The Creation
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
The Hebrew word for Genesis is bereshith or beresheet, which means “in the beginning” or “at the head of”, and it is what the Jewish people call the book of Genesis. “Genesis” is the Greek title of the first book of the Bible and means “origin, birth, genealogy, nativity.”
The Hebrew term for “God” here is “Elohim“, the masculine plural noun form of “Eloah/El“. The Hebrew word for “created” is “bara” and it is a masculine singular verb. Already we see the Trinity at work. Father, Son and Holy Spirit work together as One in the creation of the world.
John 1:1-5 1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning. 3Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made. 4In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Psalm 33:6-9 6By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all the stars by the breath of His mouth. 7He piles up the waters of the sea; He puts the depths into storehouses. 8Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the people of the world revere Him. 9For He spoke, and it came to be; He commanded, and it stood firm.
Hebrews 1:2-3 2But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe. 3The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature, upholding all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
In Proverbs we see “Wisdom” personified doing His work in the beginning. Then we learn from Luke that Jesus IS Wisdom. Jesus was in the beginning speaking creation into existence.
Proverbs 8:22-31 “The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old. 23 “From everlasting I was established, From the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth. 24 “When there were no depths I was brought forth, When there were no springs abounding with water. 5 “Before the mountains were settled, Before the hills I was brought forth; 26 While He had not yet made the earth and the fields, Nor the first dust of the world. 27 “When He established the heavens, I was there, When He inscribed a circle on the face of the deep, 28 When He made firm the skies above, When the springs of the deep became fixed, 29 When He set for the sea its boundary So that the water would not transgress His command, When He marked out the foundations of the earth; 30 Then I was beside Him, as a master workman; And I was daily His delight, Rejoicing always before Him, 31Rejoicing in the world, His earth, And having my delight in the sons of men.
Luke 11:40-51 “49 For this reason also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute, 50 so that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation.’
All of this we believe by faith. None of us were there. Adam and Eve didn’t show up until day 6. They had to have faith that God was giving them an accurate account of how things happened.
Hebrews 11:3 “3 By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.”
Now let’s move on to the days of creation. There are at least three different views of the creation account. I follow the literal view. Check out his chart from Cornerstone Chapel:
We can see in the chart below the six days divided into two columns: Formed and Filled. Day 1 is formed with Light, and day 4 is filled with lights. The same pattern continues through the rest of the days. Day 7 is different from all the others. There is no mention of “evening and morning” for that day, nor is it called “good or very good”. It is instead “blessed and sanctified” because God rested that day. Later, when the Israelites come out of Egypt, God will give them the Ten Commandments and keeping the 7th day holy will be included in the list.
Adam & Eve…The Fall
Genesis 3 Things to note:
God asks Adam two questions: “Where are you?” and “Who told you…?” God asks Eve “What is this you have done?”
This was the chance for them both to confess with sorrow and repentance. Neither did that. God didn’t bother questioning the serpent. He just went straight to the curses/consequences. With the serpent we get the first Gospel message of Jesus in verse 15:
Genesis 3:15 15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
It’s interesting to note that Jesus was born of a woman and the Holy Spirit. He is the fulfillment of this verse.
God provides the first sacrifice to cover Adam and Eve. This is where they learn to offer a proper sacrifice from now on and they pass that onto their children. From here they are sent out the EAST gate of the garden. That is a picture of the future Tabernacle.
More Resources for Adam and Eve:
Teaching Videos:
Cornerstone Chapel teaching video – The Book of Genesis: Genesis 1
Cornerstone Chapel teaching video – The Book of Genesis: Genesis 2
Cain & Abel
We learn that Cain, meaning “obtain or spear“, was a farmer. His brother Abel, meaning “vapor or breath“, was a shepherd. Cain helped with feeding the family and Abel helped with clothing the family and providing animals for sacrifices. We are not sure hold old the boys were when the incident happened. We know Adam and Eve had another son after this at 130 years of age, so we can assume it was close to that time.
Even though Cain was a farmer, he could’ve brought an animal sacrifice but he brought some of his own works or efforts, and Scripture doesn’t say it was his best of the ground either. God did not “have regard” for Cain or his offering. Apparently Cain had a heart issue to deal with and God brought it to his attention.
God asks Cain a few questions: “Why are you angry?” “Why has your countenance fallen?” “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up?” He has a chance to present a right offering. God lovingly instructs him on how to conquer temptation BEFORE sin takes over as master. But Cain didn’t listen. He killed his brother anyway.
God asks Cain two questions again: “Where is Abel your brother?” and “What have you done?” Again this was his chance to confess with sorrow and repentance. He didn’t do it just like his parents didn’t. He lied and came up with an excuse.
Cain is sent EAST of Eden. Remember, Adam and Eve were sent East from the garden into Eden. Now Cain is sent further East out of Eden into another land. This is a picture of the Tabernacle.
Let’s compare the accounts of Adam and Cain. I noticed some similarities when reading through them. You’ll see the commonalities highlighted in the same color in the chart below. I like that God is consistent with the way He deals with them. He gave them both a chance to be honest and repent even though neither did. Still, God gave grace mixed in with the consequence of sin.
Abel is mention several times in the New Testament. Check them out: Matthew 23:35, Luke 11:51, Hebrews 11:4, Hebrews 12:24
More Resources for Cain and Abel:
Seth…Enoch
Not much is said about Seth. He isn’t mentioned anywhere except in the genealogies. We can know that he was not necessarily the third child born from Adam and Eve. He is just the third one mentioned because Scripture is focused on a certain lineage. Scripture says that Cain left with his wife to go to the land of Nod (somewhere past Wynken and Blynken). Cain was also worried about others wanting to kill him. Those people had to come from somewhere. We know that Adam and Eve had more children (Genesis 5:3.4). We just don’t know exactly how many and when. We also don’t know how old Cain and Abel were when the murder happened. We can make assumptions based on the age of Adam and Eve when Seth was born, but those are just assumptions. Imagine 130 years of Adam and Eve having children and then those children having children, and those having children… that’s a lot of people after 130 years. And people lived to be 900ish during those days, so I’m not sure when menopause would hit and childbearing would stop for a woman.
Now we skip several generations to the year 622 when Enoch is born. Enoch was the father of the oldest man on record, Methuselah 969 years, yet Enoch lived a relatively short time, 365 years (a year for every day in a solar year).
Genesis 5:24 “Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.” This is said of only one other person in Scripture…Elijah.
Hebrews 11:5 5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God.
We learn that Enoch was “pleasing to God”. So, what pleases God? Faith. And what is faith? According to Hebrews 11:1 AMP 11 Now faith is the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen [the conviction of their reality—faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses].
We also learn from Jude 14-16 in the New Testament that Enoch was a prophet: “14 It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with [a]many thousands of His holy ones, 15 to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” 16 These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; [b]they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage.“
Enoch foresaw the flood with Noah and also the destruction that would come at the end of time.
Enoch and Noah miss each other by about 70 years. Anything Noah would learn would be from his father Lamech and grandfather Methuselah. They would show him how to walk with God like Enoch.
Extra Charts & Resources:
Hebrews4christians.com has a great section of Torah portions as well. You can look these up anytime. Check out their portion on Beresheet .
I also love the weekly Torah portions with Rabbi Jason at Fusion Global. You can sign up for them here. Below is the first one that goes with this lesson.
Theresa Haigler 