Genesis Intro

Romans 15:4 — What were some inspirational examples that were influential to your life?

1 Corinthians 10:11 — Bad examples?

The OT provides examples for us to learn from Israel’s failures but also works of God that inspire hope. That’s nice to hear but when I read the OT this doesn’t seem to be the case. Let’s look at an example where the OT simultaneously exhorted and inspired believers.

Luke 24:21, 25-27 — They lacked hope in what God said He would do. They were lost and destitute. Majority of OT characters lament and pour out their hopelessness to YHWH.

They were slow to believe like Israel. Witnessed the parting of the Red Sea but still had unbelief.

Many readers miss the forest of God’s larger purposes when immersed in the trees of each individual story in OT. Brainstorm: name some themes and key stories of the OT. What OT Scriptures could Jesus be referring to that “concern Himself”?

In Genesis, God’s purposes for the heavens and earth, distorted by sin spreading through all the earth, are focused in one man: Abraham. Through him and his family God would bring blessing to all nations.

• Despite God’s good purposes for creation, sin enters and fills the earth (the primeval history; chs. 1–11)
• God moves his plan forward to bless the nations through the offspring of Abraham (the patriarchal history; chs. 12–50)
• Genesis is foundational because it tells us who God is, who we are, how things went wrong, and God’s redemptive plan to return the earth to the way it was meant to be.

Structure of Genesis

1. God creates humanity in his own image as his representatives to fill and rule the earth on his behalf (Gen. 1:26–28).
2. Promise is given that the offspring of the woman will defeat the serpent and restore the earth (Gen. 3:15) — traced in genealogies providing backbone for the entire book:
   • Adam (Gen. 5:1–6:8)
   • Noah (Gen. 6:9–9:29)
   • Sons of Noah (Gen. 10:1–11:19)
   • Shem (Gen. 11:10–26)
   • Terah (Gen. 11:27–25:11)
   • Ishmael (Gen. 25:12–18)
   • Isaac (Gen. 25:19–35:29)
   • Esau (Gen. 36:1–37:1)
   • Jacob (Gen. 37:2–50:26)
3. The individual stories of Abraham, Jacob and Joseph are illustrations of how the promise of Genesis 3:15 begins to be fulfilled.
4. It is through these stories we see God’s redemptive plan at work.
5. God’s original command to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Gen. 1:28) is fulfilled in microcosm as “Israel settled in the land of Egypt… and were fruitful and multiplied greatly” (Gen. 47:27; cf. Gen. 1:28).

Discussion Questions

1. If our hope is to come from the Scriptures, how does that contrast with what we currently put our hope in?
2. Besides the individual stories in Genesis, how do you see the themes and trajectories laid out in this book developed in the rest of the Bible? In your view, how does Genesis play a foundational role for the entire Bible?
3. The entire book of Genesis is framed by genealogies. What important role might be played by these otherwise boring lists of names in tracing out the many promises that we find in this book?
4. What perplexes you about this book? What questions do you hope to see answered by this study of Genesis?