The Theme of Genesis Part 1
Genesis has been called the book of beginnings, and rightly so. The very first words are In the beginning. The book of Genesis is the book of beginnings. It tells us how everything came into being. In Genesis we have the very first temptation and the resulting sin of Adam and Eve. It is in Genesis where it is explained to us how all men became sinners. Without this book we would not understand how we received a sin nature.
Without understanding that all men are born sinners you cannot properly understand our world. The mind of the liberal does not understand this truth. They think that man is basically good and only if circumstances were better then man would do good.
So they want to let criminals off free, thinking they only did bad because of racism or some other excuse. And if we cut them a break, they will not do it again. And it has been in the news over and over where one of them that they let off, went out and committed more evil sometimes even killing someone.
They want to defund the police and blame the police for crime. They do not understand the Biblical truth that all men are born sinners.
It is in man’s very nature to do wrong, lie, cheat, steal and worse. And it starts from the very beginning. You do not have to teach a baby to be selfish, jealous, and throw a fit. It is because they are born with a sin nature.
Only the truth in Genesis properly explains what we see in our world. It is the Book of beginnings. And not only do we see the first time sin entered into the world but we see many firsts.
In Genesis we have the first sacrifice, the first marriage, the first murder, the first excuses, the first rainbow, and man’s first attempt at ungodly unification at the tower of Babel. Genesis also has the first mention of alcohol (and by the way it is not mentioned in a good light).
We have the first mention of kings and kingdoms, the first war, the first rescue, the first spoils and the first tithe. In Genesis we have the first covenant, the first visions, and the first miracles, and on and on the list could go.
I heard an old time pastor say that all the major teachings of the Bible can be found in some embryonic form in Genesis. In some type, picture, or foreshadowing. I do not know enough to be able to say that all of them can be found. But if not all of them, certainly most of them.
Genesis is truly the book of beginnings. But what we are interested in today is the main theme of the book. What major point or points is the book of Genesis trying to get across to us?
The first thing that I notice is that God is perfect and He is Holy. God does not create sin and God is not responsible for sin.
Gen 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, [it was] very good.
Everything that God created was very good. It was perfect and without sin. And God was in fellowship with the man who He created.
Gen 2:19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought [them] unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that [was] the name thereof.
We see God and Adam in fellowship. They were spending time together. God brought the animals to Adam so that Adam could name them. Now that would take awhile.
Gen 3:8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day:
God would come down and walk in the garden with Adam.
Everything was good. Then comes sin. Out of a free will man chose to disobey God and sin entered into the world.
Gen 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree [was] good for food, and that it [was] pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make [one] wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
They were only given one rule and that was to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Gen 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
Gen 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
God gave them one rule, and the penalty for disobeying it was death.
Now since God is perfect, holy, and righteous, He must do what He says. Because of His righteousness He must exact the punishment. They must die. Now death means separation.
When you die, that is not the end of you. You will go on, either in heaven or in hell, but when you die you are separated from your body. And Adam and Eve started to die physically.
They also died spiritually. Death means separation. They were no longer in fellowship with God.
Gen 3:24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
We see very early on in Genesis that God is righteous and that He must judge sin. God pronounced judgment on the woman, He pronounced judgment on the man, and He pronounced judgment on Satan.
So we see that God is Holy, he cannot fellowship with sin. And God is righteous so He must Judge sin. God is Holy and God is Judgment.
And man is a sinner. Now if that is all, we have a problem. There would be no hope. But praise God that is not all. God is also Love. He has grace and mercy. In the book of beginnings we are shown not just one of God’s attributes but we are introduced to all of them.
Even in the midst of pronouncing judgment God promised a coming savior.
Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
And then God made them a covering for their nakedness.
Gen 3:21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
That is the grace of God. They chose to sin and God made them a covering. Many believe that the coats of skins were made from a lamb because very shortly you find Abel bringing a blood sacrifice of a lamb to God. And Abel’s sacrifice was accepted by God.
Abel’s sacrifice properly pictured the sacrifice of Jesus who was the Lamb of God. Where did he learn what was the accepted way to sacrifice? I agree with those who believe that God taught Adam by showing him, God used the skins of a Lamb to make the coats for a covering, and then Adam taught his son’s.
So what we have in the first three chapters of Genesis is God is righteous, perfect, and Holy, and just. Man is a sinner. God must judge sin, and the penalty is death.
God is also Love so along with the judgment of God you will find the grace of God, the mercy of God, and the forgiveness of God.
That is the main theme of Genesis. And we see this displayed not only in the first three chapters but all throughout the book.
An example is Cain. Cain is a sinner; he refuses to approach God God’s way. He wanted to come to God on his own merit, on the basis of his works.
God is righteous and refuses Cain’s worship. But along with the judgment God tries to get Cain to repent.
Gen 4:7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?
It was God’s grace that was trying to get Cain to worship right. God wanted to have fellowship with Cain because God is Love and offers grace and mercy.
But out of a free will Cain refuses and kills his brother. God is righteous and judges Cain. But along with the judgment we see the grace of God. Grace is undeserved favor.
First instead of immediately pronouncing judgment on Cain, God tries to get a confession out of Cain. But instead of repenting Cain retorts back “Am I my brother’s keeper?” God then pronounces judgment on Cain and curses him so that the ground will no longer produce for him. God takes away the strength of the ground, which is what Cain was trying to use to approach God.
God chose that punishment to try to get Cain to realize his error.
Here we see sin in the individual (Cain). We see sin in the family (he killed his brother). And we see sin in worship, Cain wanted to approach God based on works and not by blood.
And yet God protected Cain from the vengeance of others. That was undeserved favor along with the judgment.
In the story of Noah we see the same theme.
Man is a sinner.
Gen 6:12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
God is righteous and must judge sin.
Gen 6:13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
But along with God’s judgment is God’s grace.
God told Noah to make an ark of gopher wood; and God gave him 120 years to do it. And the New Testament tells us that Noah was a preacher of righteousness.
God gave the people 120 years to repent. And every day they saw Noah building an ark as a testimony of the judgment to come. With every stroke of the axe and with every stroke of the hammer God was warning them of the judgment to come. And they had Noah preaching to them for 120 years. That is the grace of God calling them to get right with God. His longsuffering shows His grace.
And at the end of the 120 years God once again displays His grace.
Gen 7:9 There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.
Gen 7:10 And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
God tells Noah to go into the ark and then God delays the flood for seven more days. He gave the people seven more days. He gave them one more chance. That is the grace of God offering man a way to escape the judgment.
We see the same pattern at the tower of Babel.
God tells man to scatter to populate the earth. Man is a sinner and rebels against God.
Gen 11:4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top [may reach] unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
God is righteous and must judge sin.
Gen 11:7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
We see the Love and grace of God here in that He did not just strike these rebels dead. And there are many ways that God could have scattered them. I believe that it is a display of His Love and mercy to do it by simply confounding their language.
The book of Genesis is continually showing that man is a sinner.
Man was in innocence and he sinned. Soon thereafter we find the first murder. Man’s sin quickly grows until there was only one man left who walked with God. God destroys all but Noah’s family. They are not off of the ark very long and Noah sins and gets drunk and his son sins by looking at his father’s nakedness and then tries to get his brothers to join him in sin. Sin loves company doesn’t it?
Then we see man’s sin in his first attempt at government at the tower of Babel.
God then calls Abram and not long after we see Abram sin by going down to Egypt and calling his wife his sister.
We also see man’s sin at Sodom and Gomorrah. And God’s judgment on it. We also see God’s mercy by His taking Lot out of the city.
Lot’s daughters get him drunk and sleep with him.
We see the sin of Isaac by favoring Esau, and his wife favoring Jacob.
We see the sin of deception in this family when Jacob tricks his father in order to get the birthright. We see sin in the resulting hatred of Esau.
We see the sin of Laben tricking Jacob into marring Leah and his unfairly changing Jacob’s wages ten times.
We see the sin of Jacob’s wives selling him for a handful of flowers.
We see the sin of Rachel stealing her father’s idols.
We see the sin of Dinah having sex out of wedlock. And then her brother’s Simeon and Levi kill all the men of the town for vengeance.
We see Israel’s favoritism of Joseph and the resulting jealousy of his brothers.
We see the sin of Joseph’s brothers in wanting to kill him and then instead selling him into slavery.
We see the lustful sin of Potiphar’s wife.
We see the sin of Judah becoming unequally yoked and marring a heathen wife. And then we see the resulting wicked children. Judah’s firstborn was so wicked that the Lord slew him leaving Tamar a widow.
His brother refuses to take her as his wife and is also killed by the Lord for his wickedness.
We see the sin of Reuben who slept with his father’s concubine and thus lost the birthright of the firstborn.
In Genesis we see sin in the individual, we see sin in the family, we see sin in the government. We see wicked men sin and we see godly men like Noah and Abraham sin. We see men sin and we see women sin. We see Jews sin and we see gentiles sin.
We see man’s sin in everything. We see murder, lying, greed, cheating, betrayal, stealing, idol worship, lust, fornication, and many more.
And thru it all we see that God is Holy, Righteous, and Just and we see His mercy and grace and forgiveness.
And thru the book we see the promise of the cross.
We see the cross in Noah’s ark
We see the cross when Isaac was to be sacrificed and God provided Himself a Lamb.
And we see Jesus in Joseph who was one of the greatest types of Christ in the Bible. The cross is all throughout Gen. in type picture and promise.
God is Holy, Righteous, and Just, and man is a sinner in need of a savior. That is the theme of Genesis. Man needs to be saved and God can save him. God has mercy and love. Amen.
In one of the biggest churches in America, the pastor says that around here sin is not on the menu. What he means by that is that they do not preach against sin. Sin is not on their menu.
Just look at Genesis. I have news for you Sin is on God’s menu.
In fact it is the first thing that God had to say to us. He opened His Holy Word with this theme. Man is a sinner in need of a savior, God is Holy and Just and also Love and offers mercy and forgiveness.
God started with this because until you understand that you need saving you will never get saved.
I am sure that you all have heard the saying, you can’t get a man saved until you get him lost.
That is why we use the Romans road.
Rom 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Rom 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin [is] death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Rom 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Rom 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Rom 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Rom 10:11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
Rom 10:12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
Rom 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
And Genesis is a picture of all of that. This is what saves. This is the power of God unto salvation.
The cross is the only thing that satisfied God’s perfection, Holiness, Righteousness and judgment.
If you want to get someone saved you need to start with what God started with.
Man is a sinner in need of being saved. God is holy, just, and righteous and must judge sin. But God is also Love and offers mercy, grace and forgiveness. That is the main theme of Genesis.
See more Themes of Old Testament Books