The first five books of the the Bible are called the Pentateuch simply because it means the first five books of the Torah, the Hebrew Scriptures also known as the Old Testament. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy are the Pentateuch. These five books are written by God to introduce Himself and to show us how we were created and to lay out a plan for how our lives fit into His Kingdom. We are all interconnected to the people in the Bible. We are a family. If we read the Pentateuch as only a history book of the Jewish people we miss out on the complete reason God writes to us, yes us. He wrote this book to His Family. I’m so glad I’m a part of the family of God, I’ve been washed in the fountain, cleanse by His blood, joint heirs with Jesus as we travel this sod, for I’m part of this family of God, the family of God (Bill Gather).
Every book written has a purpose. When we read a book, most of the time we may not be moved or interested in the whole book, but parts of it will jump out to reveal something either to us or about us. We hear so often how boring the Old Testament is because we are looking at it as a history book, but it is so much more. Every book of the Bible is telling us something about Jesus Christ, God the Father and the Holy Spirit, each book reveals who God is to us. As we read each book, we need to come to it as an invitation to know God. This book isn’t proving God exists, it is the proof that God exists, it is His autobiography. Each person who writes his own story, doesn’t go on for pages about how he exists, we know he does because he is writing the book. The same story will not mean the same to each person. God knows that, so He wrote stories that would entice us to want more. My recommended advise as we read the Bible is to see what God is telling us, His children, every single day. Go past the surface and see the secret hidden words that are for your eyes only. What an intriguing God who would code 66 books for us to search out to see how much He loves us.
The last recommendation is to see each book from the heart of a loving God. If something seems harsh or unjust, we should base that behavior coming from a loving heavenly Father that only looks for the best for His children. Search out why this punishment/discipline was given. We should never take the side of humans who are sinful and evil. If there was a punishment it was because a loving God saw fit to deliver what was best for those involved. If we can read the Word based on this one thing, we will see every time that God is love, He is good and He only does what is best.

Genesis (Begin to be)
Beginnings. God has always had His Kingdom (us) in mind from the dawn of creation. When we think of beginning we think of designated time. Class beings at 8:00 am. Not here in Genesis, for the word genesis or ginomai is ‘begin to be’ (http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Genesis.html#.VCMAkNm9LCQ). God was before our time on earth began. God existed before creation. In a simple, yet crude, explanation. We are before we are known. Before we come into existence in breath we exist in birthing fluid. We begin our beginnings at birth when time begins to count our years and yet our existence began at conception, and if we want to get technical our beginning began with a thought from God who has always existed. We ‘begin to be’ at birth. Unlike God who has always existed, we have a beginning as the egg meets the sperm. So, in the beginning, is only stating the beginning of created things. For with God there has never been a beginning.

First Mentions. There are many principles in the Bible which come from the first five books of the Bible. There is a saying, “Every New Testament principle has an Old Testament picture.” The law of first mention is our guideline to the entire Bible. First mentions helps us decode the significance of understanding the Word. The law of first mention is simply the first time something of importance is mentioned. “Scripture gives that word its most complete, and accurate, meaning to not only serve as a “key” in understanding the word’s Biblical concept, but to also provide a foundation for its fuller development in later parts of the Bible.” (http://www.netbiblestudy.com/00_cartimages/thelawoffirstmention.pdf).
An example is the word Worship [bow down] in Genesis 18:2, it gives us the law of first mention. Abraham bowed down to the ground in worship towards God. In this picture we see the principle of worship which is spontaneous, willing and total surrender to Someone greater than ourselves.

Promises. God promises redemption in Genesis. Man was created, tempted and blew it. We were all destined to failure unless Someone came to pay for our mistakes. Genesis 3 promises the serpent will bite the Seed’s heel, but the Seed (Jesus) will crush the serpent’s head. This promise is fulfilled at the Cross and resurrection in the New Testament. The other promise is God would birth His own nation through Abraham. This was fulfilled and today we continue to have His people, the Jewish nation. He also gather into His family those who would believe in His son, us (the Gentiles), together we form God’s Kingdom Family.

Favorite Story. Joseph is one of the most amazing and encouraging stories in Genesis. It is uplifting and eye-opening how whole and complete God is. Adam and Eve were created to form a people group that God could love and serve, but it failed at the beginning because of man’s weaknesses (greed and unbelief). Noah was the sign of man’s depravity, showing us all how low we will go without a higher being (God) directing us. We are all in ourselves greedy, depraved people. Abraham lends us hope we can become the people God wants. Abraham was a friend of God, showing us it is possible to be His friend. We can learn from Abraham how to be a friend of God. We can also learn from God how completely He loves in spite of Abraham’s weaknesses (compulsive liar, selfish, eager to obey when it worked best for him, etc… Genesis 12- 25). Abraham’s story can help us understand that we do NOT have to be nor will we ever be perfect, in order for God to love us. He loves us completely yesterday in our worst state, today in our redeemed state and tomorrow (meaning the Kingdom life) in our resurrected state. Unlike us, who love conditionally, God’s love is always perfect even when our lives aren’t. What a concept to ignite joy in us. So Abraham begets Isaac who begets Jacob who begets Joseph. In the four generations mentions there are numerous stories of lessons we can learn, but my favorite story is in Genesis 37 – 50, the life of Joseph.
From the beginning of his life, Joseph is set apart. His is the first child of a mother who bore him late in life. He was treasured not only by his mother, Rachel, but by his father, Jacob, for he loved Rachel more than his other wives, Leah, Bilhah or Zilpah. This created tension in the home for Joseph and his other ten brothers. When Joseph turned seventeen he went to work in the fields with his brothers. Joseph told on his brothers when they misbehaved. One night he had a God-dream about his brothers serving him, in his immaturity he shared it with his already angry brothers. Needless to say it didn’t go over well. It just gave them more venom in their hearts towards Joseph. If all that wasn’t enough his father made a special coat for Joseph. The other brothers had workers coats, Joseph donned a leader’s coat. Jacob saw leadership quality in his son at an early age and display his delight by giving Joseph a coat of many colors.
Genesis 37: 2-4 “Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the son of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them. Now Israel (Jacob) loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made a richly ornamented robe for him. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.”
His brothers filled with envy and strife plotted to get rid of this younger nuisance. They decided to take him and say an animal killed him, but then a caravan on the way to Egypt came by so without thinking they removed Joseph from the pit and sold him as a slave. Years go by, Jacob, Joseph’s father, is never the same with the alleged death of his favorite son. During these years, Joseph is put in charge of a rich man’s house, then accused of sexual harassment and sent to prison where he lived for many years. In all the scriptures that speak on Joseph there is never a time he complained. He just made the best of every situation, good or bad. He somehow trusted God to lead him in his life. There must of been times he remembered his own dreams and thought, was that real? He assumedly held onto them, because at the end of his story he reminded his brothers of the dreams, but I am getting ahead of the story. In prison, Joseph once again finds favor from God.
Genesis 39: 20-23 “Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. But while Joseph was there in the prison., the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.”
Joseph’s work ethics were so honest in whatever he did even in the worst of his situations he was put in charge. Joseph meets the Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker in prison. They each have a dream of which Joseph interprets. One will die the other will live. Exactly as he said happened. Joseph asked the cupbearer to remember him when he went into the presence of the Pharaoh. Two years later… Pharaoh had two dreams no one could interpret. The cupbearer remembered the guy that interpreted his dream in prison; Pharaoh called Joseph in to interpret his dream. Joseph explained what the dreams meant and was given a place of leadership second in command of Egypt. Genesis 41:41 “So Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.’ “ From the favored son to the dusty pit to the young man in charge of Potiphar’s house to pitiful prison to the head of all of Egypt. It was an up and down journey to creating and ruling his world. Joseph at any time could have checked out with a great big bad attitude rejecting the lessons in each bad situation. He could have run away and lost out on the bigger purpose of his life (to save his people). Joseph hung in there in every good and bad situation because he trusted God. How do we know? At the end of his life he said, what man intended for evil God turned it to good. Genesis 50:20 “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” God’s intention for each of us is to save us so we can save others. I absolutely love this story for a few reasons. I love the way Joseph trusted God and trudged on with a quality work ethic even in bad times. We should want to be like that. A great quality to have, a great way to please our Father. Second, God seems to always have the bigger picture in mind, saving a people. Out of Abraham was to come God’s chosen people to be preserved through time. Joseph saved God’s people. Moses delivered God’s people out of the bondage of Pharaoh. Esther was called to save her people. Eventually the real Savior, Jesus came to reconcile God’s people (Jews and Gentiles) to the Father. The theme throughout the Old and New Testament is save the people. We too can learn from Joseph, Moses and Esther, but especially Jesus, to look to each day and to see who we can save. It may take on a different form than Joseph’s. It may be that we save someone from depression by simply smiling or listening to someone discouraged and share a word of encouragement. It may be we can share the good news of Jesus and change someone’s eternal status. Whatever it is, we too are put here to be save. I like how Joseph lived with such a trust and great work ethic, with an attitude to create and rule his world. We can do the same in influencing those around us in our own world.

What Does Genesis Mean to Us. Genesis is our understanding of our beginning. Genesis is important to us, it teaches us that failure is not the end all. If Adam could sin in the face of the Father and be forgiven, we too have forgiveness in the Father from our failures. It also teaches us God’s plans for our lives are bigger than we realize. God uses failure and bad events to create His perfect and acceptable will. We have a higher purpose and it is up to us to know why we are here, who we are and to live each day with a Joseph mentality. God’s mandate for Adam and Eve was to “Be fruitful (productive) and increase in number (multiply yourself), fill the earth and subdue it (let the earth be filled with godliness and be in control, not controlled by the earth). Rule over the fish… the birds… and every living creature” Genesis 1:28. May we be the extended version of the Genesis family and do the same.