The goal of Genesis is to persuade us not to swap the God of the Bible for anything else. Written by Moses for a people about to enter a new land that was full of many different gods, his purpose was to demonstrate that their God was so much greater than any other and was alone worthy of their worship. He is the same God today. In the face of the ‘gods’ we are tempted to live for Genesis calls us to find our truest identity and greatest fulfilment in the God of Creation who made us for himself.
We see this grand goal in the first three chapters of Genesis. Moses’ purpose is not to answer our scientific questions about the origin of the universe but to show us who God is and who we are. These chapters reveal how God created a good world and made human beings in his image, with special dignity and worth, to flourish as we reflect his glory. But they also reveal how things went terribly wrong and why our lives now contain a mixture of the good and the bad, the happy and the tragic, the frustrating and the fulfilling. Yet, wonderfully, they also contain signposts to the ultimate solution God would provide so that we – and one day all of creation - could be restored.
Genesis 1-3 introduces us to a God who is greater than we can imagine and more gracious than we deserve.
10th Sept 1:1-2 God Creates: Meet your Maker
17th Sept 1:1-13 God Forms: Light in the Darkness
24th Sept 1:14-2:1 God Fills: Life from the Dust
1st Oct 1:24-31 God's Image: Value, Identity and Purpose
15th Oct 2: 1-3 God's Rest: Faithful to Finish
22nd Oct 2:4-17 God's Garden: Home Sweet Home
29th Oct 1:27-28 / 2:18-25 God Provides: Companionship and Marriage
5th Nov 2:25-3:7 God’s Enemy: Temptation and the Fall
26th Nov 3:8-13 God Seeks: Guilt and Grace
3rd Dec 3:14-4:2 God Judges: Life in a Fallen World’