Christ in Genesis

Through the entire Bible, through all 66 books contained in it, we are pointed to Jesus Christ, God’s Son, The Sacrificial Lamb of God.  We even see Jesus in the very first verse of the very first book in the Bible, Genesis 1:1 (New Living Translation), “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”  The word translated here as “God” is plural in the original language, indicating that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit together created all that was created.  We are told again in John 1:1-5 (New Living Translation), “In the beginning the Word (Jesus) already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through Him, and nothing was created except through Him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and His life brought light to everyone. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.” 

From the beginning of time, God has given us “pictures” of Himself, ways to teach us about Him in terms that we are able to understand.  Isaiah 55:9 (King James Version) tells us, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  It is impossible for us to completely comprehend all that God is, how deeply He loves us, and how much we need Him, but He has given us examples in order for us to try to begin to know Him.

There are several of these examples, or “types,” of Christ in the book of Genesis.  The first “type,” or “picture,” of Christ that we see is Adam.  Consider the story of the creation of Eve, Genesis 2:20-24 (King James Version):

And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

Adam pre-existed Eve, just as Christ pre-existed creation.  Eve is a picture of the church, all those who trust Christ as their Savior and who follow Him.  While Adam slept, God pierced his side, just as Christ’s side was pierced as He hung on the cross.  God created for Adam a wife, who was a part of him, and for whom he shed his own blood.  God brought Eve to Adam, just as the Holy Spirit brings us to Christ. The creation of Eve was completed by God, and she did not participate in her own creation.  Our sins are forgiven by the shed blood of Christ alone, by the grace of God, not by any good works that we can do.  Eve was the first wife, and all wives who came after her were told that they must leave their fathers and mothers and join with and be loyal to (cleave to) their husbands.  In just the same way, Christians are told that we must leave our former, sinful lives behind and cleave only unto Christ.  The church is called “The Bride of Christ,” and we are to be one with Him.  Marriage was created by God to be a permanent and monogamous relationship.  Our relationship with Christ is also permanent and leaves no room for other “gods.”

Adam is only one of many pictures of Christ in the book of Genesis.  As you read Genesis, look for Christ in the lives of Cain and Abel, Abraham and Isaac, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Esau, Jacob and Leah and Rachel, Joseph and his brothers…  There are many, many pictures of Christ in Genesis.  The history of the nation of Israel is very rich in and of itself, but when you begin to look for pictures of Christ woven into that history, you can see that it is a history that can only have been written by Almighty God.

As you look back on your own life, can you see ways that God has woven Himself into your story?  There are a lot of things that happen to us that we don’t understand at the time, but with 20/20 hindsight, we are able to see that God has had a plan for us all along, just as He did with the birth of the nation of Israel.  And the exciting thing is, He also has a plan for us today and tomorrow, and the next day, and the next!

I hope you will join me in praising God in prayer this week, as the Psalmist did in Psalm 139:14 (King James Version):  “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.”