Discover the book of Genesis in 3 minutes.

Read this article in French here.

Hey you,

Reading the book of Genesis and the Bible, in general, can be somewhat overwhelming. Lots and lots of chapters, tiny font size, Shakespearean English, incomprehensible parables… All these factors may make Bible study less than appealing.

Trust me, these are tools the evil one uses to keep us from the blessings found in the Word of God. I hope these few lines will create and/or revive in you the feeling of excitement you get from studying the Holy Scriptures.

This is meant to be a 3 minutes summary, so without further ado let’s dive into the book of Genesis.

A summary of the book of genesis

The intrigue

Genesis is that book of the Bible which lays the foundation on which the whole story of God and mankind is built. Failure to understand Genesis, and in particular the first three chapters, can derail us from the essence of the good news Jesus declared and brought to us, the climax of this story.

It all starts with God creating a good world on which He wants to rule not alone, but with His most special creature – mankind (this time composed of only Adam and Eve).

But God, being a generous God, decides to give mankind the choice. After all, two cannot work together unless they agree (Amos 3:3). They get to choose to rule this world with God, by trusting what He commands or without God, by trusting what they think.

Did they trust God enough to act according to what He says? Or not?

Tragically, mankind chose the latter, seeking autonomy apart from God. From there follows a sin-bound chain of events from Cain, Lamech, Babel, right up to… well, it doesn’t end.

Still, with His plan in mind and full of mercy, God announces that He will surely rescue mankind from itself and restore it to the godly position for which it was created by using the offspring of the woman – another human (Genesis 3:15).

This is how Genesis explains what the whole story of the Bible is about: will God truly restore mankind to its rightful purpose? If yes, how will that happen? When will that happen? Or has it already?

It is important to note that the Bible exposes real events that happened in what is today called the Middle East. THIS IS BY NO MEANS FICTION OR MERE STORY-TELLING

The promise

God promised to restore mankind through a human, and Genesis presents various characters whom we might think are that person, but simply end up playing a part in the fulfillment of this promise. We thought the saviour would be Noah, but it wasn’t the case. Then we thought it would be Abraham, but no. Isaac maybe? Jacob?

None of the above.

The promise simply passes down from father to son, generations after generations.

Then from Jacob, the promise is passed down to a group of people this time, the Israelites, who will act as a model and door through which all the nations of the earth will be restored, and all mankind be saved. Some details concerning the human saviour are revealed at this stage, such as the fact that he will come from the Israelite tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10).

Meanwhile, the saviour being far from their main concern, the Israelites leave the land inherited from Abraham, their rightful inheritance, and emigrate to Egypt, escaping the famine they faced in Canaan. The book ends with the following declaration: “God will surely bring the rest of you back to the land He promised” (Genesis 50:24).

How?

This is the page-turner to the next book, Exodus.

Takeaway

I hope you enjoyed this little rundown through Genesis. In that case, leave us a comment below.

If that is not the case you can find a visual overview of the book of Genesis by the Bible project under here:

Cheers!!