BBBI - 2017.09.06 - Genesis, An Introduction

Introduction:

• KEY WORD:—”BEGINNINGS.”

The story of many beginnings—from creation to the origin of the people of Israel. Includes many of the Bible’s best-known stories like the Flood, Tower of Babel, Sodom and Gomorrah, and the lives of the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This book sets up God’s relationship to the world through the people of Israel. [Description from the Logos Factbook - Book of Genesis]

NAME means BEGINNINGS, because it recounts the beginnings of the world and mankind. We can trace in it the beginnings of everything—except God—who had no beginning.

GENESIS AT A GLANCE

KEY PEOPLE

Adam The first man, whose disobedience corrupted the race.

Eve The first woman, whose temptation opened the door to sin.

Noah The ark builder, whose obedience delivered his family.

Abraham The patriarch, whose trust in God serves as Scripture’s prime example of saving faith in God.

Isaac Abraham’s son who inherited the covenant promise.

Jacob Isaac’s son who continued the covenant line. His name was changed to Israel, and his sons founded the tribes that make up the Jewish people.

Joseph Jacob’s son, who brought his family to Egypt and safety.

KEY EVENTS

Creation (Gen. 1). God shapes the material universe in seven days.

Creation of man (Gen. 2). God creates man and woman in His image.

Fall of man (Gen. 3). Adam’s disobedience introduces sin into the race.

The Flood (Gen. 6–8). God judges sinful human society, destroying nearly all life on earth by a great Flood.

The Abrahamic Covenant (Gen. 12; 15). God gives Abraham special and binding promises that affect his offspring and all mankind.

Abraham’s trip to Canaan (Gen. 12). Abraham leaves his home at God’s command and goes to Canaan, the Promised Land.

Jacob’s family moves to Egypt (Gen. 46). The Children of Israel settle in Egypt, where they will multiply in safety.

[Lawrence O. Richards, The Bible Reader’s Companion, electronic ed. (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1991), 22.]

The book of Genesis has an importance and interest that no other document of antiquity possesses. It embraces the world.

The marvellous structure of the Bible is built upon this great majestic book of Genesis!

HUMAN AUTHOR was Moses.

Jesus makes this clear for us (see John 5:46, Luke 24:27, 44).

Time of writing possibly somewhere around 1500 B. C.

Based on the biblical data, Moses should have lived in the 15th century bc (cf. Jgs 11:26; 1 Kgs 6:1),

[Walter A. Elwell and Philip Wesley Comfort, Tyndale Bible Dictionary, Tyndale Reference Library (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001), 522.]

The first five books of the Bible were commenced by Moses when, for 40 days, he was on the heights of Sinai alone with God. There he was instructed and inspired to begin the Bible.

There is no record, no reference, and no remains of any inspired writings prior to the days of Moses.

PURPOSE OF THE BOOK—To show how God began to give a Divine Religion to mankind. In doing this it was necessary to describe man’s primeval condition, and his fall into sin which rendered salvation necessary.

GENESIS SHOWS US GOD’S TRUTH CONCERNING:—

I. Creation.

II. Fall.

III. Covenant.

IV. Flood.

V. Nations.

VI. Patriarchs.

STORY OF THE BOOK—God created the world and man. Man fell into sin, but God made a covenant of salvation with him. In the course of 1600 years wickedness so increased that God sent the judgement of the Flood. The different nations sprang from the three sons of Noah—Shem, Ham and Japheth. At the Tower of Babel God confused the tongues of men as a result of their pride, and because they failed to spread out. Thus we have the origin of nations and languages. God called Abraham to found the Israelitish nation and renews the covenant to his son, Isaac, and his grandson, Jacob. The book ends with God’s chosen people down in Egypt, and with the death of Joseph, the great-grandson of Abraham.

Genesis covers the period 4004 B. C. to 1635 B. C. or 2,369 years.

The Truth About Creation.

Genesis 1; Genesis 2.

God created the heavens and the earth, and created man in His own image and likeness. The name of God is mentioned 32 times in 31 verses. The creative act of God is given as the only sufficient cause of creation. Science has no word beyond this. Man is the chief work of creation for which all else is brought into being.

Genesis tells us there is ONLY ONE God, and opposes the doctrine of the many gods of the heathen.

Genesis announces the EXISTENCE of God, and opposes the doctrine of Atheism. Everything in the universe was created by God and is subject to Him.

Genesis declares that God EXISTED BEFORE ALL THINGS and apart from all things, showing that He is independent of matter.

Genesis asserts that MAN WAS CREATED, not evolved, thus accounting for the moral and spiritual nature in man.

LESSON. Just as the world was without form and void when God’s Spirit moved on the face of the deep—so was man’s heart and soul in a state of deep darkness before the new creation and the new birth.

...keep the focus here on the theme, “With His word the King of the universe created His good kingdom on earth.”

...analogy

One can use analogy with the work of Jesus. As God created His good kingdom on earth, so Jesus brings God’s kingdom on earth in His first coming and will complete it in His second coming....

...longitudinal themes

One can also trace through the Old Testament to Jesus in the New Testament the longitudinal theme of the kingdom of God, or the theme of the powerful word of God that creates, or the theme of the goodness of God’s creation....

…New Testament References

[Sidney Greidanus, “Preaching Christ from the Creation Narrative,” Bibliotheca Sacra 161 (2004): 134-135.]

**See John 1:1-3; 3:16; 1Cor. 8:6; Col. 1:15-17; Eph. 1:10; 1 Tim. 4:4; Heb. 1:1-3; 11:3; 2Pet. 3:5.**

The Truth About Mankind’s Fall.

Genesis 3.

The author of sin was Satan, acting through a serpent. The nature of sin, was getting man to doubt God’s word, His authority and His goodness. When tempted to see if man would freely serve God, he failed in the test and wanted to be as God himself.

The results of the Fall were shame and separation from God. The penalty of sin was sorrow in the heart, and a curse upon the ground and upon nature.

LESSON—Satan is the cause of all evil now. He still influences man to doubt and disobey God. Punishment always has and always will follow sin.

The Truth About God’s Covenant to Redeem Mankind.

Genesis 3:15.

Although man fell, a Deliverer is promised, who shall bruise the tempter’s head. This was fulfilled in John 3:16.

God also made coats of skins for Adam and Eve, a type of the robe of Christ’s righteousness provided for sinners.

The Truth About the Flood of God’s Judgment.

Genesis 6; Genesis 7; Genesis 8; Genesis 9.

Because of man’s exceeding wickedness, God sent a Flood that covered all the high hills under the whole Heaven. The waters were on the earth for 375 days. Noah and his wife, and his three sons and their wives and ceremonially unclean animals by twos and clean animals by sevens, by God’s direction, entered the Ark and were saved.

LESSON—God always makes an escape from every judgment, if men have faith like Noah, to be saved God’s way. There was only ONE Ark, and ONE DOOR to the Ark. There is ONLY ONE SAVIOR, and ONLY ONE WAY TO SALVATION—Faith in the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world!

The Truth About the Beginning of Nations.

Genesis 11.

Instead of spreading out as God commanded, the post-diluvian’s built a city and a Tower, at the top of which they placed an idol that they wanted the heavens and earth to worship. In judgment for this God confused their tongues and scattered them abroad.

• The ONE race then dispersed into nations according to the sons of Noah.

• The sons of Japheth, (the White Gentile Nations) settled Europe.

• The sons of Ham, (the Black Nations) settled Africa.

• The sons of Shem (the Israelitish and Yellow Nations) settled China and the East.

LESSON—Whenever man shuts God out, and places himself or anything else on a pedestal, there is confusion. Prophecy tells us that just before the end of the age, anti-Christ will set himself up against God, but he will likewise be overwhelmed with judgment.

The Truth About the Patriarchs of Israel.

Genesis 12-50.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob -

Out of the mass of idolaters, God selects a man named Abraham, to begin the history of his chosen people Israel. God sets the race, in general, aside for a time, and the blessings He had for it are held over, while He chooses a special people, who are to be a channel of blessing to the race.

First, Abraham was chosen in order that God might have a prepared people to whom to entrust the Scriptures.

Second, in order that God might have a channel through whom the promised Delivery might come.

Third, in order that his chosen people might be a witness on earth to the other nations

God made a sevenfold covenant with Abraham that he should be the father of a great nation and a company of nations and be a blessing to all the world. Genesis 12:1-4; 48:19.

By faith Abraham was about to offer up Isaac as sacrifice but God miraculously delivered Isaac.

Isaac’s son Jacob succeeded his father in the Covenant relationship with God. His name was changed to Israel because of his faith and power in prayer. Thus we get the name by which God’s chosen people were called viz., Israelites.

God permitted Jacob’s son Joseph to be sold into Egypt, and Jacob’s family to later follow him there in order that when a great famine prevailed, the Israelites might find food, and at the same time, keep themselves as a separate people for God to use later.

LESSON. God is choosing some and setting aside others.

Idolaters are put behind God’s back but believers are trained in His hand for nobler service.

[Parts of this study are adapted from William Groom’s Genesis to Revelation Bible Course.]