Lessons From Genesis

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1.  It all started with God.

God is the Creator.  All things were created for His glory and purposes.  We are apt to seeing ourselves as the center of the universe and the most important person in the world.  On the stage of history, God has the final word about purpose and our place in it.  We owe Him life and breath and every good thing.  We ought to worship our Maker as we were created so to do.

2.  Sin is Serious

Sin is not merely a mistake.  Sin is not merely bad choices that require advice or coaching to correct and get ourselves on the right path.  Sin is rebellion from our God and has the most dire consequences.  We have been alienated from our Creator and purpose and the whole world has been subjected to the Curse and futility.  Genesis, from the Fall, records men’s fleeing from and rebellion of God’s rule.  Even those that God redeems demonstrate that sin is radical and affects our relationships with one another, our families, and with the world.

3.  Grace is Greater

God provided the animal skins to cover the nakedness and shame of Adam and Eve.  God showed grace and favor to Noah and preserved a family alive from a Flood that cut off all flesh.  Grace called a man out of idolatry in Ur of the Chaldees and Promised a man and woman, whose age made it impossible by human strength, that the Seed would bless the Nations.  He chose Jacob over Esau for His good purposes and then saved the entire family from starvation through Joseph who was despised and rejected by his brothers.  Genesis is real history because it is His Story.  The entire plot is the working of God’s redemption on the stage of human history that He controls in the palm of His mighty Hand.  What men intend for evil, due to their sin, God’s works for the good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.

4.  Faith, not as a good work, but Reckoned as Righteousness

Genesis is the opening chapter of the history of redemption:  the Seed of the woman will crush the Serpents head.  Men are saved not because God sees anything good in them but because He is pleased to save men.  The love of God is manifest throughout as God loves the unlovable and turns hearts to love and trust in Him.  The fathers in the faith looked not inward but out to the Promises of God to a salvation He would provide.  God would indeed provide the Lamb!