Genesis in General - First words and Last words

Getting a Handle on Genesis.....

First Words and Last Words

Want to work your way through the first book of the Bible?

It's easy.....

Just think of the first five words of the first verse:  

  In the beginning God created....(Genesis 1:1)

Then think of the last five words of the last verse:

In a coffin in Egypt....(Genesis 50:26)

Who's in that coffin? Joseph.

  

   So Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten.   

And after they embalmed him,

he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.

Genesis 50:26

So those two phrases: the first five words and the last five words, are bookends that support the entire

book of Genesis.

Every thing that happened between those two phrases begin the story of mankind which is then extended throughout the Old Testament, and, for that matter, the New Testament and into the times yet to come.

• Creation
• Adam and Eve
• Sin enters the world
• Noah and the Flood
• Tower of Babel and the origin of nations
• Abraham
• Isaac
• Jacob
• Joseph
• 
  

Here's another way to get a handle on Genesis:

think of the word GOOD....

It's used 7 times in chapter 1, as God pondered His

acts of creation, concluding with verse 31:

God saw all that He had made, and it was very good....

Then look at the  words of chapter 50, spoken by Joseph to his brothers, who were tormented by their guilt and fearful of their lives:

Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God?

You intended to  harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives....

verses 19-20

So God, His Voice piercing the dark chaos and emptiness of all space, created an earth of ever-mysterious radiant beauty. And He declared it good.

So Joseph could look at the chaos of his own troubled life and see God's hand at work, and saw that it, too,

was good.

And we can do that, too. Look back through our own lives, through all the missteps, all the bad judgments, all the disobedient acts of willful sin.....

and yet we can see it redeemed by the grace of God

through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And we know that in all things God works for the good

of those who love Him, who have been called

according to His purpose...

(Romans 8:28)

Two handles to get hold of the Book of Genesis:

• (1) The first and last phrases, In the beginning God created, and in a coffin in Egypt....all the rest of the events of the book falls between creation and Joseph,

        and

• (2) the word good: out of cosmic chaos God created good (the first chapter), and out of Joseph's life (last chapter),  and ours, He created, and still creates, good.

Ancient words, ever true, changing me, changing you.

We have come with open hearts,

Oh, let the ancient words impart.

Holy words, long preserved for our walk in this world

They resound with God's own heart,

Oh, let the ancient words impart!