Bible Basics: Outline Of Genesis

The Bible is like a library.It is not just one book,it is a library of books.
In the Bible library are 66 books.Some of them are books of poetry and some are history;some are books of laws and some are sermons.Some were written by famous men like Moses,David and Peter and some were written by men you have never heard of.

The 66 books were written in different times and different places by different men.So,naturally,the books are very different.Yet,in one way they are very much the same.Through all of them God speaks to us.And so we call this library of books "The Word of God."

As you begin to read the Bible,make sure that you let God speak to you.Don't read it in the same way that you would read a schoolbook-to learn something new-or a comic book-to make you laugh.There will be some things in the Bible that will help you to learn and there may even be some things that will make you laugh.But the main reason why you should read the Bible is to hear God speak to you.

There are many books that men have written about God but there is only one book that God has written for us-that book is the Bible.

But,you may ask,why did God want the Bible to be written? Let's answer that question by asking another one.
When you write a letter why do you do it? You do it to tell someone else about who you are,what you are doing or what you think.
And this is exactly why God wanted the Bible to be written.He wanted to tell us who He is.Sometimes we think of God as a big mystery but He isn't.

The Bible is written that we might get to know God.When we get to know Him we begin to respect Him.

In the Bible we also find out what God is doing.It tells all about His mighty acts,starting with His mighty act of creation.

And in the Bible we find out what God thinks of us.Amazing isn't it, that God would think of us at all; but He does.He knows all about us; He knows us better than even our parents know us,and still He loves us.That is why the Bible is such a special book.

Every year a major league baseball player gets his contract from the owner of the baseball team.The contract tells him how much money he will receive for playing baseball that year.If he signs his name to that contract he must play for that team.

The Old Testament is sometimes called the Old Covenant and a covenant is something like a ball players contract.In the Bible,it is an arrangement made by God which a man can either accept or reject.

In the Old Testament God chose the jewish people.In order that they might know what a holy God He is,He gave them the Ten Commandments and the rest of the Law.After Moses had read God's Law to them,the Israelites answered,"All that the Lord has spoken we will do,and we will be obedient"(Ex 24.7)By saying these words,they had signed their contract with God.

Yet throughout the Old Testament were hints that a new and better contract was coming.From the very beginning was a promise that God would send a savior for His people.

Finally Jeremiah the prophet wrote,"Behold the days are coming says the Lord,when I will make a new covenant" (Jr 31.31).That new covenant was the New Testament,which was offered to us by Jesus Christ.

Long ago before there were any boys and girls,dogs or cats,trees or flowers,there was God.The first verse of the Bible says "In the beginning God",because God was the beginning,He started everything.

How did He do it?

When we make things,we need complicated machines.But God
didn't need any machines.All He had to do was say "Let
there be light" and there was light. And then He looked
over what He had made and saw that it was good.Slowly He
made one thing after another-sun,stars,earth,moon,water,
trees,bushes,fish,birds,animals and finally man.He then
looked it over and saw that it was good,very good.

How long did it take?

The Bible says six days although this is Gods story and these were Gods days. One of Gods days cannot be measured in minutes or hours.Creation may have taken a long time,not because God couldn't have made everything in a split second but probably because He enjoyed creating.
On the sixth day of God's creation He made man.This was the climax of Gods creation.After He had made man He rested on the seventh day.
God put the man,Adam,in charge of all creation.With his wife,Eve,Adam lived in the beautiful garden of Eden.In this garden God have given them everything they needed.But when they were tempted to sin they chose to disobey God. They wanted their own way rather than Gods way.Their oldest son Cain murdered his brother and after that people became worse and worse.

Ever since Adam and Eve, people have often chosen to do evil rather than good. By the time of Noah there was so much wickedness that God brought a great flood upon the earth.

The entire human race was destroyed-except for Noah and his family,and the whole zoo of animals he brought aboard his mammoth ark.

Why did God do such an awful thing? Because He wanted us to know that He hates sin. God had made man to love Him, but instead man loved sin and forgot about God. Sin digs a ditch between man and God and the ditch just kept getting wider and wider.

No longer could man talk with God; no longer would man walk with God.

So God decided to start again with Noah.

But most of the book of Genesis is not about Adam and not about Noah; it's about Abraham and his children. Abraham was born about 4,000 years ago in the city of Ur which is about 1000 miles East of Palestine. One day God told Abraham that He would make him the father of a great nation. Abraham believed God, and because he believed God, he was the first person to be called a friend of God.

Because of Abraham's faith, the Bible says "there were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as innumerable as the grains of sand on the seashore."

Even as American history begins with Christopher Columbus, so Jewish history begins with Abraham. It was he who first settled in Palestine . All the rest of the Old Testament centers around the Jewish people, the descendants of Abraham.

Abraham's grandson, Jacob was also known as Israel. For this reason the Jews were also known as Israelites. Jacob had twelve sons and the descendants of these sons became the twelve tribes of Israel, even as the United States began with the thirteen original colonies.

Jacob seemed to favor one of his sons, Joseph, more than any of the others. The others became jealous and sold Joseph into Slavery in Egypt. In Egypt, Joseph's wisdom so impressed the king (Pharaoh), that the king made Joseph his prime minister. When famine came to Egypt, Joseph was prepared and had stored plenty of food for such an emergency. Half starved, his father and brothers in Palestine travelled to find food. There the family was reunited. When Joseph gave them some of the best land in Egypt, they decided to stay there for a while.

That's the rough outline of the book of Genesis.

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In the Old Testament God showed us what He was like through the law.In the New Testament,God shows what He is like through Jesus Christ.The New Testament tells all about Jesus Christ and what it means to receive the New Testament or contract between God and man.