A Glance at Genesis

Over a period of four weeks I am taking A Glance at Genesis. I would love to go through the entire book, but it is 50 chapters long! Therefore I will settle for a glance. My prayer is that this will be a help to anyone who decides to read it. I plan to post every Tuesday. We’ve already seen: Book of Beginnings (read it here) and The Outline of Genesis (read it here)

As I said last week, “It is really helpful to know two things about a book if you want to properly understand it: Where is it going? and How does it get there? Where is Genesis going? That is the theme. How does it get there? That is the outline.” Last week we looked at the outline of Genesis, today:

The theme of Genesis

There are three rivers flowing through the Old Testament, that is, three definite themes, and two of them are clearly discernible in Genesis.

Israel
This book of Genesis tells us how Israel began and how they wound up in Egypt, literally ending with the children of Israel in Egypt, sort of like an introduction to Exodus.

This river is rather easy to follow. We have the creation of the first man, Adam, followed by the genealogy down to Noah and the time of the flood, then this theme gets serious.

10:1 Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood.

10:21  Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber…
The family of Shem became known as Semites. This is where we get Semitic. Eber is where we get Hebrew from. The children of Israel are Hebrews, a Semitic people.

12:1-2  Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
It got real when God called Abram. He promised to give him a land and to make of him a great nation. This is the Hebrew people.

Abram was married to Sarai. They had no children so Sarai gave her handmaid Hagar to Abram, to have a son through her. Hagar gave birth to Abram’s firstborn son, Ishmael. The promise is with him, right? No.

17:19  And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.
God changed their names to Abraham and Sarah, because he is doing a great work in them. The people of Ishmael, Ishmaelites, become a numerous people, but the covenant and promise is with Isaac.

25:21  And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
22  And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD.
23  And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.
Isaac and Rebekah have twins, Esau and Jacob. Esau is the eldest, the firstborn. We would expect the promise to be with him, but the promise and covenant is with Jacob.
Jacob is a scoundrel, but God does a work in him and changes his name to Israel. This looks like a pattern – when God wants to do a something through you, he first does a transforming work in your heart.
Israel has twelve sons (and one daughter!). They became the twelve tribes of Israel.

The book ends with the children of Israel escaping a famine in the land of Canaan and joining Joseph in Egypt.

This is the theme of Genesis, tracing the origin of the children of Israel and the promises made concerning them; in so doing Moses explains how they came to be in Egypt, in need of God’s deliverance, and why God rescued them.


David
While David is a definite river running through the Old Testament, this theme is not Genesis. After all, they were just being formed as a nation, and by the end of the book they are only 70 souls strong. And we are not long in Exodus when they become a nation of slaves.


Messiah
Actually, the rivers of Israel and David flowing through Genesis and the Old Testament converge into the river and promise of Messiah or Christ. God called Abram so he could form the nation Israel, and through them send Christ. He raised up David so that his son could be Messiah, the King of Israel. Christ is the eminent, the prominent theme of Genesis, and in truth, the whole Old Testament. It is easy to get lost in all the stories and miss this. Christ is promised in Genesis; the Son of God appears in Genesis, in person and in types; He’s there from the first verse of the first chapter! Really?

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.

Yes, really!

For my last post we will take this river and follow the promise of Christ.


Next week: Tracing the Promise of Messiah