The first three chapters of Genesis set up the narrative of Scripture. The key characters are introduced: God and humanity. The scene is set: creation, Earth, a garden of delight. Humanity are created in God's image and given a task - to continue God's work of creation - ordering the world and filling it with life. To this end, humans are made male and female - it is only together that Eve and Adam are able to create new human life and fill the world.

Genesis 3 also introduces us to the Fall of humanity. Adam and Eve listen to a false story, and seek to become like gods themselves, setting up the great problem and question of the Biblical narrative - how will God redeem his now broken and misdirected creation?

In Abraham God intervenes clearly to begin to answer the question of Fall. God will bless Abraham and through him, all the nations on Earth will be blessed. Blessing is an idea that will come up again and again in the Story. A simple (and initial) way of defining it is to think in terms of welcoming people back into the way of life God had originally created humans for.

These chapters, extremely familiar to many readers of the Bible, set up the Story. They are highly structured, and were most likely originally included in Scripture during the Exodus. As you read, consider the following questions:
What characters do these chapters introduce? What is the original task or tasks that the characters set out to accomplish? How is the problem in the Story framed? What glimmers of hope are offered?

Within a generation, Adam and Eve's sin culminates in murder. Consider the connections and similarities between this chapter and chapter 3.

In light of the creation account a few chapters before, how can the flood be understood? What does the story of Noah tell us about the kind of big Story we are in? What does it tell us about God's redemptive plan?

God's covenant with Abraham is an extraordinary promise that through the descendants of this one nomad wandering away from Ur, God will create a blessed people through whom the whole world will be blessed. Consider the connections between the problem of humanity as described by the account of Babel and the hope and pattern of life offered to Abraham.

This extraordinary passage raises the question, what is God doing asking Abraham to sacrifice the son he was promised? How would Abraham have understood what was going on? How would ancient Israel coming out of Egypt in the Exodus have understood this narrative? How would Solomon reigning in Jerusalem have understood this passage? How can we now read this chapter in light of Jesus?

The names of people and places in the Bible often carries deep significance. So, the re-naming of Jacob, who becomes Israel, is a significant moment. As you read the passage, stop to consider where the covenant with Abraham has led, what kind of people are carrying it, and where hope lies.

Near the end of Genesis, there is the long account of Joseph, who suffers slavery in Egypt, temptation from foreign women, and unjust imprisonment, ultimately rising to serve Pharaoh as Prime Minister and save Egypt from famine. How does this story tie in with the mandate of creation set up in Genesis 1 and 2? How would Israel have understood this story during the Exodus?

The story of Job begins with a strangely uninterpreted story, a sequence of events happen to a man who to this point has lived well before God. We are not told the meaning of this story immediately, but rather invited to sit with Job as he scrapes the sores on his skin and ask the question, why? His friends come to him and offer a variety of answers: Job is unrighteous before a righteous God; Job is foolish to question a God who requires wisdom of men; Job is weak before an omnipotent deity. However, the writer of Job ultimately rebukes the three friends and their explanations, and God instead appears as Creator, meeting his creature. Think about the kind of questions that the book of Job raises, and the kind of questions that are rejected by the story and those that remain.

At the height of David’s kingdom, we see stories that bear striking similarities to the story of Adam and Eve’s fall and its aftermath. David takes something that was not his, and murders Uriah. The narrative shows the ripples of sin out into David’s children, and quickly becoming full-blown civil war. This story is reminding us that even at the height of Israel’s Kingdom, Adam’s sin is still the ultimate human problem.

Compare this passage with God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12.

After the exile, the prophets looked for God to do something new. It would require a new Exodus, a new King (the Messiah), and a new Covenant. Isaiah takes this further and proclaims a time when God will finally judge his enemies, and create again.

The Gospel of John, more than the other three Gospels, presents a picture of Jesus as God’s new creation walking among us. With deliberate echoes of Genesis (“In the beginning…”), and images of water turning to wine, new birth, water and Spirit, the restoration of human beings, and a conversation with a woman at a well, John is constantly reminding us of how the whole Story began.

The book of Genesis is a highly structured text, divided into ten 'toledoths', which most likely form postscripts to the section preceding them. The phrase translated "this is the account of" (NIV) or "this is the book of the generations of" (ESV) is used as a repeated marker:
These are the generations of...
...the Heavens and Earth (Gen 2:4)
...Adam (Gen 5:1)
...Noah (Gen 6:9)
...The sons of Noah (Gen 10:1)
...Shem (Gen 11:10)
...Terah (Gen 11:27)
...Ishmael (Gen 25:12)
...Isaac (Gen 25:19)
...Esau (Gen 36:1)
...Jacob (Gen 37:2)

The book of Job begins with a short, strikingly uninterpreted narrative. We know that a righteous man called Job loses everything because of a conversation between God and a deceiver, but we are not told why, or how we should understand what happens. Instead, three friends come along, and after sitting in silence at what has happened to Job, each offers a variety of different interpretations of the events, and Job responds. It is suggested that Job is unrighteous (and therefore under the judgement of a righteous God), that he is a fool (and therefore cannot stand before a wise God) and that he is weak (and therefore at the mercy of an omnipotent God). Throughout, Job responds with deepening anguish. Finally, God himself shows up and we are invited to interpret the world and the story of Job through the categories of Creator and creature: God and Man.

The book of Proverbs is a collection of wisdom sayings from Israel's collective life. It is framed in terms of a father teaching his son how to live well. It is not a series of simple imperatives (some of the Proverbs are directly contradictory, see Proverbs 26:4 and 26:5), but rather invites the reader in to the tension of questing for the wise life. A great irony of the book is its authorship. Written by Solomon, who is given great wisdom, but who ends his own life a fool.