Hi James and Ellen,
Genesis is the Bible’s first book. Beginning is a literal meaning of Genesis. The historical accounts that make up Genesis’ fifty chapters were succinctly recorded over 3,400 years ago in a manuscript that Moses scribed. Moses was doing a God enforced forty year Sinai Desert timeout at the time when Moses chronicled in a missive – which became entitled Genesis and the first book in the Bible’s canon, the historical backdrop of his people group of guys, gals and kids – the Israelite people group of guys, gals and kids. Even though Moses’ lineage is through the family tree of Abraham – who is the patriarch of the Israelite people group of guys, gals and kids, Moses’ first forty years of living on planet Earth was under an Egyptian Pharaoh’s roof. Your grandpaa believes that Moses became well educated during this forty year period. Moses’ tutored learning would eighty years later enable him to scribe a fact filled exposition that would leave his Israelite people group guys, gals and kids with cogent authentication of their heritage. Moses begins his Genesis narrative by accounting for an unparalleled and the unfolding of a God designed creation that includes an inhabitable orb that was given the name Earth and Earth’s accompanying firmament. After recounting the fiasco that took place in a garden called Eden and the consequences of an act of disobedience, Moses then accounts for each patriarchal generation that – before he completed scribing his Genesis text, did planet Earth tenures. Your grandpaa believes – as many Christ-follower guys, gals and kids do, that God’s preplanned creating on planet Earth of Adam and Eve took place around 6,000 years ago. Your grandpaa would not be surprised if prior to God molding Adam and Eve into His likeness as thinking, talking, moral beings – that God used planet Earth as a staging site for a preliminary go around with a fallen angel – whose name is Lucifer or Satan. It is intriguing to your grandpaa that God’s predestined plan – even way back when God positioned planet Earth in a life sustaining orbit around a massive heat generating sphere – called sun, was to turn planet Earth over to Satan.
Moses does not mince words in his Genesis treatise. Moses identifies pride to be sin’s driver. Moses names death to be sin’s consequence. Moses tracks the fall of Adam and Eve from being in God’s grace to somewhere around 2,000 years later having Noah and his three boys build an ark so that they and their wives – along with an inestimable number of pairs of living creatures, could escape what took place when God opened heaven’s fountains and planet Earth’s springs to totally submerge planet Earth with water to drown the remaining sin fixated inhabitants who were living on planet Earth. Moses singled out the Babel Tower as an example of how God was still allowing Satan to entrench his depravity centered behaviors into guys, gals and kids who God will have live on planet Earth. Moses than moved on to God choosing a guy – who was Abram, to be the patriarch of a people group of guys, gals and kids who would know that they are God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids. Moses in his Genesis transcript moves from Abram’s story to Abram’s kid Isaac’s story to Isaac’s kid Jacob’s story to Jacob’s kid Joseph’s story. Abram’s story – which unfolded per Moses for 175 years, starts out with Abram’s dad moving his family from the town of Ur north to the town of Haran. Abram – who had God change his name to Abraham, then moved with his wife Sarai and a nephew – whose name was Lot, to the land of Canaan. Years after God promised Abram and Sarai that they would have a kid of their own, Isaac was conceived. Isaac’s story ends with his wife – who was Rebecca, duping him into giving his birthright – that he was to give to Esau, to Esau’s kid twin bro – who was Jacob. Jacob’s story ends with a different name that God gave him – which was Israel, leaving the stomping grounds of his dad and granddad for the land of Egypt where one of his kids – who was Joseph, had been divinely placed by God to live.
Two subplots in Genesis have your grandpaa wondering why Moses included them in his historical draft. The first subplot involves Nahor and Nahor’s extended family. Nahor was Abraham’s bro. When Abraham moved to a land area that was known as Canaan, Nahor stayed in the land area that became known as Assyria. Between his wife and a handmaid, Nahor had twelve boys. Each boy became a tribal clan leader. Jacob also had twelve boys. Jacob had his twelve boys with four different women with each boy becoming a tribal clan leader. Your grandpaa believes that Nahor’s extended family settled and populated the land areas of the countries of Iran, Iraq and Syria. Your grandpaa thinks that the birth of Islamic beliefs originated from Nahor’s extended family. Your grandpaa believes that at this time that a jealous animosity emerged from Nahor’s extended family against the guys and gals who were being born in Abraham’s extended family. Because both Isaac and Jacob made the 500 or so mile grueling trek from the town of Beersheba in the land of Canaan to the town of Haran in the country of Syria – both marrying gals who could call Nahor their dad or granddad, your grandpaa adds this as to possibly why Abraham’s extended family was hated by Nahor’s extended family. Nahor’s extended family knew that God had fixed His blessings on Abraham’s extended family and not on their extended family. Another subplot is about Ishmael. Ishmael’s dad was Abraham. Ishmael’s story has him and Hagar – who was his ma – who was Sarai’s handmaid, banished to the Arabia Desert.
Genesis