The Old Testament tells us the story of the creation of the earth, the history of God's people, and God's plan to rescue the world.
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God is eternal, but everything else is created. So at some point, God decided to create. We read about this in the very first verse of the Bible.
At one moment, there was nothing. Then immediately, something existed. God began to shape and form creation, as we find in the rest of Genesis 1. The universe wasn’t an accident. God put it here, and he created it for a purpose. Creation teaches us about the glory of God and the majesty of God. It also tells us that we’re not here by accident. That’s the next point in the story of the Old Testament.
God made us to be connected to him and connected to each other. This is a fundamental aspect of what it means to be human. The Bible also says that humans are created in the image of God - something that is unique to humanity.
God put us on this earth to take care of his creation and reflect his image.
But sadly, sin ruined everything. It didn’t take very long before the first humans - Adam and Eve - sinned. They went their own way. They didn’t listen to God. The result was a terrible problem for humanity, and in fact, for all of creation. In fact, the connection we experience with God, and even with other people, was wrecked because of sin.
But thankfully, God wasn’t done with the human race! God had a plan to rescue the world, a plan he had decided upon before the creation of the world. That plan began to reveal itself in the Old Testament through a man named Abraham.
All of this is introduced in the Book of Genesis, which opens the Old Testament. Genesis describes the beginning of everything. It describes not only the creation of the world and of human beings; but also the fall of humanity into sin and the effects of sin in human experience. Genesis leads up to and includes the story of Abraham, his family and his descendants.
The Book of Job also comes from this timeframe. It is not about Israel or Abraham, but reflects on the power and compassion of God.
In Genesis 12, we find one of the most important passages in the entire Bible. This passage, in fact, sets up everything that comes after it in the rest of the Bible. In these verses, God...
