When Abraham miserably failed under testing he went down into Egypt, and Lot went with him.

While there Lot saw the world and tasted its pleasures, this was the first step in his spiritual ruin. Who was responsible for this? Abraham.

Unfortunately he was encouraged in this by an older brother. Lot became a source of grief to Abraham—see v.7.

Poor Abraham’s past mistakes were catching up with him. First, six miserable, fruitless years in Haran, now strife with the family.

“Whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap.”

Abraham backslid into Egypt, under adversity, he stooped low to save his own skin.

While there he chose a lovely Egyptian maiden to help Sarah, his wife. This action brought endless trouble into his life.

The repercussions of this action can be seen today in the Arab nations—the Mohammedan religion.

Now Abraham is having trouble within his family.

Lot, whom he should have left in Ur of the Chaldees, is the cause of it.

Those mistakes or sins left indelible impressions upon Abraham, and he lived under the constant shadow of these sins.

No believer can backslide or disobey God’s implicit commands and ever be the same afterwards.

He becomes what one would call a “crippled priest.”

His spiritual growth is limited. His life of faith is stunted. Spiritual power is absent.

Abraham had left Egypt, but Egypt had not left Abraham.

13:2—“And Abraham was very rich in cattle, in silver and in gold.”

Read Genesis 11:31-32.

These verses introduce us to Abraham—the friend of God—the father of the faithful.

Abraham was a very important man—the Holy Spirit gives him great prominence in a moment.

The first 2000 years of human history are all covered in the first eleven chapters.

Twenty generations—twenty centuries of history.

The second section begins with a record of Abraham, and please note that chapters 12-50 cover only a period of about 400 years, and is entirely devoted to the history of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Abraham’s great grandson Joseph.

The other 38 books of the Old Testament deals with the history of the nation of Israel which sprang from Abraham.

The rest of the Bible is occupied with and centers in Abraham’s greater Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Bible is a book of Redemption, it is the unveiling of God’s plan of redemption.

First it was Abraham, then Isaac, then Jacob, his children.

From them came the Christ—they refused Him—and he turned to the Gentiles and became not only the Messiah but the Savior of the world.

Salvation is of the Jews—John 4:22; Romans 1:16.

The Bible being a progressive revelation of the character and plan of God. (Heb. 1). Little time is spent in past history. Eleven short chapters covers 2000 years.

God wastes no time in the past.

Written by Moses, 1500 years B.C.

With Genesis began the progressive revelation of God, which culminated in Jesus Christ.

Genesis is the seed plot of the Bible.

In it we have in germ form almost all of the major doctrines which are fully developed in the various books which follow. “Holy men wrote as they were moved,” etc.

1. In Genesis Gad is revealed as the Created God—Genesis 1:1.

2. We also have the first hint of the Blessed Trinity, of a plurality of persons in the Godhead. God—Spirit of God—Son of God—Theophany. “Let us make man in our image”—Genesis 1:26. The Trinity is revealed at the Lord’s baptism.

3. In the book, man is described first as:

A. The creation of God’s hands

B. A fallen, sinful being

C. Brought back to God.

4. The wiles of Satan are also exposed—Genesis 3; 2 Corinthians 4:3, 4. The realm in which he works is spiritual. He overturns the Word of God, casts doubt on its integrity, denies its veracity. More subtle—“You shall NOT surely die.”

5. The truth of salvation is typically displayed. Our fallen parents were clothed by God Himself—Genesis 3:21. To procure those skins death had to come—blood must be shed, the innocent was slain in place of the guilty. Only in this way could man be covered, and only in this way can the sinner be fitted to stand before a holy God.

Lesson 1: Creation
Genesis 1:1-31
Golden Text: 2 Corinthians 5:17

I. Creation; V. 1.

1. The Time, “Beginning;” Cp. John 1:1-3; Proverbs 8.

2. The Person—God. Cp. Colossians 1:16-18.

3. The Act—“Created.” Hebrews wd. “Bara” = to create out of nothing. This word is used three times in Genesis 1 and marks the introduction of three great spheres of existence, (1) Of matter, v. 1; (2) of animal life, v. 21; (3) of spirit, v. 21.

II. Chaos; V. 2. The earth not created so. Isaiah 45:18 (“Vain” = without form). It became without form and void—perhaps thru fall of Satan. Isaiah 14:12-17. Note the condition of the earth—typical of state of the unsaved today.

1. Formless. No aim, no object in life, no definiteness. Job 14:4; Eccl. 9:3; Jeremiah 16:12; Romans 8:5-8; Philippians 2:21; Isaiah 57:20.

2. Void—empty, dissatisfied. Cp. Psalm 94:11; Ecc. 1:13; 2:11; Acts 14:15-17; Galatians 6:7-8; Jeremiah 2:13.

3. Dark. Cp. John 1:5; 3:19, 20; Ephesians 6:12; Colossians 1: 13; Acts 26:18; 2 Corinthians 4:3-4.

III. Restoration; Vs. 2-31. The stages of restoration illustrative of stages in new creation, or regeneration. John 3:3.

1. Chaos; V. 2. Cp. Psalms 14:2, 3; Isaiah 57:20; John 3:18-20; Isaiah 53:6; Romans 3:10-19.

2. The Spirit’s moving; V. 2. Conviction. Cp. John 16:8-11; Acts 2:18, 37, etc.

3. Light; V. 3. Cp. John 8:12; 2 Corinthians 4:6; Ephesians 5:8; 1 Peter 2:9; Psalm 119:130.

4. Division; Vs. 4-7. Cp. John 3:36; 7:43; 9:16; 10:19; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; Leviticus 11:44-47.

Genesis has a character of its own; and, as the beginning of the Holy Book, presents to us all the great elementary principles which find their development in the history of the relationships of God with man, which is recorded in the following books. The germ of each of these principles will be found here, unless we except the law. There was however a law given to Adam in his innocence; and Hagar, we know, prefigures at least Sinai. There is scarce anything afterwards accomplished of which t...

From the Editor’s Notebook

W. Ross Rainey

Pointers on the Pentateuch

Genesis: The Book of Beginnings

Key Word: Beginning.

Message: Man’s sin met by God’s salvation.

Key Verses: 1:1 — “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” 3:15 — “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.”

Introduction

In many ways Genesis is the most important book in the Bible. Every great truth springs from this book, just as great and mighty oaks spring from little acorns. E. W. Bullinger has said: “Genesis is the seed-plot of the whole Bible, and it is essential to the true understanding of its every part. It is the foundation on which the Divine Revelation rests, and on which it is built up. It is not only the foundation of all Truth, but it enters into and forms part of all subsequent inspiration; and it is at once the warp and woof of Holy Writ.”

The World to Come, and the Divine Preparations for it. “Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world.”—Acts 15:18. pavnta oJrivzetai tw'/ tevlei. London: John F. Shaw & Co., 48, Paternoster Row, E.O. Preface The endeavour, in the following pages, is mainly to draw out the teaching of this book viewed as a whole. No doubt each of its many chapters abounds in instruction; and inasmuch as it narrates the history of the early patriarchs, one cann...

It had been well if the first verse, and beginning of the second, had been separated from the after verses, and entitled chapter 1 and thus seen to be distinct from the narrative of God’s constituting the earth as a suitable abode for His creature man. The second verse says that the earth, ere God began again to work upon it, was “tohu,” rendered “without form.” But Isa. 45:18, asserts that God did not create it “tohu.” And in Isa. 34:11, the same two words occur precisely as w...

Genesis 1-3

At the outset it is advisable that we should state that the variation in the Name divine found in these chapters is perfectly intentional. Fools may laugh and cite this admitted variation as a proof that Moses was a mere compiler, putting his narrative together from various shreds of tradition extant in his day. We know better. We know that this is the Word of God. True, that in chapter 1 this name is Elohim, or God; that in chapters 2¹ and 3 it is Jehovah-Elohim; whilst in chapter 4 it is Jehovah. This change of term to an intelligent reader of Scripture ought to be at once some clue to the history itself. For Elohim is His name as Creator; Jehovah-Elohim is the revelation of that Creator in relationship with His creature; whilst His name Jehovah reveals Him still, indeed, in relationship, but no longer on the ground of mere creation. Surely we may exclaim, “How beautifully exact is all this!”

Chapter 1 shows us God preparing a home, replete with every comfort and blessing for His creature; and then, secondly, His formation of that creature, and

His placing him in the home prepared for him. Even for the very cattle the earth was suitably adapted, ere those cattle were called into existence. It would be quite foreign to the subject assigned me, and to the limits within which it must be contained, to enlarge upon every verse. All that is proposed is to present a general survey of the entire book of Genesis as a whole. Let it therefore be perfectly understood that I refrain myself from remarking upon many expressions on which one might easily dilate. Suffice it to say that the six days’ work is subdivided into two threes, in which the light, the waters, and the earth, are severally addressed twice.