For those doing the Chronological study (backtothebible.org) I thought it might be handy to have a verse to memorize for every book of the Bible. There are more than one verse each book that is equally significant, but I hope to use verses that relay perhaps the main theme of a book. Some of the verses may come from New Testament “re-quotes” of passages but I hope to give us significant material to hopefully meditate our way through the yearly (at a minimum) passage through the Scriptures. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy thinking my way through picking out the verses, developing the context and perhaps a little “practical theology” for us.
The first verse is: Genesis 1:1
1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
This may seem pretty tame for the whole of Genesis and perhaps there are others as significant (we may add a couple more), but there is much more to be gained from this verse with a short series of questions.
First off nothing else makes sense apart from a baseline understanding that God created the heavens and the earth. This should be the simplest thing to understand and explain. If you suppress this basic truth the natural descent to being deceived is not only probable it is inescapable. If you don’t understand God’s intention revealed in creation you probably won’t understand the “Kingdom Mandate” in Genesis 1:26-28. The whole idea of ruling, subduing and multiplying that is still in play and revealed all the way through the Scriptures and culminates in the end of Revelation will probably be foreign to you apart from understanding 1:1 (see Gen 1:26-28; Ps 8:4-8; Heb 2:5-8; 1 Cor 15:24-28; Rev 5:10, 6:9-11, 20:4-5, 22:5) If you suppress the truth about 1:1, you probably won’t understand God’s ultimate plan for marriage. You won’t understand that His authority structure has never changed (Israel, Church, Marriage, Home etc.). You probably won’t understand that He has prescribed how you are to parent (think Proverbs and 66 books complete with examples…good and bad). This suppression of truth may lead you to think that you are in control (think Post Modern Mindset). Through the basic suppression of this truth you may be lead to not even understand if you are a male or a female (who knew). This suppression of truth will ultimately leave you where Paul explained in Romans 1:18 ff “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”
This basic suppression of truth will take you further than you ever thought…but you won’t be able to deny ultimately that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Sound familiar?
