Jesus in Genesis

I see you in the beginning. The first book of the Bible. You are there with God. You are God. Part of the Trinity at the start of it all…

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness... Genesis 1:26a

Who is us? You are with God. You weren’t created by God, but were part of God from the beginning.

I see you foretold about when sin enters the world. Your enemy, the devil, tempts Eve and she eats of the forbidden fruit. The fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam joins her and they are newly aware of themselves. They hide from their nakedness. They hide from God.

The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” Genesis 3:14-15

God tells the devil his fate as a result of tempting Adam and Eve. He is cursed. And while his offspring shall bruise our heel with pain, suffering, sin in the world, crucifying Jesus, he will ultimately be destroyed. You (as her offspring) will come. You will give us a taste of heaven – revealing God, healing, casting out demons. You will yourself suffer and die. But You will conquer death. You will rise from the dead and return to heaven for a time. And you will defeat death for eternity. The devil will be crushed. Utter destruction.

We get another glimpse of you in Genesis in the story of Abraham and his son, Isaac. God tells Abraham He will make him a great nation with many descendants. In him all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Twenty-five years after the initial promise (and at the age of 100), Abraham has a son with his wife Sarah. Finally, Isaac, the promised and long-awaited son, is born.

But then the unthinkable happens…we are told God tells Abraham to take his son and offer him as a sacrifice.

Just as Abraham is about to sacrifice Isaac, an angel calls from heaven.

He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. Genesis 22:12-13

This has always been a hard story for me to wrap my head around. But it is a beautiful picture of what God has planned for us. He will be the one to offer up – to sacrifice – His only son. You, Jesus.

We see a glimpse of the power, relief, freedom of what it looks like when you take our place. The ram enters the scene to the be sacrifice, just as you will appear to take our place. A substitution of our sins for your righteousness.

Genesis continues with the emergence of God’s chosen people to tell His story through…the Israelites. We see the beginning of the family line, in conjunction with the hold spirit, that will birth you into earth. Isaac has a son, Jacob (whose name changed to Israel), and the sons of Jacob/Israel will ultimately become the twelve tribes of Israel. From the line of one of the sons, Judah, you will arrive on the scene.

The devil may have his time, but it will be temporary. We lament the sin we are faced with at this time, but a time will come when it will be defeated forever. So we wait for your return. But we rest in knowing you were there from the beginning and will be there at the end.

The Bible is a story about all about you, Jesus. Love, sacrifice, redemption. From the beginning to the end.