n the story of the Bible there are many names and several key events. Here is a brief timeline:

Creation, Adam and Eve, the story of Abraham and his descendants, Exodus under Moses, the giving of the aw and making of covenant with God, entering into promised land under Joshua, the period of the judges where the spiritual leader and the political leaders were one and the same, the beginning of the monarchy with King Saul, then David and then Solomon, after Solomon the nation split into two separate nations: Israel in the north under a series of rulers, and Judah in the south under David’s descendants. The prophets arise at this time to be God’s mouthpiece to the nation and call them back to the obedience to the covenant. After 300 or so more years, the Northern Kingdom, Israel is taken captive by the assyrians because of their refusal to obey God by keeping the covenant and being a light tot he nations, 220 years later Judah is captured by the Babylonians. The people are deported. After 70 years some of the people are allowed to return to Jerusalem, although they are still ruled by the Medo-Persians. The Bible then details how the people struggled to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple and return to God. The other stream of attention goes to the exiles who never return who learn how to serve God in foreign countries. During the time of the exile and beyond, the prophets talk of a messiah,a  servant whom God will send to initiate a new covenant, one that affects real heart change.

Details of the first few chapters:

When it all started the earth had no shape and there was nothing on it. God spoke. Out of nothing he created the gorgeous, the fanciful, the practical. The waters the lands, the light, the dark, the rocks, the mountains and all living things. He made one creation above all the others. Everything else he spoke and it appeared, but this creation he formed with his hands out of the dust of the ground. He sculpted it and made the form and designed the innards and added touches to make it very like himself. Then he breathed on the creature and it lived. Lived, not merely as animals lived, because life is more than just inhaling and exhaling. But he breathed into his creature, this human and endues it with something else, he made it a living soul and it was the most prized part of his entire creation. He made a second creature by hand like the first, but also different so that the two could have companionship. And that is how it was, man and woman and God, living in harmony working, talking, enjoying one another and the created world.

Enter the tempter, assuming the form of a serpent. He whispered to the woman that God was hiding something from them, that he wanted to keep her and the man ignorant. He planted seeds of doubt. God being good, endowed man and woman with the ability to choose obedience or disobedience, and the people made a choice. They chose to disobey God’s command to not eat of the forbidden tree. Chaos and death entered the world as a result of their decision. God was still in control of the universe, and he allowed his greatest creation to live even though they had chosen rebellion against him. But, the perfect harmony between God and people was shattered. Then God put into motion a plan of redemption, a plan to gain forever fellowship with people. The people were removed from their haven of the garden and the daily presence of God, eventually they would die. But yet God began putting a plan in motion that day which would gain back life for mankind, yet satisfy his justice.

The man and the woman had children who had children who had children, and people groups were formed. As the generations went on further and further from those first people in the garden, the reality of the true and living God became hazier and hazier and people became more and more wicked. Finally, God looked at how most of the earth’s population was just concerned with doing wickedness all of the time, and His heart was grieved. He found only one family on the earth who truly sought to know and obey Him. And God sent a flood on the earth and saved that one family through the flood to begin the world’s population again with a righteous beginning.

And after the flood people again spread throughout the earth, and God’s plan for humanity continued.

The plan involved choosing a group of people for himself. A group of people that he would call his own. To begin that process he began with a man. One man, a man who was a friend of God, called Abraham. God spoke to him and said, “Go to the land I will show you” and Abraham left. God continued to speak to Abraham and Abraham continued to listen. God promised to make a nation out of Abraham’s children and through that nation bless all humanity. He promised him that one day his children would inherit the land in which he now journeyed as a stranger. Though many years and through trials and tests of his faith Abraham came, although he made mistakes trying to fulfill God’s promise in his own way, God rewarded him at age 100 with the son of the promise. The son by whom God would build his beloved chosen people. That son’s name was Isaac, which meant laughter, because Abraham and Sarah knew people would laugh when they heard about a 100 year old man and his 90 year old wife having a newborn son. God worked in a way that there was no mistaking that it was He at work.

Key verses:
Genesis 3:15

This is the first thread of God’s plan revealed here: He will crush your head
Key for us to understand: God is not surprised by sin, but from the very beginning has had a plan to bring people back into relationship with God, through the “offspring” “seed.”

Immediately after the man and woman are caught in their sin, God gives them judgment, but there is also a surprising ray of hope. God tells the serpent in Genesis 3:15 that “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise your head and you will bruise his heel.” What is amazing is that even before God pronounces judgment on his sinful people Adam and Eve, there is this word of hope. This verse is the first time that God hints at redemption, the first time that God hints that he has a plan to redeem humanity, and that plan is centered on this person called the seed or offspring, who would take his revenge on the serpent for his deception and crush his head. The theme of the seed is carried on through scripture- Abraham is promised a seed, David is promised a seed, the Messiah is to be THE seed!