Week One: Genesis

Welcome to the Community Bible Experience! It was just 2 years ago that the Penn Valley family of families embarked on an eight week journey through the New Testament. If you were part of that project, you experienced the gospel message in a whole new setting. Do you remember the difference in reading the Bible as a traditional book, straight across the page, free from the distractions of chapter and verse numbers? Despite our group success in that adventure, it may still come as a surprise that we can approach the Old Testament in this same way.

Believe it or not, the early Bible was written in literary forms appropriate to the world’s first readers. It was intended to be understood, to be studied, to be taught, and above all, to be believed. As you prepare for this new reading plan, what are your expectations for how you will connect with God’s Word? Do you think you will have more success with understanding and study than in the past? Or do you think this will be an interesting approach to material you have already mastered?

If you are ready to see the Bible in a whole new way, then let’s begin at the beginning. It is widely believed that Moses assembled the first several books of the Bible. As you read, you’ll notice that the author often cites the original event that led to the naming of a landmark. The readers of these first Scriptures were actually able to trace the history of ground they walked on all the way back to the beginning of time. Speaking of time, Genesis covers a good chunk of it. How many of our traditional Sunday school lessons came right out of this very first book? In Genesis, we will cover history from Adam to the sons and grandsons of Jacob, including the family lines of many peripheral characters. These family lines will be referenced in later books to maintain the cultural and geographical landscapes of the time. In a traditional Bible, many of these genealogy lines tend to blur together. In original context, they serve as character development and prepare the reader for later scenes.

When we read Genesis the way it was written, without artificial chapter and verse, without awkward columns on a page, we can differentiate the prose from the poetry. We can see the beauty in the words. We can discern the clues God gave us to the patriarchs’ future, and to our own. Get comfortable, find your reading place and time each day, and immerse yourself in this Book that God wrote specifically for you.