Gleanings In Genesis: Introduction
Appropriately has Genesis been
termed "the seed plot of the Bible," for in it we have, in germ form, almost all
of the great doctrines which are afterwards fully developed in the books of
Scripture which follow.
In Genesis God is revealed
as the Creator-God, as the Covenant-God, as the Almighty-God, as well as
"the Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth."
In Genesis we have the first hint
of the Blessed Trinity, of a plurality of Persons in the
Godhead—"Let us make man in our image" (Gen. 1:26).
In Genesis man is exhibited.
First as the creature of God’s hands, then as a fallen and sinful being, and
later as one who is brought back to God, finding grace in His sight (Gen. 6:8),
walking with God (Gen. 6:9), made "the friend of God" (Jam. 2:23).
In Genesis the wiles of
Satan are exposed. We "are not ignorant of his devices," for here the
Holy Spirit has fully uncovered them. The realm in which the arch-enemy works is
not the moral but the spiritual. He calls into question the Word of God, casts
doubt on its integrity, denies its veracity.
In Genesis the truth of
sovereign election is first exhibited. God singles out Abraham from an
idolatrous people, and makes him the father of the chosen Nation. God passes by
Ishmael and calls Isaac.
In Genesis the truth of
salvation is typically displayed. Our fallen first parents are
clothed by God Himself, clothed with skins: to procure those skins death had to
come in, blood must be shed, the innocent was slain in the stead of the guilty.
Only thus could man’s shame be covered, and only thus could the
sinner be fitted to stand before the thrice holy God.
In Genesis the truth of
justification by faith is first made known: "And he believed in the Lord;
and He counted it to him for righteousness" (Gen. 15:6). Abraham believed God:
not Abraham obeyed God, or loved God, or served God; but Abraham believed
God. And it was counted unto him for (not instead of, but unto)
righteousness. Then, if righteousness was "counted" unto Abraham, he had
none of his own. Believing God, righteousness was reckoned to
Abraham’s account.
In Genesis the
believer’s security is strikingly illustrated. The flood of
Divine judgment descends on the earth, and swallows up all its guilty
inhabitants. But Noah, who had found grace in the eyes of the Lord, was safely
preserved in the ark, into which God had shut him.
In Genesis the truth of
separation is clearly inculcated. Enoch’s lot was cast in days
wherein evil abounded, but he lived apart from the world, walking with God.
Abraham was called upon to separate himself from idolatrous Chaldea, and to step
out upon the promises of God. Lot is held up before us as a solemn example of
the direful consequences of being unequally yoked with unbelievers, and of
having fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.
In Genesis God’s disciplinary
chastisements upon an erring believer are portrayed. Jacob is the standing
example of what happens to a child of God who walks after the flesh, instead of
after the spirit. But in the end we are shown how Divine grace triumphs over
human frailty.
In Genesis we are shown the
importance and value of prayer. Abraham prayed unto God and
Abimelech’s life was spared (Gen. 20:17). Abraham’s servant cries to the Lord
that God would prosper his efforts to secure a wife for Isaac, and God answered
his petition (chap. 24). Jacob, too, prays, and God hearkened.
In Genesis the saint’s
rapture to heaven is vividly portrayed. Enoch, the man who walked with God,
"was not," for God had translated him. He did not pass through the
portals of death. He was suddenly removed from these scenes of sin and suffering
and transported into the realm of glory without seeing death.
In Genesis the divine
incarnation is first declared. The Coming One was to be supernaturally
begotten. He was to enter this world as none other ever did. He was to be the
Son of Man, and yet have no human father. The One who should bruise the
serpent’s head was to be the woman’s "Seed."
In Genesis the death and
resurrection of the Savior are strikingly foreshadowed. The ark, in which
were preserved Noah and his family, were brought safely through the deluge of
death on to the new earth. Isaac, the beloved son of Abraham, at the bidding of
his father, is laid, unresistingly, on the altar, and from it Abraham "received
him back as in a figure from the dead."
In Genesis we also learn of the
Savior’s coming exaltation. This is strikingly typified in
the history of Joseph—the most complete of all the personal types of Christ—who,
after a period of humiliation and suffering was exalted to be the governor over
all Egypt. Jacob, too, on his deathbed, also declares of Shiloh that "unto
him shall the gathering of the peoples be" (Gen. 49:10).
In Genesis the priesthood
of Christ is anticipated. The Lord Jesus is a Priest not of the Aaronic
system, but "after the order of Melchzedek." And it is in Genesis that this
mysterious character, who received tithes from and blessed Abraham, is brought
before our view.
In Genesis the coming
Antichrist is announced, announced as "the seed of the serpent" (Gen.
3:15). He is seen, too, foreshadowed in the person and history of Nimrod, the
rebel against the Lord, the man who headed the first great federation in open
opposition to the Most High.
In Genesis we first read of God
giving Palestine to Abraham and to his seed: "And the Lord appeared unto
Abraham, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land" (Gen. 12:7). And again,
"For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed
forever" (Gen. 13:15).
In Genesis the wondrous future
of Israel is made known. "And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth:
so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be
numbered" (Gen. 13:16). "And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be
blessed" (Gen. 22:18).
In Genesis the judgment of God
on the wicked is solemnly exhibited. Cain confesses his punishment is
greater than he can bear. The flood comes on the world of the ungodly and sweeps
them all away. Fire and brimstone descend on Sodom and Gomorrah, till naught but
their ashes remain. Lot’s wife, for one act of disobedience, is turned into a
pillar of salt.
What a marvelous proof is all
this of the Divine Authorship! Who but the One who knows the end from the
beginning, could have embodied, in germ form, what is afterwards expanded and
amplified in the rest of the Bible? What unequivocal demonstration that there
was One superintending mind, directing the pens of all who wrote
the later books of Holy Scripture! May the blessing of God rest upon us as we
seek to enjoy some of the inexhaustible riches of this book of
beginnings.
Arthur W. Pink.
Swengel,
Pa.
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