The Books of Moses
This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens. Genesis 2:4
The title “Genesis” is a fitting name for the first book of the Bible. Genesis is a Greek word meaning “beginning.” This book is the beginning of God’s marvelous rescue plan of salvation. Genesis lays the foundation for God’s work of salvation by describing the beginning of the perfect world (1:1), the beginning of mankind (1:27; 2:7, 21f), and the institution of marriage (2:24f). It continues by detailing the origin of sin (3:6f), and death (3:19; 4:8). Following the fall into sin, Moses records God’s first Gospel promise of a coming Savior (3:15).
The book of Genesis details the beginning of cities (4:17), music and poetry (4:19-24), the beginning of sacrifices (4:3f), and the beginning of different languages (11:5-9). However, the specific purpose of Genesis is to trace God’s saving activity throughout the history of the world. Genesis is the first chapter in God’s plan to deliver sinful mankind from sin and death, and describes God’s plan through His call of Abraham and God’s establishment of the nation of Israel from Abraham’s descendants.
Why is salvation necessary? Genesis teaches us that we are sinful and are doomed without it. It also shows us where the twofold division (believers and unbelievers) of the world came from. As you read the fifty fast-paced chapters of this history, pay special attention to how Genesis describes God’s work of redemption. It is not found in theological statements of doctrine, but through the biographies of real people. In the lives of these people we find God at work with the message of His law and the message of His grace to deliver sinners from death.
Lord, thank You for planning and carrying out salvation for sinners. Amen.
We have a sure prophetic Word
By inspiration of the LORD;
And though assailed on every hand,
Jehovah’s Word shall ever stand.
The Lutheran Hymnal 290:3