This is the audio and approximate transcript of a sermon preached on the morning of 25 October 2015. And His desire to bless His creation will one day be fully realized.In this post: Prologue The opening declaration Elohim Fiat lux It was good Let Us make man in Our image In the image of God He created him The blight of sin The Gospel The seventh day Remember that the Lord is strong, faithful, and just. If you were an Israelite just released from slavery and reading this for the first time, would you marvel at God’s power over creation? Or His anger over sin?Or the way He fulfilled His promises to everyone? Awareness of each of these characteristics should evoke worship. Keep God, not just the people, in mind as you read through the book. It’s easy to get lost in the genealogies and accounts in Genesis without seeing the big picture. Genesis sets the stage for the rest of God’s plan to redeem the world through His Son, Jesus Christ. These promises applied to the Israelites in Egypt and to later generations. But God established His plan for redemption and blessing through covenants, first with Abraham (Genesis 12:1–5), reaffirmed with Isaac (26:1–35), then with Jacob (28:1–22). Sin broke the perfect peace between God and humanity (Genesis 3) and instead of enjoying the blessing God intended, humanity was burdened with the curse. Covenants figure prominently into the story of Genesis, for they help define God’s relationship with His people at various times. The Bible is divided into two major parts, the Old and New Testaments. We learn of the origin of sin, of its destructive effect on humanity, and of God’s plan to atone for that sin through a future Son of the people of Israel (Genesis 3:15 22:18 49:10). God also reveals many facets of His nature through His dealings with people. Here we learn ancient history and geography and are introduced to significant people and events found later in the Bible. It provided comfort and hope for the downtrodden Hebrews as they waited to return to their “promised land.”įor later readers, Genesis offers a thorough background to the rest of the Bible. Genesis revealed to them the eternal promises God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob-promises which extended to their descendants. It told them the story of how God created the world and dealt with all humanity until He initiated a personal relationship with their forefather Abraham. To the original readers of Genesis, the book was valued as a history of their people. Genesis covers the most extensive period of time in all of Scripture, longer than the other books in the Bible combined! While the ancient history recounted in the first eleven chapters gives no indication of time span, Abram’s story begins around 2091 BC (Genesis 12:1), and the book ends with Joseph’s death in Egypt around 1805 BC (50:26). From the Euphrates River (in modern-day Iraq) over to what is now Syria, events move south into Canaan (modern-day Israel) and Egypt. After the great flood, the focus narrows to God’s dealings with one family living in Mesopotamia, a family headed by Abram, later called Abraham. The first eleven chapters of Genesis paint the early history of the human race in broad strokes. Because the events contained in the rest of the Pentateuch are responses to the promises of God found in Genesis, such a history of God’s interaction with their ancestors would have provided encouragement and inspiration to the former slaves seeking freedom and prosperity in the Promised Land. Genesis provides a history of those forefathers-their origins, their journeys, and their covenants with God. Moses wrote Genesis for the people of Israel, whom he led out of slavery in Egypt back to the land of their forefathers. The word means “beginning, origin,”¹ or generation and is a foundational theme that winds throughout the book. Jesus Himself confirmed Moses’s authorship (John 5:45–47), as did the scribes and Pharisees of His time (Matthew 19:7 22:24).įrom the Hebrew word toledoth, the first book of the Bible is titled “Genesis” in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Jewish Scriptures. His education in the courts of Egypt (Acts 7:22) and his close communion with Yahweh-the Hebrew name for God-support this premise. Jewish tradition and other biblical authors name Moses, the prophet and deliverer of Israel, as the author of the entire Pentateuch-the first five books of the Old Testament. So we look to outside sources to discover authorship. Old Testament books seldom include a byline.
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