Overview of Old Testament – Book of Genesis – Part One of Three

timeline of Genesis

This is a basic overview of the Book of Genesis. I will go into more detail in the next post.

The word ‘Genesis’ is ‘Bereshith’ in Hebrew, and means “in the beginning”.

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. God being God is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. He is all powerful, everywhere present at the same time, and knows all things. These truths are confirmed throughout the Old and the New Testaments by many different authors, and by personal experiences of humans throughout the world.

The first two chapters deal with the creation of the universe, the world, all living things, man and woman, and the conditions of man in Paradise.

Chapter three deals with the original sin of Adam and Eve and their removal from the Garden of Eden as judgment for their sin, and to impress upon man that sin cannot dwell where God dwells; it has to be covered or atoned for by an innocent sacrifice. (The first promise of the Messiah).

Chapters four and five show the history of Adam and his descendants, all the way to the time of Noah and the flood.

Chapters six and seven reveal the extreme wickedness of all mankind and the destruction of the world by flood, while God protected Noah and his family in the ark. Angels known as ‘Watchers’ rebel and intermingle with women, corrupting the DNA of the human race.

Chapters eight and nine are about the restoration of the world, and God’s Covenant with Noah for all of mankind, with the rainbow as a sign that the world would not be destroyed by flood again. (Jude says it will be destroyed by fire the next time, before God creates a New Earth which has no sin – – nuclear fire?). These two chapters also contain the Prophecy of Noah, which deals with the future of the three sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Chapter ten is the re-population of the earth, showing the nations that came from the three sons of Noah and their descendants.

Chapter eleven is about the Tower of Babel, Nimrod, the confusion of tongues and God scattering people throughout the world.

Chapters twelve through twenty-five is the history and migration of Abraham and his family in Canaan. The judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah with the rescue of Lot. Melchizedek a priesthood producing Jesus Christ. Birth of the Ishmael and the Arabic peoples. The promise of the Messiah given through Abraham’s seed.

Chapters twenty-six and twenty-seven are about the history of Isaac and his family.

Chapters twenty-eight through thirty-six show the history of Jacob and his family. Jacob becomes Israel after wrestling with the Angel of God.

Chapters thirty-seven through forty are about the history of Joseph and his brothers.

Chapters forty-one through fifty are about the exaltation of Joseph by God in the land of Egypt preparing the way for preserving the Hebrews.

In the book of Genesis God ruled His people as a Theocracy or as God being the chief ruler, and later in Exodus, as priests mediated between God and man.

Genesis is about the People of God, known as the Hebrews, and children of Israel, and about the Promised Land. The promise land was occupied by the Canaanites who were the cursed descendants of Ham, the son of Noah who uncovered Noah’s nakedness.

The message to Israel is also a message to all of mankind as it speaks of God as Lord of all nations and the whole human race.

Genesis shows how God created the world, man sinned and needed a savior, and how God raises up the Hebrews to bring forth His Son Jesus Christ; who traces his genealogy all the way back to Adam as shown in the book of Matthew of the New Testament.

Genesis also shows how the Nation of Israel got its origins as God’s chosen people and how God promised to Israel the whole land of what is today known as Palestine, through His covenant with Abraham in Genesis chapter seventeen. Israel is the center of world tensions today as major world players are gathering in the Middle East in preparation for a battle that will destroy Damascus and then they will make an attack on Israel. This is the beginning of sorrows as spoken by Jesus in Matthew 24:8-13.

The Nation of Israel were to be His witnesses to the rest of the world and were given the promise to dwell in the exact center of the ancient world with their city as Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is also claimed by God to be His city. Jerusalem is where Jesus Christ will return to rule the world as King of kings and Lord of lords after the battle of Armageddon. The Jewish people will once again turn to God during the tribulation period described by John and Daniel and other prophets to be witnesses for God to all the world.

To be continued with more details on Genesis……

 

 

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