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"In the Beginning..." Additional Commentary |
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Written by Rev. Justin Lee Marple
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Sunday, 19 September 2010 08:27 |
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“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
By starting “in the beginning,” the author already betrays an eschatological (speaking of last things) focus. When we read “in the beginning” the expectation would be that eventually we will get to its antonym “in the latter days” (and we are not disappointed, cf. Gen 49:1). But that the author is speaking of both the beginning and the end in these opening verses of Genesis is confirmed by the seventh day of Sabbath rest where God sits on His throne in the invisible heavens (Gen 2:1-3). This Sabbath rest is the goal of humanity. After completing their task, God would usher in new heavens and earth where the Sabbath rest of the previously invisible heavens would come to earth.
The task given to humanity “be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it” itself has an eschatological focus.
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Last Updated on Friday, 08 October 2010 15:04 |
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Written by Rev. Justin Lee Marple
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Wednesday, 24 March 2010 12:21 |
The current sermon series, I have been preaching on the temptations and the trial of Christ, has driven me back to the beginning. Book One of Genesis displays the same themes that I have been preaching.
In Book One, Adam is the one being tested but he responded by testing God. The serpent (aka the devil) proposed that God's word is but a hypothesis to be tested. Thus Adam put the LORD his God to the test when Adam was the one under the probationary test.
Furthermore, Adam should have believed that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. It is fitting then that Adam's test involved the word of God, food, and a punishment of death. The only stipulation (the word of God) was that he fast from the fruit of one particular tree. But instead of responding in faith, he decided that he was autonomous from God, he was independent of God, and could judge the truth of God's word. In a time of plenty, Adam forgot the LORD who had been good to him and failed to submit to the word of the LORD.
From the beginning, the serpent has casted doubt upon the word of God. His methodology is to make you think that you get to sit in judgment on the word. You get to test the word to see if it is true.
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 12 October 2010 14:48 |
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Sex and Marriage in Genesis |
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Written by Rev. Justin Lee Marple
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Thursday, 05 February 2009 11:20 |
Genesis has much more to say about sex and marriage than the creation of woman out of man and the scene at Sodom. Sex and marriage is a theme that can be found throughout the book and the righteous make a lot of mistakes.
The book teaches that sex and marriage are to be enjoyed between one husband and one wife. This may come as a surprise to those who have not studied Genesis carefully because everyone remembers that the patriarchs had multiple wives. Abram not only married Sarai but Sarai gave her servant Hagar to Abram as a wife. Jacob married Leah and Rachel and each of them gave their servant to Jacob as a wife. Thus Jacob had four wives. But this was
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Last Updated on Friday, 08 October 2010 15:41 |
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Book Ten, Genesis 37:2-50:26 |
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Written by Rev. Justin Lee Marple
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Tuesday, 03 February 2009 11:04 |
The title: "These are the generations of Jacob" (Gen 37:2) meaning it will be about Jacob's descendants who have come in the fullness (ten) of time because this is Book Ten. In the book, Jacob recedes more into the background so that his twelve sons are the focus (in particular Judah and Joseph).
The structure is somewhat more difficult to discern than earlier books. It generally follows the same pattern as before: narrative, poetry, epilogue. Except this time the poetry is almost a whole chapter of Scripture. Thus the whole book generally follows the pattern prologue (Gen 1:1-2:3), narrative (Gen 2:4-48:22), poetry (Gen 49:1-28), epilogue (Gen 49:29-50:26). The difficulty comes when you see the chiasm excludes the first story Gen 37:3-36. I am calling this the prologue to the book because of its extensive similarities with the epilogue but it also contains a poetic portion that due to the constraints of the story is not put at the end of the prologue. The poetic portion in the prologue is the content of the dreams and the response of his father and brothers. The parallelism of "Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?" is obvious. This is the central question of the book. Will Judah or Joseph rule over his brothers?
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Last Updated on Friday, 08 October 2010 15:54 |
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