Let’s start with our journey into God’s word! I pray this encourages, helps, and guides you as you dive into the Bible. Each month I will present another book of the Bible in listed order not chronological, give context and outline, and practical application for us today. If you find yourself in need of a Bible, please reach out to me. To help if you haven’t read your bible before, I will be quoting verses as needed with their ‘address’. So, for Genesis 1:1, the first “1” is for chapter reference, the second “1” is for the verse within that chapter. Let’s get in God’s word!
Gen·e·sis (/ˈjenəsəs/) noun
We will start with the book of Genesis. While this book does not have a stated author, tradition attributes this book to Moses. There is no conclusive reason to deny the Mosaic authorship of Genesis. With this authorship confidently assumed, we can conclude that this text was probably written around 1420 B.C. between the time of the Exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt and Moses’ death. It will seem as though there are assumptions with this text for authorship and date. With many ancient texts, religious or not, archeology and additional manuscripts are used to confirm and be confident in conclusions made for author and date written.
This first book begins with a profound statement, “In the beginning, God…” (Genesis 1:1). This assumes God exists and always has existed. If I could summarize this first book, it is about God creating the world and everything in it as He begins to work out His plan with choosing a special people to be called His own. Most of the major doctrines in the Bible are introduced in some form in Genesis. Along with the fall of man, God’s promise of salvation or redemption is recorded (Gen. 3:15). The first two chapters describe how God created all things starting with the whole universe down to the littlest ant by speaking: “God said…and it was so” (Gen. 1:6-7,9,11,14-15). It must be noted that human beings received a special handling by God as He breathed life into mankind to bring man to life, and from man’s rib, woman was formed (Gen. 2:7, 21-22). These first two people, Adam and Eve, were placed within a Garden, Paradise, to live in perfection and fellowship with God. In Genesis 3, we see them fall into rebellion (sin) by listening to a crafty serpent and disobeying God (Gen 3:1-7). This rebellion throws the whole of creation into a moral freefall leading to the choosing of Noah and his family to build an ark before God floods the entire world (Gen. 6-7). After the earth “resets” by repopulation, that God choses a man, Abram (later named Abraham), to be the patriarch of a specially blessed people – later called Israel – to be the means of God bringing about the salvation mentioned in chapter three (Gen. 12, 15). This choosing of Abraham was simply because he believed in God and counted that belief (faith) to him as righteousness. Patriarchal history records the lives of four great men: Abraham (Gen. 12-25:8); Isaac (Gen. 21:1-35-29); Jacob (Gen. 25:21-50:14); and Joseph (Gen. 30:22-50:26). Genesis concludes with the story of Joseph, through a miraculous chain of events, ruling in Egypt. We see that these events may have been meant for evil, but God meant them for good (Gen. 50:20).
So what? Why does all of this matter? The overriding theme of Genesis is God’s eternal existence and His creation of the world. God is, always was, and always will be, ruling over all. At a very basic level, this book answers the question, “Where did I come from?” and “What is my purpose?” This book shows us that all people, regardless of culture, nationality or language, are accountable to the Creator. But because of sin, introduced into the world at the Fall, we are separated from Him. Then through one people, Israel, God’s redemptive plan for mankind was revealed and made available to all. We rejoice in that plan. Since God created the universe, the earth, and every living being, we can trust Him to handle the concerns in our lives. God can take a hopeless situation and do amazing things if we will trust and obey in faith. Terrible and unjust things may happen in our lives, as with Joseph, but God will always bring about a greater good if we have faith in Him and His sovereign plan. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
I pray this encourages you as you read from Genesis this month, looking to celebrate Christmas as a time to reflect on God fulfilling His promise to bring a Savior through a humble birth in a manger. Next month, we will look at the Book of Exodus. Blessings and grace!
