Post 3 Genesis Summary

Genesis begins with the creation and ends with the death of Joseph in Egypt. It has been said that Genesis is a miniature Bible. Someone else said that Genesis sets the stage for the rest of the Bible. An understanding of the Bible depends on a thorough study of Genesis. It contains 50 chapters.

Rev CI Scofield (the author of the references and footnotes of the Scofield Reference Bible) dates the beginning of Genesis at 4004 BC and says it covers 2315 years. The earthly author is Moses.

There have always been questions about how Moses could have known the details of the creation and subsequent events. It is not difficult for me to accept. In the first place, God has a perfect memory and could have told Moses everything. Another thing to consider is the long lives of people in early days. It seems entirely possible that Noah meet and talked with Adam. That is amazing.

As indicated in the poetic books of the Bible, people passed down stories in song form, from generation to generation. Historians suggest that the first written language came about in Sumer (present day Iraq). That is an interesting study in itself. It is my feeling that the first people were much more intelligent than later generations. Perhaps as the population grew, some parents started leaving notes for the children but then maybe they could tell them once and they remembered. Regardless of all that, I believe the details as we have them in Genesis are accurate and true.

The 50 chapters are filled with major events. The ones most familiar are perhaps the creation and the fall of man. The flood where only Noah and his family survived is the subject of many children's stories. It is more than about the animals though. It is preceded by a statement from God about the sad state of mankind. Years, of course, pass. We find a man called Abraham who loved and honored God above all else. He left on his journeys from Ur which has been traced to present day Iraq. Abraham's name was Abram at this point. Abram was not some country bumpkin. Thousands of books have been discovered in the city where he lived. He was probably very educated. There were a lot of idols in Ur but Abraham worshipped the one true God.

Abraham had a beautiful wife named Sarah. The son of his old age was Issac whose son was Jacob. Jacob became Israel and had twelve boys who fathered the tibes of Israel. Abraham also had a son by the bondwoman of Sarah whom she gave to Abraham that they might have a child. Sarah was barren at the time. Hagar was her name and she was Egyptian. The son's name was Ishmael. Genesis 16:12 pronounces his future. Genesis 17:20-21 gives the reason.
"And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren." "And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly: twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Issac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year."

We jump to the selling of Joseph and his life in Egypt. A great drought comes in the land and Joseph becomes the master of Pharaoh's crops by correctly intrepretating a dream the Pharaoh had. Jacob and his family are able to enter Egypt under the protection of his son Joseph where they live and grow into a multitude. A new Pharaoh puts them into slavery for 400 years but before Joseph died, after living a hundred and ten years, he prophesied of deliverance from Egypt and asked that his bones be removed upon their departure to Canaan where Abraham had lived for some years.

So, we have journeyed very rapidly from the creation to the promise of deliverance from a strange land to the promise land of Canaan. In Exodus, Moses is born to an Israelite but raised in the house of Pharaoh. But first we will look at some details of Genesis in the next lessons.

Special note: Think about Joseph going into the land of Egypt via the bitterness of his brothers. That tragedy in his life put him in a position to save his people. The Bible is filled with pictures and types that enlighten us on other parts of the Bible. Joseph is a type of Christ. He suffered so that He might save his people. Jesus too went down to Egypt but was brought out to the land of Canaan. He too suffered for our deliverance from the slavery of sin. Israel, as Joseph predicted, was taken out of Egypt to the promise land. We too will be removed from this troubled land to a better place. John chapter 14 tells of this promise : "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you. I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." You see the picture that Joseph promised deliverance long before it came and so we wait for our promise in which we fully trust.

Do you have some thoughts or questions about this great book of the Bible? Please share them by adding a comment.