And now we have reached the last chapter of Genesis. How different from the beginning! Indeed Genesis is really like two books in one showing two subjects all through. It begins with one and ends with the other. “In the beginning” the Eternal God Himself, and His works, is the happy subject. And He is always first. “This then is the message which we have heard of Him and declare unto you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all” (John 1:5).
Now, the second “book” starts. “And the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” So it begins with light and ends with darkness, weeping, mourning, death—“A very grievous mourning” (Gen. 50:10). And Genesis ends with the words: “And they embalmed him and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.”
But Genesis is not all darkness and death for the simple reason that God’s first thought in the whole book is to show Himself. So, as soon as the earth is shown in its waste, empty, and dark state, quite apart from heaven, then we read: “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the deep, and God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” We see this often in the words, “And the evening and the morning.” God who is light is seen. But the power of darkness comes in. Abraham’s faith looked on and “saw” “My day” and was glad (John 8:56). And so we know that morning follows evening in the six days, when, as the Lord Jesus says: “My Father worketh....and I work.” But Genesis is followed by Exodus in God’s showing of Himself and the precious knowledge that redemption brings us out from scenes of fighting between good and evil, and into the Seventh day—God’s Eternal rest—no death, darkness, tears, sorrows, nor pain! “I bare you on eagles’ wings and brought you unto Myself” (Ex. 19:4) >