When studying any ancient text, the Bible included, it is important to keep in mind that ancient authors did not write the way we do.  They did not think the way we do about narrative.  Narrative story telling, involving a plot that consistently moves forward through time, is relatively new in the great scheme of things.  The novel is as recent as the European Renaissance.  Simply put, the writings of Moses were never meant to stand up to the literary criticism of our time.

The Tower of Babel is first mention in Genesis 11.  This lesson covers chapters 10 and 11; why?  Because the events are not recorded chronologically, not the way we think about chronology.  Also remember that Moses did not have chapters and verses; those are artificial divisions added thousands of years later. 

Genesis 10 accounts the descendants of Noah.  Different nations and languages are specifically mentioned.  This is important, because when we get to chapter 11 we find that all people of the world spoke a common language.  Does the Bible contradict itself?  You should know how I will answer that.  For the first few verses of chapter 11, we are given the narrative account of what happened.  Chapter 10, and the rest of chapter 11, are like a catalogue or a census.  The beginning of 11 tells us how and why there are languages and nations; the rest of both chapters chronicle who those nations are and where they settled. 

Geographically, these events take place in Mesopotamia (land between the rivers).  On the subject of Mesopotamia, creationists and evolutionists usually agree: this is where civilization arose.  Mesopotamia is also known as the Tigris Euphrates River Valley, the Euphrates being mentioned in the Garden of Eden account.  Abraham lived in Ur, which has been identified and excavated by archaeologists.  If you were to peruse a World History textbook, you would likely find a diagram or recreation of a ziggurat.  To understand ziggurats, let’s talk about ancient cities. 

All ancient cities had walls.  You can see this in the Bible.  As civilization began to develop, it didn’t happen to everyone all at once.  The first city builders erected walls to keep themselves safe from those still lacking civilization.  Otherwise as they built homes and planted crops, hunting gathering nomads would just take what they wanted.  The first city-builders erected walls around their cities, with gates that were open for trade and such during the day. 

The center of city life, religious and economic, was the ziggurat.  Each of these early city-states had a priest king.  He was often worshipped as being a deity himself.  He not only represented the spoken will of the gods, but directed city business and economic activity.  The ziggurat was akin to a pyramid, with steps leading to the top, on which the priest king could deliver decrees from on high.  It is thought by many today, and I believe with good reason, that the Tower of Babel may have been one such ziggurat.

The Babel story explains some things about nations and language, but may also stand in contrast to some ancient Mesopotamian mythology.  Their gods wanted them to stay in one place; the God of Abraham wanted people to spread out and populate the earth.  It has always been the Hebrews’ way to be “different” from everybody else.  The Babel story in Genesis 10 and 11 not only offers explanation for how and why different languages and nations arose, as well as how people spread and re-populated after the flood, but also fits well with the geography and culture of the location.  I don’t believe in forcing the Bible to prove that it’s true, but in this case it would be quite easy to do so. 

Next time: Abraham, First Man of Faith

The flood story is found in Genesis 6-8.  Begin by reading those passages.  Here is ESV and KJV, or visit Bible Gateway for more options.

In Gen. 6:5, we learn that God was displeased with the wickedness of men, and that the “intentions of his heart was continually on evil.”  God was so upset with how wicked evil his creation had become, he decided to wipe them out.  Noah, however, found favor with God, and so he and his family would be spared.   God gave the instructions on how to build the ark and what to do, and by the end of 6 we read that Noah did all he was commanded.

In Gen. 7 the flood waters come.  Up until this point, people had never seen it rain.  Earlier, in the Garden of Eden, we learned that a mist came up each night and watered the earth.  in 7:11 the fountains of the deep burst forth, and the windows of heaven were opened.  Water came from above and from below to cover the earth.  In Genesis 1, this had been the condition of the earth before God made dry land appear.  At His command the waters of the deep had given up dry land, and His command they swallowed it up once more.  Think ahead if you will to Jesus calming the storm at sea; his disciples ask “What manner of man is this that even the wind and sea obey his voice?” 

Gen. 8:1 is one of my favorite verses of scripture.  “And God remembered Noah.”  Noah had entered into a covenant relationship with God.  Noah did his part by building the ark, and God did his part by saving all those on board from destruction.  God is always faithful in keeping up his end.  He is not a man that he should lie (Numbers 23:19).  Anytime one party breaks a covenant, it will always be our failure and not God’s.  This will become a recurring theme as we survey the Bible.  God remembers Noah, and after 150 days of flood the waters rescind. 

In Genesis 9, God makes a new covenant with Noah, and places the rainbow in the sky.  He promised to never again destroy the earth by flood.  What are the lessons to be learned in these events?

1) We learn that it displeases God to see his creation do evil.  Each person is made in the image of God, and our sin often affects others.  When we lie, steal, cheat on a spouse, murder, etc. we not only have committed evil but sinned against God by dishonoring our fellow man.  The hearts of man was continually evil, and God was sorry he had made man in the first place. 

2) We learn that God will judge the evil with destruction.  Adam and Eve had been punished for their sin, and God had dealt with Cain for his.  The flood instroduces us to something new; mass judgement.  The whole earth was punished as humanity was wiped from it.  Yet even in the midst of destruction…

3) God saved a few.  Noah found favor in God’s sight, and from time to time we will see others that please God despite what’s going on around them.  Abraham is coming up very soon.  There will also be guys like David, a man after God’s own heart, and Daniel.  This Old Testament story illustrates truths that will be brought out later in scripture, about how many enter the way of destruction, but few who follow the straight and narrow that leads to everlasting life.  Like so many things in the Old Testament, the flood story is a picture of what is to come.

Let me first apologize.  This post was originally to be titled “The First Murder,” but there’s more to Genesis 4 than that, and I had not done my homework at that time. 

Begin by reading Genesis chapter 4 (ESV, KJV).  In the Introduction to Genesis, I tried to make this point clear: the Bible will not answer all of our questions.  This chapter raises some good ones.  A quick glance will immediately reveal issues, and I will be upfront about 2 things: 1) We do not know where Cain found a wife.  Was she his sister?  Did God create wives for Adam and Eve’s children?  The first is more likely, but to the author of Genesis these details were unimportant.  2) Why do the two brothers make sacrifices in the first place?  There was no law, no commandments, no ordinances at this time.  Had God required sacrifice from Adam after his sin, and the sin of his wife Eve?  Sacrifice is hinted at when God made coats of animal skin, but we have no official proclamation from God. 

Let’s now focus on what we do know.  Cain was, by our standards today, a farmer.  Abel was a herdsman.  They each presented a sacrifice to God.  Did God prefer an animal sacrifice to that of fruits and vegetables?  We must be careful not to apply extrabiblical standards here.  1 John 3:12  says that Cain’s deeds were done by his wicked heart, whereas Abel acted righteously.  Hebrews 11:4  supports this, adding that by faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than his brother, and that his faith was commended by God as righteousness.  Cain was given the opportunity to correct his behavior.  He was not punished by God for his offering, but given constructive criticism.  His choice was to reject God’s instruction, and to do even more wrong by murdering his brother.  God even warns himthat sin desires to overtake him, and to beware.  Cain’s did not sin in offering fruits from his labor.  His sin was two-fold: first, by refusing to do better as God suggested, and secondly by ignoring God’s warning and choosing to obey sin’s desire.  Cain continues to show his unwillingness to submit to God in the way he dodges the questions when asked about Abel.   

After Cain takes a wife, again most likely his sister since Adam and Eve are the ancestors of all human life on earth, the Bible gives us a partial listing of his descendants.  By the end of chapter 4, Eve has another son that according to her reckoning is to replace the son she lost.  The closing verse tells us that “at that time people began to call on the name of the LORD.”  There are no details given, but this seems to be the first form of public worship.  This statement is related by proximity to the birth of Enosh, son Seth.  Some have inferred that corporate worship begins with Adam’s own family. 

Up next: The Flood

Humanity’s fall from grace is recorded in Genesis 2 and 3 (ESV,  KJV). 

The first thing one will notice when reading Genesis 2 is that the creation of man and woman is being described for the second time.  The first mention of their creation was to place the event in the order of Creation Week.  Beginning with 2:4 we get a much more detailed account of exactly how the creation of mankind took place.  This is, after all, our story.

All the rest of creation came into being at the spoken command of God.  “God said ‘Let there be light…’” and so forth.  After all else had been created, God formed from the dust of the earth a man.  He was involved in the creation of humanity in a more personal way than with anything else.  This should speak volumes to us about the worth of human life.  Recall the teachings of Jesus about God feeding the sparrows, and how much more we are worth than they.  The hair on each head is numbered.  God knows us.  Adam was hand-made before God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.  The life that was in Adam came from God.  The word inspiration literally means “God breathed,” as was the case with the first human life on earth.

In verse 15, Adam is placed in the garden and instructed to keep it.  A common misconception is that work was a consequence of the fall, part of the curse of sin.  Before original sin, however, Adam is given a vocation.  Part of his satisfaction and fulfillment will come from performing his task as keeper of the garden.  Career satisfaction is a blessing from God.  It is not sin nor the result of our sinful state for one to feel good about a job well done.  That was originally part of God’s plan.  After the fall, God made Adam’s job work, but he had a job from the very start. 

God then made woman from the man.  Just like the words man and woman look and sound similar to a degree, so do ishshah andish in Hebrew.  Gen. 2:24, quoted by Jesus in the New Testament, says that “a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”  It’s impossible to study anything in a vacuum, and would be hard to overlook the implication of this verse in our modern context.  This is the Biblical definition of marriage, given at the very first marriage between the first man and first woman.  Marriage, given by God as the first institution, is to be between one man and one woman.  That’s what God has created in this verse, before there was even a cultural context in which to consider it.

3:1 introduces the serpent.  Where did this serpent come from?  Could all the animals talk?  Why a serpent?  Once again, Genesis will not answer all our questions.  Our study of the rest of scripture leads us to believe this serpent was Satan, cast from Heaven itself for his sin of pride and rebellion of God.  Could it possibly be a coincidence that God has placed the man and woman in the same place that the tempter was banished to?  I do not believe a “coincidence” is even remotely possible. 

Adam and Eve were given the possibility to choose sin rather than obedience.  Acts 2 describes Jesus death as occurring “according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.”  This was his plan.  Did God create evil?  If he did, how can He be all good?  Is He all good, then perhaps He is not all powerful.  Is this an option?  The simply truth is, where it not for the existence of evil we would not be able to know the goodness of God.  God will someday be surrounded by a people that choose to love him when they could have rejected him to serve evil.  Such a people God is seeking, and so will be the Kingdom.

The serpent undermines the rules by questioning them.  Did God really say that?  Did he mean it?  He suggests that God had ulterior motives in making the commandment.  God did not explain his motivation, but Satan suggests that God knows that eating the fruit will make the humans god-like.  It does in fact open their eyes, but this is their undoing.  When they see their nakedness they are ashamed.  In this case, ignorance was bliss.

Where is Adam while all of this serpent whispering is taking place?  The scripture says she gave to her husband “who was with her.”  The accusation has been made that Adam was somewhere else neglecting his responsibility while Eve was tempted, but it seems he was there all along.  Was it his place to say something, or stop Eve from listening to the tempter?  When all is said and done, they were both guilty of sin, end of story.  And they would both make excuses.

Ashamed of their nakedness, they make aprons out of fig leaves.  They even hide from God when he approaches.  Before sin, the man and woman had perfect communion with God on a regular basis.  Sin interrupted that fellowship.  God goes through the motions of calling out to them, asking where they are.  The confess being ashamed of being naked, and God asks who told them they were naked.  It was a learning experience to make the first confession of the first sin.

Read carefully as Adam not only blames the woman for causing him to sin, but actually blames God.  “The woman, that you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit…”  It is Eve’s fault – and by extension God himself – who caused Adam to sin.  Everyone passes the buck.  Eve blames the serpent for the deception, and then verses 14 – 19 spell out the terms of the curse.  First the serpent, then the woman, and then for Adam’s sake the ground is cursed.  The very whole of creation, deemed good and very good by God himself in Genesis 1, is placed under the curse, and their fall from grace is almost complete.

Before driving them from the garden (least they eat of the tree of life) God makes for them coats of skins.  “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.” (Hebrews 9:22)  The world was a different place after that day.  Division between God and man would be the norm from that time forward.  Adam’s vocation became a burden to him.  Eve would deliver children in sorrow, and her “desire” would be to her husband.  The plant and animal kingdoms were affected; in short, the world changed.  But even in the curse (v. 14-19) there is hope.  The first hint of the Messiah is given in 3:15 (see footnote).  God doesn’t explain it to them, but through our New Testament lenses it should be clear. 

We live in a fallen world.  We cannot make the world a better and better place until it again pleases God, that was not his plan.  We live under common grace; God gives the sun and rain to the just and the unjust.  In this world there are times of joy; one sometimes finds satisfaction in a career, or has a long and happy marriage.  These are like shadows or echoes of the paradise mankind once enjoyed.  We must remember also that we are a fallen people, and not get too disappointed that we never achieve perfection in anything – nor anyone.  We are broken and in need of a savior.  It’s going to take us a while to get there. 

Next up: The First Murder, Genesis 4

*Protoevangelium – the first pronouncement of the Gospel.  Try working this vocabulary into conversation somewhere.

Begin by reading Gen. 1:1 – 2:3.  The English Standard Version (ESV) has been linked, but read whichever version you feel comfortable with.  Bible Gateway  has many versions online (20 in English). 

The supreme omnipotence of God is presented to us in the first verse of the Bible.  God created the universe and all that is in it ex nihilo, or from nothing.  In other ancient creation accounts, two or more gods were often in some sort of conflict with each other.  In the Mayan world, for example, the ball games were a re-enactment of their creation myth, in which the world was created after two mortals defeated the gods in a ball game.  Every Mayan city had a ball court, and the losers were often sacrificed.  Moses, the author of Genesis, was well aware of the polytheistic cultures around him in places like Mesopotamia and Egypt.  The Mesopotamians not only had a plethora of gods, they had carvings of themselves praying for them in the temple when they couldn’t be there in person.  The Egyptians had a god for everything, Pharaoh was a god, even the Nile River itself was worship as a god.  They sang hymns to it.  Genesis 1:1 conveys the Hebrews belief in only one all-powerful God, who created all that was created. 

God is all-powerful, and created all that exist from nothing, confirmed by Heb. 11:3  and Rev. 4:11.  Critics might argue that Hebrew is an ancient, difficult language, and that no original copies survive due to the passage of time.  Many times, however, the truths of the Old Testament are quoted, illustrated, or otherwise affirmed by the authors of the New Testament.  Their writings are more recent, plentiful, and easier translated from Greek and/or Aramaic.  That God created the universe and all that is in it is one of those fundamental truths.

Verses 3 – 31 detail the 6 days of creation.  Are these 6 calendar days, as we know them, in other words a period of 144 hours?  Or is this a much longer geological time period, considering “a day to God is like a thousand years” and visa versa?  Is Genesis even describing a real week, or this an allegory?  Exodus 20:11, also written by Moses, repeats this idea that the earth and all that is in it was created by God in 6 days.  Either a literal or figurative week is still possible.  Personally I can’t see that it makes any difference.  As stated previously, the Bible is not a science book, and is not going to answer all our questions.  Simply because we do not know what type of week does not mean the history of these events is wrong.  The fact remains that God spoke into existence all that there is.

The first crative act was to separate light from darkness.  One might note that God does not hang the sun, moon and stars for another three days.  From our scientific view this would present a problem.  Apparently there was light before the sun was created, and we know from Revelation that there will be light after the sun is no more.  In creating all that exists, the confines and limitations of physics as we know them are included.  Please note that on each day of creation God spoke, without effort, each thing created into existence.  Each day begins with God speaking, and ends with “and he saw that it was good.” 

On the second day, God separated the dry land from the seas.  On the third day, the earth is commanded to bring forth vegetation.  On the fourth day, God places the sun, moon and stars in their orbits.  Each of these events, in this sequence, is preparing a habitat for the later acts of creation.  The events occur in a logical order: dry land must exist for vegetation to grow, which will later feed the animals, like the fish and birds on day 5, and the land animals on day 6.

Each event, each created thing, up until this point has been spoken into existence by God.  The exception is going to be man.  Gen. 1: 26 says “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”  There has been much debate on exactly what God means in this statement.  Humanity is different from the rest of creation 1) in that only man is described as being in the image and likeness of God, and 2) we will find out in the next chapter that God shaped man from the clay of the earth, rather than speaking him into existence.  There is something special about man.  The human creature is the final creative act of God, made in his image, and formed by his own hand.  The rest of all creation serves as man’s habitat. 

It has been said by some that after each act of creation, God looked at it and said that it was good;  every creation but man that is.  In Gen. 1:31 however, God considers the whole week of creation, all 6 days and everything that was made, and declares it to be “very, very good.”  All that God had made was good, and man is included in that list. 

When humankind was created (1:27), they were created male and female.  Moses will later flesh out the details in chp. 2 of how this came about, but it was God’s purpose to make a male and female gender.  Humanity, from the very start, was planned to be of two kinds, and both are made in God’s image and likeness. 

In Gen. 2:2 God rested from his work.  Does this imply that God was tired?  The ease with which he spoke creation into existence implies otherwise.  In verse 3 he blessed the seventh day and made it holy.  God worked for 6 days, and rested on the seventh.  This was to be the pattern for human activity.  The “work” done by God hadn’t really been work at all, not work as we know it.  But on the seventh day he did even less than that.  He went on to make the seventh day holy, blessed; something more special than all the other days of the calendar week.  He would later command that we do the same.  Rest is a gift and a blessing from God, even if he does command that we do it.

Next up: The Fall, Genesis 2:4 – 3:24.

The Book of Genesis will not answer all of your questions.  For that matter, no book of the Bible will, that’s not the nature of scripture (link to The Bible, Uses and Misuses).  Genesis does not tell us, for example, where Cain found his wife.  I like to ask my students if Adam and Eve had belly buttons, just to get them thinking.  Genesis is not a science book.  If God had thought we needed a science book, he would have given us one.  The Bible was given to express a particular message.  The most basic message of scripture is that we need a savior.  Genesis was written by Moses, by the inspiration of God, to meet a specific need at that time.  Were it written to impress our scientific minds and to our understanding in this time, it would have been worthless to the Hebrew audience of that time.  There are a couple of questions to consider when reading a book of the Bible:  1) Who wrote it?  and 2) Who was it written to?  Genesis was written by a Hebrew prophet to an ancient, Mideastern people.  We must read it in that context.

A survey of the Bible does not go verse by verse, chapter by chapter.  This an excellent way to study the scripture, and I highly recommend it.  While we will not be doing that here, it will seem as if our study of Genesis is highly detailed.  It’s kind of like watching the pilot episode of a t.v. series, or reading the first chapter of a novel.  We must be introduced to the characters.  The truths about God presented in the first verses of the this first book of the Bible will become themes running throughout the Bible.  We will spend a little bit of time getting set up correctly. 

I will not presume to ignore the New Testament.  We will not pretend the whole Bible is not about Jesus.  The Master’s Table is Christ centered, the Bible is Christ centered, our relationship with God must be Christ centered.  Jesus is all over the Bible, as we will explore together, and we meet him for the first time early in Genesis.  The trinity is suggested in 1:26, and by chapter 3 we find the first veiled prophesy of Jesus.

If you want homework, read Genesis 1:1 to 2:3, the Biblical account of creation.