Genesis 1-3
Genesis, the book of beginnings, is utterly foundational to the rest of Scripture. In the opening verses we see that the eternal God is the Creator, the Source of everything, speaking the entire universe into existence. We see that God creates Man, male and female, in His image and gives them dominion over the earth. We see the Fall of Man and ongoing rebellion against God. We see God’s judgment, tempered by mercy and grace. We see the call of Abraham and the beginnings of God’s redemptive plan to bless the whole world through him, so we trace his descendants, particularly those who come to be known as the nation of Israel.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1
Take a few minutes to really consider what that means. Think about the vastness of the universe. Try to count the stars, even just the ones you can see. Consider the intricacies of a flower. Look at your own fingerprints and wonder. This God of ours brought it all forth out of nothing. He just spoke the Word, and it all came to be.
If you accept the truth of Genesis 1:1, then nothing else in the Bible should be beyond belief. That is, the Creator gets to do what He wants with His creation, and nothing within creation is beyond Him. If He chooses to part the Red Sea, then who are we to say that such things can’t happen? If He can handle everything from quarks to galaxies and beyond, then He ought to be able to feed 5,000 folks with a few loaves and fishes. There is nothing “super” about the supernatural for God.
So meditate on that truth today and praise our awesome Creator Who upholds the universe by the word of His power. (Hebrews 1:3)
One more thing…
I am sure you will have noticed that I have made no attempt to cover the full breadth of our reading today. I focused on a single verse and even then barely scratched the surface of it. Given our pace through the Scriptures this year, I expect that to be the norm, which goes to say that there will be plenty of room for you to comment on what sticks out to you. Notice what you notice, and tell the rest of us about it.
First, a hale and hearty HUZZAH to John for an awesome Prelude yesterday and a nail-it intro for today’s first day in our year-long trek through the entire Bible. Hang with it, folks; you can do it!!
John picked one verse – he didn’t get very far into the text with that one! But with it he covered the whole of creation, the Old and New Testaments, and all things past, present, and future. Not a bad beginning…! And he asked us what sticks out for us.
For me, today I noticed the “tree of life”: And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Gen. 2:9) It seems a simple enough beginning, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil amongst all the other trees. We all tend to focus on this “tree of the knowledge of good and evil”. But what of this “tree of life”? We see it again, twice, in the next chapter: Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever… (Gen. 3:22) Eating from the tree of life gives eternal life? Did I know that? Yet there was no prohibition from God against Adam and Eve eating from the tree of life. If the fruit of this tree is so powerful, why was it not prohibited in the beginning along with the prohibition against eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? This new prohibition came shortly thereafter: He drove out the man, and … He placed the cherubim and a flaming sword … to guard the way to the tree of life. (Gen. 3:24) So Adam is driven from the Garden, specifically so that he could not eat the fruit of the tree of life. What is this tree??!! A tree so powerful, it must still be alive today. So where is it??!! I’m intrigued!
Spoiler alert: we’ll encounter the Tree of Life again at the end of the year when we read Revelation 22…
I am enjoying reading the Chronological Study Bible, and I have a question about the sidebar notes.
In the sidebar records of descendants it says that the creation of the world was established in 4000 BC using the records of the descendants. How can this be if there is much earlier time capsule info dating back to 7000 BC when humans were using stone tools?
This is the engineer in me!
That’s an excellent question, Dick, one that has generated decades of debate and countless dissertations, which goes to say that we are not likely to adequately address it in this forum. You might want to take a look at the video, Is Genesis History?. It is available for free with ads on Freevee (a subsidiary of Amazon). (Disclaimer: I have seen only snippets of this video. I have not yet watched it completely, so I can’t say whether I agree or disagree with its conclusions…)
Okay, I’m going to open up a can of worms with one phrase from this reading: Gen. 3:6, “…she also gave some to her husband who was with her.”
For some reason I, maybe from way back in Sunday school, thought that Eve was alone when she ate the fruit and sought Adam out and gave him the fruit. But he was with her. For many years I thought that Eve made the decision on her own without Adam being aware of it. She did make the decision, and so did Adam when he ate the fruit she offered him. God acknowledges this in Gen. 3:17. I guess this surprised me, because I had believed a falsehood for many years, a falsehood that Eve may have deceived Adam because he may not have known where the fruit came from, but as the verse states, he was with her. I wonder what other falsehoods I have believed? Can’t wait to find out.
Ha, ha! Courtenay, I also thought Eve was alone when she ate that apple, but the text seems to indicate Adam was right there all the time…
That’s an excellent observation, Courtenay. I daresay that most of us probably grew up with the same misconception that Adam was elsewhere, but the fact of Adam’s presence is right there in the text. As we journey through the Scriptures, I hope that we all, like you, let the Bible speak for itself, breaking through our biases, misconceptions, and the outright falsehoods that we have believed.