Genesis 1-5
November 3, 1996
Introduction
The book of Genesis is the book of beginnings.
That's what the name "genesis" is all about.
It's the beginning of creation.
It's the beginning of man.
It's the beginning of civilization.
It's the beginning of sin.
It's the beginning of redemption.
It's the beginning of faith.
Genesis 1
:1 In the beginning God created
bara'
- to create out of nothingThis is not yatsar which carries the idea of forming something out of materials that are already present.
If you have a problem with this verse, I feel sad for you.
You've been brainwashed by the world into thinking that somehow this world all came about by some other means.
If you don't have a problem with this verse ...
If you believe that God actually created all that is around us by simply speaking it into existence ...
If you believe in a God who is big enough, smart enough, and strong enough to create everything ...
Lesson:
Your problems are only as big as your God.
from Wanda:
Two ways to handle any problem:
1) Compare the size of your problem with the size of your God.
2) Compare the size of your problem with the size of your God.
It's your choice! It's His solution!
Your problems are only as big as your understanding of God.
You see this in the prayers of godly men in the Bible.
When Hezekiah was surrounded by the great, fearsome Assyrian army, he prayed,
(2 Ki 19:15-16 KJV) And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said, O LORD God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth. {16} LORD, bow down thine ear, and hear: open, LORD, thine eyes, and see: and hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the living God.
:2 And the earth was without form, and void;
Some Bible scholars say that there is some kind of invisible time gap between verses 1 and 2.
Let me just say, I think that if there's an invisible time gap here, it's so invisible that I don't see it.
What's really happening is that there are Christians who have allowed their heads to get mixed up with the "science" of evolution, and feel they must find a way to reconcile the supposed great age of the earth with the Bible.
I don't think that's necessary.
Who can say that when God created the earth, He didn't create it with an appearance of age?
When Adam was first formed, how old did he appear?
Did he appear as a newborn baby?
Or was he already a grown adult, with the appearance of age?
:7 God made the firmament,
During the initial creation, God had a great body of water suspended above the earth, creating a sort of "canopy" around the earth.
It is this canopy that partly contributed to the great flood of Noah, when the "windows of heaven" were opened.
Some have theorized that this could be why the ages of men before the flood were so great, and after the flood the age of man dropped rapidly to our present state of affairs.
Perhaps this "canopy" shielded the earth from the more dangerous forms of radiation.
This canopy would have also created a "greenhouse" effect, creating a greater equalization of temperatures around the globe.
They have found wooly mammoths in Siberia with undigested, tropical vegetation in their stomachs.
:16 two great lights;
Here, on the fourth day, God creates the sun, moon, and stars.
Some have thought that if we just took the events in Genesis kind of loosely, and rather than 24 hour days, if each "day" was a billion years, perhaps it would all work out?!?!?
The problem is that the Genesis is not the order of evolution at all.
On day one, God creates light.
On day two God sets up the firmament.
On day three God creates vegetation.
On day four God creates the sun and moon.
Wait a minute here! This is slightly out of order!
Point:
You cannot take the Bible literally, AND follow the typical scientific theory of evolution.
"But, do we have to take this literally?"
Jesus did.
He based His teachings on marriage and divorce based on the fact of God's creating man according to Genesis. (see Matt 19:3-6).
:24 after his kind
God's plan is that species stay distinct from one another.
There is no evolution from one species of animal to another.
We have seen development within species, such as dogs and horses, but we have not seen a dog give birth to a cat.
:26 Let us make man in our image,
Interesting use of the plural.
Who is God talking to?
The Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost.
In fact, "elohim" (God)is plural, meaning more than two.
It's not singular, "el"
It's not dual (a form in Hebrew), "elah"
But it's plural, "elohim"
:28 replenish
better translated "fill"
:29 I have given you every herb
Originally, man was a vegetarian.
:31 the sixth day
The Bible says God created everything in six days.
Evolution says not.
Problems with evolution
Here are just some of the major problems I have with the typical model of evolution:
1) The use of circular reasoning - the earth is old because of the different layers of fossils. Fossil age is determined by what layer they are found in. The age of the layers are determined by what fossils are found in them.
2) Radiometric dating - methods such as Carbon-14 dating are kind of suspect. Living organisms such as mollusks on ocean piers have been tested, and measure at being millions of years old.
3) Layers of earth don't speak of the process of millions of years, it actually speaks more of a cataclysmic event, such as a global flood, than it does of evolution.
Dying creatures aren't fossilized today, they decay.
Fossils are created when there is a sudden cataclysmic event which kills the creature, imbeds it in sediment, then compacts it under pressure as the sediment settles.
4) The lack of transitional life forms.
You cannot find record of these gradual changes from one species to another that evolutionists talk about.
The fossil record shows distinct lines between species.
example: The evolution of a bat, and it's wings. There are no forms found of an animal with small wings, then bigger wings, and then finally full wings on it.
5) The Second Law of Thermodynamics.
Evolutionary thinking says that things are getting better and better.
New Agers even talk about how we as humans are on the edge of evolving into a new species.
Yet a proven Law, this second law of thermodynamics, states that in a closed system, things run down.
If you wind up a clock, it will run until it runs down, it will run down until you exert some force to wind it up again.
The sun is burning up, and will some day run out of gas.
Your bedroom doesn't get cleaner with time, it gets messier.
Yet this is directly the opposite of evolution, which says that things are getting better, organisms are getting more complex.
6) It doesn't fit God's account of things at all.
In fact, it's all carefully calculated to leave God out.
I think mankind is glad to have an excuse in thinking that there is no God, and there is no great Being that I am going to one day be accountable to.
This is all interesting in the light of something that happened a few weeks ago:
October 25, 1996 - In the statement released Wednesday, the pope said new knowledge has confirmed that Darwin's theory of evolution is ``more than a hypothesis.''
He never said what this "new knowledge" was.
Interesting ...
Genesis 2
:2 rested
The Hebrew word is "shabath"
It's not a sense that God was tired, it's just that He ceased from His work of creation.
:3 God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it:
This becomes our pattern for the "sabbath" day.
It was not because God needed a break.
It was because we needed an example to slow down.
:4 These are the generations
We're going to see this phrase several times through the book of Genesis.
In chapter 5,
"This is the book of the generations of Adam"
It has been suggested that these are the original divisions of the book, and that when Moses was writing Genesis, he pulled from existing records of these ancient times, as in the records of Adam himself.
:4 LORD
The book of beginnings - This is the first time that the name YHWH is found in the Bible.
It is related to God's creation of man.
This name of the Lord is all about God's relationship with man:
(Exo 34:6-7 KJV) And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, {7} Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.
:6 there went up a mist
No rain for the crops.
Only a built in watering system, probably due to the canopy effect.
:9 the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Two different trees.
Two different effects.
I wonder why Adam had to eat of the bad tree, and didn't eat the good tree?
:14 Euphrates.
Don't expect to go excavate the garden of Eden.
We're not at all sure that these rivers are located near their modern day namesakes.
Remember, this all takes place BEFORE the flood, before the earth is wiped out.
:18 It is not good that the man should be alone;
Amen to that!
:20 but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
This is really rather humorous.
:23 she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
Hebrew -
man = ish
woman = ishah
Jewish proverb - God didn't take woman from his head that she should rule over him, or from his foot that he should step on her, but from his rib, his side, that they should be side by side.
Humor???:
"I'm LONELY," Adam told God in the Garden of Eden. "I need to have someone around for company."
"Okay," replied God. "I'm going to give you the perfect woman. Beautiful, intelligent and gracious -- she'll cook and clean for you and never say a cross word."
"Sounds good," Adam said. "But what's she going to cost?"
"An arm and a leg."
"That's pretty steep," countered Adam. What can I get for just a rib?"
-- Contributed by Martha G. Verlander,
Reader's Digest, February 1991 p. 82
:24 leave ... cleave
Here is one of the foundational verses of marriage, with the two parts of marriage:
Leaving.
Your parents are honored, but they no longer decide for you.
Cleaving.
You join with your wife.
:25 they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
To me, this is the epitomy of marriage.
Not that there are no clothes involved.
But that there is complete openness between husband and wife.
This is when marriage is at it's best.
When we have no secrets between each other.
And we're not ashamed, but loved instead.
Genesis 3
:1 subtle
cunning
:1 Yea, hath God said,
This is one of Satan's best tactics, causing us to question God's Word.
:5 ye shall be as gods,
A temptation still heard today.
Mormonism teaches that they become gods.
Word of Faith teachers do the same.
New Age thinking says that we are all gods.
:6 the woman saw ... it was pleasant to the eyes ... to be desired ... she took of the fruit
The first sin.
There's a progression here that we see in temptation.
James writes:
(James 1:14-15 KJV) But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. {15} Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
It starts with, "It won't hurt just to look at it ..."
And ends up with taking the bait.
:6 gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
No deception here.
Just plain stupid.
:7 they sewed fig leaves
Kind of stupid.
Fig leaves are terribly itchy.
:8 Adam and his wife hid
Typical reaction when you've sinned.
:9 the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
God wasn't asking because He didn't know.
He's asking Adam if he (Adam) knows where he (Adam) is.
:12 The woman whom thou gavest
The first excuse, the first cop-out.
:14 upon thy belly
It is thought that before the fall, the serpent might have been an upright creature, possibly even with arms and legs.
:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman,
The first hint at redemption.
The Savior would come from the "seed of the woman", virgin born.
Jesus would be bitten on the heel, but would stomp on Satan's head.
:16 in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children;
Sorry ladies, it's Eve's fault.
:16 thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
I see the New Testament commandments for marriage to be a sort of parallel to this, almost filling in what's lacking.
The woman's desire would be for her husband - Paul commands husbands to love their wives as Christ loves the church.
he shall rule over thee - wives should submit to their husbands.
:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,
Sorry guys, but you owe the tough times at work to Adam.
:20 Eve
Eve = life or life-producer
:21 did the LORD God make coats of skins,
Where as man just tried to cover himself with fig leaves, God made garments of animal skin.
But where did God get the animal skin?
Is it possible that there's a hint of sacrifice involved here?
It seems that God dealt with man's sin through sacrifice.
:23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth
It seems cruel at first that God sent Adam out of the garden.
But it was in fact out of great love.
God didn't want man to live eternally in his sin, but needed to provide a Savior first.
Genesis 4
:1 Cain,
A play on words, "Cain" is related to "gotten"
Hebrew: qayin ... qanah
:2 Abel
Abel means "breath" or "vanity," reflecting perhaps Eve's understanding of the import of the curse.
It seems that she may have felt that Cain was going to be the deliverer, but instead, she just kept painfully having children.
:4 the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
Some have suggested that since Abel's offering was a blood sacrifice, it was better than Cain's which was only grain.
But Hebrews tells us the real reason why:
Heb 11:4 By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. (AV)
Abel was a man who was learning to trust in God.
:7 sin lieth at the door
God warns Cain about the attitude that's brewing in his heart.
He has the choice of either being a master over his sin, or being mastered by it.
:8 Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
The first murder.
I wonder if there was a bloody glove.
:9 Am I my brother's keeper?
We often hear people use this phrase.
It's not a good one to use.
Cain isn't exactly an example to follow.
We ARE our brother's keepers.
:10 the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.
Strange idea.
God knows.
Nothing gets past Him.
:12 a fugitive and a vagabond
Cain's punishment for killing his brother.
:15 the LORD set a mark upon Cain,
No, it wasn't black skin.
It was some kind of mark that warned people not to touch Cain.
:17 Cain knew his wife;
Where did Cain get his wife?
An OLD question.
Answer: He married either a sister or a cousin, or some kind of relative.
Adam and Eve had other children:
(Gen 5:4 KJV) And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:
Keep in mind, we aren't given any kind of time frame for all these events.
:25 Seth
Seth means "the appointed one," the substitute (for slain Abel).
:26 then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.
The beginning of true worship.
Calling on "the name"
Genesis 5
:1 This is the book of the generations of Adam.
This is one of the major genealogies of the Bible.
Some genealogies contain gaps (such as Matthew's), but they're also constructed differently.
This genealogy is unique in that it gives specific ages of when a son was born, and how old a person lived.
The names:
Some (like Chuck Missler) have suggested that there's even a hidden message in the names here, a message of salvation:
Hebrew English
Adam Man
Seth Appointed
Enosh Mortal
Kenan Sorrow;
Mahalalel The Blessed God
Jared Shall come down
Enoch Teaching
Methuselah His death shall bring
Lamech The Despairing
Noah Rest, or comfort.
Extra credit homework
Try charting it all out.
See if you can find out how long ago Adam lived.
See if can find out what year the flood of Noah occured.