Chapter One
Genesis INTRODUCTION
God at Work
Everything-literally everything-begins here
2:3And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of
creating that he had done.
The Bible begins with words that have become famous: "In the beginning God created." God, like an
artist, fashioned a universe. How can we grasp the grandeur of this?
Michelangelo, perhaps the greatest artist in history, may help us to understand. He painted Rome's
famous Sistine Chapel to retell Genesis' story of creation. His experience proves one thing: Creativity
is work.
An Exhausting Effort
Michelangelo had 6,000 square feet of ceiling to cover-the size of four average house roofs. Anyone
who has painted a ceiling with a paint roller has caught a hint of the physical difficulty of such a task.
But Michelangelo's plan called for 300 separate, detailed portraits of men and women. For more than
three years the 5'4" artist devoted all his labors to the exhausting strain of painting the vast overhead
space with his tiny brushes.
Sometimes he painted standing on a huge scaffold, a paintbrush high over his head. Sometimes he
sat, his nose inches from the ceiling. Sometimes he painted while lying on his back. His back, shoulders,
neck and arms cramped painfully.
In the long days of summer, he had light to paint 17 hours a day, taking food and a chamber pot with him
on the 60-foot scaffold. For 30 days at a stretch he slept in his clothes, not even taking off his boots. Paint
dribbled into his eyes so he could barely see. Freezing in the winter, sweating in the summer, he painted until
at last the ceiling looked like a ceiling no more. He had transformed it into the creation drama, with creatures
so real they seemed to breathe. Never before or since have paint and plaster been so changed.
The Miracle of Life
But, as Michelangelo knew very well, his work was a poor, dim image of what God had created. Over the
plaster vault of the Sistine Chapel rose the immense dome of God's sky, breathtaking in its simple
beauty. Mountains, seas, the continents-all these, and much more, are the creative work of God, the
Master Artist.
God's world, so much bigger and more beautiful than Michelangelo's masterpiece, is the product of
incomparably greater energy. As author Eugene Peterson has written, "The Bible begins with the
announcement, 'In the beginning God created,' not 'sat majestic in the heavens' and not 'was filled with
beauty and love.' He created. He did something." In the beginning, God went to work.
Genesis focuses attention on this creative, hardworking God. The word God appears 30 times in the
31 verses of chapter 1. He grabs our attention in action. Genesis is an account of his deeds, ringing
splendidly with the magnificent effort of creation.
Mending Broken Pieces
Genesis also talks about the work of humankind-but the tone changes abruptly. God had barely finished
creating the universe when human rebellion marred it, like a delinquent spraying graffiti on the Sistine
Chapel. Chapters 3-11 of Genesis portray a series of disasters: Adam and Eve's rebellion, Cain's
calculated murder of his brother, the worldwide wickedness leading to the great flood, and human
arrogance at Babel.
God immediately began to mend the pieces his creatures had broken. He narrowed his scope from
the whole universe to a single man-not a king or wealthy landowner, but a childless nomad, Abraham.
Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, Rachel, Joseph-the upward thrust from chapter 12 on came
through God's work in these startlingly human individuals. They were far from perfect, yet God picked
them up where they were and carried them forward. He promised them great things. He moved through
them to restore his art. His creative activity did not stop on the seventh day.
Genesis and Revelation
Many people read the Old Testament as though it portrayed the "bad old days" before Jesus. But that's
not an accurate picture. Actually, the first three chapters of Genesis link to the last book of the Bible,
Revelation. They are like brackets of perfection around the sadness of life marred by sin, death,
suffering and hatred. In Genesis we learn that life didn't start out that way. In Revelation we find out it
won't end that way either. But the Old and New Testaments take place between those brackets. Through
Abraham, through Moses, ultimately in Jesus, God is hard at work to make things right.
How to Read Genesis
Genesis is one of the most enjoyable Old Testament books, full of memorable stories of people and
events. It is a crucial book to know, for the rest of the Bible often refers back to it.
Genesis tells the story of many beginnings-the beginning of the universe; the beginning of sin; and
perhaps most important, the beginning of God's work to restore a sinful humanity.
The book breaks into two major sections. The first 11 chapters take a big view. They give the origins
of human society, including the familiar stories of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah's ark and the
tower of Babel. Here, a few words carry great significance. You need to read slowly and reflectively, for
what happens in a single line may echo off events for centuries to come. For instance, Adam and Eve's
sin, because it was the first sin, became an emblem of disobedience against God.
Beginning at chapter 12, Genesis tells a different kind of story-that of a single family. The pace
of the story slows to develop the personalities of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. These fathers
and sons are full of human faults and oddities. Do you recognize any of their traits in people you
know?
Seeing their fully human personalities, try to understand what God's plans were for them as
individuals-and through them, for the restoration of a whole world marred by sin.
High Points in Genesis
The following chapters from Genesis are of special note, and included in the Guided Tour of the Bible
reading plan. See pages x-xi for further details.
Chapter 1: the story of creation.
Chapter 2: Adam and Eve.
Chapter 3: sin enters a perfect world.
Chapter 4: Cain and Abel.
Chapter 7: Noah and the great flood.
Chapter 8: the end of the great flood.
Chapter 15: God's covenant with Abraham.
Chapter 19: the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Chapter 22: God's testing of Abraham.
Chapter 27: Jacob cheats his brother Esau.
Chapter 28: Jacob, fleeing Esau, dreams about God.
Chapter 37: Joseph is sold into slavery.
Chapter 41: Joseph rises to the highest position in Egypt.
Chapter 45: Joseph reveals his identity to his brothers.
People You'll Meet in Genesis
Adam and Eve (p. 6) Cain and Abel (p. 8) Noah (p. 13)
Abraham (p. 17) Lot (p. 18) Ishmael (p. 21)
Sarah (p. 23) Isaac (p. 27) Rebekah (p. 32)
Jacob (p. 36) Laban (p. 39) Rachel (p. 43)
Esau (p. 46) Joseph (p. 53)
The Beginning
1 In the beginning God created the heavens
and the earth. 2 Now the earth was
formless and empty, darkness was over
the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of
God was hovering over the waters.
3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there
was light. 4 God saw that the light was
good, and he separated the light from the
darkness. 5 God called the light "day," and
the darkness he called "night." And there
was evening, and there was morning-the
first day.
6 And God said, "Let there be an expanse between
the waters to separate water from
water." 7 So God made the expanse and
separated the water under the expanse
from the water above it. And it was so.
8 God called the expanse "sky." And there
was evening, and there was morning-the
second day.
9 And God said, "Let the water under the sky
be gathered to one place, and let dry
ground appear." And it was so. 10 God
called the dry ground "land," and the
gathered waters he called "seas." And God
saw that it was good.
11 Then God said, "Let the land produce
vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees
on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it
was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their
kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in
it according to their kinds. And God saw
that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning-the third day.
14 And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse
of the sky to separate the day from
the night, and let them serve as signs to
mark seasons and days and years, 15 and let
them be lights in the expanse of the sky to
give light on the earth." And it was so.
16 God made two great lights-the greater
light to govern the day and the lesser light
to govern the night. He also made the
stars. 17 God set them in the expanse of the
sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern
the day and the night, and to separate
light from darkness. And God saw that it
was good. 19 And there was evening, and
there was morning-the fourth day.
20 And God said, "Let the water teem with living
creatures, and let birds fly above the
earth across the expanse of the sky." 21 So
God created the great creatures of the sea
and every living and moving thing with
which the water teems, according to their
kinds, and every winged bird according to
its kind. And God saw that it was good.
22 God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful
and increase in number and fill the water
in the seas, and let the birds increase on
the earth." 23 And there was evening, and
there was morning-the fifth day.
24 And God said, "Let the land produce living
creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the
ground, and wild animals, each according
to its kind." And it was so. 25 God made the
wild animals according to their kinds, the
livestock according to their kinds, and all
the creatures that move along the ground
according to their kinds. And God saw
that it was good.
26 Then God said, "Let us make man in
our image, in our likeness, and let them
rule over the fish of the sea and the birds
of the air, over the livestock, over all the
earth, and over all the creatures that
move along the ground."
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill
the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish
of the sea and the birds of the air and over
every living creature that moves on the
ground."
29 Then God said, "I give you every seedbearing
plant on the face of the whole
earth and every tree that has fruit with
seed in it. They will be yours for food.
30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all
the birds of the air and all the creatures
that move on the ground-everything that
has the breath of life in it-I give every
green plant for food." And it was so.
31 God saw all that he had made, and it
was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning-the sixth day.
2 Thus the heavens and the earth were
completed in all their vast array.
2 By the seventh day God had finished the
work he had been doing; so on the seventh
day he rested from all his work.
3 And God blessed the seventh day and
made it holy, because on it he rested from
all the work of creating that he had done.
Adam and Eve
4 This is the account of the heavens and the
earth when they were created.
When the Lord God made the earth and the
heavens- 5 and no shrub of the field had yet
appeared on the earth and no plant of the field
had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not
sent rain on the earth and there was no man
to work the ground, 6 but streams came up
from the earth and watered the whole surface
of the ground- 7 the Lord God formed the man
from the dust of the ground and breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became
a living being.
8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in
the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he
had formed. 9 And the Lord God made all kinds
of trees grow out of the ground-trees that
were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In
the middle of the garden were the tree of life
and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10 A river watering the garden flowed from
Eden; from there it was separated into four
headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon;
it winds through the entire land of Havilah,
where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that
land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also
there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon;
it winds through the entire land of Cush.
14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it
runs along the east side of Asshur. And the
fourth river is the Euphrates.
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in
the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of
it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man,
"You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;
17 but you must not eat from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat
of it you will surely die."
18 The Lord God said, "It is not good for the
man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable
for him."
19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the
ground all the beasts of the field and all the
birds of the air. He brought them to the man to
see what he would name them; and whatever
the man called each living creature, that was
its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the
livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts
of the field.
But for Adam no suitable helper was found.
21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a
deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took
one of the man's ribs and closed up the place
with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman
from the rib he had taken out of the man, and
he brought her to the man.
23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,'
for she was taken out of man."
24 For this reason a man will leave his father
and mother and be united to his wife, and they
will become one flesh.
25 The man and his wife were both naked,
and they felt no shame.
The Fall of Man
3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any
of the wild animals the Lord God had made.
Continues.
