But the Abrahamic covenant itself finds its explanation in the previous history.  For two thousand years God had administered the government of the world without a visible church.  And what was the result?  Before the flood the degeneracy of the human family was universal.  God, therefore, swept them all away, and began anew with Noah and his family.  But the terrible judgment of the deluge was not efficacious to prevent the new world from following the example of the old.  In the days of Abraham the worship of God had been corrupted through polytheism and idolatry, and ignorance and wickedness were again universal.  The time had manifestly come for the adoption of a new economy, in which God should, for the time being, concentrate his special labors upon a single nation but with ultimate reference to the salvation of the whole world.  Thus we have in the book of Genesis in a certain measure (for we may not presume to speak of God’s counsels as fully apprehended by us) an explanation of the Abrahamic covenant, and, in this, of the Mosaic economy also.

4.  In accordance with the above view, the book of Genesis falls into two unequal, but natural divisions.  The first part extends through eleven chapters, and is occupied with the history of the human family as a whole.  It is the oldest record in existence, and its contents are perfectly unique.  It describes in brief terms:  the order of creation; the institution of the Sabbath and marriage; the probation to which man was subjected, with its disastrous result in his fall and expulsion from Eden; the murder of Abel by Cain, and, in connection with this, the division of mankind into two families; man’s universal degeneracy; the deluge; the covenant made by God with the earth through Noah, and the law of murder; the confusion of tongues at Babel, and the consequent dispersion of the different families of men, a particular account of which is given by way of anticipation in the tenth chapter.  In addition to these notices there are two genealogical tables; the first from Adam to Noah (ch. 5), the second from Shem to Abraham (ch. 11).

The second part comprises the remainder of the book.  In this we have no longer a history of the whole race, but of Abraham’s family, with only incidental notices of the nations into connection with whom Abraham and his posterity were brought.  It opens with an account of the call of Abraham and the covenant made with him; notices the repeated renewal of this covenant to Abraham, with the institution of the rite of circumcision; its subsequent renewal to Isaac and Jacob; and the exclusion, first of Ishmael and afterwards of Esau, from a share in its privileges.  In immediate connection with the covenant relation into which God took Abraham and his family, we have the history of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, sometimes with much detail, but always with reference to the peculiar prerogative conferred upon them.  The book closes with an account of the wonderful train of providences by which Israel was brought into Egypt.