Genesis: Volume 3

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

By: Dr. Kent Haralson

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

In what could be the headline of any news story of the last century, homicide is the centerpiece of Genesis 4. But this is far more than a record of the first murder. It is about "the way of Cain" — the corruption and slide of a heart away from God into notorious sin. The story reveals something of the essential nature of all mankind by presenting an unforgettable picture of elementary, primal power. It is a story of depravity and grace.

The account begins with a burst of exuberant optimism and ends with one brother dead and the other haunted and on the run; the problem when one is the captain of his own heart. Genesis 4 also lays out the three characteristics of a false religion as well as the four marks of every religion aside from Biblical Christianity.

The genealogy in Genesis 5 suggests an extraordinary multiplication with the patriarchs living out God's blessing — and multiplying and spreading the image of God in humanity. We find the first five patriarchs and then the first four prophets.

It explains just what God-pleasing faith is and how you can have that. In Genesis 5 & 6 one finds the eight characteristics of what it was like in the days of Noah which is portend of the return of Christ.

In Genesis 6 the Divine tells us just what He thinks of human depravity, which of necessity, results in divine judgment. But just as there were no half-measures in executing judgment, there were no half measures in effecting salvation and here, once again, we find divine grace.

The last portion of this book provides an interpretive bridge between the shadowy past before the flood and the nearer more comprehensible era of the fathers following the flood. It is key to understanding ourselves today because we see how a soul is saved from destruction and is instructed in the doctrine of salvation. It explains life.

It is a principle with God that the more degenerate the times, the more definite the testimony. God always has His special man—a Moses, an Elijah, a Daniel. Before the Flood He had Noah. With the world crumbling around him, that giant figure towered above his times, hewn out of granite, standing like a lonely monolith pointing to the sky. Noah was a man energized and then enlightened by God. He was a man, but he also had a plan. Buried in that plan was the doctrine of salvation.