Although Satan, working through fallen man, had apparently driven God out from the earth, God is sovereign and cannot be defeated or frustrated by any kind of attack. All of Satan's work simply affords Him an excellent opportunity to display His wisdom. Although sometimes I was sorry that I was a fallen person, most of the time I rejoiced, because I had been redeemed, regenerated, and regained. Because of the fall, our relationship with God the Father is sweeter and more meaningful than it would have been without the fall. If you will spend some time to review your life, I believe you will weep, not in sorrow, but in sweet remembrance of God's wise and gracious work. When we enter into eternity, we shall exercise our spirit and recall our time on earth, and the memory of that time will be sweet, tasteful, and meaningful. God is wise. He allowed the serpent to come in. God watched the serpent and seemed to say, "Little serpent, what are you doing? Go ahead and do more. The more you do, the more opportunity I have to manifest My wisdom. Little serpent, do your best. Go on until you are satisfied and can do nothing more." Eventually, Satan had to say, "I have done all that I can do. I have exhausted myself in causing mankind to fall lower and lower. I cannot make him fall any further. This is all I can do. I am finished." When this point was reached, God came in, not as Elohim, but as Jehovah, the seed that was promised in 3:15. Nothing can frustrate God, defeat Him, or force Him to forsake His eternal purpose. He will complete what He has determined to perform. Nothing can change Him. Any interruption simply affords Him the opportunity to express more of His wise counsel.
If God had not been so wise, the book of Genesis would have been very short. But for God to display His wisdom, it has fifty chapters. The last thirty-nine and a half chapters are an abstract of the whole New Testament. Do you know how the New Testament begins? It begins with the words, "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ Son of David, Son of Abraham" (Matt. 1:1). According to the genealogy in Matthew, the gospel begins with Abraham. The New Testament begins with the genealogy of Abraham. This corresponds with Genesis 12. Nearly everything found in the New Testament is sown as a seed in Genesis. So the thirty-nine and a half chapters that compose the third section of Genesis are a brief of the entire New Testament.
As we have pointed out on other occasions, the New Testament begins with the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom. When Jehovah came in to call Abraham in Genesis 12, He gave him a promise, and that promise was the preaching of the gospel. Galatians 3:8 proves this: "The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the nations by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham: In you all the nations shall be blessed." The first preaching of the gospel is not in Matthew but in Genesis 12. In the preaching of the gospel to Abraham, the main item is the nation. The nation is the kingdom. In the next message we shall see that God promised to make Abraham a great nation and that this nation is the kingdom of God including Israel as God's kingdom in the Old Testament, the church as God's kingdom in the New Testament, the millennial kingdom in the coming age, and also the new heaven and the new earth. This is the kingdom and this is the gospel of the kingdom.
Galatians 3:14 speaks of the blessing of Abraham: "That the blessing of Abraham might come to the nations in Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." What is the blessing? It is the Spirit. Who is the Spirit? The Spirit is Jesus (2 Cor. 3:17). The Spirit is Jesus, Jesus is Jehovah, and Jehovah is God. Therefore, this blessing is just God Himself. In God's preaching of His gospel to Abraham, He promised the called ones that He would give Himself to them as a blessing. This blessing is Jehovah Himself. Jehovah is Jesus, and Jesus is the Spirit whom we have received through faith in Christ. This is the gospel. Remember, Genesis is a book giving us an abstract of the whole New Testament. How we must worship God for His sovereign wisdom!
This long section of Genesis covers the lives of only three persons—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When God revealed Himself to Moses, He said, "I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" (Exo. 3:6). As we shall see later on, this is clearly related to the Triune God. The New Testament is simply an autobiography of the Triune God—of the Father in Abraham, the Son in Isaac, and the Spirit in Jacob. Perhaps some will wonder about Joseph. As we shall see, Joseph does not stand alone; he is a part of Jacob. The entire story of the called ones in the book of Genesis is a story of these three persons, and the whole New Testament is a record of the divine Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, experienced by all the New Testament believers.