God is omnipotent, but apart from the Bible there is no record about Him in the whole universe. It is even hard to find a record concerning some of the false gods. But we do have a record about God, that is, the Bible. The most wonderful thing on the earth among the human race is this record.
The Pentateuch, which the Jews call the Torah, was written by Moses. Moses was not very early; rather, he was at least four hundred years later than Abraham and at least twenty-five centuries later than Adam. Here then is a marvelous question: Where did Moses get all his facts for the writing of the Pentateuch? Genesis is a record written by Moses, but you cannot find Moses’ support for his record. Therefore, people wonder where Moses got the material for Genesis, the account of Adam to Joseph. Sometimes Moses gives us a very detailed record, as in Genesis 3. Moses tells of man’s fall through the serpent and even gives us the conversation between the serpent and Eve in much detail. But where did Moses get this material?
From my youth I was told that the verbal record went down through the generations to Moses. But a verbal record is terrible. It is sometimes like a snowball: As it goes through the generations, it becomes a big ball with little fact and the rest myth. But if you study Genesis carefully, you cannot find myths. It seems that everything is a fact. That conversation in chapter 3 is very reasonable and very much like fact. Therefore, we must believe that while Moses was writing, he was under the moving of the Holy Spirit (2 Pet. 1:21). No doubt, there is some verbal tradition, but I believe that the main source of Moses’ writing was the move of the Holy Spirit.
THE HISTORY OF GOD REVEALED
THROUGH HUMAN STORIES
The best Bible teachers say that Genesis is a book of history. But Genesis is also a book of stories. If Genesis were just a book of history, the record concerning Joseph, for instance, would not need to be as long as it is. It is strange that only three pages of Genesis are about God’s creation, while many pages are about this one man Joseph. Of the fifty chapters of Genesis, thirteen are about Joseph.
Why is the record of God’s creation so short and the record of this youth named Joseph so long? You must realize that the history of God is not a history related much to the creation. If Genesis were a full record of God’s creation, fifty chapters would not be sufficient. Scientists today spend not pages but books to tell us about the existence of the universe. But the Bible is not that kind of history. The Bible is a history of God in union not with the stars and the heavenly host nor with the beasts. The Bible is a history of God in union with man. Joseph occupies such a long portion of the record because God wants to show us how much He is there in Joseph’s situation. In the creation God only said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. There is no more detail than that. But when the same writer comes to Joseph, the record is in much detail. Because of the detail, you cannot read the story of Joseph without your affections being touched. Therefore, from reading these details we see that our God in His history is very much related to humanity.
Acts 7 says that when Abraham was still in Chaldea, the God of glory appeared to him (v. 2). Do you know in what way God appeared to Abraham? Genesis 18 gives us a clear record of this. One day Abraham sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. Then suddenly three men came. Of these three, one was Christ, who is called Jehovah in this chapter (vv. 1, 13). When the two angels who came with Christ left, Christ remained with Abraham, and Abraham talked to Jehovah face to face as he would to another person. This chapter is clear, but it presents a big problem. Christ was there in the human form, with a human body. He even ate Sarah’s cooking, and Abraham brought Him water so that He might wash His feet. This seems to contradict John 1:14, which says that at the time of the incarnation God became flesh. How could Christ already be in the flesh long before John 1:14? This is God’s history. Moses’ writing is very human, yet in this human record you can see God. God lived in this record. We may think that only God’s creation of the heavens and the earth is worth recording and that there is no need to have a long record about a youth like Joseph. But do you like to read Genesis chapters 1 and 2 more than chapters 37 through 50? Even if you read chapters 37 through 50 ten times, you will not get tired of them. These chapters are humanly very interesting, but you can see God there. This is God’s history in a human story. Chapters 37 through 50 of Genesis are a man’s story, but that story comprises God’s history.