a new set of notes for our next lesson but last week I messed up royally and hit the clock and just kind of splattered everything out in the last minute or so and really did not do justice at all I think to really the point that I was trying to make here. So if you have the notes from last week, you pull those out. If not, it's okay. But if you have those, we're really on the last page. Those last three paragraphs really is our focus. But just to get a running start to that, if you remember, I began by looking at really a big overview of the Pentateuch. Let me say this a different way. Many argue that the Pentateuch originally was intended as one book, one whole unit. Part of the evidence of that is internal from the Scriptures, in that even in the Old Testament it's referred to as a collective unit. But then when you come to the New Testament, you have a reference made to the book of Moses. And it's not given to us in the New Testament in a plural form. It doesn't refer to the books of Moses. It's simply the book of Moses. And often the quotations are from the book of Deuteronomy, if we want to get specific as far as we're concerned. But even when other parts of the Pentateuch are quoted from in the New Testament, that singular term book of Moses is used. And so there is an idea of it being a collective whole, and that's how I'm looking at it from this point. Once we finish this part of it, I've got notes for the book of Genesis specifically. and then we'll look at each of the individual books of the Pentateuch, at least as we perceive them and use them the way that we do today. But one of the things that I was emphasizing was a way to read the Pentateuch, a way to study and understand what is written there for us from the perspective of what is called narrative typology. Now, this gets into one of the things that we refer to as the science of hermeneutics, how to interpret the scriptures. And there are various ways of interpreting the Bible. There are some that come to the scriptures purely from an allegorical perspective, and they see everything as allegory, and everything represents this, that, or the other thing. The problem with an allegory, like Pilgrim's Progress, for example, it never happened. It's not a real story. It's all made up. It does illustrate for us great truth, but the story's not real. the places are not real, the stuff is not real, but obviously the symbolism is real. Well, when we come to passages like the Pentateuch, we can't look at these as allegory. The creation account is not an allegory. The worldwide global flood is not an allegory. These are not made up stories. These are literal events of history. The characters are real people, lived in time, did, said, acted, just exactly the way the Bible records it for us. And so we understand when we read these narrative sections of the Bible that they're not just entertaining stories. You think about the life of these patriarchs, and we have key events in their life recorded, but they're hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of other things in their life that they did and said and places they went and all the rest of it that are not recorded in the Bible. And so you really have to ask yourself the question, why is this story recorded and this other potential story not recorded? Well, there's reasons for that. It's because of what God has intended us to know and the way we're supposed to read and interpret this. These stories are not there just simply for our information. We don't have these sections of Scripture given to us simply as history for history's sake. Now, that's going to be definitely something that we look at when we come to the book of Judges, when we come to 1 and 2 Chronicles, King, Samuel, and look at those that we refer to as the historical books. It's not just history for history's sake, because, again, there's a lot of stuff that happened that is not recorded for us in the Bible. And archaeologists, they uncover all sorts of things that are extra from what we have in the Bible, some things that from a world history perspective are given a lot of importance and significance that the Bible doesn't even touch, and other things that the Bible makes a great deal of significance about that secular world history seems to think is insignificant. Well, God doesn't think it's insignificant, so he's recorded these things on purpose. So it's not just history for the sake of history. And so if we look at it from this perspective of what is called narrative typology, really what we're understanding from these stories that are recorded for us is real events, literal historical facts on that level. We're not messing around with the scriptures from that perspective. We are taking it as it is, the word of God, literally things that happen. But we're to understand lessons and truths from it that we apply to our lives today. And so, as one of the men said, Yeah, on the front of your notes. To summarize one author, the events of the past teach us what is likely to happen in the future and the future is going to be like the past. We must learn from the past in order to prepare for the future. Throughout the Pentateuch we see a narrative typology that we must learn from so that we can rightly prepare for and live in the future. And so We looked at those three passages, Genesis 49 with Jacob, Numbers 24 with Balaam, Deuteronomy 31 with Moses, and we have that pattern that's given to us of gather, listen about what's going to happen. And we have those breaks through the Pentateuch. But where we ended last time was with the situation with Lot. And this is just something that illustrates how we are to understand the narrative. So I'm looking at the third and the end paragraph on the last page of your notes here. Lot was the father of the Ammonites and the Moabites. So turn in your Bible to Deuteronomy 23. I have that passage listed here. This is an important one for us to read. And so you know the story of Lot. They left Sodom and Gomorrah, and Lot was eventually went to a cave, and it's pretty dramatic that the reason Lot went to Sodom and Gomorrah in the first place is because he had so much property. He had so many flocks and herds that he and Abraham could not cohabitate in the same fields, and so they had to part ways because both of them had wealth that was so great And then Lot finds himself in Sodom and Gomorrah, and at the end of Lot's life, everything he owned could fit in a little cave on the side of a mountain. It's where sin will take you, right? He went from one of the wealthiest men alive to everything he owned could fit in a cave. And then also the tragedy of his life, he had two daughters who committed great sin with him and bore children. through Lot. And the descendants of those children were the Ammonites and the Moabites. And so we read in Deuteronomy 23 verses 3 and 4, so again, some context here, Genesis way at the beginning, chapter 23 of, I'm sorry, chapter 19 or so of Genesis. And now we're at the end of the Pentateuch era, Deuteronomy 23, Moses' last sermon to the people just before the Lord took him. And we see the commandment here in Deuteronomy 23, an Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord. Even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the Lord forever, because they met you not with bread and with water in the way when you came forth out of Egypt, and because they hired against thee Balaam, the son of Beor of Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse thee." And so here Moses is saying, these descendants of Lot are not allowed to come into the place of worship. They're not to be part of it. The reason he gives is because in the wilderness they met you not with bread and water in the way, and because they committed this treachery of hiring Balaam to curse the children of Israel. And so I use this example because it brings this full circle with these three that I mentioned to you. If you remember, we have Jacob who called and gathered his sons together and declared to them things that would happen in the days to come. And then the other time that that phrasing is used is with Balaam. When Balaam says, now behold, I go to my people, come therefore, and I will advise thee what this people shall do to thy people in the latter days. Well, Balaam was one that was hired by these exact people that Moses is specifically saying is excluded from the worship of God. And so these descendants of Lot excluded from worship. Now, Lot we know is a believer. But yet Lot's descendants, the heritage from Lot, were an unbelieving seed, ultimately rejected by God. Now, turn with me now to Exodus 12, Exodus 12. The typology here comes full circle later. We're going to get to the book of Nehemiah in just a moment, and read from Nehemiah, and show you how Nehemiah understood what Moses was communicating in the Pentateuch. But in Exodus chapter 12, We see this is when the children of Israel leave Egypt. So the Passover has happened, the death of the firstborn has taken place, and Pharaoh says, be gone, leave, go. And so they leave. But look at Exodus 12, 38, who goes with them? And a mixed multitude. went up also with them." Now, this mixed multitude is significant because that phrase, this mixed multitude, we're going to see it again here in just a moment in the book of Numbers, But when Nehemiah is dealing with this passage in the book of Deuteronomy, when he's reading the law to the people, he specifically references this mixed multitude. And so we'll see this in Nehemiah in just a moment. But what is this mixed multitude? So when the children of Israel left, verse 37 of Exodus 12, I think it's verse 37, maybe 36, speaks of 600,000. that leave Egypt with Moses, but a mixed multitude with them. Now, these are people that are not Israelites. They're not of the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They are other Egyptians. They are perhaps other slaves in Egypt of other descent. They're not necessarily worshipers of Jehovah, although we do have reason to believe there were perhaps some proselytes among them. There were some that recognized the God of Israel and were faithful to the God of Jehovah who were not genetically from the line of the children of Israel. But the vast majority of these were unbelievers who left the cruelty of Egypt There had just been 10 plagues. Egypt was a pretty desolate place at this point. And so perhaps, as some commentaries use the phrase, some perhaps leaving with the Israelites to seek their fame and fortune. They recognized a way out from the captivity that they were under. And so they leave with them. But as you see them in the wilderness, they become a thorn in the flesh of the children of Israel. Numbers 11 verse four, I'll just read this, you can turn it up, but Numbers 11 four, and the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting and the children of Israel also wept again and said, who shall give us flesh to eat? and then they recount all the food and all the stuff they had back in Egypt, and you brought us into this wilderness to die. Well, obviously there were unfaithful Israelites that were among that number, but we have these of the mixed multitude that were not truly followers of the Lord. They were opportunistic tag-alongs who influenced the children of Israel negatively towards sin. This illustrates this issue of narrative typology, and it illustrates the fact that when we view stories in the Pentateuch this way, as lessons from the past to teach us truth for the future, this is not an interpretation that we are imposing on the Pentateuch, or making up along the way. But we have reason to believe from the Scriptures itself that this is how the original recipients interpreted the Scriptures. This is how they understood it. And so, turn now to the book of Nehemiah. So, we're separated by over a thousand years at this point. from Deuteronomy to Nehemiah. Nehemiah is at the very end of the biblical historical record for the Old Testament. This is after the Babylonian captivity, and Nehemiah was there rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. Nehemiah 13, Nehemiah 13, verses one to three. On that day, they read in the book of Moses, and so again, there's another reference, not books of Moses, but the book of Moses, in the audience of the people, and therein was found written that the Ammonite and the Moabite should not come into the congregation of God forever. Well, we know exactly what they're reading. They're reading Deuteronomy 23, three and four. We just read that, and now Nehemiah is reading that to the people. The Ammonite and the Moabite should not come into the congregation of God forever, because they met not the children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them, that he should curse them, how be it our God turn the curse into a blessing. So we know what they're reading. They're reading Nehemiah, that passage that we just looked at, that makes this connection with the descendants of Lot, Now verse three, now it came to pass when they heard the law that they separated from Israel all the mixed multitude. Now, why did Nehemiah reading that passage in Deuteronomy go to separating out false professors, the mixed multitude, from among their numbers? Well, it shows us that what's happening here is Nehemiah is understanding and putting together all the pieces of the puzzle and connected Lot's descendants as representing that mixed multitude of the unfaithful that were not truly part of the Lord's people. And so we have the imagery for us of the Exodus. It is the biblical story of redemption traced through the Old and the New Testament. It is the biblical illustration of salvation in the Bible. And among that number of people were false professors. And what do we know is going to happen at the last day? God is going to separate the wheat from the tares. He's going to separate the sheep from the goats. The church exists today as a mixed multitude among the faithful. But God will sort that out. Now, here's the thing. It was never intended to be a mixed multitude. It was always intended to be the faithful people of God gathered together for worship. but God will sort all that out at the final day. And the warning here is that if you are of the generations of the Ammonites and the Moabites, meaning that if your heart is that of one who is a false professor and not a true child of God, then you are excluded from the worship of God. Now, some gospel thoughts along the way here. I won't focus a whole lot of time there. But the Ammonites and the Moabites were precluded from the worship of God to the 10th generation even forever. Okay, can anybody think of an exception? Ruth, right? Ruth was a Moabitess. Actually in the lineage of Jesus Christ himself, And so are those from among the mixed multitude unredeemable? The answer is no, there's grace. Even for those who would exist among the people of God in a way that is false, you can repent of sin and come to Christ and you can be saved even among that mixed multitude. Ruth was a Moabitess, specifically of the group of people excluded from God's worship. But yet she believed on the Lord and the Lord blessed her. So we'll stop there for that part. I'll go ahead and pass these out. Actually, Sean will help me pass these out, I hope. Thank you. So come to the book of Genesis. And so I've given up on the ambition of trying to do one book a week. We will just continue on. And so some of the things I've said here about the typology and the narrative and all that is going to flow really through a large portion of the Old Testament. but applies definitely to the book of Genesis. So Genesis 1-1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. There is no doubt that the book of Genesis is a book of beginnings. The name Genesis that we have in our English Bible comes from the name that's given to it by the septuagint. So if you were to get a copy of the septuagint and look at the top, it has the Greek word Genesis, and so it's just transliterated right into English, a word that means beginnings. So we can look at these stories of beginnings, just some big things. We have the beginning of the world. God created the heavens and the earth. Where did the earth come from? Well, we learn the beginning of the world in the book of Genesis. We learn the beginning of man. God created man in his own image. Male and female created he them. We see in chapter 3 the beginning of sin. And then also in chapter 3, verse 15, we see the beginning of redemption. We have that first gospel, what we sometimes refer to as the proto-evangelical, that there would be a seed of the woman that would come and crush the head of the serpent. And then we have the beginning of the covenant people of God in chapter 12 with the call of Abraham. Now, don't make too much of that and throw rocks at me, because obviously Adam was part of the covenant people of God, and Noah was part of the covenant people of God, and Enoch walked with God as part of that covenant people of God. But we have a more formal establishment of God's covenant and communication with Abraham, and there was a line, a descendant genealogical line that was established with God's covenant with Abraham that he would make him a great nation and bless him, etc. But when we come to chapter 12, We can kind of stand on the top of the mountain in chapter 12, and we can look back at where Abraham came from, and we can trace a lineage, because so much of those early chapters of the book of Genesis are filled with genealogies. God knows who is who, and God is keeping his eye on who is who. And there's interesting studies you can do tracing the genealogies of Adam all the way through and the various descendants. and you come to Noah, and God sends a flood, and everybody on the planet is dead except for Noah and his three sons, but yet God has made this promise that there's going to be a seed that's going to come. Now we've only got three people that can have kids, so where's this seed gonna be? And so God gives these genealogies of Ham, Sham, and Japheth, and then there's the Tower of Babel, and there's this big confusion of languages, and the multitudes of the earth after the flood, and the repopulation of the earth, and there's this big dispersion again, And okay, well, we've been tracking this seed, where is he? And God repeats only the genealogy of Shem. And that's where we learned that the Lord would not depart from the tents of Shem. And we kind of lose track of Ham and Japheth, because in the picture of God's promise, don't take this the wrong way, but they don't matter anymore. Shem is the one that the seed is going to come from. And we come down, now there's Abraham. And so in chapter 12, we can kind of stand on the top of the mountain and we can look back at how God has traced to this man who has found favor in the Lord's eyes. The Lord has called out from among the heathen and established a covenant with him. And then we can look forward in the book of Genesis. And as Pastor Kimbrough has been preaching through the lives of the patriarchs, we can see God's hand along the way. And so, if I summarize one author, the book of Genesis is more than just the history of mankind. It is, quote, the unfolding of the divine purpose of redemption and how it was to be accomplished. It is history with a special purpose. namely, to set forth as the foundation of the biblical religion the origin of the divine plan of redemption, and also the origin of the people chosen as its depository. And so, there were focused specifically on Abraham and his descendants, And now, obviously, even in the Old Testament, others are brought into this fold. We just mentioned Ruth earlier. There's Rahab. There's many others that are outside of this genealogical bloodline that the Lord does redeem and bring in, foreshadowing for us, here we are, right, the Gentiles that the Lord has brought in. And we are among that number, though I don't think anybody here genetically is a seed of Abraham. I think we're all Gentiles. Maybe you have a Jew somewhere back in your line, but I don't know of any in mine. But we have that foreshadowing of the Lord bringing in even those outside, but the focus of our attention is on Abraham and these covenant people. Now, Genesis, 50 chapters, how do you divide it? Well, there are several ways to divide the book. One is looking at it from a perspective of 11 parts. And you have an introduction followed by 10 different sections that start with the, these are the generations of, or the book of the generations of so and so. And so I'll give you a little chart there that outlines those. So you've got the generations of heaven and earth. These are the generations of Adam, the generations of Noah, the sons of Noah. And then you notice in chapter 11, verse 10, specifically Shem. So when it says the sons of Noah from chapter 10, verse one to 11, verse nine, it deals with all three of Noah's sons. Tower of Babel, but then it circles back specifically to Shem and traces him, Terah, Ishmael, Isaac, Esau, Jacob. And then we come to the end of the book of Genesis. So another way to look at the structure of the book of Genesis is to look at it in three major sections. So you have the introduction containing the seven days of creation, the creation of all that is, and then specifically the creation of man as the capstone of God's creation. So that's chapters one to two. And then you come to chapter 3 to chapter 11, and you have the fall of man and the consequences of that fall. And the consequences of the fall culminate in Genesis chapter 6, where in ten generations of humanity, from Adam to Noah, the world collectively has fallen into sin so that God says the thoughts and the intents of man's heart was only sin continually. And of all that were on the planet, God chose out specifically Noah and preserved Noah and his family alive. And then you come to chapter 12, to the end of the book, and you have a new beginning. Well, that new beginning, you know, I guess we can look at it from the perspective that after the flood, God gives a promise in covenant of the rainbow that he would not destroy the earth again, and there to go and be fruitful and multiply. But in chapter 12, we have, again, that establishment of God's covenant with Abraham, and God is, with a purpose, bringing a people together that he calls his own. Now, before Abraham, they were the people of God. We believe in a unity of the invisible church, a unity of God's people, but Abraham stands as a a symbolic father of the faithful, even when we get to the New Testament. And the Apostle Paul outlines our justification. He points back, Genesis, I'm sorry, Romans chapter four points back to our father Abraham, that one who really stands at the top of the hill of the Lord's people. But in that structure, we see Adam, Noah, Abraham as our three big main characters. Adam, in whom the race was born, and then sin came, and then we see Noah, in whom the human race was preserved, and then it comes to chapter 12 with Abraham, in whom the race was blessed. And so what is the main message of Genesis? Again, A big book obviously talks about a lot of different stuff, but what is the main message of the book of Genesis? I think we can summarize it in three big categories. Genesis teaches us about the presence of God. And so, at the very beginning, God was present. because in the beginning God created all that is. There was nothing present before him, nothing existed before him. He is the eternally existent God. And so God was present and then God brought into being all that is. And then at every turn through the book of Genesis, we see God present with and actively communicating with his people. And so God created Adam and we read of them having fellowship and walking in the garden together. Adam sinned, but yet God's presence was not gone because God came and saw Adam out. Adam, where are you? What have you done? And deals with him. Cain killed Abel. And what happened? God's presence was there and God sought out Cain. and says, where is your brother? And deals with him. God found Noah. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, but it was God who set his love and purpose specifically on Noah. We see God's presence with Abraham, and then all through each of the patriarchs. God's presence is constant. God is seeing all. He is actively controlling and ruling all even to where we are in the morning messages that Pastor Kimbrough is preaching through the life of Joseph. You know, now in these lists of patriarchs, the Joseph, God is still with Joseph. And what his brothers meant for evil will know God's presence is overshadowing all of these events. And God is actually doing a good thing through all this. And so his presence is never gone. And we can trace that right on through the rest of Scripture, the presence of God. But Genesis really highlights something of that theme of God's presence. Second thing is God's purpose. God reveals a purpose to save his people from their sins. And we see God's purpose in Genesis 3.15, that there would be a seed of the woman that would crush the head of the serpent. And we have some other ideas presented to us. We have Cain, who after he was banished and cursed for his murder, we read of Cain being the first one who built a city, established a civilization, Well, God's salvation is not going to come through civilization. We have in chapter 10, we have Nimrod, who was a mighty hunter before the Lord. He was a man of power and a man of conquest. Well, salvation is not going to come through that means either. So it's not civilization, it's not conquest, but it's through a covenant blessing of salvation And again, chapter 12, when Abraham is introduced to us, really becomes the top of the mountain of God's purpose. He had established a purpose. He told us what that purpose was back in Genesis 3.15. But in Abraham, we begin to see a very laser-focused enunciation of that purpose through a particular man and his family. And then you have a couple thousand years of world history that just go by in a flash of 11 chapters. And then it slows to a snail's pace from chapter 12 to 50. And there's so much more focus on this is God's purpose and plan in the world. And then the promise of God, and we'll stop with this at the end. The promise to send the seed of the woman who would crush the serpent's head. And the whole book of Genesis is the story of God fulfilling that plan and purpose. And then next week, Lord willing, when we come to the book of Exodus, we'll see how God, with a very mighty hand, dealt with those that would try to undo the promise of God and the power of God to demonstrate that God's promise is never in jeopardy. God is well able to defeat the hand of the enemy. And as the prophet Daniel says, no man can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? Even a great Pharaoh who would say, no, I'm not gonna let your people go. Well, no, God said, let them go, and they did. So we have God's promise fulfilled, but we see that illustrated so many ways through the book of Genesis. So we'll stop there, and then, Lord willing, next week, come to Exodus. So let's close in prayer. Our Father, we do thank you for your word and for the way that you have unfolded to us your truth, and we pray that you would help us to learn from these stories of the past, that we would see how you worked and your will and your way, and that it would teach us how we are to behave ourselves that we're not to be doubtful or fearful or lying like Abraham did, but we are to be strong in faith. We are to believe your promises and commit to your will and your way. And so we pray that you'll help us to learn these lessons well. And we pray even this morning as Pastor Kimbrough would focus our attention on some aspects of this book of Genesis and the life of Joseph and how you really move in very mysterious ways and taking what men have organized and planned and devised for evil and you turn it for the good of your people and for the glory of your own name. And so we pray that you would help us to learn these things and then by your spirit apply them to our own lives as we seek to live for your glory. Bless us this morning and we ask it in Jesus' name.