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| ISBN-13: | 9781433599255 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Crossway |
| Publication date: | 08/26/2025 |
| Pages: | 1096 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d) |
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CHAPTER 1
THE MESSAGE OF GENESIS: "... WHICH IN THEIR SEEDS AND WEAK BEGINNING LIE INTREASURED"
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEGINNINGS1
Britain's Prince Harry is in trouble. He apparently has been drunk in public. They say it is the influence of his friends. "Bad company spoils good manners." Some are concerned this could mean he is unfit to succeed to the throne of England. No one who begins like this can be royal material, right?
This is also what everyone was saying of another young Prince Harry, or Hal Bolingbroke, son of Henry IV and the future Henry V. William Shakespeare wrote a whole cycle of plays that centered on the accession of this young prince to the throne. Have you heard of the comedic character "Falstaff"? He comes from this series. Falstaff was the wayward companion accused of leading prince Harry into the public drunkenness and debauchery that shamed his father the king.
In Shakespeare's play, The Second Part of Henry IV, an ailing King Henry recalls a dark prophecy once spoken to him, and he wonders if it is true. In his response, the Earl of Warwick (not an entirely historical figure) utters the words you will find as this sermon's title: "There is a history in all men's lives, / Figuring the nature of the times deceas'd; / The which observed, a man may prophesy, /With a near aim, of the main chance of things / As yet not come to life, which in their seeds / And weak beginning lie intreasured" (III.i.80-85). In other words, carefully studying the history of something, particularly its beginnings, allows you to know its ultimate outcome before it happens.
What do you think? Is that your experience?
Certainly beginnings are important. For many people, they are the favorite part of a journey. Plato said they are the most important part of a work. Get the foundations wrong, and nothing else in the building will matter. The Bible tells us that fearing God is always a good beginning point. Surely beginnings often tell us about the whole. They are portentous, carrying in them the seeds of the outcome. You show me how you begin your day, and I can probably tell you something about what the day will be like. So we give the advice, "Begin as you mean to go on." And all this is why I am so careful about how I begin sermons. I will put a disproportionate amount of time into how I begin a sermon. Beginnings are very significant. They can reveal everything from trajectory to purpose, from methods to motives.
INTRODUCING GENESIS
In this series of five studies, we will look at the beginning of the Bible. You can see in the table of contents of your Bible that the first five books are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. In this study we look particularly at the book of Genesis. The story of the book of Genesis is the story of beginnings. There is much in the book, but the basic line is simple: God, Creation, Adam and Eve, and the Fall take up the first three chapters. Chapters 4–11 cover the time from Adam to Abraham, including the Flood and the Tower of Babel. And chapters 12–50 focus on Abraham and his family (12–25 focus on Abraham; 26–36 largely on his grandson Jacob; and 37–50 mainly on Jacob's son Joseph).
The story is beautifully and captivatingly told. It contains parts so majestic and grand that no translation can hide it: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). Yet it also contains small and precious details: "Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her" (29:20). Oh, friend, if you have not read this book, read it. Let me encourage you to read it in one sitting. It will take you three or four hours, but reading Genesis is a Sunday afternoon or a Saturday evening well spent; perhaps better spent than your last Saturday evening?
As you progress through the book, you will find that time slows down. In the early chapters we swoop through the centuries at the speed of the wind. Yet when we draw near the time in which these first five books were composed — probably when the children of Israel were getting ready to enter the Promised Land — time slows down. If the first five books of the Bible together form the beginning of the whole Bible, the book of Genesis provides the prologue to this beginning. It gets us from Creation to the starting point of the Exodus, and it is the Exodus that will finally launch God's people into God's land. In this series of five studies, we will look at one book per study. If this is the first sermon of mine you have read, let me say that this is not one of my normal sermons. But I do believe these types of sermons are useful. I do these Bible book overview sermons occasionally in order for our congregation to become more knowledgeable about what the Bible teaches. Sometimes you can see things from a great height, where you can take in the whole, that you cannot see down below. It can be difficult to get to such a position and it might take a little more work, but it bears great fruit.
For many people, Genesis is simply a jumble of famous Bible characters. Someone this week asked me to name the five most important characters in the book of Genesis. They were surprised when I did not mention Moses, but he does not come up until our next study, in Exodus. In order, I said the five most important characters would be — well, who do you think? God? Okay, that's not fair. The most important character would have to be Adam. And then it has to be Abraham. After that it gets a little dicey. But I would think Joseph, then Jacob, and finally Noah. Take it up with me later if you want to talk more about this.
If you take a copy of the Bible and open it, you will find the very first book is Genesis. We will not have any one main text in this study. Instead, we will look around the whole book, which is basically divided into two parts. The first part runs through the first 11 chapters. This section is about God creating the world and the whole human race. The main characters here are Adam and Noah. The second section takes up the rest of the book, running from chapter 12 through the end. In this section, the camera zooms in. It stops looking at the whole human race and instead looks at one particular family through whom God intends to accomplish his special purposes: God chooses a special people for himself to redeem out of the world for his own glory. The main characters here are Abraham, Abraham's son Isaac, Isaac's son Jacob, and Jacob's son Joseph. And that completes the book.
We do not have time to look through all this wonderful book — it inspires more questions than I could ever answer! — but we want to look at the key lessons I think we are intended to learn about God and about ourselves. In both parts of this book, we want to consider the display of God's holiness and judgment on sin, his mercy, and his sovereignty, followed by a consideration of what our response should be. As I have read and reread the book of Genesis over the past couple of weeks, these seem to be the four themes that emerge throughout the stories. The author of Genesis, Moses, could have written down a lot of other things. Genesis does not include everything that happened over the span of time it covers. Moses might have told the children of Israel a number of other things as they prepared to enter the Promised Land. But in God's sovereignty, these are the stories included for teaching, I think, what God intends us to learn. These themes emerge in the first part; and then, in the way God often reveals himself, they emerge even more clearly in the second part. God's revelation often becomes clearer over time.
GOD DISPLAYS HIS CHARACTER THROUGH THE WORLD HE HAS CREATED (CHAPTERS 1–11)
The first part of Genesis, chapters 1–11, provides everything the Bible says about a large chunk of human history. Some scholars suggest most of human history occurred before the Flood, based on the apostle Peter's comment about the "ancient world" (2 Pet. 2:5). Whether it did or not, the Bible clearly does not have a lot to say about the years between Adam and Abraham, who shows up at the end of chapter 11. Assuming that Abraham lived about four thousand years ago, everything we know about the years from Creation until Abraham are contained in these few chapters. In them are the stories of Creation and the Fall, Cain and Abel, Noah and the Flood, and the Tower of Babel. Also, some fundamental matters about God become evident in these earliest chapters of the Bible.
First among these must certainly be that God is self-existent. That is how the theologians would put it. In other words, nobody made him. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He is not dependent on anyone; not on you, not on me. He is not dependent on the weekly church offering. We do not have to pay him a salary. Indeed, all that we have is his. He is the one who made us. The Bible does not spend a lot of time talking about God's self-existence except in this first famous chapter about Creation. The magnificence of God's Creation is not even the focus of Genesis. Still, his self-existence is the background for everything else. The rest of the biblical writers assume it. So Genesis tells the story of Creation very briefly and clearly in the first two chapters, and then it turns to focus on the fact that this God who created the world is holy. Our Creator will be our Judge. He has given us our lives, and we will give him an account for them.
God's Holiness and Judgment Against Sin
We first clearly observe God's holiness and his commitment to condemn those who sin again him in the great sequence of events running from the Creation to the Fall to the Flood. In chapter 3, we encounter the story of the first sin in the Garden, when Adam and Eve take the fruit from the one tree that was forbidden them. We read about Eve foolishly looking at the fruit, debating with Satan about what God has said, and contemplating the fruit in its appearance and its effects. She even observes that the fruit is good to look at. She then takes it, holds it (God didn't say not to hold it, did he?), and finally eats it. Adam defaults on his responsibility to protect and lead his wife, before taking the sin as his own. God, of course, is as good as his word. We read, "So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken" (Gen. 3:23).
God's commitment to good and right continues through to the famous climax in the Flood in chapter 7. Now, most everyone knows the story of the Flood. We have told and retold it; we have sentimentalized it with our pictures and our toys. I remember once, when our children were little, my wife and I bought them a plastic ark with Noah, Mrs. Noah, and all the animals. Yet the more I have reflected on it, the more I see how poorly our little bathtub could represent the horror of this story. Surely, the Flood represents one of the four great judgments in the Bible, along with the fall of Adam, the cross of Christ, and the final judgment. Surely, the Flood was a horrible calamity in which God wiped out almost the entire human race. Noah's ark was not a plaything, and the rising waters were not a warm bath! The waters covered the earth as the expression of God's death-dealing wrath against men whom the Lord describes with the chilling phrase "every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood" (8:21). Has anyone ever told you that total depravity is never taught in the Old Testament? The Lord's words here suggest otherwise.
Friend, if you are not a Christian, I implore you to take the time to read through the book of Genesis. You may find some details that confuse you. You may have some unanswered questions. But you cannot fail to find the message loudly and clearly proclaimed: there is a God, he made you with meaning and purpose, and you have failed to live and love as you were made to do.
Is it any wonder that the first chapters of the Bible have been under so much attack over the last two centuries? If we think we came into existence simply by an accidental process, then we may feel accountable to no one. Yet such freedom is lonely. It is purposeless. And it is false. It is the freedom that ignores evidence of design in the world, that rejects the idea that people are special to God, and that clones human beings only to grow spare parts with them and then discard them. This is what we call naturalism. Naturalism is the philosophy that says, since God did not make us, we are only as special as we want to think of ourselves as being. So we kill babies in the womb and old people in the nursing homes for our own convenience. Some say we do it for the betterment of society! May God deliver us in our day from such lies. And they are lies. Whether taught by a neighbor across the street or a professor at Princeton, they are lies. We need to call them such.
God is holy, and he will come in Christ to judge our sins. As the apostle Peter said, the Lord Jesus "commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead." We should praise God for the majesty and beauty of his creation, which matches the majesty and beauty of his own character. And we should prepare ourselves for his scrutinizing judgment. We are called to both praise him and prepare for him. I pray that God will enable our church to do both. We need to be able to see the goodness of God's creation. Continually talking about the cross and our need for salvation does not mean we should not be able to perceive any good in this world. We can see many good things in our family, friends, and society at large. But we must also be able to perceive our sins. Let us as a church cultivate a readiness to see all of God's goodness in creation — whether coming naturally or through people; whether through Christians or non-Christians — but let us also cultivate a readiness to see our own sins in order to reverently confess and turn away from them. God is good in his creation, yet creation is fallen. He is holy, and he will judge us for our sins.
God's Mercy
But thank God that we not only find his holiness displayed in these early chapters of the Bible; we also find his mercy displayed. While pronouncing the curse itself, his judgment on the first sin, God offers a glimmer of hope that he will provide for us in our sins. In what Christians call the "proto-gospel," he promises that the woman's offspring "will crush your [the serpent's] head" (3:15). Does that not sound like the God of the Bible we read about again and again? Even in his first judgment, our great and holy Creator shows mercy. And he speaks so tenderly. In these early chapters, the expression "God remembered" is used a number of times. So in 8:1, God mercifully "remembered Noah" and the animals and livestock that were with him in the ark. After the judgment of the Flood, God promises to "remember" the covenant he is making with Noah and his offspring (9:15-16). In the midst of wrath, God remembers mercy.
Friend, it is important for you to see God's mercy as part of the Bible's basic picture of him. We cannot just speak of his holiness and perfection and not also speak of his mercy. Here in these first chapters of the Bible, where God judges sinful humans for marring his creation and themselves — who were made specially in his image! — he remembers mercy.
Interestingly, the early church presented Noah's ark as a symbol of Christ. Some of the earliest drawings of Christ are representations of an ark affixed to a cross, indicating that Christ is our ark. He is the vessel of mercy that we, once inside, can safely ride through the floods of God's judgment. God has always been merciful, and never more so than by giving himself in Christ. Our only hope is God's mercy. As Christians, we have no ground for pride. We have sinned against God and are morally bankrupt. We have completely spent our small resources and now cannot provide for our most basic spiritual needs. We are entirely dependent upon God's mercy and grace for salvation.
This is why the cross of Christ must always be at the center of our worship, whether public or private. I don't mean a physical cross for us to stare at, but an understanding and a pronouncement of what God has done in the cross of Christ. These first chapters of Genesis present no hope for the human race apart from God's mercy! We know today with clarity what the characters in Genesis only dimly perceived: how God would specifically accomplish our salvation by giving himself in Christ. So we should praise God as Creator and Redeemer. We should sing of his truth and his mercies. We should praise the Lamb who was slain for us. As we sing in the hymn "God, All Nature Sings Thy Glory": "Our sins have spoiled Thine image; Nature, conscience only serve as unceasing, grim reminders of the wrath which we deserve. Yet Thy grace and saving mercy in Thy Word of truth revealed claim the praise of all who know Thee, in the blood of Jesus sealed." Isn't that a marvelous truth about God? The holy one is the merciful one!
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Message of the Old Testament"
by .
Copyright © 2006 Mark Dever.
Excerpted by permission of Good News Publishers.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Graeme Goldsworthy,
Acknowledgments,
Introduction: Fly First, Walk Later,
The Whole Bible: What Does God Want of Us?,
The Old Testament: Promises Made,
THE GREAT STORY,
1 The Message of Genesis: "... Which in Their Seeds and Weak Beginning Lie Intreasured",
2 The Message of Exodus: "All the World's a Stage",
3 The Message of Leviticus: "The World Is Not Thy Friend Nor the World's Law",
4 The Message of Numbers: "Past and to Come Seem Best, Things Present, Worst",
5 The Message of Deuteronomy: "What's Past Is Prologue",
THE OTHER MILLENNIUM,
6 The Message of Joshua: Conquest,
7 The Message of Judges: Stalemate,
8 The Message of Ruth: Surprise,
9 The Message of 1 Samuel: Faith in Faithless Times,
10 The Message of 2 Samuel: Repentance,
11 The Message of 1 Kings: Decline,
12 The Message of 2 Kings: Fall,
13 The Message of 1 Chronicles: Heights,
14 The Message of 2 Chronicles: Depths,
15 The Message of Ezra: Renewal,
16 The Message of Nehemiah: Rebuilding,
17 The Message of Esther: Surprise,
ANCIENT WISDOM,
18 The Message of Job: Wisdom for Losers,
19 The Message of Psalms: Wisdom for Spiritual People,
20 The Message of Proverbs: Wisdom for the Ambitious,
21 The Message of Ecclesiastes: Wisdom for the Successful,
22 The Message of Song of Songs: Wisdom for the Married,
BIG HOPES,
23 The Message of Isaiah: Messiah,
24 The Message of Jeremiah: Justice,
25 The Message of Lamentations: Justice Up Close,
26 The Message of Ezekiel: Paradise,
27 The Message of Daniel: Survival,
ETERNAL QUESTIONS,
28 The Message of Hosea: What Is Love?,
29 The Message of Joel: Whom Will God Save?,
30 The Message of Amos: Does God Care?,
31 The Message of Obadiah: Does God Have Enemies?,
32 The Message of Jonah: Can You Run from God?,
33 The Message of Micah: What Does God Want?,
34 The Message of Nahum: Who's In Charge?,
35 The Message of Habakkuk: How Can I Be Happy?,
36 The Message of Zephaniah: What's There to Be Thankful For?,
37 The Message of Haggai: Are Your Investments Sound?,
38 The Message of Zechariah: Does God Give Second Chances?,
39 The Message of Malachi: Does It Matter How I Worship God?,
Person Index,
Scripture Index,
What People are Saying About This
“This is a bold project, some might say foolhardy, but Mark Dever has brilliantly succeeded. This is no mere textbook; it is powerful preaching. We are not only introduced to the sweep and message of each book of the Bible but also, and above all, confronted by our great God and called to obey his living word.”
—Vaughan Roberts, Rector, St Ebbe’s Church, Oxford, United Kingdom
“In these distinctive overview sermons, Mark Dever manages to bring together around the core issues of each biblical book three concerns that ought to occupy every faithful preacher of God’s word: theological content, exegetical wisdom, and pastoral application. Here is a walk through the Bible that is well worth taking!”
—Timothy George, Distinguished Professor of Divinity, Beeson Divinity School, Samford University; General Editor, Reformation Commentary on Scripture
“Mark Dever has done the Christian community a great service in publishing these sermons. The material is academically informed but presented in a very accessible way with relevant application. With its Christological focus and careful Christian application of the Old Testament, this book enables readers to get into the theological heart of the message of each biblical book.”
—David Peterson, Emeritus Faculty, Moore Theological College
“Mark Dever has written a needed book and written it well. With a pastor’s heart, a scholar’s mind, and the intimacy of a friend, Dever introduces the reader clearly and creatively to a book that has changed the world but to which contemporary culture remains largely unexposed. This book is warm, engaging, straightforward, and profound. It will be a valuable resource for individuals, study groups, churches, and unbelievers and believers alike. Dever takes the reader on an unforgettable journey into the most remarkable and moving book ever written.”
—John Shouse, Senior Professor of Christian Theology, Gateway Seminary
“This is a good book, written by a pastor/scholar for people in the pew. Clear, concise, thoroughly readable. Buy two and give one to a friend.”
—Alistair Begg, Senior Pastor, Parkside Church, Chagrin Falls, Ohio
“For many Christians the Old Testament is daunting and confusing. The books are long and speak about a culture dramatically different from ours. Mark Dever’s sermons do not substitute for reading the Old Testament, but they do provide a wonderful help in understanding it. Dever unpacks the major themes of each book with remarkable clarity, and the book also shines in conveying the message of the Old Testament for today. Here is a survey of the Old Testament that is accessible and spiritually edifying.”
—Thomas R. Schreiner, James Buchanan Harrison Professor of New Testament Interpretation, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
“The modern Church is biblically illiterate. Her members do not know the basic content of the Bible or the great themes that weave its beautiful tapestry together. This series of sermons by Mark Dever, a superb and faithful expositor, provides a helpful strategy for healing a major malady of the twenty-first-century church. I am delighted to commend this excellent volume to all who love the word of God and the great truths contained therein.”
—Daniel L. Akin, President, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
“This book is a landmark in the history of Bible exposition—a homiletical tour de force. At the rate of one long sermon per book, Mark Dever has preached his way through the entire Bible. Reading this collection of his messages is an ideal way to get a sweeping overview of the Old Testament, or else to begin preparing to teach or preach any one of its individual books.”
—Philip Graham Ryken, President, Wheaton College
“In a day of worrisome biblical illiteracy, even among Christians, there is a pressing need for books that give the big picture and provide sure-footed guides for negotiating the Bible’s vast and subtle territory. To produce such a book is no easy task, yet that is what Dever has done. Forged in the furnace of weekly expository preaching and pastoral ministry, this book is a wonderful gift to the church that will, I am sure, be of great help in promoting deeper understanding of the message of the whole Bible, not just those parts with which readers are most familiar or comfortable. Buy two copies: one to keep, one to give to your pastor.”
—Carl R. Trueman, Professor of Biblical and Religious Studies, Grove City College
“Mark Dever does here what all pastors should do—he preaches the whole Bible patiently and thoroughly. These sermons will help readers see the Bible as a unity inspired by a God who is a unified and coherent person. They focus on God; therefore, they drive readers to worship and obedience.”
—Paul R. House, Former Professor of Divinity, Beeson Divinity School
“To hear the Bible tell its own story in its own way—this is the obvious but all-too-rare strategy for reading the Book of books. I thank Mark Dever for showing us how. We are immeasurably enriched.”
—Ray Ortlund, Pastor to Pastors, Immanuel Nashville, Tennessee
“Mark Dever’s one-sermon whole-Bible-book overviews are a treasure trove for preachers, Bible teachers, and growing Christians. Dever has already given us a comprehensive overview of the New Testament, and here he covers the Old. Preachers will recognize these expositions as Greidanus and Goldsworthy applied. That is, Dever preaches the person and work of Christ from all of Scripture, naturally and exegetically, in a way that does justice to redemptive history. Christians hungry for a spiritual feast in the word will find here faithful, biblical, rich, meaty, and challenging pastoral overviews of Scripture from the heart of a preacher who wants his people to know, love, and live the truth. Dever gives us a model for how to preach didactically, practically, apologetically and evangelistically all at once.”
—Ligon Duncan, Chancellor and CEO, Reformed Theological Seminary