The Book of GENESIS

This week we start on our next book in our "through the Bible" journey, GENESIS!  The foundational text of the entire Bible! This week Dave goes through chapters 1:1-2:3; discussing the seven days of creation (6 really, but the 7th is included for an important reason).

This week Dave walks through Genesis Chapter 2, in which we see a continuation of the creation story.  Included in conversation this week is the beauty of how God created, accented by Dave actually reading the creation story told in C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia.  Dave also hits on the Hebrew meaning for various different elements in chapter 2 including this idea of the Breath of Life, Eden, the Garden and the “suitable helper” God created for Adam.  The rest of the time Dave spends opening up what the Bible has to say about Christian marriage and Sex (within and without that context).  Lots to discuss!

This week Dave Bigler goes through all of Genesis chapter 3, hitting on: - The Tree of Life  - The  Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil - The Serpent / Snake / The Devil / Satan, The Temptation, 1st Adam & 2nd Adam, The Fall, The Protoevangelium (The first Gospel Message) and The First Sacrifice 

Why did God "look with favor" on Abel's offering and not Cain's?  Why, if God is God, did he ask Cain, "Where is your brother?"  Cain, after killing Abel feared that others would kill him, who else was on the earth that he feared?  What is the mark that God puts on Cain?  Who was Cain's Wife? -Who was Seth's Wife?  What is the meaning of Lamech's statement at the end of chapter 4?  Finally, what is the meaning of the final verse in chapter 4, "At this time people began to call on the name of the Lord."  

Dave looks at all of these questions in this week's talk on Genesis 4.

The genealogies in the Bible have been put there for multiple reasons.  This week, as we look at the genealogy of Genesis chapter 5 we take a bigger look at the reasons for the genealogies of the Bible.

This week we cover a great deal in 13 short verses: Who are the “Sons of God?”  Who are the “Nephilim?”  How wicked were things in Noah’s day before the flood?  Are things as bad today?

This week we cover Genesis 6:09-8:22 as we look at the account of Noah, the Ark and the Global Flood.  We look closely at what we know about the Ark as a 510-foot wooden boat made to house roughly 7,000 of God's creations.  What do we know about Noah, the man said to walk faithfully with God?  We also ask, how could one boat house all the animals in the world?  Lots to look at in this Sunday school story that actually happened.

This week we look at life after the flood.  God reaffirms his call for mankind to be stewards of the earth.  God puts meat on the menu, yes, we were all vegetarians before the flood!  Dave also looks at God's first covenant with humanity, the Noahic covenant.  Finally, we look at a strange incident involving a drunk Noah and his sons.

This week we cover the genealogy from Noah to Abraham, in the midst of that we also have the story of the Tower of Babel. Genesis 10 & 11 shows us the spreading of all the nations from Noah’s three sons to the ends of the earth.  The story of the Tower of Babel, gives us the reason why God confused their language and differentiated their cultures.

This week we look at Abram/Abraham, as an amazing man of faith in the bible.  We cover only the first 9 verses of chapter 12, but in them, we will look more closely at the Abrahamic Covenant; God’s promise to Abraham and to his descendants, the Jews.

This week we cover Genesis 12:10-13:18 looking first at Abram’s trip down to Egypt in which an odd thing happens, to protect his life Abram tells his wife Sarai to tell everyone that she is his sister (rather than his wife).  This odd practice is also repeated by Abraham in Gen 20:1-18 and then by his son Isaac in regard to his wife Rebekah in Gen 26:1-11.

Who are all the kings mentioned in the start of chapter 14 and what do they have to do with anything?  Also who is this priest of God Most High, Melchizedek?  Is this a “Christophany” a pre-incarnate sighting of Jesus Christ in the book of Genesis?

This week we look at Genesis 15 in which we see the “cutting of covenant” the formal covenant ceremony between God and Abram.  We also cover the significance of a very important verse: “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited to him as righteousness.” (Gen 15:6).  We look at the implications of Gen 15:6 as it is spelled out in the New Testament. 

This week we look at Genesis 16 in which Sarai suggests to her husband Abram that he take her maidservant Hagar as an additional wife so that he may have children through her.  WHAT?  In the cultural context of today, this sounds CRAZY!  This week we will discover that, in their day, it really was not as crazy as it may sound to us today.  We will also look at the Angel of the Lord mentioned in 16:7 as well as the descendants of Hagar’s son, Ishmael, the Ishmaelites.

This week we look at a re-affirmation of the Abrahamic covenant and the addition of an outward sign to set apart those who follow God and his covenant, circumcision.  We see God change Abram’s name to Abraham as well as Sarai changed to Sarah.  We also see God confirm that the covenant will come through Sarah and not Hagar (though God does promise to bless Ishmael and his descendants).  We conclude with a discussion of circumcision for today.

In this week’s study, we look at the first 15 verses of chapter 18 in which the Lord (with two angels) appears to Abraham and re-affirms the covenant promise that Sarah will have a son.  We also talk about the definitions of a Christophany, Theophany, and Angelophany.  Dave takes a bit of a tangent to explain what Strongs Bible concordance is as well as an Interlinear Bible and he gives an explanation of a great recourse, BlueLetterBible.org

This week we cover the story of the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah and we look at Abraham’s nephew, Lot, who, according to 2nd Peter 2:7, is a “righteous” man, though his actions make that sometimes hard to see.

This week we see Abraham up to his old tricks in part 2 of the “Sister Acts.”  Abraham moves south and encounters King Abimelek.  Out of fear Abraham has his wife Sarah tell everyone that she is his sister so that they do not kill Abraham in order to be able to take Sarah as their wife.  This is the same game that Abram played in Gen 12 when he and Sarai went down to Egypt.

In this week’s study we see Isaac, the promised child finally born!  25 years Abraham and Sarah have been waiting on this promise from God.  We also spend a good deal of time looking at Hagar, the first mention of a single mother in history.  We conclude with Abimelek wanting some assurances from Abraham that he will treat him fairly (why the lack of trust??)

This week we look at Genesis 22 in which Abraham is asked to sacrifice his promised son, Isaac as an offering to the Lord.  This crazy, massive request is done by God to show, and prove Abraham’s faith in God to provide.  God never planned to have Abraham actually go through with it, but simply to test him to see if he would be willing.  We see in Genesis 22 what true faith in God looks like and we also see that God truly does provide, “Jehovah Jireh” - God provides.

In Genesis 23 Abraham buys a burial tomb (and field) for his wife Sarah and for his family line to use.  Later in history, it is the location where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would all be buried (along with their spouses). In Genesis 24 we see Abraham send the head of his household to his old homeland to find a bride for his son Isaac.  In the process, we see a glimpse into the customs of the culture of the day.  

This week we cover Genesis 25 in which Dave talks about Abraham’s third wife (Keturah), and their kids.  Dave also covers’ Abraham’s death and burial (of which both Isaac and Ishmael attend).  Isaac and Rebekah have two sons, Jacob and Esau, who have a bad case of sibling rivalry.  Before closing Dave also talks about barrenness within the Patriarchs and why it is a sign of God’s hand over the historical timeline of Genesis.

“Faith is living without scheming” - Warren Wiersbe This week we cover Genesis 26 in which we see another famine hit the land drawing Isaac to go down to Egypt.  Isaac follows the Lord’s call in his life and stays put.  We also encounter “Sister Act III” in which, like his father, Isaac, out of fear, tells the king that his wife, Rebekah, is actually his sister.

This week we look at three different types of blessings: the birthright, the patriarchal blessing and the covenantal blessing.  We also go over the story of how Jacob (through his mother Rebekah’s guidance) swindles Esau out of his patriarchal blessing from his father Isaac.  For modern application, we talk about seeking the world's blessings vs God’s as well as the power of good communication to fight dysfunction.

This week we talk about Genesis 28 which includes the story of “Jacob’s Ladder” in which Jacob has a dream and sees a stairway to heaven with angels ascending and descending.  His dream concludes with an awesome word from God.  In this talk, we also touch on Tithing and start into Genesis 29 in which Jacob makes it to Harran and meets Rachel.

This week we cover Gen 29:14- Gen 30.  In this we see Jacob, the “deceiver” be the one who is deceived when Laban tricks him into marrying his eldest daughter Leah rather than Jacob’s betrothed, Rachel.  We discuss the historical-cultural significance of marriage and the marriage contract in the ancient near east then move on to the battle between Leah and Rachel for value and love based on their ability to provide children to Jacob.

This week we look at Genesis 31 in which Jacob, after 20 years, starts the journey back to Canaan.  In this chapter we see Jacob’s conflict with his father-in-law Laban come to a head, we also discuss what a healthy Fear of The Lord looks like.  We also discuss Laban’s “household gods” that Rachel steals.

VIDEO GOES LIVE 11/9 

This week we look at Genesis 32 & 33 in which Jacob is reunited with his brother Esau, but only after he wrestles with God.  In these two chapters, we see Jacob at the lowest he has ever been, and it's in that moment that he falls on his knees and seeks the Lord!

This week we cover the story of Shechem’s rape of Jacob’s daughter Dinah and the retaliation taken by Jacob’s sons.  We see Jacob take his family away from Shechem, back to Bethel as he had promised back in Gen. 28.  We also talk about why Israel did not want to intermarry with the Canaanites.  Is it appropriate for a believer to marry a non-believer?

This week we wrap up the story of Jacob.  While he is still a character in Genesis in Gen 37 we move on to our next main character, Joseph!  Discussed this week is the birth of Benjamin and the death of Rachel in the process.  We also look at 36;22 in which Reuben sleeps with his father's concubine.  We conclude by going through the genealogy of Esau's descendants, the Edomites.

This week we look at Jacob’s 12 sons, focusing on his 2nd youngest, Joseph.  Joseph is his father’s favorite and it drives his brothers to such anger that they sell him to a caravan of Ishmaelites headed down to Egypt.  This week we turn our attention to the final chunk of Genesis as we start the story of Joseph and his journey from Canaan down to Egypt and the crazy turns his journey takes him on.

Genesis 38 might seem out of place, in the midst of the story of Joseph and his journey down to Egypt as a slave, but God clearly had a purpose including Genesis 38 in our Bibles.  This week we look at Joseph’s older brother Judah and his responsibility to his three sons and more importantly to his daughter-in-law Tamar.  In this rather odd story, we see a parallel to the book of Ruth and the role of the “Kinsman Redeemer.”

Joseph, purchased as a slave by the captain of Pharaoh's guard, is blessed by God in everything he does.  Potiphar’s wife lusts after Joseph and makes sexual advances at him.  Joseph refuses and flees and ends up in prison as a result.  This week we look at 1) God’s fulfillment of his promises, 2) Joseph as an example of a man who truly trusts God in everything, and 3) Joseph’s example of how to deal with sexual immorality.

This week we look at the story of Joseph.  Dave starts by recapping his life to this point (Gen 37-39) then he dives into the story of Joseph being thrown into prison, where “The Lord was with Joseph” and he prospered.  This week we look again at this question of how we as believers are called to respond to adversity.

This week we see Joseph’s 10 brothers forced by famine to come down from Cannan to buy grain in Egypt.  Joseph maintains his hidden identity and follows God’s plan, giving his brothers a time of reflection to allow them the much-needed time to acknowledge and come to terms with their past treatment of their brother.  Does God punish the brothers or does he discipline them?  Does God punish us today when we sin?

This week we see Joseph’s strategy to determine the true character and heart of his brothers continue to play out.  Judah (Joseph’s 2nd oldest brother) leads the brothers back to Egypt, with Benjamin this time.  Joseph then uses one final strategy, with the silver cup, to determine where Judah and the brother’s hearts are truly at. This week we also look at the question of divination in the bible.  This word is used twice in Genesis 44, we discuss what divination is and what God thinks of it. 

This week we see Jacob stand before Pharaoh and bless him.  Pharaoh offers not only for all of Israel to settle in the region of Goshen (Rameses), but he also asks Joseph to have his brothers be responsible for shepherding Pharaoh’s personal flocks as well.  We also discuss the economical system that Joseph uses to help Egypt get through the 7 years of famine on the land.

This week we cover both Genesis 48 and 49.  In Gen 49 we look at Jacob’s blessing on his grandson’s Ephraim and Manasseh.  Then in Genesis 49 Jacob gives his final “Patriarchal Blessing” on his 12 sons.  This prophetic blessing, clearly inspired by God, is a foreshadowing of what is to come for the 12 tribes of Israel.  Dave breaks down the 12 (or is it 13?) tribes of Israel and then concludes with a wrap up recap of Jacob’s live.