Genesis

The Book of Genesis

The book of Genesis was written by Moses. Genesis comes from the Hebrew word bara meaning 'to shape, create.' Genesis also means origin or beginning. The book of Genesis is about many beginnings - the beginning of the universe, the beginning of man and woman, the beginning of human sin, and the beginning of God's promises and plans for salvation.

Four Great Events (Genesis 1:1-11:32)

1) The Creation (1:1-2:25)
2) The Fall of Man-introduction to sin (3:1-5:32)
3) Noah and the Flood (6:1-9:29)
4) The Scattering of the Nations (10:1-11:32)

Four Great Characters (12:1-50:26)

1) Abraham (12:1-20:18)
2) Isaac (21:1-26:35)
3) Jacob (27:1-37:1) (name symbolically changed to Israel- Gen. 35:10)
4) Joseph (37:2-50:26)

The Creation Genesis 1

God created all things and on the seventh day, He rested. Then, He formed man (Adam) of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (Genesis 2:7). God fashioned into a woman (Eve) the rib which He had taken from the man. God creates a covenant with Adam and Eve. The sign of the covenant is the tree of life.

The Fall of Man Genesis 3

Sin entered the world through the act of Adam and Eve partaking from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. In Genesis 5:3, we learn the descendants of Adam are born in the likeness of Adam, according to the image of Adam. Man is no longer created in the image of God as Adam and Eve were. The sacrifice of animals is set in place as a temporary measure to prevent the permanent "spiritual" death of mankind.
(Genesis 4:3)

Noah and the Flood Genesis 6-10

As humanity multiplies, sin also multiplies until God is compelled to destroy the human race with the exception of Noah and his family. God instructs Noah to build and enter the ark along with his family and two of each animal. After the Flood, God makes a covenant with Noah and all creation. The covenant sign is the rainbow. The Covenant continues with Noah's righteous son Shem. The Flood is the prophetic promise of our new life in Christ and the forgiveness of sin through our faith in the life, death and resurrection of Christ.

Abram to Abraham Conversion- Making a Great Nation Genesis 12

God initiated His covenant with Abram when he was living in Ur of the Chaldeans in Mesopotamia. God promised a three-fold blessing of land, descendants, and a world-wide blessing if Abram would have faith and be obedient to God. Abram's faith and obedience
resulted in the ratification of a three-fold covenant and
his name is changed to Abraham (renamed by God in Genesis 17:5). This covenant is renewed with Abraham's descendants Isaac, Jacob (Israel), and Joseph. The covenant sign is the rite of circumcision. Genesis 17:10-11, "This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: every male among you shall be circumcised. And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you."

God calls on Abraham to be the seed of the world's salvation.

The testing of Abraham with his son, Isaac, was the sealing of the blessing of the nations. Genesis 22:18, "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice."

In chapters 1-11:28, Moses explains the creation of all things, “In the
beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (1:1). He quickly switches to the fall of man in sin and separation from God in chapter 3; then, how God exacted His judgment on the wicked earth. Through a universal flood and by selecting and sparing Noah, a faithful man, and his family, God wipes out humanity and starts again, with one single family.
From chapters 11:28-36, God begins to carry out His plan of redemption in
the beginning stages of establishing His own nation of Israel. It is through Abraham, again one faithful man, which God calls and promises to bless with a multitude of people and through them bless the entire world, "...and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed" (12:3).

In chapters 37-50 God faithfully raises up and protects the generations from Abraham as He had promised, all the way through to Joseph while he was in Egypt. God blesses Abraham’s sons and their sons. Through their disappointments and failures, He displays His power and sovereignty in their lives; but in at the end of the book of Genesis, God’s people are in a foreign land and wandering about the promised land.

The Foreshadowing of Jesus
The First Adam and the Last Adam
Romans 5:14-21, Paul says, "Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

1 Corinthians 15:22, Paul writes, "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive."

1 Corinthians 15:45, Paul states, "So also it is written, 'The first man, Adam, became a living soul.' The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. The first man is from earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven."

Adam and Jesus were the only two men born without sin, in the image and likeness of God. All born after Adam were born in the likeness of Adam. Genesis 5:3 states, "When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth. We are born 'in Adam' and through the grace of God, we have the option of accepting Jesus, being born again, and becoming 'in Christ.' We are transformed from sinners to saints when we go from 'in Adam' to 'in Christ.' (see transformation)
Abraham's only son...
Gen 22:2: "And He said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love..." God refers to Isaac as Abraham's "only son," the one whom he "loves." God does not recognize Ishmael (Sarah became impatient with God's promise of a son and arranged for her maid, Hagar, to conceive a child from Abraham - this child was named Ishmael) as Abraham's son. The son of faith in God was Isaac, and on him were God's blessings placed.

This is a parallel to God the Father, and His love for His only son, Jesus Christ.

Gen 22:3: "...took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son..."

The two men are types of the two thieves that hung on crosses on either
side of Jesus.

Gen 22:4: "Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the
place afar off."

It took 3 days for Abraham, walking with Isaac and the two men with them, to walk to the place where he would do the offering. When God asked Abraham to do the offering, Abraham was so obedient that the act was already done. And just as Jesus was dead in the tomb for 3 days before rising again, so for 3 days Isaac was virtually dead while on his way to the mount with his father and the two helpers.

Gen 22:6: "So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid
it on Isaac his son..." The wood Isaac carried is a foreshadowing of the cross that Jesus would carry 2,000 years later.

Gen 22:8: "And Abraham said, "My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering."

Abraham prophesizes that God will provide Himself a lamb as a substitute offering. This He did a few moments later, but Abraham's words were fulfilled on a much grander scale some 2,000 years later. The eternal Word "became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory" (John 1:14). Jesus is referred to by John the Baptist as "the Lamb of
God which takes away the sins of the world!" (John 1:29).

God "provided Himself a Lamb."

Gen 22:13: "And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and behold, behind him a lamb caught in a thicket..."

The lamb that God provided was found caught in a thicket of thorns,
prefiguring the crown of thorns that Jesus the Messiah would wear 2,000 years later as the Lamb of God, sacrificed for the sins of the world.

Gen 22:18: "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed,
because you have obeyed my voice."

God tells Abraham that "in your seed" all the nations of the earth
shall be blessed.   The New Testament documents record that Jesus
was a descendent of Abraham (Matt 1:2 - 1:16). Gen 22:19: "So
Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose and went together
to Beersheba..."

Isaac paralleled Jesus Christ in many ways. Both were children of promise. Isaac was promised to Abraham, as Jesus Christ was the Savior promised to Israel. Both were born in a way that was against nature. Isaac was born to a (previously) barren woman who was well beyond her child-bearing years. Jesus Christ was born of a virgin. Both were mocked by their kindred. They were both to be sacrificed without putting up any fight.

continue to Exodus...