Genesis - The Beginning

Lesson 1 - In the Beginning

Context

The Jewish people had just left slavery in Egypt. Many of them had not known anything but the life of a slave for generation after generation.
Countless individuals had not realized fully who God was, how powerful he was, or how intimately he desired to interact with them. They had known 400 years of difficulty under the hands of Pharaoh who served the many pagan gods of Egypt.

Who was this God who had delivered them? Was he just another god among the gods, or was he something more? Who were they in relation to him? Was the darkness of Egypt all there was? Is the darkness we see all there is? Who is this God we serve? Genesis starts with an answer to these questions.

Genesis 1:1-3, 26-28

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light….

26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” 27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

For further discussion:

John 1: 1-5

In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.  3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.