In The Beginning Series

In The Beginning

Genesis

The name Genesis means beginning. As Warren Weirsbe aptly outlines, and I am using some of it, It is the beginning of the Human Race and the beginning of the Hebrew Race. But let’s remember it is not the beginning of the existence of God. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit all lived in perfect harmony with each other. Then God decided to create. He created everything from nothing.

We need to also understand that God spoke forth His Word from beginning (Genesis) to end (Revelation). As you study the Bible we see the beginning of God’s plan for His creation and then the culmination of that plan in Revelation.

In Genesis we have: In Revelation we have:

The first heaven and Earth, The New heaven and Earth

The first Garden; the The Garden city and the tree of life

Tree of Life guarded available

The first marriage The last marriage, the marriage of the

Lamb

Satan tempts Eve to sin Satan thrown into the lake of fire

Death enters the scene “No more death”

Babylon built Babylon destroyed

The Redeemer promised The Redeemer Reigns

So we see the plan begun in Genesis and finalized in Revelation. But remember God’s plan didn’t change from Genesis to Revelation it is unfolding from Genesis to Revelation. He is revealing His plan threw out His word and every day we get a little closer to the end of the beginning. Did you get that? The end of Bible is the beginning of eternity and eternity was the plan from the beginning.

The first chapter of Genesis is one of the most God-centered chapters in the Bible. God is mentioned by name 32 times in 31 verses. If you add the personal pronouns He is mentioned 43 times in Genesis 1.

No wonder Satan hates Genesis 1 so much. If we take God out of this chapter then what do we have? If Genesis 1 is unreliable then the entire plan falls apart. If God cannot be trusted with creation then how can He be trusted with salvation?

The importance of Genesis 1 is emphasized by a constant use of a figure of speech, the polysyndeton It is the multiple use of the word “and.” It is used almost 100 times in this first chapter of God’s Word. The Holy Spirit wants us to slow down and weigh each word as we read this chapter. So let’s begin.

**Genesis 1:1-5**

I. The Beginning of the Human Race (1:1-11:32) The Holy Spirit inspired Moses to write the first five books of the Bible. As God revealed his plan for mankind Moses got to write it thousands of years after it happened.

Let’s understand as we walk through this wonderful book of God’s Word that God created everything. God established His creation in the first verse of the first book of the Bible. And He created the heavens and the earth for the specific purpose of creating mankind. He did all this for you and for me.

**1:26-27**

A. The Creation (1:1-2:25) Notice man was given dominion, authority over everything. By the way notice the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit mentioned in v.26. We are created in God’s image that means we have an eternal soul. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 3:11, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” (NIV)

I believe in a literal 6 day creation. The word day here in Genesis 1 in Hebrew is “Yom” and it means a literal 24 hour period. God created a mature male and female and I believe God created a mature Earth.

The question always comes up about the age of the earth. Look with me in **1:31-2:3**

Some don’t believe in a literal 24 hour period of creation. Listen to Dr. James Barr, Regius Professor at Oxford University, he doesn’t even believe Genesis to be true but listen to what He writes: “so far as I know, there is no professor of Hebrew or Old Testament at any world-class university who does not believe that the writer of Genesis intended to convey to their readers that creation took place in a series of six days which were the same as the days of 24 hours we now experience” The Revised and Expanded Answers Book, Don Batten, (pg. 39)

God established His order and authority in creation. A 24 hour day and seven day week are established for man here in Genesis. Man had authority to rule and to reign with God but then something went wrong.

**Genesis 3:1-5**

B. The Curse (3:1-4:15) Warren Weirsbe writes “if Genesis 3:1 were not in the Bible, there would be no Bible as we know it. Why? Because the rest of Scripture documents the sad consequences of Adam’s sin and explains what God in His grace has done to rescue us.”