Bible Study Genesis Part 2-A Book of Introductions

Welcome to the program Study in the Chapel.

God's Word is supreme in chapel ministries.

We consider it absolutely essential to a proper relationship with God.

We study it, we love it, we rely on it every minute of every day.

The following program is an edited recording of the regular Bible studies we hold.

And we decided to share these with you in the hope that you too will be able to find inspiration, encouragement, and ultimately salvation through discovering Christ in Scripture.

Our intention is to travel all the way through the Bible.

It will be a challenging journey, one that will undoubtedly bring you to a decision.

Through this study, you will be faced with either believing or rejecting what God has said to us.

It is our intention to provide you with enough knowledge to make an informed decision about God and his word.

We strongly encourage you to listen intently and diligently, because though at the moment you may not realize it, these things are truly a matter of life and death.

In fact, these are matters of eternal life and eternal death.

Never treat what God has said lightly.

There's truly nothing more important to you.

Now join us as we seek God's will through his inspired word.

This is going to be a little bit precarious for many of us.

Many of us Christians are not used to studying out of the Old Testament.

Sure, the books are mentioned sometimes at Bible trivia at church picnic.

We'll talk about one or two things out of the Old Testament and then move quickly over to the New Testament because nobody gets the answers to the Old Testament questions.

Sure, we have a little bit of exposure to it, but we're going to do our best for all of us to become even more familiar with the Old Testament than the New.

And I'm hoping that everyone that joins us, you included, will see that the book of Genesis and the Old Testament are the foundation of our Christian faith.

As I said, we're still trying to introduce the wonderful book of Genesis.

Two weeks ago, because last week we were a bit off topic and we don't have anything to post from last week.

We had more or less an intimate private Bible study.

This week we're back on topic, but two weeks ago, picking up where we were two weeks ago.

So again, two weeks ago, the last time we were teaching on Genesis, we made some more or less general statements about what we're embarking upon.

Today we start sharpening our focus.

Those that know her recognize that my wife Catherine is an avid reader.

She reads a lot.

And whatever she reads, she gets through rather quickly.

She's fast and efficient.

I envy her for that.

She'll go through nine books before I go through half of one.

Now, I don't think there's ever been a time actually since we met where she's not in the process of plowing through at least one book with several more waiting for her to pick up.

And she reads all sorts of things.

She reads romance novels, she reads mysteries, she reads histories, but she never reads scary books.

She'll never do that.

But almost everything else she'll gobble up book nerd through and through.

And she takes it very seriously.

She thinks Book Nerd is a badge of honor.

Of course it is.

Now, she probably wouldn't be such an accomplished bookworm, except for the fact that she has set up for herself a few simple personal rules that she follows very religiously.

And the one that she considers the most important is that she does not want anyone to tell her beforehand what's in the book.

Nothing.

Don't tell her anything.

If you've already read a book that she's reading, she's going to avoid you like the plague until she finishes it herself.

And you think I'm kidding.

She doesn't want to talk to you if you've read a book that she's already trying to get through.

And likewise, she refuses to read that little synopsis that's found either on the back of the book or somewhere in the first few pages.

She rips those right out of the book, especially if they're a library book.

She doesn't want any spoilers.

She doesn't want any preparatory summaries.

Well, honey, don't listen for the next few minutes because that's what I'm about to do with the book of Genesis.

I think it'll help us in this study to sort of summarize the contents before we get into the meat of it.

Now, to be honest, this is a very jam-packed book.

So this summary, the summary we're going through now, will be very general, a very high-level overview.

And for part of that, I'm going to quote someone else.

When preparing for this study in the book of Genesis, I read a lot of commentary.

And Adam Clark's rundown of the contents of this first book of the Bible is absolutely perfect.

It is succinct and to the point.

So to get us started, let me read from this man's introduction to his commentary on Genesis.

Quote: This book contains an account of the creation of the world and its first inhabitants, the original innocence and fall of man, the rise of religion, the invention of arts, the general corruption and degeneracy of mankind, the universal deluge, the repeopling and division of the earth, the origin of nations and kingdoms, and a particular history of the participants from Adam down to the death of Joseph, including a space at the lowest computation of 2,369 years.

Now keep that number, roughly 2,400 years in mind.

In a moment, I'm going to share with you another Bible scholar's point of view about the amount of time covered in Genesis.

I believe this conversation will be helpful to many of you.

You know, many of us think we have this modern mindset, this scientific mindset, and we walk into a discussion of Genesis with these preconceived notions.

I hope this part of the discussion will help you.

Now let me start this with a question.

When you're telling a story, what is the one factor that makes the difference between a long story and a short story?

That's an easy answer.

Details, right?

The more details, the longer the story.

A long story has a lot of details in it, and a short story has few details.

Follow-up question: When you're telling a story, why do you leave some details out?

Again, not a tough question.

A good storyteller leaves out details that are not pertinent to the purpose of the telling of the story, right?

Most of us, when relating a tale, have a point.

In our studies, we are not just reporting facts.

We're trying to communicate something.

Facts are cold and lifeless unless there's a reason for their articulation.

I assume you agree.

Therefore, facts that are to be included are usually chosen carefully.

Details must fit into the boundary of the purpose of the storytelling.

In fact, too many details endanger the intended message.

Too many specifics can get very confusing.

Poor storytellers will give you all sorts of unnecessary information.

And when they do, the actual point of what they're trying to say gets lost.

So the best messages have the right amount of data in them.

It's called being concise, right?

You've heard that word before.

Telling a concise story, giving a concise report, passing on information in a concise manner is preferable in almost every situation.

Incorporating only those things that will help and leaving out the things that won't is the proper communication method.

Here is my favorite example.

Say you and I are sitting in Buffalo Wild Wings, me eating the vegan version, of course, and you notice on one of the screens that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are losing by 40 points to the Detroit Lions.

Hey, this is my story.

I get to tell it the way I want to.

You motion toward the TV to point out the score to me.

I smile big, maybe raise a triumphant fist in the air, you know, woo-hoo! And as soon as I'm done basking in this unexpected autumn surprise, I start to tell you about the time I met Malcolm Glazer at an airport.

You're young, so you don't know who Malcolm Glazer is.

I tell you that at the time I met him, he was the owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, actually the father of the men who run the team now.

I start to tell you about that experience and what it was like to live in that city at the time because we lived there.

Sammy was actually born in Tampa, and how important that football team was to that city, and how much everyone loved Mr.

Glazer for bringing some success when he arrived.

Before he took ownership of the Bucks, they were really the only ones my team could ever beat.

He made a big difference.

So I tell you about the fancy new stadium that got built in those days.

I tell you about the pirate ship thingy in the end zone, all of that.

You enjoy the story, of course, because I am an exceptional storyteller.

But what if you sometime later found out that Tampa was also where the New York Yankees' spring training facility was located?

In fact, their stadium, the Yankees' spring training and minor league stadium, you later learn is right across the street from where the Buccaneers play.

Now, upon uncovering that fact, would you then go around telling people that I don't know a thing about the city of Tampa just because I didn't mention the baseball stadium?

Maybe you even say that my story about Malcolm Glazer must have been a lie because I left out that baseball-related fact.

You say I can't trust you anymore because you never tell me everything.

Now, of course, that is absolutely ridiculous.

You would never do that because you know that all I was doing was telling you a story about Malcolm Glazer.

I wasn't even telling you a story about Tampa.

I told you football-related stuff because Mr.

Glazer happened to own a football team.

And by the way, you knew that because you knew the details of the story were about Malcolm Glazer.

And that's why you don't accuse me of being an ignorant liar because you got the message.

The message, listen to me, the message was in the details I gave you, not in the details I left out.

When telling a story, if you want your message to come across, deliver only the details necessary to it, even though that might make the other person upset.

Genesis is not a book about creation, it's not a book about the universe, it's not a book about world empires.

It's got another agenda, and you have to know that if you're going to get out of it, what God put into it.

Now, most scholars agree that the book of Genesis is split into two major divisions.

The first major division is contained in chapters one through 11.

The second major division starts at the beginning of chapter 12 and goes all the way through to the end of the book.

Now listen to me carefully.

This is the purpose of my previous rant.

The first division, again, chapters one through 11 covers around 2,000 years worth of history.

The second division spans only the next 350.

In fact, chapter 12 of Genesis, on through the rest of the entire Bible except Revelation, only covers about the same amount of time in years as those first 11 chapters of Genesis.

Let me say that again.

The story, the events, the people, etc., found in chapter one through eleven of Genesis concerns around 2,000 years of history.

The rest of Scripture, the rest of the Bible, another, I don't know, probably a thousand pages in my Bible covers roughly the same amount of time.

So what's the difference?

Why does it take so long to cover the same number of years as it did in the first eleven chapters?

Why is that?

Anyone know?

And by the way, this isn't a biblical question, it's a common sense question.

In my Bible, 2,000 years of time is covered in the first nine pages.

And then the same number of subsequent years spans across the next 1,072 pages.

2,000 years, nine pages.

The next 2,000 years takes more than a thousand.

Now that's significant.

Why the vast difference?

What should I notice between those two sections?

Well, I'll give you a hint by suggesting it's related to our immediately previous discussion.

What's the difference between a short story and a long story?

It's details.

And again, why do some people tell a lot of details and not others?

Because, listen to me, if they don't add to the message, leave them out.

It's not that there aren't any more details.

There is a baseball stadium in Tampa, but that detail and any other baseball related details would only pad the story, would only make it longer, but not enhance the message.

The first nine pages, not many details shared.

There were an infinite number of details that existed, but very few details shared.

The last 1072 pages, many more details were necessary.

Why?

It had a story to tell.

And so those details were related to that story.

Am I making sense?

Now let me quickly mention that the second division begins with our introduction to Abraham.

Actually, it's so far back in his life that he's still called Abram when we first meet him.

If you don't know what I mean, don't worry, you will.

I'm just pointing out, listen to me, that the last part of the book of Genesis, the part that only covers 300 or 400 years, starts with God calling the man who was the father of the nation Israel.

That alone should tell you something important about the message of the Bible.

From our first encounter with Abram all the way through the rest of the book of Genesis is about 350 or 400 years.

The previous 11 chapters, more than 2,000.

And to be honest, it's really closer to billions of years.

The very first verse of the very first chapter starts with these words, in the beginning.

Remember, that's actually the title of the book, if you speak Hebrew, Baresheth, in the beginning, as expressed in the original language of the Jews.

Well, the beginning, in the beginning, is much further back than you and I can even imagine.

First 11 chapters, at least 2,000 years, actually more, but I'm trying to make a point here.

But don't worry, we'll come back to that when we actually start talking about that book.

It's very interesting.

So again, first 11 chapters around and at least 2,000 years.

The next 39 chapters, 350 to 400.

Why did not much happen in those previous 2,000 to multi-billion years?

You of course don't think that.

It has nothing to do with the story.

Doesn't mean the Yankee Stadium isn't there.

Doesn't mean I didn't know about the Yankee Stadium.

It doesn't mean I was trying to hide that from you.

I just gave you enough details for you to get the point of my story.

God left all of those billions of years of details out because it wasn't what he was trying to say.

If you want to know more about the creation, you're going to have to find out about it outside the Bible.

If you want to know more about the environment, as it was during the Pleistocene era, you're going to have to find out about it outside the Bible because the Bible is focused on something else.

Hopefully, I made my point.

Doesn't matter because I'm going to bring this up a lot over the next couple of chapters.

Remember, I said I was going to bring up another schedule.

The other scholar being J.

Vernon McGee.

He says there are two key books of the Bible.

The book that opens the Old Testament, Genesis, the one we're about to study, and the book that opens the New Testament, Matthew.

According to Dr.

McGee, these two books are crucial to our understanding of the entire Bible.

Now, I would agree with Genesis for sure, but maybe not Matthew.

But again, Dr.

McGee was far smarter than I could ever be.

If you have doubts, lean on what he has to say.

Now he also says that Genesis is relevant, listen to me, to all of Scripture.

Now I completely agree with that.

I think every book of the Bible can relate back to Genesis in one way or another.

Now I didn't say I could do that.

I'm just saying I know that it does.

This book, as you can imagine, with a title like Genesis, is where we find the first mention of some very important topics.

Now we've said that already, but I have a few more very specific ones.

God's creative process is mentioned, of course, albeit with not many details, as we said.

Genesis is where sin is first mentioned, and it doesn't take long for it to show up.

Here is where the Sabbath is brought up for the first time, which surprises some people because they think the Sabbath is strictly a Ten Commandment thing, which is the book of Genesis or Book of Exodus.

The Ten Commandments are in the book of Exodus.

Some people think that the Sabbath isn't brought up until Exodus.

Not true.

In fact, the keep the Sabbath holy command is because of that creative process that's been brought up in Genesis.

God rested on the seventh day, and so he wanted his chosen people to do so as well.

Now the Sabbath has always been holy to God, and the Ten Commandments just codified that, if you will.

Now there's much, much more to talk about with the Sabbath, but I have to keep moving.

Other first mentions include marriage, family, labor, civilization, culture, murder, sacrifice, the races of men, language, redemption, and cities.

The book of Genesis is also where we're introduced to some of the most important people who have ever lived.

Abraham, as we already mentioned.

Now, there aren't too many more important characters in history than him.

If anyone ever asks you who's the most important person in human history, you would better say Abraham.

Three of the world's largest religions ever honor this man as a key figure in their beliefs.

In Genesis, we meet Isaac, we meet Jacob, we meet Joseph, and actually we meet all of the 12 patriarchs of the tribes of Israel.

Of course, not all of them are prominently portrayed.

In fact, we really only get to know a very select few of them.

The rest, we just kind of know their names, maybe the names of their wives and a few of their children, but not much more.

Now, having said that, let me also point out that some even called Genesis the book of biographies, since so many prominent family origin stories are brought up, and you're going to see that as we get through it.

Now, to round out the list of some of the important people that we meet in this book, there's Lot, Abimelech, a couple of the pharaohs of Egypt, and Potifar.

Of course, there are many more, but most of these that we've mentioned are the ones you've likely to have heard of, at least at this point.

But don't worry if you know only a few or none of those.

Trust me, you will become familiar with them as we go through our study.

Just a few more things to mention before we jump in and study the book, which we'll begin next week.

Genesis is where we learn that God is a covenant-making God.

Now, that's an extremely important concept for you to become familiar with because covenant is the process by which God will redeem mankind.

Now, speaking of redemption, and with this, I'll close this introductory lesson.

Genesis is also where we listen to me, this is where we also meet the Son of God.

Now, again, that surprises some of you, but it's true.

Of course, in the Old Testament, he's not named Jesus, he doesn't have his earthly name Jesus, but he is there in Genesis just the same, and we will point that out when we come to that.

Now, it's not to say he's not nameless, he has many names.

He goes by various names and titles.

As I said, we'll point those out as we come to them.

Now, the challenge with introducing such a magnificent and essential book like Genesis is where to end the introduction.

In fact, where to stop has been my challenge throughout this vital book as I prepare my lessons.

There are so many important things to talk about that each verse, especially the ones in the very beginning, we could spend several hours on.

As I've been preparing this study, I found that I've had time and again to dial it back a bit.

Thank God for delete.

Thank God for undo.

But believe me, it's been torture.

Well, I think we've done the best we can in this introduction.

We'll have much more to say as we start digging into the specifics.

Next time, Genesis 1.1, the beginning in every sense of the word.

We hope this study has blessed you.

God's word is a great treasure, and it's our belief that a thorough, purposeful study of it will bring all of God's children to an understanding of his eternal plan of redemption.

It is our prayer that this will be so for all of our listeners.

Please join us again soon.

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