A New Look at Old Genesis

I’ve been reading through the book of Genesis this month. It’s one of my favorites! (The book, not the month—not that there’s anything wrong with October. It’s a perfectly fine month. But I’m referring to the book.)

I love the book of Genesis because it’s a book of stories, fascinating stories we begin telling children from their earliest years, yet stories adults can learn from, too. I recently heard it referred to as the soap opera that resulted from the Fall.* That made me giggle, and I suppose it’s true. The difference is, these stories show God at work, carrying out His perfect plan among and on the behalf of the fallen people He has decided to redeem because He loves us all so much.

My point today is that we can always learn something new from Genesis. This is true of all of God’s Word, but I think we sometimes take Genesis for granted. It is the beginning and many of us learn its stories from our beginning and they become so familiar to us. It’s easy to consider skipping over them, thinking that if we can recite them by heart, then we’ve learned all we can.

But there’s more! Every reading there’s more!

For example, when I read through the story of Noah (Genesis 6-9:17) this time, these two passages caught my attention:

“Noah did everything just as God commanded him.” –Genesis 6:22

and

“By the first day of the first month of Noah's six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry. Then God said to Noah, ‘Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives.’” –Genesis 8:13-15

Did you catch that?! The ground was dry on the first day of the month. It was completely dry on the 27th day of the month. Noah saw that it was dry, but he waited. He waited in an ark full of stir crazy animals with his stir crazy family for almost a full month. He stayed in that ark in spite of what he saw until God told him to come out.

Wow! When Moses wrote that Noah did everything just as God commanded him, he wasn’t kidding. And since Noah was the one man chosen (with his family) to be spared from the flood, I think we should take note. (I also think we should hope and pray it doesn’t take us 601 years to learn to wait on God, ‘cause sometimes I think, with me, it might.)

I have a few more Genesis lessons to share, but this post is long enough for today. I’ll share more thoughts in coming days. In the meantime, happy studying! If you’re wondering what to read now, consider giving good old Genesis a brand new try.



*Sermon by Mike Reeves, October 25, 2009

For last year's thoughts on Noah, click here.