An Overview of the Genesis Story
22. Abraham journeys through the land of Canaan, which God promises to give to his descendants. 23. God makes a covenant (a special binding agreement) with Abraham. 24. The covenant that God makes with Abraham is the beginning of Israel’s story as a nation. 25. Jacob is Abraham’s grandson who tricks his father and brother into receiving a special blessing. 26. Jacob has twelve sons from which the twelve tribes of Israel trace their lineage. 27. Joseph, who has prophetic dreams of greatness, is Jacob’s favorite son. 28. Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery, but through his God-given wisdom, he ascends to the position of second-in-command over all Egypt. 29. The story of Genesis sets the stage for the rest of the Pentateuch. 30. The Book of Genesis is a long prologue to Israel’s beginnings as a nation. 31. A “prologue” is an introduction. 32. The Book of Genesis is a story of the promises God makes to humans that He begins to fulfill through the rest of the Bible. 33. The focus of Genesis is on the words that God says to Abraham: “And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.” (Gen.17:7 KJV) 34. A covenant is a solemn, binding agreement between two or more parties. 35. Covenants usually involve promises, conditions, blessings for keeping the covenant, and curses for breaking it. 36. The Book of Genesis records God’s agreement with the post-flood world (Genesis 9:1– 17) and his covenants with Abraham (Genesis 15, 17). 37. The theme of covenants moves the story forward in Genesis. 38. God promises the childless Abraham that he will be the father of nations, that his descendants will have land, and that they will be a blessing to the world. 39. Thirty-eight of Genesis’ fifty chapters follow Abraham’s family as God begins fulfilling the first part of His promise. 40. In the Book of Genesis, the word, “swear” relates to making covenants. 41. After Genesis, the next four books in the Pentateuch tell the story of how Abraham’s descendants become a nation and begin to claim their promised land. 42. In the twelfth chapter of Genesis, God promises to bless Abraham and his allies, and to curse his enemies. 43. Through Abraham, God promises to bless only Israel. 44. The Book of Genesis records the promises of God as they unfold in time. 45. Jacob “inherits” the blessing that God gives to Abraham and Isaac. 46. The narrator proposes that Jacob escapes to a distant land to start a new life before another “Cain and Abel situation” takes place. 47. Jacob wrestles with God, and God blesses him. 48. Another theme in the Book of Genesis centers on owning the land of Canaan. 49. Abraham wanders through Canaan, Isaac settles there, and Jacob eventually lives there also. 50. At the end of the Book of Genesis, the patriarchs of the nation of Israel in its early stage of development dwell in Egypt.
Academic Initiatives for Biblical Literacy in Secondary Education
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