The Torah Series - Genesis

Last week I began a new series I call the Torah series. This one is called Genesis. The first one was introduction where we looked at what you remember we looked at the ark of the plan of God. This is a literary term that that is used to to define the flow of a story from its beginning through all of its acts or movements right up to the end.

That's called the ark of the story. We looked at the ark of the story of our Bibles beginning with the Torah where the foundation is laid. We looked at the ark of the plan of God from the very beginning all the way through where we ended in in Revelation 21. Let's let's begin there again today just to remind ourselves.

This is where the ark ends. Revelation 21 verse 3. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them and be their God." That's the very end of the ark. And the very beginning of the ark, we start in that same exact place where God does everything that he does to create a place where he can place mankind.

And then he places them where he is. Today, we pick that up when we start and we look at the book of Genesis. We're going to pick up now the beginning of this arc, this thread that runs throughout our whole Bible that God wants to dwell with his creation. This is the purpose that he created mankind to dwell with us. We know that as the story matures, we see God saying to dwell with his sons and daughters that we would be his eternal sons and daughters.

So he makes it family. It doesn't change the reality that he begins with a creation called mankind and that the purpose for him is to dwell with his creation and at the very end this is where he is dwelling with his creation. Now, you're going to notice when we go to the book of Genesis, which is where we begin, this is where the ark begins.

In Genesis chapter 1 and verse one where it says, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." You know the naming pattern of when the books were first written by Moses. It wasn't called Genesis. The book of Exodus wasn't called Exodus. Leviticus was not called Leviticus. Numbers not numbers.

And Deuteronomy not Deuteronomy. Those names were given to those books when the Septuagent was written. So here we have Genesis beginning with the first three words which defines the book. In fact, the way the books were known prior to that was simply by the first word or words of the first verse in the books themselves. Later, when the Septuagent was written, you have the opportunity to look back across time and to see the actual purpose of each of those books.

They then are given names that reflect those purposes. And so Genesis originally called in the beginning because it begins in the beginning. Each of the books starts with something similar. So Exodus was called the book of names. Leviticus called uh and he called was titled and he called numbers in the wilderness.

Deuteronomy the book of words. They not particularly helpful for us. Is it the names themselves that were given later are more helpful for us to see what actually those books are about. So now this first book which now is called Genesis the word comes from the Greek word which means origin, source or beginning.

The Greek lexicon by Henry Liddell and Robert Scott defines Genesis as literally origin, source, birth or beginning. And that title ob obviously fits the book very well because Genesis records the beginning of all things. The beginning of all things created. So in this message, we're going to look at Genesis through three major developments that appear across the book.

uh you're familiar if you've been to a play this would be the most obvious connection to you if you've been to a play you know that notice that plays operas would be similar to this are usually delivered to us in acts right uh some might call them movements but they're portions this is a complete segment and then act two would be a complete segment and then act three and they they may be three or four acts or more but that gives us a way to break the message up and we can see that there there's something that's going to told

here and then it will be connected to something that's going to be told here, connected to something told here and this is how the arc of the story flows. Okay, Genesis is no different. In fact, each of the books has an arc that you will that we're going to be able to identify.

And so, Genesis begins for us this arc, this movement, and it and and it unfolds. Let me explain it this way. What we're going to be chasing is this thread of this arc of God's plan. And we're starting here in Genesis where that ark begins. Now that plan is in the book of Genesis unfolds in three movements. It it's not that the book is limited to just those three relevant things.

And only those three relevant movements I'm going to show you. It's that the the thread is unfolded through three movements. And you can see those movements as we walk through the book. In other words, this plan that God began, you'll see it unfold in these three threads, there are these three movements throughout the book.

You'll see what I mean as we go through this. The first of these movements, Genesis records the world as God prepared it for mankind. I'm going to give you each of the three movements and then we're going to walk through them. The second, the book shows how human conduct turned away from God's instruction and how everything changed.

So it's how God started is movement one. How everything changed is movement two. And then movement three, what did God do about it? How did God change? How did God deal with the change so that he could ultimately keep on his plan to ultimately dwell with his creation. That's the three movements that we'll see identified in Genesis.

It's not all that's there. But for our purposes of understanding the layout of the book, that's really good. Okay, those are the big rocks. You remember the mason jar analogy, the if you don't put the big rocks in first, you won't get the big rocks in. We want to get the big rocks identified and make sure that we understand what they are and why they're important.

Okay. So, I want to begin with point number one. The first movement is Genesis reveals the origin of all things. It reveals the origin of all things. It opens by answering the most basic question a person a person can ask. Where did everything come from? Before the Bible introduces mankind or nations or any of our history, it begins with the source of all of the creation.

Verse one says in the beginning God God created we aren't the happen stance of evolution of random chance one of my more favorite explanations ancient ancient civilizations somehow came and seated the earth with the uh requisite whatever it is that would cause mankind to come about which is that's why it's one of favorites because the silliest one.

It says, "In the beginning, God created." So, the first thing that we see, the very first thing that we're introduc in introduced to is the creator himself. It isn't chance. It isn't aliens. It's God. And God created the heavens and the earth. This is what God did at the very beginning.

He created the heavens and the earth. All of the mo of of what we would consider to be the the universe that we can observe, interact with, touch, feel, smell, taste, all of that was created right here in verse one. Now, the Hebrew word that's translated here as created is B A R A. B A R A. Now, this is an important word. Hebrew lexicons note that this word is used in scripture for acts that belong to God.

Brown Driver Briggs Hebrew Lexicon defines bar as quote to create shape form always with God as subject. The one doing the creating, the shaping, the forming is God. That's why that term is used, that specific term. All creation began with God himself. And so Genesis begins with God creating everything because every other thing that's created was created by God.

He is the creator. But the second verse introduces the condition of the earth before God began preparing it for life chapter. So how to how to say this most beneficially or accurately? Our belief that there is a a gap. It's called gap, you know, the gap theory. We believe that there's a gap between verse one and verse two.

Nothing else makes sense to us because it says the earth was or became without form and void. Now, let's try to clear this up briefly. It is the it is the Jewish religion that believes that the word was is correctly translated as was because to them there's no gap between verse one and verse two. Now that creates a problem because the words that are used here are used elsewhere.

So we believe there is absolutely a gap here that the word was is incorrectly translated. And in fact, if you really look at it, almost everyone agrees the best translation of the word that you see as was better translated became. The earth became without form and void. Now the word here, the two words here are tohoo vabu, right? So the earth became without form tohoo and void vabhou.

Okay, I'm not a great Hebrew linguist, but that's what the words are. All right, so to this word without form. So if we want to know how the world was created, what did God create it like this? If the word was is correct, then he created it this way. If it's incorrect, then that word is mistransated. Well, we can go over to verse to Isaiah 45:18.

Isaiah 45. If we believe the Bible is inspired by God, then what it says we believe. So Isaiah 45 and verse 18 says for thus says the Lord who created the heavens who is God who formed the earth and made it who has established it who did not create it in tohoo same word from Genesis 2 did not create it that way there's no planer way to understand that.

So if God didn't make it that way, then it had to become that way. It's very simple math, isn't it? We know that from the beginning, God did form the earth to be inhabited. And here we see in Isaiah, he makes that specific point. What is the point of creating all of this? It's to be inhabited first for everything that will support what will later come. It's all for man.

But it says right here, who formed it to be inhabited? That is the purpose of the creation. Not all the universe, the earth. Now, we don't know how it became in the condition that is described. How did it become tohu vabbohu? I don't know. We think, you know, we think it has something to do with the fall of Satan, but if I had to prove that beyond any shadow of a doubt, I don't know that I could actually do that.

So, I don't know. God doesn't expressly say this is how it became this way. We see a rebellion. We see destruction in the universe. Not hard to put the math together that probably their associated events because all of that happened before the creation of man. But what it does show is what God does next. God begins bringing order to what was ruined, what was empty, what was void.

It says, "And the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." So that spirit is what God does everything through. It is the power of God. It's how he created the universe. And it's how he's going to fix what became tohu and boho. And it's hovering over the face of the waters.

And then God said, "Let there be light." And there was light. From that moment forward, as you keep walking through the scripture, as you keep walking through the passage, it's very consistent in its chronological presentation of the order of restoration that God goes through. First, light appears, then the sky forms, the waters gather, dry land appears, plants spread across the earth, each step preparing for the next.

Later in the chapter, sun, moon, and stars appear to mark time. Fish fill the seas, birds fill the air, animals cover the face of the earth. So the pattern shows God preparing the world for mankind. The earth is being arranged so that life can exist. Then the account reaches the central moment of the chapter.

In verse 26 of chapter 1, after all of the preparation is completed, we get to verse 26. And God said, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

" So mankind doesn't appear until everything else is done. It's the final creation of God. Kyle and Deich commentary on the Old Testament observes this progression and states this. Let me quote. Man appears as the goal and crown of all creation since everything preceding was arranged for his existence and welfare.

Genesis then records the creation here in verse 27. So God created man executing his plan. Created man in his own image. In the image of God he created him. Male and female he created them. So male and female together form mankind. Man alone is not mankind. Woman alone is not mankind. They together are mankind.

But here's the thing. Human beings occupy a very unique place in all the physical world of all of God's living creation. I just went through this in the Bible study on Wednesday night if you haven't had a chance to see it. It's the question of where does the Bible describe and talk about the spirit in man.

What is it and where did it come from? I won't go through all of that for you today, but I'll touch on a couple of things. We have to know that we are different than the animals. The whole point is I I remember many years ago talking to a philosophical a student who was studying philosophy in university and we were talking about the difference between philosophy and the Bible and how various things are presented between the two and his argument was you can find intelligence in the animal kingdom so human beings are not unique.

I've always thought that was kind of a giggle, too, because the best cases that you can make for any animal's intelligence is still instinct. What does an animal build? Birds build nests. Beavers build dams. Does a dog, when you discipline it, contemplate the morality of its choices? I can't get my cats to even do that.

It's like there's no chance here. They don't care. Our cats, you get like I will snap my fingers at the cat on the dining room table cuz I have a real pet peeve about that. And they look at me and they go, "Okay, I'll just get down." Like they don't care at all. And then if you turn your back for five seconds, they'll be right back up there.

Like that's how that's animals in a nutshell, right? And so I'm I'm I'm giggling about the ideas because you know what happens if you yell at a dog. Dogs are a better example of this. Cats couldn't care less what you think. Dogs seem to care. If a dog hasn't been abused, if it's been loved on its life, it it it cares what you think.

And so if you yell at it, it cowers. It gets upset. It's afraid, right? Or it it it it behaves as though it's sorry. Is a dog really sorry? Can it look inside of its soul and say, "You know what? They said they said the law is this and I broke that law. I have now violated my relationship with them. I am deeply sorry.

" No, not no. We know that's not true. And so there's no real capacity within an animal to think, to process, to plan, to reason. This makes us special. It makes us unique. That's the spirit God gave to us that makes us different than the animals. Now the the chapter continues here by describing the responsibility given to intellectually gifted mankind, not the animals, mankind.

In verse 28, we're still in chapter 1. It says, "Then God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply." Do you think Oh, here's sidebar. Why does he have to give them an instruction when the animals do this instinctively? Well, I'm thinking just speculation here, but when you've raised a couple kids, if that hasn't gone well for you, you might choose not to have anymore.

I'm just thinking out loud. Maybe not. Maybe, you know, maybe you just keep going and maybe you're a massochist. I don't know. But I'm just saying he's this is an order. He might have given it for a reason. You don't have to give that order to an animal. They just do it. Okay, sidebar. I told you I'm just speculating a little there.

But he says, "Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." Now, this word dominion describes authority and responsibility. So humanity was placed over the earth as stewards of everything God created literally everything.

So Genesis then gives us a closer description of of the creation of the first man himself chapter 2 and verse 7. So Genesis 2:7 and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground. Okay, that means that we come from this earth and unless something unique happens when we die, we go back to the earth. Verse 7.

So he says, "So he formed man of the dust of the ground and he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being." So the body does come from the ground but life itself comes from God the creator. Now he formed us barra created a god word for creation. You know when you build something when you make something you don't create the way this word is used by the way whether you're baking and you take components that exist already and you form them into something that tastes yummy.

You didn't create that. You changed it. You changed what has already been created. If you are a welder and you take things and you you take different pieces and you weld them together into something useful. If you are a framer and you frame a house, you've taken wood that God already created.

Everything God already created. All we can do is change what God creates. God is the only one who creates something from nothing. That is essentially the term. Now the account presents human life as deliberate craftsmanship from God because in this particular case the word formed is a word used for craftsmanshaping clay.

So after forming Adam out of the clay of the dirt of the earth which is what he did then God places him not some random place deliberately places him someplace. In verse 15, we're told where then the Lord God took the man, put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. If you want, look, pause, time out here.

If you want to go back and and and and have the more in-depth review, which which I just covered in the Bible study on Wednesday that talks about the differences between human beings and the animal world and intellect versus how animals work with instinct, then go back and, you know, tune into that one. I'll have to move on in this message.

All right. So, here we just read in verse 15 that God placed man in the Garden of Eden and he and he gave him responsibilities to tend and keep it. So, as I teased a little bit last week as I was looking at them boys sitting over there. God didn't create us to sit around playing Xbox the rest of our life in our mom's basement.

We have jobs and responsibilities and duties. He expects us to work. expects us expects us to contribute. So this is his home though. The garden of Eden is where he is placed. It's where human life begins under the instruction of the creator. So Genesis records that God was present there as well. It's where he walked.

Genesis chapter 3 and verse 8. It says, "And they heard the sound of the Lord God." Prior to this, what what do we have? Well, we're going to get into that next. Let's just read right here. Where was God? It says, "And they heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day." So, the opening chapters of of Genesis show the earth as it was first arranged.

God created the world. He prepared it for life and he placed mankind in his garden where he walked among his creation. We talked last week about the reality of what confirms that this was God's sacred place that in this sacred place was the tree of life. Genesis chapter 2 and verse 9. Not to belabor this, but it says in Genesis 2:9, "And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.

The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden." So sacred was this tree that as we'll see in the second point, God ensured that when mankind fell, they had no access to this tree. And when the whole earth was flooded and destroyed as it was, there is no more Eden. There's no more tree of life. There's no carob.

There's no sword that's flames to keep man away from what is no longer available. It is that same tree that later we find where in Revelation 22 in New Jerusalem. When God brings New Jerusalem to this earth, what do we find there? Revelation 22:2, this tree marks God's sacred place. Verse two, talking about New Jerusalem, in the middle of its street, Revelation 22:2, in the middle of its street and on either side of the river was the tree of life.

It was in the garden before man falls. It is in New Jerusalem when God brings his city to this earth to dwell with man at the end of the ark of his story. So, Genesis begins with mankind living in the presence of the one who made them. It is the word who walked amongst them.

And we're going to see that it is the word who later does other things like dwell in the tabernacle. And then in the temple this is the this is God manifest as the word dwelling with the creation. All right. The second movement. So this is the first movement. The whole world being created. Us being introduced to the creator himself.

The whole world being uh created and prepared for the pinnacle of his creation which is mankind. man and woman, everything is designed. And this is what God wanted to dwell with them in the garden. I've mentioned it before, but what you see today, what we see unfold in the in the pages of our Bibles throughout the book of Revelation and Matthew 24 and Daniel 2 and Daniel 7, none of that is what God intended.

This is what he intended. It's man's choice that changed that and that is movement two. Human conduct brings separation and judgment. Human conduct brings separation and judgment. So we begin with Genesis chapter 3 where movement number two begins. The serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" We drop down to verse six, and we see that the woman, being deceived, made a decision. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.

She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. This is called throughout religious literature. I guess I'm struggling for the exact phrase, but that's good enough. The fall. Throughout all Christian literature, this is called the fall of man. It is when man sinned. God said, "You will not eat.

You shall not eat." Which is a command. You shall not eat of this tree. And that's the very tree they chose to eat from. You know what tree was sitting there, right? The tree of life. It was right there. It was the fruit he wanted them to eat from to recognize that he wants them into a permanent, durable, eternal relationship.

If they would just choose that tree, that's the relationship they would have with him. And instead, they chose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They chose to decide for themselves what's right and wrong and not allow God to be the boss of what's right and wrong. We all have that choice now. So this is when the fall happens.

This is when sin enters the garden. This is God's sacred place. And now sin enters that place. Just for your notes, if you're taking notes, note back the command from God in chapter 2:1 17. Chapter 2:1 17. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.

So when Adam and Eve chose to eat from that tree, the order that had been established at creation was now broken. Notice that their confidence is also now replaced with fear. Chapter 3 and verse 8, do we see how they behave? And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Kind of a funny thought if you think about it. How do you hide from God? I don't know. But they tried. And of course, God was not fooled by that. But God condemns them for their actions. And they are punished by what? Banishment. They're evicted.

That's a that's a strong word, isn't it? But it really evokes the imagery, doesn't it? Somebody being kicked out. You evict somebody, they're out. You banish them from the tribe, they're out. And that's exactly what God does. They get removed. So, drop down now, Genesis 3 now to verse 23, where God says, "Therefore, the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.

So he drove out the man and he placed carobam at the east end of the garden of Eden and a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. This another little bit of a sidebar but right up until the flood I can't see any other way than the garden was there and the two carob guarded the way and a flaming sword guarded access to the tree of life.

We have no evidence that it changed until the flood. We know what the purpose of the flood was. We'll read that. But it's interesting to think that it was there and that forbiddance, that access was cut off in a very visible way. I don't think that the sword was a decorative piece. It it was there for a purpose. It was going to ensure no human being took of that fruit.

And also we have to take into consideration that the loss of access to the tree of life shows how serious the separation between man and God was. And that was all caused by man's sin. You remember Isaiah saying, "Your sins have separated you from God." Adam's sin separated mankind from God. And so God evicted him from God's holy place, his sacred space.

Verse 22 says, "And the Lord God said, here's the reason why he couldn't do it. Behold, the man has become like one of us to know good and evil." Better translation, to decide for himself what is good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever. So the tree of life is access to eternal life.

This is why God cut off access to it. No human being has ever been able to eat of this fruit. Not Enoch, who some wonder, "Oh, didn't he?" Not Elijah. No. Every human being that has ever lived has died, except for those who are alive right now. No one has gone to heaven. No one has eternal life. That was cut off right here. So the chapters that follow show how quickly human conduct moved farther and farther from God's instructions.

The next generation already shows violence. Who's the next generation? Who's the oldest son of Adam and Eve? It's Cain. We don't even move past the first generation from Adam and we already have more sin, worse sin, because Cain murders his brother Abel, his younger brother. in verse chapter 4 now verse 8 where it says now Cain talked with Abel his brother and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and murdered him.

So instead of learning, you know, what was wrong between the two boys, they both bought off brought offerings. But it says that Cain simply brought of the fruit of the land. Abel brought the firstborn of his flocks. There's a big difference between those two things. One of them was very mindful of how to honor God in his offering.

The other one was not. God told Cain to his face, "Something's wrong with you, boy." "Sin wants to own you, but you should rule over it." Well, sin ruled over him. He rose up and murdered his brother. He didn't take to heart any of God's instructions or warnings. This doesn't get better. This whole thing becomes a slide straight downhill.

The Bible does not describe in any way, shape, or form any improvement in the behavior of mankind after this. It is one steady decline. By the time the narrative reaches the days of Noah over in chapter 6, the condition of the earth had become extremely severe. Let's notice Genesis chapter 6 and verse 5. Verse 5.

Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. We we move from Adam and Eve choosing to to decide for themselves what is right and wrong to their son Cain killing his brother to the whole earth being filled with nothing but these evil intents in the thoughts of man.

It it strikes me that Noah stands out in this world that's being described for us. The only righteous one is Noah. No other being is given that exemption. Verse 11 says chapter 6, the earth was corrupt before God and the earth was filled with violence. Well, this is the first time the Bible describes the entire human world in these terms.

And yet we're only at chapter six of the book of Genesis. We're coming to the conclusion of the second movement at the end of chapter nine, the beginning of chapter nine. It's that's the window at the end of the flood. That's the movement. That's when things change again. This whole second movement is the fall of man. The separation of man from God.

God beginning with the first movement with a plan to create a place to have man to be able to develop and grow into his eternal sons and daughters where he could dwell with them and they would he would be their God and they would be his people. We move from that to a people who utterly reject him. There isn't anything that's described that's good here about mankind.

That is the second movement. So God says to Noah in verse 13, "And God said to Noah," the end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them. And behold, I will destroy them with the earth. That's destroying both man and the face of the earth through flood. Nothing that breathes lived.

So the flood wasn't a kind of natural disaster. It was judgment. God's judgment against man. Yet even in this judgment, God preserved human life. His purpose for life didn't change. His strategy changed, but his purpose doesn't change. That arc, that thread doesn't change from the beginning to the end. His desire is the same.

Now, Noah found favor with God because he continued to walk according to God's instructions. Back to chapter, let's see, we're still here in chapter six. So, here in verse 9, verse 9, this is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. That's not said of very many people in the Bible.

It's a very high praise from God. Now, when the waters recede over in chapter 9, verse 11, God makes a covenant. So, verse 9 of or excuse me, verse 11 of chapter 9, it says, "Thus I establish my covenant with you. Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood. Never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.

So the flood therefore marks a turning point. It's the transition from the second movement of this book to the third. Because the problem of the Garden of Eden hasn't been resolved yet. Man is separated from God. The whole creation of man except Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives. That's it.

Eight people preserved on the face of the earth for a reason. The reason unfolds in movement three, act three, God begins again. Now, Genesis shows that even after the flood, human conduct again moved away from God's instruction. We move over here to Genesis chapter 11. and verse 4. Genesis 11 and verse 4.

And this is the people. And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the heavens." This isn't them trying to build something that might touch the bottom of the clouds. This is them trying to replace God. Look what we can do. How do we know that? because he says, "Let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.

" So this city and tower built at Babel represented organized human society acting independently of God's direction. The builders sought to make a name for themselves rather than follow the purpose of the one who created them. Now God intervened intervened with them by confusing their language and scattering them.

Still in chapter 11 now over in verse 8 it says so the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth and they ceased building the city. Now obviously previous to that it says in verse 7 that God confu he came down. Let's read verse 7. It says come let us go down and there confuse their language that they may not understand one another's speech.

What an event that would have been amazing to witness. Up to this point in Genesis, the story has followed the entire human race. What we get here and we begin to move forward and God starts focusing now on a family. It begins with one individual in Genesis 12 and verse one. We see God moving forward with his plan to find a way to reconcile and dwell with his creation.

Genesis 12 and verse 1. And now the Lord said to Abram, "Get out of your country, from your family, and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and I will curse him who curses you and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Well, that's a messianic prophecy. Out of the descendants of Abraham would come the Messiah. This cannot apply to any descendant of God. No nation, no people, no tribe, only to Christ. And all we have to do is look around the world today and ask the question, are the descendants of Abraham a blessing to the world? One of those descendants lives in a place called uh called um brain cramp.

Israel, I know, right? Israel in the Middle East. Are they a blessing to the world? Do you think Iran thinks they're a great blessing right about now? I don't think so. God's not talking about blessing in that way. What is the greatest blessing that mankind receives from the descendant of Abraham? Salvation.

That is the blessing to all peoples, from every generation of all of mankind until Christ returns. And then after that, now Christ is the fulfillment of that prophecy. Now notice that this is handed down because Abraham's Abrams at this time son Isaac becomes the next generation over in Genesis chapter 21. Now we're just following the same thread.

God is working in this last movement to do the same thing he's been doing throughout Genesis chapter 21 and verse 12. Now God says to Abraham, "Do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because of the bond woman." Now he's talking about Ishmael. "Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice, for in Isaac your seed shall be called.

Isaac is the descendant through which the promises would be fulfilled." Isaac's son, Jacob, becomes the father of 12 sons who will form the tribes of Israel, the descendants of Abraham. We're still moving forward in the book. Genesis 35:es 10 and 11. Genesis 35 10 and 11. And God said to him, "Your name is Jacob. Your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name.

So he called his name Israel. Also God said to him, I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body. That's another prophecy. That's not a prophecy of the short term. That's a long-term prophecy. a nation and company of nations refers to Ephraim and Manasseh, the birthright promise.

From that point forward, the b the the book begins to follow the lives of these men and their families. So, the story moves through the experiences of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and then it focuses all of the rest of the events on the the last son or second to last son of Jacob, Joseph. Chapter 46. This is the ark as it's unfolding before us. Genesis 46.

So Israel took his journey with all that he had and came I'm beginning in verse one. With all that he had and came to Beersa and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. Then God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night and said, "Jacob, Jacob." And he said, "Here I am.

" So he said,"I am God, the God of your father. Do not fear to go down to Egypt, for I will make you a great nation there." Who is in Egypt? And what has God been doing except Joseph? That so the son with the coat of many colors who was so envied by his brothers, they thought they had killed him and then they sold him into slavery. They thought he was done.

Turns out God had a purpose for this young man and it was to advance this arc of the plan of God. But this is the moment that prepares the stage for what comes next. The family of Jacob is going to grow into the people of God in Egypt. Now, Genesis closes with Joseph reminding his family that their story is not finished.

over in Genesis chapter 50 in verse 24 after God uses Joseph to to provide a place of safety in Egypt for all of his brothers and all of their relatives. It says here in verse 24 of Genesis 50, "And Joseph said to his brethren, I am dying, but God will surely visit you and bring you out of this land to the land of which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

" That ark is still flowing according to God's purpose. This is where the story leaves us and allows us to transition into the book of Exodus. the book originally called the names. Of course, that's the book we'll go through next time. But I want to cover cover a couple of things before we before we just finish here. If you read through Genesis from beginning to end, you know, I've left a lot out.

Is it all relevant to the ark? Some of it is very relevant, but I wouldn't call them big rocks. The big rocks are the essential component pieces that we just looked at. Okay. How that arc moves forward. Does that mean that nothing else is important? Oh, there's a lot that's important that's in there. A lot.

But think of them as the smaller stones that fit within the cracks of the foundation being built, that firm it up, that stabilize it, that allow God to do other things later. For example, you're familiar in Genesis chapter 14. Let's go over to Genesis chapter 14. We'll pick up a couple of things here just to sort of illustrate my point.

There's many things that are going on in our Bibles and they're all relevant in one degree or another or they wouldn't be here. Genesis chapter 14 and verse 18. Then MelkiseDC, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine, and he was priest of God most high. And he blessed him and said, "Blessed be Abraham of God most high, professor, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God most high, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.

" And he, Abraham, gave him MelkiseDC, a tithe of all. It's an obscure story if you're just reading from Genesis 1 through Genesis 50. And yet, if you go to Hebrews, this very story becomes extremely important as it answers the question of how can a Jew named Jesus Christ become high priest when he's not a Levite? And God lays the foundation to answer that question right here.

Because Levi in the loins of their father grandfather Abraham tithed to a physical king who's both king and priest of a city called Salem. It's remarkable the detailed planning that God has. There are lots of little things like that that God needs to be in place and he lays those things here for us. So are they important? Yes, they're absolutely important.

Can we see them necessarily right away? Not necessarily. But eventually, God reveals why I did it that way. It was important to do it that way. That's just one piece of that. Another interesting story that you wonder why this go over to Genesis 38. Genesis 38:1, "It came to pass at that time that Judah departed from his brothers and visited a certain Adulomite whose name was Hira.

" This is the story of Judah and ultimately his daughter-in-law Tamar. If it isn't for the fact that Tamar becomes impregnated with twin boys from Judah, there's no line of Judah. David descends from Tamar to advance the line of Judah. Small detail critical for a man after God's own heart. The Davidic line comes from this very relationship that is presented to us somewhat obscurely between two other chapters that make perfect sense.

And you read this and you're like, why is this here? There's no Davidic line unless it's here. God is planning ahead, ensuring his plan works in all aspects that he wants it to. So, we're given something that's important. We can't see it necessarily right away. But all the kings of Israel would later come from Judah.

Genesis also records the near sacrifice of Isaac. Now, that event demonstrates the depths of Abraham's trust in God. You could say that it's that it's directly related to the plan, but it's an important nugget as well. Genesis 22:12. Here's what I mean, and it's kind of important. We were having this conversation during our coffee time this week in Olympia.

Genesis 22 and verse 12. He says, ' And do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God. You know, we talk a lot about the fact that God knows everything, knows what's going on in our minds, can read us like a book. And if that and if that's true, which we know it is true, how come he tests Abraham like this? You know how old Abraham is? Like he's like a what is it? 110, 112.

He's old. And yet at that age, God still says, "I need to test you one more time." To know because he says, "Now I know that you fear God." It's one thing to think, "Yes, I fear you, God. I love you. I respect you." What What goes on in here? Okay, God sees all of that. What's the proof? When you're tested. When you actually have to do something that validates what you say you believe, what you might even think you believe, God may yet test to find out whether that is so.

That's why that story is there. So that we know that if Abraham's going to be tested, we can be sure we're going to be tested, too. That's okay. God needs to know where we stand. He wants us to be with him for all eternity. He needs to know where we stand. to be able to do that. There are lots of little things like this that are recorded.

When we follow the ark of God's plan, we see why Genesis stands at the beginning of the Bible. Because it introduces God, the creator. It introduces the origin of the world, the origin of mankind. the entrance of sin, the destruction, the three movements that help us to see how this ark moves forward. The beginning of a family through whom God would continue his work.

It shows us that from the beginning, God wanted to dwell with his creation. We haven't yet seen how he's going to do that. We've only seen the beginning of that through Abraham and his descendants. But God is going to ultimately as we get through Exodus see how God establishes the way in which he will once again be able to dwell with his people.

That is what God wants to do and he will have his plan the way he has it. This is the foundation that's in place that we need to be able to cover the next book which is the book of Exodus. That book builds on this foundation.