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In the Beginning

Thomas Nelson

Contents

Introduction: The Ultimate Beginning.......................................11 The Creation (1:1–2:3).............................................102 Sin Enters a Perfect World (2:4–4:26)..............................173 Noah and the Flood (5:1–9:29)......................................294 Abraham and the Covenant (10:1–21:32)..............................395 From Isaac to Jacob (22:1–28:22)...................................546 The Twelve Sons of Jacob (29:1–35:29)..............................687 Joseph Goes to Egypt (36:1–38:30)..................................808 Joseph Saves the Nation of Israel (39:1–50:26).....................899 Coming to a Close........................................................101How to Build Your Reference Library........................................105

Chapter One

Genesis 1:1–2:3

Before We Begin ...

In the beginning, the earth was without form—a void. What statement by God changed the disorder into order and the emptiness into fullness?

Within the first seventeen words, the book of Genesis introduces four concepts that should make the entire world sit up and take notice.

Four Basic Truths

1. First, in addition to being what we have already called an extremely profound statement, "In the beginning God" could well be the most underestimated in the Bible, as well. When we look at the sentence as a whole ("In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth") it's possible to glide completely over the significance of those first four words.

In the beginning ... God! There was nothing before Him; everything that is or ever will be came after Him.

2. Second, God created everything out of nothing. In the original Hebrew, the word used for "created" was bara (and was actually the second word in the Hebrew original), which is reserved for God alone. No one else can create matter where none existed before, and nowhere in the Bible does this word reference the acts of anyone but God.

3. Third, God created all. "The heavens and the earth" takes in all that is—what we commonly call the universe. Thus God is also the undisputed sovereign over everything that exists, for the creator is always superior to the thing created.

4. Fourth (and this truth can be drawn from all the above), right there in the first few verses of His own Book, God defined and established, once and for all, the foundation of all the other laws He gave to Moses on Mount Sinai, and thus to all of humanity: "I am the Lord your God."

The Bible tells us that God created everything by simply speaking the words. For example, He said, "Let there be light." But what language did He use?

The Sequence of Creation

Once we move past the opening verses of Genesis we begin to get the details of creation itself. The following list shows the main events only, in order as they happened, as detailed in Genesis from the third verse of chapter 1 through the second verse of chapter 2.

First Day

1:3–4—God created light and divided it from darkness.

1:5—God called the light Day and the darkness Night.

Second Day

1:6–8—God made the firmament and separated the waters of Earth from those in the atmosphere.

1:8—God called the firmament Heaven.

Third Day

1:9—God gathered the waters of Earth together and commanded dry land to appear.

1:10—God called the dry land Earth, and called the waters Seas.

1:11–12—God created grasses, herbs, and fruits.

Fourth Day

1:14–17—God created the sun, the moon, and the stars, and set them in the heavens.

Fifth Day

1:20–21—God created all sea creatures and birds.

1:22—God blessed all the above and told them to "Be fruitful and multiply."

Sixth Day

1:24–25—God created all the beasts of the earth.

1:26–27—God created man in His own image, then gave him dominion over all fish, birds, and living things on the earth.

1:28—God blessed man and told him to "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it," having dominion over all living things as described above.

1:29–30—God said that He had given man every seed-yielding herb and every seed-yielding fruit as food.

Seventh Day

2:1–3—On the seventh day God ended His work, rested, and both blessed and sanctified ("set apart") that day.

Do you observe a "sabbath"—a day of rest, reflection, and worship? If so, what do you do?

Previously, we said that the ancient Israelites used a system of "trumpet blasts" and signal fires to communicate from group to group. What various forms of "signaling" are used in our society to signify the beginnings and endings in our worship services?

Note how, in the complete biblical text, in addition to the "godly pattern" mentioned elsewhere in this chapter, God also used essentially the same creation sequence each time:

1. First, He spoke the appropriate words.

2. Second, He told us the result.

3. Third, He called it "good."

4. Fourth, in some cases He gave names to what He had created.

5. Fifth, He indicated when each day ended via the "evening and the morning" comment.

Also Worth Noting ...

God Himself explained that He created and positioned the celestial bodies (primarily the stars but also the planets and other bodies, too) to serve as signs for seasons and days and years. Because of their relatively fixed positions (even though the stars themselves actually do move in their own individual orbits), the stars have also been used for navigation since ancient times. For centuries, no commander of a sailing vessel dared to venture onto the open sea without knowing how to "shoot the stars" and figure out where he was.

As Psalm 19:1 makes clear, the wonders of heaven were also put in place in a way that purposely displayed the handiwork of God. Thus we could have no doubt of the wondrous nature of our Creator. The only thing they were definitely not put there for was to be worshiped in place of God Himself. Sadly, in the name of astrology, men and women have done so from ancient Babylonian times right down to the present day.

The Bible tells us that man was made "in the image of God." At the same time we are told that God is spirit and doesn't have a "regular" or "constant" physical form (although, obviously, He could take on any physical form He wanted anytime He wanted to, as Christ did when He came to live among us). Thus we have to assume that "image" refers to His attributes, His essential nature, which we were meant to emulate within our own spirits so that we could have spiritual fellowship with Him. These attributes, incidentally, will be discussed in greater detail as we move farther into the Bible and examine more of God's communications with humanity.

Much has been written about God's establishment of the seventh day as a day "set apart" for rest. God also blessed it and made it holy ... but why? Certainly He Himself didn't need "rest" per se. He never sleeps because He never gets tired! Thus the correct answer is undoubtedly twofold. First, we do need physical rest. But second (and more important), we truly need to...