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Bible History of the Old Testament |
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No. 1 The Beginning - Creation
The Holy Scripture contains the revealed record of God's dealings and purposes with man and commences with an account of the creation. Four great truths, which have their bearing on every part of bible revelation, come to us from the earliest narratives of the scriptures. These are like the four rivers which sprung up in the garden of Eden. 1. The creation of all things was by the word of God's power. 2. The descent of all men was from our common parents, Adam and Eve. 3. We had a connection with Adam as the head of the human race. through which all mankind were involved in his sin and fall. 4. One descended from Adam, yet without his sin, and as the second Adam became the Author of salvation to all who trust in Him. There is a huge contrast between the heathen accounts of the creation and the Biblical account of creation. The heathen accounts are grossly absurd and very exaggerated, while the Biblical account is very simple and majestic and written in such a way that you just know it's truth. Scripture opens our eyes to the successive creation of everything in the world, leading up to the majestic crown of all God's creation, MAN. He was the greatest of God's works and God desired man to praise him. Many changes and an indefinite period of time could have taken place between verse 1 and 2 of Genesis. There is a lot of speculation about these things, but no one really seems to know for sure. Maybe that is one of the questions we will ask when we get to Heaven. The really important thing is that "In the beginning (whenever that was) God created the heaven and the earth". Hebrews 11: 3 says "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear". Ephesians 3:9 says "...which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ". It is good to know that God's plan didn't change from the beginning just because man messed things up. Everything that proceeded from the hand of God was "very good". Of all the things that God created, man is the only one who was created in His own image, which means that from the start man had a perfect moral and spiritual nature until he chose to sin. All his surroundings were in accordance with his happy state. God put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and keep it. He gave him a companion in Eve, and from the start he instituted the day of worship and the institution of marriage and family. The only thing left was to test man's obedience to God, because evil was already in the world, as Satan had already fallen with his legions of demons. The scripture account of man's trials is very brief and simple. The tempter approached Eve and deceived her, because a small portion of what he told her was the truth. There was just enough truth to persuade her to do what God had expressly forbade both of them not to do. Some of the false religions in the world today do the same thing. They give people just enough of the truth to convince them that what they are doing is the right thing. God had already told them that when they ate of the tree that they would surely die. As soon as they both ate, they immediately knew that something was badly wrong, for they went and covered themselves with fig leaves. The death sentence extended both to their bodily and their spiritual nature - to their mortal and immortal part. The day he sinned, Adam died in body, soul, and spirit and his consequences are still passed on to us. No doubt if they had passed the test of obedience, there would have continued for them a wonderful and peaceful life, and they might have even been able to have even greater and higher privileges as they passed each test in the garden. Everything that was put under Adam's dominion at creation came under the curse also as God cursed the ground and said that thorns and thistles would grow from it and that he would have to work hard for a living the rest of his life. God shows right here at the beginning the extent of his infinite grace and mercy, though. Even though they had messed up and had heavy consequences to pay for it, they didn't leave the Garden of Eden without hope. God pronounced the curse upon Satan and had given man the precious promise that "the seed of woman should bruise the head of the serpent". That is, our blessed Savior would be born of a woman and would redeem us from the power of sin and of death through his own obedience, death, and resurrection. Instead of giving Adam and Eve what they deserved, God gave them hope and assurance that He was still in control and that they hadn't messed up beyond what he could fix. All through the ages, this promise was claimed over and over again by Shem, Abraham, Jacob and on down through the generations. "The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent" would stand as a beacon-light to many people. This text taken from Bible History Old Testament written by Alfred Edersheim and is public domain used by permission of the publisher. |