Genesis 1:31
And God saw every thing He had made, and behold it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
For further study - Genesis 1:1-31
As we approach a study of the book of Genesis, and in particular the first twelve chapters of the book, we are made aware that all the truth found in all sixty-six books of the Bible have their "beginning", their foundation, in the "Book of Beginnings", the first book of the Torah that Moses wrote, the book of Genesis.
The first chapter is the record of "Creation" when Jesus in six, twenty-four hour days, created the heavens, the earth and all that is in them. Now, as you read that statement you will realize that I interpret the book of Genesis literally as I interpret all sixty-six books the Bible.
If I interpret John 3;16 literally I must follow that same rule in the interpretation of the entire Bible. I would never be able to understand the prophetic passages in the Bible unless I used the same principle of interpretation in my approach to understanding the prophetic word of God. I’m sure you’ll find that to be the case as well.
This chapter that I have selected for our devotional today may well be the most important chapter in the Bible. It sets the stage for the rest of the Bible to be played out through history. In fact, the very first verse of Genesis actually begins “history”, “In the beginning”. By the way, there is no such time that can be referred to as “pre-historic”. Before Genesis there was only God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
There is so much that could be discussed as it relates to this first chapter of Genesis, however, I’ll only touch the “hem of the garment”. Notice Genesis 1:1, God created the heavens and the earth. According to Job 38:1-7 on the first day of creation after the Lord brought the heaves in to existence, and before He created the earth, He created “angels”.
Earlier I said that creation took place in six twenty-four hour days. Some of the evidence that this is truth is found in the repeated phrase in Genesis 1, “and the night and the day”, and then the record shows that this was one of the six days of creation.
On day one, as mentioned, the Lord created the “heavens and the earth”. Day two the Lord separates the “heavens from the earth and put in place an area for all creatures to breathe. The grass and the trees were brought into existence, by God, on the third day of “creation week”, with the Lord placing the Sun and the Moon in the heavens, and the stars also, on Day Four.
The next day, Day Five, God created the fish and the fowl in our world and in the morning of the sixth day, God created all cattle, beast and creeping things on Earth. The afternoon of Day Six the Lord created “man and woman” and gave them “dominion” over all of His creation.
I love what the Lord said before He took the seventh day as a “day of rest”. He looked at all He created and He said, “it was very good”, Genesis 1:31. This is key to our understanding that the Lord did this in six twenty-four hour days.
This foundational truth found in the record of the “six days of creation” does indeed set the stage for the rest of history to unfold down through the ages. This account of our “beginnings” helps each of us to learn how to understand the end of history, as foretold in the many passages of Bible prophecy found in the “Bible”, the only Word that God has given to us to read.
Genesis is also the foundation for all of Bible prophecy, the revelation of all that God wants us to know about the end of days. As we travel through the next eleven chapters of Genesis we will see the “foundations for all of Bible prophecy”.
Our trip through the entire Bible this year, with a specific focus on the prophetic passages, will help us to better understand God’s plan for the future and how we must become a part of that plan.
This devotional reading of the entire Bible, all sixty-six books, will instruct us on how to live in light of His soon coming and encourage us to live, as instructed, as we await His shout at the Rapture to join Him in the “air”. By the way, that “shout” could come today, so keep looking up.
PRAYER THOT: Even so, come Lord Jesus. And if you should tarry, please help me to live every moment of every day living for you as I should live.