We’ve come to understand from the Book of Genesis that the Lord created mankind with the intent that man would image his God, vis-à-vis he would be like him in some respect, not completely so, because no one could contain the whole of God. So, man is meant to reflect his Maker in character, not perfectly, but similarly, so that God’s signature would be recognized in his creation. Man, whom the Lord put in authority over all he had created, is vested with the hope that he would desire to be like his God (Genesis 1:26-28).
Nevertheless, man chose to rebel, and live on his own, apart from God, which, if he was permitted to continue in his independence, would keep the Lord from enjoying his own creation. Indeed, God created mankind with free moral agency, so the Lord permitted him to continue in his rebellion until his end came into view, and violence filled the earth (Genesis 6:13). Therefore, the first Day of the Lord ended in the Genesis Flood, nearly destroying mankind completely.
After the Lord began again with Noah and his family, mankind showed his proclivity to once more fill the earth with violence (Genesis 11), and the second Day of the Lord ended in confusing man’s ability to unite in his rebellion against God under one religious banner.[1] Afterward, however, the Lord eventually called out Abram/Abraham and set him apart from other men, working with him in an effort to bless all nations and bring the rebellion to an end by bringing mankind back to his God. The Lord began his work of redemption by working with Abram, building him into a nation. He continued his work in Abraham’s son, Isaac, then in Isaac’s son, Jacob, in whom the Lord began to build the nation in earnest.
Therefore, with the death of Jacob, we’ve come to the time, when the Lord is no longer dealing with a single man, but with a family, which would grow into that nation. From its beginning to the time of the end, which is referred to as the last days (Genesis 49:1), the Lord worked with that nation, but the relationship was flawed in that, as a whole, it lacked the Spirit of God. In the last days the promised Messiah would come (Genesis 49:10), vis-à-vis the hated seed of the woman would arrive, and the same would be bruised by human authority, but the promised Seed would bruise the head of human authority (Adam) and reverse the rebellion Adam had put in place (Genesis 3:15), and this would be accomplished through the coming of God’s Spirit upon men (Acts 2; cp. Romans 16:20).
While the twelves sons of Jacob are sometimes referred to as the Twelve Patriarchs,[2] the time of the Patriarchs of Israel came to an end with the death of Jacob. The building of the nation in earnest begins with him. He is the last father of the whole nation. Therefore, it is fitting that the Book of Genesis comes to an end with his death, vis-à-vis the book of beginnings (genesis) ends in the death of Jacob. While the book does take us to the time of Joseph’s death, for all intents and purposes, the beginning of the works of God have come to an end here. In fact, we could also say that the work of God with mankind began in earnest with Jacob’s death. Everything that occurred prior to this moment, happened in preparation of the Lord’s work to bring mankind back to God from his rebellious outburst in Eden (Genesis 3). Redemption begins with Abraham, and that redemption begins to take shape in Jacob.
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[1] See my earlier study in Genesis 11, The Whole Earth Was One Language.
[2] In fact, there is a Jewish pseudepigraphal work entitled the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.
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