David Pawson-Unlocking the Old Testament
◑Introduction
Well now the Bible is not one book but many. The word Bible comes from the plural word "Biblio," which means library and the Bible is not one book, it's 66 books. And together these books form a history book, the history of our universe. But the Bible begins earlier and it ends later than any other history books because it begins with the very beginning of our universe. It goes right through to the end of our universe and even beyond, but it's history written from God's point of view. Therefore, He selects what is important for Him. That makes it quite different from the political history or a physical history of our universe or a cultural history of our society. God selects very carefully the things that matter to Him, the events which had affected Him mostly. Therefore, again, it is quite different from every other history. Now, there are two themes in the Bible:
#1. What has gone wrong with our world
#2. How can it be put right
I think everybody agrees that our world is not a good place to live. Something has gone terribly wrong with it, and the book of Genesis tells us exactly what. But the rest of the Bible tells us how it is going to be put right, or rather, how God, Himself will put it right. only God could solve a problem the size of our world and He's going to do it by rescuing the human race from itself for that's what we need to be rescued from ourselves. That's what the word redemption actually means, to be rescued, and we need to be rescued from ourselves.
So all 66 books form part of one great drama, which I'm going to call "The Drama Of Redemption," and the book of Genesis introduces us to the stage, the cast, and the plot of this great drama. And without the first few chapters of Genesis, the rest of the Bible would really not make any sense. The Hebrew title for this book is, simply, "In The Beginning." That's because the Hebrew scriptures were in the form of scrolls or Rodah(?) and they would simply give each scroll the name of the first word or phrase in it, so that just unwrapping the first bit of the scroll they can identify which book of the Scriptures it was. So there's something you call it "In the beginning."
When the Hebrew Old testament was translated into Greek about 250 years before Jesus was born, they changed the name to Genesis which means, "Origin" or "Beginning," and that's a very appropriate title because here we have the origin of our universe, of the sun and the moon and the stars, of planet Earth, which we live. Here we have the origin of plants, birds, fish, animals, humans. Here we have the origin of sex, of marriage, and of family life. We have the origin of civilization, of government, of culture, both arts and sciences. We have here the origin of sin, and death, and murder and war. We even have here in this book the origin of sacrifice, both animal and human.
So it's a remarkable book; just one small book; 50 chapters, and yet, it covers the origin of all that, and it deals with the ultimate questions like, "Where did our universe come from?" "Why are we here?" And even more personal, "Why does each other have to die?" Something we rebel against, something we don't talk about or think about, something we dress up like our other culture shows and try to disguise the horror of it, but we all have to die. "Why?" Now these are ultimate questions of life and we need answers to them or we just drown these questions in busyness and forget them. But they can't be answered by any human being. The historians can't answer these questions.
They can't tell us how it all began because no historian was there either to observe or record how it happened. Scientists can't tell us about the beginning of our universe. They can go back to the beginning, but they can't go beyond that. They can't observe anything beyond that. So they can't tell us how it began, and therefore, much more they cannot tell us why it began. Science cannot find a purpose for this universe coming into being. They can tell us some details of how it came about, but certainly not why.
Philosophers can't answer these ultimate questions. They can only guess. It is speculation when philosophers try and tell us for example, the answer to the question that occupies most of them, the problem of evil. "Where did evil come from?" "Why are there so much evil in the world?" Philosophers have strained their brains trying to give us an answer, but it's all guess work. Nobody really knows. There is only one person who could really answer these questions for us and that is God Himself.
So when you open the book of Genesis, you are immediately faced with a question, "Are you reading the results of human imagination or divine inspiration?" Thus, the book of Genesis just gives us another series of guesses from human speculation about these things, or does it actually tell us the answer, give us the answer from the only person who was there when it all began? And indeed the person responsible for it.
◑There are other accounts of creation in the world.
There's one, a widely known one called "The Babylonian Epic." It's far more complicated and far-less credible than what you have in Genesis, but it's only one of other sagas which are suppose to tell us how it all began. You should read some of them just to compare them with the sheer simplicity and convincing nature of Genesis 1. But you must decide when you read Genesis, are you reading the product of human imagination or a divine inspiration? So, you've got to take a step of faith before you open the book, but actually, science is based on steps of faith. I've got a science degree and I know that in science, you produce to hypothesis, a working theory, and then you test it to see if it fits the facts. That's how science progresses. It's built on such leaps of faith. So, you leap in faith into a theory and then you test it with the facts.
And therefore, I believe that the approach of faith is scientific from that point of view, and I say, "Take a step of faith in Genesis assume it is God's answer to these questions, and then see if it fits the facts." And there are two big facts that stare me in the face which are perfectly explained by the answer in Genesis.
Fact #1. What a wonderful world we live in.
Isn't it incredible? The universe is amazing, but this planet is the most interesting thing in the universe. It's got more variety in it, it's got more-well it's got life in it. We live in a wonderful world and the more you watch, nature programs on television, the more wonderful it appears to be, and the wonders of modern photography are revealing so much to us. You like watching those programs? What a wonderful world we're in.
And the other fact is this:
#2. It's been ruined by those who live in it.
Now, these are two facts we all have to live with and we are becoming more and more conscious of the environment and what we are doing to it. 100 different species are becoming extinct everyday. We're destroying the world we live in. Now, these two facts are extraordinary. What a wonderful world we live in, and why are we destroying it?
◑It's not just the first book in the Bible, it's the foundational book for the whole Bible
Well, I believe that the facts fit Genesis perfectly and I believe it is a scientific approach. Now, let's look at the place of Genesis in the Bible. It's not just the first book in the Bible, it's the foundational book for the whole Bible. Most, if not all, Biblical truths are here in the book of Genesis in essence. That's why it's called the seed plot of the Bible. The seeds of Genesis come to flourish nature in the Bible, but they're all there in embryo. This book is in fact the key that unlocks the rest of the Bible.
Have you ever wondered what the Bible would be like if it'd started with Exodus instead of Genesis, supposing this book was missing? I think as soon as you begin to read the Bible without it, you'd say, "Well, I'm not interested in a bunch of Jewish slaves in Egypt. Why should I study their history and religion?" only if you had a particular academic interest in it, would you read any further?
But because Genesis is there, you're reading about yourself, about your life. You understand what makes you tick, and why you can't be a better person and the person you wish to be in your best moments. have you ever wondered why life is such a moral struggle? Most people want to be better than they are but fail. Why? Well, Exodus wouldn't help you to understand that, but Genesis does, because you're reading about your ancestor, man called Adam and when you read about him, it's like looking in the mirror, seeing yourself.
The Old Testament is built on the book of Genesis. There are many references all the way through the Old Testament to people like Adam, and Noah, and Abraham, and Jacob, who changed his name to Israel. The whole of the Old Testament builds on the book of Genesis, but it's the New Testament that builds on it even more. Surprisingly, Genesis is more quoted in the New than in the Old Testament. Could you believe it? All the first 6 chapters, 1,2,3,4,5,6, are all quoted in detail in the New Testament. All the major writers of the New Testament, 8 of them, all referred to the book of Genesis, and Jesus Himself did of course.
For Christians, Jesus' attitude to Genesis settles all questions, because if we follow Jesus, then we trust Him, we believe He's spoke the truth, and it's interesting that Jesus regarded all the characters of Genesis as real historical figures, not legends. He regarded Noah and the flood as a historical event, and if Jesus did, then I do. Whatever difficulties there may be, we'll look at them as we go along. Nevertheless, if Noah was real for Jesus, then he's real for me. Not only that, but Jesus claimed to be on personal acquaintance terms with Abraham and He said, "Before Abraham was born, I am, and he was led to meet me." And the Jews listened to Jesus, saying, "You're not 50 years old, you claim to know Abraham." But Jesus saying, "I was there." Do you trust Jesus? Then that's the truth. So Jesus was constantly endorsing the book of Genesis.
When He was asked about divorce and marriage, what did He do? He took them right back to Genesis chapter 2 and said, "You'll find the answer right there." So you can see that the book of Genesis really underlies the whole Bible, provides the key to the rest. Without it, the rest would not make sense. To give you just one example, you will not understand the cross without the book of Genesis. Would you believe it? Because Paul says, "This is what happened at the cross. Just as one man's disobedience brought death to the human race, one man's obedience brings life." Now, that's the heart of the cross, but it's talking about Genesis chapter 3. So, I think I've established my case.
Therefore, if you don't believe the book of Genesis, you can't rely on the rest of the Bible. If Genesis is proved mistaken, then the rest of the Bible is shaken. If Genesis is not true, then chance is our creator and the brute beasts are our ancestors if Genesis is not true, and therefore, it is not surprising that this book has been more under attack than any other book in the entire Bible. There are two prongs to the attack. one is scientific, and we are all aware of some of the problems there. I'm not going to have enough time to deal with them all, but we'll refer to them and there are other tapes that had been made and videos that deal with them more fully. But we have to be aware of them, especially young people are aware of what they've been told in school, in biology classes, and they come with that background to read genesis and they have real problems, and we must be honest about them. For example, science has questioned the order of creation, the speed of creation, and the method of creation.
Science has questioned the age of the Earth, the origin of man, the extent of the flood, the age of people who lived before the flood, and many other things. Yet, behind that attack, I believe there is a satanic attack. The devil hates two books in the Bible, Genesis and Revelation, and he hates the first chapters of Genesis and the last chapters of Revelation. Particularly, because the one describes his entrance into our world and the other one describes his undignified exit from our world, and so, he likes to keep people out of the early chapters of Genesis and the later chapters of Revelation.
He wants to persuade you that Genesis is myth and Revelation is mystery so that you leave them alone because he knows perfectly well that if you can destroy people's faith in Genesis, then you have in fact destroyed the foundation of the whole Bible. So it is not surprising that there's been such a lot of argument about Genesis. If you distrust this book, you tend to discard the rest.
◑Now, how did Genesis come to be written?
It's one of the 5 books which form a unit, not so much in our Bible, but in the Jewish scriptures most certainly. These 5 books form together the Pentateuch, "Penta" means 5. There's a big 5-sided building in Washington D.C. called "The Pentagon." Well, it's the same word, "Pentateuch," the 5 books. And they're often called by the Jews the "Torah," which means instruction, and they believe that these 5 books together form the maker's instructions and it's very wise since the maker gave us these instructions to get the most out of life, to become familiar with them. So the Jews reads through the first 5 books of the Bible every year, on election, every week they read a little bit more. So they get rounded in a year, like painting the forth bridge. When they get to the other end of it, they start again at the beginning and it is their weekly electionary.
Now, Jews, Christians and even pagan historians believe that Moses wrote these 5 books and that's been a long tradition. I certainly don't see any reason to doubt it. By the time of Moses, the alphabet have replaced the 'picture language' that prevailed in Egypt and still in China and Japan today. But that had been replaced by alphabet and remember that Moses was university educated. If ever you see Cleopatra's needle on Thames Embankment, that's one of two columns, the other's in Rome which stood at the entrance to the Egyptian university, and they well be the two columns in which Moses looked at every morning he went as a student. So, he had the education and the knowledge to combine these 5 books, and I believe that, that tradition is right.
None of the books has a name in them. There are however, two problems if Moses wrote these 5 books. The first problem is quite minor and that is at the end of Deuteronomy. Moses' death is carefully recorded, and I assume that you would agree with me that, that's a little unlikely that he wrote that. Joshua probably added a note to that defect at the end of the 5 books to round up the story. But the major problem is this, the book of Genesis ends 300 years before Moses was born. Now, he lived during the days covered by Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Those 4 clearly come from his lifetime, there's no problem with Moses writing those, but Genesis ends 3-400 years before Moses was born. So how could he have gotten his material for the book of Genesis?
one of the things we know about early society is that, people who don't write have phenomenal memories. To these days, tribes that have no writing, can tell you the history of the tribe. They pass it on around the campfire at night from father to son, and this oral tradition is recurrent. It's very strong in primitive communities and would be among the Hebrews, especially when they became slaves of Egypt. They would want their children to know who they were, where they come from. Now, there are two things that are normally passed down in this memory form. one is genealogies, family trees, to give people their identity, and sure enough Genesis is full of genealogies, full of family trees, and there is one phrase that comes ten times in the book of Genesis and it is, "These are the generations of-. " Scattered through the book if you've read it. You must have noticed that phrase, "These are the generations of-."
That is exactly the kind of thing that will be passed on from memory to memory. The other thing that gets passed on are sagas. I mean, hero stories of great things that your ancestors have done, and so tribal memories composed of these two things, generations or genealogies and sagas-the things our ancestors did that were exciting, and these are told over the campfire.
Now, most of Genesis is composed of these two things, stories about great heroes indispersed with family trees. So, it is obviously a collection or compilation of memories that Moses picked up from the slaves in Egypt and put together, and I'm sure you can see how clearly that was done. Except, for one passage. There is one part of Genesis he couldn't possibly have picked up that way, the first chapter, or rather, since the chapter divisions as so often the Bible, God's never inspired them, are in quite the wrong place, chapter 1 verse 1 through to chapter 2 verse 3, is a section that Moses couldn't possibly have got from any human being. That section, he must have got from God Himself.
It is one of those parts in the Bible that must have been directly dictated by God and taken down by men. Most of the Bible did not come that way. We must not think of the writers of the Bible as word processors, typewriters on which God types down His words, because God inspired the writers to use their own temperament and memory and insight and outlook to shape His word, but so over-ruled by the inspiration of His spirit that what resulted was what he wanted written. So that other parts of the Bible have the stamp of the writer on them.
The rest of Genesis has the same stamp on it as Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. You can detect Moses' style in hand in it, but Genesis 1:1 to 2:3 is totally different and has all the marks of God's speech. We shall see in a moment that it's mathematically perfect. When God speaks, His speech is perfect mathematics. See, the Hebrew language doesn't have figures, they just had letters and each letter stood for a figure. So "Alef" or "A" was 1, "B" was 2, and "C" was 3, and so on. That's common way of counting, and when you turn the letters of Genesis 1 into figures, it is astonishing. I've been in Jerusalem, talking to rabbis, who have actually worked out all the mathematics of every verse, and they spend days discussing it because it's mathematically perfect.
The very first sentence, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth," is a sentence of 7 words. That's just one of the figures, we'll be looking at this later. But in many ways, Genesis 1 is a unique piece of literature, quite unique and has all the hallmarks of having come directly from God. So, I can imagine Moses collecting all the memories from the people, the genealogies and the sagas, putting them together, and then God saying, "I'm going to write the introductions, so, take these down." Interesting that the other end of the Bible, same thing happens. The book of Revelation was not composed by John. He was simply shown visions and given words and was told, "Write this down, write this down, write this down." And of course at both ends of the Bible, you've got things that man couldn't possibly think of because they're both beyond the reach of his imagination. So God had to dictate as if it were the beginning and the end of His word.
Psalms 103 says, "God made known His ways to Moses." I believe in handling Genesis 1, I always feel like taking my shoes off. You really are on holy ground, you're listening exactly to God's word, making known His ways to Moses. I have one proof that Moses wrote Genesis 1 down, and that it was not known before the time of Moses, and it's this.
There is no trace of the Sabbath until the time of Moses. There is no trace of Adam or Noah or Abraham or Isaac or Jacob taking a day off every week. Indeed there is no trace of the week. Everything is in months by the moon and years by the sun. Now, because we have Genesis 1 at the beginning of our Bible, we assume quite wrongly that Adam knew it, and then Adam observed the Sabbath and everybody else did after that. No, there's no trace. Adam was given a 7 day week as far as Genesis 2 and 3 go. He looked after the Garden of Eden everyday, had a bit of time with the Lord in the evening, the cool of the evening, but everyday he was working. He had a 7 day week, and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were herdsmen, and cows don't take a Sabbath. I know that, I used to get up at 4 every morning to milk 90 cows and I wish they did take a Sabbath, but they didn't.
The Sabbath is unknown in nature. It was through Moses that God revealed that He'd made the world in 6 days and taken a day off on the 7th. It is from then on that the Sabbath becomes a feature of life, and indeed when Moses gave the commandment, "Remember the Sabbath day," he added the explanation, "Because God created the world," as if this is new knowledge to them, as if he just told them. So that is the proof that Genesis 1 was dictated to Moses and was not known before his day.
There are 1-2 other indications of theirs as well.
◑Genesis is full of beginnings. But God doesn't begin here.
So we turn, at last, to the book itself, to this amazing chapter with which it opens. We're going to spend quite a lot of time in the chapter, and I just want to spend the rest of this talk on the first 4 words, "In the beginning, God-." Genesis is full of beginnings. The beginning of everything else except, God. God doesn't begin here. That's a very important point. God is already there when the Bible opens, He was already there when the universe came to be. He has always been there.
You see, there has to be an eternal something or an eternal someone, who was always there, in order to bring our universe into being because nothing never turns into something but itself. Am I stretching you a bit? It's a bit of philosophy for you, but nothing ever becomes something by itself. There has to be a cause and that cause is an eternal something or an eternal someone and the Bible begins by saying it was an eternal someone. And therefore, the schoolboys question, "Who made God?" is nonsense. It's like asking, "Can you have a square circle?" or "Can you fry ice?" It's nonsense because it's asking an incompatible question.
God never was made, He made everything else. He was always there. Now, you must either say, "He was always there, and eternal someone." Or like Aristotle, you must say, "It was always there, and eternal something." But that's the choice, you've got to choose the one or the other, and the Bible clearly chooses an eternal someone. It's the fundamental assumption of the Bible that God exists eternally. That, He's always been there, that, he'll always be there, and that, He is the God who is. His very name is the participle of the verb, "to be", "being."
Some years ago, I was praying and I said, "Lord, please give me an English word to correspond to the Hebrew word of Yahweh, that would give me the feel of its meaning and excite me." And then, immediately into my mind, came this word, "always." That's very close to God's name, "always." He's always there, He is "always." That's the nearest I can get in English to the Hebrew, Yahweh. In other words, the Bible never tries to prove the existence of God. It's a waste of time as far as the Bible concerns, "He's there, and He's always been there." and you assume that. To try and prove His existence is, I've said, a waste of time. He's just there, He doesn't have to be explained, what has to be explained is the existence of everything else. Now, this it the very opposite of modern thinking. Modern thinking says, "Everything else was always there. Now, you've got to prove to me the existence of God." But know what the Bible says, "God was always there," and we have to explain now, why everything else is there. That's how the book of Genesis approaches this huge question.
By the time of Moses of course, everybody knew that God existed. He has rescued them out of Egypt, He divided the Red Sea, He drowned the Egyptian army. They knew that God was real. When you've been through an experience like that, you don't need proof for the existence of God, but I'm afraid, modern men does because he hasn't experienced these things and he wants proofs.
When you read Hebrews chapter 11, you read two things about creation:
#1. (You read this) by faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what it seen was not made out what was physical.
And then a little later, the same chapter says this, "Whoever wants to find God, must first believe that He exists and that He rewards those you earnestly seek Him."
In other words, the Bible says, "Assume He's there, assume that He wants you to find Him and to know Him and to love Him and to serve Him, and then see what happens. But, start by accepting that, in the beginning, God was already there.
◑Now the subject of Genesis 1 is not creation, but the creator.
That's the first mistake we make. It's not about how our world claimed to be, but primarily about who made it come to be, and in fact, in just 31 verses, the word "God" comes out 35 times. Almost as if it is saying, "God, God, God, God." This is about God. It's not so much the story of creation, it's a picture of a creator, and when you ask, "What does Genesis want to tell us about God?" You find yourself with a long list, and I just made here a list for you.
#1. I found out that God is personal. He has a heart that feels, He has a mind that thinks, and can speak His thoughts. He has a will, and makes decisions and sticks to them. All these are personalities. God is not an it, God is a He. He's a full person with feelings, thoughts and motives like we have.
#2. God is powerful. When our late daughter was a little girl, I remember reading Genesis 1 to her from the children's Bible, and when I finish it, she just sat there quietly and then she said, "No sooner said than done." And that was her summary. It's a good summary, God's power. What power! Just a saying it just happens, what authority. You got to be pretty high-up to do that sort of thing, and the first Ten Commandments in the Bible are all in Genesis 1. Did you know that there were Ten Commandments there? Count them up. Later He would give Ten Commandments to us, but the first Ten Commandments were given to our universe.
#3. Next, He is uncreated. He's already there, He always was there. He is "Being", He is "Always."
#4. But how creative He is, when you learn that there are 6000 varieties of beetle. What an artist, what an imagination. No two blades of grass are the same, no two snowflakes are the same. no two grains of sand are the same. What imagination. How creative. We can produce 7 million Volkswagen Beetles all the same. But He has this creative mind, His imagination gives great variety. There are no two of us the same, look at us, what a variety.
#5. He is an orderly God, the symmetry and the mathematics of the universe are such that, a Jew can find out that e=mc2, and this applies to the whole universe. Mathematically so ordered, you'll see more of that later.
#6. He is a singular God because all the verbs are in the singular. "In the beginning God created." The word created, that is singular.
#7. But He is also plural because the word God is not in the singular, it's in the plural, and it's not just a simple plural. He would be the three words. El Echad means "One God." Elohaim means two, but Elohim means three or more, and the word used here is three or more. So, in the first sentence we have, in the beginning a God who is three created, but there must be one. Isn't that astonishing? He's a three-in-one in the very first sentence, and it takes the rest of the Bible to explain what that means. But in terms of using a triple word for God, was singular verbs all the way through Genesis 1.
#8. Above all, Genesis 1 says, "He's a good God." Sometimes, when I have to choose a subject 6 months before a meeting, I can never think that far ahead, so I just say, "good God" and I said,"That covers everything I ever wanted to say," and twice now, posts have appeared with a horrible fake picture of me on it and then "Good God" above and meetings have been packed. But, God is good, and therefore, everything He makes is good because He is good. That's the message of Genesis. Be at no mistake about this, evil is not God's creation.
#9. He is a loving God, and wants to bless those He makes.
#10. He is a living God, who's active in this world.
#11. Speaking in this world, doing things in this world. He is a speaking God who communicates to us and wants to relate.
#12. He's a God who is like us. If we are made in His image, He must be like us, as well as, we must be like Him.
#13. And yet, He is a God unlike us because the one thing we can't do, is create. We can make things out of something else, but we can't create things from nothing. We cannot speak and there it is. So, He's unlike us.
Well, finally, I want to finish this talk by pointing out that God is never identified with His creation. The is a distinction between the creator and creation from the beginning of the Bible, and we must never get them confused. The new age is confusing them now. The creator is separate from His creation, He can take a day off and be quite apart from all that He has made. We must never identify Him with what He has made. To worship His creation is idolatry. To worship the Creator, is the truth. And the next talk we look at some of the other implications of this amazing first chapter of Genesis 1.
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