A Journal of the Road to Emmaus

Journaling through the Bible

As we began our 1 year study plan searching the scriptures together, from Genesis to Revelation, looking for Jesus, we have also started taking notes of our findings.

Here is a list of the revelations and observations shared by the group as we meet bi-weekly. May God speak to you also, as He has to us.

The sections are divided up according to the Reading Plan and the notes are numbered so we can easily see how many notes we have made in total.

Genesis 1 – 11

1. God creates through speaking – His Word goes forward and through Him all things are created, He is the life and the light (John 1).
2. We can’t help to wonder if the use of “Us” and “Our” in Gen 1:26 and Gen 11:7 is a reference to the fact that God is a triune being. Some food for thought.
3. Jesus is the last Adam (1Cor 15:35-49) – From His side the church was born, He is the husband (Eph 5:32)
4. Jesus is the offspring of the woman who will “crush” the serpent, the devil (Rev 12:9), while being “bruised” in the process. At the cross Jesus was “bruised for our iniquities” (Isa 53:5) so that he would triumph (Col 2:14-15), destroy the power of satan (Heb 2:14) and ultimately crush him (Rom 16:20) and throw him in the lake of Fire (Rev 20:10).
5. God also showed how He would redeem us by a sacrifice (shedding of blood) when He sacrificed an animal to clothe Adam and Eve (1John 1:7). Even Cain and Abel were aware of this requirement (Gen 4:3-5) and this is referenced throughout all of the law (Heb 9:22).
6. Abel is connected to Jesus in Matt 23:35 in that Jesus is being rejected like Abel, who came before Jesus as a messenger to God’s people. Also in Heb 12:24 the blood of Jesus is compared to Abel’s, being that the blood of Jesus is of greater value, as it accomplished more. Other comparisons comes in the detail of the offering of Abel, being that he was a shepherd, offering a lamb to God, he is martyred and offers the only acceptable sacrifice to God.
7. Enoch pleased God and was taken by God (Heb 11:5) (does not seem to have died but taken) just like Jesus pleased God (Matt 3:17) and was taken (Luke 24:50-51). In Jude 1:14 Enoch even prophesied about a coming judgment, a possible reference to Jesus’ 2nd coming (1The 3:13).
8. In Gen 5 the meaning of the names spells out the Gospel: “Man appointed a mortal sorrow, The Blessed God shall come down teaching His death shall bring the despairing rest, or comfort.” https://www.khouse.org/articles/2000/284/
9. The grace that Noah received is the same grace we receive in Christ (2Tim 1:9). So, in other words, God didn’t choose him because he was righteous, Noah believed (Heb 11:7) and God made him righteous (notice the sequence of events Gen 6:8 then Gen 6:9)
10. God saved Noah through the ark, as a picture of Christ’s death and resurrection (1Pet 3:20-21). The wooden ark, like the wooden cross, was the only way of salvation (Gen 7:23) (Acts 4:12), it was covered with pitch (Gen 6:14) (translated covering or atonement), like the blood on Jesus( Rom 5:9). The ark had only 1 door (Genesis 6:16), like Jesus is the only door or gate (John 10:9). It was God who closed (sealed) the door of the ark (Gen7:16) as it is Him who seals us for the day of redemption (Eph 4:30). Being IN the Ark, illustrates being IN Jesus, in whom we are saved (Romans 8:1). The flood itself, and how they passed through it, was a picture of baptism (1Pet 3:21). Finally, the new testament compares the times of Noah with Jesus’ second coming (Matt 24:37-39).
11. In the story of Babel we see people wanting to achieve strength in unity, glory and honor for their name. Yet we remember the words of Jesus “where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” (Matt 18:19-20). What greater strength, glory and honour is there then to be under the name of Jesus who God has highly exalted and given Him the name which is above every name (Phil 2:9-11)
12. in Gen 11:10-27 we may find it boring to hear yet another list of names but these are actually worth noting as they are Jesus’ relatives! (Luke 3:34–36 ).

Job

13. Job was the most upright man on earth (Job 1:8). Trembling with pain, Job cried, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return” (Job 1:21). Job was so disfigured by his sufferings that his friends didn’t recognize him (Job 2:12). Eliphaz taunted Job to call out to God for help (Job 5:1). In all these we are reminded of the cross where an innocent and righteous man, hung naked, his “appearance was marred more than any man” (Isa 52:14), and they said to Him “He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him.” (Matt 27:43).
14. Job 9:32-35 asks: What chance does anyone have of being accepted by a holy God? Would we not all fall short? Job says: I need a mediator or advocate (1Jo 2:1), someone with right standing before God and men who can plea on my behalf! (1Jo 2:2) Job repeats this desire to speak to God direct and for a mediator again in Job 13:3, Job 13:18, Job 16:21, Job 23:3, Job 23:7 and Job 31:35 – Can you think of anyone else in the bible with such a longing for Christ? (1Tim 2:5)
15. Through all his suffering Job knows that he can trust God (Job 13:15), even while God “slays” him, just as Jesus “endured the cross”, God’s wrath upon Him, “for the joy set before Him” (Heb 12:2). And just as it was the will of Father that the Son was crushed (Isa 53:10) so it is our heavenly Father’s will that we suffer while trusting Him (1Pet 4:19) and while following His Son’s example (1Pet 2:21).
16. In Job 14:13-17 we are reminded of the grave in which Jesus was concealed because of the wrath of God over our sins, until God “remembered” Him and brought Him back from the dead, answering Job’s question. Through the cross and resurrection Jesus makes the unclean, clean (Job 14:4)(1John 1:7), “seals up” or covers our sin (Rom 4:7-8) and remembers them no more (Heb 10:16-17).
17. Job’s lament in Job 16:10 and Job 17:6 invoke 2 Messianic passages: Psalm 22:13 and Isa 50:6 describing the suffering of Christ!
18. In chapter 19 we see a beautiful statement of faith in the Redeemer, the blessed hope described in Tit 2:13-14, as well as the hope and yearning of resurrection, which Jesus told us is in Him (Jhn 11:25).
19. Job who lived about 1000 years before Solomon, inspired the wise Solomon as he declared Job 28:28. Both of these men were a shadow of the one who would be called “the wisdom of God” (1Cor 1:24)
20. God was pleased with Job (Job 1:8) yet God brought upon him suffering to the point that Job felt abandoned (Job 30:20). This reminds us of Jesus, with whom the Father was well pleased (Matt 3:17) but who on the cross declared to be abandoned (Matt 27:46).
21. Job 33:23-28 Elihu prophetically declares the work of the Messiah, even if he was not aware that he was doing so. He describes how men condemned to the pit (Rom 6:23) needs a Mediator who would show men God’s righteousness and grace to deliver and redeem men from this pit, and do so through the payment of a ransom! (Rom 3:24-25 and Matt 20:28). – Side note: this word “ransom” is the same words as “pitch”, the thing that covered (sealed) the ark, through which Noah was saved (see note 8).
22. Job 35:6-7 confirms that it has always been and it will always be, by grace (Eph 2:8-9).
23. Job 38-39 have a similar objective as the sermon on the mount of Matt 5-6, it appeals to our humility and trust in God, the sovereign one (Job 41:9-11).
24. There seems to be an overall appeal in this book to what it says in Rom 10:6-11, at the end of it all, those who believe in Him to the end will not be disappointed and they will be restored (Isa 40:31).
25. Finally in Job, there is something behind the names of his daughters. Although Job had 7 sons we only hear of the names of the 3 daughters, and they are praised for their beauty and honoured with an inheritance! The names would create a sentence like: A bright day of hope, fragrant and beautifully strengthen by pain. Or something close 🙂 – see meaning here.

Genesis 12 – 50

26. Abraham is called from his father’s house to a foreign land, is promised to be given a great name, and told that, through him, God would bless all nations. Ultimately this promise was to be fulfilled by the Messiah (Gal 3:16), as every generation after Abraham eagerly expected Him. But Abraham’s calling also gives us an idea of how the Messiah would come – leaving His father’s house (heaven), going to a foreign land (earth), being given a name above all names, a blessing to all the people so He may gather them for the father (John 17:5-6 & Phil 2:5-11).
27. Melchizedek is a character that appears in Gen 14:18 and has a strange and unexpected interaction with Abraham, and so our curiosity is enticed…