We begin this morning with the book of Genesis which takes us back to our roots. This is one of the most important books in the Old Testament because everything of significance starts in Genesis, such as life, the human race, marriage, the family, languages, civil government, farming as well as technology. A few not so good things also first appear in Genesis too such as murder, adultery, rape, theft and slavery. Who ever said the bible was boring?
Everything begins in Genesis except God. Now that doesn’t sound right, but in fact it is, because if you open your bibles you will see that in the very first verse of the bible, when time began, “in the beginning” God already existed! Actually the bible doesn’t argue the existence of God; it just declares that God is. He is the source from which the universe came into being. Space, planets, animal and plant life and human life were brought into existence by God’s power. We may disagree over the method God used for creating our world and life in it, but the bible leaves no doubt about the source of all we see. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
Of course there are many different understandings about creation, and as this can sometimes be quite contentious I am leaving this till a bit later when we will have Creation Ministries presenting on 15th April. Ross has offered to lead a discussion group following that presentation should people want this, so there will be an opportunity to do this later on.
For myself, I think Genesis is one of the easier books to read and to understand. You can skip the long genealogies in chapters 10 and 36 but the rest of the book is a very compelling story. The book divides into two main sections; the story of the human race (chapters 1-11) and the history of the Hebrew race.(Chapters 12-50)
Chapters 1-2 deal with creation. God fashioned and filled the world as a place of incredible beauty. The world was made as a dwelling place for human beings and Adam and Eve were given the responsibility of caring for the paradise in which they lived. Chapters 3-5 deal with disobedience. We all are familiar with this story and it is in it that we get our first glimpse of Satan and his wily ways. God’s warning to Adam and Eve that disobedience would ultimately bring death was dramatically demonstrated when Cain murdered his brother Abel.
Well, the human race became more numerous over time but, sadly, they did not become more obedient to God. Instead human desires and actions became more and more evil and we hear all about this in chapters 6-9 in the Story of the Flood. In fact, the whole human race was so messed up that there was no way to straighten it out. God was so disappointed and heart broken with the humans he had created that he decided to bring about a flood and wipe out every creature. There was just one problem and that problem was Noah! Why? Because Noah and God were friends and Noah was a righteous man. To destroy every living creature would have meant the injustice of killing his righteous friend and God couldn’t do it. He longed to save Noah so he commanded him to build a massive ark, which today archaeologists have found proof that it actually existed! In case you haven’t realised, the Middle East is a desert! So despite how stupid he looked, Noah obeyed God, even to the point of humiliation. But it meant that when the rains hit, Noah was saved. What’s more, his whole family came with him. Why were Noah’s family saved? Were they righteous? No! We are told that Noah was the only righteous one around, but because they were attached to him, they got to come along too. And of course the rest we know.
The most fascinating thing for me is that Jesus is all through the Old Testament if you look very carefully. Jesus himself said to a bunch of Pharisees, “You diligently study the scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” (John 5:39-40) Jesus of course wasn’t talking about the New Testament, because his biography hadn’t been written yet, so he must have been talking about the Old Testament Scriptures. What we will come to understand as we journey through the bible is that in the Old Testament Jesus is concealed, whereas, in the New Testament, Jesus is revealed. Finding Jesus in the Old Testament is like a bit like a treasure hunt and I think finding Jesus in it brings the story of God to life in a whole new way. Throughout the Old Testament we see strong hints, images and prophecies about Jesus. In the New Testament those hints, images and prophecies are unveiled; the curtain is ripped apart, from top to bottom, to reveal the star of the whole show.
It is our first hero, Noah, who is our first signpost to Jesus. The flood didn’t solve the problem of humanity’s wickedness. God’s righteous judgement is still that humanity deserves to die in its wickedness and be cut off from him forever. However, God has found one totally righteous man, even more righteous than Noah. This righteous man obeyed God to the point of utter humiliation, dying on a cross. What’s more, all the unrighteous people who attach themselves to him are saved. After the flood, it was the rainbow that was the sign of God’s promises. Today it is the cross. All who shelter in Jesus, the ark of salvation, are not wiped out but given eternal life.
Chapters 10-11 are the final chapters that deal with the scattering of the human race.
The next section of Genesis deals with the History of the Hebrew Race chapters 12-50.
This section covers a very long span of time; roughly about 300years. The first part focuses on events and in the second part the focus is on people. God selected one family and began to work out his plan and programme through them. These were namely four individuals, namely Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. And next week we will look particularly at the life of Abraham because three world religions all trace their spiritual roots back to Abraham.
Judaism views him as the great father of the Jewish people and as the recipient of God’s original promises.
Christians see Abraham as a model of faith, which is the foundational principle of Christian belief.
The religion of Islam points to Abraham as a true “Muslim,” one who submits to God. Islam traces it’s spiritual heritage to Abraham through his son Ishmael.
The name Genesis comes from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. In the Hebrew Bible, the title of this book is the first word of the text, Bereshith, which means, “in the beginning.” The human author of Genesis was probably Moses, the great leader of Israel introduced in Exodus, the next book in the bible. Although there is no direct statement linking Moses as the author, both Christians and Jews traditionally attributed the first five books of the bible to Moses.
Well this is a quick overview of Genesis which I hope might wet your appetite to delve a little deeper. Next week, as I have already mentioned, we will look at Abraham’s life and see how it speaks into our lives today.
