The Writings of Genesis

How do you tell a story that has no beginning? Where do you start? Moses knows how important it is to record the story of the relationship between God and humans. But God has no beginning. So Moses decides to start at the very creation of humankind.  Moses is not just writing a story of events.  Moses is writing a love story.  Moses is not writing a record of science to explain how creation took place. He is writing about God and why He created and who God was creating.  Moses knows this story of Beginning needs two parts: The Beginning and the Beginning a second time.

The first beginning is Moses’ story of love and relationship.  Moses’ tells the story of Adam and Eve and all of creation that God made for them. Moses tells of a relationship between God and human that is unlike any other relationship in creation.  But it is a relationship that became broken by human choice, under the influence of God’s enemy.  Moses’ story is also a story of battle.  There is a battle between God and Satan.  There is a battle within humans.  And Moses knows that the battle, at the beginning, results in the worst ending. All is lost. The relationship is so broken that God’s creation is almost destroyed.  There is no hope unless God chooses to begin again.

Moses writes the second part of his Genesis story, telling how God did choose to begin again.  This time God picked one family, to build one nation, from which one child, would save the whole world.  Passed down through the generations, Moses had heard so many stories about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and his twelve sons.  Moses can’t record every story.  How would Moses choose which stories to tell?  Moses picks the stories that tell the greater story of God’s love and action to raise a nation to save a world.

Moses writes of Abraham moving to setup life in a specific region of the world called Canaan.  This is where God’s nation would settle.  Abraham’s son Isaac is the bridge to Abraham’s grandson, Jacob.  Jacob is important for his life shows the weakness of humans. Yet God still uses Jacob for His purpose.  In every story Moses writes, he knows that no matter what right or wrong actions people take, only God can be the hero of each story.  And God will accomplish His purpose of beginning again with humankind.

After writing of Jacob, Moses thinks about Jacob’s twelve children.  Jacob’s family would become the leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel, God’s nation.  Again Moses has too many stories to tell.  Which stories should he record?  Judah’s story must be told for from his tribe comes Jesus, the Son of God. But strangely Moses chooses to write the most about one of Jacob’s youngest children, Joseph.  Joseph was a son of Jacob but not a leader of one of the 12 tribes of Israel.  Yet Moses knew Joseph’s story would tell the most about God’s love and God’s activity to save His nation and even other nations. 

Moses had heard the story of Joseph so many times.  He could recite it with great detail.  He knew that Joseph represented God’s story of how God would become involved in the daily activities of His people to help them and to save them.   Joseph, after many interesting and exciting events, leads his family and God’s nation to safety in the region of Egypt.  Throughout these stories, God continues to show how He is in control and working His purpose so that first His nation will be established and then from His nation, Jesus the Messiah will bring salvation to all nations.

This first book of Genesis, written by Moses, would only be the first part of the story of God and humans.  So much more would need to be written in the next four books of the Bible to come.  But Moses knew this first book was important for everyone.  In this first book people would remember and understand God as a Creator who loves.  From the beginning they would also know God as a Redeemer who has a plan to save all people and never gives up on His creation.