Journeying Through Genesis

The Creator God is the God of new beginnings. In Genesis we meet the Lord who is able to speak and bring light out of darkness, perfection out of emptyness, order out of chaos. Begin again with God today!

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Overview: The Creator God is the God of new beginnings. In Genesis we meet the Lord who is able to speak and bring light out of darkness, perfection out of emptyness, order out of chaos. Begin again with God today!

Transcript: "Journeying Through Genesis"

"In the beginning. God created the heaven and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). We're beginning our journey through Scripture at the most obvious place; today we are journeying through Genesis. Now, there are fifty chapters in the Book of Genesis, and it covers thousands of years. So don't expect that we can cover, all of the details. All we can do is get a bird's eye view of this amazing book. 

The name "Genesis" literally means "beginnings". It's the beginning of the Old Testament. Genesis is the beginning of the Law of Moses or the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible). It's the beginning of all of Scripture. However, you understand that Genesis is actually the beginning of God's revelation of Himself. 

The name "Genesis" literally means "beginnings". It's the beginning of the Old Testament, the beginning of the Law of Moses or the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible) and it's the beginning of all of Scripture. However, you understand that Genesis is actually the beginning of God's revelation of Himself. 

How to Study Genesis Main Events

There are many ways to study the Book of Genesis. For example, we could study it based on the main events found in the Book of Genesis. Genesis 1-11 covers four main events: The Creation of the World. The Fall of Man. The Worldwide Flood. The Tower of Babel, or the confounding of languages and the scattering of nations. 

Main Characters

Then, you could go beyond the first eleven chapters. Genesis 12-50 is based on four main characters. We, refer to them as the Patriarchs of Israel - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and then the book ends with the story of Joseph. 

It is my belief that the greatest way to study the Word of God is always looking for God. The Bible is God's revelation of Himself, and this Book of Beginnings gives us foundational principles about the Lord and about our own lives. I have found myself going back again and again to the first pages of Scripture because these first principles are important to us today. The nearer we get to the end of time, the more I think we need to go back to the law of first mention, to the beginning principles. 

The Foundation for All Scripture

Everything began in the Book of Genesis - everything that is in our world except for God Himself. God transcends all. He is the eternal God; He has always been. God set everything else in motion. 

Overview:

• In Genesis 1, God creates the world. 
• In Genesis 2, God creates the human race - that's us. Adam was formed by God's own hands. 
  • God records the establishment of marriage in Genesis 2. Marriage is God's wonderful creation, not a human idea to be neglected or destroyed. 
• In Genesis 3 we find something God didn't create, but we find the beginning of human sin. Man rebels against God. 
  • Amazingly, in the same chapter, we find the beginning of divine salvation. God makes a way for man to be restored. 
• In Genesis 4, we see the beginning of the family. The first children are born and seen as gifts from the Lord. 
• In Genesis 10, we find the beginning of nations and government. 
• In Genesis 11 we encounter the beginning of languages. 
• In Genesis 12, we learn of the beginning of the Hebrew race through the giving of the Abrahamic Covenant. 

It's wonderful to see all that began in the heart of God; all that God did on the first pages of Holy Scripture. One of my favorite authors is J. Sidlow Baxter. Baxter wrote, "The major themes of Scripture may be compared to great rivers, ever deepening and broadening as they flow; and it is true to say that all these rivers have their rise in the watershed of Genesis" (Explore The Book, p.23). 

In other words, if you trace all of the great doctrines of the Bible back upstream, you find this fountain flowing from this Book of Beginnings. Someone has even gone so far as to say that all the major doctrines of the Bible are introduced in the first eleven chapters of the Book of Genesis. At least in seed form, you're going to find the beginning of so many wonderful things as you study the Book of Genesis. 

Key Verse: Genesis 3:15

I want to give you one verse today. It's not Genesis 1:1. It's found in Genesis 3. It is a key not only to unlocking the Book of Genesis but also to all that we believe from the Word of God. Genesis 3 is the first mention of the Messiah. I love this truth: It's in the context of man's sin. It's in the setting of man's fall in the garden. 

Do you know what the Garden of Eden is? It is a reminder that God could have forsaken his fallen creation; instead, he decided to step into it to make a new creation. Don't you love that? Our God from the beginning was a God of love, a God of grace, and a God of mercy! And here's His promise. He's speaking to the serpent, to the devil, no less. Genesis 3:15, "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman." This answers why snakes and ladies don't get along too well, doesn't it? 

Christ in Genesis

You must understand that there's a bigger picture. It's not just the physical. You see, he's talking here about a conflict, a war between the seed of the woman who was coming (the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ), and the seed of the serpent, which is the devil's offspring. Why do you think people like Pharaoh, Herod, and people of their sort keep striking at the Nation of Israel or at the promised line? Why do you think they hated Christ? There was a spiritual conflict going on. 

Now see the rest of the verse, "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." May I ask you which is worse a heel bruise or a head wound? Well, you know the answer. A head wound. A heel bruise is a nuisance. It's annoying. It's a little painful, but, it's not life-threatening - it's not fatal. God Almighty said to the Devil in Genesis 3:15, you're going to bruise the heel of the seed of the woman - this points to what happened as our Lord Jesus Christ was bruised for our transgressions, wounded for our iniquities (Isaiah 53). 

“That serpent struck at Christ at Calvary. He struck at Christ all through his earthly life and ministry. But then our victorious Savior turned around and put his foot squarely on the head of that old serpent, the Devil. When Jesus Christ came out of that grave alive forevermore, friend, he bruised the head of that serpent.”

We're told in the New Testament that "the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly" (Romans 16:12). He's already under Christ's feet, but soon he'll be under our feet as well. 

What do you find in Genesis 3:15? You find that a God who could make everything out of nothing can also make something beautiful out of an absolute mess. When David had sinned his terrible sin with Bathsheba and had murdered her husband, he prayed in Psalm 51 these words "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." Did you know in Psalm 51 that David used the very same word create that is used in Genesis 1 and 2 for God creating the world? Literally, he was saying, God, I've given you nothing to work with. I have nothing to offer you. But would you create out of nothing? Would you create something absolutely beautiful? 

The Message of Genesis

The great message of Genesis is that our God, the Creator and Sustainer of life, is a God of new beginnings. We come to endings. The devil loves to bring people to the conclusion of something, but our God is a God of new beginnings. Let today be your Genesis. Let today be your new beginning. Make David's prayer your prayer: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me."

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