The following outline provides a shortlist of specifics concerning the significance and outcomes of the fall of humanity in Genesis 3. Throughout Scripture, from the Old Testament to the New, several facts about the catastrophic consequences are listed one-by-one:
Genesis 3 is about the fall of mankind as a result of standing against God in disobedience. Original sin.1
The original sin extends throughout humanity as narrated throughout the Pentateuch. Disruption of created order, consequences to descendants, reign of death, prevailing power within human nature, and thereafter judgment with condemnation.2
Prophets Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Isaiah point back to Eden. With parallels to Babylonian captivity.3
Apostle Paul writes about the fall of humanity in Genesis 3. Specifically, a fall resulting in disobedience and separation from God the Creator as a result. Sin pervades the world, and sin brings death as an outcome. All men die from sin (Rom 5:12).
Augustine affirms the rationale of Apostle Paul about the transmission, shared guilt, and moral corruption of every human.4
Over the course of biblical history, after Genesis 3, death reigns and continues from the sin of Adam and Eve to everyone today.5
Citations
1. Paul R. Thorsell, Genesis 3 and Original Sin, What Happened in the Garden, (Grand Rapids, Kregel Academic, 2016), 121-122. 2. Ibid. 137. 3. Ibid. 136. 4. Ibid. 126, 134. 5. Ibid. 129.
A significant number of biblical scholars hold to a view of Scripture where the creation account in Genesis is interpreted as a historical narrative compared to figurative poetry. By contrast, those with a figurative, poetic reading of Creation often presuppose from a naturalistic worldview a storyline or framework of Creation made to fit human perspective or rationale. While there is plenty of symbolism in Scripture, the tension between the two can rest upon having explanatory power corresponding to what “makes sense” from human sensory perception and reason as validated by the scientific method. Or just by what makes sense to humanity as compared to what is given by revelatory explanation from the God of ancient historical record and Scripture. Where it can feel like a prevailing view centers around what humanity can perceive and produce as an individual or its social acceptance and reliance of observation on the scientific method to support a sensible position of normalcy. At least in terms of natural law or the laws of physics.
Even though the words of Genesis are delivered or settled according to authorial intent, the meaning of original manuscripts according to historical reference, tradition, and culture bears significant weight to many as a matter of contrast and comparison about how existence came to be. So, at face value, rationale about the Creation narrative provides for a surface-level view of meaning from a Creator. Then by looking deeper at root languages across the entire text of Scripture, a fuller and more comprehensive interpretation emerges with a clearer understanding and deeper significance. Especially with respect to how the Creation account in Genesis 1:1 through 2:3 communicates speech-actions in terms of what was revealed by associated methods and sequence or timeline.
Interpretation Rests Upon Authorial Intent
It is the difference between a narrow view and a broad view in terms of four-dimensional thinking. So as to rest upon available and reasoned faith in what God has communicated through the authors of Scripture (2 Tim 3:16). If anyone can surmise that an extra-natural existence beyond our confines of space and time is possible without scientific evidence that satisfies humanity, then new questions can form around the metaphysical nature of reality.
As a few questions lead to several more questions, just maybe there becomes a willingness beyond speculation to see and hear what theologians for thousands of years have been saying about what the prophets and apostles wrote. Namely, for example, in Romans 1:19 – 23, where God has explained that He has revealed Himself in what is observed or perceived through Created reality in the everyday world around us. Yet even further throughout the Universe itself.
New Testament Recognition of Creation & Its Origin
“19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”
Romans 1:19–23 (ESV)
Literal Narrative Argumentation
So to further draw a contrast between figurative poetry and historical narrative, I have outlined here a few notes from theological texts that advocate a historical narrative perspective. Much of it literal while some of it symbolic.
Argument from Statistical Process Analysis Produced and demonstrated to parse and quantify the Hebrew language and its grammatical details about how the Genesis written account is formed and expressed. The form of the written creation account in Hebrew supports a literal historical narrative as compared to a poetic framework.
Argument from Literary Development Author intended written work as reference to real events. Examples produced from customs, ancient names, monuments, pronouncements, historical references, cited sources and records, chronological references, genealogies, prophetic utterances, time anchored words, and historical trajectories.
Argument from Doctrine The doctrine of Scripture requires readers to accept by authorial intent that the Genesis account originated from God. A historical narrative description of real events as revealed by God in Scripture through the author of Genesis. The Bible compels the reader to a belief in the past of actual events as narrated.
Argument from Exegetical Hermeneutics Scholars attempt to show that the Genesis creation account is about the form of the text as if it were akin to a parable. With reference to ANE comparisons, their view is that ancient readers would have never viewed the ancient account as a literal historical account. Contrary to scholars’ view that the text is figurative, in that creation was a formative effort. By contrast and effective exegesis, the Hebrew term בָּרָא for “created” (Gen 1:1), is to bring into existence, or the verb, “bā·rā” according to the Hebrew-Aramaic dictionary.
Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Hebrew1343 I. בָּרָא (bā·rā(ʾ)): v.; ≡ Str 1254; TWOT 278—1. LN 42.29–42.40 (qal) create, i.e., make something that has not been in existence before (Ge 1:1); (nif) be created (Ge 2:4); 2. LN 42.29–42.40 make, form or fashion something out of elements that exist (Ge 6:7; Jer 31:22; Is 65:18).
In an effort to produce a running list of differences between the biblical record in Genesis of creation and various Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) accounts, this is a beginning comparison among others to follow if they should arise during the course of study. These are only a small collection of major differences to help dismiss outright ANE mythology as a source of comparative truth as written in Genesis.
The Lord’s Aseity stands separate from the “deities” who were created by Him.
The Lord is assumed in the ANE texts rather than proved or asserted as compared to the origin and function of the gods.
The Lord exists and operates outside His creation whereas the gods were formed of natural forces that assumed a status of divinity.
The Lord is unopposed as compared to deities in ANE myths in conflict.
Earth and heavens formed in Enuma Elish through violence related to goddess Tiamat. Where Genesis explicitly specifies creation’s existence by what the Lord spoke.
Tiamat, the goddess is a character (tĕhôm; תְּהוֹם) of Enuma Elish, whereas the “deep” (tĕhôm; תְּהוֹם) in Genesis 1 refers to the depths of the waters.
Agriculture development by irrigation appears both in Scripture and in ANE myths. Genesis explicitly informs us that irrigation originates from God, while from ANE myths (such as Eridu Genesis) it originates from humanity.
The gods in ANE myths Atrahasis and Eridu Genesis are angered over the noise of the population of those on the Earth. In Genesis, there is no population to produce objectionable noise, but rebellion instead.
The Gilgamesh Epic refers to a snake and a plant submerged in an ocean as the source of eternal life, or immortality. Whereas the Bible informs us that there is no death present with Adam and Eve until after their disobedience.
ANE myth Enuma Elish shows Marduk suspends Tiamat’s body up like the sky. Where upper and lower waters become separated. In Genesis, the waters are divided above and beneath the firmament.
Marduk makes humans from the mud and blood of Tiamat’s monster to serve the gods and bring them comfort.
There are numerous Enuma Elish references to the creation account that have no corresponding relevance or approximate comparative inference.
Assembled here is a survey of each chapter in Numbers. A few sentences for each chapter to summarize the core content and meaning of the fourth book of the Mosaic law. All thirty-six chapters are put together here to assemble a coherent view of the Book of Numbers as a whole. These summaries were not written from a historical, poetic, literal, or figurative interpretative view. These summaries are merely of content produced within the valid, authoritative, sufficient, infallible, and inerrant strength of God’s word.
Theme of Numbers: The travels of Israel in the wilderness and their rebellion before the Lord. Yahweh remains faithful and remains true to His covenant. God leads His holy nation to the promised land and provides for His people along the way with lessons for generations to follow.
Numbers 1: Yahweh instructs Moses to take a census of the people of Israel. All people among the population of tribes throughout Israel are counted except for the Levites.
Numbers 2: Assigned camp positions of Israelite tribes according to cartesian coordinates. All situated around the tabernacle with the captains of the tribes named.
Numbers 3: The identity and role of Aaron’s sons as Levites to include duties and responsibilities. Additional encampment details with Yahweh’s redemption and consecration of the Levites for Him.
Numbers 4: The quantity and duties concerning sons of Kohath, Gershon, Merari, and the total number of Levites.
Numbers 5: Laws concerning unclean people, restitution, and jealousy. A test for an act of adultery.
Numbers 6: Laws concerning a Nazirite and associated vow(s). Blessings upon Aaron and the children of Israel.
Numbers 7: Offerings to Yahweh at the consecration of the tabernacle by tribal chiefs of Israel.
Numbers 8: Details concerning tabernacle operations involving lighting, rituals of the Levites, purification, and age limitations.
Numbers 9: Methods, timing, and restrictions concerning Passover observance. Presence and guidance of Yahweh among His people during worship, service, and travel. Yahweh is in a cloud by day and a fire by night.
Numbers 10: Yahweh instructs Moses to make two trumpets of silver to summon the people of Israel. To assemble, offer sacrifices, perform celebrations, and make ready for travel.
Numbers 11: Israelites complain about hardships and Yahweh kills some of them. Moses is overwhelmed and gets help from seventy elders as Yahweh places His spirit upon them. God supplies quail (meat) from the sky (nature) and feeds the Israelites. According to their cravings, they hoard the quail, and Yahweh kills them with a great plague.
Numbers 12: Aaron and Miriam have a dispute with Moses and upsets Yahweh. God inflicts Miriam with leprosy, and she is set outside the camp for 7-days before recovery.
Numbers 13: Yahweh instructs Moses to send spies into Canaan. The spies return with news about what they found.
Numbers 14: Except for Joshua and Caleb, Israel refuses to enter Canaan. Yahweh becomes angered at the people due to their unbelief, grumbling, and sour attitudes. All people 20-years of age and older consigned to death in the wilderness.
Numbers 15: Laws about sacrifices and unintentional sins spoke to the people to Moses. A person gathering sticks on the sabbath was stoned to death by the Lord’s instructions to Moses.
Numbers 16: Korah and his congregation of 250 men rebel against Moses, Aaron, and the Lord. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were all swallowed up into the earth. The 250 men before the glory of the Lord were burned alive by Yahweh.
Numbers 17: Yahweh instructed Moses to have the staves of the people marked by with their name. The staff the Lord chooses shall be the priestly head over the people. The staff of Aaron sprouts with buds and almonds as a sign the Lord has chosen Aaron.
Numbers 18: Duties, responsibilities, offerings, and inheritances of Levite priests.
Numbers 19: Laws for the purification of sin and the usage of sacrificial ashes. Specifics about unclean men that defile the tabernacle sanctuary.
Numbers 20: Moses’s older sister Miriam dies. Moses does not follow the Lord’s instructions to speak to a rock for it to yield water. He strikes the rock instead. Edom refuses the passage of Israel through their land. Aaron dies.
Numbers 21: Israel complains about hardship. The Lord sends serpents to kill them. Upon confession, they are healed by looking upon a bronze serpent. Israel destroys Canaanites and remaining cities were devoted to destruction. Israel destroys the Amorites. Israel destroys the people of Bashan.
Numbers 22: Balak, king of Moab, summons Balaam to curse Israel. An angel of the Lord intercepts Balaam’s travels to Israel with a talking donkey and returns him to Balak.
Numbers 23: Balaam speaks the words of the Lord Yahweh to Balak’s consternation.
Numbers 24: Balaam again utters oracles concerning the blessings of Israel.
Numbers 25: Israel yokes itself to the false god Baal through Zimri’s relationship with a Midianite woman (Cozbi). Phinehas kills them both and gains Yahweh’s blessings and stops the plague that killed 24,000 people.
Numbers 26: A new census was taken after the plague to count the populations of the tribes of Israel. A new generation formed since Sinai and the land of Canaan was divided by lot and size among the tribes of Israel.
Numbers 27: The daughters of Zelophehad petition Moses for their inheritance. From their father who was killed due to his sin. Joshua is named by Yahweh as the successor to Moses.
Numbers 28: Various periodic offerings to Yahweh are explicitly defined with instructions concerning their composition and purpose.
Numbers 29: Additional requirements concerning offerings. Feast of trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Booths are described as having their unique requirements.
Numbers 30: Requirements and instructions concerning vows made by men and women.
Numbers 31: Yahweh instructs Moses to command Israel to attack and destroy Midian. Property and people captured with restrictions to keep Israel a holy nation.
Numbers 32: The tribes Reuben and Gad prefer Gilead East of the Jordan. Terms are negotiated for their return to this region to remain blameless before Yahweh.
Numbers 33: Moses records wilderness journeys of the Israelites during the Exodus from Egypt. The Lord gives added instructions concerning the inhabitants of Canaan. They shall be driven out with their idols, altars, and high places destroyed.
Numbers 34: The borders of Israel are defined by Yahweh. The tribal names and their chiefs are identified and pronounced by the Lord.
Numbers 35: The cities of Levites and refugees are named with their defined purpose.
Numbers 36: Final instructions were given concerning the daughters of Zelophehad and the distribution of their inheritances.
Interwoven throughout Scripture are echoes of what God has historically accomplished through His covenant with Abraham. That in a broader sense, there is the Doctrine of the Works of God1 that includes various covenants with His people down through the ages. Ultimately to accomplish His purposes stemming from the Genesis 3:15 proclamation, there would become a long series of events that testify to who the Lord is and what He means to everything He has created. The spiritual and physical realms, sentient and non-sentient beings, both alive and dead, living matter, and His creation in full are witness to what He has done back through the corridors of time.
As a continuation of the Noahic covenant, Noah’s descendant Abraham came through the lineage of Shem. Whereupon recovery of the great flood (Gen 7-8), Noah and his family survived the earliest form of Semitic nations emerged to grow sizeable in number prior to their dispersal at the tower of Babel (Gen 10). The nations were disinherited, turned over to the governance of the sons of God (lesser elohim)2, and were subjected to isolation before future reclamation as a matter of eschatological reference and interest. The means by which the nations would become the reclaimed center around God’s own people chosen for himself. A nation among the others governed by lesser deities that were originated and chosen through Abraham to further His covenant oath in fulfillment of the Adamic proclamation. The Abrahamic covenant would become an anchor point between both Old and New Testaments that serves as a source of confidence and certainty about God’s redemptive work for His purposes and glory.
The LORD orchestrated conditions and circumstances to which we observe in Scripture a coherent view of the Abrahamic covenant. A covenant meaning that traverses Scripture to form an overall biblical theology that reveals our LORD’s work, accomplishments, and overall intent with the Kingdom of God now present upon the Earth. A Kingdom that originates from the first patriarch Abraham to those in Christ today who will in time occupy a new Heaven and Earth (Rev. 21:1) to gain a type of Edenic fellowship with the Most High.
Purpose of the Abrahamic Covenant
In fulfillment of God’s covenant with Abraham, the Lord originates an inexorable march toward recovery to what rightfully belongs to Him. He will have His creation and people in fellowship with Him, and there is nothing that will ever put a stop to that either in this life or the next. With the Earth that serves as a geographical canvas of Abraham and his descendants, the Lord’s chosen people will grow in population. They will occupy a chosen land with prosperity and blessings. Ultimately leading to a messianic outcome that far surpasses traditional and cultural expectations. First to the Jew and then to the Gentile (Rom 1:16), people born anew among nations will beckon back to Abraham’s time to recognize what the Lord has accomplished and worship Him for it. The Lord’s purpose in calling Abraham was to begin a covenant of grace3 as his status by faith was counted to him as righteousness (Gen 15:6). Abraham, the friend of God (Is 41:8), was called to become our first human model of a relationship with God that was rooted in belief, trust, faith, obedience, honor, and love. The Lord Yahweh of all Heaven and Earth treasured Abraham as His own possession and promised him blessings beyond full comprehension. It was in the high calling of Abraham that shepherded His people to eventually become a kingdom of Priests who would usher back to the Lord the nations of people who held a common view of Yahweh. People who would believe, trust, obey, honor, and love the Lord as He so deservedly wants (Deut. 6:5).
Nature of the Abrahamic Covenant
Throughout a series of dispensational periods in Scripture 4, there is a sequence of adjacent covenants that interface with one another through Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and Jesus. From beginning to end, most of these covenants overlap with one another over time. Not one abrogates another.5 Their purpose in the fulfillment of God’s redemptive work serves to bring forward promises to Adam and Noah plus the offspring that originate from Abraham. Without the patriarch fathers knowing any of the specific details, it was recognized that the LORD would bless Abraham with children and land to begin the nations.
Depending upon your perspective between covenant and dispensational theology, there are a different number of periodic intervals according to Scripture and the Doctrine of the Works of God. While some people only recognize a few dispensations, others see as many as eight in total that transpires across time.6 However, both historically and eschatologically, we see a common overlap between them to illustrate their interconnected relationships with one another.
While dispensations are linear in sequence across time, covenants from beginning to end are both linear and nonlinear according to the intentions and promises of God. Both perspectives are not mutually exclusive but instead appear complimentary. Where dispensational thought provides a mechanical or wooden method of functional recognition across conditional and unconditional covenants between the Lord Yahweh and His people. As they are the difference between mechanistic and organic expression, the Abrahamic covenant begins the unique, unilateral, and unconditional covenant of blessings, offspring, and territory.
The Abrahamic Covenant is situated among major biblical covenants sequentially formed and initiated 7 as follows:
a. Edenic Covenant Genesis 2:16 b. Adamic Covenant Genesis 3:15 c. Noahic Covenant Genesis 9:16 d. Abrahamic Covenant Genesis 12:2 e. Mosaic Covenant Exodus 19:5 f. Palestinian Covenant* Deuteronomy 30:3 g. Davidic Covenant 2 Samuel 7:16 h. New Covenant Hebrews 8:8
* Note: Literary analysis from Peter J. Gentry, “The Relationship of Deuteronomy to the Covenant at Sinai” concludes there is no such thing as a Palestinian Covenant. This is a dispensationalist idea that does not understand the literary structure and function of Deuteronomy 29-30 as a “Covenant Conclusion Ceremony and of the relationship of the Moab Covenant to that of Sinai.”
As all covenants carry considerable weight in meaning, the Abrahamic covenant was the beginning of a subsequent conditionality through the Mosaic covenant.8 The unconditional nature of the Abrahamic covenant was attached to the timing and participants of fulfillment and not conditional as a matter of comparison with specific individuals. The benefits of those who were to receive the unconditional and unilaterally delivered and fulfilled promises were those recognized as Abraham and his descendants. Like Abraham, they are those who would walk with God, trust Him, love Him, honor Him, and regard Him above all else who would receive the unconditional benefit of blessings befitting a friend of God (John 15:15, James 2:23). The highest of blessings among them as His presence and relationship with His people throughout the existence of humanity.
The Relevance of the Abrahamic Covenant Today
While the Abrahamic covenant was intended for the people of ancient Israel, it still bears meaningful continuity concerning God’s people today as a matter of theological principle for salvific purposes. The Abrahamic covenant was settled in redemptive history to establish a Covenant of Grace through a messianic future involving Christ through the Davidic covenant extending all the way to the fulfillment of all promises and prophetic records.9 Where this Covenant of Grace serves as a theological bridge from the ancient Hebrew people of God to Gentiles throughout the Greco-Roman empire and even to all people today who want to know, love, and serve the God of Abraham today through Christ (Rom. 4:23-25). With careful attention to the genealogical account in the gospel of Matthew, anyone can trace the lineage of Christ to Abraham (Matt. 1:1-16) in an effort to fully grasp Jesus’s role of Messiah. That while the Lord’s people are redeemed from sin and death; we have a righteousness of Christ through a Covenant of Grace. A covenant that is not conditional, but contingent upon a heart relationship with Him modeled for us by Abraham.
Conclusion
The closer one gets to understand the work of God through His covenants, the more it becomes clear that the being of Yahweh is unspeakably beyond what creation can attempt to describe, measure, or express. It either flees toward Him or away from Him in reverence or dread. What He has done through the covenants among His chosen and throughout the nations to bring upon us His kingdom goes to His glory and overwhelming reign. What becomes abundantly clear through Yahweh’s covenant with Abraham is how He fulfills it far beyond the blessings of prosperity, land, and offspring. There is a promise we have in Christ, by our God, who is a descendant of Abraham to attain fellowship with Him. As Abraham was in the presence of God as His friend, we are able to enjoy His presence as He wants. Where we are able to walk with Him, talk with Him, pitch tents with Him, love others on His behalf, gaze upon the wonder of His workmanship, and ultimately worship Him. The life of Abraham and the Lord’s covenant with Him and through Him gives us a way to see through the lens of our condition more clearly. So as because of the Lord and His friendship with Abraham, we can permanently aspire and attain His regard as a companion, a servant, and a loyal saint that He delights upon.
Citations
1. Brian Collins, Lexham Survey of Theology, The Abrahamic Covenant (Bellingham, Lexham Press, 2018). 2. The Unseen Realm. Divine Allotment (Bellingham, Lexham Press, 2015) 114 3. Brian Collins, Lexham Survey of Theology, The Covenants of Grace (Bellingham, Lexham Press, 2018). 4. Clarence Larkin, Dispensational Truth: The Covenants (Larkin, 1920). The Blue Letter Bible Website: https://www.blueletterbible.org/study/larkin/dt/26.cfm, Accessed 04/25/2020. 5. William Barrick. The Eschatological Significance of Leviticus 26 The Master’s Seminary Journal, 2005), 121. 6. Paul S. Karleen, The Handbook to Bible Study: With a Guide to the Scofield Study System (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), 35. 7. Ibid, 35. 8. Keith Essex, The Abrahamic Covenant (The Master’s Seminary Journal, 1999), 210. 9. Meredith G. Kline, Kingdom Prologue: Genesis Foundations for a Covenantal Worldview (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2006), 292.
Bibliography
Barrick, William D. “The Eschatological Significance of Leviticus 26.” The Master’s Seminary Journal, 2005: 32. Collins, Brian. Lexham Survey of Theology. Bellingham: Lexham Press, 2018. Essex, Keith. “The Abrahamic Covenant.” The Master’s Seminary Journal, 1999: 210. Heiser, Michael. The Unseen Realm. Bellingham: Lexham Press, 2015. Karleen, Paul S. The Handbook to Bible Study: With a Guide to the Scofield Study System. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987. Kline, Meredith G. Kingdom Prologue: Genesis Foundations for a Covenantal Worldview. Eugene: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2006. Larkin, Clarence. Dispensational Truth. Philadelphia: Rev. Clarence Larkin Est., 1920.
Assembled here is a survey of each chapter in Leviticus. A few sentences for each chapter to summarize the core content and meaning of the third book of the Mosaic law. All twenty-seven chapters are put together here to assemble a coherent view of the Book of Leviticus as a whole. These summaries were not written from a historical, poetic, literal, or figurative interpretative view. These summaries are merely of content produced within the valid, authoritative, sufficient, infallible, and inerrant strength of God’s word.
Theme of Leviticus: The Lord has set apart His people to be a holy nation. Yahweh provides a way to Him through sacrifice and a method by which His people walk with Him through their separation or sanctification.
Leviticus 1: Burnt Offering – Instructions to Moses at the tent of meeting about how to conduct animal sacrifices. Specifically, burnt unblemished animal sacrifices at the altar. Bulls, sheep, goats, and birds. Symbolic of Romans 12:1. Shadow of Christ in offering (Eph 5:2, Heb 9:14).
Leviticus 2: Grain or Meal Offering – Burnt offerings of flour, oil, and frankincense. Baked bread unleavened with oil permitted. No honey permitted. Food offerings to the Lord and portion to Aaron and priests. Shadow of Christ in offering (John 12:24). Christ was the Corn or grain of wheat.
Leviticus 3: Peace Offering – Laying of hands onto the head of the goat to transfer sins of the people while the animal is sacrificed. Eating fat or blood is forbidden. Christ is our peace offering (Rom 5:1, Col 1:20).
Leviticus 4: Sin Offering – Laying of hands onto the head of a bull. Unintentional sin of the people of Israel. Shadow of Christ in offering. Christ is our sin offering (2 Cor 5:21, 1 Pet 2:24).
Leviticus 5: Guilt or Trespass Offering – Unintentional sins and sins of omission, careless words spoken, withholding evidence, or depraved indifference, there is an atonement through the sacrifice of a lamb, doves, or pigeons. If by poverty, flour is offered. Sin is forgiven. Shadow of Christ in the offering. Christ is our trespass offering (Col 2:13-14, 2 Cor 5:19).
Leviticus 6: More specifics about the sins addressed by burnt offerings, grain offerings, and sin offerings. The priest’s activity and responsibility in their care and handling of the offerings.
Leviticus 7: More specifics about trespass and peace offerings. Added priestly responsibilities. Forbidden consumption of fat and blood. Portions of sacrificial offerings designated to Aaron and his sons.
Leviticus 8: As per the Lord’s instructions to Moses, he consecrates Aaron and His Sons.
Leviticus 9: The Lord accepts Aaron’s offerings for himself and the people and his priestly ministry begins. The glory of the Lord appeared to the people and fire came from Him to consume the burnt offering.
Leviticus 10: Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, bring profane fire before the Lord and He consumes them in fire. The Lord makes additional details clear about the conduct of His priests.
Leviticus 11: Foods permitted to eat and distinctions between clean and unclean animals. Transferability of unclean (unholy) status from one being to another (animal to human).
Leviticus 12: The purification after childbirth and differences between an unclean period between males and females. The process of sin offering to make atonement is presented after childbirth.
Leviticus 13: Laws concerning leprosy. Method of identification and isolation of individual who exhibit disease or skin conditions. Laws about how to recover from ailment and cleansing. How to handle garments exposed to leprosy.
Leviticus 14: Laws for cleansing lepers who were healed. Method of identification concerning clean and unclean households.
Leviticus 15: Laws about bodily discharges and how to cleanse from various types among males and females to prevent contamination.
Leviticus 16: The day of atonement involving sin offerings concerning Israel and Aaron. Tabernacle sanctification, the use of the scapegoat (Azazel), and the continued observance of the day of atonement.
Leviticus 17: The placement of sacrificial offerings and their approach within the tabernacle. Further laws against the consumption of blood.
Leviticus 18: Unlawful sexual relations including incest, homosexuality, adultery, and bestiality. Child sacrifice, or harm, to false gods forbidden.
Leviticus 19: Laws concerning personal and social conduct. Do not bear grudges, or hatred for others. Do not fraud or cheat others. Judge righteously and do not curse or deal harshly with the deaf, poor, or disadvantaged. Sexual relations with slave women forbidden. Various additional laws concerning food, personal grooming, tattooing, prostitution of daughters, divination, strangers, and trade with merchants.
Leviticus 20: Punishment for child sacrifice. Punishment for sexual immorality. More penalties concerning forbidden practices, or traditions of another nation. Sanctify yourselves and be holy.
Leviticus 21: Various laws and holiness requirements concerning priests.
Leviticus 22: Purity requirement of priests. Laws concerning the consumption of holy foods dedicated to priests. Food consumption of freewill offerings associated with gratitude.
Leviticus 23: The sabbath requirement reiterated. Persistent ceremonies involving feasts to represent a holy separate to walk with God. Specific about the Passover ceremony, feast of first fruits, feast of weeks, and feast of Trumpets. Holy convocation involving blowing of trumpets. Feast during the day of atonement, and the feast of booths (tabernacles / tents).
Leviticus 24: Role of children to gather or produce oil for the lamps. Preparation of show bread for the tabernacle. Death penalty for blasphemy. An eye for an eye (equal administration of law).
Leviticus 25: The seventh year of sabbath rest for the land. The fiftieth year of jubilee prescribed. Requirements concerning the redemption of property and the poor. Further instruction concerning trade among merchants and sojourners. Demonstrated kindness for poor brothers.
Leviticus 26: Blessings and rewards for obedience. Severe punishments for disobedience. The Lord will remain faithful, He will remember His people and will not completely abandon them.
Leviticus 27: Laws about vows, things devoted to the Lord, and tithes.
It is on this resurrection day in the year 2020 that this post is written to rediscover the meaning and relevance of Genesis 1 – 11. Specifically, about the promised seed in Genesis 3:15 that would come to redeem humanity as a result of its rebellion and fall in the Edenic garden of God. Where after the sin of Adam and Eve, God in His infinite wisdom and mercy curses the earth and the enemy to begin a series of the covenant promises to restore creation and proper order for His glory and redemptive purposes. The account in Scripture that begins our journey to recovery through Jesus and by the infinite, yet sufficient grace of God is traced all throughout the Bible. This post is a walkthrough of what occurred after Genesis 3:15 to bring about the lineage of Christ throughout the early covenants.
The Curses and Enmity of God
To set about an understanding of what occurred in the garden of Eden, it is necessary to recognize what YHWH spoke was prophetic to bring about the certainty of what was to occur in the future as a matter of judgment and enmity. As we see in Genesis 3:15, we are given anthropomorphic language to see what is to occur between Satan and the seed of the woman. The verse specifics read as follows (NASB):
After the metaphorical serpent deceived the woman (Eve) that led to the rebellion of both her and her mate (Adam), we are given a full explanation of what took place. The earliest progenitors of humanity consumed a forbidden fruit that would surely bring them death (Gen 2:17) as decreed by God. Upon the contradiction and outright lie of the enemy upon the woman, both she and Adam partook of the fruit of the forbidden tree. They ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil to seal their fate.
God’s proclamation of death, curses, and enmity upon recognition of sinful rebellion is an expected consequence that would bring a certain separation between Him and His creation. As it became corrupted, there were necessary outcomes that prompted God to set in motion His condemnation and justice through an adversarial relationship between humanity and spiritual forces of darkness. Namely, the evil that set itself against God and the relationship He formed with humanity to fellowship and dwell with Him. The forthcoming prophetic conflict specifically affected humanity in that as they suffer the consequences of their sin, the seed or offspring of the woman would strike against evil.
“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.” – Genesis 3:15
The Meta-Narrative and Formation of Covenants
Structurally, we see an overall dispensational period of covenant intervals throughout Scripture. Across epochs of time, we are gripped in Scripture by how God makes His covenant oaths to fulfill His promises. Both unconditional and conditional, we observe by the Lord’s revealed truth the Adamic covenant preceding the Noahic covenant. Whereas their distinction somewhat rests in the difference between the innocent and blameless nature of God’s people. With the post-diluvian call of Abraham and the Lord’s covenant with him, we encounter the Mosaic covenant and the dispensational period of the Law. To give context to sacrificial offerings and hold some semblance of God’s continued fellowship with the 12-tribes of Israel. The Davidic covenant, as given in 2 Samuel 7:4-17, provides insight into how the seed, as spoken about in Genesis 3:15, also extends through his royal descendants. Specifically, through Solomon as David’s “throne shall be established forever” (2 Sam 7:16).
In continuation of all covenants bestowed from God by His astonishing mercy and wisdom, we read of His new covenant promise in Jeremiah 31:31-37. A new covenant from the words of the prophet Jeremiah was spoken to reveal further yet another promise. Only this time, it is a covenant of salvation that He will bring to restore the right relationship with Him as He will forgive iniquity and remember the sin of His people no more (Jer 31:34). While this new covenant promise was written for the people of Israel, in principle, it applies to those who belong to Him as spoken about by Jesus in Luke 22:20.1
Fulfillment of Covenant Promises
Over the course of history, the lineage of Adam and his wife Eve genealogically led to Noah, who God regarded as blameless in His view (Gen 6:9). As God would eventually destroy all of humanity in the flood of Genesis 7, Noah and his family became singled out to survive and reset the emergence of humanity throughout Mesopotamia and beyond. The formation of the Noahic covenant (Gen 8:20 – 9:17) thereafter involved the replenishment of the earth and the renewal of seasonal cycles.2 As Noah’s sons Shem, Japheth, and Ham gave rise to the table of nations (Genesis 10), separate individual lineages would again run the course of history. As a kernel of hope extended through the descendants of Shem within the biblical narrative, there were continued setbacks that ran counter to God’s plans of redemptive history in an all-out effort to restore humanity. God’s covenant with Noah would further reach toward its fulfillment as a backdrop of what occurs throughout the remainder of Genesis and beyond. Namely, the Abrahamic covenant via Isaac and Jacob to the Davidic covenant that would propagate the seed of Eve in Genesis 3:15 NASB. This seed in Genesis 3:15 NASB narrows to Christ from a plural to a singular sense, who would fulfill God’s judgment on the enemy as our Messianic God in the person of Jesus.
As readers of Scripture, we recognize the progenitors of Noah through the descendants of Terah to include Shem. Namely, a foundation of individuals and families to originate nations and populations of people that grow in size and take up residence throughout the Middle East. As peoples are scattered by language and geological position from the Babel account in Genesis 11:1-9,3 we come upon the life of Abram to set the stage for God’s work throughout early humanity. It was first beginning with His chosen servant Abraham and by the Hebrew people to ultimately all nations of the Earth as promised (Gen 22:18). There are numerous stories within the biblical record that continue to give us circumstances by which God operates among the nations while within the fallen state of humanity. First through the Jews of Israel and then through the Gentiles upon the blessings or fruits of the new covenant established as described by the Apostle Paul (Rom 11:26-27).
Prior to the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant concerning the land of Canaan (Deut. 29:1-30:20), we can trace the seed of Adam & Eve, Abraham & Sarah, to David & Bathsheba along 14 generations thereafter and validate the royal lineage of Christ (Matt 1:6-17).4 To conclude with His arrival and intent to ultimately bruise the head of the serpent by His death, resurrection, ascension, coronation, and forthcoming permanent defeat of Satan. Meanwhile, to place a New Testament capstone on God’s redemptive work, we read in Luke 22:20 that Jesus offers His blood of the new covenant. This by which YHWH speaks through the prophet Jeremiah to give certainty our iniquity and sins will be forgiven and remembered no more.
Conclusion
From creation, the fall of man, and to the flood that destroyed all of humanity except Noah and his family, the pre-patriarchal period of Genesis 1 – 11 sets the stage for scattered nations propelled throughout the Earth for thousands of years. Pivotal to this early period of formative history, Genesis 3:15 explicitly identifies the seed of Adam & Eve as carrying a redemptive purpose as a corrective and restorative action that returns creation and humanity to God’s originally intended purpose. Across numerous covenants from Adam to Christ, we have full biblical recognition of God’s mercy and wisdom beyond understanding. He has given our patriarchal and spiritual forefathers the resources, blessings, and offspring to return to Him in fulfillment of Jeremiah 31:31-37.
Citations
1. John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible, 2nd Edition, (Nashville, Thomas Nelson, 2019), 990. 2. The Noahic Covenant. Ligonier Ministries Table Talk.https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/noahic-covenant-1670/ (accessed April 11th, 2020). 3. Michael Heiser, The Unseen Realm, The Tower of Babel (Bellingham, Lexham Press, 2015), 112-113. 4. T. Desmond Alexander, From Paradise to the Promised Land, An Introduction to the Pentateuch, 3rd Edition (Grand Rapids, Baker Publishing Group, 2012), 144.
Bibliography
MacArthur, John. The MacArthur Study Bible – 2nd Edition. Nashville, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2019. Sproul, R.C. The Noahic Covenant – Ligonier Ministries Tabletalk Magazine. Ligonier Pennsylvania. Heiser, Michael. The Unseen Realm – 1st Edition. Bellingham, Lexham Press, 2015. Alexander, Desmond T. From Paradise to the Promised Land. – 3rd Edition, Grand Rapids, Baker Publishing Group, 2012.
Today I completed a 220-page book entitled “Rooted: Connect with God, the Church, Your Purpose.” It is a workbook written by various authors for discipleship groups within local churches or small-class get-togethers. Day by day, throughout 10-weeks, time was spent in each session to return to the basics of discipleship temporarily. Initially, my time here began within a local church I am trying out. However, due to the Coronavirus lockdown, I finished the remainder of it on my own. To get an in-depth look at its substance and what it says to build or further reinforce one’s faith, relationship with the Lord, and fellowship with people.
The book originates from Mariners Church in Southern California, and the material is nearly 100% sound best I can tell as there are core topics that come from traditional biblical principles. It isn’t an in-depth look at the principles behind various topics, but it is a useful view at the surface of what new and developing Christians should largely understand and do to deepen their faith. Topics cover the importance of disciplines in the word, prayer, fellowship, giving, evangelism, baptism, communion, church commitment, worship, and others. The book also covers service in a pronounced way, both separately and interwoven throughout a number of topics given for reading, discussion, prayer, and Q&A.
While the book does well at honoring the tenants of the faith and guides believers in the basics, it, at times, emphasizes community development with subtle unwanted attention concerning social justice. Correctly, the book doesn’t make heretical attempts to attach the meaning of the gospel to assumed activist “obligations” of workmanship as an extension of faith. The book is very good but watch for any subtle emphasis on ideas of corrective and necessary actions to make good on “inequality” as a matter of activism opportunities or requirements within the Christian faith. If during discussions within Rooted sessions, it appears that the social justice worldview is somehow attached to the doctrines of justification and sanctification, the Rooted course you’re in is guided by principles harmful to you while also hostile to the gospel.
It is time well-spent within the book as a companion to fellowship and outreach for the Kingdom. Especially if you’re with like-hearted people, it is an essential reference for newcomers and for people who wish to become more grounded. It goes quite a distance in honoring Christ’s great commission (Matt 28:19-20), and it reaches quite far toward the service of people to originate volunteers for purposes of community development. So there is a noticeable distinction there as compared to more focused discipleship in service of the Kingdom of God. While both are not necessarily mutually exclusive, primary attention appears placed upon secondary people’s interests rather than interests centering on Christ, the gospel, obedience, and His Lordship, among others. Fruitful and deeply cultivated groundwork provides for more rooted discipleship that yields a rightful service to the community as a byproduct of Kingdom service. Most especially within the body of believers. The effort should be, First God, then people, whereas the Rooted book is first people, and “partner with God” for His desired outcomes.
Notice what Jesus Himself said in the book of Matthew. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey (observe or conform; τηρέω) all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” – Matt 28:19-20. While this command can include community service and development, the disciple is to become rooted in obedience and the Lordship of Christ and thereafter multiply or serve from there. Far too many Christ-followers do not know God’s word nor do they adhere to their commitments and precepts of Scripture because they are not well-grounded. With practice and consistency to build strength to have a persistent and powerful impact for God’s glory, His Kingdom, the needs of believers, and finally the community. The end outcome is not the advancement, prosperity, or well-being of the community, but it is to honor God the Most High and His interests. Which happens to include an authentic love for all people.
Various topics are reminiscent of the Navigator’s Wheel Illustration. Concerning the Lordship of Christ and the Christian lifestyle. This conventional and more historical illustration provides a comparative structure to build a balanced and concentrated effort concerning discipleship to accompany specific Scriptural support.
Scripture should be more interspersed throughout the Rooted lessons, especially when it comes to assertions made that are easily countered with other contexts of Scripture. I often found myself wanting to see a verse citation where instead, a reader is presented with meaningful opinions and views of influential church leaders. It’s good to see the comments of well-published leaders in the faith, but Scripture carries far more weight to validate and drive home points of interest in the workbook.
Overall, I recommend the book and the Rooted program for a basic introduction to early discipleship. It is time well invested and I really loved the lessons. However, check ideas, illustrations, and principles discussed in your small group with Scripture and be watchful about social justice advocacy or pressures that do not have a Kingdom-focused bearing on God’s purpose and mission for His glory, His Church, and everyone’s well-being.
In my experience, the Design for Discipleship (DFD) series for the development of Christ-followers is much better comparatively speaking. It is far more engaging, robust, comprehensive, and Scriptural. The DFD series is suitable for all new believers without undue divisiveness. The Rooted book is easy to complete without a lot of thought or effort, so it might be more suitable for groups and leadership that do not want to commit any time in God’s word along their growth trajectory. Moreover, the Rooted book does not require or involve the Bible as a companion. Design for Discipleship is rooted well below the surface with a biblical outcome for growth that lasts a lifetime.
Rooted Book Authors: Kenton Beshore (Sr Pastor Mariners, MA at Talbot School of Theology), Muriithi Wanjau (Sr. Pastor Mavuno Church Nairobi Kenya, M.Div Fuller Seminary), Peter Kasirivu (Founding Pastor, Gaba Community Church in Uganda), Samuel Metelus (Pastor, Church of God in Haiti), Camile and Esther Ntoto (Africa New Day Ministries in Democratic Republic of Congo, B.A. Intercultural Studies), Daniel Nunez (Sr. Pastor Ministerios Transformation El Nino, church planter), Adrian DeVisser (Sr. Pastor Kithu Sevana Ministries in Sri Lanka, M.A. in Missions from Columbia).
Assembled here is a survey of each chapter in Exodus. A few sentences for each chapter to summarize the core content and meaning of the second book of the Mosaic law. All forty chapters are put together here to assemble a coherent view of the Book of Exodus as a whole. These summaries were not written from a historical, poetic, literal, or figurative interpretative view. These summaries are merely of content produced within the valid, authoritative, sufficient, infallible, and inerrant strength of God’s word.
Theme of Exodus: The deliverance of the LORD’s people from their captivity, slavery, and misery. Introduction of the Mosaic covenant and law with fellowship and relationship with the LORD restored.
Exodus 1: The population growth of Israel increases within Egypt. Israel becomes enslaved with an evil king or Pharaoh in control. Pharaoh is a murderous ruler who has no fear of God.
Exodus 2: Moses is born to an Israelite woman and becomes adopted into Pharaoh’s household. After Moses grows into adulthood, he kills a man abusing a Hebrew slave and flees into Midian. Pharaoh died and Israel groaned in misery to get the LORD’s attention.
Exodus 3: Moses encounters God from the burning bush on Mount Horeb. The LORD calls Moses to deliver His people from Egypt. God decrees that He will severely afflict Egypt with many calamities.
Exodus 4: God empowers Moses with miraculous abilities to confront and persuade Egyptian authority to free the Hebrew slaves. Moses acquires the authority of the LORD and the help of Aaron.
Exodus 5: Moses and Aaron confront Pharaoh and on behalf of the LORD demand the release of the Hebrew slaves. Pharaoh refuses and he imposes added hardship on the slaves.
Exodus 6: God encourages Moses and reiterates that He will bring His people out of slavery. Moses relays the message to the Israelite people, and they are not receptive. The genealogy of Moses and Aaron is presented in detail.
Exodus 7: Moses and Aaron again appear before Pharaoh. God hardens Pharaoh’s heart where he again rejects a demand to free the slaves. The first plague is applied to the people of Egypt. Moses strikes the water of the Nile river and it turns to blood.
Exodus 8: Moses and Aaron again appear before Pharaoh. Pharaoh again rejects a demand to free the slaves. The second, third, and fourth plagues strike the people of Egypt. Frogs, gnats, and flies invade the land upon command of Moses through the power bestowed upon him by the LORD.
Exodus 9: Moses and Aaron again appear before Pharaoh. Pharaoh again rejects a demand to free the slaves. The fifth, sixth and seventh plagues strike the people of Egypt. Killed livestock, boils, and sores breakout upon the people, and hail with fire falls down upon the land of Egypt upon command of Moses through the power bestowed to him by the LORD.
Exodus 10: Moses and Aaron again appear before Pharaoh. God hardens Pharaoh’s heart where he again rejects a demand to free the slaves. The eighth and ninth plagues are applied to the people of Egypt. The locusts eat all vegetation and cover the entire territory. Darkness covers the area for 3-days.
Exodus 11: Moses prophesies the tenth plague that the firstborn of humanity and cattle shall die. The LORD makes a distinction between Israelites and Egyptians. The LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart where he would not let the Hebrew slaves go.
Exodus 12: The angel of death passes over the people of Israel in the land of Egypt as it kills all first-born as prophesied. The plague of death strikes and the Exodus of Israel from Egypt commences. The Passover ceremony tradition begins.
Exodus 13: The firstborn of Israel are consecrated to the LORD. The ceremony and tradition of the Feast of Unleavened bread commence as the Hebrews are led out of Egypt. Guided by a pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night to set their route.
Exodus 14: The Egyptians pursue the Hebrews while on their exodus. The Hebrews become obstructed by the Red Sea. The pillars of fire and cloud separate the Egyptian army from the Hebrews as the LORD divides the Red Sea. As Israelites pass through the parted Red Sea, the waters close on the Egyptians to kill them.
Exodus 15: Moses and the people sang a song to the LORD upon their rescue and deliverance. The LORD purifies drinking water through a log Moses cast into a bitter water source. The LORD promises to care for His people, protect them and heal them if they listen to Him and obey.
Exodus 16: The people of Israel encounter new hardships. They do not have food to eat and the LORD provides manna bread from the sky to nourish and fuel their bodies for 40-years.
Exodus 17: By striking a rock, Moses provides water to the people through the power of the LORD. Joshua and his men defeat the aggressors of Amalek.
Exodus 18: Jethro, a priest of Midian, and Moses’ father-in-law advise Moses to set up delegated authority among the people of Israel.
Exodus 19: The people of Israel arrive at Mount Sinai. God makes a covenant with Moses and warns him about people’s exposure to the LORD. Priests and leadership have access to the LORD only through consecration.
Exodus 20: The LORD delivers the Ten Commandments to His people. The formation of the Mosaic law begins. Laws concerning the construction of altars.
Exodus 21: Through Moses, the LORD delivers laws concerning slaves and property restitution.
Exodus 22: Through Moses, the LORD delivers laws concerning justice.
Exodus 23: Through Moses, the LORD delivers additional laws concerning justice. Additional laws concerning working on the Sabbath and Festivals. The LORD confirms the conquest of Canaan.
Exodus 24: The Mosaic covenant is confirmed to the people of Israel. The LORD appears before 74-elders of Israel.
Exodus 25: Preparations and contributions are made for the forthcoming tabernacle. The Ark of the Covenant is designed and made for the tabernacle sanctuary.
Exodus 26: Instructions are delivered about the preparation and construction of the tabernacle.
Exodus 27: Further details concerning the tabernacle include oil substances, a bronze altar, and its courtyard.
Exodus 28: Instructions are given about the Priests’ garments. Priest appointments were named and associated with assigned attire.
Exodus 29: Priests are consecrated and prepared with instructions about operating the tabernacle of the LORD in support of sacrifices and worship.
Exodus 30: Further instructions are given concerning the tabernacle altar, incense, oil, and compulsory taxation upon the people.
Exodus 31: Craftsmen are appointed to make the materials and implements of the tabernacle. Instructions are given about keeping the sabbath day of rest.
Exodus 32: The people of Israel construct a calf made of gold to worship it. The LORD nearly destroys His people until Moses interjects. Moses returns to the camp, where the gods that inhabit the golden calf are worshiped. Moses destroys the tablets of the Ten Commandments and eventually kills 3000 men due to their idolatry and sin. Moses again pleads atonement and forgiveness, but God decrees that He will blot out those who sin against him from His book.
Exodus 33: The LORD commands Moses and Israel to leave Mount Sinai. The LORD extends His mercy to the stubborn Hebrew people. Moses intercedes on behalf of the LORD’s people and the presence of the LORD rests with His people.
Exodus 34: The tablets of the Ten Commandments are remade by Moses. God writes His law on those tablets. Moses delivers the law to the Israelites and the glory of the LORD physically affects Moses.
Exodus 35: Additional instructions concerning the sabbath, contributions for the tabernacle, and its construction.
Exodus 36: The craftsmen and workmen build the tabernacle.
Exodus 37: The chosen craftsman, Bezalel, made the Ark of the covenant, the table, lampstand, and altar of incense according to the intricate details given by the LORD.
Exodus 38: Bezalel continues making elements of the tabernacle to include the altar of burnt offering, a bronze basin, and added materials such as hooks, pillars, capitals, etc.
Exodus 39: Involving precious stones and fine fabrics and priestly garments as the LORD commanded Moses.
Exodus 40: The tabernacle is erected and populated with its consecrated furniture, holy implements, Ark of the covenant, and additional elements as defined by the LORD. The work of the tabernacle is completed. The glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.
Before reading hundreds of pages in this book, “Coming to Grips with Genesis: Biblical Authority and the Age of the Earth,” it became clear this is a compilation work of numerous authors. Work as either written for this book or by incorporation from earlier papers written. Authors each highly distinct as scholars within their view of Genesis. From linguistics to theological exploration of meaning within the first book of Moses, the entirety of the work appears to begin or operate from the worldview of Henry M. Morris. Morris was an American young-Earth creationist and engineer who co-founded the Creation Research Society and the Institute for Creation Research.
Some of the chapters were written after the passing of Morris in 2006, but all authors support a literal and historical interpretation of the book of Genesis. Along with Morris’s influence and recognition of the entire body of thought, John MacArthur also supports the material with small equivocations. Nonetheless, MacArthur makes clear his criticism of naturalism and presuppositions to bring attention to the validity of all Scriptural miracles, including Christ’s resurrection. To set into a further view that Morris, MacArthur, and the authors of this book are young-earth creationists with a literal and historical narrative interpretation of Genesis. To include the timeline of creation events, the formation and fall of humanity, Adam and Eve, a global flood, and a denial of theistic evolution (evolutionary creationism).
In this book, periodic attention is placed upon the mechanics and the grammatical use of ancient Hebrew to build a continuity of rationale about a literal Genesis interpretation. As compared to a poetic and figurative view advocated by numerous others today, and especially among liberal scholars. It is clear that the depth of research and citations offer evidence for the conclusions they draw about the various literal interpretations of authors among the many chapters.
The perspective of authors goes quite far to offer coherent support for the English rendering of terms, phrases, and clauses given in the biblical narrative of creation and early historical events spanning a relatively short period of time. Various authors also engage the objections to the traditional view of literal interpretation. With particular attention to various mythical Ancient Near East (ANE) comparisons to the biblical account of creation. With substantial effort and meticulous attention to detail, point-by-point comparisons from source material get stripped away and dismissed without viable credibility. Nonetheless, historical and modern ANE comparisons inform today’s Bible readers what postdiluvian authors of Scripture recognized from lore among social beliefs.
My time here in the book centers around various theories concerning creation timelines, methods of interpretation, and literal vs. figurative theological positions. So it serves as a technical reference handbook of sorts from the historical narrative record of Genesis. So during the course of my efforts of reading and study this far, I have poured into the topics of historical backgrounds, deep time, genre, geology time-scale, earth age interpretations, Noah’s flood (local vs global), genealogies, and various additional theories about what is presented throughout early Genesis.
I drank from the deep fountain of possibility to know clearly what I have not firmly understood. To take a position and settle upon anything to conclude what the intricate meta details were in Scripture. I have an intuition and sense about how historical events played out, but I am barely aware enough to recognize how erroneous my conclusions can become. I need help from the Spirit within to understand and discern among academic, scholarly, or opinionated advocates either way.
From careful reading to get the exact positions from the various arguments of a literal and historical young earth view, my time in this work was so far sort of introductory to figure things out. To understand what is coherent to believe from Truth as revealed by what God intended through direct revelation among original ancient manuscripts. To provide a backdrop of what both traditional and liberal academics and theologians surmise about what occurred at the beginning of humanity’s existence. I want to see the error and the right way to think and understand the specifics. So all chapters of this book together represent a composite whole of disparate work. As there doesn’t appear to be an overlapping or integrated feel to the separate chapters, together they provide a comprehensive yet separate free-standing series of coherent perspectives of Genesis 1 through 11; the pre-patriarchal period of the Bible. It is an uneasy beginning, but a way forward nonetheless.
The value of the book is justified by the citations and bibliography alone. The book is published by Master Books. The authors throughout this book include:
William D. Barrick (M.Div., San Francisco Baptist Theological Seminary), Todd Beall (Th.M Capital Bible Seminary), Steven W. Boyd (Dallas Theological Seminary), Trevor Craigen (Th.D., Grace Theological Seminary), Travis R. Freeman (M.Div., Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary), David W. Hall (M.Div., Covenant Theological Seminary), Richard Mayhue (M.Div. Grace Theological Seminary), Robert V. McCabe (M.Div. Temple Baptist Theological Seminary), Ron Minton (M.Div. Grace Theological Seminary), James R. Mook (Th.D Dallas Theological Seminary), Terry Mortenson (M.Div. Trinity Evangelical Divinity School), Paul J. Scharf (M.Div. Faith Baptist Theological Seminary), James Stambaugh (M.Div. Grace Theological Seminary), and Thane H. Ury (M.Div. Asbury Theological Seminary).
Within this post, various perspectives and theories about creation methodologies, backgrounds, and speculations become considered for comparative purposes. To understand their weight, meaning, and purpose to understand the specifics about the origins of existence and how humanity came to be. The creation accounts given in Scripture provide for a corroborated view about what our Lord and Creator accomplished. However, still today, many scholars, students, and laity more fully explore the wonders of this Universe and all that is within it. To include a deep and extended search of the Scriptures to understand the Truth of God’s work better.
Introduction
Individuals and organizations go about their reading and interpretation of Scripture from a range of approaches. Yet reliable hermeneutical practices yield more effective exegetical outcomes that draw from the intended meaning of biblical authors—setting aside Western, or post-modern social influences and pressures to develop a precise understanding of what occurred to bring about the reality around us. There is a range of theories that constitute the body of rationale concerning the text we see in Genesis 1:1-3. Among these, they are generally placed into two camps of interpretation to get at the Lord’s meaning in Genesis. Namely, literal or figurative interpretations, either historical and chronological or topical.
Theories of Creation
All together in view, there are Concordist (literal) and Non-concordist (nonliteral) interpretations1 grouped where both views recognize and affirm the inspiration and authority of God’s word. Still, the method by which creation is accomplished and recorded varies significantly. One group of interpretations is chronological, where the other is not—the paradigm centers around what was either time-bound or functional. More specifically, a time-bound interpretation that comes from modern or Western cultural worldviews that place considerable weight upon how a reader of the creation account in Genesis would understand and accept the origination and formation of the Universe and the Earth in a sequentially ordered manner. By comparison, numerous evangelicals, theologians, and biblical scholars today place increasing attention upon what people of the Ancient Near East (ANE) region have read and understood concerning their interpretation of the creation account within Genesis.
On the one hand, we recognize that the shape and extent of the Earth were limited from a more primitive worldview among ancient peoples throughout earlier centuries. Their view of Scripture was largely shaped by divine revelation, cultural conditions, and likely what they heard through oral tradition. On the other hand, there are today scientific observations about glacial layering, global plate tectonics, archaeological discoveries, and the rates of decay, or transformation of physical matter, that have a bearing upon those who have a high view of Scripture and hold a creationist worldview. Just as we today have cultural influences upon our society, there were cultural, social, political, and religious influences present among peoples throughout the Ancient Near East. Consequently, questions that inevitably arise about a chronological and formative vs functional view of Scripture bring about new interest concerning what people read, wrote, heard, practiced, worshiped, and believed throughout their lives. To add cultural context in how they understood the recorded account of creation as written about in Genesis.
From the sequence of events in Genesis 1, we have the following chronological and formative creation theories cast in place. Young Earth theory (24-Hour Day), Old Earth theory, Day-Age theory, and Gap theory are all today’s interpretive perspectives about a sequence of time that corresponds to the historical narrative given in Genesis. The distinctions among them concern intervals of time that occurred during each day of creation as compared to what duration of time transpired between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 and then Genesis 1:3. The concern and interest are not merely about the consecutive nature of the period described in the biblical text and the use of the vav consecutive within Hebrew grammar. They were also about what time lapsed from a human and divine perspective. Either in a linear or nonlinear fashion, whether 24-hours, or as ages in time, the interval duration of each period expressed as a “day” corresponds to a literal day, or a way to assign a formative, or functional term to a time-segment whether intended as chronological or not.
Entirely separate from this type of interpretation is a nonchronological point of view around a literary and topical model to construct meaning. About how existence came into being with processes that were not a result of linear work but were instead by individual and separate periods brought together to complement one another to accommodate the gradual introduction of climate and environmental features such as oceans, forests, mountains, rivers, and so forth. The flora, fauna, and animal life forms that followed further occupied areas of the Earth to perform a specific purpose or function. The literary framework method of creation posits a symmetrical form of order that explains and accommodates the method and means by which all things came to be from a naturalistic and humanly discernable perspective. According to humanity, created beings who are participants among that which was formed and set into being.
Positions & Implications
Theistic Evolution
This is a theory that posits God used evolution as a means to bring about the gradual formation and biological advancement of humanity and physical life.2 Where it is also recognized that an initial miraculous event was necessary to begin the process of evolution, the Theistic Evolution perspective takes into account a supernatural cause from a specific Being outside of creation itself. A seemingly “set and forget” way of casting creation into a perpetual motion of existence contradicting Scripture in the following verse: “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.” (Col 1:16-17).
Day-Age
The theory is which each consecutive day itself is an epoch of time or multiples of long geological periods of various durations. Separated by markers in time consecutive in definition by evening and morning markers in the text of Scripture. Advocates of this theory view creation as a convergence of active and passive developmental conditions in the Universe, upon Earth, and among humanity.3 A theory that early Earth apologists generally oppose on the grounds of presuppositional thinking, with a uniformitarian, and anti-supernatural worldview. As a point of comparison, Hebrews 4:5-10 informs us that the Lord is still in the Sabbath of the seventh day He created. As the seventh day was created longer than 24-hours ago, one could conclude a similarly extended period of time (“days”) prior to the Sabbath while according to a providential or God-centered time-frame reference.
24-Hour Day
On the plain meaning of Scripture, to understand what God has revealed in His word, each day described in Genesis 1:5, 1:8, 1:13, 1:19, 1:23, and 1:31 is a literal 24-hour solar period. An interval of time that normally represents one complete rotation of the Earth around the illuminating heat source of the Sun. While the Earth was created and conditioned to support life, it was supernaturally formed into being by God’s spoken word that took a short duration of time from a human point of reference. The lapse of time as a “day,” or 24-hours as described in Scripture to conveys a tangible sense of time passage whether there was the presence of the Sun or the rotational motion of the Earth or not.
Gap Theory
Described as a considerable interval (gap) of time separating the condition of the Earth between when it was made and its condition just before the Lord’s further work to form and develop His creation. Yet without exegetical support throughout Scripture, Gap theorists advocate the idea that millions of years of time transpired before setting the stage of what was written about in Genesis 1:3.4 Some Bible believers view the separation of these verses as permitting a series of events to occur. Such as geological formation, atmospheric development, primitive life formation, and other precursors to evolution.
Literary Framework
The
literary framework is a way of bringing together a structured interpretation
and understanding of Scripture’s creation account from a poetic and figurative
perspective. In an effort to explain creation activity in a nonlinear, topical,
and non-sequential way in contrast to the traditional and historical narrative
that is widely held by those who have a high view of Scripture.5
This is a poetic or
thematic approach to the literary structure to give a sense of how Creation
came into existence. Where each day is given a function, or purpose, to set in
order as necessary and give coherent meaning in each day’s relationship to one
another. This is not a historical expression to explain what occurred, but
instead a way to view the functional order by which creation is recognized as a
similar formative comparison to Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) mythology.
Revelatory Days
Alternative to 24 actual solar hours of the day to create everything, some scholars view these periods as days of revelation. Where it took a literal solar week to reveal what He did ages before humanity was created, this point of view interpretation comes through the use of the word “made” (asah) in Exodus 20:11 because the terminology can reference the meaning of “revealed.” The distinction here rests on the theory that could have God taken 144 hours (a solar week) to reveal a past series of events. Scripture to support this theory comes from Genesis 5:1, 6:9, and 10:1. Defined as the histories or literally “genealogies” of the creation account, this theory is a view back at what occurred with it, taking a literal week for God to reveal to Adam and Moses the order of events.
Conclusion
With numerous theories concerning biblical creation events in Genesis, there are several here touched upon to give a limited depth about the range of interpretations that exist. Not to bring confusion or misunderstanding about what occurred as described in Scripture, but to instead instill confidence in the authority and reliable certainty of what God accomplished. The discussion is merely about a methodology that is either chronological and functional, or historically formative concerning the origin of existence. There either is a literal or figurative occurrence as an interpretive way to explain to Bible readers what took place in either a narrative or poetic format.
As it is upon each individual to grasp the intended meaning of what is revealed by God through the writing of Moses, we are left with a decision about what to accept as original revelatory truth. To get at this truth from a Scriptural perspective, it is necessary to recognize it as the inerrant and prevailing Word of God. While I previously held to the Day-Age view of Creation, through this cursory study, I have withdrawn from that perspective, and I have tentatively moved to a literal day-length interpretation but with the age of the Earth extending back to much longer than 4,000 to 6,000 years ago. The primary reason for this change is due to the far greater likelihood God is active at formative Creation as a creative effort instead of what the scientific method necessitates through the natural order. A secondary reason for the change is related to the Hebrew grammatical structure of the text making use of the vav (waw) consecutive to indicate the sequence of events given by linguistic expression. While this does not alleviate concerns about the duration of time-lapse day intervals from a Day-Age perspective, it does reduce the likelihood of a poetic and figurative way of interpretation. Moreover, the Bible itself gives a plain reading of the “evening and morning” transition or interface of the text from one literal translated day to another.
Again, subject to further adjustment, as I learn more through the pursuit of theological groundwork, research, personal study, prayer, and guidance, my view here is likely to increase in precision as I get close to the true and intended meaning of Scripture in this area. I have several areas of unattended concerns, and further information is necessary to settle upon a position at this point. Meanwhile, the historical narrative to indicate a literal interpretation of 24-hour days upon the Creation of the Earth many millennia ago is where I newly begin from.
Citations
1. Haarsma & Haarsma, Origins. Christian Perspectives on Creation, Evolution, and Intelligent Design, (Grand Rapids, Faith Alive Christian Resources, 2011), 97, 129. 2. Norman L. Geisler, Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, (Grand Rapids, Baker Books, 1999), 233. 3. Ibid. 270, 271. 4. Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, (Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 2000), 289 5. Terry Mortenson, Coming to Grips with Genesis, (Green Forest, AR, Master Books, 2018), 212.
Bibliography
Deborah B. Haarsma, Loren D. Haarsma. Origins – Christian Perspectives on Creation, Evolution, and Intelligent Design. Grand Rapids: Faith Alive Christian Resources, 2011. Geisler, Norman L. Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1999. Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology -An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994. Mortenson, Terry. Coming to Grips with Genesis. Green Forest: Master Books, 2018.
Assembled here is a survey of each chapter in Genesis. A few sentences for each chapter to summarize the core content and meaning of the first book of the Mosaic law. All fifty chapters are put together here to assemble a coherent view of the Book of Genesis as a whole. These summaries were not written from a historical, poetic, literal, or figurative interpretative view. These summaries are merely of content produced within the valid, authoritative, sufficient, infallible, and inerrant strength of God’s word.
The Theme of Genesis: The beginning of all things, God originates creation, humanity and the nations.
Genesis 1: God creates the Universe, the solar system, the Earth, humanity, and all living things.
Genesis 2: God blesses the seventh day, sanctifies it and rests from working. He plants a garden and creates male and female of humanity. God places male and female into the garden to work.
Genesis 3: God warns about the forbidden tree. Adam (male) and Eve (female) tempted by the deceptive creature. Both succumb to temptation and sinned to thereafter receive God’s curse.
Genesis 4: Adam and Eve produce offspring Abel and Cain. Cain killed Abel and becomes cursed by God. Cain relocates and bears children with wife. Seth is born of Adam and Eve.
Genesis 5: Genealogy
of Adam to Noah including his offspring, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Genesis 6: Humanity becomes corrupted and God instructs Noah to build an ark. God intends to destroy all flesh.
Genesis 7: Noah gathers male and female animals to the ark he built. The Earth is flooded, and all flesh perishes.
Genesis 8: Floodwaters subside then upon the Lord’s instructions; Noah leaves the ark with his family. All the creatures of the Ark also leave. Noah built an altar pleasing to the Lord.
Genesis 9: The Lord blesses Noah and forms a covenant with him as indicated by the rainbow that forms in the sky.
Genesis 10: Genealogy from Noah and his sons with their families. Settled is the table of nations.
Genesis 11: The people of the Earth were united in language and purpose. The Lord confuses their language and disperses them to further regions separate from each other. Descendants of Shem outlined all the way to Abram.
Genesis 12: Abram sojourns to Egypt. Abram tells his wife to lie on his behalf before Pharaoh in order that he would live. Pharaoh was cursed by God and Sarai was returned to Abram.
Genesis 13: Abram and Lot separated with distributed land and livestock among them. The Lord promises Abram the blessings of descendants and territory.
Genesis 14: The kings of the regions were at war. Lot captured and rescued by Abram and his forces. King Melchizedek blesses Abram and the Lord. King of Sodom offers provisions to Abram.
Genesis 15: Abram promised a son. The Lord makes a covenant promise to Abram about the extending territory for his descendants.
Genesis 16: Sarai has the Egyptian maid Hagar marry Abram and bear children with him. Hagar despised Sarai and a rivalry developed with Hagar’s removal from the people. The Angel of the Lord promises descendants to Hagar. Ishmael is born to Hagar and Abram.
Genesis 17: Abram renamed to Abraham and the Lord’s covenant with him is reinforced. A sign of the covenant through circumcision is established with the newborn of the people.
Genesis 18: The Lord promises to Abraham a son and reveals to him the forthcoming destruction of cities Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham appeals to the Lord about the righteous people among the wicked in both cities.
Genesis 19: The Lord rescues Lot and thereafter destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot was violated by his daughters. They gave birth to the predecessors of the Moabite and Ammonite people.
Genesis 20: Abraham again used Sarah’s status as his sister to protect himself from harm. King Abimelech warned by God to return Sarah to Abraham or he will be killed. Sarah was returned to Abraham.
Genesis 21: Abraham’s son Isaac was born to Sarah as the Lord promised. Sarah’s displeasure with Hagar from Egypt caused Abraham to send her away. The Lord promised a great nation of Ishmael, Hagar’s son.
Genesis 22: The Lord tested Abraham with His command to offer a sacrifice of his son Isaac. Abraham’s love and obedience for the Lord demonstrated the willing sacrifice of his son. The Angel of the Lord stops Abraham from slaying his son and He blesses him.
Genesis 23: Sarah died and was buried in a cave at Machpelah.
Genesis 24: A bride for Isaac was identified and chosen at a spring and well near Nahor in Mesopotamia. Isaac marries Rebekah.
Genesis 25: Abraham died as he was buried in a cave at Machpelah. The rivalry between Jacob and Esau emerges, and Esau sells his birthright to Jacob for a meal.
Genesis 26: Isaac takes up residence in Gerar where he has a quarrel with herdsmen over water wells. Abimelech from chapter 20 makes a covenant of peace with Isaac.
Genesis 27: Isaac and his mother Rebekah deceived Jacob to steal his blessing from first-born Esau.
Genesis 28: Jacob sent away to Paddan-aram to seek a wife. Jacob has a dream about a ladder reaching into heaven with angels ascending and descending upon it. God appears before Jacob with a promise of territory for his descendants.
Genesis 29: Jacob meets Rachel and works for Laban to earn her hand in marriage. Laban tricks Jacob to cause him to marry Leah. Jacob works extra duration to finally marry Rachel.
Genesis 30: Jacob bears children with Leah. God opens the womb of Rachel in that she is able to bear Joseph. Jacob prospers through his earnings and status with Laban.
Genesis 31: Jacob leaves Laban and head to Canaan under the instruction of the Lord. Laban pursues but is met with a warning from God not to speak against Jacob. Laban and Jacob make a covenant of peace.
Genesis 32: Jacob encounters news from his messengers about Esau’s forthcoming meeting with him. Jacob becomes fearful and prays to the Lord for protection. Jacob wrestled with God for a blessing.
Genesis 33: Esau reaches Jacob and he is delighted to see his brother and family. Jacob declines to travel further with Esau. Jacob settled in Shechem.
Genesis 34: Shechem, the son of Hamor, raped Jacob’s daughter Dinah. As a result, Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, killed the males of the city. Along with Hamor and his sons, including Shechem.
Genesis 35: Jacob relocates to Bethel upon the Lord’s instructions. Jacob is renamed Israel and the 12-tribes of Israel are identified.
Genesis 36: The genealogy and descendants of Esau are listed by name and location.
Genesis 37: Jacob’s son Joseph dreams of his reign over his brothers. His brothers plot against him where he is sold into slavery.
Genesis 38: Judah neglects Tamar and doesn’t present Shelah his son to her as a mate. Judah unknowingly mates with Tamar thinking she was a prostitute. Tamar bears Judah’s twin sons, Perez and Zerah.
Genesis 39: Joseph escapes Potiphar’s seductive wife and gains success at the Pharaoh’s household in Egypt. Joseph is imprisoned after falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife.
Genesis 40: Joseph interprets Pharaoh’s dream to the chief cupbearer about the demise of the chief baker.
Genesis 41: Joseph interprets Pharaoh’s dream and he is made a ruler of Egypt. Joseph bears two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.
Genesis 42: Joseph’s brothers go to Egypt to buy grain and eventually appear before him. Simeon is held bound in Egypt while Joseph’s brothers were to return to him with Benjamin the youngest.
Genesis 43: Joseph’s brothers return to Egypt with Benjamin. Joseph is delighted by seeing them, seeing Benjamin, and hearing about Jacob’s well-being.
Genesis 44: Joseph’s brothers are brought back to Egypt after it was previously discovered that Benjamin had falsely stolen silver/goods in his sack.
Genesis 45: Joseph is reconciled to his brothers. He has his entire family, including Jacob, given a place to stay in Egypt due to the forthcoming famine.
Genesis 46: The Lord appears to Jacob in a dream to give him confidence about going to Egypt. The families of Jacob who relocate to Egypt are listed by name.
Genesis 47: Jacob and his family settle in Goshen with pledges of support from Pharaoh. Jacob gets Joseph to promise his forthcoming burial with their forefathers.
Genesis 48: Just prior to Jacob’s death, he blesses Ephraim and Manasseh. Jacob tells Joseph that God is with him and will return him to the land of his fathers.
Genesis 49: Jacob gathers his sons and prophesies about their forthcoming days ahead. All the heads of the tribes of Israel are separately blessed. Jacob dies.
Genesis 50: Jacob is mourned, and Joseph buries him at Machpelah as promised. Joseph dies at 110 years old with his remains interred in Egypt.
