Old Testament Overview and Creation; Gen. 1:1

 

We are going to look at an overview of the Old Testament, but first we need to look at why it is important to study the Old Testament. We begin by looking at 1 Corinthians chapter ten where Paul is addressing the carnal Corinthians. Verse 1 NASB “For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers [Exodus generation] were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; [2] and all were baptized into Moses [identified with Moses] in the cloud and in the sea; [3] and all ate the same spiritual food [manna that God provided for them in the wilderness]; [4] and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.”

 

We see from this that God’s provision of the physical manna and the physical water was a type or example. It was to demonstrate that just as God provides for our physical sustenance and nourishment God also provides everything that we need for our spiritual sustenance and nourishment. And that was the doctrine that Moses taught the Israelites in the wilderness and the revelation that he gave in the Mosaic law.

 

1 Corinthians 10:5 NASB “Nevertheless, with most of them [even though they were all believers] God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness.” The exodus generation continuously disobeyed God; they did not have any appreciation for the freedom they had. This is so often true. When people are delivered from slavery, if they do not learn doctrine and grow and advance, they do not have capacity for freedom and consequently they begin to yearn to go back under that system of slavery from which they came. [6] “Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved.” All these events in the Old Testament happened—specifically with reference to the Israelites but would include everything in the Old Testament—as examples. In other words, we should look and study this material and not make the same mistakes they made. [7] “Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, “THE PEOPLE SAT DOWN TO EAT AND DRINK, AND STOOD UP TO PLAY.” [8] Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day.” These refer to two different instances. Verse 7 refers to the incident when Moses was still up on the mountain and the people got Aaron to build the golden calf; verse 8 refers to a rebellion under Korah, and Dathan and Abiram later on. [9] “Nor let us try [test] the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. [10] Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer”—a fourth example of divine discipline for disobedience. 

 

1 Corinthians 10:11 NASB “Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come [those in the church age].” The point that Paul is making in these verses is that we are to pay attention to everything in the Old Testament. It was written specifically for our instruction. The application that we need to take from this is, first of all, that all application in the Scripture is drawn from literal historical events. The Scriptures ground their application and precepts in physical historical events that actually took place; this isn’t allegory. The point in that is that if you destroy the historicity of those events then you also destroy the significance of the application. If things did not happen as they are recorded as happening then the significance in terms of the mandates, the principles, the theology, is irrelevant and meaningless. The Bible is clearly a book of history, that is why history is continuously attacked by Satan. We learn from this passage that the Old Testament is clearly relevant for today.

 

When we look at the Old Testament we need to understand the big picture. The English Bible begins with the law, the first five books of Moses. It really should be translated “instruction” because that is what Torah means—instruction in life, all the ears of life, and instruction in how to think about the world around us. When Moses wrote the Torah, the law, he was writing at a particular time and in a particular place to a particular people. He was writing at about 1400 BC to the Israelites. They had just gone through forty years of wanderings in the wilderness because of their disobedience to God at Mount Sinai. Prior to that God delivered them from slavery in Egypt and now Moses is writing to answer the questions: Why has God done this? What is your purpose in history? What does God have in store for you? And since God has done all of this for you as a people, Israel, how then are you to live? That is the general purpose of the first five books of the Old Testament.

 

The second division is the historical books. This covers the period of the conquest under Joshua up until the exile in 596 BC. This is covered in the books of Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles. Then the northern kingdom was taken out in discipline in 722 BC, and then in 596 BC the southern kingdom taken out in divine discipline—called the exile, the seventy years of captivity in Babylon. That is followed by the three post-exilic historical books, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther. These books actually describe the Jews in Persia and Ezra and Nehemiah focus on groups that returned to the land after the exile. The law (the Pentateuch} begins with creation and extends up to the Jewish nation poised to go into the land. The historical books cover the entry into the land and then the history of the kingdom—first the united kingdom and then the divided kingdom. The precepts in the Mosaic law say, If you obey Me I will bless you, if you disobey me you will go through a series of cyclical disciplines, the most extreme of which will mean your removal from the land I have promised to give you. And that is what happened in 586 BC. After 70 years in exile they returned.

 

Then we have the non-historical books: Job, which was written sometime during the period covered by the Pentateuch. Then the poetic books such as the Psalms, the hymns that the Jews sang in the temple in the worship of God. Then the books of Solomon, the wisdom literature—Proverbs, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes. Then the major prophets—Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel—and then the Minor Prophets which are usually divided into three groups, the pre-exilic prophets, those who had a ministry during the exile, and then three post-exilic prophets—Zechariah, Haggai and Malachi.

 

History is important because history is the outworking of the plan and purposes of God. If we don’t have a frame of reference, an over-arching principle that gives meaning to the details of history, then all we are left with is this mass of detail. There is nothing to put it together, to weave it together. It is the unifying principle that history is God’s plan and purpose that gives meaning to all the detail.

 

When we begin our study of the Old Testament we look first at the Torah, the first five books of Moses, which begins with the creation of the universe in Genesis 1:1, and at the end of Deuteronomy we come to the death of Moses and the Jews are on the verge of entering into the land that God had promised Abraham. These first five books are Genesis, the book of beginnings; Exodus, the book of deliverance; Leviticus, which describes the priesthood and all of the sacrifices that are required under the Mosaic law; Numbers, which describes the wanderings of the Israelites during the forty years of divine discipline in the wilderness; and Deuteronomy, which means a second law, a second statement of the law. It is basically a sermon that Moses preached, the doctrine that he taught, reminding the people that God had made a covenant with the nation and that they were to fulfill their responsibilities under the covenant as God led them into the promised land. These five books were written by Moses on the plains of Moab just prior to the Israelites entering into the land.

 

We can organize our thoughts about Genesis around seven events—really four events and three people. The first four events are the creation, the fall, blood and Babel. These are the four events that occur in the first eleven chapters and everything revolves around them. Then there are three people, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The interesting thing as we look at Genesis is that in the English it is divided into fifty chapters, and yet the first four events—creation, fall, flood and Babel—take place in the first eleven chapters. Chapters 12-50 cover the lives of three people. So the emphasis in Genesis is on Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Why? Because Moses is writing this to the nation Israel to explain their existence. It is not just giving history, it is giving an explanation for the existence of the nation Israel and God’s plan and purpose for Israel throughout all of human history. Once again the point is belabored that if these things did not happen the way they are said to happen then we might as well throw out the rest of the Bible. That is why the historicity of the first eleven chapters of Genesis is such a battlefield. Origins make a difference. If our origins are what the Bible claims they were then that means one thing. If we are, on the other hand, just the products of chance and man is nothing more than a collection of molecules then there really is no meaning in life, no basis for absolutes; everything is relative, everything is pragmatic, and so that develops and entirely different set of morals and ethics. In other words, our social life, including morals, mores, ethics, politics, everything related to man’s society, is going to be viewed vastly different depending on how we view the first eleven chapters of Genesis. That is why this is so crucial for us to understand.

 

Genesis is indeed the book of beginnings. We list twenty-five things that begin in the first eleven chapters of Genesis and then become foundational for everything that is said about them in the remainder of the Bible.

1.       The creation of the space-time continuum.

2.       The creation of the universe.

3.       The creation of the solar system.

4.       The creation of vegetation and animal life.

5.       The creation of the human race.

6.       The institution of marriage.

7.       The institution of the family.

8.       The beginning of sin in the human race.

9.       The beginning of judgment in the human race (because of sin).

10.   The beginning of salvation.

11.   The beginning of law and the basis for a judicial system.

12.   Principles related to economics. Economics is based upon labor and work.

13.   Before the fall man is given responsibility and he is to name all of the animals, and he is to guard and keep the garden.

14.   After the fall man’s work becomes laborious—the sweat of his brow.

15.   Language and learning. God is the one who begins to name things. Because He names things He distinguishes between things, e.g. darkness and light. The very fact that things are named indicates that there are distinct boundaries delimiting that thing. So we see that language presupposes absolute categories in creation. It is with language that we think.

16.   The development of cities.

17.   The development of God’s grace toward man despite man’s disobedience and sinfulness.

18.   The introduction of the idea of sacrifice.

19.   The development of music.

20.   The development of metallurgy.

21.   The beginnings of demonism in human history.

22.   The beginning of idolatry.

23.   Globalism and internationalism developed and its culmination in God’s judgment at the tower of Babel.

24.   God’s institution of government.

25.   National distinctions as a result of the confusion of the languages.

26.   The beginning of the nation Israel in chapter twelve.

 

Everything that the Bible says about these subjects, from Genesis 12 through Revelation 21, assumes the literal historicity of these events. What happens historically cannot be divorced from the doctrine derived there without destroying the doctrine.

 

Why is creation important? It is foundational to everything else in the Bible. This is how the apostle Paul treated it in one of his encounters with Gentile unbelievers in Acts chapter fourteen.

Acts 14:11-15 NASB “When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they raised their voice, saying in the Lycaonian language, ‘The gods have become like men and have come down to us.’ And they {began} calling Barnabas, Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. The priest of Zeus, whose {temple} was just outside the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their robes and rushed out into the crowd, crying out and saying, “Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, WHO MADE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH AND THE SEA AND ALL THAT IS IN THEM.”

For Paul, to be able to understand and actively proclaim the gospel it has to be grounded in the creation events of Genesis 1-3. If we take away the God of creation we take away the gospel. That is why the attacks of evolution upon the first three chapters of Genesis are indeed attacks upon the cross. When Paul interacts with the Athenians and with other Greeks in Acts 17 & 19 he always goes back to the God who made the heavens and the earth. Gospel presentation and evangelism is thoroughly grounded in a literal creation and a literal Genesis.

What is interesting when we come to Genesis one and Genesis two is that they seem to be contradictory accounts. Liberal theologians have said that this is an example of contradictions in the Bible, so how can you believe the Bible, you stupid Christians. This reveals a complete failure to understand how Jews wrote history. First they give the summary, then they come back and give the details. Genesis 1:1 through 2:4 is the summary of the entire creation event. In Genesis 2 the writer comes back and fills in the gaps with details on what he really what he wants you to pay attention to, i.e. the creation of man. Furthermore, if genesis one was written by one person and genesis 2 written by somebody else, and they are contradictory accounts, the inference from that as far as our Lord is concerned is that He certainly was stupid too. Notice what Jesus does in Matthew 19:4, 5 NASB “And He answered and said, ‘Have you not read that He who created {them} from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE [reference to Genesis 1:27], and said, ‘FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH’[quote from Genesis chapter two]?” So Jesus clearly saw that Genesis chapters one and two were complementary accounts of creation and not contradictory accounts, and he affirms the literal historicity of both events in this statement.

The apostle Paul does the same thing in 1 Timothy 2:13 NASB “For it was Adam who was first created, {and} then Eve [Genesis ch. One]. [14] And {it was} not Adam {who} was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression [Genesis 3].” So Paul also recognized that Genesis 1 & 3 as being literal historical reality. If you do away with the historical reality of Genesis 1-11 you take away the foundation of the New Testament. It is an integrated, unified whole.

Genesis 1:1 NASB “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Throughout the Scripture we see the emphasis that God is the God of creation. Isaiah 42:5 NASB “Thus says God the LORD, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and its offspring, Who gives breath to the people on it And spirit to those who walk in it…. [45:12] It is I who made the earth, and created man upon it. I stretched out the heavens with My hands And I ordained all their host.” Also Jeremiah 10:12; 51:15.

How did this creation take place? What we have in Genesis 1:1 is the creation of the space-time continuum. The planets and the stars have to fit inside something. It is as if God stretches out this box, this universe that we have. That is all that is there is Genesis 1:1, that empty box—empty except for one thing: a planet in the middle, planet earth. There are various stages that we must understand as we go through these first three verses. God creates the original earth which is called the garden of God, which is in reference to Satan’s fall in Ezekiel 28. The original earth was apparently the habitation of Lucifer and it is thought that God had His throne on the earth, that the earth at that time was the location of Lucifer’s headquarters and where he had his responsibilities specifically related to the throne of God, and God had His throne here. Why? We don’t know, it is not specified in Scripture; all we have is a few tantalizing hints from Ezekiel 28 and a few other places. This was a place of perfect environment and yet something happened tragic. There was the fall of Lucifer when he uttered his five “I wills” in Isaiah 14, and as a result of that there is a judgment upon the earth, and we find in Genesis 1:2 NASB “The earth was formless and void…” The Hebrew phrase is tohu waw bohu, and it indicates a state of chaos and destruction and judgment upon the earth.

Passages to confirm this. Isaiah 45:18 NASB “For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it {and} did not create it a waste place, {but} formed it to be inhabited), ‘I am the LORD, and there is none else.’” So God did not create a waste place, it must have become that. God originally formed the earth to be inhabited, it was inhabited by the angels. There was no pre-Adamic race, no other life; just angelic life. Isaiah 34:11 uses this word bohu in reference to divine judgment. NASB “But pelican and hedgehog will possess it, And owl and raven will dwell in it; And He will stretch over it the line of desolation [tohu] And the plumb line of emptiness [bohu].” Jeremiah 4:23 NASB “I looked on the earth, and behold, {it was} formless and void [tohu waw bohu]; And to the heavens, and they had no light.” This indicates divine judgment.

There are three things that are referenced in Genesis 1:2: a) tohu waw bohu; b) darkness—everywhere else in the Scriptures darkness is related to the judgment of God. God is light. When we see the new heavens and the new earth there is no darkness, everything in the universe is illuminated by the glory of God because God is light. So the condition in the original earth was light. Where did the darkness come from? Remember, darkness is the absence of light; c) the salt sea, which is always a picture of chaos and judgment in the Scriptures. So there are three terms in Genesis 1:2, all of which indicate judgment throughout the rest of the Scripture.  

Isaiah 45:7 NASB “The One forming light and creating darkness, Causing well-being [parallel to light] and creating calamity [parallel to darkness]; I am the LORD who does all these.” Notice the parallelism in the way the poetry is set up.

Revelation 21:1 NASB “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer {any} sea.” So we see that in the perfect environment of the new earth there will be no sea. Why was this sea in Genesis chapter one the turbulent salt sea? Because of God’s judgment on planet earth. [25] “In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed.” So there is eternal daytime, eternal light, in the new heavens and the new earth. Job 38:4,5 tells us that when the earth was originally created there was unity among the angels. At the creation of the earth the angelic hosts were unified, there was no division of fallen and unfallen angels; there was unity at the point of the original creation of the earth in Genesis 1:1.

So the stages of creation: the original earth, the garden of God; the fall of Lucifer; the chaotic judgment upon the earth where there was absolute darkness in the universe; then the redemptive work of God begins with the Holy Spirit hovering over the face of the deep and we see the beginning process of redemption and the restitution of planet earth into the present earth. The stars are nor created until the fourth day, so there are no stars in that pre-Genesis 1:2 universe. It is as different from today’s universe as the new heavens and the new earth will be after Revelation 21.

The question is always asked: How old is the earth? We don’t know how old the earth is. Scientists work on decay rates, assuming that these decay rates are always the same. It is called uniformitarianism. The Scriptures prophecy this is 2 Peter 3:3 NASB “Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with {their} mocking, following after their own lusts, [4] and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For {ever} since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.’” That is uniformitarianism—i.e. the processes are always the same. [5] “For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God {the} heavens existed long ago [antediluvian world] and {the} earth was formed out of water and by water [2nd day of creation], [6] through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water.” What is his point? The point is that there is a catastrophe in human history that changes the process. The assumption is that all things always continue at this rate, but Scripture says that there was a world-wide flood that completely changed the dynamics of everything. So the scientists’ dating mechanisms are only good for a short amount of time.