Preached in Markham Baptist Church, June 24, 2007

This morning and throughout the summer I want to take you through some surveys of different books in the Bible.  I find this exercise to be incredibly helpful as it enables us to understand the great themes of the Bible.  Of course we are not meant to live on Bible surveys alone. If the Word of God is food for our soul, then Bible surveys – Bible overviews – are appetizers, they are designed to whet our appetites.  One of my favourite appetizers is the sample platter – some potato wedges, deep-fried zucchini, some wings, maybe some stuffed mushroom caps, and some ribs.  It’s designed to give you a sampling of the broader menu so that next time you come back you say, “I’m going to have a whole plate of wings this time, they were really good.”  So with a Bible survey it is designed to give you a taste of a book so that when you do in depth study you know where to pause and take a deeper look. 

It’s possible that Jesus used the survey method when He was walking along the road to Emmaus with those two nameless disciples after His resurrection.  We read in Luke 24:27, “that beginning with Moses and all the Prophets he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” He gave them a Bible survey.  So this morning we come to the book of Genesis. 

Now the Holy Spirit does something very helpful in about 99% of the books of the Bible – the Holy Spirit hangs a key by the front door of the book which unlocks its themes, ideas and purpose.  An exception to this is the gospel of John where the key is hanging at the back door, it’s not till the second to last chapter (20:31) that we read of the purpose of the gospel of John.

But with Genesis the key is right at the front door – first four words – In the beginning God.  

The key thought of Genesis is beginnings.  For we have the beginning of the universe (1:1); humanity (1:27); the Sabbath (2:2-3); marriage (2:22-24); sin (3:1-7); the promise of a Saviour (3:15); sacrifice and salvation (3:15-21); the family (4:1-15); civilization (4:16-21); government (9:1-6); nations (11); Israel (12:1-3)   It is a book of beginnings.

In the first chapter we have the key theme and that is that man was made to be in relationship with the living God through faith.  That theme is traced all the way through the stories of Genesis.   

The book of Genesis divides into two very simple parts.  The first part of the book is concerned with Primeval history (1-11) that is the beginnings of the human race - the second part is concerned with Patriarchal history (12-50) that is the beginning of the Hebrew race.  In order to give us the Primeval history the Holy Spirit sets before us four massive events – Creation, the Fall, the Flood, and the Tower of Babel.  In order to give us Patriarchal history, the Holy Spirit sets before us four great men - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph.  That’s the book of Genesis.  Those are the 400-series of highways through the book of Genesis. 

So the book of Genesis. The first great event in Primeval history is Creation. (1:1-2:25)  We have the beginning of everything in the book of Genesis – except for God.  Apparently it’s a self-evident truth.

The Holy Spirit makes no attempt to prove God. But what He does in chapter one is usher us into God’s presence and keeps us there – He mentions God no less than 32 times by name, 11 times by use of personal pronoun, 43 times in 31 verses.   That’s the great work of the Holy Spirit - He brings us into the very presence of God and He keeps us there. 

What more fitting way to begin a book about God? … in the beginning God. 

The question always arises, who made God? Several answers suggest themselves.  We could say that X made God.  But that would mean that X was God and we would have to ask who made X?  Then we could say that B made X who in turn made God. Well who made B?  So the question simply goes on and on.

The second answer is a bit more helpful.  And that is to suggest that the question is invalid.  By asking who made God we imply that He can be “made”.  I would suggest that they are two words – one an adjective and the other a noun that really don’t belong together.  It’s like speaking of green sound or a square taste.  A made God is nothing at all.  Wood made from plastic is not really wood, and a made God is not really God.   Psalm 90:2 says, “From everlasting from everlasting you are God.” 

What else does verse one say about God?  The word for God there is Elohim, which denotes majesty.  From the very outset let’s establish this – God is sovereign.  God is King.  God is over all.  He is totally separate from creation.  He is reflected in it, but He is not dependent on it.  He is not part of our time or space or matter.  

This past week we had the first day of summer - the longest day of the year called the summer solstice.  To welcome the sun, 24,000 people gathered at Stonehenge in England. Spiritualists, and others clad in antlers, black cloaks and oak leaves gathered at the site which experts say was built as part of an ancient sun-worshipping culture.  Reporters for associated press interviewed 24 year old Laura Tungate who has been coming to the Stonehenge event for the past 8 years.

“Taking a swig from a mug of vodka and Red Bull she said – I just love the whole vibe and energy, and the fact that these stones, that they are alive, they do breathe and they do grow and they are massive.”   

Laura joins a vast number of people who find energy in worshipping creation.  And Romans 1:21 describes such people with one word – fools.  They have exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. 

Over against the sun and moon worshippers, Genesis 1 rises up and declares God and God alone is sovereign.  He alone is King of the cosmos. He has established order, everything exists because of His expressed will, purposes and word.  So He is the one to be worshipped.

In the beginning God created.   Critics will point out that the text does not tell us how God created the heavens and earth.  The fact is Scripture is very clear about how God created every living being, we are told over and over again, “And God said,”  “And God said,”  “And God said”  “And God said”.    Psalm 33:6 reads, “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth”. 

Sometimes I think our concept of God is way too small. “He can’t do this and he can’t do this and he can’t do this.”  We are good at pointing out what God can’t do.  But the truth is we worship one who merely speaks and it comes into being.   That means we can trust His promises, what He says will come to be.  There is another refrain throughout chapter one and that is, “It was so,” “It was so,”  It was so.”  God’ is sovereign, His word is legislative and executive.       

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  For the last 100 years there has been a raging debate about the beginning of the universe.  But do you know that science knows nothing about origins?  A scientist when speaking of origins can never say, “This is what we know.”  He can only say, ‘This is what we think.”  He or she can come with a theory and say, “I think this is how it started and I think it must have started about this time.”  But he really doesn’t know.  He can study the laws that govern the material universe but those laws do not explain how it all happened.  In fact, the only way he could speak with any authority at all as to how the whole thing started would be if someone who was there when it happened were to tell them.   You see information about the beginning of the universe is not derived by a process of reasoning but only by a process of revelation.  Someone had to have been there when it happened. 

Well, somebody was there when it happened - the Holy Spirit - and He tells us in God’s Word that God created the heavens and the earth.  So we have to decide whether we are going to take the word of some scientist who doesn’t know any way and can only guess and usually guesses wrong and is the first to admit, if he is honest, that what he is thinking today is not what he was thinking ten years ago, and what he is thinking today probably will not be what he will be thinking ten years from now. We can either take the word of some man as to how it happened, whose theories change with each new power added to a telescope, or we can accept the word of God as to how it happened.

Either way it has to be taken by faith. Strange how some people would rather take the word of some man than the word of the living God. 

As you read this opening chapter of creation it’s amazing how correct it is.  There are some things that could not be discovered by the simple process of reasoning.  For instance at verse 16 it says, “God made two great lights the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night.”  How was that known? That the sun was bigger than the moon?  Have you ever seen a harvest moon?  Sometimes the moon does look bigger than the sun. 

And notice that the text doesn’t say that the “greatest light ruled the day”.  If it said that, it would be wrong.  Countless billions of stars in the universe are greater than the sun, when it comes to mere greatness.  How did the author get it right?  Maybe he guessed.

Origins of the universe are not discovered by reasoning, but by the revelation of the Holy Spirit.

One more important thing to note in this opening chapter.  The text clearly tells us that all that God created was good but when God created humanity God stepped back and said it was very good. (1:31)  Humanity is wonderful, you have been created in the image of God – that is created to reflect the moral image of God.  It was God’s intent that when people look at His people they would know what God was like. You are that wonderful and endowed with that much worth.

But here is the point – there are some who say that humanity is the pinnacle of creation – no it’s not.  The seventh day is the pinnacle of creation.  Let me explain.  Having been created on the sixth day, Adam and Eve went to bed that night, and got a full eight hours sleep.  They woke up in the morning and Eve said to Adam, “What will we do today Adam?” 

And Adam said, “Nothing, it’s a day off.  Let’s go and enjoy God.”

Why did he say that?  It’s not because being created was so hard for Adam and Eve.  But the point is that from the very beginning, from the very start, what was of first importance was that God’s creation live in relationship with God, that they enjoy Him, spend time with Him, trust Him, rest in Him, have faith in Him to provide.

So the pinnacle of creation is not the sixth day but the seventh day when humanity rested in the presence and joy of God Himself.   This whole theme of humanity created to live in a faith relationship with God is established from the very outset.  

The first great event in Primeval history – Creation.

The second event, the Fall (3:1-4:15).   If you turn to the end of Genesis to the last verse, you’ll read something startling.  The last verse reads, “So Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten.  And after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.”  (Genesis 50:26) Now something has happened.  The book of Genesis begins with creation, but it ends with a coffin.

It begins with glory but ends with a grave. It begins with the living God and it ends with a dead man.   It begins with all the joy and wonder of God’s people walking with God and feeling right at home and it ends with God’s people living in sorrow and far from home.  It begins with a crescendo but ends with a cry.   It begins with a blaze of brightness of heaven but it ends with a box of bones in Egypt. 

Something has gone terribly wrong.  What is it?  Romans 5:12 - “Sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men because all sinned for before the law was given sin was in the world.”

This is the problem that Genesis 3 puts before us.  The reason there is death and decay is because of sin. The reason there is sorrow and loneliness and tears and heartache is because humanity has turned its back on God and said we will not live in dependence upon you.  We will not follow in your ways.  We will not have you as our God.  

This is the problem that Genesis 3 puts before us.  There has been a huge disconnect between ourselves and the God who gives us life and joy.  So instead of walking with Him and reflecting His image as we were intended we are in a mess and our world is a mess all because of our desire to be independent of God.

In the new Fantastic Four movie, The Rise of the Silver Surfer, we are told that the earth has been invaded by one looking like a Silver Surfer. He has a seemingly endless supply of energy and is bent on the destruction of the world.  All of that is fantasy of course but reflects the history that we have recorded in Genesis.  Our world has been invaded, it has been invaded by a being with an endless supply of energy that is bent on the destruction of the world and his name is not Silver Surfer but Satan.       

Satan hates humanity.  He hates everything that reflects God.  He hates any reminder of God’s sovereignty and power.  He hates every reminder of God’s character and you and I have been made in the image of God to show what God is like.  Satan hates us because he hates God and is bent on destroying everything God has made. 

So we need to remember that our battle is not against one another.  Our battle is not against fellow believers, or insensitive relatives, or grumpy neighbours, or lazy employees, or obnoxious bosses, or slow drivers who fail to signal their turns.  Our battle is not against “flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12). 

Now, Satan knows that he cannot simply snuff out humanity. Creation is under God’s watchful eye.  No, he must get humanity to surrender itself to his rule.  He must cause humanity to throw off their dependence on God.  So we have the temptation.

Satan goes to Eve.  Scripture tells us in Romans 5:19 that she was deceived.  We know however that she had one weapon that made her absolutely invincible, the word of God.  

So Satan knows that he has got to get Eve to give up her trust in the Word of God.  He begins by planting the seed of doubt in the woman’s mind.  He says, “Did God really say, you must not eat from any tree in the garden?” 

Having planted the seed of doubt Satan sprinkles that seed with the water of denial.  Verse 4 “You will not surely die.”  It was an outright contradiction of what God said.

The seed of doubt was planted, watered with denial, Satan then feeds it with delusion. Verse 5 – “For God knows you will be like God.”  He puts into the woman’s mind the same ungodly thought that controls his heart and desires – You shall be like God.   

That was the whole thrust of his argument – get her to doubt the word of God, deny the word of God and be deluded about the word of God.  Satan is not a creative being. He uses the same tactic today. He uses the same tactic on Jesus when he tempts Him in the wilderness, but Jesus doesn’t flinch.  He keeps saying, “It is written, It is written.”

Now Eve could have fended off Satan’s temptations if she only knew her Bible.  It wasn’t hard for Eve, after all her Bible was only two verses long but she doesn’t know it!  Instead Eve gives the very first paraphrase of the Word of God in the history of the world.  And like all paraphrases she leaves things out and she puts things in. 

For instance in verse 3 in discussing the question of punishment she said, “We must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.”

That’s not what God said, he said “you will surely die.”  She left something out.  There’s a difference. One is a possibility and other is a surety.  And then again in discussing the forbidden fruit she said, “God says we mustn’t eat of that tree and we must not touch it.”  God said nothing at all about touching it.  That was something she put in.

The very first paraphrase of God’s Word.  And the devil said to himself, “I’ve got this woman, she can’t even quote her Bible correctly.”  Romans 5:19 says that Eve was deceived.  Adam wasn’t deceived.  He knew what he was doing – his sin was worse – he wasn’t tricked; he was disobeying God wilfully.  That’s why the Bible traces sin through Adam and not Eve.

Sin, sorrow, suffering and death all stem from the fall.  And now we read in Genesis 5:3 an echo of a phrase introduced earlier but this time the phrase reads, “When Adam had lived 130 years he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image.”  Sound familiar?  Everyone from Adam and Eve on is now in Adam’s fallen likeness, in Adam’s own image.

That which was created in the image of God is now tainted with sin, forever. 

We were meant to live in relation to God by faith – that relationship has now been broken. 

Thankfully as we read our New Testament we discover a new Adam – by the name of Jesus.  “Just as Adam was the head of the old creation, so Christ is the head of a new creation; He is the Last Adam.” (I Corinthians 15:45-49).  The OT is the book of the generations of Adam (Genesis 5:1) and it ends speaking of a curse (Malachi 4:6).  The NT is the “book of the generation of Jesus Christ” (Matthew 1:1) and it ends with “no more curse.” (Rev. 22:3).²

So you have the story of the fall.

The Third great event is the flood. (4:16-9:29)

By the time we get to chapter 6 we discover how pervasive sin is.  Genesis 6:5 says, “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” 

All people, every thought, all the time.  Wickedness is like a virus that knows no barriers, it knows no limits. 

Then notice verse 8 – But Noah … but Noah.  Here is a man who is different.  Noah found favour in God’s eyes.  It doesn’t say that Noah gained favour in God’s eyes.  It says he found favour in God’s eyes.  He discovered God’s unmerited favour.  He had discovered God’s grace, that’s what grace is, it’s his unmerited favour. 

And then verse 9 – as a result Noah lived a righteous life.  Don’t get the order wrong.  Noah did not find favour with God because he lived a righteous life, that would be to put verse 9 in front of verse 8 – no first he discovered God’s grace then he lived a righteous life.

Noah is a wonderful picture of a man who lives in relationship with God in faith.  He is a wonderful picture of a Christian.  The text tells us at verse 8 that he had found grace in the eyes of the Lord.  He was a forgiven man.  Verse 9 tells us that he walked with the Lord – he was a faithful man. 

There is a phrase that is repeated again and again in this story -  “Noah did everything just as God commanded him.” (6:22; 7:5)

The whole story of the Noah and the ark is also a picture, according to I Peter 3:18-22 of the salvation that is ours in Christ.  There is only one way of salvation just as there is only one door in the ark.  Once we are in Christ we are secure, just as Noah was secure in the ark.  Noah’s old world is buried and dead but he was brought into a world reborn, just as we are crucified with Christ and raised to newness of life.

Creation, the fall, the flood.

The next great event – the tower of Babel. (10:1-11:32)

It isn’t long before sin has reached out its tentacles and snared all of humanity again.  There in Babylon the people gather and plot their rebellion against God – they speak in chapter 11 at verse 4 of self reliance “let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly … let us build ourselves a city.”

And self-worship – with a tower that reaches to the heavens.

Scholars tell us that that phrase “that reaches” isn’t in the Hebrew, rather it speaks of the top of the tower being “in”, “on”, “with” or “by” the heavens.

The intent is clear, humanity is seeking to build a religious centre that will dethrone God and put self in His place.

Let us, let us, let us. 

Then verse 5  - But the Lord came down.  Don’t think of God lumbering off of His throne in heaven and descending a set of steps to earth. That is not what the text is saying. I believe that the text is making a point – we are supposed to have a picture in our mind of this great tower that humanity is building – a tower that is supposed to be equal to the powers of heaven.

“O look what we are achieving, look at what we can do without God.  Aren’t we marvellous, aren’t we fantastic, look at this great tower!’ 

And yet in God’s eyes it is so small that he has to come down to see it.  The point made is that this tower isn’t all that wonderful compared to the majestic living God. 

God says let us go down and that put an end to the whole thing.

That’s primeval history - the beginnings of the human race.  Four great events.  The first 11 chapters of our Bible are foundational chapters, foundations upon which not only the rest of the book is built but upon which the whole Bible is built.  That’s why Satan has brought up his heavy artillery seeking to discredit the first 11 chapters of this book. If a person can be persuaded to pull the first 11 chapters out of his or her Bible it won’t be long before the last pages will be falling out too.

And if that happens you might as well throw away the whole book.

The second part of the Book of Genesis deals with Patriarchal history.  The beginnings of the Hebrew race.  Four great men, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph.

Chapter 12 begins the story of Abraham.  It is a beautiful contrast to chapter 11.  Chapter 11 tells of what humanity will do without God - chapter 12 tells of what God will do through humanity who lives in relation to Him through faith  – hear the contrasts:

Genesis 11:3 – “They said to one another”

Genesis 12:1 – “The Lord had said to Abram”

Genesis 11:2 – “As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.”

Genesis 12:1 – “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.”

Genesis 11:3,4 – “Come let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly … Come let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name of ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

Genesis 12:2 – I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great and you will be a blessing.”

One is all humanity’s doing and the other is all God’s doing – working through humanity who live in relation to Him through faith.

This is what makes Abraham so great according to Hebrews 11. He trusted God. I mean, consider it - he trusted God completely.  He was living in Ur of the Chaldees on the River Euphrates, among a godless people who worshipped the moon.  He didn’t know God, but God made Himself known to him and told him to go to another country. 

John Phillips imagines Abraham the morning after he has received that promise from God of a land; a great name; a great nation; and to be a blessing to the whole world.  John Phillips imagines Abraham going to the first national bank of Ur the next morning.¹  Do you know what happens when the richest man in town walks into a bank?  The bank manager comes running out of his office, and so in this case. The bank manager comes running out – “O Mr. Abraham, Mr. Abraham, it’s so good to see you, won’t you come into my office and have a coffee.  Can I get you anything? How’s the sheep market going?”

And they sit down, “Now, Mr. Abraham what can I do for you today?  Would you like to make another deposit?”

“Well as a matter of fact I’d like to close my account.” 

“What?” 

“I want to close my account.”

“You want to close your account?”

“Yes, I want to close my account.  The whole thing.  I’ve got 10 camels out there waiting, you can start loading them up right away.”

“But Mr. Abram – why do you want to close your account?  Aren’t you being treated properly?  Has someone offended you?  Aren’t you getting enough interest on your money Mr. Abram?  Surely you don’t want to close your account.”

“No, I want to close my account.  I’ll take it all in solid gold and you can load up my camels now. I’m leaving town.”

“You’re leaving town?  I never heard.  Where are you going?”

“I haven’t any idea.” 

“You don’t have any idea?  Well, if you are just leaving town, we have branches all across the fertile crescent. Perhaps you would like me to transfer your funds to one of those branches?    It would be a lot safer you know.  You don’t want to go jaunting across the desert with camels loaded with gold, we could just transfer your gold to our Egypt branch. You don’t really want to close your account.”

“Yes, I do. You see, Mr. Bank manager, the other day God spoke to me.  The living God, the true God, the creator God.  He spoke to me, He showed me another country.  He showed me heaven itself because it is a city with foundations whose architect and builder is God. And by the way Mr Bank Manager would you like to come with me?”

You have to read your Bible all the way from Genesis to Revelation, from beginning to end almost to the closing chapter to see that city which has foundations, and it has 12 foundations.  That was the city that remained at the forefront of Abraham’s dreams and mind. 

He was a great man of faith. 

To be sure, there are times when he has lapses of faith – Genesis shows us how all things go well when we live in a faith relation with God, but when we don’t, well, things go terribly wrong.  In chapter 20 a great famine comes into the land and instead of trusting God, Abraham goes down to Egypt, a symbol of the world and self-confidence.  Then Abraham trusts a lie and tells King Abimelech that his wife Sarah is really his sister.  Thankfully God intervenes, but not without Abraham’s testimony being tarnished  and compromised.

That’s what happens every time we don’t have faith in God and instead trust in the things of this world. Our testimony is discredited. 

Someone has said “Faith is living without scheming.”  That’s a lesson that we all need to learn. Lord, keep us from scheming.

Having called Abraham to give up everything - his country, his father, his security - in chapter 22 we see him being called to give up his son Isaac.  And he does so willingly. It is an amazing chapter where Abraham is called to give up his only begotten son, his well-beloved as a sacrifice.  

We Christians cannot read it without thinking of another Father, our Heavenly Father who gave up His Son as a sacrifice. It’s as if God said to Abraham I want you to do this so as to give a picture to everyone so that they understand what I am about to do on Calvary.  One day I will take my only Son, my well-beloved and I want you Abraham to prepare the way in the thoughts of people. 

That’s Abraham.

Isaac.  Isaac is a strange sort of fellow.  We don’t know much about him. In fact he doesn’t do anything much.  He is most famous for being the son of Abraham and the father of Jacob. 

He was, however, a man of faith.  We read of how he re-dug the wells of his father Abraham (26) which the Philistines had filled in.  When you read Scripture it is good to read with a pen and paper and just jot down the recurring themes and ideas.  You can do a whole study on Egypt a symbol of the world.  A whole study on tents and altars – “Wherever Abraham went he pitched his tent and built his altar.” (13:3-4, 18)  The tent speaks of the pilgrim, the person who trusts God a day at a time and is always ready to move.  The altar speaks of the worshiper who brings a sacrifice and offers it to God.”²   When Abraham went to Egypt he left his tents and altars behind - he trusted in the things of this world rather than God.  (see Isaiah 31:1).   Lot always has tents, but had no altars.  Is it any wonder he choose Sodom in which to live?  

Also “wells” in Scripture – they are a picture salvation – they point us to the one who said, “He that drinks of this water will thirst again, but he who drinks the water that I give him will never thirst”.  Isaac re-dug those wells of his father.  He was a man of faith. 

But beyond that he doesn’t do anything else.  It really is encouraging because there are times when I think I haven’t done much for the kingdom of God.  I tend to look down on my accomplishments if there are any.  And sometimes the best I’m known for is for being the son of Len Cullen and the brother of Mark Cullen.  But look what God says about Isaac who doesn’t accomplish anything -  God said, “I am the God of Isaac.” 

“I'm not just the God of the men and women who hit the headlines, who you get to know about because of the great things that they have done. I'm the God of Isaac, who nobody ever sees because he never does anything except produce children, and then only once.”

But he was a man of faith and that’s what counts in the end, isn’t it?  I am the God of Isaac – that’s an encouragement.   Isaac.

Jacob.  You have the story of Jacob lying, leaving, listening learning, limping, leaning.  That’s all good stuff. 

In chapter 32 we have the story of Jacob wrestling with God.  I always thought that story was about Jacob trying to get something from God.  But that’s not the case.  Jacob was wrestling with God because he refused to die to self.  The Lord was wrestling with Jacob in order to break Jacob of his self-dependent ways.  All night long Jacob defended himself and refused to surrender or even admit that he had sinned.  Then God weakened Jacob and the wrestler could only cling.  Jacob recognized that he was a sinner, when at verse 27 God asks him his name. He says, “Jacob, the schemer.”  He recognized his guilt.  The text says that Jacob wouldn’t let go of God – of course not – he recognized that he was a sinner – and knew that there was nowhere to turn.  And now instead of lying, scheming or bargaining for a blessing he asked, trusted God in faith for a blessing and he received it.  He is given a new name “Israel” which means, “Prince with God” or “a God governed man”.³   And he was reminded of his need for total dependence upon God through faith – by a limp.

The last portion of the book is taken up with Joseph.  And you really have to ask why Joseph?  He’s not part of the Messianic line.  He’s not considered one of the Patriarchs of the faith.  If you or I were writing this book we would have written about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Judah.  Because it is through Judah that the promise of the Messiah was to come.  Our Saviour does not trace His family line through Joseph but through Judah. 

It could be that Joseph is the epitome of this theme that runs throughout the book of Genesis – that we are meant to live relation with God through faith.  Joseph is just that man.  He has an amazing faith in God.  He trusts God implicitly in all circumstances, so that whether he is in the pit of despair or on the height of popularity, he is a man of faith – and so at the end of all the difficulties he’s gone through, he is able to say, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.”

That’s one reason there is a great focus on Joseph, but there is another.  But, as one scholar points out, if Joseph wasn’t in the Messianic line, he was something much better than that - he was in the Messianic likeness.⁴ 

F.B. Meyer points out that when a composer of a symphony finds a melody that he loves, he will drop hints of it before he expresses it in complete beauty.  And the composer is not satisfied until he has allowed for this melody to be expressed in a variety of ways, so that you will hear just faint hints of it – there it is in the woodwinds, and then again in the brass and a little later in the string section – and each time it makes you anticipate a richer, fuller revelation.⁵    

And so the great composer, the Holy Spirit, is so enamoured with the person of Jesus Christ that He fills the pages of Scripture with foreshadowings and anticipations long before we meet Jesus face to face. 

And so with the story of Joseph.  If you read the story of Joseph with a discerning eye you will see Jesus everywhere you see Joseph. 

Joseph was the father’s well beloved son.  The altogether lovely one.  He always did what his father requested, whatever pleased his father he did.  He went in search of his own brothers – and when he couldn’t find them at first, he went seeking until he did find them.  He comes to his brothers not only in obedience, but in love.    

He comes to his own, but his own do not receive him.  The children of Israel reject him.  They hate him.  They hate him for the love he had, the life he lived, and the truth he told.  They hated him.  They plotted against him and sold him for the price of a slave.

Rejected by his brothers, he was handed over to the Gentiles and falsely accused and made to suffer for sins not his own.  And he was thrown into a place of death to rot.  But it’s not long before he has the keys to that place.  He meets two men in the dark place of death. He meets the chief butler and the chief baker.  The chief butler said, “I had a dream and in my dream I took the fruit of the vine and I poured out the blood of the grape and I caught it in a cup and presented it to the one who sits on the throne.” (40:11)

And Joseph says to him, “I have some good news for you my friend.  Because you offered to him who sits on the throne the crushed juice from the vine this place cannot hold you.  They are going to take you from this place of death – there is life for you beyond this place of death.”

The chief baker liked what he heard so he thought he would give it a try.  He said, “I too had a dream. And in my dream I made special bread for Pharaoh, it was the work of my own hands, the very best I could do. And I thought highly of them, and I placed them on my head and I took them to him who sits on the throne.  But the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head.”   

Joseph said, “I have some bad news for you.  Because you thought you could offer to him who sits on the throne the works of your own hands, for you there is a second death.  A worse death than this one.”

That place could not hold Joseph.  “They took him and they exalted him and gave him the name which is above every name at that at the name of Zaphenath-Paneah, every knee should bow and every tongue confess that he was Lord to the glory of him who sat on the throne.” (41:41-44)

Then he took a Gentile bride (41:45) and then he began to deal with his brothers, the children of Israel.  He dealt with them concerning their rejection, and eventually they saw him and they said, “We are guilty concerning our brother.” (42:21) And the scales fell from their eyes and they saw him in all his glory.  And then it says that all of Canaan and all of Egypt, all peoples came to Joseph. (47:13-15)

It doesn’t matter where you touch the story of Joseph, you are going to think of Jesus.

25% of the book of Genesis -  ¼ of the book - is devoted to a man who wasn’t even in the Messianic line, but was in the Messianic likeness. 

When it comes to God creating the stars and the suns of space, the Holy Spirit dismisses it all with five words – “He made stars also”.  Stars.  Big deal.  To create stars He’s only got to speak.

25% of this key book of the Bible is devoted to a man who reminds us of Jesus.   

So the Holy Spirit says, “Look, Look what God can do through a person who lives in relationship with the living, Sovereign God through faith!”

And that’s the book of Genesis. 

Copyright MBC and Tom Cullen - June 2007

ENDNOTES:

1. John Phillips in a sermon heard at the Institute for Biblical Preaching, 1996.  “A Survey of Genesis."

2. Warren Wiersbe.  Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the Old Testament, (United States: Victor Books, 1993), 39.

3. Wiersbe, Ibid., 69.

4. Phillips, Ibid.

5. F.B. Meyer, The Life of Joseph, (Lynnwood, Washington: Emerald Books, 1995), 16.

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