Lesson One

INTRODUCTION

The Book of Beginnings

"In the beginning ..." Genesis 1:1

Genesis means "origin," "beginning," and the book of Genesis is about beginnings. In it, God lays the groundwork for the rest of Scripture, His revelation of Himself to man.

Genesis begins with God's creation of the world and its most blessed occupants, the human male and female. From this climax, the story follows man's plunge into rebellion and its consequences — shame, death, murder, rootlessness, tyranny, idolatry, and war. Two low points mark this account of primeval history (chapters 1–11): the Flood that wipes out an unsalvageable generation and the scattering of the nations who try to build the Tower of Babel. Each time, man seems bound for irredeemable corruption, yet God prevents disaster with merciful judgment.

After Babel, the story narrows to follow one family — Abraham's — through four generations (chapters 12–50). Through this family, God plans to offer salvation from the consequences of the Fall to the whole human race. God calls Abraham from Mesopotamia to Canaan and promises that his descendants will own that land. In the twists of life, God teaches Abraham, his son, his grandson, and his great-grandsons to trust their Lord's promises and obey His plans. By the close of Genesis, God has led seventy members of the chosen family into Egypt but has trained them to pin their hopes on a return to Canaan four hundred years in the future. The stage is set for God's greater acts of salvation and self-revelation in the Exodus, which itself will be only a shadow of mightier things to come. Genesis constantly reminds us that it is only the beginning of a story that will climax in the New Testament and not end until the vision of Revelation is accomplished.

Here is a brief outline showing the four main events of primeval history and the four generations of Abraham's family.

I. Primeval History (chapters 1–11)

A. Creation
B. Fall
C. Flood
D. Babel

II. Patriarchal History (chapters 12–50)

A. Abraham
B. Isaac
C. Jacob
D. Joseph

Genesis and the New Testament

The New Testament quotes Genesis more than any other Old Testament book except Psalms and Isaiah. The great themes of the New Testament all begin in Genesis, and many are scarcely mentioned again between Exodus and Malachi.

For instance, the garden of Genesis 2 with its river and tree of life return in Revelation where the serpent of Genesis 3 and the Babylon built in Genesis 10–11 finally fall. A series of prophecies from Genesis 3:15 through 49:10 point toward the Christ, who transforms the consequences of Adam's sin. The New Testament God — the One personal, perfect, just, merciful, all-powerful Creator and Savior — is the God of Genesis. Likewise, the New Testament view of man's high origin and mission, and his fall and predicament, are rooted in Genesis. Grace, election, free will, the covenant relationship, the substituted sacrifice that atones for sin, the transformation of the sinner, and the obedience of faith all figure in Genesis.

Focus on redemption

Genesis doesn't tell us everything we might like to know about the history of the universe and humankind, for much of that history lies outside God's purpose in giving us the book. Genesis focuses on God's acts as they bear on His plan to redeem man from sin. The book first explains God's perfect plan for humans and then begins to trace His response to their sin — the plan of salvation through a descendant of a chosen family. The origin of the universe is relevant only in that it reveals God's character and defines man's original nature. The nonchosen branches of the human race are not unimportant to God, but they stand outside the redemption story until in Christ they ultimately receive salvation through the chosen family.

Genesis and the Old Testament

Genesis is one of the five books of Moses (see Nehemiah 8:1; John 5:46; Luke 24:27), which the Jews called the Torah (Teaching, Law, Instruction — Psalm 119:174; Jeremiah 31:33). The English word Law does not quite describe the history and instruction about God that the Torah contains. God does give rules for living, but only after He has shown His love and power by delivering Israel (the descendants of Abraham through his grandson, Jacob-Israel) from slavery in Egypt.

The Torah tells how God made a covenant (a treaty between a lord and his subjects) with Israel. The rest of the Old Testament recounts Israel's repeated failures to live up to God's requirements and the repeated sufferings that rebellion causes. Over and over God allows His people to suffer and learn, but He protects a remnant of the chosen family, sends prophets to warn and teach His people, and assures them that one day the promised descendant of Abraham will come. Thus, the rest of the Old Testament tells how God continues the chosen family's training, the story begun in Genesis.

It takes roughly two thousand years to prepare Abraham's family to give birth to the Savior, Jesus.

Viewing the Old Testament as the story of how God shaped Israel to receive the Savior, we can see how Genesis fits into this framework:

1. The five books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) recount Israelite history from the people's beginnings until Moses' death, when the Israelites are poised on the border of the promised land (?–1400 BC). The books also give laws for living in the land under Israel's king, the Lord.

2. Nine books (Joshua–2 Chronicles) tell Israel's history from the start of the conquest of the land, through the climax of prosperity under David and Solomon, and finally to degeneration, conquest by enemies, and exile (about 1400–586 BC).

3. Three books (Ezra,...