Genesis: Overview

In order to explain to those who had been delivered by the Exodus out of slavery in Egypt how the whole story had begun, who the nation of Israel was, why they existed, where they were going, and why they were going there, Moses wrote the book of Genesis.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:06

You're listening to Teach Me the Bible podcast, where we unpack the meaning of books, passages and themes from Scripture. Join us each week as Dr David Klingler walks us through God's Word and teaches the Bible. Each episode has a study guide available in the show notes. This is Teach Me the Bible podcast.

Speaker 2 0:31

Hey everybody, welcome to Teach Me the Bible podcast. I'm Alex Wolfe, I'm here with Dr David Klingler and we are starting today a really exciting series, I suppose an exciting book it's Genesis. I don't know that we can overstate the importance of this book I venture to say the most important book of the Bible for a lot of reasons. So we're going to spend some time today just sort of introducing, overview Genesis. I know we've done some of this in the past, but we're going to get in a little more details this time around. So today we're going to overview, kind of orient our minds to really why Genesis is so important and what it's doing, and then we're going to start jumping in to, sort of chapter by chapter, some of the more detailed stuff over the coming weeks. And so we're really glad you've joined us. We're going to just dive in what you got for us.

Speaker 3 1:28

Well, so you know where do you begin at the beginning. In the beginning, god created the heavens and the earth, and so I like what you said. You know, I've thought about this a lot is, and I guess if I had to pick one book, I don't know that I could the most important book of the Bible. Certainly you're not going to understand any of the plot line, what's going on in the Bible without Genesis. You don't understand how the Bible is playing out without Torah, without Deuteronomy, and so certainly those two books, I would say, are the most important, and at the end of Deuteronomy, at least a song of Moses, and Deuteronomy 32, moses tells you the rest of the story. And so those two books, you know, I don't know, maybe it'd be hard-pressed to say which one is more important, that's tough.

Speaker 2 2:24

Well, the beginning of the story, sir. You can't have the rest of it without the Torah, that's right.

Speaker 3 2:32

And so what is Genesis? Well, genesis is the beginning of the narrative of the Old Testament, and so we've talked a lot about the story of the Bible and there's all this real general language that's thrown around, and even we say it. So let's just be really precise about what we're saying right here. Most people, when they come to the Bible, the Old Testament, is difficult. It's foreign to them, they can't track how to read it, it doesn't make any sense, and so in this study of Genesis, we're going to kind of spell that out for you and we're going to get the story quote story started. But what do we mean by the story? Well, let me explain this just briefly.

Speaker 3 3:25

And so all of history, god has been at work. He created, he started, and every event, every detail of every second, throughout all of time, he's been sovereign over Right. And now, how do we know that? Well, without the Bible we wouldn't know that. And so the book of Genesis is a book of the Hebrew name, for the book is Bereshe in the beginning, which is the first word or words in the book of Genesis. But it is tighter than that. This is God's revelation concerning the creation, the beginning of the story to the nation Israel. Yeah, and that's important to remember.

Speaker 3 4:25

And so the law, the Pentateuch, the Torah okay, we're talking about the first five books of the Bible. We call this Pentateuch or Torah, or the law, the law of Moses. These books were written to the nation Israel by Moses right before they're about to take the land, after the Exodus and before the conquest 40 years of wilderness, wonderings, and so why do they need to know this information, right? Okay, so often we use Genesis to debate creation and science, and how many days, how long, how old's the earth, and all that. This was written by Moses to Israel so that they would know who they are as a nation, or about to be a nation, why they exist, where they're going, why are they going there, who are they going to encounter when they get there and what are they supposed to do when they get there? Right, so this is all about everything that you, israel, need to know when you get in the land.

Speaker 2 5:32

So all of these details that I'm getting into are specifically applicable to the direct audience he's writing to, which sounds really obvious when you say it out loud.

Speaker 3 5:41

Well, yeah, except that we think that it was the Bible was written to us. It was written for our instruction, but it wasn't written to us, and so all of these. So that's one thing that you need to understand right off the bat. Okay, so that this is Moses' story narrative. Now, story narrative what's the distinction? What's the difference?

Speaker 3 6:03

Okay, in story, we're just generally saying, I think when people say the story of the Bible, they're basically saying the progress of revelation, kind of the all of it together. Right, what we're saying is that Genesis, exodus, leviticus, numbers, is a narrative, it's narrative literature. And so whenever we have a specific literary genre, you know an author wants to communicate a message. That message is gonna be communicated through a genre and that genre is going to play by a certain set of rules, right, and so how do you know you're reading a poem and not a story? Well, there's things that sets you off, you know, in poetry that are different than story the narrative.

Speaker 3 6:54

Well, what is narrative? Well, narrative has characters, it has a setting. There's a problem that comes into the setting, a conflict and citing a van or something like that and then the rest of the narrative seeks to resolve that problem. Okay, right, okay, and so really, this is the beginning of a narrative, narrative literature, a unified narrative that's gonna be told not just by Moses but by later prophets as well. And so when we think about the unified narrative of the Old Testament kind of the backbone story of the Old Testament, we're talking about Genesis, exodus, leviticus, numbers, deuteronomy, Joshua, judges, samuel Kings, right, so Genesis to 2 Kings, that's the story. If you wanna understand the Old Testament story that's the Old Testament story, then you're going to start to have to add in some other books okay, and so the book of Genesis is the beginning of the story. We're gonna have characters and characterization and foreshadowing and flashback and plot twists and all of these things that we're gonna talk about.

Speaker 2 8:01

We're gonna be talking in terms of like scenes and things like this.

Speaker 3 8:05

Yes, a story and scenes. And so when you walk into a movie and you watch the first scene, you're gonna I don't even know what's going on here, right. And you watch the second scene, you say I'm not. Still not sure what's going on here. And you watch the third scene, you go Okay yeah.

Speaker 3 8:16

I think I see what's going on here and as the story begins to progress, sometimes you don't know why that first scene started the way it started. Until the movie's almost over you're gonna oh, that makes sense, right, and so. So that's what we're gonna be be working with. Yeah, in the book, in the book of Genesis, okay and so. So the book of Genesis is narrative. Its story, it sets the setting and and the problem of the whole Bible and the anticipated resolution of the whole Bible.

Speaker 3 8:49

Okay, one of our, one of our students and guys, that student today and but helps us, he's, he said it this way and his name is Jason coke. I like it. I we're explaining this. I was kind of explaining that some books kind of serve as the backbone. I carry this, and he said and he said so. So he said some, some books carry the storyline, some books contribute to the storyline and some books Contemplate the storyline. Yeah, that's good. And and you know he's a preacher or pastor, and so this three C's, you know he had to have the three C's there, which is really helpful in this case, and so.

Speaker 3 9:33

So by carry the storyline we mean Genesis, exodus, leviticus, numbers, deuteronomy, joshua, judges, samuel actually Narrative, it's actually a continuation of the story. So you're gonna see things happening in Genesis. They're gonna be playing out in later books. Yeah right, there are books that contribute to the storyline. You're, there's information that you're gonna need to know, and so the prophet comes along, and you know Psalm 2, psalm 110, you know some of the Psalms. These contribute to to the storyline.

Understanding Genesis for Deeper Narrative

Speaker 3 10:05

The book of Ruth is Is a unify, it's a. It's a narrative, it's a single story, but the information contained in that single story Contributes dramatically to the storyline. And then you've got books that contemplate the storyline Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. Here we're thinking about wisdom, literature, and so this is the beginning of the carrying of the storyline, and so so that's, that's the book of Genesis. Now the book of Genesis is there's not an end to the book of Genesis, and so the last verse in Genesis is gonna walk us right into Exodus. So it's not a complete story. It's not a complete story, it's the beginning of the story. It's the, it's the beginning of all of the revelation of the Bible, and all of these books that either carry, contribute to or contemplate are all based upon this narrative and where this narrative is heading, and ultimately it's heading towards revelation. So we're gonna see some things next time right up front and we'll point these out as we go that that you're gonna see in chapter one, that don't find their solution until revelation chapter 21, 22 till the new heavens and new earth, and so that's, that's where we're headed in in the book of Genesis, and so this will be a slower Approach than we've taken. We we did go into some detail in the story, as we did the Bible in a year. We spent several Weeks in Genesis. We're gonna spend several more this time around, but my concern is that we get so bogged down in the details we lose the big picture, and so really the best place to start is the, the story in a year, the Bible in a year, and then, once that makes sense, now we come in here and let's start to flesh out and detail out scene by scene in the book of Genesis, and that's how we're gonna talk about. We're gonna talk about it in terms of scenes and and sometimes you know we're kind of trying to keep these podcasts to about 30 minutes 20 or so if the longest would be ideal, and so that's really dictating where we're stopping. We're gonna, we're gonna always stop at the end of a scene, but these scenes are not stand alone, they're moving the plot. Okay, and so here's the last thing we want to talk about Story.

Speaker 3 12:30

How does narrative literature work? Narrative literature, as we've said, has a setting, a Problems gonna walk into the setting for the main character, the main characters, the main character, because they're the ones that have to deal with the problem. In this case, in this story, in this narrative, the main character is God, and God's going to have a problem, walk into his setting Actually, he's gonna hide himself in his setting, but anyway and there's an antagonist. So there's a protagonist, there's an antagonist, there's an anticipated solution that's gonna be right in Genesis, chapter three, and this plot then is going to move, and so every scene in a story moves the plot, and so there's no going backwards in the story. So I'll hear this often. You know, we're going back to the garden. No, we're not. There's no going back, there's only going forward. We're going forward to the new heavens and new earth, the garden. That ship has sailed. Now there are things in the new heavens and new earth that aren't, that were present in the garden, like the Tree of Life, but the garden is not like the new heavens and new earth, and so we'll talk about that as we get going.

Speaker 3 13:50

So the story is moving forward, the plot's on the move and all of this story is history. It's all happened in the past for Israel, okay, moses wasn't there to see Abraham or Isaac or Jacob. None of the audience that this book is written to were there to see any of these things. All of this stuff, all of these events that are being mentioned, have already happened. So, as every storyteller will do, the events, the details that are chosen are selective. So this is historical narrative. It's historical in the sense that it happened. It happened in history. All of these events actually happened. But it's narrative in that it's narrative literature, and so it's gonna be told as a story, with characters and plot and plot development and all that, and so it's selective and it is told as a story for Israel, and if we'll remember that as we go through here, and we'll emphasize that as we go, then this book of Genesis is going to make sense to you, maybe for the first time, and so it's exciting.

Speaker 2 15:05

Well, yeah, and I think we're gonna. As we go through this, we'll try to make our case well, but, like you're saying, these details are finding their significance later in the story. Absolutely, we're gonna be suggesting. This means this. We interpret it this way because we're reading ahead in the story and we're bringing it in and helping that. So we'll make that case and we'll be pointing you to later parts of the story. So you see this. This shows up here. This is why he said that back there.

Speaker 3 15:36

If you just watched the first scene of a movie and turned it off and then said, okay, everyone in the movie theater, what do you think this scene's about? There'd be all kinds of stuff and who knows who's right. There's no way to determine who's right, okay. Then you say, okay, watch the second scene and then stop it. Okay, now, what do you think? And if you keep kept doing that, scene by scene, through the whole movie, everyone would realize what the first scene was actually about. So here's what we're saying and this is what you're saying, alex is that once you've watched the whole movie, you know how to interpret the first scene, because that's the only way that it makes sense.

Speaker 3 16:15

If you don't know the whole movie, if you don't know the whole book of Genesis, exodus, leviticus, and most of us don't because we just try to start reading the Old Testament, we just bug down. We bug down like I ain't just any making sense Because we're trying to read. How does it apply to my life? And in many ways it doesn't directly apply to your life. You're not being asked to go offer burnt offerings in a certain way or offer grain offerings in a certain way, and so we lose interest. But if we read this as a story written to them, and the reason why it's relevant to us is because this story is about history. It continues, and you're in it, we're all in it, and so yeah, so that's well said.

Speaker 2 16:57

Yeah, it's like you know, you ever watch a movie the second time and you watch those first things which is what you've been saying and you're like, oh, I didn't catch that before. Now I know what that means. You know that's what we're doing in this study, and so hopefully that'll help make some sense of what's going on here. So good, cool, All right. Well, hey, thank you for joining us. We're excited to kind of start this journey together and we're gonna dive into chapter one next week, and so we'll see you then.

Speaker 1 17:28

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