Written by
Rev. John C. Schneidervin
Bar graph, genealogical listing, and tables were also produced and calculated by
Rev. John C. Schneidervin
Copyright © March 29, 2016 Registration Number Txu-1-999-169
Rev. John C. Schneidervin
All Rights Reserved
All New Testament verses are taken from the
Vivid English Translation
Of
The New Testament
Copyright © August 15, 2015 Registration Number TXu 1-977-406
Rev. John C. Schneidervin
All Rights Reserved
Rev. John C. Schneidervin
Bar graph, genealogical listing, and tables were also produced and calculated by
Rev. John C. Schneidervin
Copyright © March 29, 2016 Registration Number Txu-1-999-169
Rev. John C. Schneidervin
All Rights Reserved
All New Testament verses are taken from the
Vivid English Translation
Of
The New Testament
Copyright © August 15, 2015 Registration Number TXu 1-977-406
Rev. John C. Schneidervin
All Rights Reserved
The Name “Genesis”:
The name was taken from the Greek Septuagint’s (LXX) translation of Genesis 2:4, “This is the book of the ‘geneseos’ of heaven and earth.” The term “genesis” also appears in Genesis 5:1, 6:9, 10:1, 11:10, 11:27, 25:12, 25:19, 36:1, 36:10, and 37:2. The Greek word “genesis” means “origin, source, generation, beginning.” “The book of geneseos” is a book of a person’s lineage and ancestry, a history of one’s descendants. In the Hebrew text the term is “toledoth”, which is a plural term denoting families and generations. Since, as it has been said elsewhere, to a large measure ancient Oriental history was genealogies, “toledoth” denoted a history of families and generations. For examples, Genesis 5:1, “This is the book of the history of Adam,” and Genesis 6:9, “This is the history of Noah.” And so Genesis 2:4, “This is the book of the history of heaven and earth,” goes on to describe the generation, the beginning, of the human race and its opening history that then followed.
Genesis - A Book Of Beginnings:
Writer: Moses. See on Christian Inconnect the Introduction To The Pentateuch for biographical information on the life of Moses and for details about the Mosaic authorship.
For Whom Genesis Was Written: God’s chosen people, the Israelites.
Date Written: During the time of the exodus 1440-1400 B.C.
Place Where Written: The wilderness enroute to Canaan.
Purpose:
To recount from the beginning God’s plan of salvation that he first promised to Adam and Eve in Eden and repeated to the patriarchs
Observations About The Personages In Genesis:
Adam:
Eve was deceived and took of the forbidden fruit; but Adam was just as guilty of his own failures and sins. It was Adam, not Eve, whom God’s Word blames for sin entering into the world. Paul wrote in Romans 5, “. . . as through one man sin came into the world and death through sin, . . . by the sin of the one man death reigned by means of the one man, . . . through the sin of the one man came condemnation for all people, . . . through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, . . .” Yes, Adam was held responsible for mankind’s fall into sin.
How do we know that Adam was held responsible? Whom did God come looking for and speak to first after the fall into sin to give an account of what had happened there in Eden? Adam. And why did God come looking for Adam to get an explanation of what had happened? Because Adam was the man in charge. At the time of the fall into sin, the marriage relationship, the family, the church, and society were all represented in the persons of Adam and Eve. Adam was the leader of the marital relationship as the head of the wife. He was also the head of the family, the church, and society. And he failed as the leader to provide the leadership needed to prevent the fall into sin.
How did he fail as the leader to prevent the fall into sin? He did not speak up to put an end to the temptation before the sin occurred. He was standing right there with Eve when Satan in the possession of a snake was tempting her. His being there is made clear by Genesis 3:6, which states that Adam was there with Eve. What is more, it is evident that Adam was there with Eve during the temptation because while Satan was tempting Eve, he was including Adam in his conversation with Eve. In Genesis 3:1-5 the English words “you” and “your” in the original Hebrew text are not singular denoting just Eve but plural denoting both Adam and Eve.
Adam was right there, yet he never opened his mouth to tell Eve: “Snakes don’t talk! There is something very wrong about this snake that is talking. Watch out! Get away from it!” And when Satan contradicted the word of God, saying that they could not eat from any of the trees in the garden and that they would not die if they ate of the forbidden fruit, Adam did not speak up to tell Eve, “That snake is saying the opposite of what God said! Don’t listen to it! Don’t believe it! That snake is lying! Get away from it!” No, Adam did not say a word to stop the temptation that was going on. He failed miserably as the leader in charge. Instead of leading he ended up following! He joined in the sin of eating the forbidden fruit.
Noah:
Noah was a believer in God’s promise to send the Seed of the Woman to deliver fallen mankind from sin, death, the devil, and hell. Being a believer in the coming Messiah he was righteous in the sight of God, having the full forgiveness of his sins. Accordingly Genesis 6:9 says he was a righteous man who walked with God. Hebrews 11:7 includes Noah among the heroes of faith. The verse states that in godly reverence he went ahead and built the ark to save his family from the flood that God told him was coming. What is more, the verse says that by faith he condemned the wicked world that God was going to destroy and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. He was indeed a “preacher of righteousness” as 2 Peter 2:5 calls him.
The Scriptures do not paint the heroes of faith as sinless saints. The Scriptures relate the accounts the way they happened without doctoring up God’s believers to make them look better than they really were. The Scriptures present God’s believers as the sinful human beings that they were. Noah is a good example of this. He was a God-fearing man of great faith who obeyed God’s commands, yet after the flood he got thoroughly drunk.
Abraham:
Originally his name was Abram, which meant “exalted father”. God changed his name to Abraham, which means “father of many” (see Genesis 17:5). Abraham married Sarah, whose original name was Sarai, while in Ur of the Chaldeans (see Genesis 11:29 & 31). He was a friendly man given to hospitality, as Genesis 18 makes clear in the account of the visitation of the 3 men. The Lord blessed Abraham materially as well as spiritually. The Lord made him a very wealthy man in livestock and silver and gold, as stated in Genesis 13:2.
Spiritually Abraham was blessed with a strong faith in God and God’s promise to send the Messiah, who would save fallen mankind. For 25 years, even though he was an elderly man who was childless, Abraham believed God’s promise that God would make him into a great nation from whom the Messiah would be born. Romans 4:3 quotes Genesis 15:6 in asserting that Abraham believed God, and his faith was credited to him as righteousness.
But as strong of a believer as Abraham was, like Noah, he was not a sinless saint either. Abraham was the father of believers. He was a man of great faith in God and obedient to God’s commands. When God told him to leave his country and people and his father’s household to go to an unknown land he had never seen, he went right away. When God told him to sacrifice his promised son Isaac through whom Christ the Savior was to come, Abraham sacrificed him. Yet Abraham was a sinful human being also. In Egypt he became afraid that he would be killed, so the Egyptians could take his beautiful wife Sarah. So Abraham did not tell Pharaoh that Sarah was his wife but only that she was his sister. In that instance he failed to put his trust in God to watch over him and to keep him safe. What is more, when God was slow in enabling Sarah to become pregnant and to bear the promised son, Abraham agreed with Sarah to help God along in fulfilling God’s promise of having a son by taking Sarah’s slave girl Hagar and having a son by means of her.
Sarah:
Originally her name was Sarai. God changed her name to Sarah, which means “princess” (see Genesis 17:15). Sarah married Abraham in Ur of the Chaldeans. She was also Abraham’s half-sister. She was the daughter of Abraham’s father but not born of his mother (see Genesis 20:12). She was 65 when they left Haran for Canaan. At age 89 when she heard the Lord tell Abraham that she would have a son in a year, she laughed in disbelief. Her faith grew, however. Three to four years later, when Isaac was weaned, the teenager Ishmael mocked Isaac. Sarah then insisted that Hagar and Ishmael be sent away, because Ishmael would never share in the inheritance of Isaac, which especially included being the bearer of the messianic line to Jesus Christ.
Lot:
Lot was a believer in God’s plan of salvation through the Messiah who was to come through Abraham. Being such, in the eyes of the Lord Lot was a righteous child of his. The Lord, therefore, had his angels rescue Lot from Sodom before it was destroyed. Abraham had prayed the Lord to spare Sodom for the sake of but 10 righteous persons. The Lord did not find 10 righteous persons in Sodom, but he did answer Abraham’s prayer. He was merciful to righteous Lot and saved him from the destruction of Sodom (see Genesis 19:16 & 29).
One favorable characteristic of Lot was that he was hospitable (see Genesis 19:1-3). But repeatedly Lot showed that he was characterized by spiritual weakness. He showed a self-centeredness when he and Abraham were to separate. He took first choice of the land and chose the best land for himself, instead of allowing Abraham, who was God’s chosen patriarch, to have first choice to take the better land (see Genesis 13:10-13). In thinking of himself first and what he thought was best for himself, he chose to live in wicked Sodom with its ungodly homosexuality. In time he did become distressed and tormented by the lives of the lawless men in Sodom and Gomorrah, as 2 Peter 2:7,8 states.
Lot’s willingness to turn his 2 daughters over to the homosexual men to ravage cannot be justified. His desire to save the 2 men who were his houseguests from the sexual perverts of Sodom is admirable. But how could he be willing to turn over his virgin daughters to those sexual perverts to be attacked and abused?
Lot showed a lack of faith in the face of trouble. Even though the Lord’s angel assured him he would be safe if he fled from Sodom to the mountains, he was afraid of being killed before he could get there (see Genesis 19:18f). He insisted that he be allowed to take refuge in the small town of Zoar and that that town be spared from the destruction. The angel then assured him Zoar would be spared for his sake from the catastrophe, which it was. Yet Lot left Zoar afterwards and moved with his daughters into the mountains and sought refuge in a cave (see Genesis 19:30). Why didn’t he simply trust the angel’s assurance that Zoar would be a safe haven?
This much might be said in Lot’s defense for abandoning Zoar to take refuge in a mountain cave: the Lord’s raining down of fire and brimstone from the heavens was so horrendous and catastrophic that Lot was scared to death to remain in Zoar out in the plain where the fire and brimstone could rain down again. Such fear can consume a person’s senses, as this writer saw as a boy in a woman who lived upstairs. She had lived through the Allied bombing of Germany during World War II, and every time we had a thunderstorm she cowered at our downstairs door and whimpered in fright. The thunder reminded her of the thunder of the flying formations of bombers and the brilliant lightning flashes and crashes reminded her of the exploding bombs that she had heard raining down death and destruction. Perhaps Lot suffered from a similar fright.
To Lot’s shame, however, was his becoming so drunk that he did not even know his daughters came and had sexual intercourse with him. The daughters’ sinful plans and conduct cannot be excused either (see Genesis 19:31-38).
Isaac:
God gave Isaac his name, which means “laughter”. The name was most fitting. When Abraham heard the Lord’s promise that Isaac would be born in a year, in joyful faith over the good news he laughed (see Genesis 17:15-19). When Sarah heard God’s promise of her bearing Isaac in a year, she laughed in disbelief (see Genesis 18:9-15).
Isaac appears to have been a quiet man of faith and prayer. Genesis 24:63 states he went out alone into the field to meditate. What he prayed about we are not told, but one thing he was likely to have prayed about was his getting married and having a family.
Genesis reveals that Isaac had been very close to his mother Sarah. He mourned her death for 3 years. He did not get over losing his mother until his marriage to Rebekah (see Genesis 24:67).
God tested Isaac’s faith for 20 years, as God had also tested Abraham’s faith for 25 years by keeping him childless. Like Sarah, Rebekah was barren. Genesis 25:21 reveals Isaac’s trust in the Lord to provide him with children to be his descendants. Isaac prayed to the Lord about Rebekah’s being barren, and the Lord answered his prayer. At the end of 20 years the Lord gave him and Rebekah a set of twins.
God tested Isaac even further. When God tested Abraham by telling him to sacrifice Isaac, it should not be overlooked that God tested Isaac as well, for Isaac was the one who was to be the sacrificial victim. It has been thought that Isaac was a young man at the time. Isaac’s experience of being bound and laid on the pile of wood to be burned up and of seeing his father’s hand outstretched with a knife to slit his throat cannot be imagined! Surely Isaac showed great faith and obedience to God also.
Hebrews 11:20 says that Isaac’s blessing of Jacob and Esau as recorded in Genesis 27 was an act of faith as well. By faith Isaac finally accepted the fact that Jacob was the chosen one of God, not Esau, his favorite son. And when Esau pleaded with Isaac for the blessing, there was no changing Isaac’s mind; Isaac saw by faith it was God’s will for Jacob to have the blessing (see Hebrews 12:16, 17 & Genesis 27:32-40).
While Isaac was a man of faith and prayer, he was also a sinful human being. He at times showed a sinful weakness. He showed a lack of faith and trust in the Lord to watch over and protect him and Rebekah. For he lied to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, and told him Rebekah was his sister instead of telling him the truth that she was his wife (see Genesis 26:6-11). What is more, he showed a spiritual weakness to accept what was the Lord’s will for Jacob and Esau. The Lord had foretold Rebekah that the older Esau would serve the younger Jacob, indicating that Jacob was the son who was to carry on the messianic line of the Savior. Yet for 74 years Isaac favored Esau over Jacob, and at the end of that time when he was 134 he intended to give the blessing, which included the messianic promise, to Esau, not to Jacob (see Genesis 25:21-28 & 27:1-4).
Still, throughout his life Isaac was a God-fearing believer in God’s gospel plan of salvation, and he proved to be longsuffering with admirable patient endurance. For when Jacob deceived him and stole Esau’s blessing, Isaac was 134 years old and was already blind. He lived to age 180. So he endured being blind for more than 46 years. Since it seems that Rebekah died while Jacob was with Laban for 20 years, Isaac must have been a widower without his beloved wife from 26 to 46 years.
Rebekah:
Rebekah was the daughter of Bethuel, Abraham’s nephew, who lived in the town of Nahor in Northwest Mesopotamia. She was a beautiful young virgin as Genesis 24:15, 16 says. Genesis shows her to have been a kind, accommodating young woman who was willing to work and to help someone else. As evidence of this consider her willingness to draw water for Abraham’s servant and for all the servant’s camels (see Genesis 24:17-20).
Nothing is known about Rebekah’s death. It is thought she died sometime during the 20 years that Jacob was with Laban in Haran. She was buried in the cave of Machpelah, the family’s gravesite, where Abraham and Sarah were buried, and where Jacob later buried Leah. Jacob and Esau also buried Isaac there. After his death Jacob was buried there as well (see Genesis 49:29-31).
Rebekah knew that the Lord had told her before Jacob and Esau were born that the older Esau would serve the younger Jacob. The Lord already indicated then that he had chosen Jacob to be the bearer of the messianic line of Christ Jesus, not Esau. So when she over heard Isaac tell Esau of his sinful intention to bless Esau rather than Jacob, Rebekah took action to see to it that her favorite son Jacob would inherit the blessing. In this instance the intentions and conduct of all three, Isaac and Rebekah and Jacob, were sinful to say the least. This was a clear case of where the Lord used the sinful behaviors of his believing children to accomplish what was his good and gracious will.
Jacob:
Jacob’s name means “he takes hold of one’s heel”. A late seminary professor of mine used to refer to Jacob’s name as “The Heel Grabber.” Jacob was given that name because when he was born his hand was holding onto his twin brother Esau’s heel. Figuratively the name Jacob meant “to deceive”, and so Jacob was “The Deceiver.” He was aptly named, as his behavior later proved.
While Esau was an outdoorsman, Jacob was a quiet, stay-at-home type of man (see Genesis 25:27). He was Rebekah’s favorite son (see Genesis 25:28).
The Lord blessed Jacob and made him a wealthy man (see Genesis 30:25-43). Just how wealthy of a man the Lord made Jacob is shown by the gift of animals that Jacob sent on ahead of him to Esau – 200 female goats and 20 male goats, 200 ewes and 20 rams, 30 female camels and their young, 40 cows and 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys and 10 male donkeys. That is a total of 580 animals!
During his life Jacob clearly had his faults and was guilty of his sins. But at the end of his life, when looking back on his earlier life, he spoke of the goodness and kindness of God, who shepherded him through his whole life. And by faith he spoke of the Angel of the Lord, the preincarnate Son of God, who guided him, assured him, and redeemed him from all evil (Genesis 48:15 16). And by faith he looked forward to the eternal rest he would have in heaven with his fathers Abraham and Isaac through the Messiah, the Christ, whom he believed with confidence would come from his descendents one day (see Genesis 47:27-30).
Esau:
The name Esau means “Hairy”. He also gained the name “Edom”, which means “Red”, as a result of having sold his birthright for some red lentil stew (see Genesis 25:29-34).
Esau was an outdoorsman, a skillful hunter, as stated in Genesis 25:27. He was Isaac’s favorite son (see Genesis 25:28).
But Esau was a worldly-minded man, who despised his birthright and God’s gospel of the messianic promise. Esau sold his birithright to Jacob for some red lentil stew. His doing so showed just how little he cared for his birthright. Hebrews 12:16 calls him an ungodly man. God and the spiritual blessings of his birthright meant nothing to him. He was an unbeliever who had no relationship with God, and after Jacob stole his blessing, he was full of hatred and ready to commit murder. His ungodly frame of mind was further evident in his choosing 2 heathen Hittite women for his wives (see Genesis 26:34).
He did become a powerful man in his own right, however, having 400 men who rode with him (see Genesis 32:6). That harmonizes with Isaac’s prophetic blessing that Esau would live by the sword (see Genesis 27:40). And according to Genesis 36 he became the father of the nation of Edom and of numerous chieftains and kings.
Joseph:
Rachel gave Joseph his name, which means “may he add”. Rachel gave him that name because it was her prayer that God would give her another son (see Genesis 30:22-24).
Aside from the account of Joseph’s birth in Genesis 30:22-24, the account of Joseph’s life begins when he was a teenager at the young age of 17. He was a God-fearing, upright young man as Genesis 37 to 41 indicate. The Lord had blessed him with 17 years of spiritual training from his father Jacob. He was a believer in the Lord, the God of his fathers Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. The gospel promises of the Messiah who was coming to bring about God’s plan of salvation for them and all people was known to him. The Spirit of God was at work in him to believe in the coming Messiah, to live an upright and righteous life as his holy God and Lord desired him to live (see Genesis 37:2 & 39:6-12), and the Holy Spirit was at work in him to bless him with divine revelations of his future greatness and with the ability to interpret dreams.
God had blessed Joseph with an abundance of natural abilities as well. The account of Joseph begins by stating that Joseph was a shepherd who tended the flocks with his brothers. But he became more than a mere shepherd. Genesis chapters 37 to 47 reveal that Joseph was a talented man, exhibiting excellent administrative and executive capabilities. He was a superb manager and able to give wise counsel. And what lay behind his managerial skills and giving wise counsel was the Lord’s being with him and blessing his work and causing it to succeed (see Genesis 39:3-6 & 20-23).
Physically Genesis 39:6 states that Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. We would say that as a young man Joseph was good looking and well built.
Joseph was the favorite son of Jacob, which only aroused his brother’s jealousy and hatred of him. To heighten their hatred of him to the point of plotting his murder but selling him into slavery instead was Joseph’s relating his dreams that he would rule over them. In relating his dreams to his brothers and to his father Jacob, the upright Joseph slipped into the sin of ambitious pride. His ambitious pride was so evident that Jacob rebuked him for it (see Genesis 37:10, 11).
Being young, a teenager of 17, and having a sinful ambitious streak of pride, Joseph needed a maturing that would prepare him for his role as ruler of all Egypt one day. For the next 13 years the Lord gave him the maturing he needed. Until he was 30 Joseph went through a period of humbling and purifying and training. Psalm 105:16-22 speak of those years of Joseph’s being enslaved and imprisoned, and those verses describe Joseph’s being sold as a slave and afflicted by having his feet locked up in irons. Psalm 105:19 calls those 13 years a time of the Lord’s refining him. The Hebrew term for “refine” means to literally purge by fire, as goldsmiths purged gold from its impurities and refined it. This is what the Lord did to Joseph. For 13 years the Lord matured Joseph spiritually, purging away the ambitious pride while refining Joseph’s faith to put his trust in the Lord for deliverance from slavery and imprisonment for his future life as a leader who would be a ruler one day as the Lord had foretold him in his dreams. During those 13 years the Lord also trained Joseph to be an able administrator and manager through the years of being over Potiphar’s estate and over the affairs of the prison in which he himself was imprisoned. By the time the Lord made Joseph ruler over Egypt, the Lord had matured and trained Joseph spiritually and mentally and administratively.
Joseph’s Brothers:
The section of Genesis entitled “The History Of Jacob” does not paint a pretty picture of ten of Jacob’s sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. The chapters of this section reveal men who were initially hard and calloused and unloving and cruel.
What Joseph’s brothers did in Shechem is a case in point (see Genesis 34). The ten brothers ranged in age from about 26 down to 17. In revenge for their sister Dinah’s being raped, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s full brothers born of her mother Leah, took their swords and went through the city of Shechem and slaughtered all the males in it. Then, when the other sons of Jacob found all the dead bodies, they looted everything in the city and carried it off as plunder and took all the women and children as slaves. The treachery and bloodshed and looting were so horrible that Jacob was afraid that the Canaanites and Perizzites who lived in the land would join forces and annihilate his whole family.
How the brothers hated and mistreated Joseph is another case in point. After they stripped him of his robe and threw him into a cistern, they sat down to eat their meal. What they had done to Joseph did not bother them. And all the while they were eating their meal Joseph was pleading for his life from the bottom of the cistern, as Genesis 42:21 indicates. But they refused to listen to his pleas. Then, when they saw a caravan coming, Judah said that there was no profit for them in killing him. He suggested instead that since he was their brother, they ought not to kill him but sell him into slavery and make some money on him. The rest agreed. Hearing this now makes one wonder how they could be so cold and so cruel and so unloving and so unconcerned about their own flesh and blood.
Their cold, hard, calloused, unloving hearts were further demonstrated by their lying to Jacob that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal. They put their father through intense grief that lasted for a long time and over which he could not be comforted. Again a person is led to ask: “How could they do such a thing?”
More than 13 years later, however, when the brothers went down to Egypt to buy grain, they finally confessed their mistreatment of Joseph. They recognized that the ill treatment that they were receiving was because of how they had mistreated Joseph years earlier.
Structure:
As mentioned above, the Hebrew term for the Greek term “genesis” is “toledoth”, which meant an ancestral history. Moses used this term “toledoth” ten times in the Book of Genesis to mark off ten historical sections. Those ten sections are outlined below. Each of the historical sections provided, not the origin of the man named, but the subsequent history of that man in the lives of his sons who followed him.
The historical section of Jacob requires special mention. Moses entitled it “The History Of Jacob;” yet the section immediately begins to speak of Joseph. Through the majority of the section the history of Joseph’s life is given, not Jacob’s. But Jacob remains its key person and patriarch. The section is about God’s plan of salvation as it was carried out through Jacob’s family. Joseph was God’s agent and instrument by which God carried out his plans for Jacob’s family in the part it played in God’s plan of salvation. By means of Joseph Jacob and his family were brought down to Egypt. There in Egypt Jacob’s family and descendents were kept apart from the ungodly nations in Canaan. This separation of Jacob’s family from the ungodly Canaanites was necessary so the spiritual demise and corruption that took place among the God-fearing descendents of Seth and of Noah could not occur among Jacob’s family whom God would make into a great nation in Egypt. Furthermore, by means of Joseph God brought Jacob and his family down to Egypt where he would make them into a great nation of people through whom Jesus Christ the Messiah would be born into the world. God had foretold Abraham that his future descendents would be enslaved for 400 years as strangers in a foreign land and would then return to take possession of the land of Canaan (see Genesis 15:13-20). By means of Joseph God also brought Jacob and his family down to Egypt to save them from being wiped out by the terrible famine God would bring over that part of the world. Years later, after Jacob’s death, Joseph advised his brothers that God had sent him ahead to save the lives of many, which included Jacob’s family especially (see Genesis 50:20). So while Joseph is a key figure in “The History Of Jacob,” the account is really about Jacob and his family and the part they played in God’s carrying out his plan of salvation.
A further point to keep in mind about Moses’ ten historical divisions of Genesis is this: With the exception of the historical sections of Ishmael and of Esau, the historical sections trace the ancestral line of the Messiah and Savior, whom God promised to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis this Messianic line is traced from Adam to Judah. It is also given in the third chapter of Luke.
The Book of Genesis can be divided into two parts – before and after the flood. The account of creation and the ten “toledoths” then make up the outline of the book.
Part I: Before The Flood Genesis 1:1-9:29
A. The Beginning Of The Heavens And The Earth Genesis 1:1-2:3
B. The History Of The Heavens And The Earth Genesis 2:4-4:26
C. The History Of Adam Genesis 5:1-6:8
D. The History Of Noah Genesis 6:9-9:29
Part II: After The Flood Genesis 10:1-50:26
A. The History Of The Sons Of Noah Genesis 10:1-11:9
B. The History Of Shem Genesis 11:10-11:26
C. The History Of Terah Genesis 11:27-25:11
D. The History Of Ishmael Genesis 25:12-18
E. The History Of Isaac The Son Of Abraham Genesis 25:19-35:29
F. The History Of Esau Genesis 36:1-37:1
G. The History Of Jacob Genesis 37:2-50:26
About The Dates And Ages Given In The Outline Of Genesis Below:
To gain a better understanding of the historical accounts that Moses related in Genesis, it would be good to first look at a bar graph and a couple of tables. They illustrate and provide valuable information about the dates and times of the many events and persons \in Genesis. Unfortunately, the tables cannot be viewed as tables on a mobile device; they must be viewed on a computer.
Bar Graph:
Look over the bar graph below entitled the “Messianic Line From Adam To Noah”. The bar graph is old and yellowed. I drew it up about 35 years ago, before the age of personal computers, for a Bible Study I taught on the Book of Genesis for the members of my congregation. The bar graph is a series of bar graphs that plot out the ages of Adam and his descendents in the messianic line up to Noah. The bar graph shows that Adam lived through all the generations who lived up through the time of Noah’s grandfather Methuselah and father Lamech. Adam lived up to just 126 years before the birth of Noah and while Noah’s grandfather Methuselah and father Lamech were living. Methuselah, in turn, lived at the time of Noah up to the very year of the flood. Noah’s father Lamech lived for 595 years during Noah’s life and up to 5 years before the flood.
This is an extremely important collection of data. It shows the messianic line from Adam to Noah. What is more, it shows how readily the Word of God could be passed on from Adam to Noah. Adam lived at the same time as Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Noah’s grandfather Methuselah, and Noah’s father Lamech. This means that Adam was able to pass on to all those generations of his descendants the accounts of creation, the fall into sin in the Garden of Eden, Cain’s murder of Abel, the rise of sin and ungodliness in the world, and most importantly God’s promise to send the Seed of the Woman who would be the Serpent Crusher who would save mankind from the devil, sin, death, and hell. Those descendants of Adam’s from Seth to Lamech were able in turn to pass on those reports to others like Noah, who was able to pass on the information to his 3 sons and to the rest of the world’s inhabitants who came from them. So the Word of God starting with creation and the fall into sin was able to be passed on from Adam to Noah in just three links – Adam to Methuselah and Lamech to Noah.
Bar Graph: The Messianic Line From Adam To Noah
The name was taken from the Greek Septuagint’s (LXX) translation of Genesis 2:4, “This is the book of the ‘geneseos’ of heaven and earth.” The term “genesis” also appears in Genesis 5:1, 6:9, 10:1, 11:10, 11:27, 25:12, 25:19, 36:1, 36:10, and 37:2. The Greek word “genesis” means “origin, source, generation, beginning.” “The book of geneseos” is a book of a person’s lineage and ancestry, a history of one’s descendants. In the Hebrew text the term is “toledoth”, which is a plural term denoting families and generations. Since, as it has been said elsewhere, to a large measure ancient Oriental history was genealogies, “toledoth” denoted a history of families and generations. For examples, Genesis 5:1, “This is the book of the history of Adam,” and Genesis 6:9, “This is the history of Noah.” And so Genesis 2:4, “This is the book of the history of heaven and earth,” goes on to describe the generation, the beginning, of the human race and its opening history that then followed.
Genesis - A Book Of Beginnings:
- The Book of Genesis is a book of origins and beginnings. It denotes:
- The beginning of the heavens and the earth, the universe, and all that is in them
- The beginning of the human race of male and female
- The beginning of marriage and the family and the church and society
- The beginning and the origin of sin in the world
- The beginning of God’s proclamations of his plan of salvation to rescue sinful mankind through the coming Messiah, who would crush Satan’s head
- The beginning of God’s punishments of sin that mankind would have to bear on earth
- The beginning of sinful conduct in the world – unbelief, ungodliness, murder, lovelessness, polygamy, the ungodly generation of the Cainites
- The beginning of the human pursuits of farming, the raising of livestock, architecture, building and construction, nomadic tent dwelling, music and musical instruments, metallurgy and forging of tools
- The beginning of the God-fearing generation of the Sethites
- The beginning of death’s onslaught of one generation after another
- The universal flood that also prefigured the coming day of God’s final judgment
- The beginning of the rainbow as a sign of God’s covenant with Noah to never again destroy all life on the earth as he did in the flood
- The table of nations arising from the sons of Noah
- The end of one world language and the beginning of many world languages
- The beginning of God’s chosen people, the Israelites arising from Noah’s son Shem and beginning with the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the land of Canaan
- The kings and the nations that rose up from Abraham that he might be the father of many nations
- The beginning of the messianic genealogy starting with Adam, then continuing through his son Seth and his sons, through Noah and his son Shem and the Shemites, through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and then continuing through the descendants of Jacob’s son Judah
- The beginning of Israel’s sojourn in Egypt at the time of Joseph
Writer: Moses. See on Christian Inconnect the Introduction To The Pentateuch for biographical information on the life of Moses and for details about the Mosaic authorship.
For Whom Genesis Was Written: God’s chosen people, the Israelites.
Date Written: During the time of the exodus 1440-1400 B.C.
Place Where Written: The wilderness enroute to Canaan.
Purpose:
To recount from the beginning God’s plan of salvation that he first promised to Adam and Eve in Eden and repeated to the patriarchs
- Note: All the rest of the Bible is an elaboration of God’s fulfilling that first gospel promise of the coming of the Savior Jesus Christ
Observations About The Personages In Genesis:
Adam:
Eve was deceived and took of the forbidden fruit; but Adam was just as guilty of his own failures and sins. It was Adam, not Eve, whom God’s Word blames for sin entering into the world. Paul wrote in Romans 5, “. . . as through one man sin came into the world and death through sin, . . . by the sin of the one man death reigned by means of the one man, . . . through the sin of the one man came condemnation for all people, . . . through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, . . .” Yes, Adam was held responsible for mankind’s fall into sin.
How do we know that Adam was held responsible? Whom did God come looking for and speak to first after the fall into sin to give an account of what had happened there in Eden? Adam. And why did God come looking for Adam to get an explanation of what had happened? Because Adam was the man in charge. At the time of the fall into sin, the marriage relationship, the family, the church, and society were all represented in the persons of Adam and Eve. Adam was the leader of the marital relationship as the head of the wife. He was also the head of the family, the church, and society. And he failed as the leader to provide the leadership needed to prevent the fall into sin.
How did he fail as the leader to prevent the fall into sin? He did not speak up to put an end to the temptation before the sin occurred. He was standing right there with Eve when Satan in the possession of a snake was tempting her. His being there is made clear by Genesis 3:6, which states that Adam was there with Eve. What is more, it is evident that Adam was there with Eve during the temptation because while Satan was tempting Eve, he was including Adam in his conversation with Eve. In Genesis 3:1-5 the English words “you” and “your” in the original Hebrew text are not singular denoting just Eve but plural denoting both Adam and Eve.
Adam was right there, yet he never opened his mouth to tell Eve: “Snakes don’t talk! There is something very wrong about this snake that is talking. Watch out! Get away from it!” And when Satan contradicted the word of God, saying that they could not eat from any of the trees in the garden and that they would not die if they ate of the forbidden fruit, Adam did not speak up to tell Eve, “That snake is saying the opposite of what God said! Don’t listen to it! Don’t believe it! That snake is lying! Get away from it!” No, Adam did not say a word to stop the temptation that was going on. He failed miserably as the leader in charge. Instead of leading he ended up following! He joined in the sin of eating the forbidden fruit.
Noah:
Noah was a believer in God’s promise to send the Seed of the Woman to deliver fallen mankind from sin, death, the devil, and hell. Being a believer in the coming Messiah he was righteous in the sight of God, having the full forgiveness of his sins. Accordingly Genesis 6:9 says he was a righteous man who walked with God. Hebrews 11:7 includes Noah among the heroes of faith. The verse states that in godly reverence he went ahead and built the ark to save his family from the flood that God told him was coming. What is more, the verse says that by faith he condemned the wicked world that God was going to destroy and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. He was indeed a “preacher of righteousness” as 2 Peter 2:5 calls him.
The Scriptures do not paint the heroes of faith as sinless saints. The Scriptures relate the accounts the way they happened without doctoring up God’s believers to make them look better than they really were. The Scriptures present God’s believers as the sinful human beings that they were. Noah is a good example of this. He was a God-fearing man of great faith who obeyed God’s commands, yet after the flood he got thoroughly drunk.
Abraham:
Originally his name was Abram, which meant “exalted father”. God changed his name to Abraham, which means “father of many” (see Genesis 17:5). Abraham married Sarah, whose original name was Sarai, while in Ur of the Chaldeans (see Genesis 11:29 & 31). He was a friendly man given to hospitality, as Genesis 18 makes clear in the account of the visitation of the 3 men. The Lord blessed Abraham materially as well as spiritually. The Lord made him a very wealthy man in livestock and silver and gold, as stated in Genesis 13:2.
Spiritually Abraham was blessed with a strong faith in God and God’s promise to send the Messiah, who would save fallen mankind. For 25 years, even though he was an elderly man who was childless, Abraham believed God’s promise that God would make him into a great nation from whom the Messiah would be born. Romans 4:3 quotes Genesis 15:6 in asserting that Abraham believed God, and his faith was credited to him as righteousness.
But as strong of a believer as Abraham was, like Noah, he was not a sinless saint either. Abraham was the father of believers. He was a man of great faith in God and obedient to God’s commands. When God told him to leave his country and people and his father’s household to go to an unknown land he had never seen, he went right away. When God told him to sacrifice his promised son Isaac through whom Christ the Savior was to come, Abraham sacrificed him. Yet Abraham was a sinful human being also. In Egypt he became afraid that he would be killed, so the Egyptians could take his beautiful wife Sarah. So Abraham did not tell Pharaoh that Sarah was his wife but only that she was his sister. In that instance he failed to put his trust in God to watch over him and to keep him safe. What is more, when God was slow in enabling Sarah to become pregnant and to bear the promised son, Abraham agreed with Sarah to help God along in fulfilling God’s promise of having a son by taking Sarah’s slave girl Hagar and having a son by means of her.
Sarah:
Originally her name was Sarai. God changed her name to Sarah, which means “princess” (see Genesis 17:15). Sarah married Abraham in Ur of the Chaldeans. She was also Abraham’s half-sister. She was the daughter of Abraham’s father but not born of his mother (see Genesis 20:12). She was 65 when they left Haran for Canaan. At age 89 when she heard the Lord tell Abraham that she would have a son in a year, she laughed in disbelief. Her faith grew, however. Three to four years later, when Isaac was weaned, the teenager Ishmael mocked Isaac. Sarah then insisted that Hagar and Ishmael be sent away, because Ishmael would never share in the inheritance of Isaac, which especially included being the bearer of the messianic line to Jesus Christ.
Lot:
Lot was a believer in God’s plan of salvation through the Messiah who was to come through Abraham. Being such, in the eyes of the Lord Lot was a righteous child of his. The Lord, therefore, had his angels rescue Lot from Sodom before it was destroyed. Abraham had prayed the Lord to spare Sodom for the sake of but 10 righteous persons. The Lord did not find 10 righteous persons in Sodom, but he did answer Abraham’s prayer. He was merciful to righteous Lot and saved him from the destruction of Sodom (see Genesis 19:16 & 29).
One favorable characteristic of Lot was that he was hospitable (see Genesis 19:1-3). But repeatedly Lot showed that he was characterized by spiritual weakness. He showed a self-centeredness when he and Abraham were to separate. He took first choice of the land and chose the best land for himself, instead of allowing Abraham, who was God’s chosen patriarch, to have first choice to take the better land (see Genesis 13:10-13). In thinking of himself first and what he thought was best for himself, he chose to live in wicked Sodom with its ungodly homosexuality. In time he did become distressed and tormented by the lives of the lawless men in Sodom and Gomorrah, as 2 Peter 2:7,8 states.
Lot’s willingness to turn his 2 daughters over to the homosexual men to ravage cannot be justified. His desire to save the 2 men who were his houseguests from the sexual perverts of Sodom is admirable. But how could he be willing to turn over his virgin daughters to those sexual perverts to be attacked and abused?
Lot showed a lack of faith in the face of trouble. Even though the Lord’s angel assured him he would be safe if he fled from Sodom to the mountains, he was afraid of being killed before he could get there (see Genesis 19:18f). He insisted that he be allowed to take refuge in the small town of Zoar and that that town be spared from the destruction. The angel then assured him Zoar would be spared for his sake from the catastrophe, which it was. Yet Lot left Zoar afterwards and moved with his daughters into the mountains and sought refuge in a cave (see Genesis 19:30). Why didn’t he simply trust the angel’s assurance that Zoar would be a safe haven?
This much might be said in Lot’s defense for abandoning Zoar to take refuge in a mountain cave: the Lord’s raining down of fire and brimstone from the heavens was so horrendous and catastrophic that Lot was scared to death to remain in Zoar out in the plain where the fire and brimstone could rain down again. Such fear can consume a person’s senses, as this writer saw as a boy in a woman who lived upstairs. She had lived through the Allied bombing of Germany during World War II, and every time we had a thunderstorm she cowered at our downstairs door and whimpered in fright. The thunder reminded her of the thunder of the flying formations of bombers and the brilliant lightning flashes and crashes reminded her of the exploding bombs that she had heard raining down death and destruction. Perhaps Lot suffered from a similar fright.
To Lot’s shame, however, was his becoming so drunk that he did not even know his daughters came and had sexual intercourse with him. The daughters’ sinful plans and conduct cannot be excused either (see Genesis 19:31-38).
Isaac:
God gave Isaac his name, which means “laughter”. The name was most fitting. When Abraham heard the Lord’s promise that Isaac would be born in a year, in joyful faith over the good news he laughed (see Genesis 17:15-19). When Sarah heard God’s promise of her bearing Isaac in a year, she laughed in disbelief (see Genesis 18:9-15).
Isaac appears to have been a quiet man of faith and prayer. Genesis 24:63 states he went out alone into the field to meditate. What he prayed about we are not told, but one thing he was likely to have prayed about was his getting married and having a family.
Genesis reveals that Isaac had been very close to his mother Sarah. He mourned her death for 3 years. He did not get over losing his mother until his marriage to Rebekah (see Genesis 24:67).
God tested Isaac’s faith for 20 years, as God had also tested Abraham’s faith for 25 years by keeping him childless. Like Sarah, Rebekah was barren. Genesis 25:21 reveals Isaac’s trust in the Lord to provide him with children to be his descendants. Isaac prayed to the Lord about Rebekah’s being barren, and the Lord answered his prayer. At the end of 20 years the Lord gave him and Rebekah a set of twins.
God tested Isaac even further. When God tested Abraham by telling him to sacrifice Isaac, it should not be overlooked that God tested Isaac as well, for Isaac was the one who was to be the sacrificial victim. It has been thought that Isaac was a young man at the time. Isaac’s experience of being bound and laid on the pile of wood to be burned up and of seeing his father’s hand outstretched with a knife to slit his throat cannot be imagined! Surely Isaac showed great faith and obedience to God also.
Hebrews 11:20 says that Isaac’s blessing of Jacob and Esau as recorded in Genesis 27 was an act of faith as well. By faith Isaac finally accepted the fact that Jacob was the chosen one of God, not Esau, his favorite son. And when Esau pleaded with Isaac for the blessing, there was no changing Isaac’s mind; Isaac saw by faith it was God’s will for Jacob to have the blessing (see Hebrews 12:16, 17 & Genesis 27:32-40).
While Isaac was a man of faith and prayer, he was also a sinful human being. He at times showed a sinful weakness. He showed a lack of faith and trust in the Lord to watch over and protect him and Rebekah. For he lied to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, and told him Rebekah was his sister instead of telling him the truth that she was his wife (see Genesis 26:6-11). What is more, he showed a spiritual weakness to accept what was the Lord’s will for Jacob and Esau. The Lord had foretold Rebekah that the older Esau would serve the younger Jacob, indicating that Jacob was the son who was to carry on the messianic line of the Savior. Yet for 74 years Isaac favored Esau over Jacob, and at the end of that time when he was 134 he intended to give the blessing, which included the messianic promise, to Esau, not to Jacob (see Genesis 25:21-28 & 27:1-4).
Still, throughout his life Isaac was a God-fearing believer in God’s gospel plan of salvation, and he proved to be longsuffering with admirable patient endurance. For when Jacob deceived him and stole Esau’s blessing, Isaac was 134 years old and was already blind. He lived to age 180. So he endured being blind for more than 46 years. Since it seems that Rebekah died while Jacob was with Laban for 20 years, Isaac must have been a widower without his beloved wife from 26 to 46 years.
Rebekah:
Rebekah was the daughter of Bethuel, Abraham’s nephew, who lived in the town of Nahor in Northwest Mesopotamia. She was a beautiful young virgin as Genesis 24:15, 16 says. Genesis shows her to have been a kind, accommodating young woman who was willing to work and to help someone else. As evidence of this consider her willingness to draw water for Abraham’s servant and for all the servant’s camels (see Genesis 24:17-20).
Nothing is known about Rebekah’s death. It is thought she died sometime during the 20 years that Jacob was with Laban in Haran. She was buried in the cave of Machpelah, the family’s gravesite, where Abraham and Sarah were buried, and where Jacob later buried Leah. Jacob and Esau also buried Isaac there. After his death Jacob was buried there as well (see Genesis 49:29-31).
Rebekah knew that the Lord had told her before Jacob and Esau were born that the older Esau would serve the younger Jacob. The Lord already indicated then that he had chosen Jacob to be the bearer of the messianic line of Christ Jesus, not Esau. So when she over heard Isaac tell Esau of his sinful intention to bless Esau rather than Jacob, Rebekah took action to see to it that her favorite son Jacob would inherit the blessing. In this instance the intentions and conduct of all three, Isaac and Rebekah and Jacob, were sinful to say the least. This was a clear case of where the Lord used the sinful behaviors of his believing children to accomplish what was his good and gracious will.
Jacob:
Jacob’s name means “he takes hold of one’s heel”. A late seminary professor of mine used to refer to Jacob’s name as “The Heel Grabber.” Jacob was given that name because when he was born his hand was holding onto his twin brother Esau’s heel. Figuratively the name Jacob meant “to deceive”, and so Jacob was “The Deceiver.” He was aptly named, as his behavior later proved.
While Esau was an outdoorsman, Jacob was a quiet, stay-at-home type of man (see Genesis 25:27). He was Rebekah’s favorite son (see Genesis 25:28).
The Lord blessed Jacob and made him a wealthy man (see Genesis 30:25-43). Just how wealthy of a man the Lord made Jacob is shown by the gift of animals that Jacob sent on ahead of him to Esau – 200 female goats and 20 male goats, 200 ewes and 20 rams, 30 female camels and their young, 40 cows and 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys and 10 male donkeys. That is a total of 580 animals!
During his life Jacob clearly had his faults and was guilty of his sins. But at the end of his life, when looking back on his earlier life, he spoke of the goodness and kindness of God, who shepherded him through his whole life. And by faith he spoke of the Angel of the Lord, the preincarnate Son of God, who guided him, assured him, and redeemed him from all evil (Genesis 48:15 16). And by faith he looked forward to the eternal rest he would have in heaven with his fathers Abraham and Isaac through the Messiah, the Christ, whom he believed with confidence would come from his descendents one day (see Genesis 47:27-30).
Esau:
The name Esau means “Hairy”. He also gained the name “Edom”, which means “Red”, as a result of having sold his birthright for some red lentil stew (see Genesis 25:29-34).
Esau was an outdoorsman, a skillful hunter, as stated in Genesis 25:27. He was Isaac’s favorite son (see Genesis 25:28).
But Esau was a worldly-minded man, who despised his birthright and God’s gospel of the messianic promise. Esau sold his birithright to Jacob for some red lentil stew. His doing so showed just how little he cared for his birthright. Hebrews 12:16 calls him an ungodly man. God and the spiritual blessings of his birthright meant nothing to him. He was an unbeliever who had no relationship with God, and after Jacob stole his blessing, he was full of hatred and ready to commit murder. His ungodly frame of mind was further evident in his choosing 2 heathen Hittite women for his wives (see Genesis 26:34).
He did become a powerful man in his own right, however, having 400 men who rode with him (see Genesis 32:6). That harmonizes with Isaac’s prophetic blessing that Esau would live by the sword (see Genesis 27:40). And according to Genesis 36 he became the father of the nation of Edom and of numerous chieftains and kings.
Joseph:
Rachel gave Joseph his name, which means “may he add”. Rachel gave him that name because it was her prayer that God would give her another son (see Genesis 30:22-24).
Aside from the account of Joseph’s birth in Genesis 30:22-24, the account of Joseph’s life begins when he was a teenager at the young age of 17. He was a God-fearing, upright young man as Genesis 37 to 41 indicate. The Lord had blessed him with 17 years of spiritual training from his father Jacob. He was a believer in the Lord, the God of his fathers Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. The gospel promises of the Messiah who was coming to bring about God’s plan of salvation for them and all people was known to him. The Spirit of God was at work in him to believe in the coming Messiah, to live an upright and righteous life as his holy God and Lord desired him to live (see Genesis 37:2 & 39:6-12), and the Holy Spirit was at work in him to bless him with divine revelations of his future greatness and with the ability to interpret dreams.
God had blessed Joseph with an abundance of natural abilities as well. The account of Joseph begins by stating that Joseph was a shepherd who tended the flocks with his brothers. But he became more than a mere shepherd. Genesis chapters 37 to 47 reveal that Joseph was a talented man, exhibiting excellent administrative and executive capabilities. He was a superb manager and able to give wise counsel. And what lay behind his managerial skills and giving wise counsel was the Lord’s being with him and blessing his work and causing it to succeed (see Genesis 39:3-6 & 20-23).
Physically Genesis 39:6 states that Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. We would say that as a young man Joseph was good looking and well built.
Joseph was the favorite son of Jacob, which only aroused his brother’s jealousy and hatred of him. To heighten their hatred of him to the point of plotting his murder but selling him into slavery instead was Joseph’s relating his dreams that he would rule over them. In relating his dreams to his brothers and to his father Jacob, the upright Joseph slipped into the sin of ambitious pride. His ambitious pride was so evident that Jacob rebuked him for it (see Genesis 37:10, 11).
Being young, a teenager of 17, and having a sinful ambitious streak of pride, Joseph needed a maturing that would prepare him for his role as ruler of all Egypt one day. For the next 13 years the Lord gave him the maturing he needed. Until he was 30 Joseph went through a period of humbling and purifying and training. Psalm 105:16-22 speak of those years of Joseph’s being enslaved and imprisoned, and those verses describe Joseph’s being sold as a slave and afflicted by having his feet locked up in irons. Psalm 105:19 calls those 13 years a time of the Lord’s refining him. The Hebrew term for “refine” means to literally purge by fire, as goldsmiths purged gold from its impurities and refined it. This is what the Lord did to Joseph. For 13 years the Lord matured Joseph spiritually, purging away the ambitious pride while refining Joseph’s faith to put his trust in the Lord for deliverance from slavery and imprisonment for his future life as a leader who would be a ruler one day as the Lord had foretold him in his dreams. During those 13 years the Lord also trained Joseph to be an able administrator and manager through the years of being over Potiphar’s estate and over the affairs of the prison in which he himself was imprisoned. By the time the Lord made Joseph ruler over Egypt, the Lord had matured and trained Joseph spiritually and mentally and administratively.
Joseph’s Brothers:
The section of Genesis entitled “The History Of Jacob” does not paint a pretty picture of ten of Jacob’s sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. The chapters of this section reveal men who were initially hard and calloused and unloving and cruel.
What Joseph’s brothers did in Shechem is a case in point (see Genesis 34). The ten brothers ranged in age from about 26 down to 17. In revenge for their sister Dinah’s being raped, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s full brothers born of her mother Leah, took their swords and went through the city of Shechem and slaughtered all the males in it. Then, when the other sons of Jacob found all the dead bodies, they looted everything in the city and carried it off as plunder and took all the women and children as slaves. The treachery and bloodshed and looting were so horrible that Jacob was afraid that the Canaanites and Perizzites who lived in the land would join forces and annihilate his whole family.
How the brothers hated and mistreated Joseph is another case in point. After they stripped him of his robe and threw him into a cistern, they sat down to eat their meal. What they had done to Joseph did not bother them. And all the while they were eating their meal Joseph was pleading for his life from the bottom of the cistern, as Genesis 42:21 indicates. But they refused to listen to his pleas. Then, when they saw a caravan coming, Judah said that there was no profit for them in killing him. He suggested instead that since he was their brother, they ought not to kill him but sell him into slavery and make some money on him. The rest agreed. Hearing this now makes one wonder how they could be so cold and so cruel and so unloving and so unconcerned about their own flesh and blood.
Their cold, hard, calloused, unloving hearts were further demonstrated by their lying to Jacob that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal. They put their father through intense grief that lasted for a long time and over which he could not be comforted. Again a person is led to ask: “How could they do such a thing?”
More than 13 years later, however, when the brothers went down to Egypt to buy grain, they finally confessed their mistreatment of Joseph. They recognized that the ill treatment that they were receiving was because of how they had mistreated Joseph years earlier.
Structure:
As mentioned above, the Hebrew term for the Greek term “genesis” is “toledoth”, which meant an ancestral history. Moses used this term “toledoth” ten times in the Book of Genesis to mark off ten historical sections. Those ten sections are outlined below. Each of the historical sections provided, not the origin of the man named, but the subsequent history of that man in the lives of his sons who followed him.
The historical section of Jacob requires special mention. Moses entitled it “The History Of Jacob;” yet the section immediately begins to speak of Joseph. Through the majority of the section the history of Joseph’s life is given, not Jacob’s. But Jacob remains its key person and patriarch. The section is about God’s plan of salvation as it was carried out through Jacob’s family. Joseph was God’s agent and instrument by which God carried out his plans for Jacob’s family in the part it played in God’s plan of salvation. By means of Joseph Jacob and his family were brought down to Egypt. There in Egypt Jacob’s family and descendents were kept apart from the ungodly nations in Canaan. This separation of Jacob’s family from the ungodly Canaanites was necessary so the spiritual demise and corruption that took place among the God-fearing descendents of Seth and of Noah could not occur among Jacob’s family whom God would make into a great nation in Egypt. Furthermore, by means of Joseph God brought Jacob and his family down to Egypt where he would make them into a great nation of people through whom Jesus Christ the Messiah would be born into the world. God had foretold Abraham that his future descendents would be enslaved for 400 years as strangers in a foreign land and would then return to take possession of the land of Canaan (see Genesis 15:13-20). By means of Joseph God also brought Jacob and his family down to Egypt to save them from being wiped out by the terrible famine God would bring over that part of the world. Years later, after Jacob’s death, Joseph advised his brothers that God had sent him ahead to save the lives of many, which included Jacob’s family especially (see Genesis 50:20). So while Joseph is a key figure in “The History Of Jacob,” the account is really about Jacob and his family and the part they played in God’s carrying out his plan of salvation.
A further point to keep in mind about Moses’ ten historical divisions of Genesis is this: With the exception of the historical sections of Ishmael and of Esau, the historical sections trace the ancestral line of the Messiah and Savior, whom God promised to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis this Messianic line is traced from Adam to Judah. It is also given in the third chapter of Luke.
The Book of Genesis can be divided into two parts – before and after the flood. The account of creation and the ten “toledoths” then make up the outline of the book.
Part I: Before The Flood Genesis 1:1-9:29
A. The Beginning Of The Heavens And The Earth Genesis 1:1-2:3
B. The History Of The Heavens And The Earth Genesis 2:4-4:26
C. The History Of Adam Genesis 5:1-6:8
D. The History Of Noah Genesis 6:9-9:29
Part II: After The Flood Genesis 10:1-50:26
A. The History Of The Sons Of Noah Genesis 10:1-11:9
B. The History Of Shem Genesis 11:10-11:26
C. The History Of Terah Genesis 11:27-25:11
D. The History Of Ishmael Genesis 25:12-18
E. The History Of Isaac The Son Of Abraham Genesis 25:19-35:29
F. The History Of Esau Genesis 36:1-37:1
G. The History Of Jacob Genesis 37:2-50:26
About The Dates And Ages Given In The Outline Of Genesis Below:
To gain a better understanding of the historical accounts that Moses related in Genesis, it would be good to first look at a bar graph and a couple of tables. They illustrate and provide valuable information about the dates and times of the many events and persons \in Genesis. Unfortunately, the tables cannot be viewed as tables on a mobile device; they must be viewed on a computer.
Bar Graph:
Look over the bar graph below entitled the “Messianic Line From Adam To Noah”. The bar graph is old and yellowed. I drew it up about 35 years ago, before the age of personal computers, for a Bible Study I taught on the Book of Genesis for the members of my congregation. The bar graph is a series of bar graphs that plot out the ages of Adam and his descendents in the messianic line up to Noah. The bar graph shows that Adam lived through all the generations who lived up through the time of Noah’s grandfather Methuselah and father Lamech. Adam lived up to just 126 years before the birth of Noah and while Noah’s grandfather Methuselah and father Lamech were living. Methuselah, in turn, lived at the time of Noah up to the very year of the flood. Noah’s father Lamech lived for 595 years during Noah’s life and up to 5 years before the flood.
This is an extremely important collection of data. It shows the messianic line from Adam to Noah. What is more, it shows how readily the Word of God could be passed on from Adam to Noah. Adam lived at the same time as Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Noah’s grandfather Methuselah, and Noah’s father Lamech. This means that Adam was able to pass on to all those generations of his descendants the accounts of creation, the fall into sin in the Garden of Eden, Cain’s murder of Abel, the rise of sin and ungodliness in the world, and most importantly God’s promise to send the Seed of the Woman who would be the Serpent Crusher who would save mankind from the devil, sin, death, and hell. Those descendants of Adam’s from Seth to Lamech were able in turn to pass on those reports to others like Noah, who was able to pass on the information to his 3 sons and to the rest of the world’s inhabitants who came from them. So the Word of God starting with creation and the fall into sin was able to be passed on from Adam to Noah in just three links – Adam to Methuselah and Lamech to Noah.
Bar Graph: The Messianic Line From Adam To Noah
Genealogical Listing:
The information illustrated in the preceding bar graph is shown more precisely in the following listing that traces the genealogical ages from Adam to Abraham. What is more, the listing enables you to see the exact ages of Adam and Noah at the times of the births of their respective descendents. Then you can see just how easily the transmission of the events in the Garden of Eden, both of creation and the fall into sin, could have been passed on from Adam to Noah and from Noah to Abraham. This listing enables you to understand that the accounts of the events merely had to be passed on from Adam through Lamech and Methuselah to Noah and through Noah to Abraham, a total of 4 human links.
Tracing The Genealogical Ages From Adam To Abraham
Adam was 130 when he had Seth
Adam was 235 when Seth was 105 and had Enosh
Adam was 325 when Enosh was 90 and had Kenan
Adam was 395 when Kenan was 70 and had Mahalalel
Adam was 460 when Mahalalel was 65 and had Jared
Adam was 622 when Jared was 162 and had Enoch
Adam was 687 when Enoch was 65 and had Methuselah
Adam was 874 when Methuselah was 187 and had Lamech
Adam died at the age of 930 when Lamech was 56
56 years after Adam’s death when Lamech was 182 he had Noah
Noah was 638 when Arphaxad was 35 and had Shelah
Noah was 668 when Shelah was 30 and had Eber
Noah was 702 when Eber was 34 and had Peleg
Noah was 732 when Peleg was 30 and had Reu
Noah was764 when Reu was 32 and had Serug
Noah was 794 when Serug was 30 and had Nahor
Noah was 823 when Nahor was 29 and had Terah
Noah was 893 when Terah was 70 and had Abram (Abraham), Nahor, and Haran (see Genesis 11:26)
Table Of The World’s Age:
How old was the world at the times of the various events recorded in Genesis?
The genealogies of Adam’s and Noah’s descendents, plus the ages given of the Patriarchs, enable one to calculate fairly well the world’s age at those times. A leeway must be allowed at times for such things as whether Abraham was the oldest or the youngest of Terah’s sons, for how close together were the births of Jacob’s sons and daughter Dinah, and for Dinah’s age when she was molested in Shechem. Those times and ages can only be approximated. Granting such approximations, the table below illustrates the age of the world from Adam to Joseph.
The information illustrated in the preceding bar graph is shown more precisely in the following listing that traces the genealogical ages from Adam to Abraham. What is more, the listing enables you to see the exact ages of Adam and Noah at the times of the births of their respective descendents. Then you can see just how easily the transmission of the events in the Garden of Eden, both of creation and the fall into sin, could have been passed on from Adam to Noah and from Noah to Abraham. This listing enables you to understand that the accounts of the events merely had to be passed on from Adam through Lamech and Methuselah to Noah and through Noah to Abraham, a total of 4 human links.
Tracing The Genealogical Ages From Adam To Abraham
Adam was 130 when he had Seth
Adam was 235 when Seth was 105 and had Enosh
Adam was 325 when Enosh was 90 and had Kenan
Adam was 395 when Kenan was 70 and had Mahalalel
Adam was 460 when Mahalalel was 65 and had Jared
Adam was 622 when Jared was 162 and had Enoch
Adam was 687 when Enoch was 65 and had Methuselah
Adam was 874 when Methuselah was 187 and had Lamech
Adam died at the age of 930 when Lamech was 56
56 years after Adam’s death when Lamech was 182 he had Noah
- Note: Lamech died 5 years before the flood while Noah was finishing the ark. Methuselah, Noah’s grandfather, died the year of the flood while Noah was putting the final touches on the ark
- Note: Shem, the son of Noah, was 100 (see Genesis 11:10) 2 years after the flood. The flood lasted 375 days, or a year. Shem was born, then, 97 years before the flood when Noah was 503. Japheth, on the basis of the listing of Noah's sons in Genesis 10, was the oldest of Noah’s sons, and was born when Noah was 500 (see Genesis 5:32). Ham, then, the second oldest son of Noah, must have been born when Noah was 501 to 502.
Noah was 638 when Arphaxad was 35 and had Shelah
Noah was 668 when Shelah was 30 and had Eber
Noah was 702 when Eber was 34 and had Peleg
Noah was 732 when Peleg was 30 and had Reu
Noah was764 when Reu was 32 and had Serug
Noah was 794 when Serug was 30 and had Nahor
Noah was 823 when Nahor was 29 and had Terah
Noah was 893 when Terah was 70 and had Abram (Abraham), Nahor, and Haran (see Genesis 11:26)
- Note: Abraham, Nahor, and Haran were not all born in the same year. Terah’s age 70 would have been his age when the first of his 3 sons were born. In recording this information if Moses did what he did earlier in Genesis 5:32 and mentioned the most important of Noah’s 3 sons first, Shem, then Abraham is listed first as the most important but not necessarily the oldest of Terah’s sons. For these age calculations it will be assumed that Abraham was also the oldest of Terah’s sons.
- Note: Noah lived to age 950, which was 57 years after Terah was age 70 and had Abraham, Nahor, and Haran. So assuming Abraham was the oldest of Terah’s sons, Noah was still living for 57 years after Abraham was born. Even if Abraham were the youngest of Terah’s sons, Noah would still have been living for about 50 years after Abraham was born and could have easily passed on the reports from Adam of what had happened in the Garden of Eden.
Table Of The World’s Age:
How old was the world at the times of the various events recorded in Genesis?
The genealogies of Adam’s and Noah’s descendents, plus the ages given of the Patriarchs, enable one to calculate fairly well the world’s age at those times. A leeway must be allowed at times for such things as whether Abraham was the oldest or the youngest of Terah’s sons, for how close together were the births of Jacob’s sons and daughter Dinah, and for Dinah’s age when she was molested in Shechem. Those times and ages can only be approximated. Granting such approximations, the table below illustrates the age of the world from Adam to Joseph.
- Note: To calculate the world's present approximate age: Add 5139 B.C. to the current calendar year. (Ex. 5139 B.C. + 2016 = 7155 years)
Table Of The World’s Age Based On The Genealogical Ages Of Adam To Joseph
|
Name
6 Days Of Creation Adam Seth Enosh Kenan Mahalalel Jared Enoch Methuselah Lamech Noah Shem Arphaxad Shelah Eber Peleg Reu Serug Nahor Terah Abram Isaac Jacob Joseph |
@ Age -- Fathered
@ 130 had Seth @ 105 had Enosh @ 90 had Kenan @ 70 had Mehalalel @ 65 had Jared @ 162 had Enoch @ 65 had Methuselah @ 187 had Lamech @ 182 had Noah @ 503 had Shem @ 100 had Arphaxad @ 35 had Shelah @ 30 had Eber @ 34 had Peleg @ 30 had Reu @ 32 had Serug @ 30 had Nahor @ 29 had Terah @ 70 had Abram @ 100 had Isaac @ 60 had Jacob @ 91 had Joseph |
Years Lived
930 912 905 910 895 962 365 969 777 950 500 403 403 430 209 207 200 119 205 175 180 147 110 |
World's Age In Years @ His Death
0 years 930 1042 1140 1235 1290 1422 987 when Lord took him to heaven 1656 (the year of the flood) 1651 (5 years before the flood) 2006 2059 2062 2097 2154 1967 1995 2020 1969 2084 2124 2229 2256 2310 |
Years B.C.
(ca.= "about" ca. 5139 B.C. ca. 4209 B.C. ca. 4097 B.C. ca. 3999 B.C. ca. 3904 B.C. ca. 3849 B.C. ca. 3717 B.C. ca. 3282 B.C. ca. 2613 B.C. ca. 2618 B.C. ca. 2263 B.C. ca. 2210 B.C. ca. 2207 B.C. ca. 2172 B.C. ca. 2115 B.C. ca. 2302 B.C. ca. 2274 B.C. ca. 2249 B.C. ca. 2300 B.C. ca. 2185 B.C. ca. 2145 B.C. ca. 2040 B.C. ca. 2013 B.C. ca. 1959 B.C. |
Chronological Table Of The Patriarchal Age
To further aid your understanding of the events recorded in the Book of Genesis, the following table is being included. As stated before the previous table, a leeway must be allowed for the times of those events that can only be approximated. Granting such approximations, this table provides you with a chronology of the events of the patriarchal age, giving you the ages of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, and the age of the world at the time of those recorded events. The ages given in the outline of the Book of Genesis below are taken from this table.
To further aid your understanding of the events recorded in the Book of Genesis, the following table is being included. As stated before the previous table, a leeway must be allowed for the times of those events that can only be approximated. Granting such approximations, this table provides you with a chronology of the events of the patriarchal age, giving you the ages of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, and the age of the world at the time of those recorded events. The ages given in the outline of the Book of Genesis below are taken from this table.
Event
Abraham's Birth Gn.11:27 Abraham goes to Canaan Gn.12:1-6 Abraham has Ishmael Gn.16:1-15 Destruction of Sodom Gn.19:24,25 Birth Of Isaac Gn.17:17 God Tests Abraham Gn.22:1-19 Sarah dies @ 127 years Gn.23:1,2 Isaac marries Rebekah Gn.25:20 Jacob & Esau born Gn.25:26 Abraham dies Gn.25:7 Esau marries @ age 40 Gn.26:34 Jacob deceives Isaac Gn.27:1-30 Jacob flees to Laban Gn.27:41-28:5 Jacob works 7 years for Rachel & Leah Gn.29:14-30 Reuben's birth Gn.29:31,32 Simeon's birth Gn.29:33 Levi's birth Gn.29:34 Judah's birth Gn.29:35 Dan's birth Bn.30:4-6 Naphtali's birth Gn.30:7,8 Gad's birth Gn.30:9-11 Asher's birth Gn.30:12,13 Issachar's birth Gn.30:17,18 Zebulun's birth Gn.30:19,20 Dinah's birth Gn.30:21 Joseph's birth Gn.30:22-24 Lord blesses Jacob Gn.30:35-43 & 31:42 Jacob flees from Laban after 20 years Gn.31:1-55 Jacob meets Esau Gn.32:1-33:16 Jacob in Succoth & Shechem perhaps 12 years later Gn.33:17-20 Dinah raped perhaps about age 16 Gn.34:1-31 Benjamin's birth Gn.35:16-18 Rachel's death Gn.35:16-20 Jacob returns home to Isaac Gn.35:27-29 Jacob lives with Isaac 14 years Gn.35:27-29 & 37:;1 Joseph's dreams & sold into slavery Gn.37:2-36 Judah's incest with Tamar Gn.38:1-30 Isaac dies Gn.35:28,29 Joseph enslaved & imprisoned 13 years Gn.39:1-41:38 Joseph made head over Egypt Gn.41:39-46 Years of plenty start Gn.41:46-53 Joseph's sons Manasseh & Ephraim born Gn.41:50-52 Years of famine start Gn.41:53,54 2nd year of famine Joseph reveals his identity to his brothers Gn.45:6 & 47:9 Jacob moves to Egypt Gn.45:25-46:7 Jacob lives in Egypt 17 years and dies Gn.47:28-31 & 49:29-33 Jpse[h rules over Egypt 80 years Joseph dies Gn.50:22-26 |
Abraham'sAge
75 years 86 years 99 years 100 Unknown 137 years 140 years 160 years 175 years |
Isaac's Age
Probably a young man 40 years 60 years 75 years 100 years 134 years 134 years To age 140 140 years 141 years 142 143 years 144 years 145 years 146 years 147 years 148 years 149 years 150 years 151 years 151 to 154 years 154 years 154 years To age 166 166 years 166 years 166 years 166 years To 180 years 168 years 168 years 180 years age 168 to age 180 at death |
Jacob's Age
40 years 74 years 74 years To age 80 80 years 81 years 82 years 83 years 84 years 85 years 86 years 87 years 88 years 89 years 90 years 91 years 91 to 94 years 94 years 94 years To age 106 106 years 106 years 106 years 106 years To 120 years 108 years 108 years 120 years age 108 to 121 121 years 121 years Between age 122 and 127 128 years 130 years 130 years 130 to 147 years |
Joseph's Age
3 years 3 years To age 15 15 years 15 years 15 years 15 years 15 to age 17 when sold into slavery 17 years 17 years 29 years age 17 to 30 30 years 30 years Between age 31 and 36 37 years 39 years 39 years 39 to 56 years 30 to 110 years 110 years |
World's Age
1949 years (ca. 2184 B.C.) 2024 years (ca. 2109 B.C.) 2035 years (ca. 2098 B.C.) 2048 years (ca. 2085 B.C.) 2049 years (ca. 2084 B.C.) Unknown 2086 years (ca. 2047 B.C.) 2089 years (ca. 2044 B.C.) 2109 years (ca. 2024 B.C.) 2124 years (ca. 2009 B.C.) 2149 years (ca, 1984 B.C.) 2183 years (ca. 1950 B.C.) 2183 years (ca. 1950 B.C.) To age 2189 years (To ca. 1944 B.C.) 2189 years (ca. 1944 B.C.) 2190 years (ca. 1943 B.C.) 2191 years (ca. 1942 B.C.) 2192 years (ca. 1941 B.C.) 2193 years (ca. 1940 B.C.) 2194 years (ca. 1939 B.C.) 2195 years (ca. 1938 B.C.) 2196 years (ca. 1937 B.C.) 2197 years (ca. 1936 B.C.) 2198 years (ca. 1935 B.C.) 2199 years (ca. 1934 B.C.) 2200 years (ca. 1933 B.C.) 2200-2203 years (ca. 1933-1930 B.C.) 2203 years (ca. 1930 B.C.) 2203 years (ca. 1930 B.C.) To 2215 years (To ca. 1918 B.C.) 2215 years (ca. 1918 B.C.) 2215 years (ca. 1918 B.C.) 2215 years (ca. 1918 B.C.) 2215 years (ca. 1918 B.C.) To 2229 years (To ca. 1904 B.C.) 2217 years (ca.1892 B.C.) 2217 years (ca.1892 B.C.) 2229 years (ca. 1880 B.C.) 2217-2230 years (ca. 1892-1879 B.C.) 2230 years (ca. 1879 B.C.) 2230 years (ca. 1879 B.C.) Between 2231 and 2236 years (ca. 1878-1873 B.C.) 2237 years (ca. 872 B.C.) 2239 years (ca. 1870 B.C.) 2239 years (ca. 1870 B.C.) 2239-2256 (ca. 1870-1853 B.C.) 2230-2310 years (ca. 1879-1799 B.C.) 2310 years (ca. 1799 B.C.) |
Outline Of The Book Of Genesis
The Theme Of Genesis: The Beginning Of The History Of God’s Plan Of Salvation
Part I: Before The Flood Genesis 1:1-9:29
A. The Beginning Of The Heavens And The Earth Genesis 1:1-2:3
1. The six days of creation 1:1-31
2. The seventh day on which God rested 2:1-3
B. The History Of The Heavens And The Earth Genesis 2:4-4:26
1. Man in his holy state of innocence dwells in the Garden of Eden and enjoys God’s fellowship 2:4-25
a. The condition of the earth initially 2:4-6
b. God formed man from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being 2:7
c. God placed the man into the Garden of Eden that God planted for the man to cultivate and care for 2:8-15
d. God commanded the man not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or he would die 2:16, 17
e. God created woman from the man’s rib as his helper to correspond to him and to provide him with companionship 2:18-22a
f. God brought the woman to the man and established the marriage relationship 2:22b-25
2. The fall into sin 3:1-24
a. Man falls into sin 3:1-14
b. God reveals his plan of salvation: the Seed of the Woman would crush the serpent’s head but have his own heel crushed 3:15
c. God pronounces the curse and consequences of sin 3:16-24
3. Sin infects mankind 4:1-26
a. Cain murders his brother Abel 4:1-16
b. The godless generation of Cain arises 4:17-24
c. Adam fathers Seth, the father of the God-fearing generation of the Sethites, who worship the Lord as believers in God’s plan of salvation 4:25, 26
C. The History Of Adam Genesis 5:1-6:8
1. God created the human race in his perfect image of holiness 5:1, 2
2. Sinful Adam bears a son in his own sinful likeness, not in the holy image of God 5:3
3. The genealogy of Adam, which was the beginning of the Messianic Line of Jesus the Messiah 5:3-32
4. Death reigns through Adam and his descendants as God’s punishment for sin 5:3-32
5. God takes Enoch to heaven without his dying first 5:21-24
D. The History Of Noah Genesis 6:9-9:29
1. God looks with favor on the God-fearing believer Noah and his family, and God commands Noah to build an ark that would save him from the floodwaters 6:9-22
2. The account of the flood that lasted 375 days from beginning to end 7:1-8:14
Part II: After The Flood Genesis 10:1-50:26
A. The History Of The Sons Of Noah Genesis 10:1-11:9
1. The genealogical history of Noah’s three sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth and the Table of Nations that spread out from them 10:1-32
2. God rejects the Noachites at the tower of Babel where he confuses their common language to establish many languages 11:1-9
B. The History Of Shem Genesis 11:10-11:26
1.The genealogical history of Noah’s son Shem
2 This genealogy of Shem is the next stage in the Messianic Line of Jesus the Messiah
C. The History Of Terah Genesis 11:27-25:11
The Account Of Abraham 11:27-25:11
1. After Terah fathers Abram, Nahor, and Haran, he moves with Abram, his grandson Lot, and Sarai the wife of Abram, from Ur of the Chaldeans to Haran where he died 11:27-32
2. God speaks to Abram for the first time 12:1-3
a. God commands Abram to go to the land that God would show to him 12:1
b. God calls Abram to be the next descendent in the Messianic Line of Jesus the Messiah, and promises Abram that all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him. (This was God’s second proclamation of his plan of salvation for mankind) 12:1-3
3. Following God’s command, Abram at age 75 leaves Haran together with Sarai and Lot and moves to the promised land of Canaan 12:4-9
4. At the time of a famine Abram goes to Egypt, where the Lord acts to prevent Sarai’s being violated by Pharaoh 12:10-20
5. Abram and Lot separate 13:1-18
a. Lot chooses the best land for himself and settles in Sodom
b. Abram lives in the land of Canaan where God promises that he and his descendants will inherit the whole land
6. Abram rescues Lot from 4 invading kings and gives a tenth of the spoils to Melchizedek, priest of God Most High 14:1-24
7. The Abrahamitic Covenant 15:1-20
a. In his plan of salvation for mankind God makes a covenant of grace with Abram (The Abrahamitic Covenant)
b. Abram believes the Lord and the Lord credits his faith to him as righteousness
c. God foretells to Abram that his descendents would be strangers in a foreign land for 400 years where they would be enslaved and mistreated
a. Ten years after coming to Canaan, when Abram is 85 and Sarai is 75 (see Genesis 16:3), Abram and Sarai attempt to help the Lord fulfill his promise to give Abram a son, because Sarai remains barren
b. Sarai gives her slave girl Hagar to Abraham as a concubine-wife to be a surrogate mother for Sarai
c. When Abram is 86 years old, he fathers Ishmael through Hagar, the surrogate mother
9. Thirteen years later when Abram is 99 years old: 17:1-27
a. The Lord appears to Abram as El-Shaddai, “God Almighty”, and promises Abram that he would have many descendants 17:1,2
b. God confirms his covenant of grace with Abram with the sign of circumcision 17:3-14
c. God changes Abram’s name to Abraham, because he would become the father of many nations 17:7
d. God also changes Sarai’s name to Sarah, which means princess 17:15
e. God promises Abraham that Sarah would bear him a son, and she would become the mother of nations and kings 17:16
f. With great joy Abram laughs that at the age of 100, when Sarah is 90, she would bear him a son 17:17, 18
g. God told Abraham he was to name his son Isaac, which means “laughter”, whom Sarah would bear in a year and with whom God would establish his covenant of grace 17:19, 21 22
h. God would also bless Ishmael, who would multiply and father 12 rulers and become a great nation 17:20
10. A short time later three men visit Abraham 18:1-33
a. The Lord and two of his angels visit Abraham 18:1-15
b. The Lord announces Sarah would bear a son in about a year 18:9, 10
c. Sarah overhears the Lord and laughs in disbelief and is rebuked by the Lord 18:10-15
b. The Lord takes Abraham into his confidence, repeats his gospel covenant of grace that rests in Abraham through whom the Messiah would come, and says he has come to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for their grievous sin 18:16-21
c. Abraham pleads for the righteous persons in Sodom 18:22-33
11. Sodom and Gomorrah 19:1-38
a. The Lord’s two angels rescue Lot, his wife, and two daughters from Sodom, and then the Lord destroys Sodom and Gomorrah 19:1-29
c. Lot’s daughters have incestuous relations with their father whom they get drunk, and they conceive sons – one bears Moab the father of the Moabites; the other bears Ben-Ammi the father of the Ammonities 19:30-38
12. In Gerar God acts to save the Messianic Line of Jesus by preventing Sarah before she can bear Isaac from being taken and violated by its king Abimelech 20:1-18
13. Sarah at age 90 (see 17:17) has a son as God promised to Abraham 21:1-34
a. Isaac, the son of promise, is born, through whom the messianic line is continued 21:1-7
b. Abraham is 100 and Ishmael is 14 when Isaac is born
c. When Isaac is weaned, perhaps at age 2 to 3, Hagar and her son Ishmael are sent away, for Ishmael would not be an heir with Isaac 21:8-21
d. Abraham makes a peace treaty with Abimelech, king of Gerar of the Philistines 21:22-34
14. God tests Abraham 22:1-19
a. God commands Abraham to sacrifice his son of promise, Isaac 21:1, 2
b. Abraham demonstrates his faith in God and his love for God by sacrificing Isaac 22:3-14
c. In response to Abraham’s sacrificing his son Isaac, the Lord swears to bless Abraham and his descendants, and the Lord again confirms his covenant of grace with Abraham that through his descendant all nations would be blessed 21:15-19
15. Sarah dies at the age of 127 and Abraham buys the field in Machpelah, in which he buries her in a cave 23:1-20
a. Abraham commissions his chief servant to go to get a wife for Isaac from among Abraham’s relatives 24:1-60
b. Abraham’s chief servant returns with Rebekah 24:61-67
17. Abraham dies at the age of 175 and Isaac and Ishmael bury him with Sarah in the cave of Machpelah 25:1-11
D. The History Of Ishmael Genesis 25:12-18
E. The History Of Isaac, The Son Of Abraham Genesis 25:19-35-29
1. Isaac and Rebekah 25:19-34
a. Isaac is 40 years old when he marries Rebekah 25:19, 20
c. The Lord says the twins are two hostile nations and that the older Esau would serve the younger Jacob 25:23
d. The twins are born when Isaac is 60 years old: the older boy is named Esau; the younger boy is named Jacob 25:24-26
f. Esau sells his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of stew 25:29-34
2. During a famine the Lord tells Isaac to remain in the Promised Land and not go to Egypt Genesis 26:1-35
a. God passes on to Isaac the covenant of grace and blessing that centers in the coming Messiah Jesus and that God had made with Abraham 26:1-6
b. Isaac remains in the promised land of Canaan but shows his human weakness by lying to the men in Gerar of the Philistines that Rebekah is his sister 26:6-11
c. God blesses Isaac with wealth and power and again confirms the covenant of blessing to Isaac, who builds an altar and worships God there 26:12-25
d. Isaac makes a peace treaty with Abimelech, king of the Philistines 26:26-33
e. Isaac and Rebekah are grieved with Esau’s Hittite wives 26:34, 35
The Account Of Jacob 27:1-35:29
3. Jacob’s deceitfulness and flight Genesis 27:1-28:22
a. Rebekah plots with Jacob to deceive Isaac, who is 134 years old and blind, to take the blessing for Jacob that Isaac intends to give to Esau 27:1-40
b. After Jacob, age 74, takes the blessing, Esau holds a grudge against him and plans to kill him 27:41
c. Rebekah tells Jacob he should flee to her brother Laban in Haran 27:42-46
d. Isaac sends Jacob away with his blessing 28:1-5
e. Esau then goes to Isaac’s half-brother Ishmael and marries Ishmael’s daughter Mahalath 28:6-9
f. Jacob flees and in a dream sees a ladder reaching up to heaven, on which God’s angels are ascending and descending (see John 1:51) 28:10-15
g. In the dream God passes on to Jacob the covenant of grace and blessing that centers in the Messiah, and God promises to watch over him 28:13-15
h. Jacob names the place where he saw the dream Bethel, which means “house of God” 28:16-19
i. In response to God’s covenant of grace and promises, Jacob makes a vow of faith to make the Lord his God and to give him back a tenth of everything 28:20-22
4. Jacob at age 74 marries Leah and Rachel and has Children 29:1-24
a. Jacob arrives at his Uncle Laban’s home in Padan-Aram located in Northwest Mesopotamia and meets Laban’s daughter Rachel 29:1-14
b. Laban deceives Jacob: Jacob agrees to work 7 years to marry Laban’s daughter Rachel; on the wedding night Laban gives Jacob Leah instead and makes him work another seven years for Rachel. 29:15-30
c. Leah bears Jacob 4 sons – Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah 29:31-35
d. Barren Rachel becomes jealous of Leah and gives Jacob her slave girl Bilhah to be a concubine for Jacob and a surrogate mother for her; Bilhah bears Jacob 2 sons, whom Rachel names Dan and Naphtali 30:1-8
e. When Leah stops bearing children for Jacob, she gives him her slave girl Zilpah to be his concubine and a surrogate mother for her; Zilpah bears Jacob 2 sons, whom Leah names Gad and Asher 30:9-12
f. Jealousy reigns between Leah and Rachel, who bargain for Jacob’s affections and sexual attentions 30:13-16
g. God listens to Leah’s prayers and she bears Jacob 2 more sons, whom she names Issachar and Zebulun; and she bears a daughter, whom she names Dinah 30:17-21
h. God listens to Rachel’s prayers and she bears Jacob a son, whom she names Joseph 30:22-24
b. Jacob breeds the goats and sheep and God blesses him so that he becomes wealthy with large flocks and maidservants and menservants and camels and donkeys. 30:27-43
6. The Lord Tells Jacob to Return To The Promised Land 31:1-55
a. Laban’s sons become jealous of Jacob’s prosperity and Laban’s attitude becomes hostile towards Jacob 31:1, 2
b. The Lord tells Jacob to return to the promised land of his fathers 31:3
c. Jacob flees deceitfully from Laban with his wives and children and all his possessions, and Rachel steals her father Laban’s idols 31:4-21
d. Laban pursues Jacob and catches him and accuses him of stealing his daughters and grandchildren and idols, and then looks through all of Jacob’s possessions 31:22-35
e. Jacob becomes angry with Laban, who proposes a covenant of peace between them, and they part company after making it 31:36-55
7. During Jacob’s journey home to the Promised Land 32:1-32
a. Jacob makes preparations to meet his brother Esau 32:1-21
b. Jacob crosses back over the Jabbok River to be alone in prayer. A man attacks and begins to wrestle with him. The man later identifies himself as being God. Jacob wrestles with God until daybreak and refuses to let God go until God blesses him. God then changes his name from Jacob to Israel, which means “he who struggles with God.” Jacob then names the place Peniel, which means “face of God,” for Jacob said he had seen God face to face and his life was spared, 32:22-32.
9. Jacob’s Daughter Dinah and the Shechemites 34:1-31
a. The son of the ruler of Shechem violates Jacob’s daughter Dinah and then wants her to be given to him in marriage 34:1-4
b. Hamor, Shechem’s father and ruler of the city of Shechem, proposes that Dinah should be given to his son and that Jacob’s family intermarry with the Shechemites 34”5-10
c. Jacob’s sons deceitfully agree on the condition that all the men of Shechem become circumcised as the price for the marriage 34:11-24
d. On the third day when all the men of Shechem are in pain, Jacob’s sons Simeon and Levi kill all the men of Shechem, and Jacob’s sons loot the city 34:25-31
10. Jacob moves to Bethel 35:1-29
a. In Bethel, where Jacob had his dream of a ladder reaching to heaven, he builds an altar to worship God and names that place El-Bethel, which means the “God of Bethel” 35:1-8
b. God appears to Jacob again, blesses him, and changes his name to Israel, which means “he struggles with God” 35:9, 10
c. God reveals himself to Jacob (Israel) as God Almighty, “El-Shaddai”, and confirms the covenant of grace and blessing to Jacob that God gave to Abraham and Isaac 35:11-15
d. Rachel dies giving birth to Benjamin 35:16-20
e. Reubun sleeps with Jacob’s concubine Bilhah 35:21, 22
f. Jacob’s 12 sons are listed 35:23-26
g. At age 106, 32 years after leaving to go to Laban’s, Jacob returns home to his father Isaac, who 15 years later dies at age 180 and is buried by Jacob and Esau 35:27-29
F. The History Of Esau Genesis 36:1-37:1
1. Esau, also called Edom, takes his wives, children, household, and all he has and settles in the hill country of Mount Seir in what became the country of Edom 36:1-8
2. A listing of the sons of Esau and the chiefs and rulers who descended from them 36:9-43
3. Jacob stayed and lived in the Promised Land where Isaac had stayed 37:1
G. The History Of Jacob Genesis 37:2-50:26
(The Account Of Joseph) 37:2-50:26)
1. At age 17 Joseph tends sheep with his brothers and gives a bad report about them to Jacob 37:2
2. Jacob’s favoring Joseph arouses the hatred of Joseph’s brothers 37:3, 4
3. Joseph’s dreams of reigning over his brothers intensifies their hatred and jealousy 47:5-11
4. Joseph’s brothers sell Joseph into slavery 37:12-36
5. Joseph’s brother Judah’s relationship with Tamar 38:1-30
a. Joseph’s brother Judah has an incestuous relationship with his daughter-in-law Tamar 38:1-23
b. Tamar bears twins, Perez and Zerah 38:24-30
a. The Lord is with Joseph and blesses his work 39:2-6
b. Potiphar’s wife accuses Joseph of molesting her and he is locked up in prison 39:7-20
c. The Lord grants Joseph favor in the eyes of the warden 39:20-23
7. Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker 40:1-23
a. Pharaoh imprisons his cupbearer and baker where Joseph is confined 40:1-4
b. The Lord enables Joseph to interpret their dreams – the baker is hung by Pharaoh and the cupbearer is restored to his position 49:4-22
c. The cupbearer forgets about Joseph 40:23
8. Two years later Pharaoh has 2 dreams 41:1-57
a. Pharaoh dreams of 7 gaunt cows devouring 7 fat cows and of 7 scorched ears of grain swallowing up 7 good ears of grain 41:1-7
b. The Egyptian magicians and wise men cannot interpret Pharaoh’s dreams 41:8
c. The cupbearer tells Pharaoh about Joseph’s ability to interpret dreams 41:9-13
d. Pharaoh sends for Joseph, who interprets his dreams and gives Pharaoh wise counsel on how to prepare for the coming years of plenty and famine 41:14-36
e. Pharaoh puts Joseph in charge of all Egypt 41:37-57
9. Joseph’s brothers first trip to Egypt 42:1-8
a. Jacob sends his sons, except for Joseph’s brother Benjamin, to buy grain in Egypt 42:1-5
b. God fulfills Joseph’s dreams of ruling over his brothers, when they stand before him as the ruler of Egypt 42:6, 7
c. The brothers do not recognize Joseph 42:8
d. Joseph begins to put his brothers to the test to see if their hearts had changed and they had repented of their sin 42:9-38
d.1 Joseph accuses his brothers of being spies and puts them in prison for 3 days 42:9-17
d.2 Joseph releases the brothers to return to Canaan but holds Simeon as a prisoner until the others return with Benjamin, Joseph’s younger brother 42:18-24
d.3 Joseph secretly has their money hid in their sacks 42:25, 26
d.4 The brothers report to Jacob and are frightened when they find their money sacks 42:27-35
d.5 In spite of Reuben’s assurance to bring Simeon back, Jacob refuses to be comforted or to allow Benjamin to go to Egypt 42:36-38
10. Joseph’s brothers’ second trip to Egypt 43:1-34
a. Jacob sends his sons a second time with Benjamin to Egypt 43:1-7
b. Judah pledges himself to Jacob as a guarantee to bring Benjamin back safe and unharmed 43:8-10
c. The brothers take gifts and money, return to Egypt with Benjamin, and again stand before Joseph 43:11-15
d. Joseph has them brought to his house for dinner, where he has them seated according to their age and gives Benjamin more food than the others 43:16-34
11. Joseph’s final test of his brothers
a. Joseph has his silver cup hidden in Benjamin’s sack before his brothers leave 44:1. 2
b. The cup is found in Benjamin’s sack, which makes him subject to enslavement, and they all are brought back before Joseph 44:3-13
c. Judah offers himself in Benjamin’s place to be Joseph’s slave 44:14-34
12. Joseph reveals himself to his brothers 45:1-28
a. Joseph assures his brothers that God had sent him to Egypt to preserve their lives 45:1-8
b. Joseph sends them to get Jacob and to bring him to Egypt where Joseph promises to provide for them 45:9-15
c. Pharaoh urges Joseph’s brothers to move to Egypt with their father and gives them provisions for their journey 45:16-28
13. Jacob leaves for Egypt 46:1-34
a. God appears to Jacob to assure him, and to promise to make him a great nation in Egypt 46:1-7
b. Jacob’s descendants who moved to Egypt with him are listed 46:8-27
c. Jacob and Joseph are reunited in Egypt 46:28-34
14. Jacob and his descendants in Egypt 47:1-31
a. At age 130 Jacob and five of Joseph’s brothers appear before Pharaoh 47:1-10
b. Joseph settles them in Goshen in the district of Rameses 47:11, 12
c. Joseph oversees the sale of grain and amasses great wealth for Pharaoh 47:13-26
d. Jacob lives in Egypt 17 years and has Joseph swear to bury him in Canaan with his fathers 47:27-31
15. Jacob adopts and blesses Joseph’s two sons 48:1-22
a. Jacob adopts Joseph’s two sons Manasseh and Ephraim 48:1-7
b. Jacob blesses Joseph’s sons, foretelling that the younger Ephraim would become a greater nation than the older Manasseh 48:1-22
16. The blessings of Jacob on his sons 49:1-33
a. Jacob blesses his sons before his death at age 147 and foretells what would happen to their descendants 49:1-28
b. Jacob gives his final instructions for his burial in the cave in the field of Machpelah 49:29-32
c. When Jacob finishes blessing his sons, he dies 49:33
17. After the death of Jacob 50:1-26
a. The burial of Jacob 50:1-14
b. Joseph reassures his brothers that he will not hold a grudge against them 50:15-21
c. Joseph dies at age 110 after making the Israelites swear to take his bones with them from Egypt to the promised land of Canaan 50:22-26
Part I: Before The Flood Genesis 1:1-9:29
A. The Beginning Of The Heavens And The Earth Genesis 1:1-2:3
1. The six days of creation 1:1-31
2. The seventh day on which God rested 2:1-3
B. The History Of The Heavens And The Earth Genesis 2:4-4:26
1. Man in his holy state of innocence dwells in the Garden of Eden and enjoys God’s fellowship 2:4-25
a. The condition of the earth initially 2:4-6
b. God formed man from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being 2:7
c. God placed the man into the Garden of Eden that God planted for the man to cultivate and care for 2:8-15
d. God commanded the man not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or he would die 2:16, 17
e. God created woman from the man’s rib as his helper to correspond to him and to provide him with companionship 2:18-22a
f. God brought the woman to the man and established the marriage relationship 2:22b-25
2. The fall into sin 3:1-24
a. Man falls into sin 3:1-14
b. God reveals his plan of salvation: the Seed of the Woman would crush the serpent’s head but have his own heel crushed 3:15
c. God pronounces the curse and consequences of sin 3:16-24
3. Sin infects mankind 4:1-26
a. Cain murders his brother Abel 4:1-16
b. The godless generation of Cain arises 4:17-24
c. Adam fathers Seth, the father of the God-fearing generation of the Sethites, who worship the Lord as believers in God’s plan of salvation 4:25, 26
C. The History Of Adam Genesis 5:1-6:8
1. God created the human race in his perfect image of holiness 5:1, 2
2. Sinful Adam bears a son in his own sinful likeness, not in the holy image of God 5:3
3. The genealogy of Adam, which was the beginning of the Messianic Line of Jesus the Messiah 5:3-32
4. Death reigns through Adam and his descendants as God’s punishment for sin 5:3-32
5. God takes Enoch to heaven without his dying first 5:21-24
- Note: This was a graphic sign from God of the eternal life in heaven that he gives to his believers
D. The History Of Noah Genesis 6:9-9:29
1. God looks with favor on the God-fearing believer Noah and his family, and God commands Noah to build an ark that would save him from the floodwaters 6:9-22
2. The account of the flood that lasted 375 days from beginning to end 7:1-8:14
- Note: Noah’s age at the time the flood started was 600; the age of the world was 1,656
Part II: After The Flood Genesis 10:1-50:26
A. The History Of The Sons Of Noah Genesis 10:1-11:9
1. The genealogical history of Noah’s three sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth and the Table of Nations that spread out from them 10:1-32
2. God rejects the Noachites at the tower of Babel where he confuses their common language to establish many languages 11:1-9
- Note: Based on Genesis 10:25 this miraculous confusion of the common language occurred during the life of Peleg, whose name meant “division”. He was given that name because in his days the earth was divided, which was a reference to the scattering of the people into the various parts of the world. Peleg lived between the world’s age of 1758 and 1967 years after creation.
B. The History Of Shem Genesis 11:10-11:26
1.The genealogical history of Noah’s son Shem
2 This genealogy of Shem is the next stage in the Messianic Line of Jesus the Messiah
C. The History Of Terah Genesis 11:27-25:11
The Account Of Abraham 11:27-25:11
1. After Terah fathers Abram, Nahor, and Haran, he moves with Abram, his grandson Lot, and Sarai the wife of Abram, from Ur of the Chaldeans to Haran where he died 11:27-32
2. God speaks to Abram for the first time 12:1-3
a. God commands Abram to go to the land that God would show to him 12:1
b. God calls Abram to be the next descendent in the Messianic Line of Jesus the Messiah, and promises Abram that all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him. (This was God’s second proclamation of his plan of salvation for mankind) 12:1-3
3. Following God’s command, Abram at age 75 leaves Haran together with Sarai and Lot and moves to the promised land of Canaan 12:4-9
4. At the time of a famine Abram goes to Egypt, where the Lord acts to prevent Sarai’s being violated by Pharaoh 12:10-20
5. Abram and Lot separate 13:1-18
a. Lot chooses the best land for himself and settles in Sodom
b. Abram lives in the land of Canaan where God promises that he and his descendants will inherit the whole land
6. Abram rescues Lot from 4 invading kings and gives a tenth of the spoils to Melchizedek, priest of God Most High 14:1-24
7. The Abrahamitic Covenant 15:1-20
a. In his plan of salvation for mankind God makes a covenant of grace with Abram (The Abrahamitic Covenant)
b. Abram believes the Lord and the Lord credits his faith to him as righteousness
c. God foretells to Abram that his descendents would be strangers in a foreign land for 400 years where they would be enslaved and mistreated
- Note: This enslavement and mistreatment occurred in Egypt after the death of Joseph, who died 2,310 years after creation
a. Ten years after coming to Canaan, when Abram is 85 and Sarai is 75 (see Genesis 16:3), Abram and Sarai attempt to help the Lord fulfill his promise to give Abram a son, because Sarai remains barren
b. Sarai gives her slave girl Hagar to Abraham as a concubine-wife to be a surrogate mother for Sarai
c. When Abram is 86 years old, he fathers Ishmael through Hagar, the surrogate mother
9. Thirteen years later when Abram is 99 years old: 17:1-27
a. The Lord appears to Abram as El-Shaddai, “God Almighty”, and promises Abram that he would have many descendants 17:1,2
b. God confirms his covenant of grace with Abram with the sign of circumcision 17:3-14
c. God changes Abram’s name to Abraham, because he would become the father of many nations 17:7
d. God also changes Sarai’s name to Sarah, which means princess 17:15
e. God promises Abraham that Sarah would bear him a son, and she would become the mother of nations and kings 17:16
f. With great joy Abram laughs that at the age of 100, when Sarah is 90, she would bear him a son 17:17, 18
g. God told Abraham he was to name his son Isaac, which means “laughter”, whom Sarah would bear in a year and with whom God would establish his covenant of grace 17:19, 21 22
h. God would also bless Ishmael, who would multiply and father 12 rulers and become a great nation 17:20
10. A short time later three men visit Abraham 18:1-33
a. The Lord and two of his angels visit Abraham 18:1-15
b. The Lord announces Sarah would bear a son in about a year 18:9, 10
c. Sarah overhears the Lord and laughs in disbelief and is rebuked by the Lord 18:10-15
b. The Lord takes Abraham into his confidence, repeats his gospel covenant of grace that rests in Abraham through whom the Messiah would come, and says he has come to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for their grievous sin 18:16-21
c. Abraham pleads for the righteous persons in Sodom 18:22-33
11. Sodom and Gomorrah 19:1-38
a. The Lord’s two angels rescue Lot, his wife, and two daughters from Sodom, and then the Lord destroys Sodom and Gomorrah 19:1-29
- Note: Abraham is 99 years old
c. Lot’s daughters have incestuous relations with their father whom they get drunk, and they conceive sons – one bears Moab the father of the Moabites; the other bears Ben-Ammi the father of the Ammonities 19:30-38
12. In Gerar God acts to save the Messianic Line of Jesus by preventing Sarah before she can bear Isaac from being taken and violated by its king Abimelech 20:1-18
13. Sarah at age 90 (see 17:17) has a son as God promised to Abraham 21:1-34
a. Isaac, the son of promise, is born, through whom the messianic line is continued 21:1-7
b. Abraham is 100 and Ishmael is 14 when Isaac is born
c. When Isaac is weaned, perhaps at age 2 to 3, Hagar and her son Ishmael are sent away, for Ishmael would not be an heir with Isaac 21:8-21
d. Abraham makes a peace treaty with Abimelech, king of Gerar of the Philistines 21:22-34
14. God tests Abraham 22:1-19
a. God commands Abraham to sacrifice his son of promise, Isaac 21:1, 2
b. Abraham demonstrates his faith in God and his love for God by sacrificing Isaac 22:3-14
c. In response to Abraham’s sacrificing his son Isaac, the Lord swears to bless Abraham and his descendants, and the Lord again confirms his covenant of grace with Abraham that through his descendant all nations would be blessed 21:15-19
- Note: This was again a gospel promise about the coming of Jesus the Messiah
15. Sarah dies at the age of 127 and Abraham buys the field in Machpelah, in which he buries her in a cave 23:1-20
- Note: When Sarah died Abraham was 137 years old and Isaac was 37
a. Abraham commissions his chief servant to go to get a wife for Isaac from among Abraham’s relatives 24:1-60
b. Abraham’s chief servant returns with Rebekah 24:61-67
17. Abraham dies at the age of 175 and Isaac and Ishmael bury him with Sarah in the cave of Machpelah 25:1-11
D. The History Of Ishmael Genesis 25:12-18
E. The History Of Isaac, The Son Of Abraham Genesis 25:19-35-29
1. Isaac and Rebekah 25:19-34
a. Isaac is 40 years old when he marries Rebekah 25:19, 20
- Note: Abraham was 140
c. The Lord says the twins are two hostile nations and that the older Esau would serve the younger Jacob 25:23
d. The twins are born when Isaac is 60 years old: the older boy is named Esau; the younger boy is named Jacob 25:24-26
- Note: Jacob becomes the next man in the Messianic Line of Jesus
- Note: Abraham was 160 when Jacob and Esau were born
f. Esau sells his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of stew 25:29-34
2. During a famine the Lord tells Isaac to remain in the Promised Land and not go to Egypt Genesis 26:1-35
a. God passes on to Isaac the covenant of grace and blessing that centers in the coming Messiah Jesus and that God had made with Abraham 26:1-6
b. Isaac remains in the promised land of Canaan but shows his human weakness by lying to the men in Gerar of the Philistines that Rebekah is his sister 26:6-11
c. God blesses Isaac with wealth and power and again confirms the covenant of blessing to Isaac, who builds an altar and worships God there 26:12-25
d. Isaac makes a peace treaty with Abimelech, king of the Philistines 26:26-33
e. Isaac and Rebekah are grieved with Esau’s Hittite wives 26:34, 35
The Account Of Jacob 27:1-35:29
3. Jacob’s deceitfulness and flight Genesis 27:1-28:22
a. Rebekah plots with Jacob to deceive Isaac, who is 134 years old and blind, to take the blessing for Jacob that Isaac intends to give to Esau 27:1-40
b. After Jacob, age 74, takes the blessing, Esau holds a grudge against him and plans to kill him 27:41
c. Rebekah tells Jacob he should flee to her brother Laban in Haran 27:42-46
d. Isaac sends Jacob away with his blessing 28:1-5
e. Esau then goes to Isaac’s half-brother Ishmael and marries Ishmael’s daughter Mahalath 28:6-9
f. Jacob flees and in a dream sees a ladder reaching up to heaven, on which God’s angels are ascending and descending (see John 1:51) 28:10-15
g. In the dream God passes on to Jacob the covenant of grace and blessing that centers in the Messiah, and God promises to watch over him 28:13-15
h. Jacob names the place where he saw the dream Bethel, which means “house of God” 28:16-19
i. In response to God’s covenant of grace and promises, Jacob makes a vow of faith to make the Lord his God and to give him back a tenth of everything 28:20-22
4. Jacob at age 74 marries Leah and Rachel and has Children 29:1-24
a. Jacob arrives at his Uncle Laban’s home in Padan-Aram located in Northwest Mesopotamia and meets Laban’s daughter Rachel 29:1-14
b. Laban deceives Jacob: Jacob agrees to work 7 years to marry Laban’s daughter Rachel; on the wedding night Laban gives Jacob Leah instead and makes him work another seven years for Rachel. 29:15-30
c. Leah bears Jacob 4 sons – Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah 29:31-35
d. Barren Rachel becomes jealous of Leah and gives Jacob her slave girl Bilhah to be a concubine for Jacob and a surrogate mother for her; Bilhah bears Jacob 2 sons, whom Rachel names Dan and Naphtali 30:1-8
e. When Leah stops bearing children for Jacob, she gives him her slave girl Zilpah to be his concubine and a surrogate mother for her; Zilpah bears Jacob 2 sons, whom Leah names Gad and Asher 30:9-12
f. Jealousy reigns between Leah and Rachel, who bargain for Jacob’s affections and sexual attentions 30:13-16
g. God listens to Leah’s prayers and she bears Jacob 2 more sons, whom she names Issachar and Zebulun; and she bears a daughter, whom she names Dinah 30:17-21
h. God listens to Rachel’s prayers and she bears Jacob a son, whom she names Joseph 30:22-24
- Note: Jacob is 91 years old when Joseph is born
- Note: This time of blessing covers years 17-20 with Laban during Jacob’s age of 91 to 94
b. Jacob breeds the goats and sheep and God blesses him so that he becomes wealthy with large flocks and maidservants and menservants and camels and donkeys. 30:27-43
6. The Lord Tells Jacob to Return To The Promised Land 31:1-55
a. Laban’s sons become jealous of Jacob’s prosperity and Laban’s attitude becomes hostile towards Jacob 31:1, 2
b. The Lord tells Jacob to return to the promised land of his fathers 31:3
c. Jacob flees deceitfully from Laban with his wives and children and all his possessions, and Rachel steals her father Laban’s idols 31:4-21
d. Laban pursues Jacob and catches him and accuses him of stealing his daughters and grandchildren and idols, and then looks through all of Jacob’s possessions 31:22-35
e. Jacob becomes angry with Laban, who proposes a covenant of peace between them, and they part company after making it 31:36-55
7. During Jacob’s journey home to the Promised Land 32:1-32
a. Jacob makes preparations to meet his brother Esau 32:1-21
b. Jacob crosses back over the Jabbok River to be alone in prayer. A man attacks and begins to wrestle with him. The man later identifies himself as being God. Jacob wrestles with God until daybreak and refuses to let God go until God blesses him. God then changes his name from Jacob to Israel, which means “he who struggles with God.” Jacob then names the place Peniel, which means “face of God,” for Jacob said he had seen God face to face and his life was spared, 32:22-32.
- Note: This wrestling match was a turning point in Jacob’s life. In its process Jacob learns he can no longer rely on himself as the “Heel Grabber and Deceiver” and his own strength to get what he wants; he learns, rather, that he must struggle with God in prayer for God to bless him.
9. Jacob’s Daughter Dinah and the Shechemites 34:1-31
a. The son of the ruler of Shechem violates Jacob’s daughter Dinah and then wants her to be given to him in marriage 34:1-4
b. Hamor, Shechem’s father and ruler of the city of Shechem, proposes that Dinah should be given to his son and that Jacob’s family intermarry with the Shechemites 34”5-10
c. Jacob’s sons deceitfully agree on the condition that all the men of Shechem become circumcised as the price for the marriage 34:11-24
d. On the third day when all the men of Shechem are in pain, Jacob’s sons Simeon and Levi kill all the men of Shechem, and Jacob’s sons loot the city 34:25-31
10. Jacob moves to Bethel 35:1-29
a. In Bethel, where Jacob had his dream of a ladder reaching to heaven, he builds an altar to worship God and names that place El-Bethel, which means the “God of Bethel” 35:1-8
b. God appears to Jacob again, blesses him, and changes his name to Israel, which means “he struggles with God” 35:9, 10
c. God reveals himself to Jacob (Israel) as God Almighty, “El-Shaddai”, and confirms the covenant of grace and blessing to Jacob that God gave to Abraham and Isaac 35:11-15
d. Rachel dies giving birth to Benjamin 35:16-20
e. Reubun sleeps with Jacob’s concubine Bilhah 35:21, 22
f. Jacob’s 12 sons are listed 35:23-26
g. At age 106, 32 years after leaving to go to Laban’s, Jacob returns home to his father Isaac, who 15 years later dies at age 180 and is buried by Jacob and Esau 35:27-29
F. The History Of Esau Genesis 36:1-37:1
1. Esau, also called Edom, takes his wives, children, household, and all he has and settles in the hill country of Mount Seir in what became the country of Edom 36:1-8
2. A listing of the sons of Esau and the chiefs and rulers who descended from them 36:9-43
3. Jacob stayed and lived in the Promised Land where Isaac had stayed 37:1
G. The History Of Jacob Genesis 37:2-50:26
(The Account Of Joseph) 37:2-50:26)
1. At age 17 Joseph tends sheep with his brothers and gives a bad report about them to Jacob 37:2
2. Jacob’s favoring Joseph arouses the hatred of Joseph’s brothers 37:3, 4
3. Joseph’s dreams of reigning over his brothers intensifies their hatred and jealousy 47:5-11
4. Joseph’s brothers sell Joseph into slavery 37:12-36
5. Joseph’s brother Judah’s relationship with Tamar 38:1-30
a. Joseph’s brother Judah has an incestuous relationship with his daughter-in-law Tamar 38:1-23
b. Tamar bears twins, Perez and Zerah 38:24-30
- Note: Perez becomes the next man in the Messianic Line of Jesus 38:1-30
a. The Lord is with Joseph and blesses his work 39:2-6
b. Potiphar’s wife accuses Joseph of molesting her and he is locked up in prison 39:7-20
c. The Lord grants Joseph favor in the eyes of the warden 39:20-23
7. Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker 40:1-23
a. Pharaoh imprisons his cupbearer and baker where Joseph is confined 40:1-4
b. The Lord enables Joseph to interpret their dreams – the baker is hung by Pharaoh and the cupbearer is restored to his position 49:4-22
c. The cupbearer forgets about Joseph 40:23
8. Two years later Pharaoh has 2 dreams 41:1-57
a. Pharaoh dreams of 7 gaunt cows devouring 7 fat cows and of 7 scorched ears of grain swallowing up 7 good ears of grain 41:1-7
b. The Egyptian magicians and wise men cannot interpret Pharaoh’s dreams 41:8
c. The cupbearer tells Pharaoh about Joseph’s ability to interpret dreams 41:9-13
d. Pharaoh sends for Joseph, who interprets his dreams and gives Pharaoh wise counsel on how to prepare for the coming years of plenty and famine 41:14-36
e. Pharaoh puts Joseph in charge of all Egypt 41:37-57
9. Joseph’s brothers first trip to Egypt 42:1-8
a. Jacob sends his sons, except for Joseph’s brother Benjamin, to buy grain in Egypt 42:1-5
b. God fulfills Joseph’s dreams of ruling over his brothers, when they stand before him as the ruler of Egypt 42:6, 7
c. The brothers do not recognize Joseph 42:8
d. Joseph begins to put his brothers to the test to see if their hearts had changed and they had repented of their sin 42:9-38
d.1 Joseph accuses his brothers of being spies and puts them in prison for 3 days 42:9-17
d.2 Joseph releases the brothers to return to Canaan but holds Simeon as a prisoner until the others return with Benjamin, Joseph’s younger brother 42:18-24
d.3 Joseph secretly has their money hid in their sacks 42:25, 26
d.4 The brothers report to Jacob and are frightened when they find their money sacks 42:27-35
d.5 In spite of Reuben’s assurance to bring Simeon back, Jacob refuses to be comforted or to allow Benjamin to go to Egypt 42:36-38
10. Joseph’s brothers’ second trip to Egypt 43:1-34
a. Jacob sends his sons a second time with Benjamin to Egypt 43:1-7
b. Judah pledges himself to Jacob as a guarantee to bring Benjamin back safe and unharmed 43:8-10
c. The brothers take gifts and money, return to Egypt with Benjamin, and again stand before Joseph 43:11-15
d. Joseph has them brought to his house for dinner, where he has them seated according to their age and gives Benjamin more food than the others 43:16-34
11. Joseph’s final test of his brothers
a. Joseph has his silver cup hidden in Benjamin’s sack before his brothers leave 44:1. 2
b. The cup is found in Benjamin’s sack, which makes him subject to enslavement, and they all are brought back before Joseph 44:3-13
c. Judah offers himself in Benjamin’s place to be Joseph’s slave 44:14-34
12. Joseph reveals himself to his brothers 45:1-28
a. Joseph assures his brothers that God had sent him to Egypt to preserve their lives 45:1-8
b. Joseph sends them to get Jacob and to bring him to Egypt where Joseph promises to provide for them 45:9-15
c. Pharaoh urges Joseph’s brothers to move to Egypt with their father and gives them provisions for their journey 45:16-28
13. Jacob leaves for Egypt 46:1-34
a. God appears to Jacob to assure him, and to promise to make him a great nation in Egypt 46:1-7
b. Jacob’s descendants who moved to Egypt with him are listed 46:8-27
c. Jacob and Joseph are reunited in Egypt 46:28-34
14. Jacob and his descendants in Egypt 47:1-31
a. At age 130 Jacob and five of Joseph’s brothers appear before Pharaoh 47:1-10
b. Joseph settles them in Goshen in the district of Rameses 47:11, 12
c. Joseph oversees the sale of grain and amasses great wealth for Pharaoh 47:13-26
d. Jacob lives in Egypt 17 years and has Joseph swear to bury him in Canaan with his fathers 47:27-31
15. Jacob adopts and blesses Joseph’s two sons 48:1-22
a. Jacob adopts Joseph’s two sons Manasseh and Ephraim 48:1-7
b. Jacob blesses Joseph’s sons, foretelling that the younger Ephraim would become a greater nation than the older Manasseh 48:1-22
16. The blessings of Jacob on his sons 49:1-33
a. Jacob blesses his sons before his death at age 147 and foretells what would happen to their descendants 49:1-28
b. Jacob gives his final instructions for his burial in the cave in the field of Machpelah 49:29-32
c. When Jacob finishes blessing his sons, he dies 49:33
17. After the death of Jacob 50:1-26
a. The burial of Jacob 50:1-14
b. Joseph reassures his brothers that he will not hold a grudge against them 50:15-21
c. Joseph dies at age 110 after making the Israelites swear to take his bones with them from Egypt to the promised land of Canaan 50:22-26
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