Session 1
Genesis is the seed plot of the Bible where all the stories of the Bible are going to be carried throughout it. The Bible tells one big story across 66 books: creation, fall, redemption and restoration.
Jen asks this question: How is Genesis setting in place that pattern of our understanding for all of scripture? She says that Genesis is the ultimate context giver for the rest of the Bible. Genesis is absolutely necessary for us to understand the Bible as a whole.
Secondly, we need to study it because of how Jesus viewed the book of Genesis.
Look in John 5. Jesus said Moses wrote about Him. Moses wrote Genesis. We should ask "where do we see Christ in the writings of Moses?" The first 11 chapters covered four major events:
- Creation
- The Fall
- The Flood
- Tower of Babel
The last 39 chapters are going to cover four more major figures:
- Abraham
- Isaac
- Jacob
- Joseph
"These are the generations of" - the introductory phrase to each new section says this phrase.
Jen continues with asking questions that are in the workbook:
- Comprehension - the first day of the workbook
- Interpretation - the next four days of workbook
- Application - the last thing we should ask
She said that we cannot make application of a passage until we first say "what does it say?" And then "what does it mean?" We cannot possibly get to "how will it change me?" until we do the other questions first.
Jen asks the question: "Who wrote the book?" Moses - deliverer, law-giver, prophet, judge and author of the first 5 books of the Bible. He was the spiritual father to the nation of Israel. Forty years of wondering he wrote these books.
Jesus attributed Moses as the author in Luke 24. Moses probably used existing oral and written sources for parts of the narrative.
When was it written? Roughly 3500 years ago. 1600-1400 BC.
To whom was it written? To the generation of Israelites who were ready to enter the promised land under Joshua's leadership. He writes these books with the intention that it will give the Israelites roots (since he cannot enter) and shoots. He will ground them in who they are: "this is your history." He will point them toward who they should be. He wants to give them a history and a law to show them how to live where they are going.
It covers a period of about 650 years of history. It dates back to 650 years before the time they are reading it. It's roughly 650 years between the story of Abraham and the time that Israel leaves Egypt.
When he sits down to write, he's going to tell them the things that happened in that period of time.
It's also written to us. We can't hope to understand what it means for us today apart from what it meant to them then.
These books are written to a collection of people. When we want to draw out an application from a text, what are we looking for? How does this change me? We are making an individual application from a text that was pointing at the family of God. It would be easier to make application that applies to the family of God as a whole.
Personal application here should apply to the family of God as a whole.
Jen asks another question: What style is this written in? Historical narrative, which is meant to be taken as fact. There are allegorical themes though pointing to Christ. These are real people who lived with a greater story than what we find here.
Chapters 12-50 are called the "patriarchal history." Many years (225 years) are covered in these next 39 chapters. These are "arch-typal" stories that speak into the rest that happens through scriptures.
We have a very Western concept around history. This is an objective retelling of what happened. In ancient mid-eastern understanding of what it meant to write history was that you wrote it with the purpose of convincing someone of a particular idea.
So, when Moses sits down to write, he intends to convince us of something. We should be looking for what he wants to tell us in these stories. The fifth question Jen asks is "what is the central theme of the book? Genesis means "a beginning, a starting point in time." Several themes are here:
- Beginning of the world
- Beginning of history
- Beginning of sin
- Beginning of redemption
This is the story of God's chosen people. The question the original audience would have carried is this: "how is it that the people of God came to be in Egypt?"
Chapter 11 sets us up for chapter 12.
Geneology: Genesis is tracing the righteous line all through the book. Seth-Noah-Shem.
Descendents of Shem: Traced all the way to Terah's descendents. Look at the lifespan here as well. Lifespan is shorter and shorter.
Chapter 11:26. Abram will continue the righteous line.
Chapter 11:27. Three sons. Nahor married his niece. Lot is Abram's nephew. Lot's father died.
Chapter 11:30. An important detail. Before they got to Canaan, they actually lived in Haran first. His father dies there. At that point, they moved on from there into Canaan. It seems there was more than one step to Abram's call.
In chapter 12, we should have in mind two points:
- Abram is heading into Canaan land
- Abram has a wife and a nephew which will figure into the story majorly
- Sarai is barren
This is the scene before us. The family to whom God will speak His covenant. We will see the sovereign plans of God move forward because He's faithful.
We will see also that Jesus speaks truthfully when He said "Moses wrote of me."
This concludes Session 1.
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