Praise the Lord for the Bible! Praise the Lord for the life, the divine life, the eternal life, which is contained in this Book! And praise the Lord that He has afforded us this opportunity to have a life-study of His divine Word with such a large congregation! The Lord willing, starting from today, April 6th, 1974, we shall continue this life-study through the Bible, book after book, consecutively every weekend. May the Lord grant us His dear presence with His rich anointing all the way through our study.
The Bible is a wonderful book. It is "The Book" among all books! It took 1600 years to complete, starting with Moses, the greatest prophet of God, and ending with the Apostle John. It was confirmed 300 years later (397 A.D.) at a council held at Carthage in North Africa. Not long after that, the Bible was locked away from the people by the Catholic Church. For nearly a thousand years, from the 6th century through the 15th century, the Bible was locked up. History calls this period the Dark Age. Human society became dark because the Bible, containing all the divine light, was locked away from humanity.
Then, in the Reformation, God used Martin Luther to unlock the Bible. At the same time, printing was invented, allowing the Bible to be printed. Although the Bible was unlocked, it was not so open. Yet, we thank the Lord that during the past five centuries He has opened up His Word again and again through many great teachers. We stand on their shoulders and we are grateful to them. Yet, how we thank the Lord that today the Bible is so open to us, allowing us to have a rich life-study of the living Word.
What is the Bible? We know that the word "Bible" means "the Book." But what is this book? The Bible itself says, "All Scripture is God-breathed" (2 Tim. 3:16). The Bible is the breath of God. It is not merely the word or the thought of God, but the very breath of God. Whatever we breathe out is our breath, and this breath proceeds out of our being. So the Bible as the breath of God is something breathed out of the being of God. The Bible contains the very element of God. Whatever God is, is contained in this divine book. God is light, life, love, power, wisdom, and many other items. All these items of what God is have been breathed out into the Bible. Whenever we come to this book with an open heart and an open spirit, we can immediately touch something divine: not just thoughts, concepts, knowledge, words, or sentences, but something deeper than all these things. We touch God Himself.
The Lord Jesus said that the words He speaks are spirit and life (John 6:63). Can we imagine that the Bible as the Word of God is the Spirit? It is not simply words in black and white; it is something higher, deeper, fuller, and richer — that is the Spirit and life. And the Bible tells us that the Spirit is God Himself (John 4:24), and that life is Christ (John 14:6). I do not say that the Bible is God Himself, but, according to the Lord Jesus, the word in the Bible is the Spirit, and the Spirit is God Himself, the Lord who is life to us. When we come to contact the Word, if we are right in our position and open in our heart and spirit, we will surely contact God Himself and receive life.
When we come to the divine Word, nearly our whole being is involved. We must come with a heart which seeks after God, with a clear, sober mind, and with an open spirit. If we open our spirit to God and to His Word, we can touch God Himself behind the printed page. It is not just a matter of reading with our eyes, understanding with our mind, or seeking with our heart; it is also a matter of touching God in our spirit. If we exercise our whole being in this way, we not only receive a revelation, but some divine element revealed and conveyed by His Word will be transmitted into our spirit. So, Ephesians 6:17-18 says that we have to "receive...the word of God, by means of all prayer and petition..." We should take the word of the Bible not only by reading and studying, but also "by means of all prayer." We should read and study the Bible prayerfully; that is, we must exercise our spirit to contact the Lord by prayer with the reading of the divine Word.
In the Bible mainly life is revealed. Life is the focus of the whole Bible. But what is life, or who is life? The answer is in the word of the Lord Jesus. He says, "I am life," and "I am come that you may have life." The Bible is a revelation of Christ as life. Whenever we come to the Bible, we must realize that we are coming to contact Christ as our life.
The whole Bible is a book of life, and this life is nothing less than the divine and living Person of Christ Jesus Himself, Who is our portion. When we come to the Bible, we must come to contact Him. We should not repeat the pitiful history of the Jewish people who researched the Scriptures because they thought there was life in them, yet would not come to the Lord Jesus (John 5:39-40). We should not contact the Bible without contacting the Lord. Whenever we open the Bible we have to say, "Lord Jesus, You have to be here. This is not merely a book, this is Your revelation. I don't like to read this book without contacting You. I don't like to hear something from this book without hearing You. I don't like to read this book without seeing You. I like to see Your face. I like to see what You are from the printed page. O Lord Jesus, enlighten Your Word and anoint every line that I may touch You." We need such a spirit to contact this living Word.
After man was created, he was put in front of two trees in the garden of Eden: one was the tree of life and the other was the tree of knowledge. If man had eaten the tree of life he would have received the divine life of God that was indicated by the tree of life. But man was tempted and took the tree of knowledge that denoted the source other than God, that is Satan. The issue of that was death. The principle is the same in our contact with the Bible. We may take the Bible as a book of life by contacting it with our spirit, by praying to the Lord that we may receive Him as life through His Word, or we may make the Bible a book of knowledge by contacting it merely with our mind, seeking knowledge in letters. This brings us death, not life. Second Corinthians 3:6 warns us that "the letter [that is, the scripture in letters] kills, but the Spirit gives life." We shouldn't make the Bible merely a book of letters to kill us. We have to take the Bible by contacting the Lord Spirit that it may be the Spirit and life to us.
In addition, we have some verses which tell us that the Bible has many other functions. The Bible has the wisdom which can help us to be saved (2 Tim. 3:15). It has the producing function of a seed. Through the Word of the Bible we can be reborn, regenerated (1 Pet. 1:23). After the new birth, the Word of the Bible is milk and food to us that we may be nourished to grow in the Lord (1 Pet. 2:2; Matt. 4:4). So, we must eat the Word (Jer. 15:16), that is, take the Word into us by exercising our spirit over the Word.
Also, the Bible can give us the best teaching and perfect the man of God (Rom. 15:4; 2 Tim. 3:16-17). If we belong to the Lord and desire to be perfect, we can surely receive perfection through His divine Word.
The Bible is composed of two Testaments, the Old and the New. The Old Testament is mainly a prediction of Christ, predicting the coming Christ in plain words, shadows, types, and many figures.
The Lord Jesus in Luke 24 twice tells us that the Old Testament was written concerning Him (vv. 27, 44). The Old Testament can be subdivided into three main sections: Moses (which means the law), the prophets, and the psalms. The Lord said that in every section of the Old Testament there is something written concerning Him. In John 5:39 the Lord also says that the scriptures of the Old Testament are a testimony of Him. And in Hebrews 10:7 He said, "In the roll of the book [that is, the Old Testament] it is written concerning Me." Thus, the Old Testament is mainly a record prophesying of Christ as everything to the people of God.
Now we may begin a life-study of Genesis. The original title of this book was "In [the] Beginning." The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, adopted the title of Genesis which is a Latin word that means giving of birth, origin. Genesis brings birth to everything, gives the origin of everything. Genesis is a book containing all the seeds of the divine truths. All the divine truths in the whole Bible were sown in this book.
With every book of the Bible, there is a general sketch. The general sketch of Genesis is:
Never forget these four items!
Although Genesis has 50 chapters, it is so simple; it is divided into three sections. Chapters 1 and 2 are the first section, chapters 3 through 11 the second section, and chapters 12 through 50 the third section. Each section begins with a name. The names in sections one and three are wonderful, but not the name in section two. In the first section we have "God," in the second section the "serpent," and in the third section "Jehovah." (In the King James Version "Jehovah" is translated as "the Lord.") God created, the serpent corrupted, and Jehovah called.
What did God create? God created the heavens and the earth. But this is not all. Ultimately God created man because the heavens are for the earth and the earth is for man, and man is for God. After God's creation, the subtle one, that is the serpent, crept in to corrupt. He really corrupted God's creation, starting with rebellion and ending with rebellion. Chapter 11 reveals the rebellion of the fallen race to the uttermost. There was no hope. Nevertheless, there was hope because Jehovah came in to call out Abraham for a new start. Hallelujah! God created, the serpent corrupted, but Jehovah called.
In which section are you? I can testify that fifty years ago I was in the second section, but today I am in the third section. Fifty years ago I was one corrupted by the serpent, but now I am one called by Jehovah.
The first two chapters are apparently a record of God's creation. Then, in the following 48 chapters we find biographies of eight great persons: Adam, Abel, Enoch, and Noah — a group of four; Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph — another group of four. Each group belongs to a different race. The first four belong to the Adamic race, and the last four belong to the Abrahamic race. In the book of Genesis are two fathers: Adam, the father of the created race, and Abraham, the father of the called race.
Do you belong to the created race or to the called race? All the called ones are sons of Abraham. Galatians 3 tells us that whoever believes in Jesus Christ is a son of Abraham (vv. 7, 29). Hallelujah! Once we were created, but now we are called. First Corinthians 1:24 says that to the called ones Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. We are no longer the created race, but are forever the called race, called to partake of and enjoy Christ.
With every book of the Bible, there is also a central thought. The central thought of Genesis is:
Christ is the hope and salvation of fallen man, and God will make fallen man to fulfill His purpose through Christ.
Once we have a real and thorough understanding of the book of Genesis, we can see that it presents Christ as the hope and salvation of fallen man. Through Christ God will enable fallen man to accomplish His purpose.
Genesis is a book with Christ as the center, and Christ is life to the people whom He restored from the fall. Why does this book give us such a record of creation in the first two chapters? Why does it give us the biographies of eight persons in the following forty-eight chapters? We need a deeper understanding. The first two chapters appear to be a record of creation, but this is superficial. The underlying thought is focused on life. These two chapters are a record of life. They are too simple and too brief to be an adequate account of creation. Genesis 1 and 2 were not intended by God to be a record of creation, but a revelation of life.
Look into these chapters. First, it mentions that God created the universe, and that the universe was ruined, becoming waste, empty, and full of darkness. Then, the Spirit of God came in to brood in order to produce life. Following the Spirit of life came the light, also for producing life. After this, the air was made to divide the waters of death. Then the land emerged out of the death waters. The land appeared for the purpose of generating life, and immediately every kind of plant life was produced. Then came the animal life in the water, the animal life in the air, and the animal life on the earth, and, eventually, the human life. Following the human life is the divine life, indicated by the tree of life. Thus, we can see that these two chapters, strictly speaking, are not a record of creation, but of life.
What about the biographies of the eight persons? If we read Genesis carefully once again, we may be surprised that these biographies say very little about the works of these men. What mostly has been recorded is their life, their living, and their way with God. The Bible tells us little of what Adam did, but it does say how long Adam lived — 930 years. If we were to write Adam's biography, we would need hundreds of pages to tell about his work and all that he did. But Genesis only tells us how Adam walked in the presence of God.
We come to Abel, and then to Enoch. Genesis doesn't say anything about Enoch except that he walked with God, and eventually was taken to God. This is wonderful. I do hope that I could be such a person, doing nothing and being nothing, just walking with the Lord until the day I am taken to be with Him.
You may ask, didn't Noah do something? Yes, he did some work, but not according to himself nor for himself. He did everything according to God's revelation and for God's purpose. We go on to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. It is hard for us to see that Abraham did a good work, neither Isaac nor Jacob. It seems that Jacob's son, Joseph, did something, but if we know the record we will understand that Joseph's work was the reigning part of Jacob's life. Joseph was reigning as a king.
Strictly speaking, Genesis is neither a book of creation nor a book of biographies. It is a book of life. God uses the record of creation to show the matter of life. God uses the biographies of eight persons to show how He needs a life to fulfill His purpose. In this book the last life was the life of Jacob, one who was eventually called Israel, the prince of God. This is God's intention — to have an Israel. We all need to be brought to the place where God can consider us to be His Israel. This is wholly a matter of life. So, Genesis is focused on life, and this life is Christ.
Now we come to the contents of Genesis.
God's creation not only fulfills His desire and accomplishes His purpose, but also reveals His desire in the universe and manifests His purpose in eternity. Anything we make expresses our desire. Although we may not say much, the thing we make manifests our purpose. When God created the heavens, the earth with so many items, and eventually man in His own image and with authority over all created things, He surely had a purpose. By His creation we can see that God had a desire and a purpose.
According to Eph. 1:5, 9, the motive of God's original creation was His desire and pleasure. God carried out the original creation to fulfill His desire and to satisfy His pleasure. He desired and liked to create; so He did it to please Himself.
There are two aspects of God's purpose in His creation. Firstly, God's purpose in His creation is to glorify the Son of God (Col. 1:15-19). Although we do not find the term the Son of God or the name Christ in Genesis 1 and 2, we learn from Rom. 5:14 that Adam was a pre-figure of Christ. Adam, created in the image of God, was a type of Christ. In Adam we can see something of Christ. God's purpose in His creation is to glorify His Son, Jesus Christ.
Secondly, creation manifests God Himself. By the heavens and the earth we can realize something of God and by man we can see something of God. God is manifested in man, especially through His Son, Christ. Christ is the embodiment of God (Col. 2:9). When Christ is glorified in man in the midst of God's creation, God is also manifested.
Why did God create the heavens? What was His purpose? If we read the Bible well, we can see that the heavens are for the earth. Even the scientists can prove this. So many things from the heavens are for the earth: the sunshine, the water, and the expanse are all for the earth. Then what is the earth for? According to the Bible, the earth is for man. Zechariah 12:1 says that God stretched forth the heavens, laid the foundation of the earth, and formed the spirit of man. The heavens are for the earth, the earth is for man, and man is for God. God created man as a corporate entity to contain Him, express Him, and glorify Him.
The basis of creation is God's will and plan (Eph. 1:10). Revelation 4:11 tells us clearly that all things were created according to God's will. God has a will, and according to that will He conceived His plan. According to that will and plan He created all things.
The means of God's creation were the Son of God (Col. 1:15-16; Heb. 1:2b) and the Word of God (Heb. 11:3; John 1:1-3). The Bible clearly tells us that God created the heavens and the earth by Christ as the Son of God and as the Word of God. The Son of God and the Word of God are one.
We all must realize that God's eternal and central purpose is altogether for His Son, Christ. The Bible says that when God created the heavens and the earth and all the other items He did it through Christ and by Christ. All things were made through Christ, by Christ, and, in a sense, in Christ. From the time of creation, all things subsist in Christ. Christ is the hub which holds together every part of the universe.
Hebrews 1:3 says that Christ holds all things by the word of His power, and Colossians 1:17 says that all things subsist in Christ. Apparently the earth is hanging on nothing, but, in reality, it is held by Christ. If only one of the planets were to move a little wrongly, there would be a big collision. But the Lord holds everything. Hallelujah!
Why does Christ hold everything? He holds all things for His glory, for His Body. If the heavens were to collapse and the earth to drop, then where should we be, and where would the Body be? We do have such a good earth on which to live and walk, and we have the heavens to serve us. When we need the sunshine, the heavens send it. When we need the rain, the rain comes. When we need the air, the air is here. There is no air on the moon, but surrounding the earth there is the firmament, there is the air. The heavens serve the earth, and the earth is for us, and we are here for the Body and even we are the Body. Christ loves the Body. For His Body He holds the whole universe. Hallelujah!
Job 38:4-7 reveals the process of God's creation. The heavens with all the hosts and angels therein were created first. The earth, probably with some living creatures, was created second. We say "probably" because there is not a clear word about this matter. Some portions of the Word give us inferences. Job 38:4-7 says that when God laid the foundation of the earth, the stars and the angels (the sons of God) were there already. This proves that the heavens with all the stars and angels were created first, and that the earth was created second.
Now we come to the first verse of the first chapter: "In [the] beginning..." In the Bible this phrase, "in the beginning," is used in two ways, the first time in Genesis 1:1 and the second time in John 1:1. The beginning mentioned in John 1:1 was earlier than the beginning mentioned in Genesis. The beginning mentioned by John was the beginning in eternity, a beginning without any beginning. The beginning revealed in Genesis 1 was the beginning of time, which started with God's creation. John refers to eternity, while Genesis refers to time.
In this beginning God created. It is quite interesting to notice that in this sentence the subject "God" is plural and the predicate "created" is singular. Does this mean that there are several Gods? Surely this is a little seed of the Trinity. God is one, but He is triune. In the same chapter (v. 26) He calls Himself "us": God said, "Let us make man." God is one, but the pronoun for Him is "us." We cannot explain. God is one, yet triune. The Triune God came to create.
In Genesis 1 and 2, three different verbs are used concerning God's creation and re-creation: created, made, and formed. To create means to bring something into existence out of nothing. Only God can create. We cannot create. We can only make. To make means to take something which exists already and then use it to produce something else. On the first day, God did not create the light nor on the third day did He create the earth, because the light was there already and the earth was buried under the deep waters. On the first day God did not create but He commanded. God said, "Let there be light," and light was there. On the third day, God commanded the buried land to come out of the death waters. That was not an act of creating, but of making. Then, God made man a physical body. That was formation. God formed man with the dust.
God's creation is in verse 1 and God's re-creation begins with verse 3. It doesn't say that God made the heavens, nor that God formed the earth. It says that God created the heavens and the earth.
Creation declares the glory of God, proving that there is a God. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament, the expanse, showeth His handiwork (Psa. 19:1-2). Although God's divine power and Godhead are invisible things, man can understand them by the things that were made. Man can understand and is without excuse (Rom. 1:20). Look at creation: how can we say there is no God!
