The Big Idea of the Old Testament

GENESIS Big Idea The Creator Of The Cosmos Controls The Chaos Author Moses. Theologians debate Moses' authorship of Genesis and the whole Torah but traditionally Moses has been credited as the author. For our purposes we'll stick with Moses. Original Recipients Ancient Israel was the original recipient of this work. Date of Writing Moses wrote Genesis (and the whole Torah) sometime shortly after the Exodus of 1446 BCE. See "Exodus: Historical Setting/Timeline of Events" for an analysis/documentation on the date of the Exodus. Historical Setting/Timeline of Events Genesis takes us from the creation through the death of Joseph in 1805 BCE. Main Characters God (Timeless), Adam and Eve (Date unknown), Noah (Date unknown), Abraham ( 2166-1991 B.C.), Isaac (2066-1886 B.C.), Jacob (2006-1859 B.C.), Joseph (1915-1805 B.C.) Purpose Genesis is a book that is naturally divided into two parts. Genesis 1-11 sets the stage for the remainder of the Pentateuch and the entire Bible by introducing God, His creation and the fallen nature of mankind. While there are stories in these first 11 chapters dealing with individual people and families, this section can be thought of more so as a general description of the world's scene. The second part takes a different turn and chapters 12-50 is where we see the grace, mercy and love of God as He reveals the beginnings of His plan to restore us from the fall. God does this by leaving the mile high perspective of chapters 1-11 and zooms in on one family – the lineage of Abraham. So, in essence, the first 11 chapters open the Bible with the very serious problem of the fall and the last 39 chapters present the solution. Adam and Eve messed it up but God would save His creation through using the lineage of Abraham that would ultimately bring about Jesus Christ. Key Scripture(s) and Theme(s) As with all books of the Bible, there are a handful of scriptures we could reference to give us a good idea of the main thrust of the book. However, for our purposes, we will focus on one verse. In this one verse God speaks to Abraham and says: "I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of you descendants after you." Genesis 17:7 This key verse helps us grasp the three main themes of Genesis: 1). The Loving Nature of God God displayed His loving nature by first creating everything and identifying it as "good" (Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21,25,31). However, soon thereafter, mankind ruined it so God again displayed His loving nature by reaching out to Abraham (Genesis 12) to make a covenant that would last forever. It is absolutely vital to know that this covenant, and only this covenant, is the natural spring from which the great river of His salvation begins. Many folks look at the Old Testament and see a God whose hands are always in the ready position to throw violent blows of harsh, brutal and unmerciful judgment at humanity. This could not be any further from the truth! On the contrary, God has always been a loving compassionate GOOD SHEPHERD and that is revealed to us in the book of Genesis. It is here that He reaches out to begin the process of saving humanity. Matter of fact, long before the covenant with Abraham, God began to institute His plan of salvation. We see the fall take place in Genesis 3:1-7 concluding with Adam and Eve sewing fig leaves together to cover themselves as they realized they were naked. The realization that they were naked is simply symbolic for the reality that they no longer contained their innocence – they had decided to go against the instruction of our perfect Creator. It is at this point that God IMMEDIATELY begins his plan of salvation by seeking them out, finding them and replacing their half-hazard leaves with the skins of animals (Genesis 3:21). Now how in the world is this the beginning of His loving plan of salvation? Think about it this way: a). Fig leaves would have to be continually replaced. This was indicative of the temporary nature of the human solution. b). In contrast to Adam & Eve's temporary solution, God's solution was permanent: He clothed them with the leather hide of animals. Have you ever seen a skinless cow in the field? No, anytime you remove the skin from a creature it dies. So what we see here is God removing the life from precious creatures that He had previously breathed it into… Sound familiar? This taking of life was the first glance or foreshadowing we see in scripture of God’s ultimate plan to permanently rid us of our fallen nature through the taking of Christ’s life. What an amazing act of love! What an amazing display of the loving nature of our God!