Today’s Passage: An Overview of the Whole Book
You are about to walk through the first book of the Bible. It opens with God making the heavens and the earth, and then making a man and a woman. They hide from Him, and He comes looking for them. In time the world fills up with violence, and God sends a flood; and when the waters have gone down He hangs a bow in the cloud. From there the nations spread out across the earth, a city rises up trying to make a name for itself, and at last God calls one man and makes him a promise.
As you read, hold this: The God who starts the world keeps a promise all the way to Egypt.
The Hebrew name of the book is simply its first word. בְּרֵאשִׁית (bərēʾšît), pronounced ber-ay-SHEET. Strong’s H7225. It means “in the beginning.” Later translators called it Genesis, which means origin, and both names tell you the very same thing: this is where the story starts, and it starts with God.
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:1 (BSB)
John starts his Gospel with those same words, and he tells you the Word was already there with God.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1:1 (BSB)
"Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made." John 1:3 (BSB)
Adam was a real man, the fall really happened, and so did the flood. The promise God spoke to Abram was a real word from Him, and the rest of the Bible walks that very same road.
The book’s two words
Two Hebrew words will keep showing up as you read.
The first is בְּרֵאשִׁית (bərēʾšît), which means in the beginning: God was there, and God made the world.
The second is תּוֹלְדוֹת (tôlĕdôt), pronounced toh-led-OHT. Strong’s H8435. It means generations, or account, or what came from someone. Genesis keeps pausing to say, “This is the account of…”: the heavens and the earth, then Adam, then Noah, Shem, Terah, Isaac, and Jacob. You are reading one long family line, written down so that you can see how the God who made the world also kept a people for Himself.
You will meet those two words from the first page to the last, when the family is in Egypt and Jacob is in a coffin.
The world of the book
Moses is the man Scripture names as its writer, and Jesus Himself speaks of Moses writing about Him. The first eleven chapters unfold long before Israel is a nation, and after that the book walks with the family from Ur to Canaan to Egypt, through a world of tents and wells and flocks and household gods. And into the middle of that world, the LORD speaks to a man who can hear Him.
A few things hold true the whole way through. God speaks, and what He says comes to pass. He makes people in His image, both men and women, and that image does not disappear once they have sinned. Sin never stays small: it leaves the garden, fills the earth with violence, and still cannot keep God from His promise. All the nations come out of one family, and then God chooses one family through whom He will bless them all.
The map
- Genesis 1–11. God makes the world, the man and the woman fall, the flood comes, and the nations spread; then Babel tries to make a name for itself, and God calls Abram.
- Genesis 12–25. Abraham, to whom God promises land, children, and blessing for all the families of the earth.
- Genesis 26–36. Isaac and Jacob, men who wrestle and lie and are held all the same, carrying the promise between them.
- Genesis 37–50. Joseph, whose brothers meant evil against him while God meant it for good. The book ends in Egypt, with a coffin and a promise that is still open.
This first part of our walk is Genesis 1–11, and the rest is the road ahead of us. You are welcome to read more than one chapter when you sit down; only keep them in their order.
The verses the book stands on
The book starts with God.
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:1 (BSB)
Then, after the nations have spread and a tower has fallen, God talks to one man.
"I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you." Genesis 12:3 (BSB)
Between those two verses lie a garden, a flood, and a city that wanted a name for itself. The God who made the heavens and the earth is the very same God who will bless all the families of the earth, and that is why we start here.