Every good building needs a good foundation. Without it, the building will settle, the walls will crack, and the roof will leak. The first 11 chapters of Genesis are the foundation of our Christian faith. Spend time getting to know them well. It is ok, in fact common, if you go back and “build the foundation” of your Christian faith after you become a believer.
But! If you don’t put the “foundation” below your Christian faith, it will be much harder to stand the storms of time. And, it appears that we are heading into spiritual storms unlike any we have experienced.
The first 3 chapters of Genesis cover the first 3 focal points of all of scripture: God, Man, and Sin. The rest of the Bible – while continuing to deal with those 3 subjects – also focuses on The Solution (Belief in Jesus).
Many see chapters 5 and 10 as rather boring. They are the records of genealogies. Perhaps the most crucial purpose of them is they validate Who the Christ is. However, if you look deeper, you also see that the Bible isn’t just written by man.
Can you name your Great Great Grandfather? Do you know the year he was born? What year his children were born? The year he died? Today we have enormous databases like Ancestry.com that provide all that information. Think about the work, detail, and systems required to do that.
Now, take a good look at Genesis 5. Moses recorded this information without “the cloud”, a computer, even a paper or pen.
It is not logical that “The Bible is a bunch of stories written by men” and the list of genealogies proves it. Man, with the technology at the time, would not be capable of writing that, and I suspect, wouldn’t even have the inclination to do it! It was clearly directed by God, and provided by God, for His purposes. It also validates that the “stories” we read in Scripture are literal history and we need to read them that way.
Be sure to build the foundation of your Christian faith by memorizing the main point of each of the first 11 chapters of Genesis. It will serve you well as we face the coming storms.
“For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” Romans 15:4
God Bless!