Genesis

Genesis is the book of beginnings. In it we find many firsts, from the first man, to the first sin, to the first promise of redemption. It takes the story from the beginning of creation to the time when Jacob's family enter into Israel.

Creation

• Found: Genesis chapters 1 & 2

The opening two chapters of Genesis describe how God created everything, including man. It starts with an account of the seven days of creation, then goes on to describe the creation of the first man(Adam), a garden for him to live in and the first woman(Eve).

Seven Days of Creation (Genesis 1v1-2v6)

God took seven days to create everything and to take a rest afterwards. These days are sometimes taken as symbolic, each representing a period of time, but there is nothing in the Bible to indicate anything other than literal 24 hour days.

1. Heaven and Earth, light and darkness
2. Firmament (sky)
3. Dry land, plants
4. Sun, moon and stars
5. Sea life and birds
6. Land animals and man
7. Day of rest

The closing verses of this passage give us some indication of what the pre-flood weather was like. It appears there was no rain in those days, but a mist rose up over the Earth to dampen it and let the plants grow.

The Garden of Eden (Genesis 2v7-2v17)

God made man from dust, and gave him something He had given to no other creature - a soul. He then made a garden for the man to live in, with a river running through it. In the middle of the garden was the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which was the only plant the man was not allowed to eat from.

The Creation of Woman (Genesis 2v18-25)

God then decided to give man (Adam) a companion. He brought all the animals to Adam, who named them, but none of them was good enough for a companion. God put him into a deep sleep, took out one of his ribs, and made a woman.

Adam and Eve

• Found: Genesis chapters 3 & 4

Genesis 3 and 4 tell us the story of Adam, Eve and their sons' lives. Chapter 3 is about the origin of sin in man's nature and how Adam and Eve were thrown out of the garden of Eden. Chapter 4 tells the story of two of their sons: Cain and Abel.

Adam and Eve (Genesis 3v1-24)

Adam and Eve were living in the garden of Eden and were at peace with God. They had been commanded by God to avoid one thing: the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Satan approaches Eve in the form of a serpent and tempts her to eat from the tree. He tells her that she won't really die as God has said, but will become like a God herself. Eve ate the forbidden fruit and gave some to Adam as well.

When Adam and Eve ate the fruit, they suddenly knew good and evil, right and wrong. They were no longer innocent; Death had entered the garden of Eden. Their bodies would die out and their souls were already made dead by their sin. They realised their nakedness and covered themselves with fig leaves, and they hid from God when they heard Him nearby.

God called out to Adam, and Adam admitted his sin. The Lord put a curse on both Adam and Eve: no longer would life be easy, living in a beautiful garden with no problems; now they would have to work hard and struggle for survival. God gave them animal skins to clothe themselves with, and put them out of the garden of Eden, leaving angels with a flaming sword to guard it.

Cain and Abel (Genesis 4v1-26)

Cain and Abel were Adam and Eve's first two sons. Cain was a crop farmer, while Abel looked after sheep. After a while, Cain brought the results of his labour to the Lord as a sacrifice, and Abel did likewise. God was in favour of Abel's sacrifice (the firstborn of his animals), but rejected Cain's sacrifice. Cain was very angry and killed his brother. When the Lord asked Cain where his brother was, he said "Am I my brother's keeper?" The Lord put a curse on Cain, but also put a mark on him so that no-one would kill him.

God gave Adam and Eve another son to replace Abel, who's name was Seth. Seth was the ancestor of Enoch, Methuselah and Noah.

Noah's Ark

• Found: Genesis chapters 6 - 9

The Evil World (Genesis 6)

After God made Adam and Eve, they had children, their children had children and so on until there was a great number of people on the Earth. However the people were wicked and turned away from God. God was sorry He had made man, so decided that He would wipe out every person on the planet with a great flood.

There was one man who was good in God's eyes, though, and his name was Noah. God told Noah to build a big boat out of gopher wood, and to put in it all the animals that God brought to him, because a great flood was coming.

The Flood Comes (Genesis 7)

Noah built his ark as the Lord had told him. It took him many years, but he kept on. When he was finished, God told him he had a week until the flood came. All kinds of animals came to the ark, in sevens and in twos, and God shut them in the ark with Noah, his wife, his three sons (Shem, Ham and Japheth) and their wives.

The rains started. It rained for forty days and forty nights. The waters rose and lifted up the ark. They rose over all the hills so the Earth was completely covered. All the land animals and birds were killed, apart from those who were safe in the ark.

The Waters Go Down (Genesis 8)

After some months the waters started to go down again and eventually the tops of the mountains could be seen. The ark came to rest on mount Ararat and Noah opened the window on the ark to see the newly cleansed world. He sent out a raven, which didn't return, so he sent out a dove. The dove could find no place to rest, so came back again. Noah waited a week and again sent out the dove. This time it returned with an olive branch in its mouth. Another week later Noah sent the dove out again. This time it didn't return. It was nearly time to leave the ark.

One year after entering the ark, God told Noah it was time to leave. Noah and his family and all the animals came out of the ark and walked on the new land.

The Promise (Genesis 9)

When God brought Noah out of the ark he told him to go forth and multiply. His family and the animals they had saved would repopulate the Earth. He also made a promise to Noah. Never again would He destroy the Earth with a flood. He left a reminder of this promise in the sky: a rainbow, which appears whenever it rains.

Noah lived to be nine hundred and fifty years old before he died.

Tower of Babel

• Found: Genesis chapter 11

The Tower Built Toward Heaven (Genesis 11v1-9)

In the days after Noah, everyone spoke the same language, and they began to congregate together at a place called Shinar (Babylon). They decided to build a great city, and a tower which would reach toward heaven. God saw what they were doing and was worried that if all the people worked together, they could do anything they wanted to. He scattered them far and wide across the world and gave them different languages, and the tower was known as the Tower of Babel.

Abraham

• Found: Genesis chapter 12-21

Abram Sent Out (Genesis 12)

Abram was the son of Terah. God spoke to him and told him to go to a land the Lord would show him. There God promised He would make Abram into a great nation and would give him all the land in the area. Abram got up and followed the Lord, along with some of his family, including Lot, his nephew.

The Lord led Abram to the land of Canaan, where he lived for a while. There was a famine in Canaan and Abram was forced to go down to Egypt. There he was worried that his beautiful wife Sarai would attract men who would kill him for her, so they pretended to be brother and sister. Pharaoh liked Sarai, and took her into his house. He suffered plagues because of this, and when he found out that Abram and Sarai were married, he was angry and drove them out of Egypt.

Abram and Lot Split Up (Genesis 13)

Back in Canaan, Abram and his family did well. So well in fact that the land they stayed at wasn't enough to keep his and Lot's herds. They decided to split up. Lot looked over the plain of the Jordan, with the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and decided to move there. Abram stayed in Canaan, which the Lord promised he would one day own all of.

God's Promise to Abram (Genesis 15)

The Lord spoke to Abram in a vision. Again He told him that he would have a child, who would result in a great nation. Abram was to make a covenant with God to seal the promise. In these days a blood covenant involved the two parties walking between the bisected pieces of animals. While Abram slept, God walked between the pieces alone, signifying that the covenant depended on Him alone, and not on Abram's faith.

Abram Tries For a Son His Way (Genesis 16)

Abram and Sarai were getting quite old and there was no sign of a son. This worried Abram and he decided to take things into his own hands. He took Sarai's servant Hagar, and had a son by her, whom he called Ishmael. This was not God's plan and would result in no end of trouble in the future, but God promised that He would also bless Ishmael with a great number of descendents.

Abram Becomes Abraham (Genesis 17)

When Abram was 99 years old, God appeared to him again. Once more he assured Abram that he would have a son who would become a great nation. He renamed Abram Abraham, and Sarai became Sarah. Abraham laughed at the idea of a son to himself and Sarah (who was 90). God said the son should be called Isaac, which means laughter.

Strangers Come With news (Genesis 18)

One day three men appeared to Abraham. They told him Sarah would have a child. Sarah, hearing this from her tent, laughed at the idea. The men also had news that they were going down to Sodom and Gomorrah to destroy them because of their wickedness. One of the men was the Lord, and He stayed with Abraham while the others went on down.

Abraham remembered that Lot was at Sodom, and argued with the Lord. He asked if there were 50 good men in Sodom, the Lord would not destroy it. The Lord agreed. Abraham said what if there were 45, and so on until he had bargained the Lord down to 10. The Lord agreed that if 10 righteous men were to be found in Sodom, it would not be destroyed.

Lot Escapes From Sodom (Genesis 19)

Apparently there weren't even 10 righteous men in Sodom. Two angels visited Lot that night. He asked them to stay, but the people of the city wanted the strangers to come out to them. Lot was in a fix, and even offered his own daughters to the townspeople, but they refused and crowded round to break into Lot's house. The two angels saved Lot from the crowd and made the people blind, so they couldn't find the door.

The angels warned Lot the city was about to be destroyed, and to get all his family out. His daughters' husbands laughed at him, but the next morning Lot, his wife and his two daughters escaped the city with the angels instructions to run and not look back. Unfortunately Lot's wife did look back and she was turned into a pillar of salt. The rest escaped to the town of Zoar.

Isaac is Born (Genesis 21)

God kept His promise to Abraham. When he was a hundred years old, and Sarah was ninety, they had a child and they named him Isaac. Isaac grew up with his parents, but there was trouble between Sarah and Hagar. Hagar was thrown out with Ishmael and went away to live in the wilderness.

Isaac

• Found: Genesis chapter 22-24

God Demands a Sacrifice (Genesis 22)

Isaac grew up into a strong young boy and Abraham loved him. Then God tested Abraham. He asked him to take Isaac to a mountain and sacrifice him there. The next morning Abraham rose up, cut some wood, and took Isaac and two servants off on the journey.

It took three days to get to the foot of the mountain. There Abraham and Isaac went on alone. Isaac asked where the lamb was that they would sacrifice, and Abraham replied "God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering". When they got to the place God wanted, Abraham made an altar, put the wood on it and tied his son to the altar. He had just raised the knife to take Isaac's life when the angel of the Lord called from heaven.

The angel said that Abraham had proved his love for God, and he wasn't to sacrifice his son. Looking up, Abraham saw that a ram was tangled in the bushes. God had provided.

Isaac Gets a Wife (Genesis 24)

Isaac grew up in Abraham's household. After some years, Abraham was worried. Isaac didn't have a wife to continue his family and Abraham didn't want him to marry anyone from the surrounding area. So Abraham got his servant, Eliezer, to go back to his homeland and find Isaac a wife.

Eliezer traveled to Nahor. There he stopped by a well and pondered what to do. He prayed to God that when a girl came out to fetch water and he asked her for a drink, she would offer his camels water if she was God's chosen one.

Sure enough, before he finished praying, a girl named Rebekah came to collect water from the well. Eliezer asked her for some water and she gave him a drink. Then she offered to draw water for his camels. Eliezer knew she was the one. Asking her who she was, he found out she was Abraham's grand-niece. He went in to talk with her family and they all agreed Rebekah would go back to be Isaac's wife

As they journeyed back home, Isaac was out in a field meditating. Rebekah saw him and asked Eliezer who he was. On finding out this was Isaac, she covered her face with a veil so he wouldn't see her face before they were married. They went to Isaac's mother's tent and were married there.

Jacob

• Found: Genesis chapter 25v20 - 35v29

Jacob and Esau Born (Genesis 25v20-26)

Isaac was forty when he married Rebekah. Twenty years later, they still had no children. Isaac prayed to God and God blessed them with twin boys. The first to be born was red and hairy, and was called Esau. The second came out grabbing his brother's heel. His parents called him Jacob, which means heel grabber or cheat.

Esau Gives Up His Birthright (Genesis 25v27-34)

The boys grew up. Esau grew to be a cunning hunter, while Jacob stayed around the tents. Isaac loved Esau more because he brought him his kills, but Rebekah loved Jacob more. One day Esau came from his hunting tired and hungry. Jacob was making some stew and Esau, liking the smell of it, asked for some. Jacob demanded Esau's birthright (he was the first born) in payment, and Esau cared so little for it that he gave it for a plate of stew.

Jacob Gets Isaac's Blessing (Genesis 27)

When Isaac was old, he wanted to give his blessing to his elder son. He called Esau in and asked him to fetch some venison. Esau went out hunting. Meanwhile, Rebekah conspired with Jacob to trick Isaac. Jacob fetched some stew and Rebekah helped him put on Esau's clothing. He also wrapped goatskin around his arms to make them appear hairy.

When Jacob went in to Isaac, he thought he recognised the voice as Jacob, but asked him to come closer. Touching Jacob's arms, he decided it must be Esau and gave him his blessing.

Soon afterwards, Esau came back from his hunting and came to Isaac for his blessing. Isaac realised what had happened, and explained to Esau. Esau was very angry and threatened to kill Jacob. Rebekah sent Jacob away to her brother Laban, so he would be safe.

Jacob Gets Two Wives (Genesis 29v1-30)

Jacob lived with Laban for a while, and worked for him. He grew to love one of Laban's daughters, Rachel, and asked Laban if he could marry her. Laban agreed, as long as Jacob worked seven years for her.

After Jacob's seven years were up, the marriage took place. Jacob was happy to finally be marrying his sweetheart. However he was in for a shock in the morning. He found Laban had switched daughters and Jacob had married the elder daughter, Leah, by mistake. After much arguing, Laban agreed that Jacob could marry Rachel for another seven years work. A week later Jacob married again, and worked a further seven years for Laban.

Jacob's Children (Genesis 29v31-35v20)

Because Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah, God took pity on Leah, and gave her children. The two wives competed on this count, and used their maids to increase their children as well. Jacob eventually had twelve sons and a daughter, who were as follows:

• by Leah: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dinah
• by Bilhah (Rachel's maid): Dan, Naphtali
• by Zilpah (Leah's maid): Gad, Asher
• by Rachel: Joseph, Benjamin

Jacob loved his sons by Rachel most; especially so since Rachel died in childbirth while giving birth to Benjamin.

Joseph

• Found: Genesis chapter 37 - 50

Joseph's Coat and Dreams (Genesis 37v1-11)

Joseph was Jacob's favourite son. He loved him more than his other children, and even made him a special multi-coloured coat. This made Joseph's brothers jealous and angry at him.

Joseph had some dreams, and he told them to his brothers and his parents. He had a dream where the brothers were binding up sheaves in a field. Joseph's sheaves stood up and the other brothers' sheaves bowed down to him. He had another dream where the sun, moon and eleven stars bowed down to him. The brothers thought this meant that Joseph would rule over them and they were angry. They plotted to do something nasty to Joseph.

Sold Into Slavery (Genesis 37v12-36)

Joseph was sent out to look for his brothers who were looking after the sheep. He was being sent to check up on them and report back to his father. When the brothers saw him coming, they made a plan. They would kill him and take his bloodstained coat back to their father saying a wild animal had done it. Reuben didn't want to kill Joseph, so they decided to just throw him in a pit instead. When they had done this, they saw a caravan of traders going by. Realising they could make some money as well as get rid of Joseph, they went back and took Joseph to the traders. They sold him, soaked his coat with goat's blood and took it back to their father. Jacob was very sad at his son's death. Now his only memory of his beloved wife Rachel was her other son, Benjamin.

Meanwhile, joseph was taken by the traders to Egypt. There he was sold as a slave to Potipher, captain of the guard.

Tempted and Imprisoned (Genesis 39)

Joseph did well in Potipher's household. God was with him and he rose in position until he was in charge of all Potipher's possessions. Potipher's wife liked the look of Joseph and tried to seduce him. Day after day she did this and Joseph steadfastly refused her advances. Eventually she grabbed him by his clothes, and demanded that he go with her. Joseph ran away, leaving his clothing in her hands. When Potipher came home he believed his wife's lies about what had happened and threw Joseph in jail.

In Jail (Genesis 39v20-40v23)

Again God was with Joseph. He became trusted in the jail and was put in charge of the other prisoners. The butler and baker of the Pharaoh were in the jail as well, and one day they came to Joseph with dreams they had had. The butler had dreamed of a vine with three branches, which he squeezed into Pharaoh's cup. Joseph told him this meant that after three days he would be restored to his former position. The baker had dreamed of three baskets on his head, with birds eating the bread out of the top one. In this case, Joseph said the baker would three days later be killed and hung on a tree for the birds to eat.

The dreams came true as Joseph had said. The baker was killed and the butler restored to his position. God had shown Joseph the meaning of the dreams. But the butler didn't remember Joseph once he was released, as he had promised.

Pharaoh's Dream (Genesis 41)

Two years later, Pharaoh had some strange dreams. He dreamed of seven fat cows, which were eaten up by seven thin cows which came out of the river. He then dreamed of seven fat ears of corn, which were eaten up by seven scrawny ears of corn. None of Pharaoh's wise men could interpret the dream, but his butler remembered joseph, who had interpreted his dream all that time ago. Pharaoh sent for Joseph.

Joseph came before Pharaoh and explained that God would interpret the dream for him. He then went on to say the dream represented two periods of seven years. The first period would be a time of plenty, when the crops would be bountiful. But after that there would be seven years of famine, when the people would go hungry Joseph advised that Pharaoh should appoint someone to be in charge of the crops, to store them up during the plentiful years and deal them out during the years of famine. Pharaoh appointed Joseph to this job, making him the second most powerful man in Egypt.

The Brothers Come to Egypt (Genesis 42-50)

The seven years of plenty came and went and the famine started. The famine spread to Canaan as well, and Jacob and his sons suffered. They had heard there was grain in Egypt, so Jacob sent his sons (except for Benjamin) to buy some. When they got to Egypt Joseph met them and recognised them. He enquired how their father and youngest brother were, but they didn't recognise him. He gave them grain, but said they should not come back without Benjamin.

The grain did for a while, but soon they needed more. The brothers were sent to Egypt and this time Benjamin went with them. Joseph was so happy to see his brother, but still didn't reveal himself to them. He gave them grain and ordered his men to put his silver cup in Benjamin's sack. When the brothers started back they were caught by the guards, who searched their sacks and found the silver cup. The brothers couldn't explain it, but went back to Joseph with heavy hearts. They knew this meant death for Benjamin.

When the brothers returned, Joseph could bear it no longer and revealed his identity to them. The brothers were afraid because of what they had done to him, but Joseph told them not to worry. What had happened had been God's plan.

The brothers went back to Canaan to fetch their father and the rest of their families. They lived in Egypt and brought their families up there. Jacob died in Egypt, and eventually Joseph died at 110 years old. The children of Israel grew in number in Egypt for a further 400 years.