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Old Testament Overview - Genesis

1. Genesis Summarized:  God's perfect creation, man's rebellion and fall; and God begins His perfect plan to restore us.

Key Events:  Creation (1-2), Fall (3), Tower of Babel (11:1-9), Flood (6-9), Call of Abraham (12:1-3), God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah (19:1-29), Birth of Isaac (21:1-7), Abraham's greatest test (22:1-19), Jacob replaces Esau (25:19-34, 27:1-40)

Key People:  Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob (Israel) and Laban, Leah, Rachel

Key Teachings: God is our Creator (1:1, 26-27).  The fall of man (3:1-24).  The selection of Abraham (12:1-3).  Abraham's faith (Romans 4:18-25; Hebrews 11:8-12, 17-19).

Key Verses:  1:1, 1:26-27, 2:21-24, 3:6-7, 15, 6:5, 9:6,  11-16, 11:4-7, 12:1-3, 14:18-20, 17:13-14, 22:13-18, 27:1-40, 28:12-22

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2. Genesis 1:1

In the beginning God* created** the heavens and the earth.***

* Denies Atheism and Polytheism

**Denies Evolution

***Denies Pantheism and Materialism

 

Atheism (a = no;  and theism is a belief in God)   So, Atheism is a belief that there is no God.

Polytheism (poly = many)   So, Polytheism is a belief that there are many gods.

Evolution The belief that life was not created and designed, but it is a product of natural changes over millions of years until it evolved into its present state.  If God created and designed the universe, it did not happen by chance—there was a plan and a Planner.

Pantheism (pan = all)  So, god is all (god is impersonally present in all).  If God created the heavens and the earth, He transcends and is separate from His creation.
 
Materialism Matter is eternal—it has always existed.  If God created the universe, there was a time when the universe did not exist.

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3. The Creation Account

The Creation of Matter (1:1-2)

(1) God created the inanimate universe (non-living universe) instantaneously and out of nothing. (1:1)

(2) The earth was created in a state of disorder, uninhabited, dark, and covered with water. (1:2)

Day #1 (1:3-5) – Light

(1) The light material is formed here and the light-bodies are not formed until the fourth day.

(2) Day and night begin.

Day #2 (1:6-8)

(1) The firmament refers to our sky (1:20) and limitless space (1:14).

(2) The firmament apparently formed a separation between the water on earth and the water above the earth.

Day #3 (1:9-13)—Dry Land and Plants

Day #4 (1:14-19)—Sun, Moon, and Stars

Possibly, the light-forming material that was created on Day #1 is now formed into light-bodies.

Day #5 (1:20-23)—Birds and Fishes

Day #6 (1:24-31)—Animals and Man

Day #7 (2:1-3)—God rested

Symbolizes our rest in Christ's finished work—Hebrews 4:10

Man's creation described (2:7)
Woman's creation described (2:21-22)

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4. Adam's Original State

God's gracious provisions toward Adam:

1. He was in constant fellowship with God. (Gen. 3:8)

2. He was made in God's image. (Gen. 1:26) (He was God-like.)

3. He was surrounded by a perfect environment. (Gen. 2:8-15)(God's garden)

Adam's free will (Gen. 2:16-17)

1. He was allowed to have a free choice—he was not a programmed robot.

2. God gave him the opportunity to disobey Him.

God's law (the revealed will of God with respect to human conduct)

1. The law set down by God for Adam—he was not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

2. The consequence of disobedience was death (spiritual and physical death).

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5. The Fall

The Temptation:

Satan questions God's word (3:1)—"Did God really say?" He questions God's goodness: If God really loved you, He would not keep anything from you!
Satan adds a lie (3:1)—Did God really say that "you must not eat from any tree in the garden?" (Is God so mean that He is doing this horrible thing?)
Satan calls God a liar (3:4)—"You will not die." (You can sin and get away with it.)
Satan adds another lie (3:4)—"You will be like God."

Yielding to the Temptation:

Eve listens to Satan (3:1-5)
Eve Looks at the fruit (3:6)(I John 2:15-16)  She saw that it "was good for food" (the lust of the flesh); "pleasing to the eye" (the lust of the eyes); and "desirable for the gaining of wisdom" (the pride of life).
Lust and pride = the opposite of contentment with God and His provisions.

The Progress of Sin:

...to the heart of Adam and Eve (3)
...to their family (Cain and Abel) (4)
...to the world (6:1-7)

Satan's Temptations today:

Satan still questions God's goodness. (Is God depriving you of the good life?  Hollywood often portrays Christians as those who are not allowed to have any fun.)
Satan is still lying about what God is like. (God is portrayed as making us do what we do not want to do and as not letting us do what we want to do.)
Satan is still mocking God. (Hollywood's most popular targets for scorn is God and the Christian.)
Satan is still adding his lies. (Follow me and you will really live. Mankind is following Satan hoping to find the utopia that he promises.)

On Yielding Today:

We also can listen to Satan's lies, look at what the world has to offer, desire it, and willingly disobey God. See Ephesians 4:17-19

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6. The Results of the Fall

The Effect of Man's Sin:

1. Guilt:
a. Their eyes were opened and they became aware of their nakedness. (3:7)
b. They hid themselves from God (3:8) (They went from being God's pure friends to feeling shame and impurity in God's presence.)

2. Self-deception:  The man blamed the woman and the woman blamed the serpent (3:12-13) (They went from God-like to Satan-like—from a pure and innocent child of God to a lying child of Satan.)

God's Punishment:

1. Curse on the serpent:
a. God's punishment—the serpent was destined to crawling on its belly. (3:14)
b. God will raise a seed from the woman—the Redeemer Jesus Christ—who will be bruised by the serpent—Satan's apparent victory when Jesus was crucified—but will crush the serpent—Jesus' victory over Satan on the cross. (3:15)

2. Curse on the woman:  Pain in childbirth (3:16)

3. Curse on the man:  The ground was cursed (3:17-19) (It went from being God's garden to being full of weeds and thorns.)

4. Curse on the man and the women:
a. All men will return to the ground from which they came. (3:19)
b. They were driven out of God's garden. (3:24)

God's Grace—Unmerited Favor:

1. God chooses to provide a way back to fellowship with Him.
a. A Redeemer is predicted. (3:15): He will be born of a woman.  He will be bitten on the heel: He will lose a battle to Satan—His death on the cross.  He will crush the serpent's head: He will win the final battle with Satan—His death on the cross paid the penalty for our sins.
b. The Redeemer's sacrificial death is predicted in the death of animals to provide covering for Adam and Eve (It covered their shame like the blood of Christ covers our shame.) (3:21)

2. Man is saved from sin and eternal separation from God through God's gracious provision rather than through his works (4:1-12)
a. God received Abel's sacrificial offering because it represented the sacrifice that He would provide—Jesus' sacrifice on the cross..
b. God refused Cain's offering of the fruit of the ground because it represented Cain's works and not God's grace.

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7. What Happened in Genesis 6?

Who are "the sons of God?":

1. They are the fallen angels that are now chained in "Tartarus." (II Pet. 2:4;     Jude 6)

2. Why are they now chained in "Tartarus"?

a. They are in this prison because they left their proper domain (Jude 6) in defiance of God. (Jude 8).

b. They committed an extreme sexual perversion by cohabitating with women. (Jude 6-7)

3. Why do we believe this?

a.  The term, ”sons of God" is only used in the Bible to describe angels (Job 1:6*, 2:1*, 38:7*  *although it says "angels" and not "sons of God" in each of these verses in the NIV, the note in the NIV says "Hebrew the sons God.")

b. The sin in Genesis 6:1-4 is the only possible explanation in Scripture for the sin described in II Peter 2:4 and Jude 6-7.

c. The sin in Genesis 6:1-4 fits the description of the sins in II Peter 2 and Jude—left proper place or home (Jude 6) and sexual perversion (Jude 7).

d. This interpretation explains I Peter 3:18-20 (These evil angels were those to whom Jesus preached to after His death—He declared to them that they were unsuccessful in polluting the human race. See 5 below.)

4. Who are the "Nephilim"? (Gen. 6:4)  They were giants who were born part angel and part man.

5. Why did it happen?  Satan was undoubtedly seeking to pollute the human race so that it would not be possible for a "seed" from a woman to be pure enough to be the Redeemer promised in Genesis 3:15. (This is one of many attempts by Satan to eliminate the "seed," Jesus Christ before he was born—Cain killing Abel, the Pharaoh of Egypt just before Moses' birth seeking to kill the baby boys, Haman seeking to kill all the Jews, and King Herod seeking to kill the children of Bethlehem.)

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8. The Babylons of Genesis and Revelation Compared

In Genesis:

1. Men begin to replace the worship of God with the worship of man—"so that we
may make a name for ourselves." (Gen. 11:4)

2. God postpones men's plans by scattering their languages. (Gen. 11:5-7)

In Revelation:

Man is successful in replacing the worship of God with the worship of man—"all the inhabitants of earth will worship the beast." (Rev. 13:6-8) ("The beast" is the man of lawlessness who sets himself up in God's temple to be worshiped. II Thess. 2:3-4)

Present-day Application:

Once God divided the world by dividing the languages.  But, today, these divisions are being removed by translators, travel by jet planes, international media, the internet, satellite communications, international cell phone service, and efforts to unite the world (such as the United Nations—where the words of a speaker from any nation are translated immediately into the languages of people from many nations).  It appears that we are nearly back to where the world was when God scattered the languages—when it will again be true that nothing we plan will be impossible for us (Gen. 11:6).  We must also be nearing the time when it will be necessary for God again to judge Babylon. See Rev. 17 and 18

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9. The Abrahamic Covenant

Terms:

1. Terms to Abraham: Faith and obedience—Abraham merely needed to believe that God would keep His promise and respond, in obedience to God, by going to Canaan.

2. Terms to Abraham: Unconditional—God will sovereignly fulfill His promise to Abraham. (Gal. 3:17-18)

Promise to Abraham:

1. Countless descendents (Gen. 12:2, 13:16, 15:3-5)
2. God will protect his descendents. (Gen. 12:3)
3. An everlasting title to a definite land area on earth (Gen. 13:14-17, 15:18-20, 17:7-8)
4. His seed will form a great nation. (Gen. 12:3)
5. All the nations of the earth will be blessed through his Seed (Gen. 12:2-3;     Gal. 3:8, 14-16)

The Covenant Sealed and Confirmed (Gen. 15:7-16)

The Sign of the Covenant—Circumcision (Gen. 17:9-14)

The Abrahamic Covenant Expanded on:

1. The Palestinian Covenant—a promise that Abraham's descendents will receive a land.  (Gen. 13:14-17, 15:18-20, 17:7-8; Deut. 30:3-5; Ezek. 20:33-38, 42-44)

2.  The Davidic Covenant—a promise of a kingdom (a king, a realm, and a nation) (Gen. 12:2, 17:2-8; II Sam. 7:8-16; Ps. 89:3-4; Jer. 33:19-26)

3. The New Covenant—a promise that all nations will be blessed through Abraham (Gen. 12:3, 22:17-18)
a.  People will be given new hearts and new minds. (Jer. 31:34; Ezek. 36:26-27)
b. People will be indwelt by the Holy Spirit. (Ezek. 26:27; Jn. 7:37-39)
c. People will receive forgiveness of sin (Jer. 31:34; Ezek. 36:25)
d. God's dwelling place will be with Israel. (Ezek.37:26-28)
e. The New Covenant will be fulfilled in the Millennial rule of Christ               (Hos. 2:16-23; Isa. 2:1-4)
f. The basis for the New Covenant is the blood of Jesus Christ. (Zech. 9:11;  
Matt. 26:27-29; I Cor. 11:25-26)

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10. Abraham's Tests of Faith

Test #1: Abram was asked to leave the abundance of Ur to go to the unknown land of Canaan.

Observations:
a. Abram did not immediately obey God (11:31-32, 12:4-6;Acts 7:2-3) He did not leave his family and go directly to Canaan as God directed him to do.  Instead, he went with his family to Haran.  Haran was still in the lush Euphrates River area.
b. God spoke to Abram after he obeyed him and went to Canaan.

Lessons:
a. God's patience: God understands our weaknesses—that it had been difficult for Abram to leave his family.
b. God cannot be manipulated:  We must do it His way.
c. It is never too late to do what is right.

Test #2: Famine in Canaan (12:10-20)

Lessons:
a. Seek God's solution and not your own: Abram ran to Egypt and not to God.  He trusted in deception to protect himself rather than trusting in God—Sarah posed as his sister to protect him from those who might kill him to take away his wife.
b. God's grace: God intervened to protect Abram even though Abram had not trusted in Him.

Test #3: Abram's quarrels with his cousin Lot (13:5-17)

Lesson: God appears to Abram after he shows sacrificial and forgiving love toward Lot. (13:14-18) (John 14:21)

Test #4: Lot is carried off by some local kings. (14)

Lesson: God appears to Abram after he risks all he had  to rescue Lot and then refuses to receive a reward. (15)

Test #5:  Ten years and still no son. (16, 18:1-15, 21:1-7)

Lessons:
a. Wait  patiently for God and do not take matters into our own hands (16:1-5) —Abraham had a child by Hagar, Sarah's maidservant.
b. Consult with God before you make important decisions. (Abraham did not.)
c. God fulfills His promise in spite of Abraham's lack of faith (17:1-33, 21:1-7)  God gave them a child name Isaac—which means, "he laughs."(God got the last laugh.)
d. Nothing is too hard for God. (18:14)  God gave Sarah a child when she was beyond the age for child-bearing.

Test #6: God predicts that he is going to destroy Sodom. (18:16-19:29)

Lessons:
a. God's patience and gentleness (18:16-33): God does not respond harshly to Abraham's request.
b. The consequences of Lot's worldliness. (19) (1) He ended up compromising his convictions. (19:6-11)  (2) His family was divided. (19:12-14)  (3) There was a downward moral slide in his family. (19:15-26)  (4) His family ended up being morally debauched. (19:30-38)

Test #7: They lived in a strange and foreign land. (20)

Lessons:
a. Where we have failed in the past, we can also easily fail in the future. (Compare 12:10-20 and 20:1-2)
b. God is amazingly gracious (20:13-18—God intervenes again, even though Abraham had not trusted him again and made almost exactly the same mistake again.

Test #8: God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son (22-23)

Lessons:
a. God's tests may not make sense to us. (27:1-2)
b. We are to obey God even if His requests do not make sense to us (22:3-10)
c. God will be faithful to His promises in His time. (22:11-14)
d. God rewards unquestioning faith. (22:15-19)
e. Abraham's faith resulted in him even being exalted by the unbelieving nations. (23)

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11. Jacob and Joseph—Trying versus Trusting

Introduction:
1. "Where does the sovereignty of God and the free-will of man begin?  The sovereignty of God never ends, the free-will of man begins where God decides it will begin." (Taken from The Schemer and the Dreamer by Luis Palau.)  God gives us latitude within which we can make free choices, but He is always in control and His purposes are always being accomplished.
2. Both Jacob and Joseph were chosen by God, yet both could choose to act like God's chosen men should act or not like it.  Joseph responded appropriately from the beginning and Jacob did not; yet, in the end, God's purposes were accomplished and both walked with God.

Their Similarities:
Both were first-born, were chosen of God, had dreams, had sibling rivalries, were raised by God-fearing parents, left home (Jacob ran from Esau and Joseph was sold into slavery), and were favorite children (Jacob was Rebekah's favorite and Joseph was Jacob's favorite).

Their Lives Contrasted:

Jacob: He tried it his own way and was humbled.

Try #1 (25:27-34)—Jacob buys Esau's birthright for some stew (If Jacob had waited and trusted, God would have given him the birthright.  It was God's plan for him.)

Try #2 (27:1-40)—Rebekah and Jacob cheated Esau out of his blessing.

Discipline (the consequences)
1. 20 years of being deceived (29:15-22, 27-30, 30:25-36, 31:38)  He deceived to get a blessing and was deceived by Laban for 20 years.
2. 20 years later, he still had to face Esau. (32:1-21)
3. He never saw his mom again.
4. He himself was deceived by his sons. (37:31-33)

Effect of the Discipline: Symbolized in the wrestling match with God.  It symbolized Jacob's whole life—all of his life he was wrestling with God.  Jacob was broken when God broke him in the area of his greatest strength—his hip joint and his scheming.

Joseph:  He trusted God in trials and was exalted.

Trial #1 (37:12-36)—He was sold into slavery.

Blessing (39:2-6)—He prospered under Potipher.

Trial #2 (39:7-41:40)—He rejected the temptation of Potipher's wife and is imprisoned falsely.

Blessing (41:41-46)—He is exalted to the #2 position in all of Egypt (13 years after being sold into slavery.  He was a slave from 17-30 years of age. 37:2, 41:46.)

Final Blessing (42-50)—He is exalted in front of his brothers who wronged him. (45:4-7) (God included in his plan the sinful jealousy of Joseph's brothers.)

Application:

1. God chose both Jacob and Joseph

a. He chose Jacob (28:10-19).  God chose him (28:15), but Jacob thought he was choosing God. "Then Jacob made a vow, saying, 'If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wearso that I return safely to my father’s house, then the Lord will be my God" (Genesis 28:20-21)  "If you watch over me, then you will be my God."

b. He chose Joseph (37:5-10).

2. but Jacob was like a mule (Ps. 32:8-9) and Joseph willingly obeyed and trusted God. (Ps. 32:10-11)

3. God has chosen us:

a. We can follow Him like a stubborn mule like Jacob or willingly like Joseph did.

b. Also, like Jacob and Joseph, we can go our own way and be humbled or we can humbly trust and obey God and be exalted.

c. Just as God gave Jacob and Joseph the choice, he also gives us the choice—we can be a schemer or a dreamer!

Old Testament Overview Studies

Old Testament Overview
Table of Contents
Old Testament Overview Outline
Old Testament Overview Genesis
Old Testament Overview Exodus to Deuteronomy
Old Testament Overview Furniture of the Tabernacle
Old Testament Overview Dress of Priests and High Priest
Old Testament Overview Dress of High Priest
Old Testament Overview Canaan: What Can it Teach Us?
Old Testament Overview Israel, God's Kingdom
Old Testament Overview Moses—Failure the Backdoor to Success
Old Testament Overview The Mosaic Covenant
Old Testament Overview The Ten Commandments
Old Testament Overview The Offerings
Old Testament Overview Uncleanness
Old Testament Overview The Priesthood
Old Testament Overview The Festivals
Old Testament Overview The Nazirite Vow
Old Testament Overview Joshua to Ruth
Old Testament Overview Prophecies of the Redeemer—Genesis to Ruth
Old Testament Overview I and II Samuel
Old Testament Overview Saul and David Compared
Old Testament Overview Jonathan and David Compared
Old Testament Overview The Davidic Covenant
Old Testament Overview I And II Kings
Old Testament Overview Israel's and Judah's Kings
Old Testament Overview Divided Kings who Divided
Old Testament Overview Criticisms of God's Actions in the Old Testament
Old Testament Overview Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther
Old Testament Overview Ruth and Esther Compared
Old Testament Overview Job to Song of Solomon
Old Testament Overview Proverbs: Wise Man or Fool?
Old Testament Overview Isaiah
Old Testament Overview Jeremiah
Old Testament Overview Daniel
Old Testament Overview Hosea
Old Testament Overview Joel
Old Testament Overview Amos
Old Testament Overview Obadiah
Old Testament Overview Jonah
Old Testament Overview Micah
Old Testament Overview Nahum
Old Testament Overview Habakkuk
Old Testament Overview Zephaniah
Old Testament Overview Haggai
Old Testament Overview Zechariah
Old Testament Overview Malachi