Genesis

We are beginning the study of Genesis.  We are looking at who, what, when, where, and how of
Genesis.   Right now we are going to talk about the WHO of Genesis 1:1.

❖ Genesis 1:1  In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

The Bible itself portrays Christ as Savior of the World.  The God of the Bible is the Creator or its Author.  It is God’s written revelation of His Will to men (male & female).  The central theme of the Bible is salvation through Jesus Christ.

The word “Bible” comes from the Greek word biblos which actually is “a library of books” focused on the subject “GOD”!!!  

We have the Old Testament and the New Testament.  The word “testament” in the Latin is testis or testicles, which is derived from ancient custom of “placing one’s hand on another party’s testicles to make a solemn pledge”, conveying not only the trust of the two parties, but also the pledge is binding on the future generations that will come from the seed of each man.  

There are two instances when this happened.

1) When Abraham sent his servant to get a wife for Isaac, his servant put his hand under Abraham’s thigh (Genesis 24:2-9).

2) Then again two generations later, it happened with Jacob and Joseph (Genesis 47:29).

The blessings of God are “gene-rational”.  Genesis is the “’plant-bed” of the creation. (A tobacco farmer would know what that is. This was where the seed was sown and grown – then the tobacco plants were taken out to the fields and planted to bring forth the harvest).

So Genesis is the “birthing unit” out of which came forth “the beginning of the creation”. 

For right now, we’ll talk about “the God” in Genesis.  

The Old Testament is the covenant GOD made with man about his salvation before Christ came, and then the New Testament is the agreement that God made with man about his salvation after Christ came.  Remember this in relation to a “covenant” - it cannot be negotiated.  A contract can, but a covenant can’t!  Our God is a “covenant” God!!!

The Old Testament.begins with God in Genesis 1:1, and the New Testament begins with Christ in Matthew 1:1.  

The first five words in Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created” is the beginning of what God began in His creation and the first five words of Revelation 1:1 “The revelation of Jesus Christ” is the fulfilling of what God began in Genesis 1:1.

Revelation shows the fullness of Christ in the church and the fullness of the glory of the church in Christ! The first chapters/verses in those two parts (Genesis 1:1 & Revelation 1:1) are saying a whole lot to us as a people about our God!

Henrietta Mears said it quite well: From Adam to Abraham, we have the history of the human race; from Abraham to Christ, we have the history of the chosen race; and from Christ on, we have the history of the church.  

In Genesis, it starts “In the beginning God”.  To understand the “creation”, we must first understand the “Beginning”!  But we’re going to deal first with “the GOD” of the creation!

WHO IS THIS GOD?  

❖ John 4:24  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.  

Whether in the Old Testament or the New Testament, Spirit is defined as wind.  In the Old Testament, it is ruwach, and in the New Testament, it is pneuma, which is still wind.  The very air that we breathe is God which is His Spirit.  God is the Creator of the universe; the Supreme Being; Author of the universe; Maker of the universe; Fashioner of the universe; Originator of the universe; Producer; Inventor; Designer of the universe.

Genesis 1:1  In the beginning GOD!  This is Elohiym now that’s doing the creating.

❖ Proverbs 18:10  The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.  

God in the Hebrew is Elohiym, which means “gods” in the ordinary sense but specifically used of the Supreme God.  

 The NAMES OF GOD are His revelations of Himself.  There are many names for God in the scripture:

(1) God - Genesis 1:1  In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

(2) LORD God - Genesis 2:4  These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,

(3) The “I Am” - Exodus 3:14  And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

(4) Jehovah - Exodus 6:3  And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.

(5) The LORD – Malachi 3:6  I am the LORD, I change not.

(6) Father - James 1:17  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

(7) Heavenly Father - Matthew 6:26  Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.  Are ye not much better than they?

(8) MOST HIGH – Acts 7:48  Howbeit, the most High dwells not in temples made with hands.

THE NATURE OF THIS GOD.  

HE IS:

(1) Spirit - John 4:24  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

(2) One - Deuteronomy 6:4  Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.

As awesome as He is, He chose to take up residence in us.  So He becomes a “personal God”.

● You can find three manifestations of the God-Head in 2 Corinthians 13:14  The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.    

Yet they are “ONE”!  And they are “One” in us by the “Holy Ghost”!  

● 1 Corinthians 6:17  He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.  

● 1 Corinthians 12:12  For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body:  so also is CHRIST:  

● 1 Corinthians 12:13  By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit!!!

Therefore, we are CHRIST’S BODY in the earth: 

● Ephesians 5:30  We are members (limbs; a part of the body) of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones!

● 1 John 4:17  As he is, so are we in this world. (Not out yonder beyond the blue – but right here and right now)!

THE NATURAL ATTRIBUTES of God:

(1) Invisible - John 1:18: No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

JESUS THE SON MADE HIM (GOD) VISIBLE:

● St. John 1:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  

● St. John 1:14  And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among.us.

● St. John 1:2  And The same was in the beginning with God.  

That was “US” (Christ’s body).  We were there with Him also, and we also became flesh.  We are here not just because our parents got together one day or night, but we’re here because God sent us here!  

St. John 1:12-13  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:  which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, BUT OF GOD.

●  Remember:  1 John 4:17): As he is, so are we, in this world!

Jesus speaking to the disciple:

● St. John 14:7  If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also:  and from henceforth you know him, and have seen him.

● St. John 14:8  Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.

● St. John 14:9  Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?  he that hath seen me hath seen the Father;  and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father”?

● St. John 14:10  Believest thou that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?  the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself:  but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.

God as SPIRIT was no less God IN THE FLESH OF JESUS!  He just took on another form as a man, yet He (God) retained and maintained His identity as God, Elohiym, the Creator, Almighty, and Most High!!!

● Philippians 2:6-7: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:  But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:  

● Philippians 2:8  And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

● Hebrews 9:22  Without shedding of blood is no remission.

● St. John 10:10  I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly!!!  He died that we might LIVE!  

Take hold of this revelation:  St. John 1:18  Jesus states: No man hath seen God.   We are more than just mere “men” (male and female).  St. John 10 (the Jews were wanting to stone Jesus because of what he said):

● St. John 10:30  I and my Father are one.

● St. John 10:31  Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.

● St. John 10:32  Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed you from my Father; for which of those works do you stone me?

● St. John 10:33  The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.

● St. John 10:34  Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, You are gods?

So when I see “you” or another “person”, I see God. Or when you look at another person you are looking at God.  When you look into the mirror, you are looking at God. Only the “gods” can see this, and not “men” or “mere mortals”.

There is a difference between wanting to “reflect God’s face” and “wanting to take His place”!    We His people are “reflecting God’s face” in and on the earth!  Again I can say what the Word of God says:                    1 John.4:17  As he is, so are we in this world.

What is the revelation or unveiling of the name Elohiym in relation to “WHO” the God of the creation is?

Genesis 1:1 says “In the beginning God” (or Elohiym) created.

This verse tells us something specific about God:

● He “eternally exists” because it was in the beginning that He created the heavens and the earth.  This “beginning” was not a calendar date.  It was “CHRIST”. 

❖ Colossians 1:17-18  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.  And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

Revelation 3:14  These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of

God.

● God is “sufficient” within Himself.  

❖ Genesis 1:1 - In the beginning God.  

That’s what Elohiym shows or reveals of God in that first sentence.  He eternally exists, and He’s

self-sufficient. He doesn’t need food, drink, or oxygen as we do.  He is “self-sufficient”. 

I used to say, God created everything out of “nothing”, but actually everything came forth out of God Himself!  That God is Light (1 John 1:5).  

So everything that was created came from “Light”! 

Hebrews 11:3  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.

So as we look into the book of Genesis - WHAT is GENESIS?

It’s the native or “original” scene of creation where everything took place; births (production); situations and circumstances took place.  

Genesis comes from the Hebrew word reshiyth-ray-sheeth’, which means the first in place, time, order or rank.  Synonyms for “Genesis” are:  creation; origin (beginning; cause; commencement; descent; source; fountainhead; derivation; rise; ancestry); formation; beginning; birth; production!!!  GLORY TO GOD!!!

When you look at Genesis, you have to look at yourself because everything starts in the “genes”.  Your physical make-up is housed in your genes. (“genes – is”)!

Look at the theme of “Genesis”.  It talks about the creation, the fall, the redemption of the human race through Jesus Christ, and around this centers all divine revelation and scripture truths.  

The book of “Genesis” is the “origin” or “seed-bed” of the whole Bible and is essential to the correct understanding of every part of it.

Genesis is the foundation on which all divine revelation rests because if you don’t know where you came from, you can’t really understand where you are and how to get to where you are going.

It’s the foundation on which all divine revelation rests and on which it is built up.  It enters into and forms an integral part of that revelation of Jesus Christ.  Every great doctrine of scripture finds its roots in Genesis.  

The purpose of Genesis is to reveal to man the origin of heaven and earth and especially of God Himself and all things that are therein.

Genesis declares God as the personal Creator and shows that nothing was evolved through billions of years, but it was created.  

It talks about the world, the universe, the destruction before Adam, the restoration of the earth to another habitable place (Genesis 1:3)  and could have gone through more states than that (Genesis 1:1 & Genesis 1:2).  

❖ Hebrews 11:3  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.

THE WHAT OF GENESIS:

When you are talking about Genesis, you are talking about generations; the genes.  What is a gene - a functional hereditary unit which occupies a fixed location on a chromosome and controls or acts in the transmission of hereditary characteristics.  

Chromosomes are responsible for the determination and transmission of these characteristics.

Genesis is about the genetics of God.  Synonyms for “genesis” are: creation, origin (beginning; cause; commencement; descent; source; fountainhead; derivation; rise; ancestry), formation, beginning, birth, production.  

Talking about Genesis you’re really discussing and looking at the DNA of God.  When talking about genetics, you are talking about the origin and the development of something.

 In other words, it is “genic”, which is that which is inherited, innate (in-born), by nature. 

❖ 1 John 4:17  As he is, so are we, in this world.

“Beginning” comes from the same root word as “Genesis” and means to shake or vibrate).  

So when God created, motion began.  “Beginning” means the head, chief, director, manager, title, grouping, control, rule, authority. As far as our heritage or being generational, it starts with God!

So “the WHEN” of Genesis is:  “EVERYTHING BEGAN IN THE BEGINNING” - not a calendar date but in CHRIST  (Colossians 1:18) (Revelation 1:8) (Revelation 3:14).

“THE WHERE” of Genesis is:  “EVERYTHING STARTED IN CHRIST” - Colossians 1:15-18, Christ’s preeminence.

“THE HOW” of Genesis is:  “IT ALL CAME TO BE BY THE SPOKEN WORD OF THE LIVING GOD”!  (Genesis 1:1) (Hebrews 11:3).

Genesis is actually a synthesizing; a putting together; or composing of something.  

Synthesize comes from syn means with; tithenai means to set or put with.

Genesis is a combination of parts or elements as material substances or objects of thought, brought together into a complex whole, made up of parts or elements combined.  It is a process of reasoning which consists of advancing in a direct manner from principles established or assumed and propositions already proved to the conclusion.  In other words, God already saw the ending when He began!

Genesis 1:1  In the beginning God created.  When you are talking about Genesis and God’s genetics, we are off-springs of Him.

● Acts 17:28-29  In him we live, and move, and have our being: as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.  Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.  

“Offspring” is from the root word “genos”, meaning kin, kindred, nation, stock, born, diversity, gene-ration!

It’s just like the DNA of our physical body.  The DNA is God:  the RNA is Christ:  the Ribosome is us, (the church; Christ’s body)!

Everything has a nucleus, and a nucleus is a central element around which other elements are grouped.  It is in God that we live and move and have our being.

                                                                                   

Information is from the DeGraff and Stuart “Human Concept of Anatomy and Physiology.  When you look at the nucleus of a cell, in the nucleus is the DNA and in the DNA is the chromosome, and it serves as the cell’s control center.  That’s what God is - our control center.  

During cell division, the DNA replicates itself and duplicated copies are distributed to other cells.  When a cell is not divided, the DNA serves as the information source for the formation of the RNA and hence, proteins.  Most cells in the body have a single nucleus although some are multi-nucleated.  The nucleus is surrounded by a nuclear envelope composed of an inner and outer membrane.  These two membranes fuse together to form thin sacs with openings called nuclear pores.  These pores allow the RNA to exit the nucleus so it can enter the cytoplasm, but it does not let the DNA out.  The DNA stays in that nucleus!  The DNA can never leave the nucleus.  

That’s why God said in Hebrews 13:5: I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.  He also said in Malachi 3:6: For I am the LORD, I change not.

In Genesis, it says God created, so WHAT was going on here was actually God replicating Himself.  

We say God is God all by Himself, but remember this, as Evangelist Mary Perry told us, “but “He chose not to be by Himself”.  That’s why from the very beginning, it says “in the beginning” - or “in Christ God created the heaven and the earth”.

There was a developmental process going on; growth happening.  God was forming, making and creating things.  To “form” something is having the ability to take what you are doing and carry it through a morphology process.

There are three stages you can take it through - morphology, histology, and isomorphism!

Morphology – Webster defines as study of the form and structure as in biology, as the human body; or of living organisms.  This study is called anatomy (structure and make-up and the combination of related parts) and physiology (study of plants and animals and their functions; this shows how things work together).

Histology – when things become historical, relating to or taking place in history dealing with past events, human affairs, nations, people and activity; tissue structure.  

The Bible gives us a history of people, things, events, etc, from Genesis to Revelation.

Isomorphism - being of the same or like form. 

❖ John 1:1-2: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same (that’s “US”) was in the beginning with God.  (verse 14): And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

❖ Philippians 2:5  Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who being in the “form” of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God.

❖ 1 John 4:17  As he is, so are we in this world.

This is what God did with His creation or creatures.  Everything was geared toward God becoming man and man having somewhere to dwell and operate/function as God in the earth.

Everything is a process, a course, step by step method that God used to bring His creation where He wanted it to be.

Genesis 1:1  In the beginning GOD CREATED. 

This “beginning” is not a calendar date; it was a Man (a person) - the Man Jesus the Christ!  It was through Jesus that God did everything.

Colossians 1:16-18  Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:  For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth: 

Didn’t it say in Genesis 1:1 that in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth? visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.  And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence 

SO THE “BEGINNING” WAS “CHRIST”!  You can read Genesis 1:1 “in Christ, God created”.

Revelation 1:8  (Remember that Jesus was talking to John when he said this.)  I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.  

He is still “coming” (appearing and manifesting Himself)!  He has been manifesting Himself even from the beginning, and He has been “appearing” ever since.  He will “continue to appear” throughout eternity!  

Verse 11:  Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

Revelation 3:14  And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, THE BEGINNING OF THE CREATION OF GOD.  

We know that the “Beginning” was in Christ and the “Beginning” was CHRIST!

2 Corinthians 5:18-19  And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

Even after the fall of the creation, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself (2 Corinthians 5:19).  Genesis 1:1  In the beginning [CHRIST], God created the heaven and the earth.  

We know that heaven is a lofty place.  When you are talking about the earth, you are not just talking about the dirt or terrain earth, but it is also in reference to man!  

● 1 Corinthians 15:47  The first “man” is of the earth, earthy:  the second man is the Lord from heaven.  

I pray you can receive this and get the revelation. In Genesis 1:1, heaven really typifies Christ, and earth typifies Jesus.  

Christ is the “form or embodiment” of the Godhead!  Jesus is the perfect word (logos or thought) of God which unfolded or manifested into the true man blessed with eternal life by measuring up to the “GOD” standard-bearer!.  

  What God (Elohiym) was seeing “in the beginning” was Himself in His divinity (Christ) and humanity (Jesus).  

That’s what Christ did on the Cross.  When He was uniting His mother and John together (John 19), He was showing Jesus the man in the aspect of love, and Christ taking care of His bride, the church.    

He is still manifesting love toward us and taking care of us through the Father by the power of the Holy Ghost!  

Revelation 19:7-8  Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him:  for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white:  for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

God made the material world, and He also made the spirit world.  When He made Jesus, He was seeing Himself in His divinity and humanity all in one.

 In Philippians 2:7-8  But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:  And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross.

It was in His humanity that He would experience human activity via the Cross!  Through His divinity, He would conquer the humanity via His resurrection!

When you look at the heaven and the earth, you are looking at two schools of thought:  that which is spiritual and that which is natural!  

Example - Christ the spiritual man and Jesus the natural man.  God was invisible but was manifested visible in Jesus Christ and also His people.

Jesus was God’s Word in demonstration or expressed - or God’s Word revealed, manifested or disclosed.  

Then when you look at Jesus, you are looking at that which is natural or that which pertains to His flesh body but He was still no less God.  

Just like the molecule, it is the smallest structural unit into which a substance can be divided and still retain its identity! Just like God, He was and is Spirit and became flesh, but still retained and maintained His identity as GOD!!! 

God didn’t just send Christ to us, but He (GOD) came to us in Christ!  They are one in the same!  Get this, If God had sent Christ to us, He would have separated the Godhead!  God so loved the world that that love motivated Him to give and what He gave was Himself in the flesh body of Jesus!!!

Immanuel, the infinite became finite; the divine became human while remaining fully God and fully Man veiling His majesty!!!

~ Pastor Gracie Perry