May 12, 2024

Walk Through the Bible: Genesis

Passage: Genesis 1:1-4

Genesis is the inspired revelation of God to His people. As God’s revelation it is authoritative. We are not dealing with just any document from antiquity. Perhaps more than any other book in the Bible this one has been maligned and discredited and mocked and completely dismissed by most academic elites.

Genesis was written by Moses around 1500BC to recount the story of God’s people before they go into the Promised Land. The God who created the universe and all that is in it, is the God who created Israel. They see what kind of God has created them, called them into existence, how powerful His Word is.

If creation all around us displays the glory of God (Psalm 19), then how much more the account of the origin of that creation in Genesis.

Israel is reminded everything all the pagan nations around them worship, God made. Sun, moon, stars, animals, rivers, mountains. And God destroyed all the gods of Egypt and Canaan. How foolish to worship anyone or anything but God. God is the creator, sustainer, Lawgiver and redeemer.

Genesis begins with the most profound statement ever written and perhaps the most offensive statement in the Bible, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” This marks the absolute beginning of everything. This becomes the foundation for understanding everything else in the Bible. Since everything exists by God, everything exists for Him, for His glory.

Genesis doesn’t begin with Adam and Eve, it begins with God. Genesis (which means beginnings) begins God’s Story, His Story. God is the author of creation and of the Bible and He is the hero of every story.

Everything that is, is only because of the sovereign creative act of God. From beginning to end Genesis emphasizes God’s sovereign majesty and authority over all creation and over all history and over all peoples. God is the author, the subject, the actor.