Reading the Bible

Notes Covenant at Sinai In the covenant at Sinai, we reached a turning point in salvation history. Remember what we’ve been saying all along: When God makes a covenant, He is making a family, He is making people kin to Himself, His sons and daughters. Remember, too, that the imagery in the Old Testament is rooted in ancient images of the family. In the ancient family, fathers were both "kings" - rulers, lawgivers and protectors of their family - and "priests," leading the family in worship and sacrifice. The "first-born" son was the heir to the authority and the kingly and priestly roles of the father. Since Adam, He has been looking for a "first-born" son worthy of His calling - to guard and keep creation, to offer Him sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving, to be a light to all peoples, to dwell with Him intimately. Golden calf affair No sooner had Israel ratified its covenant with God, than the people fell into idolatry. Moses goe...

Notes Out of Egypt Moses is called by God to deliver the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt. What motivates God to act? He was "mindful of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" (see Exodus 2:24; Psalm 105:8-11). That’s why He repeatedly identifies Himself to Moses as "the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob" (see Exodus 3:6, 13,15; 6:2-8). God had warned Abraham in a dream that they would be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years, but that God would deliver them (see Genesis 15:13-15). Now the Israelites had been in Egypt for 430 years - the first 30 years as privileged guests, relatives of the prime-minister Joseph, the last 400 years as slaves (see Exodus 12:40). The time had come for Him to fulfill His promise to Abraham - to make His descendants a great nation and to give them a beautiful and bountiful land of their own (see Genesis 28:13-15). God sends Moses to tell Pharaoh that ...

Notes Jacob Isaac grows up to marry Rebekah. Like his mother Sarah, she’s barren. But Isaac, as his father Abraham had before him, appeals to God to give them children (see  Genesis 25:21 ; 15:3 ). While her twins are fighting in her womb, God tells Rebekah that each will be a nation, but the younger of the two, Jacob, will rule the older, Esau (see  Genesis 25:23 ). This is another sub-plot in Genesis. Notice that God chooses always the younger son, even though the way of the world is to grant privileges and pride of place to the older. Abel’s offering is preferred to Cain’s. Isaac over Ishmael. And Jacob’s youngest son, Joseph, becomes the hero of the later books of Genesis, while Reuben, Jacob’s first-born, fails to defend him against his brothers (see Genesis 37). Why does God do this? It’s as if the betrayal by God’s "first-born" son, Adam, upset the harmony between the ways of the world and the ways of God. But God’s plan will not be frustrated. He saves us...

Notes Story of the Patriarch (Abraham, Ishmael & Issac) The remainder of Genesis (chapters 12-50) tells the story of the "patriarchs," the founding fathers of the chosen people. In Genesis 12-25:18 , we’ll read about Abraham and his two sons, Ishmael and Isaac.  Promises to Abraham God is going to make a covenant with Abraham, and by that covenant He is going to re-orient human history, give it a new possibility, a new goal. The covenant with Abraham has three parts, and it begins with three promises:  1. to make Abraham a great nation (see  Genesis 12:1-2 );  2. to give him a great name (12:2); and  3. to make him the source of blessing for all the world (12:3). Covenant with Abraham God later "upgrades" these three promises - turning them into divine covenants. God swears not only make Abraham a great nation, He makes a covenant in which He promises to deliver Abraham’s descendants from oppression in an alien land and gi...

Notes Tension Between Good and Evil Fruits of Adam and Eve Saved through the flood In the flood, God totally obliterates the line of Cain, drowns it out. The line of Seth continues through Noah, who "walked with God" and "found favor" with Him (see  Genesis 5:27-29 ;  6:9-10 ). The story of the flood (Chapters 7-9) is told as a new creation story, with lots of subtle and obvious references back to Genesis 1. In the context of the entire book of Genesis, the flood story shows us God giving the world a new start, starting His family anew in the line of Seth. Noah is like a new Adam. Like Adam, Noah is given authority over the animals (compare1:26 and 9:2-3). He is also given the same command as God gave to Adam: "be fertile and multiply and fill the earth." (compare 1:28 and 9:1). Finally, as He did with Adam, God makes a covenant with Noah and through him with all living beings (compare 2:1-2 and 9:13). With this covenant with Noah, God...

NOTES Fixing of the 'formless and void' Genesis 1:1  tells us that in the beginning the world was "formless and empty." The plot proceeds by showing us how God sets out to fix this - first, by giving the world form and then filling it. In Days 1-3, God creates the "form" or the "realms" of the world - the day and the night; the sky and the sea; the land and the vegetation. In Days 4-6, God fills these realms with "rulers" or "governors" - the sun, moon & stars (which "rule over the day and over the night"; verses 14-19); the birds and the fish to fill the sky and the seas; and man and beast, which rule the land. God speaks His Word Something also to note, as we read these first few verses of the Bible. How does God create? By speaking His Word. He says "Let there be…" and things come into being. We know by reading the Old Testament in light of the New Testament, that the...