As we work our way through the Bible this year, we meet some interesting people and realize that they struggle with issues of Faith and Obedience as much as we do (or at least I do). Genesis opened up the story of the Bible by reminding us WHY it is so difficult to be faithful and obey...SIN. We all have that common nature - which if you think about what Adam and Eve did in the garden, makes sense.
God created the world and everything in it (hence Genesis says "he created the heavens and earth", i.e. everything). He pronounced it all GOOD...in fact VERY GOOD. But you see immediately, it is God and God alone who determines what is good, and what is not. So when the serpent comes to Adam and Eve he tells them that they can be like God - determining good and evil. That's the problem. Only God knows what is good, and what is evil...and if history has shown us anything at all, human beings are lousy at defining good and evil.
So as God reaches out to redeem a fallen world, he does so by choosing the line of Abraham, including all the descendants of Abraham that God will work through to bring about a restored world.
Abraham is not perfect, but he continually trusts in God when the crunch time comes.
Isaac his son is not perfect, but he hears God's promise and believes.
Jacob, Isaac's son is not perfect (by no means), and yet God meets him 5 times to tell him that he is going to establish his promised blessings through his descendants.
Lastly, Genesis tells us the story of the 12 sons of Jacob and specifically how God sovereignly moved through the hatred of the 10 brothers to get Joseph into Egypt and eventually all of Jacob's family (by the way, now he is renamed Israel) into Egypt...thus fulfilling the word he had spoken to Abraham a long time before in Genesis 15.
Genesis sets up the story for how Redemption occurs. As we turn to pages to Exodus (where we are headed next), we see that redemption, salvation are fulfilled by God. He orchestrates it all - from beginning to end...and to me that's GOOD news.
Here's a video that you might want to use to review our reading...
God created the world and everything in it (hence Genesis says "he created the heavens and earth", i.e. everything). He pronounced it all GOOD...in fact VERY GOOD. But you see immediately, it is God and God alone who determines what is good, and what is not. So when the serpent comes to Adam and Eve he tells them that they can be like God - determining good and evil. That's the problem. Only God knows what is good, and what is evil...and if history has shown us anything at all, human beings are lousy at defining good and evil.
So as God reaches out to redeem a fallen world, he does so by choosing the line of Abraham, including all the descendants of Abraham that God will work through to bring about a restored world.
Abraham is not perfect, but he continually trusts in God when the crunch time comes.
Isaac his son is not perfect, but he hears God's promise and believes.
Jacob, Isaac's son is not perfect (by no means), and yet God meets him 5 times to tell him that he is going to establish his promised blessings through his descendants.
Lastly, Genesis tells us the story of the 12 sons of Jacob and specifically how God sovereignly moved through the hatred of the 10 brothers to get Joseph into Egypt and eventually all of Jacob's family (by the way, now he is renamed Israel) into Egypt...thus fulfilling the word he had spoken to Abraham a long time before in Genesis 15.
Genesis sets up the story for how Redemption occurs. As we turn to pages to Exodus (where we are headed next), we see that redemption, salvation are fulfilled by God. He orchestrates it all - from beginning to end...and to me that's GOOD news.
Here's a video that you might want to use to review our reading...
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