The Most Important Thing You'll Ever Study E-Book

Starr Meade

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 1011

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Beschreibung

The Bible is often neglected or weakly emphasized in the education of our children. However, author Starr Meade contends that God's word is the most important thing a Christian will ever study. This introductory overview of the message of the Bible encourages middle and high school students to explore God's Word for themselves. Available in individual volumes or as a set, The Most Important Thing You'll Ever Study leads young teens through the story of the Bible chronologically, teaching them about important themes and topics, such as the role of God as the main character of his own story and the relationship between Scripture's divine inspiration and human authorship. Students can either use the text as a supplementary companion to their own reading of Scripture, or they can simply use the study guide to move through the Bible from beginning to end.

Leseprobe

THEMOST IMPORTANT THINGYOU’LL EVER STUDY

OTHER CROSSWAY BOOKS BY STAR MEADE:

Keeping Holiday

Mighty Acts of God: A Family Bible Story Book

God's Mighty Acts in Creation (forthcoming)

God's Mighty Acts in Salvation (forthcoming)

The Most Important Thing You’ll Ever Study: A Survey of the Bible, vol. 1: The Old TestamentCopyright 2010 by Starr Meade

Published by Crossway 1300 Crescent Street Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Cover design: Brand Navigation, LLCTypesetting: Lakeside Design PlusFirst printing 2010Printed in the United States of America

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Full Set:

Trade paperback ISBN:

978-1-4335- 1182-0

PDF ISBN:

978-1-4335- 1183-7

Mobipocket ISBN:

978-1-4335- 1184-4

ePub ISBN:

978-1-4335- 2397-7

Old Testament Set vols. 1 & 2:

Trade paperback ISBN:

978-1-4335- 2024-2

PDF ISBN:

978-1-4335- 2025-9

Mobipocket ISBN:

978-1-4335- 2026-6

ePub ISBN:

978-1-4335- 2027-3

Old Testament Set with Answer Key vols. 1, 2, & 5

Trade paperback ISBN:

978-1-4335- 2028-0

PDF ISBN:

978-1-4335- 2029-7

Mobipocket ISBN:

978-1-4335- 2030-3

ePub ISBN:

978-1-4335- 2031-0

New Testament Set vols. 3 & 4

Trade paperback ISBN:

978-1-4335- 2032-7

PDF ISBN:

978-1-4335- 2042-6

Mobipocket ISBN:

978-1-4335- 2043-3

ePub ISBN:

978-1-4335- 2044-0

New Testament Set with Answer Key vols. 3, 4, & 5

Trade paperback ISBN:

978-1-4335- 2045-7

PDF ISBN:

978-1-4335- 2046-4

Mobipocket ISBN:

978-1-4335- 2047-1

ePub ISBN:

978-1-4335- 2048-8

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

TS          21    20    19    18    17    16    15    14    13    12    11    1014   13   12    11     10     9      8      7      6      5      4      3      2      1

To all parents who are diligent in giving their children a thorough knowledge of God’s Word.

Contents

Quick Start: How to Use This Book

Getting Started

The Books of the Bible and General Information

Test #1: Books of the Bible and General Information

Genesis: Part 1

Test #2: The Garden of Eden to the Tower of Babel

Genesis: Part 2

Test #3: God’s Covenant of Grace

Exodus

Test #4: Escape from Egypt

Leviticus

Numbers

Deuteronomy

Test #5: Into the Wilderness

Joshua

Judges

Ruth

Test #6: Looking for a Leader

1–2 Samuel

Test #7: The Life of King David

Kings and Chronicles: Part 1

Can You . . . ?

Quick Start HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

You can use this book in one of two ways:

1. As a supplement, as you read through the entire Bible. To do this, read the Bible passage this book gives inside the shaded icons in the margins, and then work through the portion of this book that discusses some highlights and themes from that section. After finishing one section, go on to the next Bible passage this book gives in the next shaded icon. Little by little, you will read the whole Bible, and as you do, this book will give you some pointers and help you keep the big picture in view.

2. As a workbook that guides you through an overview of the Bible. To do this, read just the Bible passages required for answering the questions. These are in bold letters, and are indicated by the book symbol in the margins. This will give you an overview of the Bible, so that you can then return to it later and read the entire Bible on your own.

For a more detailed explanation of this book, turn to “Getting Started” on the next page.

Getting Started

If you are a typical student, you have a number of different subjects to study. Every now and then, you just have to ask about one or another of them, “Why do I have to study this? When am I ever going to need to know this?” Most teachers will give you all kinds of reasons for valuing their particular subjects. If you are a typical student, however, you don’t always find those reasons convincing.

For some mysterious reason, with all the studying that goes on of all the different subjects, one subject usually remains neglected. That subject is Bible. Even in the homes of Christians who believe the most important thing in life is their relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, Bible is seldom taught and studied with the seriousness that other subjects—math, for instance—receive. People may read their Bibles sometimes (at least, parts of them). They may take them to church and follow along when the pastor reads Scripture before the sermon. They may even memorize little bits and pieces of their Bibles. But they seldom study them. They don’t work through the Bible, from beginning to end, to understand its “big picture.” They don’t study its sixty-six different books the way they might study a science textbook or a work of classical literature.

This is puzzling if we understand that the only way to know what God is like with any precision is to pay attention to what he has revealed about himself. Although we can see that there is a God when we look around us at what he has made, we learn very little about him in that way. To know what God is like, what he requires of us, and how we can be in a right relationship with him, we depend on him to tell us. He is so far above us that we would never figure these things out on our own. God, being God, can do whatever he pleases in whatever way he chooses. He could have revealed himself to us by causing sudden thoughts or feelings about himself in each of our individual brains—like the little lightbulbs that go on in characters’ minds in cartoons. He could have chosen to reveal himself by regular announcements from heaven that everyone could hear. He could have waited for the invention of video technology that would enable him to reveal himself through a series of images flashing by on movie or television screens.

But God chose none of those means. When God chose to reveal himself to human beings, he chose to do it by means of a book—sixty-six books, to be exact, all of which would form a unified whole with a beginning and an end, to which nothing else needs to be added. So if we want to know what God has revealed—if we want to know God—we will have to do that by means of the book he gave.

What do we do with a book? We read it—from beginning to end, straight through, more than once if it’s good and has a lot to say. But few people read their Bibles that way. If a teacher assigned Moby Dick for you to read, you would be foolish to open at random to a page and read it, then find another page two hundred pages later and read it, then close the book, confident that you had understood Moby Dick. Although we all recognize the foolishness of that approach with any other book, we fail to see that this is how most of us read the Bible—a passage here, and a passage there, confident that we have understood the meaning. We need to read the whole Bible, each book straight through and all of them together, to see God’s overall message in it.

Of course, if a book has any substance and complexity to it (and the Bible certainly does), then we need to do more than just breeze through it once—or even several times—if we wish to gather all its meaning. A book with important things to say needs to be studied, analyzed, and thought about. Each of the sixty-six books in the Bible has at least one main argument and one important point to make—usually more. We should want to be sure we have followed the arguments and understood the points for each of those books. That will require study, probably with a pencil in hand, and certainly with our minds turned on!

Sometimes people worry that studying the Bible in the way I’m describing will fill the student’s head with facts that he will be proud of knowing. They worry that such a student will not go on to love the truths he finds in Scripture and will fail to live by them. People sometimes refer to this as “head knowledge instead of heart knowledge.” Certainly the Bible is not just any book, and our goal is never just to know the information it holds. God requires us to let his Word affect our hearts; he requires us to change our attitudes and our lifestyles so that we think and do what the Bible tells us to. But surely we must begin by knowing what it says.

So resist the common approach to the Bible that treats it like a box of fortune cookies. With a box of fortune cookies, you reach in, grab a handful at random, break them open, and read the short writings inside. Instead, treat your Bible like the book it is—a book to be loved and obeyed, but a book nonetheless, to be read and studied.

Let me encourage you to begin now a lifetime of Bible study. I have no hesitation in assuring you that this is a subject you need to know! It offers benefits not only for your entire life, but for eternity as well.

This particular study guide is an introduction to the whole Bible. It will give you an overview of God’s Word and is meant to be the very beginning of your studies in the Bible. You may have learned a number of Bible stories when you were a child. This study guide will give you the big picture of the whole Bible, showing you how those individual stories relate to each other and, together, comprise the whole message God reveals in his Word. You can read this book in one of two ways (we’ve already reviewed this briefly in the “Quick Start” section):

1. You can use it as a supplement as you read through the entire Bible. In that case, you would read the Bible passage this book gives inside the shaded icons in the margins, and then work through the portion of this book that discusses some highlights and themes from that section. You would then go on to the next Bible passage this book gives in a shaded icon. Little by little, you would read the whole Bible, with some pointers from this book and some help in keeping the big picture in view.

2. Or you could work through this book first, reading just the Bible passages required for answering the questions. (These are in bold letters, and are marked “Read.”) This would give you an overview of the Bible, so you could then return to it later and read the entire Bible on your own.

Either way, this book will require Bible reading and study on your part.

However you choose to use this book, there are four things to keep in mind as you study the Bible. First, because it is a book like any other book, it has a main character. We sometimes make the mistake of thinking the humans in Bible stories are the main characters: Noah, Abraham, David, Esther, etc. In that case, we usually look for how they provide us with a good example to imitate, or a bad example to avoid. God’s primary purpose in Scripture, however, is not to give us human models to admire and imitate, but to reveal to us who he is and what he is like. God himself is the main character of Scripture. That means that in every story we read, we should be looking for God. What does he do in the story? What do we learn about him from what he does?

Second, because the Bible is a book like any other book, one of the most important things to know in order to understand it is the author’s intention—and by that, I mean the human author’s intention. Each of the sixty-six books in the Bible had a human author. That author had a reason for writing his particular portion of Scripture. Perhaps he was recounting the history of a certain time. If so, he had a reason for telling it. His reason for writing determined which events he included and which ones he left out. Or perhaps the author was writing a letter. In that case, he had a particular person or group to whom he was writing, and he wrote what he wrote with a particular purpose. Maybe his readers had sent him a letter with questions his letter was answering. Or maybe he had heard about some problems they were having and he wanted to help them. Although all Scripture was given by God, it was given through ordinary human authors who, like ordinary authors everywhere, had a reason for writing what they wrote. Knowing why they wrote will go a long way in helping a student understand what they wrote.

That brings us to the third thing to keep in mind about Bible study. The Bible is a book, like any other book—in most ways. There is, of course, a major difference. Although ordinary human authors wrote the Bible, each one carefully choosing his own words in order to say what he wanted to say, Scripture is also the Word of God and all of it comes to us from God. The Bible itself says that “all Scripture is breathed out by God” (some translations) or “inspired by God” (other translations; 2 Tim. 3:16). The Bible is not just a book by human writers, each using his own words and expressing his thoughts and concerns to a specific audience. The Bible is also God’s Word to people in all times and all places. Because humans wrote the Bible’s books, we should use the same methods to study it that we would use to study any book. At the same time, since the whole Bible is the Word of God, there are some ways in which we must not treat it like any other book. We may not pick and choose what we will believe from the Bible, or what we will agree with. If we find the Bible contradicts something we always thought was true, we must give up our idea and accept the Bible’s. All our beliefs, opinions, and preferences must bow before the truth God reveals in Scripture. And because it is the Word of the Ruler of the universe, the Bible is to be obeyed. God does not give us the option of learning what he wants and then choosing whether or not we will do it. He reveals his will to us in order that we may obey him. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deut. 29:29). “You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently” (Ps. 119:4). “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22).

The fourth thing to remember in Bible study is one other way in which Scripture is unique. Although it is not difficult to understand and anyone who reads it can grasp its ideas, at the same time, because of sin’s effect on us, we must have the help of the Holy Spirit to truly grasp and to love what God wants us to know from his Word. A person could read the Bible and understand its ideas well enough to explain them to someone else, and yet not be moved by those ideas to love, worship, and obey God. In that case, although the reader grasped the Bible’s concepts, he did not truly understand it, as God wants it to be understood. That kind of understanding requires the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. When we read the Bible for ourselves, we need to depend on God the Holy Spirit to shine his light in our sin-darkened minds so that we truly see what it says. When we share God’s Word with others, we need to pray that God will help them to understand it, because apart from him, they never will. “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14). “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law” (Ps. 119:18).

One more thing: don’t expect Bible study to be easy. Studying anything, no matter how much we love it, requires diligence and work. And don’t expect it to always be fun or exciting. There are places in Scripture where you will probably get bogged down and will even wonder, “Why in the world did God include this in his Word?” Remember that you have a lifetime to study. Eventually, you will come to a place where you will appreciate even those parts of the Bible that seem most uninteresting now. Meanwhile, trust God to have had a good reason for including those portions, and work at becoming acquainted with all of Scripture, even the hard parts. Remember that the Bible is God’s revelation of himself to us. It is well worth the diligence and the hard work required to get to know it well.

The Books of the Bible and General Information

We divide the books of the Bible into a number of different categories. As we work through our Bible overview, work on memorizing the books of the Bible in their divisions, if you do not already have them memorized. If you have already memorized the books of the Bible and their divisions, take this opportunity to review them. The sad fact is, you will eventually forget whatever you memorize but fail to use or review!

Old Testament Books

Law

Genesis

Leviticus

Deuteronomy

Exodus

Numbers

The first division of books is the Law. It contains the first five books, written by Moses when he led the Israelites from slavery in Egypt up to the edge of the land God had promised to give them. These books provide many stories from Israel’s early history. All but Genesis also contain large portions of nothing but laws for the nation of Israel to live by in the land God would give them.

History

Joshua

1–2 Samuel

Ezra

Judges

1–2 Kings

Nehemiah

Ruth

1–2 Chronicles

Esther

The history books take up Israel’s story where the Law books leave off. At the end of Deuteronomy, Moses had reminded God’s people of all he had done for them and of the covenant they had with him. They were poised to enter the Promised Land as Deuteronomy ended. In Joshua, the people conquered Canaan and began to live in it. The books of Judges through 2 Chronicles provide an account of the Israelites’ life in the land, from early struggles to a peak of glory under David and Solomon, through a decline into idolatry and immorality. At the ends of Kings and Chronicles, we have the sad tale of Israel’s defeat by its enemies, at which time the people were taken away as captives to live in foreign countries. Ezra and Nehemiah tell of the captives’ later return to the land. Esther gives us a story of God’s intervention on behalf of his people while foreign kings ruled over them. The history books are not intended to just give facts and names, but they show the Bible’s main character, God, at work to keep his promises, carry out his threats, and work out the plans and purposes he has for his people.

Poetry

Job

Proverbs

Song of Solomon

Psalms

Ecclesiastes

The five books of poetry are grouped together because all are written in the form of Hebrew poetry. While Hebrew poetry does not rhyme like English poetry often does, there is a specific form to Hebrew poetry that makes it poetry. We will look at this when we get to these books in our study.

Major Prophets

Isaiah

Lamentations

Daniel

Jeremiah

Ezekiel

Minor Prophets

Hosea

Jonah

Zephaniah

Joel

Micah

Haggai

Amos

Nahum

Zechariah

Obadiah

Habakkuk

Malachi

Prophets wrote all of the books found in these last two divisions of the Old Testament. These books share specific characteristics always found in prophetic books. In modern English, “major” most often means more important or better somehow than a similar thing that is “minor.” In the case of the prophets, however, the terms refer back to their Latin meanings of “large” (major) and “small” (minor). The Major Prophets are the larger books written by prophets, and the Minor Prophets are the smaller ones.

New Testament Books

Gospels

Matthew

Luke

Mark

John

The Gospels all tell of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are not, however, simple biographies. Rather than telling of Jesus’ whole life, the Gospels focus on details and teaching from his three-year ministry. They use far more space to recount his death than an ordinary biography would. Also unlike biographies, the Gospels do not end with the story of Jesus’ death; they all go on to tell of his resurrection and of things he did and said after rising from the dead.

History

Acts

The only New Testament history book shows us the good news about Jesus, or the gospel, going from Jerusalem, where Jesus had died and risen again, out into the rest of the world. As the gospel travels, we see the growth of the early church as well.

Epistles

PAUL’S EPISTLES

Romans

Philippians

Titus

1–2 Corinthians

Colossians

Philemon

Galatians

1–2 Thessalonians

Ephesians

1–2 Timothy

GENERAL EPISTLES

Hebrews

1–2 Peter

Jude

James

1–3 John

Epistles are letters. As the gospel advanced, churches sprang up all over. All the people in those churches—pastors, elders, and deacons included—were new Christians, since Christianity itself was brand-new. These new Christians had many struggles and questions. The epistles are letters from the apostles (or people who worked with the apostles) to these churches. Some of the letters are meant simply to encourage, some are meant to answer specific questions, some are meant to correct, and some are meant to scold severely. All have the ultimate goal of helping Christians in these churches grow in their faith.

New Testament Prophecy

Revelation

The Bible’s last book was written to encourage persecuted Christians.

Test Time! Even though you have not yet covered very many pages in this book, you’ve covered a great deal of information! As soon as you have the books of the Bible with their divisions memorized, take Test #1 on the following page.

TEST1

Books of the Bible and General Information

Short answer: Write the correct answer in the space provided.

1. Besides showing us, through creation, that he exists and that he is wise and powerful, what is the main way God has chosen to reveal himself to people? In a _______________________________________________________________.

2. What two things do we do with books that we should also do with God’s Word?

a. _____________________________________________________________

b. _____________________________________________________________

3. Who is the main character of every Bible story and of every Bible passage? _______________________________________________________________

4. Because the books in the Bible were written by human authors with specific audiences in mind, it is important to know the author’s _______________________________________________________________.

5. Because the Bible is God’s Word (“God-breathed”),there are some ways we relate to the Bible that we don’t relate to any other book. What are two responses to God’s Word that we should have because it is not just any book, but God’s Word?We should _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________We should______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6. What problem prevents us from understanding the Bible spiritually?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

7. What has God given to believers to help with this problem?________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8. What is the first division of the Bible?____________________________________________________________

9. Who wrote the books in this first division?____________________________________________________________

10. Stories in these books give the history of Israel up until the time when ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

11. List the first five books of the Bible in order.____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

12. What is the next division of the Bible? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

13. List (in order) the books in the second division.____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

14. Write the third division of the Bible and its books in order.________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

15. Write the fourth division of the Bible and its books in order.________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

16. Write the last division of the Old Testament and its books in order.________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

17. When referring to the prophets and their books, what does the term “major” mean?________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

18. What does the term “minor” mean in this context?________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

19. What is the first division of the New Testament?____________________________________________________________

20. List the books of this division in order.________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

21. How is a Gospel like a biography and how is it different?________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

22. What is the next division of the New Testament and what is its book?________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

23. Give the last two divisions of the Bible in order, and list their books in order.________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

24. What is an “epistle?”________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

25. Who wrote the New Testament epistles, and to whom were they written?________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

26. What was a main purpose of the last book of the Bible?________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Genesis PART 1

The word “Genesis” means “beginning.” In the pages of Genesis, we find the stories of how a number of significant things began. Based on what you already know of stories in Genesis, make a list below of things whose beginnings are described in the book. Feel free to skim through the book to find these. Check your list against the one in the answer key.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Genesis is the first of five books that are called the Pentateuch. The “penta” in “Pentateuch” is the same as the “penta” in “pentagon” and means “five.” Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy make up the Pentateuch. These books are also called “the books of Moses,” since Moses was their human author. Moses wrote these books for the people of Israel after they had come out of slavery in Egypt, and before they entered the Promised Land. He wanted them to know why they stood in a special relationship with God that no other nation had. The book of Genesis would explain to the Israelites the origin of that special relationship, called a covenant. It would also make clear why a covenant was needed, and how the nation of Israel itself began.

Before you begin to look at specific highlights of Genesis, notice the way the book is divided into sections. Genesis 1:1–2:3 is a kind of introduction, giving us the basic account of creation. Ten sections follow, some long, some short. Look at Genesis 2:4, where the first of these ten sections begins. The ESV translation says, “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth. . . ” If you are using a different translation, the wording may be different, but, whatever the opening words of this section are in your translation, you will find those words repeated nine times in the book. We see where each of these ten sections begins because each section begins with the same words. Skim through the book of Genesis, looking for these repeated words, to see where the different sections begin. Below, there is a list of the topics covered in each section. Fill in the reference where each new section begins.

__________Stories of the beginnings of heaven and earth, with special focus on the beginning of humans

__________Stories of Adam and his descendants, with special focus on Seth

__________Stories of Noah, with stories about the flood

__________Stories of Noah’s sons, and the people groups that would come from them

__________A list beginning with Shem, showing his descendants down to Abraham

__________Stories beginning with Terah, Abraham’s father, giving us the history of Abraham and God’s covenant with him, continued in the stories of Isaac, Abraham’s son

__________A list of the descendants of Ishmael, giving us a brief history of what happened to Abraham’s oldest son, the one who was not the son God had promised

__________Stories about Isaac’s two sons, Jacob and Esau

__________A brief story about Esau, the son of Isaac who was not the one to whom the blessing was passed on, with lists of his descendants and where they settled

__________Stories of Jacob, telling us how Jacob and his large family ended up in Egypt

Read Genesis 1–2.

Copy the first three words of the book of Genesis. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________This is where the book of Genesis (beginnings) gets its name. What existed before the heavens and the earth? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What did God create on each of the six days of creation?

Day 1 _________________________________________________________________

Day 2 _________________________________________________________________

Day 3 _________________________________________________________________

Day 4 _________________________________________________________________

Day 5 _________________________________________________________________

Day 6 _________________________________________________________________

Copy Genesis 1:3. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Look through the chapter and count how many times you find the words “And God said, ‘Let . . .’” Write the number here _________________________________________________________________

Because the Latin term for “let there be” is fiat, we say that God created “by fiat.” He only had to speak and each thing came into being, in all its complexity, just the way he wanted it to be. All through the Bible, we find the theme of God’s powerful word accomplishing whatever he speaks. Although humans make things, and even animals make things in a limited fashion, God is the only one who can create something “by fiat,” just by speaking. The other unique thing about God’s creative acts is that God creates out of nothing. A beaver needs wood to build its dam, a painter needs paint and canvas to paint a landscape, a sculptor needs marble to sculpt a statue, but God creates out of nothing. He needs no materials from which to create. He speaks the material itself into being when he makes something. Since the Latin word for “nothing” is nihil, we say God created “ex nihilo”—out of nothing.

What did God do on the seventh day? _________________________________________________________________

What did God do to the seventh day? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

How many times, in chapter 1, do you find “and God saw that . . . it was good”?_________________________________________________________________

What was God looking at when he saw that it was “very good?” ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In 1:26–28, how did God make man? In ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What did God tell man to subdue? _________________________________________________________________

What did he give man dominion over? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Having dominion over the rest of the earth and all that is in it is part of what it means to be made in the image of God. As God has authority over all things, so he has made us like himself and given us a limited authority over the rest of creation. Birds use only what they need to survive: bugs or seeds to eat, water to drink, and twigs to build a nest. A bear will use a cave he finds to sleep in and will eat whatever he finds that is edible; he may use a tree trunk for scratching his back. But birds and animals only use a few things to meet their basic needs. People use almost everything God has made, and they are always learning new ways to use other things. That is because they are made in God’s image and have dominion over the rest of the earth.

A bear might get in a fight with another bear over a beehive full of honey and he might kill the other bear. Is the bear guilty? No, because he does not know the difference between right and wrong. This is another way that people are made in the image of God. People are moral creatures; they know that some things are right and others are wrong. People are guilty before God when they choose to do wrong.

A beaver can build a home for itself. But can a beaver figure out how to make a skyscraper or an Egyptian pyramid? We see the image of God in people in the way they can think and invent and plan and create.

Horses can make noises to call to each other. They can let each other know when they are angry. But a horse cannot tell another horse what he is thinking or what he did last Sunday or what he wants to do next week. But we can tell each other those things. Our ability to communicate feelings, thoughts, memories, and ideas demonstrates that God has made us in his image.

Dogs show that they like their masters when they wag their tails and lick them. But do dogs love God? Can they worship him? Can you teach a dog about God? No, but God made people in his image so they could know him, appreciate him, love him, and worship him.

As long as there have been people, they have marveled at the wonders God has made. We need God’s written revelation to show us what we need to know about him, but we can also see something of how wonderful he is when we look at his amazing creation. As Francis Bacon, the man credited with developing the scientific method, said, “Let no man think or maintain that a man can search too far or be too well-studied in the book of God’s Word or in the book of God’s work.”

There is one place in these two chapters where God said, “It is not good.” What was God talking about, and how did he solve the problem? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Some people say they cannot believe in a powerful, loving God because of all the sad and ugly things in the world. If there is a loving God, they wonder, why did he make a world with suffering, death, and evil in it? Genesis 1 and 2 explain to us why the world and everything in it are so wonderful. Genesis 3 explains to us why the world and everything in it is so full of sorrow and pain.

Look back at God’s instructions to Adam in 2:16–17. From how many trees of the garden was Adam permitted to eat? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What would happen if he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Read Genesis 3–4.

On the day Adam and Eve ate the fruit, did they drop dead on the spot? _________________________________________________________________On that fateful day, the bodies of that first couple began to die (see 3:19), and they became spiritually dead immediately. You can see this in 3:8, where Adam and Eve tried to hide from God. God created humans to love and enjoy him, but those who are spiritually dead do not want him near. Adam represented all unborn human beings. When he sinned, he became sinful by nature and passed that sin on to every human ever born. We are all born sinners who choose to do what we want to do rather than to obey God. We are all born dead spiritually, unable to know and love and enjoy God as he meant for us to do. Sooner or later, every one of us will die and, while we wait, we must endure many sad and painful experiences. How horrified Adam and Eve must have felt when they considered not just the misery they had brought on themselves, but the misery the entire human race would know as a result of their sin.

In this very first section of this very first book of the Bible, God begins to reveal to us two of the most important things we need to know about him. One is that he is absolutely holy. He hates all sin and he always judges and punishes it. We see that in this chapter in the curses he pronounced on the Serpent who tempted Eve to sin, and in the curses he pronounced on Adam, Eve, and the whole earth because of their disobedience. We also see, however, that God is a God of grace. He delights to shower good gifts on people who deserve nothing but his anger. Look at Genesis 3:15. God promised that someone will come from the woman who will do something to the Serpent.

What would this someone do? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What would the Serpent do to this someone? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Genesis 3:15 gives us the first promise of Christ in the Bible. Jesus Christ is the one who would be born of a woman and who would undo what the Serpent had done. It would cost Christ a great deal. He would have to take the judgment God’s people deserved for their sin by dying in their place. In this way, Satan would “bruise” Jesus’ “heel,” but Jesus would bruise the Serpent’s head by restoring God’s relationship with his people. God is eager to be gracious! No sooner had Adam and Eve sinned against him than he was there to comfort them with this promise. Before he had even finished laying out to them the stern consequences of their sin, he assured them that he had a way to repair what they had ruined. All through the rest of the Bible, we will watch this interplay between God’s holiness, bringing deserved wrath upon sinful men, and God’s grace, providing a way for him to be merciful and forgive. From as early as the garden of Eden, God’s only way of grace for sinners would be through his provision of a Savior in Jesus Christ.

Another thing we will see all through the Bible is God’s remarkable ability to keep his promise of a Savior for his people. One calamity after another will make it appear that God’s promise will not be kept, but God will always overrule each of these. In chapter 4, we already see this happening. Trusting in God’s promise that a child would destroy Satan’s work, Adam and Eve would have rejoiced at the birth of Cain. When Cain grew to manhood, however, he murdered his own brother. This son would obviously not be the one to deliver them from Satan’s work. Not only that, but now their other son was dead, so he could not be the Savior or the father of the Savior, either. God gave Adam and Eve a third son, though, Seth, and he would be the one from whom the promised Savior would come at last.

Read Genesis 5:1.

We are reminded again of how God created man. Finish this sentence: “When God created man, he made him ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.”

When Adam fathered a son (in 5:3), in whose likeness was he, and after whose image was he? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The image of God would be passed on to all humans, but a sinful nature would be passed on to all of them as well. Continue to look through chapter 5 for the following answers.

After living 930 years and having many sons and daughters, what did Adam finally do? _________________________________________________________________

After living 912 years and having many sons and daughters, what did Seth finally do? _________________________________________________________________

After living 905 years and having many sons and daughters, what did Enosh finally do? _________________________________________________________________

After living 910 years and having many sons and daughters, what did Kenan finally do? _________________________________________________________________

After living 895 years and having many sons and daughters, what did Mahalalel finally do? _________________________________________________________________

After living 962 years and having many sons and daughters, what did Jared finally do? _________________________________________________________________

After living 365 years and having many sons and daughters, what did Enoch finally do (something different)? _________________________________________________________________

After living 969 years and having many sons and daughters, what did Methuselah finally do? _________________________________________________________________This chapter doesn’t have much of a story! It shows us two important things, though. One is that death is the result of sin. From Adam on, all (except for Enoch and, later, Elijah) die, because all are sinners. It also shows us children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren coming from Seth, so that we move closer to the time when a Savior would come from the woman, as God had promised.

Read Genesis 6:5–22.

Describe what God saw when he looked at mankind. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What was God’s attitude toward Noah? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

How does this passage describe Noah? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Based on what we saw in the earlier chapters of Genesis (sin was passed on to all men; God hates and always judges sin; God delights to show grace to sinners), which of these following two statements is true?

Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord becausehe was righteous and walked with God.ORNoah was righteous and walked with God becausehe had found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

The ark is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. When God’s judgment falls because of his anger at people’s sin, anyone who has taken refuge in Christ will be safe from that judgment.

Read Genesis 7:17–8:1 and 8:22–9:29.

What did God promise never to do again? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Was this because now man would be good? _________________________________________________________________

What two things in this story show that sin had not been washed away in the flood?_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

According to God’s words to Noah, is it wrong to kill an animal for food? Why or why not? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Is it wrong to kill a human being? Why or why not? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Read Genesis 11:1–9.

How many languages did people speak before they began building a tower in Shinar?_________________________________________________________________Give two reasons why the tower was built. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Babel” is the name from which we get our word “babble,” meaning human sounds that have no meaning. Why was this place called “Babel?” _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The sin God punished in this story was the result of Adam’s fall in the garden. God had promised Adam that he would send someone to bruise the Serpent’s heel. Christ would undo the work Satan had done. We see an example of Christ undoing Satan’s work if we compare the story told here in Genesis 11 with the story in Acts 2:1–12, 40–41, 44–47. The story in Acts tells of a time after Christ had died, risen, and gone back into heaven. As he had promised, Christ sent his Holy Spirit on his followers, to live in them forever. Read the Acts story to answer the following questions.

At Babel, people who had spoken the same language could no longer understand each other. What happened in the story in Acts 2 that is the exact opposite? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________At Babel, for whom were people seeking glory? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________In Acts 2, to whom were people giving glory? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________At Babel, people who had been united were _________________________________________________________________. In Acts 2, people who had been divided were _________________________________________________________________. The story of Babel shows us what sin does. The story in Acts 2 shows us what Jesus can do about sin.

Test Time! Review what you’ve studied from the beginning of Genesis until now. Then take Test #2 on the next page.

TEST2

The Garden of Eden to the Tower of Babel

Multiple choice: Circle the letter of the correct answer.

1. The book of Genesis is part of the ____________________, which means five books.

a. Pentagon.

b. Pentateuch.

c. Pentameter.

d. Pentagram.

2. The word “Genesis” means

a. Beginning

b. Law

c. Generations

d. Written by Moses

3. Man was the only creature God created

a. On the sixth day.

c. Male and female.

c. Fully grown.

d. In the image of God.

4. When did God first promise a Savior from sin?

a. When he breathed the breath of life into Adam.

b. In the garden of Eden right after Adam and Eve had sinned.

c. After the flood.

d. When he confused people’s languages at the tower of Babel.

5. Which verse is God’s first promise to send a Savior from sin?

a. Genesis 1:15.

b. Genesis 3:15.

c. Genesis 3:1.

d. Genesis 5:3.

6. What is true of all human beings because of Adam’s sin?

a. They all die.

b. They are all sinful by nature.

c. They all have a natural fear of snakes.

d. Both a and b.

7. Which of the following is a theme found throughout Scripture?

a. God’s holy anger at sin and God’s grace.

b. God’s favor toward good people.

c. God’s faithfulness to keep his promise of a Savior, in spite of calamities that could prevent that Savior from coming.

d. Both a. and c.

e. All the above.

8. Noah taking shelter in the ark during the flood is a picture of

a. The believer taking refuge in Christ from God’s anger at sin.

b. Jonah in the belly of the big fish, safe from drowning in the sea.

c. Jesus in the boat on the Sea of Galilee stilling the storm.

d. The person who does what is right so that he can go to heaven.

9. Acts 2 tells the story of an event which in many ways is the exact opposite of what happened to the people at Babel. Acts 2 tells the story of what happened . . .

a. In Bethlehem, when Jesus was born.

b. When God saved Noah in the ark.

c. When Solomon built the temple.

d. When the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost.

Short answer: Write the correct answer in the space provided.

10. List the things God made during each day of creation.The first day ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The second day ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The third day ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The fourth day ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The fifth day ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The sixth day________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

11. God cursed the Serpent in the garden of Eden. He said someone would come from Eve who would bruise the Serpent’s head, even though the Serpent would bruise that person’s heel. Who would bruise the Serpent’s head, and how was that person’s “heel” “bruised?”________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

12. What does it mean that man is made in the image of God?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Genesis PART 2

People have an important privilege because they are made in the image of God. Unlike the animals or even the angels, people can have relationships with each other and with God that the Bible calls covenants. In a covenant, partners agree to be bound together in a specific relationship, with specific privileges and responsibilities. The marriage relationship is an example of a covenant.

God made a covenant with the very first man. God gave Adam a specific responsibility: obey God by not eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If Adam ate it, God warned, he would die. On the other hand, if Adam were to obey God, he would live happily with God forever. People sometimes call this the covenant of works. The blessings God would give were dependent on Adam earning them. Of course, Adam did not keep that covenant. And since Adam represented all mankind, in him we all broke God’s covenant. God would have had every right to give up on having a covenant with human beings. But he had already determined that he would have people with whom he would have a covenant. So God made Adam a promise. It is in this promise that we first see God’s covenant of grace. Grace is the opposite of works. When God gives us something by grace, he gives it freely, even though we have not earned it and do not deserve it. In the garden of Eden, God promised that someone would be born who would destroy Satan and his works. Adam and Eve did not deserve this. It was grace—God doing something for people that they did not deserve.

Before creating anything, God had planned to create the human race and, from that human race, to choose people for himself who would be his own people. God would choose these people, not because of anything about them, but just because he chose to love them. He would make a covenant with these people that would bind him to them as their God and would bind them to God as his people. God knew Adam and Eve would sin. He knew the people he wanted as his own people would be sinful and unable to keep a covenant with him. But that did not stop him. He would do everything for them to make them able to live in a covenant with him. That is why we call it a covenant of grace. There is nothing sinful human beings can do to keep their part of God’s covenant. God does it all for them.

The story of the Bible is the unfolding story of God’s eternal covenant of grace with his people. In Genesis 3:15, when God promised that someone would be born who would crush the Serpent’s head, we get our first glimpse of the covenant of grace. In the stories of Abraham, God chose a man and established his covenant with that man and with his descendants, giving him promises that help us to see the covenant of grace more clearly. At Mount Sinai, God gave laws to the people he had chosen, making clear the requirements of his covenant. Throughout the Old Testament, against the background of his sinful people’s repeated failures to keep the covenant, God promised that a better version of the covenant would come with the one he had promised, his Messiah. When the Lord Jesus Christ finally arrived, he announced that he was making a new covenant with God’s people. This covenant was for people of all nations, not just physical descendants of Abraham. Everything about this new covenant was greater, better, and more glorious than what Old Testament believers experienced. At the same time, though, the new covenant Christ introduced was also a continuation of God’s one eternal covenant of grace with sinners.

In the covenant of grace, God’s people still have specific responsibilities. If the responsibilities are fulfilled, they receive blessings. But because it is a covenant of grace, God provided Jesus, the Savior he first promised in the garden of Eden, to keep all the covenant’s requirements in his people’s place. When Adam, representing all humanity, failed to keep God’s covenant, he failed in our place. Sin and its curse were passed on to all of us. When the Lord Jesus, representing his people, kept all the requirements of God’s covenant, he obeyed in his people’s place. All the covenant’s blessings became theirs.

The pit of a cherry does not look much like a cherry tree; yet the whole cherry tree is contained in that pit. Given the right circumstances and some time, a shoot, then a sapling, and finally a full-grown cherry tree, bearing thousands of cherries, will grow from that small pit. In the same way, we watch the development of God’s covenant with his people in the Bible. We could think of God’s promise in Genesis 3:15 as the cherry pit. As we read of God’s promises to Abraham, of his dealings with Israel (Abraham’s descendants), of Israel’s repeated failures to keep the covenant, and of the prophets’ promises of a coming Messiah, we watch God’s covenant with his people take shape before us. It is like watching the planted cherry pit put down roots and send up sprouts that grow into a sturdy sapling with branches and leaves. When we read the stories of Christ and his church in the New Testament, we watch the tree fill with fruit. When we reach the end of the Bible, we see ahead into a time not yet come and marvel at what a wonderful thing is God’s eternal covenant of grace with sinners.

Read Genesis 12:1–9.

What did God call Abram to do? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What did God promise to give to Abram’s offspring? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What did God promise to make of Abram? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

God also promised to bless Abram. What did God promise to all the families of the earth through Abram? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The first promise would be granted some time later, when God would bring the Israelites into the Promised Land. The second promise would be granted when, from Abram’s descendants, the nation of Israel would come. It would be to the nation of Israel that God would give his Law and the rest of the Scriptures. In these, God would reveal who he is and what he requires. Best of all, the promised Savior would come from the nation of Israel. This is how it came to be true that all the families (nations) of the earth would be blessed in Abram.

Read Genesis 12:10–20.

Scripture is faithful to point out that even its “heroes” are sinners in need of God’s grace. What sin did Abram commit in this passage? (He did it again in chapter 20.) __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Abram could not be right with God based on his own righteousness, because God himself is perfectly righteous and requires perfect righteousness.

Read Genesis 15.

What was Abram’s complaint in the opening verses of this chapter?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

How many descendants did God promise to Abram? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In verse 6, we see how it is that God accepted Abram, in spite of his sinfulness. Copy verse 6 here. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

When kings made covenants with each other in Abram’s day, they often had a ceremony. Part of the ceremony involved walking down a pathway, lined on both sides with pieces of cut-up animals. Walking between these animal pieces was a way of saying, “May what has happened to these animals happen to me if I fail to keep the terms of this covenant.” In covenants between humans, both partners in the covenant walked between the pieces. In this story, what passed between the pieces? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Did Abram pass between the pieces? _________________________________________________________________

The fire pot and the torch represented God. He alone committed to keeping the requirements of the covenant. It is a covenant of grace that sinners (like Abram) are not able to keep.

Read Genesis 16:1–3, 15–16; 17:1–8, 15–21; 21:1–7.

What was Sarai’s idea for how Abram could have a son, since she had never become pregnant?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________What did Abram name the son who was born this way? _________________________________________________________________

How old was Abram when God appeared to him again, once more promising a covenant with him, and telling him that the son God had promised was not Ishmael?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What did God change Abram’s name to and what did that name mean? (You’ll need a footnote in your Bible to answer this question.) _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The best promise of God’s covenant with Abram and with all his people forever is found in the last six words of Genesis 17:8. Copy those words here, and watch for them all through Scripture. They appear over and over again. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What did God change Sarai’s name to? _________________________________________________________________

How old was she when God promised she would have a son the next year? _________________________________________________________________

How old was Abraham when Sarah finally gave birth to his son? _________________________________________________________________

What did they name the baby and what does that mean? (You’ll need a footnote in your Bible to tell you what the name means.)_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Read Genesis 22.

It would be hard for any father who loved his son to have to go through what Abraham went through in this story. Based on all we’ve read up until now, what would make this trial even more difficult for Abraham?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

God has never required human sacrifice. In the books of the prophets, he condemns people who sacrifice humans to their idols. He never intended that Abraham would actually kill Isaac. In this event, God wanted to reveal something of what he is like and what he does for his people. Notice how God referred to Isaac in the opening lines of his words to Abraham. Copy all the phrases God used to describe Isaac in verse 2. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The focus here is on Abraham’s great love for Isaac, the love of a father for an only son. Later, God the Father would offer up his Son, his only Son, whom he loved, and nothing would prevent the sacrifice that time. This story helps us to feel something of what it cost God to give up Jesus for his people. God’s people can be certain of his love for them, because he sacrificed what he loved most—his only Son—for them.

When Isaac wondered what they would offer as a sacrifice, what was Abraham’s answer? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sure enough, once the angel stopped Abraham from killing his son, what did they see caught nearby in the bushes? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What did Abraham name the place? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Look back in verse 2 and write down where God had sent Abraham and Isaac for this event. _________________________________________________________________

Eventually, the city of Jerusalem would stand here and the temple of the Lord would be built in this location. The sacrifices in that temple and the ram in this story look ahead to Christ’s sacrifice in the place of his people. As Abraham had said, God would provide for himself an offering. That offering would be perfect, and none of God’s people would have to die, because the Lamb of God would have died in their place.

Genesis 24 tells the delightful story of how Abraham found a wife for his son Isaac, when Isaac was old enough to marry. In the middle of chapter 25, we find Isaac’s wife, Rebekah, married and pregnant with twins. God made her a promise about the younger of the two twins. Copy the last line of 25:23 below, then read to the end of chapter 25. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________