When Genesis, the first book of the Bible, ends, God seems to be everywhere. The story of Joseph, son of Jacob, is the longest personal narrative in Genesis and closes out the last thirteen chapters of the book. When Joseph was kidnaped and sold as a slave, the Bible says the Lord was with Joseph and caused him to prosper. When Joseph was falsely accused and imprisoned, the “Lord was with Him and showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.” God caused Joseph to be released from prison and elevated him to second in command over all Egypt. God is there at every turn, and through all the hardships, Joseph honored God with an exemplary life.

When Exodus begins, however, God seems nowhere to be found. Four hundred years pass between Genesis and Exodus, and at the beginning of Exodus, all of God’s people are enslaved. You can only imagine how the Israelites felt: God had let them down.

But the story of Exodus affirms that God has not disappeared, nor has He ceased watching over His people. In what will be the greatest story in the Old Testament, He delivers His people from Egyptian bondage so that they can worship Him.

In the Hebrew Old Testament, Exodus is called “Names” from the first line of the book: “These are the names.” Exodus 19:1 mentions “going out” (or “exiting”) of Egypt, and when the Old Testament was translated into Greek, this became the new name of the book. The book can be divided into parts.

I) God delivers the descendants of Jacob (known as the “Israelites” because Jacob’s other names was “Israel”). Exodus 1:1 - 13:16.

II) Israel journeys under the protection of God to Sinai. Exodus 13:17 - 19:2

III) God tells Israel what he expects of them - both in how they live and how they approach him in worship. Exodus 19:3 - 34:28

IV) Israel’s obedience to God illustrated in their building a place for worship. Exodus 34:29 - 40:38.

Sometimes, our lives look and feel like God is nowhere to be found. But He is there, planning our deliverance and bringing it to pass. That was surely the way it must have seemed for Jesus. Perhaps that’s why his death is called, in the New Testament, an “Exodus” (or “departure” in Luke 9:31). And yet, God was there for Him, just as he is for us. Between now and our own Exodus, God calls us to a lifestyle that honors Him in obedience, and worships him in praise.

Genesis may well be the most important book in the Bible. It introduces us to God, tells us how mankind began, how sin began, and how the concept of the “People of God” began. It provides introductory insight to the justice, mercy, love and grace of God and provides us an essential background for everything else in the Bible.

The main characters of Genesis are Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, his son Isaac, Isaac’s son Jacob, and Jacob’s son Joseph. The story begins in the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia and ends in the land of Egypt.

Nearly 400 years after the death of Jacob (also known as “Israel”), his family had grown from 70 to over a million. They were so numerous the Egyptians feared their nation and culture might be over-run and so they enslaved the people of Israel. God delivered them and brought them to the land He had promised Abraham. But by that time, Abraham had been dead over half a millennia and his descendants, before entering the promised land, needed to know something of their roots. At that point, Moses wrote Genesis to tell them that story. Originally written in Hebrew, the Hebrew title of the book is “In the beginning.”

Ten times in Genesis the author begins a new section with the words “This is the account” (or, in some Bibles, “These are the generations”). The translation of that phrase into Greek gives us the word (in Greek) “Genesis” and that’s where our title comes from. The book begins with God, and God is the prominent character throughout. I have divided it into 5 parts:
I) God and the beginning 1:1 - 11:32
II) God and Abraham 12:1 - 21:7
III) God and Isaac 21:8 - 28:4
IV) God and Jacob 28:5 - 37:1
V) God and Joseph 37:2 - 50:26

Genesis is important because without it, you will not understand the significance of anything else in the Bible. In Genesis 12-13, God promised to make Abraham a great man, and through his descendants, bless all the nations of the world. Exodus through Deuteronomy tells how God made Israel a great nation. Joshua tells how God gave them a land. Judges through the end of the Old Testament recounts God’s patience with His people and the blessedness and seriousness of their status. The gospel accounts of the New Testament show how God ultimately extended His people to include those outside the Jewish nation. The book of Acts shows the fulfillment of that promise and the rest of the New Testament, down to the book of Revelation, deals with the lives of those people as they struggle (like Israel did) with their new status. The book of Revelation holds out hope -- to all who embrace God -- of a new heaven and earth where all struggle ceases and where the people of God dwell in His intimate presence forever.