Genesis Outline
Statistics: 1st book of the Bible; 50 chapters, 1,533 verses; 38,267 words; 1,156 verses beginning with and: 1,385 verses of history; 148 questions; 56 prophecies; 123 verses of fulfilled prophecy; 23 verses of unfulfilled prophecy; shortest chapter, 16: longest, 24; 16th chapter has 16 verses; 32nd has 32 verses, 5 chapters have 34 verses; 4 have 22, 24 and 32 each; 106 commands; 71 promises; 326 predictions. [source Dake Bible]
The title Genesis, which is Greek, means “origin,” and the first word in the Hebrew of Genesis is translated “in the beginning” – words which indicate both the scope and the limits of the book. It tells us the beginning of everything except God. Another thing to notice is that it tells only of beginnings. There is no finality here. Upon its truths all the future revelation of God to man is built up.
Satan appears to have special enmity for the book of Genesis. No wonder the Adversary has bent his attacks upon it. It exposes him as the enemy of God and the deceiver of the human race; it foretells his destruction; it depicts his doom (
Genesis 3).
Without Genesis our knowledge of a creating God would be pitifully limited; we would be woefully ignorant of the beginnings of our universe.
Genesis is the book of beginnings:
1. the beginning of the world – 1:1-25
2. the beginning of the human race – 1:26-2:25
3. the beginning of sin in the world – 3:1-7
4. the beginning of the promise of redemption – 3:8-24
5. the beginning of family life—4: 1-15
6. the beginning of the nations of the world – 10, 11
7. the beginning of the Hebrew race – 12-50
Adam began with God and fell through disobedience—3:1-24
Abel began with God by the blood of sacrifice – 4:4
Noah began with God by way of the ark – 6:8, 14,22
Abraham began with God when he built altars—12:8
These all made new beginnings for the race.
Genesis is the record of the beginnings of all these things.
Genesis begins with “God” but ends “in a coffin.” This book is a history of man’s failure. But we find that God meets every failure of man. He is a glorious Saviour. We find that where sin abounded, grace did much more abound (
Romans 5:20)
Genesis gives us at least 2,000 years of record. It is not entirely history; it is a spiritual interpretation of history. In two chapters God flashes on the wall an account of the creation of the world and of man. From there on we see the story of redemption. God is bringing lost man back to Himself.
We have noted satan’s reasons for attacking this majestic book. Its authorship by Moses, its scientific accuracy, and its literal testimony to human sin as deliberate disobedience to God have all been bitterly assailed. The Word of God, however, definitely declares Genesis to be one of the living oracles delivered to Moses. To its infallible truth and its testimony to the Messiah, our Lord Jesus set His seal. (
John 5:46-47)
Where Genesis goes, a divine Creator, a divine creation, a divinely promised Redeemer, and a divinely inspired Bible must also go. Around its sacred pages is the protection of the Holy Spirit of God who inspired its words. If there were more study of Genesis instead of so much argument about it, its truth would be clearer. Many origins are recorded in the first eleven chapters; natural universe, human life, sin, death, redemption, civilization, nations, and languages.
The remainder of the book from
Genesis 12 deals with the beginnings of the Hebrew race, first in its founding through Abraham, then in its subsequent development and history through the great figures of Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. This great Hebrew nation was founded with a definite purpose that through it the whole world should be blessed.
God promised Abraham, a believer in Him, that his descendants:
1. Should inherit the land of Canaan (
Genesis 12:1-3)
2. Should become a great nation
3. Through them all nations should be blessed
God repeated these promises to Isaac and Jacob (
Genesis 26:1-5; 28:13-15).
Seven Great Names and Messages are:
1. Bow with Abel at the cross of the slain lamb.
2. Catch step with Enoch and walk with God.
3. Believe God and launch out with Noah on God’s waters.
4. Go forth with Abraham in faith.
5. Dig wells with Isaac and get down to divine resources.
6. Climb ladders with Jacob and see God.
7. Be true like Joseph and live with God.
Genesis answers the great questions of the soul:
1. The eternity of God
2. Where did man come from?
3. Whence came sin?
4. How can sinful man get back to God (Abel’s sacrifice)?
5. How can man please God (Abraham faith)?
6. How can we have power with God and man (Jacob’s surrender)?
There are three words which also might give us the outline of Genesis:
1. Generation – In the beginning God (1:1)
2. Degeneration – Now the serpent (3:1)
3. Regeneration—Now the Lord (12:1)
Genesis is the record of human failure, first in an ideal environment (Eden), then under the rule of conscience (from the fall to the deluge), and finally under patriarchal rule (Noah to Joseph). In every case of human failure, however, God met man’s need with marvelous promises of sovereign grace. It is therefore fitting that the Bible’s first book should show us the failure of man under every condition met by the salvation of God.
Hints of the Messiah:
Remember, Jesus Christ is the center of the Bible. He is somewhere on every page. In Genesis we see Him in type and prophecy in:
1. Seed of woman –3:15
2. Jacob’s ladder—28:12
3. Judah’s scepter—49:10
4. The entrance into the ark of safety – 7:1,7
5. The offering up of Isaac –22:1-24
6. Joseph lifted form pit to throne—37:28; 41:41-44.
The Patriarchal period
The period of the patriarchs is the groundwork and basis of all history. It covers the time from Adam to Moses. In consequence of the failures on the part of men during this early period, God called out an individual. He put aside the race and called a man, Abraham, who was to become the father of the Hebrew nation. We enter into this period in
Genesis 12.
There are five patriarchal fathers – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Job—for the book of Job must be put after this book of Genesis and before the book of Exodus. Job certainly lived before Moses and we read of Moses in
Exodus 2.
God called out Abraham and made a covenant with him, knows as the Abrahamic Covenant. Be familiar with this covenant (
Genesis 12:1-3). If you are not, the whole study of the chosen people (in fact, the whole Old Testament) will have little meaning. God repeated that covenant to Abraham’s son, Isaac, and again to his grandson, Jacob (
Genesis 26:1-5; 28:13-15). He repeated it to no one else.
These three, therefore, are the covenant fathers, and that is why you read in Scripture I am the God of they fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob (
Acts 7:32). He never adds anyone else. What is the covenant (
Genesis 12:1-3; 26:1-5; 28:13-15)?
From family to nation
A very large portion of the story of Genesis is devoted to Joseph (
Genesis 37-48). Why? Because Joseph is the link between the family and the nation. UP to the time of Joseph it is a family, the family of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Some seventy souls are found at the end of the book of Genesis, constituting the family of Jacob. Read about this family and the blessings that Jacob gave to each of his sons in
Genesis 49>
Joseph is a character presented without fault—not that he had no faults, but his faults are not recorded. He was a man of flesh and blood like us. God honored him, for there are at least 130 parallels between the life of Joseph and the life of Jesus. He is therefore the messianic patriarch, the patriarch who reflected the Christ Himself.
The author of Genesis
The age-long Hebrew and Christian position is that Moses, guided by the Spirit of God, wrote Genesis. The book closes something like three hundred years before Moses was born. Moses could have received his information only by direct revelation from God or from historical records to which he had access that has been handed down from his forefathers. See what Jesus said about Moses (
Luke 24:27;
John 7:19).
Every year there are being dug up in Egypt and Israel evidences of writing in Moses’ day and of the historical truth of what is recorded in the Pentateuch. Moses was educated in the palace of Pharaoh and was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians (
Acts 7:22), which included the literary profession. Moses did make use of writing (
Exodus 34:27;
Numbers 17:2;
Deuteronomy 6:9; 234:1,3;
Joshua 8:32).
[ Source: What the Bible is All About]
...More to come later...
This thread will be moved to the library after we complete this study. I hope all will join in and I look forward to learning from the many astute scholars among us.
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