The first two days of the week conclude the book of Psalms, Psalms 139 to 150. Very full and beautiful are these psalms. Very searching is Psalm 139. How full of hope and cheer are Psalms 145 and 147.
The last five days—altogether too little time—cover the closing book of the Bible, the Revelation, written by John about the year 98 A.D., revealing the wonderful visions of God given him. It is addressed to the seven churches, a figure representing the church of God in all its various phases to the end.
Its prophecies cover the entire Christian era in a sevenfold way; and each of these lines of prophecy is itself sevenfold. It is a wonderful drama of earth’s history, especially during the Christian era, closing ever and always with the triumph of God’s children in the everlasting kingdom of our Lord. No book in the Bible includes so many other books in its references, unless it be the book of Genesis. Constantly it refers to the lessons of the past, and to the symbolic prophecies which God has given in Ezekiel, Daniel, and Zechariah. It is not a hard book to understand, to the mind that is open on the Godward side. Special blessing is pronounced upon those who will read and do it, and it is placed in its own fitting position at the close of the Scripture canon. The first book of our journey tells us of that sinless Paradise which God made for His children at the beginning of the race. We have followed them down through their fearfully crooked pathway of sin and misery and death and trouble till we have come to the close of the book of Revelation; but that book closes with the everlasting triumph of those who are faithful, and places in prospect before us the glorious kingdom of God, in which “there shall be no more curse.”
A NEW year! A NEW month! A new week! A new beginning of our Bible journey! Never a traveler passed through an interesting land but that he wished he could see it again, and go once more over the same journey. Never a man who has spent years in and around forest or mountain, that did not again and again, if opportunity offered, go over the old paths. But the Bible is more and better than any or all of these. So in the words of Moses, “Come thou with us, and we will do thee good.”
—★—
Suggestions on Chapters 1 to 3
Analysis
I. The creation of heavens and earth. 1:1, 2.
II. The creations and formations of the six days. 1:3-31.
III. The crown of the week—the Sabbath. 2:1-3.
IV. The earth and man before the fall told in particulars. 2:4-25.
V. The temptation. 3:1-5.
VI. The fall and its consequences. 3:6-24.
Brief Notes
1. Genesis, the Greek name, meaning “generation.” The Hebrew title is Bereshith, “in the beginning,” the book of all beginnings.
“Genesis is the seed-plot of the whole Bible. It is essential to the true understanding of its every part. It is the foundation on which Divine Revelation rests, and on which it is built up. It is not only the foundation of all truth, but it enters into, and forms part of, all subsequent inspiration, and is at once the warp and woof of Holy Writ.”—Companion Bible.
2. “In the beginning.”—A period preceding earth’s reckoning of time, when “the foundations of the earth” were laid, and “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” Job 38:4-7. See also John 1:1-3; Prov. 8:22-29.
3. Without form and void, better as in A.R.V., “waste and void,” nothing growing upon it, empty of life. The Spirit, the mighty invisible power of God, brought cosmos out of the chaos; and the first three days of the week completed “the world that then was.” 2 Peter 3:6.
4. The first day of that first week of time came when the hand of God brought light and divided the night and the day. “God said” begins each day. “First day—day one. The word ‘day’ may refer to a prolonged period when used without any qualifying words. But when qualified with a numeral (cardinal or ordinal), it is defined and limited by it to a day of twenty-four hours. It is further limited here by its boundaries, ‘evening and morning,’ as well as by the seventh day.”—Companion Bible.
5. Firmament, better “expanse” (See margin), something spread out.
6. After his kind, verses 11, 12, 21, 24, 25. The Companion Bible well remarks, “Evolution has no answer to this.”
7. Creature of verse 24 comes from nephesh, soul.
8. In Our likeness.—“In any case the ‘image and the likeness’ is physical, not moral. Man fell and is a moral ruin, but some physical likeness to Elohim still remains. Compare Gen. 9:6; 1 Cor. 11:7; James 3:9.”—Companion Bible.
9. Replenish means fill, and is so used elsewhere.
10. Seventh day.—Samaritan and Septuagint versions read for the first “the seventh,” “the sixth.” But a part of God’s work in the making of that week was the making of the Sabbath memorial day.
11. A living soul.—There is absolutely nothing in the record of man’s creation which indicates that he is immortal.
12. Tree.—These trees are suggested: “Knowledge, man’s ruin; the cross, man’s redemption (Acts 10:39); the Tree of Life, man’s regeneration (Rev. 2:7; 22:2).”
13. An help meet for him.—Not a helpmeet, nor help mate, but a help fit for him, his counterpart.
14. Yea, hath God said.—Not a question, but a suggestion as to the unreasonableness of God’s instruction. Satan tells two falsehoods: (a) “Ye shall not surely die” (See 2:17); and, (b) “Ye shall be as God.” On one all idolatry and Spiritualism are based; on the other the immanence of God in man apart from Christ,—both fearful and fatal errors.
15. The seed of the woman—Christ, the one Person around whom all the promises revolve.
16. Keep the way of the Tree of Life so that sinful man should not live forever. Man’s only hope of eternal life is through faith in Jesus Christ.
(Continued on page 13)3
Our Bible Band
(Continued from page 2)
Outline Analysis
Chapter 4
I. Vs. 1-8. The first children and the first murder; Cain and Abel types of future characters. 1 John 3:12; Heb. 11:4.
II. Vs. 9-15. Cain and God; God’s long-suffering.
III. Vs. 16-24. Descendants of Cain, children of men in contradistinction to the Seed of Seth.
IV. Vs. 25, 26. Seth, the progenitor of the new seed, the channel of the Promised Seed, lost by Cain.
Chapter 5
I. Vs. 1-3. Generations of Adam. There are fourteen generations in this sense in the Bible, eleven of which are in Genesis.
II. V. 32. Noah’s family.
Chapter 6
I. Vs. 1-12. Wickedness and degeneracy and God’s mercy and justice; Noah an exception.
II. Vs. 13-22. The coming Deluge; instructions as to the ark.
Chapters 7 to 9 deal with the Deluge, the ark, the work and salvation of Noah, the distinction of “the world that then was,” and the world that “now is;” God’s covenant with the race, and character of Noah’s sons.
Chapters 10 and 11 record the peopling of the earth by the sons of Noah, man’s early wickedness, and the generations of Shem, the divinely ordained channel for the Promised Seed.
Chapters 12 to 24 reveal the progressive steps of God’s dealing with him who has been called “the father of the faithful,” from his call to the time when he came fully to trust God and sent his tried servant to obtain a wife for Isaac. The characters of Abram and Lot are clearly revealed, and also the influence of worldly associations upon a good man. God’s providential favors are shown to him who chooses unselfishly; His warnings before punishment; His repeated lessons in the school of faith; His providential care and interest among the children of men. As you read, keep ever in mind the Promised Seed.
—★—
