What if the book of Genesis is the foundation for understanding everything God is doing in the world?!
And to do that, the Bible starts with God, so we know everything starts with Him! It is vital that the church studies and understands the book of Genesis.
1. What Genesis Is & Why It Matters
The Bible is composed of 66 different books. There are 39 Old Testament books and 27 New Testament books with 40 human authors inspired by the Holy Spirit...all written over a period of roughly 1500 years. The book of Genesis is the opening book of the Bible (in format and chronologically) and the foundation for everything that follows. Its name comes from a Greek word meaning “beginning” or “origin.”
Anyone who has spent time with a child knows the “season of endless questions.” You answer one, and another immediately follows.
“Why is the sky blue?”
Because of how light scatters.“Why does it scatter?”
Because of the atmosphere.
“Why is there an atmosphere?”
Because God made it that way.“Why did God make it that way?”
And before long, you realize something. You can answer WHAT something does, but eventually the questions always push toward WHY.
Children don’t ask questions to be difficult. They ask because they’re trying to understand how the world works. They aren’t satisfied with surface answers. They want roots. They want beginnings.
That’s exactly what the book of Genesis gives us. Genesis doesn’t just tell us WHAT happened. It answers the deepest WHY questions of life:
Why is there something instead of nothing?
Why is the world both good and broken?
Why does humanity need to be rescued?
Genesis is God graciously meeting our curiosity. We aren’t given every detail, but we are satisfied with what we most need to know: who God is, why we are here, and how He began His rescue plan. In a sense, Genesis invites us to come to God like that child…asking honest questions and trusting that He is patient enough to answer. May we all lean in and learn life-transforming truths from Genesis.
2. Authorship and Audience
Genesis was written by Moses, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and originally given to Israel as they were becoming a nation. They were a redeemed people, brought out of Egypt, preparing to live as God’s covenant people in the Promised Land.
Genesis reminded them:
Who their God is
Where they came from
Why they were chosen
What God promised to do
Imagine someone hands you the keys to a car you’ve never driven before and says, “Here are the rules. Don’t do this, always do that, and make sure you follow every instruction.” But they never tell you what kind of engine it has, how the steering responds, how the brakes work, or even where the gas goes.
You could memorize every rule and still struggle, because you don’t understand how the car works or who designed it. The rules only make sense once you know the maker and the design. That’s exactly what God does with Israel.
Before He gives them the Law…
Before He calls them to obedience…
Before He tells them how to live…
He tells them who He is and what He has done.
Genesis comes before Exodus and Leviticus for a reason… and the same is true for us. Christianity is not first about behavior. It’s about belief! It’s not first about rules. It’s about relationship with God. Before we can truly live as God’s people, we must know who God is and how He works. That’s why the Bible begins with Genesis.
Before Israel learned how to live as God’s people, they needed to know who God is and how He works. Before we can truly learn how to live as God’s people, we too must know who He is and how He works! How well do you know who God is? Too many people get their information from the opinion of others instead of going to the source. Are you discovering who God is through His own words in the Bible?
3. Historical Setting
Genesis covers the longest span of time of any book in the Bible. It starts at creation and ends with Joseph’s death in Egypt. It describes events long before Israel existed as a nation and sets the stage for Exodus. Genesis explains why Israel ended up in Egypt, why they are God’s chosen people, and why God’s promises matter more than their circumstances.
It is important to learn from our history. Our history helps us not repeat the past mistakes in the present or future. It also teaches us to improve, become stronger, and grow. Genesis is the book that teaches the Israelites their history. The Bible is the book that teaches us the history of humanity. We must study it, learn it, rehearse it, and grow from it! The Bible is the real story…the truth!
4. Structure of the Book
Genesis divides naturally into two major sections:
Genesis 1–11: The Universal Story
These chapters deal with all humanity and answer global questions. This section spans from creation to the tower of Babel. The revealed PROBLEM in the universal story is that sin fractures God’s good creation.
Genesis 12–50: The Family Story
These chapters focus on one family through whom God will bring redemption...His rescue plan for all mankind! This is the story of Abraham, his son Isaac, his grandson Jacob, and his great-grandson Joseph. The revealed PLAN in this section of Genesis is that God chooses a people through whom He will bless the world.
5. Five Major Themes in Genesis
Sometimes I receive so much mail and email that I skim the topic sentences of the communication to catch the major themes. This helps me determine if I need to investigate the letter further and read every word. Genesis contains life-changing themes that require further investigation!
God Is Sovereign. From creation to famine to family conflict, God is always in control, even when His people are not faithful.
God Is a Promise-Keeper. Genesis is filled with promises. Promises over land, offspring, blessing…and God consistently moves history toward fulfilling His promises.
Humanity Is Fallen but Pursued. Sin enters early, spreads quickly, but God never stops pursuing people with His grace.
God Works Through Imperfect People. The heroes of Genesis are deeply flawed, yet God remains faithful to His purposes.
God’s Rescue Begins Here. The promise of a Deliverer appears as early as Genesis 3:15, and every covenant, blessing, and preserved family line moves that promise forward.
6. Genesis and the Gospel
Genesis is not only about the past. It actually points forward to Christ! The gospel does not start in Matthew. It starts in Genesis.
God had a plan to rescue us all from the judgement of our sin before the foundation of the world! Ephesians 1:4 says God chose us before the foundation of the world. I Peter 1:20 says Christ was appointed as the Savior before creation. II Tim. 1:9 says grace existed before sin entered the world. Acts 2:23 says the cross happened according to God’s determined counsel. Genesis 3:15 reveals God’s plan early on. God’s rescue plan flows from His character, not from our failure! Your rescue is not an afterthought or a bitter decision of a conflicted will. Genesis will remind us that we are loved by God, pursued by God, and provided for by God!
7. Why Study Genesis Today?
Because Genesis helps us as believers to understand God’s character, make sense of this broken world, trust God’s promises, see Christ more clearly, and build our faith from the ground up.
When a building is designed, the architect doesn’t wait for something to go wrong before deciding where the exits will be. From the very beginning, those exits are built into the plan. They’re not added because of panic. They’re there because the designer knows people will need a way out.
Genesis shows us that God did the same. God’s rescue (called “redemption” in the Bible) wasn’t an emergency fix after sin showed up. It was built into the design. Before the fall, before the failure, God had already prepared the way.
And for us as the church, that means we don’t gather around a God who is reacting. We gather around the one true God who is rescuing. We are not here by accident, and our mission is not improvised. We are a people shaped by a rescue that was planned from the beginning…and sent into the world to make that rescue known.