SATURDAY 29th
Genesis 1
NIV – (v1) ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.’
ESV – (v1) ‘In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.’
The name of this the first book in the Bible, ‘Genesis’ means ‘origin’ or ‘beginning’, it is the book that records for us the beginning of time.
‘In the beginning God . . .’ is not suggesting that God had a beginning as well when he created, for he is eternal, he always has been and always will be, (Exodus 3:14) it is marking the moment when time commenced, when from out of eternity, the eternal God created the heavens and earth, and from the moment of the first act of creation, time began, for it is recorded that the evening and the morning were the first day. It records the beginning of life, God spoke, and the plant life commenced, he spoke, and animal life began, he spoke, and humankind was created. It records the beginning of era’s; it records the beginning of everything that has come into existence because of the creative and powerful voice of God.
Sadly, it also has to record the commencement of sin in humanity, the moment when Adam and Eve fell in the Garden of Eden, (Genesis 3:1-7) but happily it also records for us the beginning of Gods plan of redemption, as he announced to Satan in Genesis 3:15 ‘I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.’ It is by understanding what happened in the beginning, with the fall of mankind and the promise of a redeemer that we can begin to make sense of everything else that follows in the rest of the Word of God. From the beginning to the end, God is at work, working toward the final recovery, (Romans 8:18-23) which will be a complete recovery of all that was lost in the Garden with the fulfilment of all that is prophesied to happen in the final book, Revelation 22:1-5 ‘Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.’ The next verse in Revelation 22, verse 6 says, ‘These words are trustworthy and true’ this is relevant not only to the book of Revelation, but to the whole of Scripture, therefore it behoves us to handle the Word of God carefully and to treat what it says with all sincerity, and with Godly fear. From the beginning to end, what we will discover is that Scripture is all about Jesus, and God’s right to rule and his plan of redemption that leads us into eternity.
I will only briefly go through the various books, sometimes making big jumps as we work through, leaving out lots but highlighting various chapters, subjects, and characters as we go along, but I pray that what I do prepare will encourage us further in our daily walk with God.