Day 001
Today I’m sharing my notes from Genesis 1-3. If you haven’t read this yet, please so so before reading the rest of this post which will be a bit longer than usual, because we have to set up what’s happening here.Today in our reading we cover God’s creation of the world and mankind, as well as the fall of man. Okay, let’s get started!
What’s God’s redemptive plan here? What does this passage tell us about God, Jesus and/or the Holy Spirit?
Elohim – God the Creator of the World
Genesis 1:1 In the Beginning, God Created the heavens and the earth.
The first three words of the Bible;
- bereshith bara Elohim, refers to history (there was a beginning, bereshith),
- to creation (bara, he created),
- to the Creator, Elohim.
The Hebrew word for God is Elohim, and that this word is a plural noun. Yet the verb that goes with it is in the singular. This is already a hint of the Trinity; plurality in singularity
Genesis 1:2 And the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters
In Genesis 1:2b the term Ruach Elohim occurs, indicating the Spirit of God. Evidence in more than one direction of the Trinity in Genesis. The work of Creation was so important that it involved God in His three persons: Elohim, YHWH and Ruach Elohim.
The name YHWH was a more intimate name than Elohim. Elohim can refer to other gods, and even to heroic figures and angels. It is the general term for God. But YHWH was the God of Abraham and his descendants, and is a personal name. For the Jews it became so sacred that they ceased to say it.
In the New Testament, Jesus allows himself to be called ‘Lord’, which is our translation of Adonai, the substitute word for YHWH.
1:26 “Let us make man in OUR image.”
We see the 3 persons of the Trinity—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit—were all present at creation.
1:27-28- Let us make man in our own image and likeness. God blessed them and said be fruitful and multiply. The beginning of God’s redemptive plan
Genesis 2- WHYH
Jehovah Elohim: The LORD God, the Redeemer -Creator
Genesis 2:4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.
This is the first time we see “LORD”. When you see all caps L-O-R-D, like we do in Chapters 2 and 3, that represents an ancient unpronounceable Hebrew word. It was spelled YHWH.. This set of four letters has become known as the tetragrammaton. You can’t really pronounce it because it has no
vowels.. But when people do try to pronounce it, it comes out something like “Yahweh” or “Jehovah”.The Jews of the late BC period would not pronounce this word, so they substituted a word adonai meaning ‘Master’ (or ‘Lord’, as we say in a religious way). To help Jewish readers, they put the vowels of adonai against the four consonants YHWH, so that a reader would find something like YaHoWaiH, which in European languages became Jehovah, with ‘j’ pronounced at first like a ‘y’, and ‘v’ like a w.
This is God’s personal name, and by telling us His name, even though we can’t really pronounce it, right out of the gate He’s showing us how personal He wants to be with His creation. He’s not setting Himself apart as one not to be known or spoken to. He tells mankind His name! He wants to be known!
This name is somehow connected in origin, so linguists believe, with the name by which God revealed Himself to Abraham in Genesis 15:7, and even more clearly to Moses in Exodus 3:14. This name is Ehyeh or I am, implying I exist, I am alive.
Furthermore, the prefix Yehu (often spelt ‘Jeho-’ in our English Bibles) attached to the name of famous people in Scripture derives from this name, and the Hebrew form of Jesus is Yehoshua, meaning, YHWH saves. So the Genesis form YHWH has special connection with Jesus.
Genesis 2:18-20 – God let man name the animals- We are not robots, we have a choice, We have the power to make our own decisions .
references: https://answersingenesis.org/who-is-god/creator-god/the-creator/
Genesis 3- The Fall and Cost of Sin
Genesis 3:6 They took the fruit and ate… their eyes were opened. The first bad decision
Where do you see God’s commands to go, do, multiply and/or follow the leading of the Holy Spirit?
The beginning of God’s redemptive plan is found in Chapter 1:27-28- We’re made in God’s own image and likeness. God has blessed us and commanded us to be fruitful and multiply.
Who will you share what you’ve learned with?
Multiplication involves sharing with others, who will you share with today?