Sunday: The Principle of “First Mention”
Daily Lesson for Sunday 6th of April 2025
Most academic programs begin with a general survey course (often given the number “101”), a course that covers broad and basic principles that will form the basis for further study as you dig deeper into the subject. Likewise, when you read through the entire Bible, you quickly discover that God also has a general survey course in the book of Genesis, where He introduces ideas that will be examined in more detail throughout the rest of the Bible.
Image © Kevin Carden at Goodsalt.com
Generally speaking, the first time a concept or symbol is mentioned in the Bible—particularly in the opening chapters of Genesis—you will discover that it establishes a general understanding of that concept, which will help you understand how it’s being used later on.
Some Bible students refer to this as the “law of first mention,” although it would more properly be labeled a principle (or a pattern) rather than a law, because it is certainly not ironclad, and there are many exceptions to the rule. The pattern that seems to emerge, both in general Bible study and in Bible prophecy, is that God slowly feeds His children information over time, beginning with a basic concept and then enlarging on it many times over the years, or even the centuries.
Read Isaiah 40:7-8; Malachi 3:6; and Hebrews 13:8. What principle can you derive from these texts that would help you properly anchor your study of prophecy?
Much of the modern world speaks about “truthiness” instead of “truth,” because it is assumed that “truth” is a malleable thing that can change over time. Or, in some cases, the very concept of “truth” itself is deemed suspect.
When God establishes truth, however, He does not change His mind. Once He begins teaching His people truth, we can count on the fact that repetitions of the same biblical principle or theme do not change its meaning but, in contrast, shed further light on that meaning. It makes great sense in studying prophecy, therefore, to develop a good understanding of the book of Genesis, where you find many key concepts explained for the first time, and then take that foundational understanding with you as you explore the rest of the Bible.
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Why is it so important that we not allow anyone or anything, no matter how smooth or logical, to weaken our faith in the Bible and the infallible truths it teaches? What are subtle ways that this weakening can happen? |
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The principle of "first mention" is introduced in Genesis 3:15. "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; and it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." From there proceeded the great controversy theme throughout the rest of the Bible and expanded upon through prophecy.
I appreciate your use of "few words," but it might be helpful for some people to mention that Genesis 3:15 is the first mention of a war or "controversy" between the offspring of Eve and Satan, as represented by the serpent. "Enmity" indicates "hostility."
So when the news indicates that "hostilities resumed between Israel and Gaza," most of us know that means war.
The Book of Genesis IS the “Book of Beginnings”. This is the “nursery school” where God initiated the foundational doctrines or truths relating to His nature (character). Genesis acted as the “seedbed” upon which God’s teachings germinated and gradually developed in the rest of the Bible books. God started human race in the Book of Genesis and laid down the “building blocks” (principles or truths) which were to become the basis for God’s relationship with mankind. Here below, are a few examples of fundamental truths which were born in the Book of Genesis and developed throughout the entire Bible.
1. God the Creator - "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."(Genesis 1:1).
2. Human nature – God created man in His own image (Genesis 1:26–27)
3. Marriage design - "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." (Genesis 2:24)
4. Start of sin on earth – Adam and Eve disobeyed God (Genesis 3)
5. First gospel message – God promised a redeemer (Genesis 3:15)
6. Stewardship and responsibility – “"Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion..." (Genesis 1:28)
7. God is Sovereign – God chose Abraham not because he deserved but because of God’s grace (Genesis 12)
8. Faith is very essential – “And he [Abraham] believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness." (Genesis 15:6).
9. The great controversy – Satan (the Serpent) opposed God (Genesis 3)
10. Prophecy – “And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15, NLT).
One fundamental truth that emerges from the Book of Genesis is the consistency of God’s nature (character). Yes, God can change His mind but not His character.
The fist mention of a lamb to sacrifice as a symbol to look at, symbolizing the sacrifice of the lamb of God, before it happened, was yes first mentioned in the story Abraham being tested by God to sacrifice his firstborn, and then before the knife killed Isaac, God’s Angel held back Abraham and pointed to the lamb in the bush near by to take the place of Isaac having to die. As you remember, Isaac had asked his father where is the lamb, on the way up the mountain, and his father replayed the Lord will provide. And sure enough the Lord provided a way for all to be saved who turn to Him Hebrews 7:25.
Now, Genesis 4:4, referring to Abel’s sacrifice of a firstborn of the flock, and King James refer’s to as a firstling, to me, I do believe means a lamb. Be that as it may, yes, the first mention of a lamb was with Genesis 22:7 and not Genesis 4:4.
Pertaining to prophecy:
The sacrifice of a lamb was given by God as an ordinance, that His people before Christ died for all, might look forward to their, our if you will, Saviour willing to die in our stead. I do believe the lamb on the alter as a symbol, was the first prophecy, if you will. as last Monday’s lesson pointed out, “indeed, in the end, Bible prophecy must ultimately, in one way or another, lead us to Jesus and the promise of salvation that He offers to all humanity.”
Yes, John, the story in Genesis 22:8-13 is perhaps the most explicit "first mention" of the lamb as a symbol. Abraham may not have quite understood the truth he was voicing when he said, "God will provide the lamb." God did, indeed, provide the lamb for that particular sacrifice, and He also offered Himself as the Lamb for all humanity.
We need not guess at Abel's sacrifice in Gen. 4:4. Just a couple of verses earlier (Gen. 4:2), we learn that Abel was "a keeper of sheep." So, of course, "the firstborn of his flock" was a lamb. And Heb. 11:4 tells us that he offered that lamb "by faith." That tells us that Abel understood the lamb to represent the Messiah who could come to die for the sin of humanity and reconcile man to God.
To dig a little deeper, we may ask how Abel knew to indicate his faith in the Messiah by offering a lamb. The Bible gives us only the barest outlines. However, it also tells us that the Creator made "tunics of skin" to clothe Adam and Eve. There was likely more than one sheep that died that day, and I believe that it was probably right then that the Creator told Adam and Eve that He would some day die to clothe them in His righteousness as He then clothed them in the skins of the innocent animals.
It seems I'm not the first to come to a similar conclusion Uriah Smith wrote of sacrifices "immediately outside the gates of Eden" in his book, Looking Unto Jesus>. Ellen White also writes of the pain Adam felt when he had to kill an animal representing the Savior to come (In The Story of Redemption, page 501)
From these "first mentions" we understand that, in prophecy, a lamb likely represents the Creator's self-sacrifice for sin.
Distractions can be one of the subtle ways we lose focus from the right track. Excess of responsibilities and work: sometimes, we are so immersed that we forget our spiritual priorities; learning how to keep up with constant prayer is necessary.
We must be on our guard against subtle attacks upon sound biblical doctrine. Just as the devil used a media, a serpent, to deceive and subtlety undermine Eve's faith and a plain "thus saith the Lord," expect him to use the same schemes against us today. He will use any media available, even preachers of other faiths to undermine our faith. I have heard television ministers of other faiths putting down Seventh-day Adventist theology, saying that we believe things that we don't believe.
We must be so grounded in the Word, and the Lord, that we can rightly rebuke and correct any attempts to sow doubt. Jesus didn't entertain any arguments with Satan. He simply responded with "it is written..." His method is the best method of countering the undermining of our faith. We must be so anchored in the truths of scripture that even dynamite couldn't move us. We need to get back to being "the people of the Book."
Even more insidious than social media or outside condemnation is when Satan uses the members of your own family to attack your Faith and plant seeds of doubt. This has happened to me recently. It has been a real struggle for me to resist these nagging doubts & flee to Jesus.
It has been said that prophecy is the step by step revelation of where God is going and how He is going to get there. He invites us to go with Him. Jesus said, “I am The Way, The Truth, and The Life”. John 14:6
The following story of how God's Word is invincible is pretty amazing to me. Voltaire, the French skeptic and atheist who died in 1778, said that within 100 years from his time Christianity would be swept from existence and passed into history. He also predicted that the Bible would be a forgotten book. Well, within fifty years after Voltaire’s death, the Geneva Bible Society used Voltaire's own printing press to produce stacks of Bibles and his house to store them! Even the paper on which the Bibles were printed had “been especially made for a superior edition of Voltaire’s works. The Voltaire project failed, and the paper was bought and devoted to a better purpose [of printing Bibles]!” Reminds me of what Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35).
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The growing season where I live in New England, USA is relatively very short. I've just taken a little part-time job at a greenhouse near me and this is heavenly to be in the warmth with my fingers in the dirt, tenderly lifting seedling plugs from their nursery trays and re-potting them so that they can spread out their roots and leaves. A few pansies are already flowering. The greenhouse owners were throwing out a tray of small tomato seedlings that they offered to me, so now I'm the tomato nanny to a dozen seedlings that I've set up on my porch. Usually I get tomato seedlings in June and a few months later I'm pulling them up already and harvesting green tomatoes ahead of the approaching frost.
So, being elbow-deep in plants lately, Isaiah 40:7-8 speaks to me in a different way today. A seed of grass or a flowering plant completes its entire life so quickly. Poof, here today, gone tomorrow. Even a perennial. But the Word of God is an incorruptible seed that grows and grows forever and ever and never stops producing fruit. Imagine the biggest tomato plant ever, hitting the greenhouse ceiling, that you never have to pull up! God's Word never dies and has no limits producing growth in us. Even through all eternity we will understand more and more of what God is saying and new fruit will always be coming of listening to God's Words communicated specially to us, and applying what He speaks in our lives.