?

The Lexham Bible Dictionary Introduction

Abraham holds a key place in the unfolding narrative of the Bible and the history of Israel. With Abraham, God narrows his plan for the world to a specific family. This plan will lead to blessing for all people through Abraham (Gen 12:1–3). God is often referred to as “the God of Abraham,” and the promise to Abraham in Gen 12 and its reiterations in Gen 15 and Gen 17 provide the basis for understanding circumcision, the promised land, the work of Christ, and faith in the Gospel.

Chapters 12-23

God calls Abraham in Ur, as they were passing through the land Canaan, it was here that God promised Abraham that he would give this land to his offspring.

Abram fled to Egypt to escape Famine and then returned to Canaan.

Abraham deceives Pharoah

It is at this point Lot separates to go live near Sodom.

Lot is captured and Abram goes to save him

Melchizedek- priest of God Most High

God’s covenant with Abraham

English Standard Version Chapter 15

12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, 19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

Sarai and Hagar

Ishmael:

Promise of the birth of Isaac- Angel of the Lord visits and promises Isaac

Sodom’s destruction and Lot’s protection

Isaac is born, and Hagar and Ishamel are kicked out

Ishmael

God tells Abraham to sacrifice Isaac

God provides a ram

Sarah dies

Who is Isaac?

Isaac is the promised son of Abraham, and the second of the three Patriarchs.

Chapter 24- 27

Abraham sends his servant who returns with a wife for Isaac

Isaac has two sons

Esau sells his birthright

Jacob and his mother deceive Isaac into blessing Jacob

Who is Jacob?

The third of the Patriarchs. God sovereignly chooses Isaac to be the greater of the two brothers, and for the Seed to be traced through him. Isaac is deceitful in gaining his father’s blessing, yet God uses the evil actions of Jacob for good.

Chapter 28- 36

Jacob is sent to Laban and tricked into working 14 years and marrying both Leah and Rachel

Jacob is blessed with prosperity and loses favor with his father in law and flees

Jacob fears Esau

Jacob wrestles with God, renamed Israel

Esua and Jacob meet

Renamed Israel, and told to be fruitful and multiply

Who is Joseph?

Chapter 37-50

Joseph the youngest of the sons, has a dreams where his family is bowing down to him.

His brothers out of Jealousy sell him into slavery.

Joseph is sold to a man named Potiphar whose wife tries to seduce him

He rejects her and ends up in jail

In jail he meets two servants of the pharaoh and interprets their dreams

When the one who survived remembers Joseph he tells Pharoah about him in order to interpret Pharoah’s dreams.

Joseph sees the famine God is about to bring.

Pharoah puts Joseph in charge

His brothers come to him, but do not recognize him, Joseph keeps the youngest on their second journey, and eventually has the father come and reveals himself to them. Jacob and his sons are brought to Egypt.