Table of Contents. 1. God s Good Creation A Perfect Place A Broken Relationship... 17

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2 Table of Contents 1. God s Good Creation A Perfect Place A Broken Relationship The Effects of Sin on God s Good Creation God Chooses a Family God Makes a Covenant with Abraham Abraham and Sarah s Promised Son The Covenant Continues with Isaac Jacob and Esau Jacob and Laban Jacob Returns Home Joseph s Dark Days Joseph Prepares the Way... 77

3 Introduction There are a few people who start to read a book by going to the last chapter first, but most of us start with the beginning in chapter one. The Bible is a book, and anyone one who wants to fully understand the story of the Bible needs to start at the beginning. The beginning of the Bible is Genesis, and it is here that a story begins that continues to the end of the Bible. Genesis sets the stage for the rest of the Bible, and without Genesis it would be difficult to understand the unfolding story of God s Word. It begins with God as the Creator, the first human beings and their close relationship with God, and how that relationship was broken through disobedience. The good news is that in Genesis we also see the beginning of God s redemptive plan to repair that broken relationship between God and the human beings that He created. It is a story of a family through which God s own Son eventually entered the world, and it all begins in Genesis. About the Author Phillip Eichman has been a teacher most of his adult life. He holds master s and doctoral degrees in biology and was a biology professor for more than thirty years. He also completed master s degrees in Bible and ministry at Harding University, has taught Bible courses in Christian schools, and has served as a Bible class teacher and parttime minister. He is now retired and lives with his wife Nancy in South Carolina where he enjoys spending time studying and writing. Phillip is also the author of The Gospel of John (Part 1), The Gospel of John (Part 2), and Letters from Paul: A Study of Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon in the FLEX Adult Bible Study series.

4 Lesson 1 God s Good Creation Genesis 1:1 2:3 Key Verse: God saw all that he had made, and it was very good (Genesis 1:31). WARM UP When our children were young, we visited Dinosaur National Monument in Vernal, Utah. Later that morning we drove toward Grand Junction, Colorado, on our way home. We were on a two-lane road, miles from the interstate, and passed few other cars that morning. For lunch, we stopped along the road and walked down a path to the picnic tables by a small lake. The sun was warm, the wind was blowing through the pine trees, and a mountain jay sat on a branch hopeful that we would leave some crumbs behind. It was a beautiful place, and I can still take my mind back there even today. Mankind has inhabited much of our world and there are few unspoiled places that remain. These are usually isolated areas that have been untouched and unchanged by human activity and are also often places of stunning physical beauty. Such places as these are prob- 5

5 ably as close as we can come today to God s original creation and a reminder of the special place that God made for the first man and woman. WORK OUT An orderly universe One of the first things that we see when we read Genesis 1 is order. We live in an orderly universe. Modern science is based on the premise that there is order in the universe and that there are natural laws that maintain that order. Naturalistic theories that ignore God s presence explain the order in the universe as an accident that resulted from a series of random chance events. Atoms just happen to form molecules. Galaxies, stars, and planets just happen to move through the vastness of space. Living things just happen to have been formed from nonliving chemicals. I just happen to be sitting here writing these words. The Genesis account does not depend upon chance. When we read the first chapter, we see an orderly God who created an orderly universe. Someone may say, Well, you have to accept that by faith. Of course we must accept it by faith. The Bible is quite clear about this, and there is no need to be embarrassed about it or apologize for it. The writer of Hebrews summed it up well when he wrote: By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible (Hebrews 11:3). A universe that just happened or one that was planned, shaped, and formed by an intelligent Creator in either case, it is a matter of 6

6 faith. Some people are satisfied to place their faith in a universe that just happened and believe that they themselves are the result of a long series of accidental events. Others, even though they may not have any real religious convictions, may believe that there is some intelligent force perhaps even God that guided the formation of the world around us. For Christians, the answer is faith in God and that only a personal, intelligent Creator like God could have produced a universe like ours. We can believe in an orderly universe that just happened to be that way, or we can place our faith in a Creator who gave order to the universe. In either case, it is a matter of faith. God made it all The ancient world was filled with myths and legends about the beginning of the universe. Some skeptics have claimed that the Genesis account was borrowed from one of these stories. A brief look at some of those other creation stories will show us that this obviously is not the case. These other creation accounts are filled with fantastic, even bizarre, details that are entirely absent in the Genesis account. Instead, what we see in Genesis is an account that is majestic, yet simple and straightforward. The main focus of the Genesis account is not the physical universe, but the One who created it. It is the story of God and how He formed the world in which we live. The account was not written in scientific or technical language. Rather, it was written so that people of different levels of education living in different times and places could understand it. God s creative acts are described with two words or phrases in the first chapter of Genesis. The first of these words is translated as create. In verse 1 we read: In the beginning God created the heavens and the 7

7 earth. Here the word is used to describe all that God did in creating the physical universe. In verse 21 the word is used to describe the creation of animal life. Also, in verse 27 the word is used several times to describe the creation of man. The original word is a verb that means to make or create. In the Old Testament this verb is only used with God as the subject. Human beings can make things, but in the Old Testament, other words are used to describe this type of human activity. The word used in Genesis 1 (vv. 1, 21, 27) obviously has special meaning, and only God can create in this way. Verse 1 is important in understanding all that follows. It is a summary statement that describes all of God s creative activity. It is also a description of the initial creation of matter, or the stuff, out of which the universe is made. Verse 2 then begins to describe how God brought shape, form, and order to the creation. God s creative activities are also described by the expression let or let there be. In verse 3, for example, we read: let there be light. Other examples include verse 11 ( let the land produce vegetation ) and verse 20 ( let the water teem with living creatures ). Each time this expression is used it describes further creative activity as God shaped and formed various parts of the creation. The account of God s creative activities is not detailed, but rather broad and inclusive. Verses 1 and 2 describe in a few words the creation of the vast universe in which our own planet, sun, solar system, and galaxy make up a minuscule part. The rest of the account describes, also in a very broad and nonspecific way, various creative activities of God as He further shaped and formed the earth. There is a sequence in the account of God s activities: light (1:3 5), sky and the separation of the water (1:6 8), land and vegetation (1:9 13), lights and seasons (1:14 19), birds, fish, and water creatures (1:20 23), 8

8 land animals (1:24 26), and human beings (1:27 31). Although we may wish that there were more details, this simple statement describes in a summary fashion the creation of our world. As we read the account of these different details of the creation, we see the expression God saw that it was good several times. (Genesis 1:4,10,12,18,21,25,31). Each time, it is used to describe some aspect of God s creation. The word translated as good tells us something about God s creative acts. The original creation was in a state of well-being. It was not chaotic, but rather orderly. The original world that God made was perfect. Natural laws were in place that maintained and sustained the universe that God had made. Everything that God had made was very good (1:31). After completing His task of creating, we see that God rested. This does not mean that God no longer cares for His creation. It means that He rested from the creative activities that are described in the earlier verses. God rested, but He did not stop entirely and continues to this day to maintain and sustain the world that He made. COOL DOWN Today, we can only imagine a perfect world, but when God was finished with His original creation, it was perfect. It was God s good creation. It was a place where nature was in balance and all of the good things that God had made functioned in the way that He had planned. 9

9 Discussion Questions: 1. Why is faith so important in our understanding of the Genesis account of creation? Why do some people place their faith in something else? 2. How do the concepts of creating and shaping help us see how God created the universe? 3. We read about God as the Creator in Genesis 1. What does the New Testament tell us about Jesus role in the creation? (See John 1:1 3; Colossians 1:15 20) 4. What do verses like Psalm 1:1 4 and Romans 1:18 20 tell us about God s creation? 5. Why should we be careful in attempting to draw detailed scientific principles from Genesis 1? What was its original purpose? 6. How does the account in Genesis 1 help us to understand our place as human beings in the big picture of God s creation? 10