Genesis: The Beginning and End

The first man, Adam, appears at the beginning. He sinned, and was shut out from Paradise and the tree of life. At the end of Genesis another is raised up; Joseph is divinely marked out for supremacy; and, through rejection, defamation, suffering, imprisonment and faithfulness, he rises to be lord of all Egypt, and the saviour in time of famine.

From humiliation he rose to honour and exaltation, securing salvation for others, and special blessing for his own people in the chosen land of Goshen.

The new beginning is found in Christ, the true Joseph, who was rejected: and crucified, but being actually raised from the tomb—from among the dead—He is the Lord of all, the Saviour of sinners, the Messiah of Israel (who will settle them in the true Goshen), and the Head of the Assembly.

“Who is the BEGINNING, the Firstborn from the dead” (Col. 1:15), that in all things the pre-eminence might be His. He is “the First and the Last, who became dead, and lived” (Rev. 2:8).

The last Adam—not the second, for there is not another to follow—is found also in the risen Lord, as it says, “THE LAST ADAM a quickening Spirit” (1 Cor. 15:45).

It was after He had put away the sinner’s sins—after having died for us—after He had left the grave—after He had spoken peace to His own—He breathed on them, and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (John 20:22). He gave the Spirit as life then, and as power later (Acts 1:8; 2:4), when He had ascended on high.

All the inspired Volume points to Christ, He is the language of God to men—“THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA.” Before Him none can be discovered, neither is there any to come after Him, for He is “THE BEGINNING AND THE END” (Rev. 21:6).

H.J.V.