The Theme of Genesis Part 2
Genesis starts with In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. He is the creator. He has every right therefore to make the rules. Even the air we breathe is His.
The book of Genesis is the book of beginnings. And starts the Bible off by clearly showing that man is a sinner in need of a savior and that God is Holy, Just, and Righteous and must judge sin, but God is also Love and offers mercy, grace, and forgiveness. That is the theme of Genesis.
In this book of beginnings we see:
The beginning of Heaven and Earth. First sentence.
The beginning of all life.
The beginning of Man and Woman.
The beginning of the institution of marriage.
The beginning of sin
The beginning of substitutionary sacrifice
The beginning of Prophecy. The first one was of a coming savior
The beginning of Human Government
The beginning of Nations
The beginning of Israel when God called out Abraham.
Genesis is truly the book of beginnings.
The writer of the book is Moses. He wrote the first 5 books of the Bible about 1,500 B.C.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God. God of course was an eye witness of everything that Moses wrote. The early chapters of Genesis were not stories handed down around campfires until someone wrote them down.
It came from God to Moses to paper. God used Moses to write the account of creation forward to the point where Israel was ready to enter the Promised Land.
Exo_17:14 And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book,…
Deu_31:24 And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished,
This was verified by Jesus.
Mat 8:3 And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
Mat 8:4 And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.
Mat 19:7 They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?
Mat 19:8 He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.
Jesus verified that the books of the law (what we call Gen thru Deu.) were written by Moses. With maybe the exception of the death of Moses. Moses could have written that ahead of time by the revelation of God.
There were no human witnesses to the death of Moses. So either Moses wrote it ahead of time or later God told another man what happened and he finished the last few paragraphs.
The book of Gen. has two divisions. The first is chapters 1 thru 11.
The first division is the story of creation and the History of the Human race.
The first division covers a little over 2,000 years and has four great events.
- Creation of the Universe
- Fall of Man
- Noah’s Flood
- Tower of Babel
This first division explains much about our world today. Why so much bad happens in the world, why there are nations and different languages.
The focus of the first division is on mankind as a whole. The focus shifts in chapter 12.
The 2nd division is about Israel. It is the history of God’s chosen people and covers about 360 years.
While the first division had 4 great events. The second division has 4 great people.
They were flawed like all men. But God used them to show forth truth and pictures and types and Allegories.
Writers of novels do this all the time. They will put in what is called foreshadowing. Pictures or hints of things to come. They will use an object to mean something or stand for something else. Or an event that parallels some truth that they want to get someone to think about.
When they do it, they use their imagination to think up situations and then use the characters in their book to show the pictures or allegories or parallels.
Man learned many of these techniques from the Bible. There are huge differences of course. One huge difference is that when man does it they have to make it up. It is fiction.
When all powerful God did it, He used real men, real life, and real situations. If you spend any time thinking about that, it will be overwhelming. The power it takes to arrange all those details and work in all the circumstances of life so that these men and women would out of a free will and without any knowledge of what is going on they would play out these pictures and truth to the level they did is amazing.
Just another evidence of God’s power and the truth of His amazing Word.
Abraham who was a Man of faith
Abraham is called the father of the faith. He showed that salvation is by faith before the law was given.
Rom 4:12 And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.
Rom 4:13 For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
Rom 4:14 For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:
Rom 4:15 Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
Rom 4:16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,
Rom 4:17 (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.
Rom 4:18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.
Rom 4:19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb:
Rom 4:20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
Rom 4:21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
Rom 4:22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.
Rom 4:23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him;
Rom 4:24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;
Rom 4:25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
Abraham’s life showed forth that righteousness is imputed by faith. And His life was written down for us if we in like manner have faith in Jesus.
God works in the tapestry of life.
Isaac who was the promised son
WAS ILLUSTRATION OF GRACE VS WORKS
Gal 4:21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
Gal 4:22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
Gal 4:23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
Their two lives was a contrast of opposites on purpose. The flesh and works on the one side, and faith and promise on the other.
Gal 4:24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
God was using their lives to paint an allegory for all who follow. A picture for all who would come after, even people many thousands of years later.
Gal 4:25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Gal 4:26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
The handmaiden represented Mount Sinai. That is where the law was given. So Hagar the bondwoman is Mount Sinai. She represents the law.
At the time that Galatians was written Jerusalem on earth was in bondage to Rome. But the Allegory is about the Heavenly Jerusalem and not the one on earth.
Gal 4:27 For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
Gal 4:28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
Sarah would represent heavenly Jerusalem which produces the promises.
Isaac was promised. He was the son of promise. It was a miracle that Sarah gave birth in really old age, and that was the point.
Law cannot work miracles. Law cannot give promises and make them come true. Only grace and faith does that.
Gal 4:29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
Gal 4:30 Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
Only by the fulfillment of the promise is heaven attained. The law cannot get anyone to heaven. Those of the law will not reside in Heaven with the children of promise. Those saved by faith go to heaven. Those of the law who are born in bondage do not.
We are all born sinners in bondage to sin. The allegory teaches that we need to reject the law and accept the promise.
Gal 4:31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.
ALSO PICTURE OF THE SON BEING SACRIFICED Voluntarily
Jacob who was the schemer who in the end got right.
Wrestled with God and found favor with God. Name changed to Israel. Father of the 12 tribes.
Abraham is the father of the faith. Jacob is the father of Israel. Many times in the Bible, even in the N.T. the nation of Israel is called Jacob.
Joseph who was The Type of Christ.
Joseph was sold for 30 pieces of silver. Jesus was sold for 30 pieces of silver.
Joseph was rejected and betrayed by his brethren. Jesus was rejected and betrayed by His brethren.
Joseph saved his brethren from death of famine by grace. Joseph gave them what they needed to live freely. All they had to do was accept it. Jesus will give salvation by grace freely to all that will accept it.
Joseph forgave his brothers even though they did not deserve it and were sinners. Jesus forgives sinners.
With his life and the things that happened and how Joseph responded he was foreshadowing Jesus. Joseph is what we call a type of Christ in the O.T.
The theme of Genesis is man is a sinner who needs saving, and God offers salvation and wants to save man. We see a lot of terrible sin in Genesis on man’s side, and we see many pictures and allegories and foreshadowing of God saving man.
Noah’s ark is one and God taking Lot out before judgment came. We see a picture of the coming Lamb of God that will taketh away the sin of the world in the Ram whose horns was caught in the thorns.
We see things like that all along the way. Promises of a coming savior. Pictures of God saving men. So here in the keynote address of the Bible God is going to end with a great picture of Jesus.
God worked in the tapestry of life to show forth thru the life of Joseph things about the coming Saviour. Why? Many reasons. One is so that people would have recorded scripture that would help them recognize the Savior.
Jesus wanted to be recognized when He came.
There is a lot more in Genesis. To go thru it all would take over a year. Since we are only hitting the high spots in our survey of the Bible we will stop with that brief look at the big 4 men in Genesis.
See more Themes of Old Testament Books