06 Main Points in Chapters 1 - 11

Main Points in Chapters 1 – 11

Day 1 On day one of creation:

• God created the heavens and the earth.

• The earth was formless.

• The Spirit of God was hovering over the surface.

• God spoke light into existence.

• God separated the light from darkness.

Day 2 On day two of creation:

• God separated the waters of the earth from the water in the heavens.

Day 3 On day three of creation:

• God separated the land from the seas.

• God caused vegetation to grow.

• Reproduction of vegetation was to be according to their kinds.

Day 4 On day four of creation:

• God created the sun, moon and stars.

• These were to serve as signs for seasons, days and years.

• The sun was for the day and the moon for the night.

• They were to separate light from darkness. We note that the original light is not the same as the sun, moon and stars. We do not know what the original light was. It may well have just been the presence of God. (Rev 21:23-24)

• The sun and moon are called the greater and lesser lights. This may be because the nations around them worshipped the sun, moon and stars.

Day 5 On day five of creation:

• Marine animals were created.

• Birds were created.

Day six On day six of creation:

• Land animals were created.

• Adam was created.

• Adam and Eve were made in the image of God.

• No other creatures were made in the image of God.

• God planted a garden (Eden).

• The garden contained the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

• Adam was given the command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

• Adam named the animals and the birds.

• God made Eve from the rib of Adam.

• Marriage is instituted.

• Mankind was to multiply and rule over the earth and subdue it.

• Plants were to be the food for mankind and animals.

• Everything that God had made was “very good”.

Day seven

• God had completed His work and now rested. Rested does not mean that he was tired, but rather that He was finished with His work and stopped creating.

(šābat). vb. rest, cease, stop. To cease or stop action, or to rest from action. On the seventh day God rested or ceased (šābat; Gen 2:2-3) from the work of creating; for this reason Israel is to observe a Sabbath day and rest (šābat) on it, ceasing from work (e.g., Exo 20:8-11). In contexts other than the Sabbath, the verb šābat usually means “cease,” not “rest”: seasons will not cease (šābat) after the flood (Gen 8:22); manna ceased (šābat) when Israel entered the promised land (Jos 5:12); Israel is not to stop (šābat) worshiping Yahweh (Jos 22:25); and Israel will not cease (šābat) to be a nation (Jer 31:36).² The fall

Gen 3:1-24 details the temptation of Eve by Satan (through the serpent) and the sin of Adam. The resulting judgements were:

• The judgement on the serpent.

• The judgement on the woman:

  • increased pain in child bearing.

  • Her “desire” will be for her husband. The word translated desire is also used in Gen 4:7 where “sin is crouching at the door”. In looking at the context in both instances, desire would mean “desiring to control”. The second part affirms this meaning where she is told that “he will rule over you”.

  • This does not mean that the husband should be a tyrant or oppressive in any way. The woman was to be a “helper” to man. It was “not good for the man to be alone”, thus the woman was to be a companion. See also Eph 5:25-29. The man had the authoritative role given to him, but he is not to abuse it, but love and protect his wife.

• The judgement on the man is a curse on the ground so that he will have to toil. It is now going to be a lot more work to provide food.

• Expulsion from the garden of Eden so that they could not eat from the tree of life and live forever.

The first Gospel?

Gen 3:15 is often considered the first reference to Jesus Christ and the Gospel. And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel." (Gen 3:15)

There would be hostility between Satan (and his followers) and the descendants of Eve. This looks forward to the serpent (Satan) inflicting a non-fatal wound on the Messiah. The Messiah, in turn afflicting a fatal wound (on the head).

Cain and Abel

Gen 4:1-16 details the account of Cain and Abel. Abel presented an acceptable sacrifice to God, whereas Cain presented one that was not acceptable. Cain became angry and killed Abel his brother. His judgement was to be a vagrant and wanderer. He went out from the presence of the Lord. More history about Cain and his family is recorded in Gen 4:17-24. Cain built a city and one of his descendants, Lamech also committed murder. The descendants of Cain had livestock, were musicians, worked with metal and made all sorts of implements. After Cain killed Abel, Seth was born.

Adam to Noah

Chapter five documents the genealogy from Adam to Noah. Here we have the story of a very godly man, Enoch, who so impressed God, that he was taken by God to be with Him without experiencing death. (Gen 5:24) Corruption on the earth Chapter six documents the level of corruption on the earth during the time of Noah. There are two parts to this.

Sons of God

Gen 6:2-4 records the “sons of God” took wives for themselves from the “daughters of men”. The resultant offspring were called Nephilim. Nephilim really just means giants and the root word of giants means fallen ones³. While there is some discussion on who the “sons of God” and the “daughters of men” were, the only real plausible explanation is that the “sons of God” were fallen angels and the “daughters of men” were women descended from Adam and Eve. A good discussion on this is found in thisarticleby Dr. Douglas Petrovich.

Wickedness on the earth The “wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Gen 6:5) It was so bad that God regretted that He had made man and it grieved Him in His heart. God limited the time that He was going to put up with this to one hundred and twenty years. (Gen 6:3) God was going to destroy all the land animals, birds and mankind because of this evil. Only Noah was found to be righteous during this time and was chosen, along with his immediate family, to build an ark (large boat) to repopulate the earth after the judgement by the flood. The ark was to be about 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet tall. (It may have even been a bit larger, depending on exactly what the length of a cubit was at that point). He was to take the animals, that God would provide, on the ark. This judgement was to be worldwide. "Behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish. (Gen 6:17) The Flood When Noah completed the ark, God brought all the animals that He wanted to the ark. There were both clean and unclean animals in this group. It is interesting to note that it was not just rain but rather: all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.(Gen 7:11-12) The flood lasted about one year. This was a worldwide flood that destroyed all land animals, mankind and the birds. The water was at over twenty feet higher than the tallest mountains. (Gen 7:19-23) Shortly after the flood

After the waters had receded, Noah, his family and the animals left the ark. Noah presented an offering to God with some of the clean animals that were with him on the ark. God now established a few things.

• He would never again destroy the world with a flood.

• The rainbow was designated to be a sign that God would not destroy the world again by a flood.

• The animals were now given to mankind as food in addition to the plants that were initially given at creation.

• The death penalty was instituted.

• They were to populate the earth abundantly.

Noah planted a vineyard, drank of the wine and became drunk. While he was uncovered in his tent, Ham came in and then told his brothers. His brothers covered Noah without looking at him. As a result of this, Noah cursed Canaan who was Ham’s son. Note that the curse was really more prophetic, looking at the future descendants of Canaan.

Table of Nations

Genesis chapter 10 gives a list of descendants of Noah. There are about two generations listed for Ham and Japheth. Additionally, we are also told who the Philistines came from. One of the descendants of Cush was Nimrod. He established the first kingdom in the Mesopotamian area. The list then continues to Shem’s descendants, with a list from Shem to Terah and Abraham. Appendix C – Table of Nations is a chart of the descendants that are listed.

Tower of Babel

Gen 11:1-9 relates the account of the tower of Babel and the dispersion of the nations. God had commanded Noah and his sons to populate the earth, but instead of doing so, they built a tower in order to keep from being scattered over the earth. As a judgement for this, God confused their language and were thus scattered over the face of the earth.

2 - Joshua Joel Spoelstra, “Rest,” ed. Douglas Mangum et al., Lexham Theological Wordbook, Lexham Bible Reference Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014).

3 - Thomas, Robert L., ed. Hebrew-Aramaic Dictionary of the New American Standard Exhaustive Concordance. Accordance electronic ed., version 1.0. La Habra: Lockman Foundation, 2020.