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
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
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
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
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
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
24.
God’s institution
of government.
25.
National
distinctions as a result of the confusion of the languages.
26.
The beginning of
the nation
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
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],
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
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
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.