Literary Structure is important
* Author’s best clue for major ideas:
* Genesis: “These are the generations of” (This is the account of/what became of)
* Divides it into 12 sections
* 1-11 6 sections, 12-50 6 sections
1A
* God’s Word produces heavens and earth as God’s gift to man; 1:1-2:3
* Chapter 1
* is the emphases in chapter 1 on: who, what, why, when, or how?
* a lot of who (says God every verse)
* not much emphasis on what
* nothing about why
* doesn’t say when
* a lot of how (God said)
* why is this the first thing God tells us about himself?
* we have to be able to trust what he says in order to have a relationship with him
* God’s role → man’s role
* days 1-3 forming, days 4-6 filing (Gen. 1:2 earth unformed and unfilled)
* 1:26 man made in God’s image
* reflect him: rational, emotional, volitional
* represent him by what we do
* rule over…
* subdue it and rule over it
* subdue came before the fall → to search out, discover, create, invent, compose…
* God passes the baton to Adam, he drops it
* God rules through man over creation
* man has scepter (creation mandate)
2B The Word of the Evil One Challenges the Word of God
* introduces conflict
* snake brings doubt and denial about the word God spoke
* met by word of judgment and promise
* Loss of relationship and loss of rule
* promise for woman, judgement for snake
* Gen.3:15
* bad news in Gen. 3:19 (death)
* BEFORE: ground was in submission to Adam
* AFTER: ground rebels against Adam
* work → toil
* life → death
* vs. 20 (expression of faith)
* Adam named Eve (mother of all the living)
* response to vs 19 and the promise in 15
* vs. 21 (covering of sin)
* God made clothes
* innocent substitute needed
* vs. 22-24
* Problem: we’ve been kicked out of our home and the tree of life
* Goal: get back in
* How: The promise is the only way → focus on the seed
Gen. 4-11
* 4 Murder of Abel, 5 Genealogies, 6 bad people, 6-8 Noah and ark, 9 Noah drunk, 10 genealogies, 11 Babel
3B God’s word is fulfilled in the first generation
* 4:1-24
* Eve focused on the seed, but Cain was not it
* Cain was on the wrong team
* we learn that God loves Cain even though they are against him
* God loves blue people
* big idea
* conflict between Cain and Abel - serpent’s seed and Eve’s seed
* God’s promises take place in the first generation, show’s God’s word is truth
* Lamech
* killed someone like Cain, but didn’t have the same attitude
* brags about killing someone
* rejects God and puts himself above God
* 4:25-26 preservation of the righteous seed
* Seth worshiped God, red
* 5
* 5:1-2 parallel to Gen. 1:26-27
* red genealogy to contrast blue stories from ch. 4
* theme: looking for seed, hoping that each seed is the one
* Enoch walked with God and didn’t die
* Enoch and Lamech same generation, but opposite teams
* shows promise coming true already, which brings hope for the saving point of the promise
* parallels to Matthew 1
The conflict deepens the break down in created order
* 6:1-8
* the seed intermarries, loss of godly seed
4A God’s word brings judgment
* God’s word of preparation
* 6:9, 22; 7:5, 8-9; 8:15-18 a
* new order of life
* 9:1 parallel to ch. 1
* Noah is like the seed, brings hope of the one who will defeat Satan
* God’s word through Noah separates
* Ham does bad thing, his son gets cursed
* Shem gets blessed
5A God’s word of judgment comes upon the families which settle 10:1-11:9
* people trying to get significance and security outside of God
* languages force division into nations
* necessary to prevent further unity against God
* ruin any chance of unified, shalom community that God desires
God’s Promise to Abraham 12-25
* land, nation, leader
* “all nations on earth will be blessed through you”
* ~~God → Abram → Nations blessed~~
* God → Abram → seed → nations blessed
* Gen. 3:15
* leader → seed
* nation → Ex. 19:6
* God <→ nation of priests <→ other nations
* land→ Israel is crossroad of ancient world
* command to leave, not condition
* God promised not based on Abraham’s belief
* 12:10-20 Abraham lies about Sarah being his wife
* God intervened to bring Sarah back
* 15: Abraham had doubts because he didn’t have an heir
* God tells him he will have a son
* vs. 6: Abraham believed the Lord, and the Lord credited it to him for righteousness
* in that culture, they’d cut animals in half and walk in between them to make a covenant
* God makes a covenant with Abram not based on human conditions
* 16: God’s promise to Abraham conflicts with culture
* Hagar
* 17: God commands a sign of promise
* change of Abram’s name to Abraham
* father of many nations
* response is laughter
* 18: 3 messengers visit Abraham
* Sarah laughs
* 20: Abimelech wants Sarah
* God brings Sarah back
* 21: Isaac is born
* 22: God confirms Abraham’s faith in the promises
* do you believe I will keep my promises
* Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac in faith that God will bring him back
* 23: death of Sarah and 400 shekels
* swindled, admits he is alien and stranger
* Heb. 11:13-14 aliens and strangers
* James2:21−23 Gen. 22 and 15:6
Gen. 26-36
* Jacob: the UN-Abraham
* ch. 25 Jacob rather than Esau
* Jacob: heel-grabber, deceiver
* birthright
* double portion of inheritance
* ch. 26
* Isaac gets the promises
* she’s my sister routine
* promises unconditional for Isaac, too
* ch. 27
* the blessing
* Jacob deceives and then leaves
* ch. 28
* Jacob dreams of the stairway leading to Heaven
* John 1:51
* Jesus is the stairway that makes it so people can have a relationship with God
* ch. 29
* God disciplines and blesses Jacob to make him blue
* ch. 31
* return home
* tries to deceive Laban
* ch. 32
* who is “the man”?
* messenger for God or God
* why “touch” the hip?
* Jacob is going to keep fighting unless there’s intervention
* why ask his name after the fighting"?
* Jacob tells his character and since he admits it, his name changed
* how does Jacob “overcome”?
* stops fighting, confesses his character, asks for blessing in faith
* salvation
* changes color