Old Testament Survey
Genesis 1-11
Rick Walker
1. Structure of Genesis. In our Introduction to the Pentateuch, we indicated that Genesis can be structured around the
covenant God made with Abraham.
A. Genesis 1-11 records events leading up to the covenant. It answers the
question, why was it necessary for there to
be a covenant?
1. Genesis 1-3 focuses on the Fall.
2. Genesis 4-11 gives the devastating results as sin
snowballs, beginning with the sin of Eve, spreading to Adam, Cain,
and
eventually the whole world. Finally, God destroys the world by the Flood.
B. Genesis 12-50 tells the story of Abraham and his descendents. Through the
descendents of Abraham God will teach man
about himself and eventually
bring about the Redeemer through whom "all nations shall be blessed (Gen.
12:3).
1. Genesis 12-20. God's covenant with Abraham and the birth
of Ishmael.
2. Genesis 21-24. birth of Isaac; Isaac marries Rebekah
3. Genesis 25-36 birth of Jacob and Esau; Jacob gets
inheritance and blessing; Jacob marries Leah and Rachel and
fathers
the twelve patriarchs.
4. Genesis 37-50 Joseph is sold into slavery and becomes a
ruler in Egypt through God's providence. Jacob and his
sons move
into Egypt where they will grow into a great nation as promised by God to
Abraham.
2. The Fall of Man (Genesis 1-11).
A. Creation (Genesis 1, 2). The Bible sets the stage upon which the Fall
takes place by beginning with the Creation. What
will be noted is that
everything God created was "good" and everything God created was
affected by the Fall of man.
1. (Genesis 1) On the first five days (yom) of creation,
God created the universe.
a. First day God created light and
saw that it was good. Note that light existed before the
creation of the sun. The word
used for create in 1:16 is different
than in other verses. In other verses it means to create ex nihilo. In this
the word
used means something like to fashion that which has already been
created.
b. Second day God created the sky.
c. Third day God separated the land
from the sea and made vegetation appear.
d. Fourth day God created the sun
and the moon.
e. Fifth day God created the birds
and fish.
f. Sixth day God created the land
creatures and man in his own image.
g. Seventh day God rested from
(ceased) his creative labor.
h. God saw that all he had made was
good.
2. (Genesis 2) Describes the Paradise into which God and
placed Adam and Eve.
a. Watered by the Pishon, Gihon, Tigris
and Euphrates Rivers (2:12-14).
b. Adam was given the task of working the
ground (2:15).
c. Adam and Eve could eat of any tree in
the garden except for the "tree of the knowledge of good and
evil" lest he
die (2:17).
d. God made a woman for Adam named Eve,
which means the mother of all living (2:21, 22; 3:20; also
cf. Acts 17:26
to show that all races of men were all descendents of Adam).
e. Adam and Eve were naked and they were
not ashamed.
B. Fall (Genesis 3).
1. The serpent, (diabolos, Satan) tempted Eve to eat of the
tree of the "knowledge of good and evil" which God had
forbidden on penalty of death saying that rather death, eating would make Adam and Eve
like God himself
(Gen. 3:4, 5).
a. Eve ate and gave some to Adam.
b. There eyes were opened and they saw
they were naked and made coverings for themselves.
c. Some think "eating of the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil" is a euphemism for having
sexual relations:
i.e., God forbade them to have sexual relations. However, God had
already told them to be fruitful and
multiply (Gen. 1:28).
2. When God is walking through the Garden, Adam hides and
explains to God that he hid because he was ashamed
of his
nakedness (Gen. 3:10).
a. Adam has to explain how he knew he was
naked (Gen. 3:11).
1. Adam blames Eve for
his transgression (3:12).
2. Eve blamed the
serpent (3:13).
b. God pronounces the curses that will
come upon Adam and Eve and the serpent because of their sin.
1. Adam and Eve are
banished from the Paradise (3:23).
2. The land was cursed
so that Adam would have to work hard(3:17).
3. Eve would have
increased pain in childbirth and her husband would rule over her
(3:16).
4. The serpent would
crawl on his belly and eat dust (3:14).
c. However, we also see that God is
gracious to Adam and Eve.
1. God made garments
from skins for Adam and Eve when he banished them from the Garden (Gen. 3:21).
2. God made a promise
of a coming redeemer (Gen. 3:15). This is the first prophecy in the Bible of the coming
Redeemer - Jesus Christ.
a. At
the cross Satan struck Jesus' heel.
b. At
the cross Jesus crushed Satan's head.
C. Sin Rampant Upon the Earth (Genesis 4-11). In Genesis 4-11 we see that sin
has become rampant upon the earth. What
began with Eve has
spread to Adam. Now it will spread to Cain, Lamech, and the whole world.
1. Cain and Abel (Gen. 4). Sin spread to Adam and Eve's
sons Cain and Abel.
a. Cain worked the fields and Abel kept
flocks (4:2).
b. Abel brought acceptable sacrifices to
the Lord, but Cain's were not acceptable.
1. We must not assume
that it was because Abel offered meat sacrifices and Cain
offered sacrifices of grain.
2. When Cain became
angry at his brother, God offered him a chance to rectify the
situation. If you do what is right,
will you not be accepted (4:7).
c. Cain takes Abel out into the field and
murders him.
1. Cain is put under
the curse of being a restless wanderer upon the earth and
the ground will resist his efforts
(Gen. 4:12).
2. God is also gracious
to Cain, as he was gracious to Adam and Eve. God put a
"mark" on Cain so that others would
not take vengeance on him for the death
of Abel.
3. Notice how sin
affects not only man, but creation.
a.
The ground was cursed because of Adam's sin (3:17, 18).
b.
The ground was cursed because of Cain's sin (4:12).
c.
The whole creation groans under the burden of sin (Rom.8:21-22).
2. Lamech (Gen. 4:19-26). Cain's descendent, Lamech, also
was a murderer and had two wives (4:23-25).
3. The Flood (Gen. 6-9).
a. Genesis 5 shows how men multiplied and
gives the genealogy of Noah. Note that Noah had three
sons named
Shem, Ham, and Japheth (5:32).
b. As men grew in number, they grew in
wickedness (6:1-5).
1. God decided to
destroy every living creature by a flood (6:6, 7).
2. But Noah, a
righteous man, found favor in the eyes of God (6:8).
c. Noah commanded to build an ark of some
kind of wood and given specific instructions about how
to build it
(6:14-22).
1. To take animals
aboard.
a.
Two of every kind of animal, male and female (6:19, 20).
b.
Seven of clean animals (7:2) for sacrifice after flood (8:20).
2. To take Shem, Ham,
Japheth and their wives aboard (7:13).
d. Rained for forty days and nights and
all living creatures died (7:4).
e. The waters rose for 150 days (7:24)
1. Rained for forty
days and nights (7:12)
2. Waters continued to
rise for another 110 days (7:24).
f. Waters receded until the ark rested on
Mt. Ararat (8:4).
1. Noah sent out a
raven to see if land was dry (8:6, 7). Flew "back and forth" until
the land had dried up (8:7).
May mean raven perched on roof of ark until some
dry land appeared (New Bible Dictionary, "Flood," 382).
2. Noah sent out a dove
which returned (8:8).
3. Noah sent out a dove
again, which returned with an olive leaf (8:11). Olive leaf
would grow in the foothills-
indicating the water had receded to that level.
4. When dove did not
return, Noah knew it was safe to leave the ark.
g. After the Flood.
1. God promised never
again destroy the world by water and set the rainbow in the
sky as a reminder to man of
that promise (9:12).
a.
God promised eventhough men continued to have evil hearts (9:21).
b.
Though God had purged the world through the Flood, we see that sin continued in Noah when he gets drunk
(9:20, 21).
2. God's covenant with
Noah (Gen. 9).
a. Be
fruitful and increase and fill the earth (9:1; cp. Gen. 1:28).
b.
Noah allowed to eat animals (9:3).
3. Noah's sons become
the father of all nations (Shem, Ham, Japheth) (Gen. 10). "Broadly considered, from these
descend the three great races of people: (Purkiser, Exploring the Old Testament, 84).
a.
Shem - yellow - Asia
b.
Ham - black - Africa
c.
Japheth - white - Europe
4. Tower of Babel (Genesis 11). As Noah's descendents were
being scattered over the earth, there was an effort
made to prevent
further dispersion by building a capital city and a large tower which would
reach the skies.
a. God prevented this effort by confusing their
languages so that they could no longer understand one
another.
God said, "Let us go down and confuse their language . . . ." (Gen.
11:7).
b. Many scholars believe that the tower was a
"ziggurat."
1. Several stories high
2. Often multi-colored
3. Several such buildings
have been unearthed dating early ("Babel," New Bible Dictionary,
109-10).