What I learned: Genesis
Things I noticed as I read
I’ve highlighted the major events of Genesis, creating an outline as I read, but I desire to share maybe some unrecognized or unappreciated facts I noticed as I mined and outlined Genesis this year. I like to observe the significance of words, locations, people, and events. This is an endless process. The more I investigate, the more I find to investigate. I wrote an additional, shorter recap after 30 days of reading.
Note: my favorite Bible study tool, used extensively in this analysis, can be found at blueletterbible.org. I read the NASB95 version of the Bible.
Creation: the only day that God did not proclaim something “good” was on day two when he separated the expanse of the heavens from the expanse below (Genesis 1). When He was finished with creation, God declared it “very good.”
God made us rulers (this might be the answer to the “why” I proposed here). His first command to man: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:28).
The first command of God with a consequence: “The LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17).
It’s worth noting the strategy of Satan to tempt us and how we are vulnerable (Genesis 3):
He tests our knowledge of God’s instruction: “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”
Eve doesn’t quite have the instructions correct: “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’”
He lies about God’s consequences and promises a benefit for sin: “You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Lest you think that God did not make good on His promise to Adam and Eve, death means separation from God. “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden” and, after God called to them, spoke with them, explained the curses they had earned (including earthly death), and made loin coverings for them (requiring the first death, of animals), He sent them out of the garden of Eden. Separation. Death.
Notice the power of women over men in this book:
“she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate” (Genesis 3:6b).
“Abram listened to the voice of Sarai…Abram’s wife Sarai took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife. He went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her sight” (Genesis 16:2-4).
“Now Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking. Therefore she said to Abraham, ‘Drive out this maid and her son, for the son of this maid shall not be an heir with my son Isaac.’ The matter distressed Abraham greatly because of his son. But God said to Abraham, ‘Do not be distressed because of the lad and your maid; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her, for through Isaac your descendants shall be named. And of the son of the maid I will make a nation also, because he is your descendant.’”
The daughters of Lot made their father drunk and conceived sons by him without his knowing it, producing two eventual enemies of Israel: Moab and Ammon (Genesis 19:30-38).
Rebekah conceived of the plan for Jacob to deceive Isaac, thus stealing Esau’s blessing (Genesis 27:1-40).
Rachel gave Jacob her maid Bilhah and Leah gave him her maid Zilpah to bear sons for them while they were not bearing (Genesis 30:1-12).
God called for mastery over sin before He gave the Holy Spirit: He said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it” (Genesis 4:6b-7).
Why might the Lord have had regard for Abel’s offering but not Cain’s (Genesis 4:3-5)? All we know is Cain’s offering brought a simple description: “Cain brought an offering to the LORD of the fruit of the ground.” Abel’s offering was described as “the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions.” Cain appears to have brought just any offering, while Abel brought the first and possibly what was considered the best, the fat.
First polygamy: Lamech, the descendant of Cain, married two wives (Genesis 4:19), in contradiction of Genesis 1:24: “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.” God establishes and man sins. The fact that the Bible records instances of sin in its stories does not mean that God justifies that sin.
“men began to call upon the name of the LORD” after Enosh was born to Seth, the son born to Adam after Cain killed Abel (Genesis 4:26b). It’s interesting to me that there was the delay. Rebellion after banishment from the Garden of Eden followed by recognition of need for Him? Abel was murdered and Cain “went out from the presence of the LORD,” (Genesis 4:16), so it was Seth’s descendants, not Cain’s, who seemed to have the benefit of their progenitors’ relationship with God.
There is a reward for “walking with God.” Obviously Adam walked with God in the Garden of Eden before he sinned. It appears only two other men are described this way:
“Enoch lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Methuselah. Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him” (Genesis 5:21-23).
“Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9b).
The first time the word “covenant” appears, it is God’s covenant with Noah (Genesis 6:18). God promises to protect Noah and his family IF Noah builds the ark. There are two sides to this covenant.
Some consider God’s command not to eat of the tree of life in the Garden of Eden a covenant, because it was the first command with a consequence for disobedience. God is the keeper of covenants. He is gracious to warn us of the consequences of breaking His covenants.
As soon as Noah came out of the ark, he built an altar and offered burnt offerings to God (Genesis 8:20). This is the first mention of the word “altar.” Abel had made an offering “of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions” (Genesis 4:4) but there is no mention of an altar or whether his offering was burned.
The first covenant of God with all mankind, made after Noah made his offering, was completely reliant on God: “I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth….I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth” (Genesis 9:11,13).
Ham was one of Noah’s three sons. He was the father of Canaan. Because Ham did not protect his father in his nakedness when he was drunk, Canaan was cursed, and became the first named enemy of the people of God (Genesis 9:20-27).
The Philistines, another enemy of the people of God, were descendants of another of Ham’s sons, Mizraim (Genesis 10:6-14). They play prominently in both Abraham and Isaac’s lives in the book of Genesis (see below).
Abram (Abraham) was a descendant of Noah’s son Shem (Genesis 11). His father Terah had three sons (Abram, Nahor, and Haran). Haran was the father of Lot; he died in Ur of the Chaldeans (modern day Iraq). After his death, Terah took Abram, Sarai, and Lot to Haran (named for Terah’s deceased son?) in Mesopotamia (modern day Turkey), where he died. After his father Terah died, God directed Abram to go “to the land which I will show you” (Genesis 12:1). Although we never specifically hear of Nahor’s moving to Mesopotamia from Ur, after Sarah dies Abraham sends his servant back to his brother Nahor in Haran in Mesopotamia to find a wife (Rebekah, granddaughter of Nahor) for his son Isaac (Genesis 24). Isaac’s son Jacob is also sent there to find his own wife among Rebekah’s brother Laban’s daughters (Genesis 28:2). The area is also referred to as Paddan-aram (Genesis 25:20). Aram (Damascus) plays prominently amongst the enemies of Israel later in the Old Testament.
Shechem is the first site in the land of Canaan that Abram goes to. The Lord appears to him there and promises the land to his descendants, and Abram builds the second “altar” mentioned in the Bible (Genesis 12:7). Shechem is the first place Abraham’s grandson Jacob comes to, after he returns from working for his uncle Laban in Haran, with his wives Rachel and Leah, their two maids, his eleven sons, and his one daughter, Dinah. Like Abram, Jacob also builds an altar there. Dinah’s rape there causes his sons’ deceit, where Simeon and Levi kill every male in Shechem and loot it in revenge, causing Jacob and his descendants to be odious to the Canaanites. (Genesis 34).
After entering Canaan, Abram proceeds from Shechem to the mountain on the east of Bethel, with Ai on the east, builds another altar, and calls upon the name of the Lord (Genesis 12:8). Later, God first appears to Jacob, in a dream, there (Genesis 28:13). Like Abram, Jacob also moves from Shechem to Bethel, after his sons’ murderous deceit: “Then God said to Jacob, ‘Arise, go up to Bethel and live there, and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau’” (Genesis 33:1). Rebekah’s nurse dies and is buried there (Genesis 33:8).
Shortly after he arrives in Canaan, there is a famine in the land, so Abram goes to Egypt to sojourn (Genesis 12:10). It seems significant that God does not tell him to go to Egypt, because when his son Isaac experiences famine in the land, that is when God appears to him: “Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws” (Genesis 26:2b-5). Egypt obviously plays prominently in Biblical history. It will be interesting to note when God commands movement to and from there versus when He does not.
Abraham lied twice about Sarah being his sister, once to Pharoah in Egypt and once to Abimelech, king of Gerar of the Philistines (Genesis 12:13, Genesis 20:2). These lies ended up enriching Abraham as these men basically paid Abraham off in fear of God for taking Sarah into their households. Abraham’s son Isaac repeated this same kind of lie regarding Rebekah to the same king Abimelech, when he went to sojourn in his land also because of famine, although the king discovered the lie before any man acted inappropriately with Rebekah (Genesis 26:6).
After the famine, Abram returned from Egypt to Bethel, where he had built his second altar (see above), and again called on the name of the Lord. Abram and Lot separate, with Lot choosing the valley of the Jordan. Then the Lord appears to Abram, repeating His promise to give the land Abram and his descendants, who will be uncountable, forever (Genesis 13).
Abram then moves to Hebron, by the oaks of Mamre, an Amorite, and builds a third altar (Genesis 13:18). This is where Sarah ultimately dies (Genesis 23:2) and where Abraham buys a plot a land from Heth, a son of Ham’s son Canaan (Genesis 10:15) to bury Sarah (Genesis 23:20). This land then plays prominently as a burial site for the rest of Abraham’s family (Genesis 49:29-32), except Rachel, who dies after giving birth to Benjamin and is buried in Bethlehem (Genesis 35:16-20). Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Leah are all ultimately buried in the cave purchased from the sons of Heth.
The word “Hebrew,” which means “one from beyond” is first used in Genesis 14 when Abram is told that Lot and his family and his possessions were taken when the four kings (of Shinar, Eliasar, Elam, and Tidal) made war with the five kings (of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela) who had rebelled against them. Abram, with the help of Amorite (Canaanite) allies [the Amorites later become enemies of Israel], defeats the four kings and recovers Lot, the people, their possessions and livestock. The five kings come out to meet Abram and “Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; now he was a priest of God Most High.” He blessed Abram and Abram gave him a tenth of all (first tithe). We meet Melchizedek again in the book of Hebrews.
It is not only Abraham and His descendants who recognize the One True God. Melchizedek is his priest, although he is not a descendant of Abraham. God communicates with Abimelech, king of Gerar, the Philistines (Genesis 20:6b-7a). God is also called “The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father” (Genesis 31:53). God said of Abraham, “I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice” (Genesis 18:19). Abraham and his descendants were chosen to demonstrate obedience to God, and God repeatedly promised that by Abraham and his descendants “all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.”
God’s first covenant with Abram was the promise that he would give his descendants the land of the Canaanites forever. When he promised childless Abram his son would be his heir and his descendants would be as numerous as the stars, this is when Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6).
God warned Abram regarding his descendants, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. Then in the fourth generations they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete” (Genesis 15:13b-16). Note that the Amorites were allies with Abram against the four kings (above). When Jacob blesses Joseph’s son’s in Egypt before his death, the Amorites are mentioned again in his comments to Joseph: “Behold, I am about to die, but God will be with you, and bring you back to the land of your fathers. I give you one portion more than your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow” (Genesis 48:21-22).
Before Isaac was born to Abraham and Sarah, God established a second covenant with Abraham that included expectations (including circumcision as a sign): “I am God Almighty; Walk before Me, and be blameless. I will establish My covenant between Me and you, And I will multiply you exceedingly” (Genesis 17:1b-2). Ishmael, son of Abram via Hagar according to Sarai’s impatient plan, had to participate in circumcision, at the age of 13, and received a promise and a blessing from God, but was not part of the covenant (Genesis 17:20-21). Isaac seems to be the first we hear of who was circumcised on the eighth day of life, as God instructed in the covenant.
God appeared to Abraham in the form of three men, both to confirm to him that a son would be born to Sarah the next year and to reveal His plan for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. [We do learn in Genesis 19:1 that two are angels.] In this interaction, God revealed about Abraham that “in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed….For I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice.” Abraham and his descendants are both a blessing and an example to us.
When Lot tried to protect the two angels who had come under his roof from doing wickedness to them, the men of Sodom reacted, “‘Stand aside.’ Furthermore, they said, ‘This one came in as an alien, and already he is acting like a judge; now we will treat you worse than them.’” This is also the reaction of the wicked of our age. It is encouraging that God and His angels protected Lot.
After God remembered Abraham and saved Lot from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot’s daughters got him drunk, took advantage of him, and produced two more enemies of God’s people: Moab and Ammon (Genesis 19:37-38).
After Abraham deceived Abimelech, the king of Gerar of the Philistines, just as he had deceived Pharoah, claiming that Sarah was not his wife, Abimelech asked for a covenant with Abraham that Abraham would not deal falsely with him or his descendants (Genesis 21:23). After Isaac was caught in the same scenario with his wife Rebekah, Abimelech asked for another covenant with him that he would do the Philistines no harm (Genesis 26:29). Note that both these covenants appear one-sided, as the Philistines later become enemies of Israel.
Note also that these covenants were made in Beersheba, where God had previously saved a distressed Hagar and Ishmael after they had been sent away by Abraham, by showing her a well (Genesis 21:14-19). After making his covenant with the Philistines there, Abraham planted a tamarisk tree and called on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God (Genesis 21:33). After Isaac sojourned in Gerar of the Philistines because of famine, he returned to Beersheba, the Lord appeared to him there, and he also built an altar and called upon the name of the Lord (Genesis 26:23-25). When Jacob (Israel) set out from the land of Canaan with all he had to go to Egypt to be with Joseph, he offered sacrifices to God in Beersheba and God spoke to him: “I am God, the God of your father; do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you a great nation there. I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again; and Joseph will close your eyes” (Genesis 46:3-4).
At God’s command, Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son on Mount Moriah, but God provided another the lamb for the sacrifice (Genesis 22). This location is significant in the life of King David and is where Solomon builds his temple (2 Chronicles 3:1). Abraham named this place “The LORD Will Provide” and it was said, “In the mount of the LORD it will be provided.” This is significant foreshadowing of the provision of the Lamb of God.
All posterity has been blessed by Abraham’s obedience: “because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son….In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice” (Genesis 22:16-18)
Abraham did take another wife after Sarah died, and one of his other six sons with her was Midian (Genesis 25:2). Moses flees to Midian in the book of Exodus.
Abraham’s sons, Ishmael and Isaac, came together to bury him at Hebron, where Sarah was buried (Genesis 25:9). Isaac’s sons, Esau and Jacob, came together to bury him as well, in the same place (Genesis 35:27-29). Jacob’s sons all buried him in the same place, after carrying him up after he died in Egypt as God promised (Genesis 50:12-15).
Rebekah experienced twenty years of infertility before she had twins Esau and Jacob (Genesis 25:26).
Esau was named Edom, which means “red,” because he sold his birthright for red lentil stew (Genesis 25:30). Edom is also the name of the hill country of Seir, not in the land of Canaan, where Esau moved away from his brother Jacob after their father Isaac died (Genesis 36:1-7).
Both Ishmael and Esau were rebellious, and both moved out of the land of Canaan.
Ishmael settled east of Egypt as one goes to Assyria “in defiance of all his relatives” (Genesis 25:18).
Esau married Canaanite wives, and “they brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah” (Genesis 26:35). This grief allowed Rebekah to inspire Isaac to send Jacob away to her brother Laban in Haran in Mesopotamia to find a wife, in order to protect him from a murderously angry Esau after Jacob deceptively stole his blessing (Genesis 27:46).
“So Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan displeased his father Isaac; and Esau went to Ishmael, and married, besides the wives that he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son” (Genesis 28:8-9). Among Esau’s descendants are the Amalekites, more enemies of God’s people (Genesis 36:15-16).
God was faithful to appear to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, constantly reassuring them of His promises. These appearances often occur during times of transition. There were numerous appearances to Abraham. God appeared to Isaac when he moved because of famine, once in Gerar and once in Beesheba after he returned (Genesis 26). When Jacob moved to find a wife, that is when God first appeared to him, in a dream at Bethel, after which Jacob made this vow: “If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, and I return to my father’s house in safety, then the LORD will be my God. This stone, which I have set up as a pillar, will be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You” (Genesis 28:20b-22).
The location Gilead is first mentioned when Jacob is fleeing from Laban (Genesis 31:21). Joseph and Laban make a covenant there, also called the covenant of Mizpah (Genesis 31:44-54). Gilead is mentioned again when Joseph is sold (Genesis 37:25). The tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh eventually settle there, east of the Jordan, after coming out of Egypt, before Moses dies, dispossessing the Amorites (see above). Gilead is also a descendant of Manasseh, the son of Joseph (Numbers 26:29). His grandson had only daughters, so determined lawful land inheritance according to the Mosaic Law in this circumstance (Numbers 27:1-11).
It’s interesting to note the actions of Jacob’s sons. It’s also interesting what Jacob (Israel) pronounced concerning them in Genesis 49.
Simeon and Levi killed the men at Shechem (Genesis 34:25). Simeon was imprisoned by Joseph when he demanded his brothers return with Benjamin (Genesis 42:24). Jacob’s pronouncement regarding Simeon and Levi is not favorable (Genesis 49:5-7), but Moses and Aaron and the line of priests do descend from Levi.
Reuben, the firstborn, lay with Bilhah, Rachel’s maid, his father’s concubine (Genesis 35:22), but Reuben also talked his brothers out of killing Joseph (Genesis 37:21). He also offered that Jacob could kill his two sons if he did not bring Benjamin safely back from Egypt (Genesis 42:37). Jacob declared that he lost preeminence because he defiled his father’s couch (Genesis 49:4).
Judah had the idea to sell Joseph to the Midianites (Ishmaelites) (Genesis 37:26-27). Judah also married a Canaanite and had three sons by her. The first two died and Judah was not faithful to give his widow daughter-in-law Tamar his third son as promised, so she tricked him and had twins Perez and Zerah by him (Genesis 38). Judah also offered to his father Isaac to be surety for Benjamin’s safe return from Egypt when Joseph demanded he be brought there (Genesis 43:8-9). He offered to be a slave to Joseph in place of Benjamin, the final action that inspired Joseph to reveal himself to his brothers (Genesis 44:33). Judah led Jacob (Israel) and their entire family into Egypt, to the land of Goshen (Genesis 46:28). Joseph’s pronouncement regarding him was favorable and our Lord was descended from him (Genesis 49:9-12).
These first four sons of Jacob (above) were the first four sons of Leah. Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher were the sons of the maids of Rachel and Leah. Leah then had Issachar, Zebulun, and Dinah. Joseph and Benjamin were born to Rachel, who Jacob loved and initially tried to marry, before being tricked into marrying Leah. These sons were his favorite. Jacob was sold as a slave but God used him to preserve the whole family (70 persons) in Egypt during famine (Genesis 46:70). Jacob received two portions of inheritance as a result, for his sons Ephraim the younger (who received a greater blessing from Jacob) and Manasseh the older (Genesis 48).
The book of Genesis ends with a promise: “Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I am about to die, but God will surely take care of you and bring you up from this land to the land which He promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.’ Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, ‘God will surely take care of you, and you shall carry my bones up from here.’ So Joseph died at the age of one hundred and ten years; and he was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt” (Genesis 50:24-26). We will see its fulfillment in the next book of Exodus.