In the Beginning God created the heavens and the earth!  Full stop, underline and remember.  There seems to be a lot of confusion today surrounding the book of Genesis.  We debate on whether Genesis is literal, allegorical, or historical.  Today, many in society wants to say that Genesis is allegorical, meaning that it is usually a story or tail that has a hidden meaning.  When you read the parables by Jesus in the Gospel accounts you see that Jesus gives us the parable and the meaning behind the parable.  He uses this to help illustrate the point that he is teaching us.  The elements that scripture uses with allegory is missing in Genesis.  What we do notice when reading Genesis is that it is written as an historical narrative.  We are reading the historical accounts of several prominent biblical figures.  It is not written like a modern day historical account.  Rather Genesis focuses on a few key figures, and gives us a snippet account around these historical figures.  Historical narratives does not give us all the details, but gives us the details that are needed to understand the overall narrative.  We don’t need to know what they ate, we don’t need to know who married who, when it is not important to the narrative.  The question we should be asking is not small details that is not important.  But, What is the narrative that God is weaving in Genesis? 

  Do you remember the one novel you really enjoyed reading with a gripping story line?  How the author weaved a story of trials, lose, and overcoming.  Did the author include the daily activates of the characters important to the story line, of course not.  They left out details that were not pertinent to the story line.  We may have asked questions that we would be intrigued to know but the author never included them, and its because it was not necessary for the plot.  This is the same with Genesis.  We can ask the question who married Cain?  Who was the wife of Noah.  The reason God does not give us these details is because they are not vital to the narrative that God is weaving through Genesis and through scriptures.  A story that begins with God creating the heavens and the earth, and all that he created was perfect, and God called it good.  Then we see the Satan appear in Genesis 3, that hates all that God has created and sought to destroy all that God created.  We see already in the beginning God steadfast love for us, even when we are unfaithful.  God’s steadfast love and a redemptive story is woven throughout the lives Abraham, Isaah, Jacob, and Joseph.   

 

As you read through Genesis, don’t focus on questions that have no answer because God has seen fit not to tell us as it is not pertinent to the redemptive story that God has woven throughout Genesis.  Instead focus on the love God has for mankind.  A love that drives God to redeem his people. 

 

 

Challenge to the readers.  As you read through Genesis.  Look at the pattern that is woven through Genesis, and ask yourself, what is the purpose of the historical accounts.  Why does God start Genesis off with “In the Beginning”?   

 

While the world today wants us to doubt God’s word, making us believe that Genesis is allegorical and not historical.  It’s just a tail that was invented to help portray a hidden spiritual meaning.  If Genesis is allegorical then why was Genesis written in a historical narrative?  Please remember that God is not the author of confusion.  

 

 

 

Let us remember that Genesis thee word of God.  When we say that this is God’s word we are saying that  it is inerrant, meaning it is without error.  God is not the author of confusion, nor is he one to tell us large fanciful tails that is not true.  While Genesis does use different  literary styles.  This does not make Genesis any less true, and we can be certain that God does not lie.  When Genesis begins with God Created the heavens and the earth.  We can be sure that God in his infinite ability created all that we see, hear, feel, taste.  He created the very ground that we walk on.  If God is capable of creating the universe, how much more is God capable of. 

 

Over the coming weeks as we read through the book of Genesis.  I want to look at the pattern that God is weaving.  We start with God creating, and what do we read when God created the world, that it was good.  Yet we see this perfect world destroyed by the deceiver, yet God does not leave man alone.  A pattern of a lost people that God is working with, and through to bring about his redemptive work.  God does not leave man alone, and we can see that in Genesis from Adam and Eve, and how God love for them brings about His grace and promise.  To Noah and the flood.  God’s anger at the blantant sin that man.