Category: Genesis

Explore the Book: Genesis (Pt 4)

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The Seven Great Men of Genesis

  1. Abel – a man of spiritual desire.  This is a contrast to Cain, a man of earthly desire.  Cain was a tiller of the ground with earthward interests and holdings.  Abel was a keeper of sheep, a tent-dwelling pilgrim desiring something beyond.  Cain goes out from the presence of the Lord and busies himself with cities and with works in brass and iron.  Abel reaches for better things, seeking rest in God; suffering and dying in hope of the better resurrection (Hebrews 11.16).
  2. Enoch – a man who walked with God.  Behind the walk was the will.  Enoch’s will was God’s will.  Two cannot walk together except they be agreed (Amos 3.3).  Enoch agreed with God.  He made this choice to fellowship with God and walk with God.  Enoch went God’s way; God did not come Enoch’s way.  He was a dedicated man of spiritual choice.
  3. Noah – a man of spiritual renewal.  Noah’s story begins as a man of spiritual choice on the ground of the old world (Genesis 6).  He is separated from the old world in the ark and by the flood waters (Genesis 7).  He then goes forth into a new life in a new world (Genesis 8-9).
  4. Abraham – a man of faith.  He trusted in God’s guidance, believed in God’s promises, received God’s assurances, inherited God’s blessing, underwent difficult testing, and was accounted righteous through faith as a friend of God.
  5. Isaac – a man of sonship.  Isaac is a son of special promise, special birth, special preciousness, the only son of his mother, and the only heir of his father, the son through whom promises are realized.  A special bride is chosen for him.  He dwelt in the land of inheritance, biding by thBaxtere wells of water, with many joys and few conflicts, we see in him the privileges and joys of sonship.
  6. Jacob – a man of service.  Jacob is the worker throughout, busy with his hands.  He struggles to obtain the blessing.  He is touched by God and becomes the prince of prayer.  He is spiritual at heart.  He is eager in his activity, work, and service.
  7. Joseph – a man of suffering and glory.  Faith, sonship, and service blend together in his life.  Joseph is made perfect through sufferings.  

These seven men are set apart by the writer of Hebrews as great men of faith (see Hebrews 11).

Suggestions to Study these Seven Men:

    

  1. Study them biographically.  Note dominant features and determining crises.  Illustrate and apply.
  2. Study them spiritually.  Which transcending truths enlighten the mind?  Which transcending truths regulate the life?
  3. Study them prophetically.  Baxter suggests the following prophecies within Genesis:  Christ (3.14-15); Earth (3.17-18; 8.21-22); Race (9.25-27); Israel (13.14-17; 22.15-18); Nations and tribes (17.19-20; 25.23; 48.17-20; 49.1-28).
  4. Study them dispensationally.  A dispensation is a period of time during which man is tested in respect of obedience to some specific revelation of the will of God.  Baxter numbers seven in Scripture and four in Genesis:  1) Innocence in which God tests man; 2) Conscience in which God suffered man; 3) Human Government in which God restrained man; 4) Promise in which God wrought for man.
  5. Study Genesis geographically, critically, and textually.

Explore the Book: Genesis (Pt 2)

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“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:1–2)

Creation

  • “In the beginning God” – denies atheism with its doctrine of no God
  • “In the beginning God” – denies polytheism with its doctrine of many gods
  • “In the beginning God created” – denies fatalism with its doctrine of chance
  • “In the beginning God created” – denies evolution with its doctrine of infinite becoming
  • “God created heaven and earth” – denies pantheism which makes God and the universe identical
  • “God created heaven and earth” – denies materialism which asserts the eternity of matter

Note:  It is at this point that Baxter maintains what many older commentators maintained.  He held to a gap of time that elapses between Genesis 1.1 and Genesis 1.2.  He claims that these verses have no logical connection.  He seeks to reconcile science with the Bible by explaining geology through this gap of time.  He believes that the earth was reformed. Further, he believes that the days in Genesis 1-2 are not literal days but point to the process, progress, and purpose they exhibit.  This effects his view of Genesis 2.

I maintain that God created all things in six literal days.  There was no recreation of the heavens and the earth.  There is no large gap of time between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2.  As far as the age of the geological table, I believe God created the heavens and the earth with the appearance of age.  Adam and Eve were not created as infants but as full-grown adults.  The gap theory and any other acquiescence to science ought to be dismissed.  The text in Genesis is literal and historical.

Click this link to understand more about the Gap Theory and recent modifications made to it.

Fall

  1. Temptation (Genesis 3.1-6) – The tempter could only tempt.  There need not have been sin.  There was no reason to yield to temptation.  The temptation was strengthened by the questioning of God’s Word (3.1), flat out contradiction (3.4), and the maligning of God’s motive behind the prohibition given (3.5).
  2. Yielding (Genesis 3.6) – Satan captured the ear, the eye, the inward desire, and finally the will.  Eve allowed her ear to listen to the tempter, her eye to become fixed upon the object of temptation, and her desire to run away with her will (cp. Genesis 3.6 with 1 John 2.16 and 2 Timothy 2.14).
  3. Results (Genesis 3.7-24) – Eyes were in fact opened and they knew they were naked.  Innocence was gone.  Shame manifested itself.  Surely there were outward and inward changes.  Attendant with sin was fear and hiding.  Yet God remembers mercy and delivers the promise of a coming Savior (Genesis 3.15).

Flood

We know little about the period between the Fall and the Flood.  It is a 1600 year period when corruption became so thorough that the intervention of God was unavoidable.  Retribution became inevitable.  It illustrates the need for separation between the lines of Seth and Cain.  It illustrates the need to remain uncompromising in our world today.

Note:  Baxter believes that it is not necessary to hold to a universal flood in order to maintain inspiration.  He is mistaken.  The promise of God mitigates against this belief.  There have been many localized floods that have taken tens of thousands of lives in a single incident.  His material on this point is confusing and incoherent.

To better understand the Genesis flood, click here to examine its universality.
Baxter
Babel

This event marks the pluralizing of human language.  This was necessary as a form of judgment due to unwholesome unity and rebellion against God.

Note:  Baxter’s addendum to Lesson 2 buttressed his argument for a Gap Theory.  Research regarding the Days of Creation is found by clicking the link.  In spite of Baxter’s support of the Gap Theory, we will find much value and profit in Explore the Book.  We just need to be discerning.

Explore the Book Lessons: Genesis (Pt 1)

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BaxterGenesis and the Entire Bible



  1. Genesis constitutes a working introduction to the further revelation of God communicated to us in the Bible.
  2. Genesis is explanatory.  The root of all subsequent revelation are planted deep in Genesis, and whoever would truly comprehend that revelation must begin here.

Genesis and the Pentateuch

Genesis is the first of the five books of Moses or the books of the law.  These five books are also known as the Pentateuch (Greek:  Penta – five; teuchos – book).  The Greek King of Egypt named Ptolemy II Philadelphus asked scholars to translate the Torah from Hebrew into Greek, for inclusion at the great library in Alexandria.

It is said that Ptolemy gathered 72 elders, placed them in 72 chambers, each of them in a separate one, without revealing to them why they were called.  He entered each room and commanded each man to write the Torah.  It is said that each translated the Torah identically as all the others did.

This translation will become known as the Septuagint later.  Septuagint is from Latin for 70.  It is sometimes abbreviated as LXX.  This translation was utilized by the Lord Jesus and His disciples.  

The Pentateuch contains a progressive spiritual unity or a spiritual completeness.  It offers a human and divine side:

The Human Side
 

  1. GENESIS:  Ruin – through the sin of man
  2. EXODUS:  Redemption – by blood and by power
  3. LEVITICUS:  Communion – on the ground of atonement
  4. NUMBERS:  Direction – guidance by the will of God
  5. DEUTERONOMY:  Destination – through the faithfulness of God

The Divine Side
 

  1. GENESIS:  Divine sovereignty – in creation and election
  2. EXODUS:  Divine power – in redemption and emancipation
  3. LEVITICUS:  Divine holiness – in separation and sanctification
  4. NUMBERS:  Divine goodness and severity – judging, caring
  5. DEUTERONOMY:  Divine faithfulness – in discipline and destination

Genesis and Revelation (First and Last)



Genesis answers, “How did it all begin?”  Revelation answers, “How will it all end?”  Comparing the two highlights similarities, contrasts, and completions:

Similarities



  1. Both contain a new beginning and a new order.
  2. Both contain the tree of life, the river, the bride, and the walk of God with man.
  3. Both paradises have the same moral and spiritual ideals.  Holiness finally triumphs.

Contrasts



  • One Paradise Closed and the Other Paradise Opened

 – “Therefore the Lord God sent [Adam] out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.” (Genesis 3.23)  “[The New Jerusalem’s] gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there).” (Revelation 21.25)
  • Dispossession through Sin and Repossession through Grace

 – “So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.” (Genesis 3.24)  “And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it.” (Revelation 21.24)
  • Curse Imposed and Curse Removed – 

”Then to Adam He said, ‘Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: ‘Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.” (Genesis 3.17)  “And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.” (Revelation 22.3)
  • 

Access to the Tree of Life Prohibited and Permitted

 – “So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.” (Genesis 3.24)  “Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.” (Revelation 22.14)
  • Sorrow and Death and No More Sorrow or Death

 – “To the woman He said: ‘I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children; your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”  Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.  Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field.  In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3.16-19)  “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21.4)
  • Garden and City

 – “The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” (Genesis 2:8–9)  ”And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,” (Revelation 21:10)
  • Failure of Adam and the Reign with Christ

 – “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19)  “There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.” (Revelation 22:5)
  • Triumph of the Serpent and the Triumph of the Lamb

 – “And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”” (Genesis 3:13)  ”The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” (Revelation 20:10) “And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.” (Revelation 22:3)
  • Walk with God Interrupted and Walk with God Resumed

 – “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” (Genesis 3:8–10)  “And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.” (Revelation 21:3)

Completions



  1. The Garden in Genesis gives way to the City in Revelation.
  2. Sin begins to develop in Genesis.  Sin is in its full development in Revelation (Harlot, False Prophet, Beast, and Dragon).
  3. Physical death begins in Genesis.  The second death comes to fruition in Revelation.
  4. The sentence is passed on Satan in Genesis.  The sentence is carried out in Revelation.
  5. The first promise of a coming salvation is in Genesis.  The final and glorious fulfillment of salvation is in Revelation.
  6. Genesis anticipates.  Revelation realizes.
  7. Genesis is the foundation stone.  Revelation is the capstone.

The Structure of Genesis



The Divine Sovereignty – In Creation, History, and Redemption



Primeval History (Genesis 1-11)



Four Outstanding Events



THE CREATION – Divine sovereignty in the physical creation.  God’s eternal priority.

THE FALL – Divine sovereignty in human probation.  God’s moral authority.

THE FLOOD – Divine sovereignty in historical retribution.  God’s judicial severity.

THE BABEL CRISIS – Divine sovereignty in racial distribution.  God’s governmental supremacy.

Patriarchal History (Genesis 12 – 50)

Four Outstanding People



ABRAHAM – Divine sovereignty in election.  Supernatural call.

ISAAC – Divine sovereignty in election.  Supernatural birth.

JACOB – Divine sovereignty in election.  Supernatural care.

JOSEPH – Divine sovereignty in direction.  Supernatural control.