INTRODUCTION:

1.All that is to be developed and to come later is planted in Genesis; It is the introduction to the Pentateuch (first five Books) and to all other Scripture.

2.Importance of Genesis is seen in that it is quoted more than 60 times in N.T.

3.AUTHOR: External and internal evidence proves that Moses wrote the first Five Books by guidance of the Spirit - cf 2Pe 1:21.

4.DATE: It was written after the Exodus, in the Wilderness of Sinai, approximately 1460 B.C.

5.Genesis means "Origin / Source / Generation / Birth;" The Book Of Beginnings.

a.It presents the beginning of everything, except God and eternity (God always has been; And there is no beginning or end in eternity).

b.Note the beginning of:

• The Universe - Gen 1:1;
• Mankind - 1:27;
• Marriage - 2:22-24;
• Sin - 3:1-7;
• Hope Of Salvation - 3:15;
• Sacrifice - 3:21; 4:4;
• Family - 4:4;
• Society - 4:16-22;
• Government - 9:5-6;
• Nations And Languages - 11;
• Promise Of Salvation - 12:1-3;
• Israel, And The Ground-work For God's Scheme Of Human Redemption - Chapters 12-50.

6.The Book is clearly marked off in two main parts (Chapters 1-11, and 12-50).

a.The contents of the first part are arranged around four outstanding events.

b.That of the second are arranged around four outstanding persons.

c.Tying it all together is the idea of THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD.

7.THEME: God's choice of an individual and a nation through whom there would come a Savior to all nations, and to every believing individual (cf Gen 22:18).

a.This is not a complete or universal history of the world or of mankind.

b.But it is the first chapter in the history of the saving of mankind.

A reading of the Book impresses us with the sketchy and fragmentary construction of the first 11 chapters, and the fullness of detail in Chapters 12-50. See the 11 chapters concerned with affairs of the human race, and 39 chapters concerned with only one family. That may seem unusual, but it indicates the purpose of the Book.

The first 11 chapters evidently are an introduction to the rest. Abraham is clearly the central figure of the Book (12:1 through 25:10 is about him, and what follows is what arises out of the record of his life). So if we stand at the beginning of Chapter 12 and look back, we see the descent of Abraham from Adam; then look forward, and we see the descendants of Abraham. So the two main divisions are Chapters 1-11, and Chapters 12-50.

Someone said GENESIS can be summed up in three words: Generation, Degeneration, Regeneration. The red thread of redemption binds every chapter together.

In his DEVOTIONAL COMMENTARY ON GENESIS, Mr. Griffith Thomas said, "The value of this book is therefore evident. It is in some respects the foundation of the Biblical revelation of God. It is the germ and explanation of everything that follows in the history of Divine redemption through the seed of the woman. It may almost be said that there is no truth of the Bible that is not found here in germ ...... Redemption is found in promise and in symbol, and is prepared for by the onward march of Divine providence. When Genesis is carefully studied along these lines we readily see that it contains the promise and potency of that varied, prolonged, and complete development which we find elsewhere in the Bible."

• 1.PRIMITIVE HISTORY:
• BEGINNING OF THE HUMAN RACE;
• CREATIVE ACTS OF GOD;
• FOUR GREAT EVENTS --

Continued studies in Genesis

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