Genesis 1:1

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So the best place to start with the one “big story” of the Bible is at the beginning… Genesis 1:1 – “In the beginning, God…” The Bible begins with God, because God is the beginning of everything. God is the only eternally existent, uncreated, self-sustaining, independent being who exists. Everything else exists because God speaks it into being. In the very first chapter, the Bible tells us God is a creative being with phenomenal power. We have to be brief on this point right now, but it’s worth acknowledging that some of us may have differing views on how we were formed – creation or evolution. It won’t surprise you that my biblical background leads me to believe in creation. However, my math/science background also leads me to believe in creation. I have never heard a satisfying logical, rational, or scientific explanation for where we or the universe come from, if we deny the activity of a Creator God. If we deny a Creator, where did matter come from? What basis is there for claiming matter is eternally existent? (It makes sense that if God is GOD, He would be eternally existent.) If matter isn’t eternally existent, how does something come from nothing? Or even more, how does everything come from nothing? (It makes sense that a Creator God could be the source of everything. It doesn’t make sense that nothing could be the source of everything.) Even if matter is eternally existent, how can you explain order arising out of chaos? In our universe, order never “accidentally” arises out of chaos. Order is always the work of a rational mind. Even more, if the irrational forces of time and random chance accidentally produced everything that exists, how did our rational mind develop out of that? Irrationality cannot produce rationality. If you have an irrational source, the product is also irrational. Thus, if a rational being did not create us, we cannot even trust our own thinking as being rational, and every argument we make against creation must be dismissed as irrational! The order and structure of the universe suggests a rational mind is behind it, designing and creating it. If you would like to study more of the scientific and logical reasons supporting creation, The Case For a Creator by Lee Strobel is a good resource. The documentary Expelled by Ben Stein also does a great job of calling into question why so many of our so-called scientists and science teachers ignore the scientific evidence in favor of a creator. Genesis 1:26 – “Let us make man” Interesting that God refers to Himself in the plural (us). A hint toward God’s three-fold nature (the Trinity). God exists as three persons within Himself. Don’t get hung up on this. It makes sense that God would be more complex in His existence than we are… He’s God! Three persons within one being suggests that God is relational by nature. He has always been in relationship within His own persons. Later, the Bible teaches us to think of the relationship between these three persons as Father, Son, and Spirit. All three persons are fully God, but they are distinct in the way they relate to one another within the Godhead. Genesis 1:26-27 – God makes man and woman “in His image.” God created humans to reflect His nature. We are personal creatures. We are created to be in relationship with God and with one another. We are created to rule over creation as God’s personal representatives.

Genesis 3 – The Fall God places the first man and woman in a garden. Two trees in the garden are mentioned by name (The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and The Tree of Life). God forbids them to eat from The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He is giving them a choice. It seems that God desires for His relationship with us to be one in which we have a choice. He wants us to choose Him, to choose to love Him, to choose to obey Him. Adam and Eve disobey. They eat from the tree, hide from God, and refuse to take responsibility for their actions. God responds in two ways: with judgment and grace. This becomes a very important theme throughout the rest of the biblical story. God responds to human sin with judgment and grace. Judgment: God kicks them out of the garden, man’s work will now be hard and unproductive, childbirth will be painful for women, etc. Grace: God promises that a descendant of the woman will eventually triumph over the serpent who tempted them (Satan) (3:15). Genesis 4 – Adam and Eve’s sons, Cain and Abel, offer sacrifices to God. We later learn that this is part of God’s gracious way to forgive sin and restore our relationship with Him. The punishment for sin is death, but that punishment can be covered by a substitutionary sacrifice. Abel offers an animal sacrifice, which God accepts favorably. Cain brings a fruit sacrifice, which God does not accept. Hebrews 9:22 tells us, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Abel brought God what God required. Cain chose to do it his own way, and God would not accept it. People still try to do this today. We try to come to God on our terms. You can’t come to God on your terms. You can only come to God on God’s terms. God’s terms are that the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ is the only way you can be forgiven and in right relationship with God. You can only come to God through faith in Jesus. God warns Cain that “sin is crouching at his door.” The word for sin literally means “missing the mark.” Based on the attitude of Cain’s heart, he was missing the mark of God’s standard. Cain is jealous that God approved of Abel’s sacrifice and not his, so he kills Abel. Adam and Eve have another son, Seth. Genesis 6 – The Flood Several generations later, Noah is one of Seth’s descendants. Many humans now on earth. God sees the wickedness of their hearts (this is an important concept – God always looks at the heart!). Judgment: God decides to destroy the earth by flood. Grace: God turns His favor on Noah and spares him. Noah and his family survive in the ark. God makes a covenant with Noah that He will never again destroy the world by flood. Note: The ark was 450 feet long (that’s one and a half football fields), 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. It would have held 522 railroad cars of volume. One railroad car can hold 200 sheep, so the ark was more than big enough to hold the 3500 species that would have been present on earth at that time.

Genesis 11 – The Tower of Babel Humans begin to build a gigantic tower “to make a name for themselves.” They are seeking to glorify themselves instead of glorifying God. Judgment: God confuses their language and scatters them all over the earth. In other words, God makes them into many nations that can’t communicate with one another. Grace: God calls one man, Abraham, and promises to make him into a great nation. The purpose of this nation will be to bless all other nations through him. God intends to use Abraham and his descendants to help all the nations in the world know Him. Genesis 12-15 – God makes a covenant with Abraham. He promises to give Abraham a son, to give his descendants the land of Canaan, and to make them into a great nation. In Abraham’s day, people made a covenant with one another by cutting an animal in half and walking between the pieces. You were symbolically saying, “May this happen to me if I break the covenant.” In other words, “If I break the covenant, I’m dead meat!” In this instance, only God passes through the animal halves. The covenant is not based on Abraham at all. It is based completely on God. Genesis 15:6 is a huge verse in the Bible, “Abraham believed God and it was credited to Him as righteousness.” Abraham just trusts God, and God does all the work. Genesis 16 – Abraham is 85 and Sarah is 75, and they still don’t have a son. Sarah convinces Abraham to sleep with her maidservant Hagar to try to have a son. He does, and Ishmael is born. Genesis 17 – God appears to Abraham again when Abraham is 99. He basically tells Abraham, “I didn’t need you to give me a son. I’m going to give you a son.” Abraham and Sarah laugh at God, because Sarah has never been able to have children, and they think they’re too old to have children now. But a year later, when Abraham is 100 and Sarah is 90, Sarah gives birth to a son. They name him Isaac, which means “he laughs.” Isaac eventually has twins, and God chooses to keep His promise to Abraham through the younger twin, Jacob. God changes Jacob’s name to Israel, and Israel has 12 sons. The descendants of these 12 sons eventually become the 12 tribes of Israel. God’s promise to give Abraham many descendants is coming true. This reminds us that the whole story of the Bible is about God. It’s about what God has done in history to fulfill His promises. OVERVIEW OF THE BIBLE – SESSION TWO Joseph - Deuteronomy When we ended the last session, God had blessed Abraham and Sarah with a son, Isaac, even though Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90. Isaac has twins, and God chooses to keep His promise to Abraham through the younger twin, Jacob. God changes Jacob’s name to Israel, and Israel has 12 sons. God’s promise to give Abraham many descendants is coming true. The descendants of these 12 sons eventually become the 12 tribes of Israel. Genesis 37-50 – One of Jacob’s sons is Joseph. You may have heard of Joseph’s “coat of many colors.” It was a special gift that his father, Jacob, gave him. Jacob shows favoritism to Joseph, and Joseph seems to be pretty arrogant toward his brothers, so they despise him. They end up

selling Joseph into slavery, and they lie to their father and tell him that Joseph was killed by a wild animal. Joseph winds up in Egypt, working for a man named Potiphar. Potiphar likes Joseph, but one day, Potiphar’s wife tries to seduce Joseph. Joseph refuses and flees the house. Embarrassed and angry, Potiphar’s wife lies and says Joseph tried to take advantage of her. Joseph is thrown in prison. While he’s in prison, he meets Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker. God gives Joseph the ability to interpret their dreams for them, and his interpretations come true. Two years later, Pharaoh has dreams that no one can interpret, and the cupbearer remembers Joseph. Joseph is able to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams. The dreams are a message from God that Egypt will experience 7 years of abundance, followed by 7 years of famine. Joseph suggests a plan for Egypt to store food during the abundance, so they will still have food during the famine. Pharaoh likes the plan so much that he makes Joseph second-in-command in Egypt. When the famine comes, Joseph’s family has to come to Egypt to get food. Joseph recognizes them and eventually reveals to them that he is still alive. Pharaoh invites Joseph’s entire family to come live in Egypt. Joseph’s brothers are afraid that he will take revenge on them, but in Genesis 50:19-20, he makes one of the great statements in the Bible: “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Joseph realized that God was at work in everything that had happened in his life (Romans 8:28), and God was using all of that to fulfill His promises. Again, the entire story of the Bible (and the entire history of this world) is about God being a sovereign God who is working out His purposes and fulfilling His promises. Exodus 1 – Over the next several generations, the 70 people in Jospeh’s family who went to Egypt grow into about 2 million Israelites. A new Pharaoh who did not know Joseph comes to power. He is afraid that the Israelites are so numerous that they could overthrown the Egyptians, so he makes them slaves. Then, he commands the Egyptian midwives to kill every Israelite boy who is born. The midwives refuse, so Pharaoh orders that all Israelite boys be drowned in the Nile (Exodus 1:22). Exodus 2 – A baby named Moses is born. His parents hide him for three months, so he won’t be killed. When he gets too big to hide, they put him in a basket and hide him on the bank of the Nile. Pharaoh’s daughter comes to bathe and finds Moses. She takes him back to the palace and raises him. Again, God is at work in everything. God uses the same Pharaoh who was trying to kill the Israelites to raise the man who will lead the Israelites out of Egypt! When Moses is grown up, he witnesses an Egyptian beating an Israelite. He kills the Egyptian, and then has to flee to Midian, where he lives as a shepherd for 40 years, until… Exodus 3 – The Burning Bush God appears to Moses in a burning bush and tells Moses that He’s going to use him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. God reveals His Name to Moses as “I AM WHO I AM” (Hebrew=Yahweh). This reminds us of God’s eternal self-existence. “I AM defined by myself – by WHO I AM. I AM the ever-present, self-existent, all-sufficient one.” Compare this to Jesus’ “I AM” statements in John (6:35 – I am the Bread of Life; 8:12 – I am the light of the world; 10:9 – I am the gate; 10:11 – I am the good shepherd; 11:25-26 – I am the resurrection and the life; 14:6 – I am the way and the truth and the life; 15:5 - I am the vine; and the biggest one – 8:58, Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was born, I am!” The religious leaders try to kill Him for saying this, because they know He is claiming to be God!)

Moses tells Pharaoh to let the Israelites go, but Pharaoh refuses, so God sends ten plagues so “the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD” (Exodus 7:5). This brings us back to the recurring theme in the Old Testament: Judgment and Grace. Judgment: God sends 10 plagues. The last plague kills all the firstborn sons in Egypt. Grace: God tells the Israelites to sacrifice a lamb and put its blood on the doorframe of their houses. When God sees blood on the doorframe, He will “pass over” that house and spare the firstborn son (Exodus 12:12-13). This is a HUGE event in the biblical story. First, it reminds us of the theme of “substitutionary sacrifice.” God accepts the blood sacrifice of the lamb in place of the son. Second, this event leads to the establishment of Passover as an annual, week-long Israelite feast. Third, everything in the Passover points forward to Jesus. He is called the “Lamb of God” in the New Testament (John 1:29), because He is sacrificed in our place. He is sacrificed during Passover Week (Luke 22:7; John 13:1). By His sacrifice, He provides a way for us to be forgiven, so God can “pass over” our sins and not punish us (Hebrews 7:27; 10:14). Exodus 12:31 – Pharaoh tells Moses the Israelites can leave. Later, Pharaoh changes his mind and chases them down with his army. They’re penned against the Red Sea (Sea of Reeds), but God parts the sea so they can pass through on dry land. The Egyptians follow and the walls of water close on them and they drown. Exodus 19 - Numbers 10 – The Israelites are at Mount Sinai. They are now a nation of people who need rules and regulations to deal with their problems (for example, “If my ox gores your ox, what do I owe you?” “If I accidentally injure you, what do I owe you?” “If someone steals, what should the punishment be?”) God gives rules and regulations to govern them, including the Ten Commandments. God also gives instructions about sacrifices, offerings, and feasts. God also gives instructions about building a “traveling temple” called a tabernacle, where a priest will offer sacrifices for the forgiveness of sins in the “Most Holy Place” (the inner part of the tabernacle – “Holy of Holies” – separated from the rest of the tabernacle by a curtain). In the New Testament, Hebrews tells us that Jesus is the fulfillment of this sacrificial system. He’s our Great High Priest (Hebrews 4:14) who entered the Most Holy Place (Hebrews 9:12) and sacrificed Himself once and for all for our sins (Hebrews 9:26). When Jesus died on the cross, the curtain separating the Holy of Holies was torn in two, symbolizing that Jesus has given us direct access to God (Matthew 27:51). Leviticus 16 – Part of God’s rules for Israel include setting aside one day per year as the Day of Atonement. On that day (and that day only), the High Priest (and only the High Priest) is allowed to enter the Holy of Holies to be in God’s presence. He offers a bull as a sacrifice for his own sins. Then, he offers a goat as a sacrifice for the people’s sins. Then, he takes a second goat and places his hands on its head, as a symbol of placing the sins of Israel on its head, and releases it into the desert to carry away the sins of the people (Leviticus 16:21). This goat is called the “scapegoat” (Leviticus 16:8), which literally means “the goat of removal.” In the New Testament, the Day of Atonement is fulfilled in Jesus. “(Jesus) is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for our sins but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). “You were redeemed… with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:1819). “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). “(Jesus) sacrificed for their sins once for all when He offered Himself” (Hebrews 7:27).

On the cross, Jesus became our scapegoat, and God put our sin on Jesus, so that it can be removed from us. Jesus atones for our sin by offering Himself as the once-for-all perfect sacrifice. Now, by faith in Jesus, any person (not just the high priest) can approach God at any time (not just once a year), because He has opened the way into the “Holy of Holies” by His perfect sacrifice. Numbers 13 – God is ready to lead the Israelites into the land of Canaan and give it to them. This is the land He promised Abraham 500 years earlier. The Canaanites still live there, and God calls the Israelites to wipe them out. Is this wrong? No, this is another example of judgment and grace. Judgment: All the way back in Genesis 15, God told Abraham that He would only give Abraham’s descendants the land after the “sin of the Amorites (a group of the Canaanites) reached its full measure.” In other words, God is not arbitrarily destroying the Canaanites. He is punishing them for their sin. Grace: God is making the Israelites into a nation so all the other nations can know Him. Any time a non-Israelite trusts God, He accepts them as part of His people. (Rahab is an example of a Canaanite that God doesn’t destroy, because she responds to Him the way she should.) A spy is sent from each of the 12 tribes to scout out the land. They come back and report that the land is great, but 10 of the 12 are afraid of the people in the cities. Only Joshua and Caleb trust God and say they can take the land. The 10 spies scare the people and convince them not to go, so they disobey God and stay in the desert. Judgment: God makes them wander in the desert for 40 years until the entire generation of adults, other than Joshua and Caleb, die. Grace: God allows the next generation to enter the land. Numbers 21 – While the Israelites wander in the desert, they grumble and complain against God on several occasions. Judgment: God sends snakes into the camp to punish them for their grumbling. Grace: God tells Moses to make a bronze snake and put it on a pole. If anyone is bitten, if he will look at the bronze snake, he will live. In John 3:14-15, Jesus teaches that this pointed forward to Him. He says, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” Deuteronomy – Means “Second Law” (deutero = second; nomos = law). Moses is about to die, and the new generation of Israelites is about to get to enter into the Promised Land. Deuteronomy is Moses’ final sermon to the Israelites, reminding the new generation of God’s laws for them and how they are supposed to live for God as a nation. God is about to fulfill His promise to Abraham to make His descendants into a great nation in the land of Canaan. This reminds us again that the whole story of the Bible is about God. It’s about what God has done in history to fulfill His promises.