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.”
Sin has entered the human race. The enemy had a strategy to deceive us and notice how it unfolded. Satan questioned God’s Word in v.1, Satan denied God’s Word in v.4 and that is precisely the strategy He uses on humanity today.
Notice **3:12-17, 22-23** (Us=Trinity)
But even though the curse was pronounced and humanity let’s not forget the plan of God the Bible says in Galatians 3:13,
“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:” (KJV)
Christ Jesus took the curse of sin for us and gave us His righteousness. But sin and Satan ruled throughout Genesis 3-6 and notice what happened to the Human race.
**6:11-14**
C. The Catastrophe (4:16-9:29) If you study Genesis 4-6 you will notice the story of Cain and Abel. How Cain killed his brother and then God gave another son to Adam and Eve named Seth. Cain and Seth have children and their genealogy is recorded in chapter 5. In chapter 6:1-7 it is recorded that the Sons of God and the daughters of men came together and had children.
There are two schools of thought on that:
1. That Seth’s line—sons of God, Godly men intermarried with Cain’s daughters, ungodly women and they defiled the human race.
2. That Angels left their first estate as recorded in Jude 6, fallen angels demons took on human male form without permission from God and married women of the earth to defile the human race.
Either one could have happened. Either one could be right you can make a case biblically for either thought. However, don’t get caught up in chasing that rabbit. The point is human race was defiled because of the curse of sin and the human race had to be cleansed. Sin carries the stain of death and God knew there was only one family that He could begin again with.
**Genesis 7:1-7** God chose Noah and His family. God redeemed Noah and His family and God used Noah and his family to rescue the human Race. He also established a covenant with Noah and all of us. **Genesis 9:8-13**
Now the entire human Race started over and noticed what happened; **11:1-7** (Us=Trinity)
D. The Coalition (10:1-11:32) In chapter 9 verse 1 God had commanded the human race to be fruitful and multiply. They were supposed to scatter all over the earth. However, men decided to all dwell together in one city. They also became deceived by the evil one.
The great deception in the Garden is the deception of Mormonism and new age theology. Man can become like God. The great deception of Genesis 11 is men were telling God what we want to do and He can come down and talk to us. We are on equal footing with God. Same lie as the Garden.
God then broke up the coalition and scattered the human race. He gave them different language and scattered the human race. Just a side note this was the first U.N. and there will be a one world order in Revelation. (Wed. Night)
**12:1-3**
II. The Beginning of the Hebrew Race (12:1-50:26) Now we see the introduction of God’s chosen people. Other than a hand full of faithful men Genesis 1-11 show us failure after failure of mankind.
Now God calls a man out of this failure and starts a race of people that would eventually birth the Messiah of the entire human race. God chooses a people and starts with a man and his wife, notice this man:
A. Abraham (12:1-25:18) Through Genesis 12-25 we see the life of this man. God called him in Genesis 12 at the age of 75 and changed his name at the age of 99. **17:1-5**
Now we have to understand in those 24 years Abraham had no children. His wife Sarai, changed to Sarah was barren and Sarah decided to help God out in Genesis 16 and Abraham had a child with Hagar and they had a son named Ishmael. Ishmael is the father of the Palestinians and that is why the Palestinians hate the nation of Israel and always will. Ishmael was not the son of the covenant promise to Abraham.
To sum up the life of Abraham in one word it would be obedience. Abraham believed God and walked with God. He then was blessed by God and was the father of two nations Palestine and Israel. Notice what happens next:
**21:1-7**
B. Isaac (25:19-27:46) Isaac was the son of promise. His life is detailed in chapters 24-27. The two most significant events in his life were:
1. As a boy his father Abraham took Isaac and placed him on the altar and was ready to sacrifice him because Abraham’s obedience was being tested by God. This was an O.T. picture of what God did for us through Jesus Christ.
2. Isaac married a women named Rebekah and they had 2 children. Twins named Esau and Jacob. Esau was dear to Isaac and Jacob was a momma’s boy. God chose Jacob to continue the patriarch line to bless the Hebrew race.
**27:1-10**
C. Jacob (28:1-35:29) It is interesting to note that Jacob stole the birthright and blessing and later on the swindler Jacob gets swindled himself. Jacob is running away from his brother Esau and finds the woman of his dreams Rachel.
Rachel loves Jacob and Jacob loves her so he works 7 years for her father Laban. Laban then deceives the deceiver: **29:19-26**
Jacob reaped what he sowed. He did get Rachel also but had to work an additional 7 years for his father in law. Out of that unusual arrangement Jacob had two wives and they each had a servant girl with them. God used that arrangement to birth twelve sons that became the twelve tribes of Israel.
**32:22-28** God changed his name as He changed the man. God gave Jacob and Rachel 2 sons Joseph and Benjamin and God used Joseph mightily.
**37:1-5**
D. Joseph (47:27-50:26) The dreamer his brothers thought but I think God would call him a visionary. Joseph was a man that God used to save his people. However, Joseph’s teenage years didn’t go very well.
Israel loved Joseph and made him a coat of many colors. Joseph had a dream that his brothers were one day going to bow down to him. They filled with hate, threw him into a pit and then conspired to kill him. Finally they agreed to just sell him into slavery and send the coat back to dad with a story that a wild animal must have killed Joseph.
Events don’t always turn out the way we planned. Situations in life can unfold very unexpected. But if we stay true to God His plan for our lives will be revealed in accordance with His time. Joseph is proof of this.
Joseph’s life demonstrates all of Satan’s traps that are thrown at Godly men. A woman threw herself at him, bitterness could have overcome him when he was thrown in jail. Power was given to him then taken away but because of his faithfulness he was given even greater power because God doesn’t want what is good for us He wants what is best for us.
Because of Joseph’s faithfulness God used him as a visionary leader to save His brothers. A famine happened in the land were Joseph’s family was and God had already revealed to Joseph how to spare the nation of Egypt. Joseph’s family, the nation of Israel come and threw a series of events Joseph reveals himself to his family. He had the power to kill his brothers but instead he said, “you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” (50:20)
Joseph was sent ahead, tested, and called of God to be the leader and servant God would use to rescue the entire Hebrew race.
**50:22-26**
Conclusion: Something went terribly wrong in Genesis. Genesis started in a Garden and ended in a graveyard. If we could only stop and see what the Holy Spirit reveals to us in Genesis it would be the story of a loving, creator, Father God that had a plan from the start to redeem His people, human and Hebrew from the clutches of sin.
But if you look real close in Genesis you’ll see something and someone extraordinary. A sacrifice was given so Adam and Eve sin’s debt was paid and someone paid the price for the sin of his brothers. No harm came to the sinners because of the sacrifice and sin debt paid by another.
Genesis is the love story of a Father for His children. It is the beginning as every other book attests to, the beginning of: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son; that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” That is the end of the beginning of His plan for us.
PRAY
