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Not only can unity in the Scriptures be shown through the significant contrasts of the Bibles bookends, Genesis and Revelation, but unity is also revealed by the single theme of the Scriptures. The single theme of the Scriptures is to reveal the plan for the redemption of humanity through the redeemer, Jesus Christ. Everything in Scripture points to the historical fact that Christ came to die in order to pay for our sins and to buy us back that, should we choose for Him to be our rescuer, our Savior and Lord, we would be adopted as eternal children of God, never to be rejected. That is the single theme throughout Scripture.
This theme begins with Genesis 3, with the promise of the seed or descendent of Eve, Jesus Christ, to be our rescuer. It was further elaborated in the shedding of the blood of an animal to provide animal of skins for a covering to hide their nakedness. These coverings are symbolic of ones sin being covered or forgiven. In addition, the plan of redemption is illustrated in Genesis in Gods provision of an Ark of salvation. These are just a few examples from Genesis as to this theme of redeeming humanity, but many examples of Gods redemptive plan for this world, through the Savior Jesus Christ, can be shown from every book of the Bible.
Hence, the word of God is indivisible as to its nature, it has one purpose or theme, the redemption of humanity, and finally, from Genesis to Revelation, the focal person of the Scriptures is Jesus Christ. I just mentioned that he was the promised seed of Eve in Genesis 3, and later, I will elaborate a little more about seeing Jesus as the focal person of scripture throughout the scriptures.
Quickly now, lets get an overview of Genesis. The author of Genesis, according to Jesus Christ, and Old Testament scholars throughout history is none other than Moses.
B. A chart click here
Here is a look at chart that should help you see the book as a whole at one glance. Genesis begins with the History of the human race, in the first eleven chapters. The rest of the book covers the History of the Hebrew race. Whereas the first eleven chapters speak of four key events, the rest of the book points to one family line, focusing on four key people. The four key events that begin human history are creation, fall, flood and nations. The four key people are Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph.
I am planning to break our study of Genesis into two parts. The first part we will spend most of this year looking at the first 25 chapters, stopping with the end of Abraham’s life. Then we will jog over to the last book of the Bible, Revelation and work through it. When done, we will return to finish the second half of Genesis.
While the Bible, and specifically Genesis, is scientifically infallible or without error, the Bible is not primarily a book of science. While it is geographically accurate, it was not written for the purpose of being a world atlas. While the Bible predicts the international and political fortunes of nations, it is not primarily a book on political science. All of these matters are secondary to the primary intention of the Genesis.
It should be obvious from the studying the chart of Genesis that its intention is not to speak of the universal history of mankind. Rather it was written to record Gods calling and setting apart of a special people, beginning with the patriarch Abraham. When we get to Genesis 12 and the life of Abraham, we will see the first of many agreements or covenants God makes with key leaders of the nation of Israel. Note, however, that even though Genesis could have begun with chapter 12 and Abraham, it did not. The reason that it began with all of the human race and its fall was to show at least in a brief form the connection between Adam, the rest of humanity and a special people God had chosen to work through so as to provide a way of salvation for the entire human race.
Genesis, along with the next four books of the Old Testament has as its intention to highlight Gods selection of the nation of Israel from all other nations, to be his vehicle, His special servants through whom His good news of redemption would come. God made it very clear to Israel before they every crossed the Jordan to claim their new homeland, that her sole reason for existence and for being called by God was to serve Him and to be the one through whom the Messiah, Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world would come.
Do you see why it is so important to understand why the book of Genesis was written? How it relates to the rest of the Bible? It is the main reason why we spent five weeks recently looking at an overview of the Old Testament, before we began our study of Genesis. Over and over you see Gods mercy and patience toward this special nation who continually forgot its calling from God, its special role in the history of humanity.
With the rest of our time this morning, we will take a look at just the first three opening verses of Genesis, and the first major event of human history, the creation of the world. Over the past several months of researching this book, I have come across seven different approaches to understanding this first major event of creation, as explained in Genesis one and two. Three of the most popular views are: First, that the original creation of the world as we know it today begins with verse 1, and verse 2, follows right after it.
A second view is the popular view of the Gap Theory. This theory also states that verse 1 begins the original creation of the world, with Satan in charge before he rebelled against God; then the world was destroyed when Satan rebelled, and following that, beginning with verse 2, the world was recreated. Hence, there is a major gap in time between verse 1 and verse 2 in which Satan ruled the original creation of God, before God destroyed the world and recreated it.
Both of those views have come under a great deal of criticism and question due to their misuse of the Hebrew language to support their case. The biggest problem is that the first word in verse 2, translated as and in most Bibles is not a conjunction. It is not a word that describes a sequence of events. Instead, it is a word that signifies that verse 2 is not the result of or a development of verse 1, but an initiating point from which the creation of the world as we know it begins. It would be better translated Now as though this were a beginning or initial statement.
A third view, which itself has five slightly differing variations is the one I believe best explains this event, without abusing the Hebrew language. This view begins with looking at verse 1 as a summary statement of everything that follows concerning the account of creation, which begins at verse 2 and ends at 2:3. Basically, it is saying in verse 1, God created the world as we know it today. Then, beginning with verse 2, Moses explains the condition of the world as God begins His step by step process of recreating the world as we know it today. And verse 3 gives us the first step of Gods creating process.
Note: when we look at the very beginning of the creation of the earth as we know it today, it begins in verse 2 with a recreation of elements that would become our world, but are in a state of chaos. Even the terms used in this verse have the whiff of evil in them. The recreation of the world as we know it did not take place in a perfect vacuum. Verse 2 states that there was emptiness, formlessness, darkness that was later turned into something God pronounced as good.
The two words in verse 2, formless and void are relatively rarely used words that are only used a couple of times together in scripture. When they are used together, they describe the result of an act of Gods judgment. In fact, in Jeremiah 4:23, where both of these words are used together, it constructs a dismantling of creation by the judgment of God.
Genesis gives no explanation of what caused God to dismantle His creation or what caused the chaos, but we may gather from other parallel passages such as Ezekial 28, that it was a judgment of God against a rebellious Satan. God took away from Satan his authority to rule a then heaven and earth, destroyed that world and recreated the planet as we know it today, from the chaotic remains of the old creation that Satan had ruled.
Hence, the timing of Genesis 1:1-2 begins after the judgment of God against Satan and the subsequent chaos that resulted. It is another example of Gods blessing and His bringing something good out of that which had become evil.
Hence, when we read the first three words of verse 1, “In the beginning...”, it is not referring to the first time God created the world, but specifically refers to the beginning of the creation of the world as we know it today.
In the beginning, God... This is a very interesting name for God. It is the plural majestic form of the Hebrew word for God, Elohim. When used in its plural form, it becomes intensive and refers to sovereign power and royalty. In other words, in the world in which Moses lived, filled with many Gods, this use of the form for God declares to all who read it that He is THE God. There are no other gods. He alone is the Sovereign Ruler and Creator of the universe. He made it and is therefore the sole possessor of it. He gets to determine how creation will be run.
In addition, the plural form could also point to the reality of the trinity, three-in-one-god. This makes a lot of sense when one considers Genesis 1:26 and 11:7 where the plural first person pronoun us is clearly used in reference to God. It is unusual to use a plural pronoun in conjunction with Elohim. It is making a bold theological statement that God is one and more than one all at the same time. It is the first theological inference to Jesus and the Holy Spirit mentioned in Scripture. Lets come back to that later.
“In the beginning, God created...”. This word created is the Hebrew word bara which is only used of God. No other being, human or otherwise is ever described as doing the work of bara. When humans create something, there is another Hebrew term used to describe our human creativity.
In the past, some have suggested that this word solely means to create something out of nothing. But that is not necessarily so. It basically means to produce something new, fresh and perfect. This word refers to all that takes place from the six days of creation that follow.
In the beginning, God created the heavens [our modern term for space where the stars exist] and earth. This is typical Hebrew writing device called merism signifying the whole universe. Another example of a Hebrew merism would be the expression day and night which means all of the time.
Verse 2, “Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.” The idea behind the Hebrew word for moving can be illustrated by a bird hovering over the water, and with the beats of its wings, cause a down draft that would move the waters. Hence, this word is saying that God was personally involved and energizing the work of creation. It was not something that just came about by chance under his permissive will. He deliberately took action to create something.
There are several implications we can walk away with from these verses. First and foremost of all is that God is the sovereign ruler, possessor and owner of this world. Such sovereignty demands our allegiance. When we lose sight of that or ignore Him, or forget Gods rightful place to rule and our place to follow, all hell breaks loose in our lives here on earth and in the hereafter. We lose our sense of direction, morality, purpose and meaning. Chaos, or emptiness, darkness, formlessness and void fills our lives.
This explains why so many Christians lives are no different than non-Christians: we have ignored God and His agenda and made our own agenda primary to our lives. It explains why so many non-Christians are living without hope or a sense of direction or value and purpose to life. It is why many today despair and have little or no hope when they read the headlines in our papers. People have turned away from the sovereign ruler of the world.
Second, we now live in a world similar to that of Moses day. It is a world in which nearly all people worshiped nature. One of the intentions of Genesis is to point out that God is supernatural or above nature. Nature is utterly subservient to God. God is not a part of nature and nature is not God.
Why? Because nature is finite and God is infinite, so God cannot be a part of nature. In addition, nature is amoral. Nature knows nothing of good and evil. In nature, there is only one rule: survival of the fittest. There is no right, only might. Hence, if one worships what they see in nature and determines to live their lives by natures rules, the result will be dangerous for the rest of us who live with those people.
Hence, since God is above nature, since He is supernatural, He alone is to be worshiped.
Thirdly, we need to recognize the reality that Jesus Christ is etched in every book of the Bible, beginning with the very first verse in the Bible.
I already mentioned that in verse 1, the word for God, Elohim is the majestic plural word for God, that also has hints of the trinity in it. But we also read in John 1:1-3, these words: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
John clearly tells us that the Word of God and God, Elohim were one in the same, and involved in creation. But who or what is the word of God? John clearly answers that question a few verses later in verse 14, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
In speaking of Christ, the Apostle Paul writes in Colossians 1:16-17, “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers, all things were created by Him, and for Him: And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.”
Again, in Psalm 33:6, the psalmist declares of Christ, “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made...”
It is important to understand that at the very beginning of creation, God knew full well that we would sin and would be in need of a Savior. So, he planned from the beginning to provide such a One who would bring hope, healing, courage and purpose in the midst of a world full of pain and despair. He wants us to understand that our world is not out of total control, but that God plans to use the rebellion of other humans to get His job done. And in the process, He will save some, those who recognize Him to be God, worship Him as their master and savior, serving His purposes on this earth. Hence, Jesus Christ is worthy of our complete allegiance and worship. He deserves our all in all. We are to make His agenda our priority and focus of serving and living life here on earth.
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