Author: Carolyn Wilson

This week is momentous!  All of Jacob’s family moves to Egypt where they reside, growing into a great multitude, become slaves, and then God brings them back up out of Egypt, crossing the Red Sea on dry land. 

Key people this week:

• Jacob/Israel
• Jacob’s 12 sons – Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Gad, Asher, Dan, Naphtali, and Benjamin – and especially, Joseph
• The Pharaoh of Egypt
• Moses
• Aaron, Moses’ brother
• Miriam, Moses’ sister

Key events this week:

• Jacob’s sons return to Egypt for food a second time, taking with them the youngest, Benjamin
• Joseph sets a trap for his brothers to detain Benjamin and Judah offers himself in Benjamin’s place for the sake of Jacob
• Joseph reveals himself to his brothers
• Jacob brings his whole family to Egypt, 70 people in all, and they settle in the land of Goshen
• Near death, Jacob blesses Joseph’s sons, Manasseh and Ephraim
• Jacob blesses all of his sons and dies at 147, making his sons promise to bury him in the land of Canaan
• Joseph dies at 110 years of age after which a new Pharaoh arose who did not know Joseph
• As the Israelites grew to a huge number of people, the Egyptians enslaved them for 400 years
• The Egyptians feared the Israelites because they were so prolific and told the Hebrew midwives to drown all the boy babies in the Nile
• Moses was born, his mother hid him in a basket where the daughter of Pharaoh found him and adopted him as her own son
• When he was grown up, Moses killed an Egyptian who was mistreating a Hebrew and had to flee to Midian
• God speaks to Moses out of a burning bush and calls him to lead his people out of slavery in Egypt and lead them to the Promised Land
• Pharaoh is stubborn and God causes ten plagues to come upon Egypt
• The Passover is instituted at the 10^th plague, the death of the firstborn males, to protect the Hebrews so that the firstborn of the Israelites, both human and animal, were “passed over” by the angel of death
• Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt with God leading them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night
• The  Pharaoh changes his mind about letting the people go and follows them to recapture them
• God parts the Red Sea and the Israelites cross on dry land and when the Egyptians follow them into the Red Sea, God restores the waters and the Egyptians all die
• The people celebrate with the song of Moses

This week we will be reading Genesis 22-42, the story of the beginning of the 12 Tribes of Israel.  How did your reading go last week?  Did you fall behind?  Get ahead?  What did you learn?  How did your reading impact your relationship with God?

Key people this week:

• Isaac and Rebekah
• Jacob and Esau
• Keturah, Abraham’s 2^nd wife
• Laban, Rebekah’s brother
• Jacob’s wives and concubines – Leah, Rachel, Zipah, and Bilhah
• Jacob’s children by Leah:  Reuben (first born), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dinah
• Jacob’s sons by Zipah (Leah’s servant):  Gad and Asher
• Jacob’s sons by Rachel:  Joseph and Benjamin
• Jacob’s sons by Bilhah (Rachel’s servant):  Dan and Naphtali
• Tamar, wife of Judah’s son(s)
• Potiphar and his wife
• The Pharaoh of Egypt

Key events this week:

• God commands Abraham to sacrifice Isaac
• Sarah’s death and burial
• God helps Abraham’s servant find a wife for Isaac
• The marriage of Isaac and Rebekah
• Abraham marries Keturah
• Death of Abraham
• Birth of Jacob and Esau
• Esau sells his birthright
• Isaac passes off Rebekah as his sister
• Jacob steals Esau’s blessing
• Jacob sent to Rebekah’s brother, Laban, in Paddan-aram
• Jacob marries Leah and Rachel and has 11 sons and one daughter
• Jacob takes his family and flocks back to Canaan
• Jacob wrestles with God and is renamed Israel
• Jacob’s daughter, Dinah, is raped by Shechem and her brothers avenge her
• Rebekah gives birth to Jacob’s 12^th son and dies in childbirth
• Death of Isaac
• Joseph dreams of greatness
• Joseph sold into slavery by his brothers
• Judah and Tamar
• Joseph lands in prison, interprets dreams, and rises to power
• Joseph’s brothers go to Egypt because of a famine

Recap – Key facts about the Book of Genesis:

• Author:  Moses
• Date Written:  1450 – 1410 BC
• Original Audience:  People of Israel
• Geographical Location:  Middle East
• Purpose: To record God’s creation of the world and the beginning of the Hebrew people (Israelites), whom God chose to set apart to worship Him and to be a witness for him in the world.
• Note:  the names of people in the Bible are descriptive of who they are.  God sometimes renamed people – Abram to Abraham, Sarai to Sarah, Jacob to Israel.  That is where the name Israel comes from.

Recap – High-Level Outline of Genesis:

1. Story of Creation (1:1-2:3)
2. The Fall and Repercussions (2:4-5:32)
3. The Flood and its Aftermath (6:1-11:32
4. The Story of Abraham (12:1-25:18)
5. The Story of Isaac (25:19-28:9)
6. The Story of Jacob, Rachel and Leah, and Jacob’s 12 sons (28:10-36:43)
7. The Story of Joseph (one of Jacob’s 12 sons) and how Jacob’s whole family ended up in Egypt (37:1-50:26)

Bibliography

Life Application Study Bible: New International Version.  Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan  and Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2019.

This week we will be reading Genesis 1–21 at the rate of 3 chapters per day.  Genesis is a fairly easy read.  There aren’t even too many sections of hard-to-pronounce names.  The most important thing to remember is to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in your reading and understanding of His written Word.

Key people this week:

• Adam and Eve – first humans
• Cain, Abel and Seth – first siblings
• Enoch – walked with God and did not die – God took him
• Methuselah – lived to be 969 years old, longest living human
• Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth and their descendants
• Abram/Abraham and Sarai/Sarah
• Lot, his wife and daughters
• Melchizedek – priest of God Most High and King of Salem (Jesus is a priest after the order of Melchizedek – see Psalm 110:4 and Hebrews 7:17)
• Hagar and Ishmael

Key events this week:

• Creation – two versions in Genesis 1 and 2
• Fall – the first sin and its effect on the serpent (Satan), men and women, and the earth as well as a promise of a redeemer
• The first murder
• The Flood and God’s covenant with Noah
• The Tower of Babel
• God’s call of Abraham
• God’s unconditional promise to Abraham that is still in effect today:  “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:2-3)
• A son promised to Abraham
• Birth of Ishmael
• Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed
• Birth of Isaac

Bibliography

Life Application Study Bible: New International Version.  Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan  and Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2019.