66 Books One Story

A Guide to Every Book of the Bible

Paul Reynolds

• Publisher: Christian Focus Publication
• eBook ISBN:
  9781781910870
• Year: 2013

THE OLD
TESTAMENT

GENESIS 1-11

Creation to Babel: History begins, sin starts and a Savior is promised

INTRODUCTION

• God made a perfect universe from nothing. But people spoiled it because they thought they knew better than God, and disobeyed him. However, God didn’t stop loving people. Moses wrote the book of Genesis (which means, ‘beginning’), shortly before the Israelites entered the promised land after escaping from Egypt.
• Genesis was probably written some time between 1446 and 1406 BC.

OVERVIEW

1. “In the beginning, God made everything: day and night; sea and sky; land, plants and trees; sun, moon and stars; fish, birds and animals. Finally he made Adam and Eve to live in a wonderful place called the Garden of Eden. God saw that everything he had made was very good, and then he rested.”
2. “God said to Adam and Eve that they could eat from any tree except one, but Satan, in the form of a snake, said if they ate that one fruit they would be like God.”
3. “That sounded good, and the fruit looked tasty, so Eve ate it and then Adam.”
4. “Because Adam and Eve did not obey God he had to send them away from the Garden. They could not now live forever. Disobeying God meant they would have pain and one day die. Satan would hurt people, but God promised that one day a man would be born who would beat Satan.”
5. “Many years later when there were lots of people, God saw that everyone wanted to do bad things all the time. This made God sad because he hates sin. He decided to start again with one man, Noah, and his family, who still loved God and were trying to obey him.”
6. “He told Noah to build a huge boat called an ark for himself and his family, and for two of every kind of animal and seven of certain special animals. When God flooded the earth all of the other animals and people died. Afterwards, God used a rainbow as a symbol to promise he would never do that again.”
7. “Much later, lots of people got together and tried to build a city that would make them look great. They thought they had a better plan than God and didn’t want to spread over the earth as he told them to. So, God made everyone speak different languages. Then they had to go to different places.”

LEARNING FROM GENESIS 1–11

1. God made everything perfect. It is only because of sin that there is anything bad in the world (See overview paragraphs 1–2).
   Bible references: Genesis 3:15-19; Haggai 1:9-10; Romans 5:12.
   Questions: What are some of the lovely things that God has made? What are some of the bad things that are in the world because of sin?
2. God hates sin and will not put up with it forever (See overview paragraphs 4–6).
   Bible references: Genesis 6:5-7; Proverbs 6:16-19; 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9.
   Questions: What bad things do you want to do? How do you feel about them? Do you sometimes try to do things your way instead of God’s way?
3. God defeated the Devil – as he promised – through Jesus dying on the cross and coming to life again. He still hurts people, but because of what Jesus has done we can have our sins forgiven and not be punished (See overview paragraph 4).
   Bible references: Genesis 3:15; 1 John 3:8.
   Question: Have you asked God to forgive your sin?

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” (Genesis 3:15).

This is the first time in the Bible that God talks about Jesus coming. Satan hates all people and wants to mess up God’s work, including Jesus’ mission to save us. He thought he had won when evil men killed Jesus, but Jesus had the victory because he rose from the dead. Genesis gives us the bad news about sin and death, but it also gives us the good news of God making a way for people to be saved.

“For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19).

The apostle Paul compares Adam (the disobedient man) with Jesus (the perfectly obedient man). Adam’s sin means that all have sinned. Jesus’ obedience, which includes his death, means that many people are saved.

Key Verse: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth … God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” (Genesis 1:1, 31a).

God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac and Abraham trusted God enough to obey.

GENESIS 12–50

Abraham to Joseph: God separates a group of people for himself

INTRODUCTION

• Burning cities, lies, family break–ups, betrayal, kidnap, prison and famine. All this and more was in the lives of four men chosen by God to do his work: Abraham, Abraham’s son Isaac, Isaac’s son Jacob, and Jacob’s son Joseph. The second half of Genesis tells the story of God separating a group of people for himself: not because they were great, but just because he decided to love them in a special way.
• Genesis was probably written some time between 1446 and 1406 BC

OVERVIEW

1. “God told Abram to go to a new country (but didn’t tell him at first where it would be). God said that he would do great things for Abram and through him people all over the world would be blessed. Abram obeyed God.”
2. “God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, which means ‘father of many people’. God said that Abraham would have more children than the stars in the sky and that Abraham, his children, and their children would be given the whole country that he was living in. Abraham believed and trusted God and God made him righteous and gave him the free gift of forgiveness. Abraham was not perfect and did some bad things, but God kept his promise that he would have children. He and his wife had a son even though they were very old, and they called him Isaac.”
3. “Later, God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac and Abraham trusted God enough to obey, but just as he was about to kill him for the sacrifice God said, ‘No – don’t kill the boy.’ God provided a goat for the sacrifice instead. When Isaac grew up he had two sons, called Jacob and Esau. Jacob tricked Esau to get good things from their dad and from God. Even though Jacob acted badly, God had chosen to bless him.”
   
   
4. “One of Jacob’s sons was called Joseph. Joseph’s ten older brothers were jealous of him because their Dad loved him most. They were so bad to him that they sold him to some people for money, and he ended up first as a slave in Egypt, and then in prison for something he didn’t do.”
5. “God was with Joseph though and showed him the meaning of some dreams that the ruler of Egypt (Pharaoh¹) had. Pharaoh thought Joseph was such a good man that he put him in charge of everything. Joseph made sure there was food for everyone when there had been no rain to make the crops grow.”
6. “Joseph’s brothers and his father Jacob then went to live with him in Egypt. Their family came to be very, very big.”

LEARNING FROM GENESIS 12–50

1. Abraham obeyed God because he trusted him. He knew that God always keeps his promises (See overview paragraphs 1–2).
   Bible references: Genesis 12:1, 4; 15:6; Romans 4:1-5; 1 John 1:9.
   Questions: Do you trust God’s promises, such as the promise that God forgives the sins of all those who repent?
2. God is in charge. He will use anyone he wants to use – even people like Abraham and Jacob who do bad things. This shows that we don’t have to impress God before he will forgive our sins. God doesn’t just look for people who are already nice, to use them. Think of some people who are not nice. Pray that God will forgive their sins and yours (See overview paragraphs 3–4).
   Bible references: Genesis 28:13-15; Malachi 1:2-3; Luke 15:7.
   Questions: Do you realize that God can forgive your sins, no matter how bad you are? And that when he has done that, you can do wonderful things for God?
3. God is in control of everything. Even when things seem to be going badly we can trust him that he is doing good things (See overview paragraphs 4–6).
   Bible references: Genesis 50:20; Romans 8:28; Philippians 1:12-14.
   Question: Where else in the Bible have bad things happened that God has used for good?²

One reason we can tell that Abraham was a big part of God’s plan is that his name is mentioned sixty-nine times in the New Testament, and we can see it in Genesis when God made Abraham an amazing promise: “Through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed” (Genesis 22:18).

God even put his name with Abraham and his family, saying to Moses, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” (Exodus 3:6). Jews said they were sons of Abraham as a way of saying that God was with them, and God gave them the law, prophets and Jesus. Jesus said that all those who believ...

Table of contents

• Testimonials
• Title
• Indicia
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• Introduction
• OLD TESTAMENT
• NEW TESTAMENT
• Key Words
• Other Books from Christian Focus
• Christian Focus