Our Origin Story

Origin Stories

Origin stories are a big thing in the movies.

Most every super hero has an origin story movie that explains how they got there start, where their powers came from, and even where their biggest enemies emerged.

It is good to know where you come from isn’t it? How you got your start, why you think and act the way you do.

In reality, we can’t really know ourselves very well at all without knowing our origin story.

Where do we come from?

How were we designed?

Why are we here?

What makes us valuable?

How should we live?

Every person is on a journey to answer those questions.

Whether you know it or not, you are seeking to answer those questions every day you live.

The Book of Genesis is the origin story of every human that has ever existed, and will ever exist.

1) Do you know much about your “origin story”? Where you were born, about your ancestors, where you family comes from? Why are those things important or helpful to know?

2) Have your ever read the book of Genesis? If so, was is challenging to read, fun to read, confusing to read? What do you know about the book of Genesis?

Know the Purpose

Whenever you begin to read something (a magazine, blog, new paper, text book, text message…) you really need to know the purpose of the writing and, to some level, who wrote it.

If we don’t know those 2 things (especially the first) we can start to ask questions of the writing that it never intended to answer.

EXAMPLE: Say are going on a trip to Florida on spring break and want to know of some cool places to eat while you are there. You google “best restaurants in Panama City, FL” and find a blog that lists 10 restaurants in Panama City that the author suggests everyone should go to. The author’s purpose in writing was to give suggestions to interested people of places they can go for a good meal in Panama City. If someone was to read that and say “what about ‘this restaurant’ or why did he leave out ‘that restaurant’.” or “He didn’t eat every thing on the menu so his article isn’t helpful.” We would be missing the purpose wouldn’t we? The author never intended to exhaustively review every menu item at every restaurant in Panama City. His purpose was to give readers a snapshot of 10 places they could try out while they are there.

One of the struggles we have with the book of Genesis is that we look for answers to questions that the book of Genesis never intended to answer.

It is not a book the exhaustively explains the physics, chemistry, and biology of the creation of the universe.

It isn’t a science book, even though there are implications in it that help us understand science.

The purpose wasn’t to explain how everything came into existence and how we got to where we are today.

What it does do is help us understand that God is the creator of each and every one of us and everything that exists in the universe.

It puts God as the center of everything and demands that we understand the world we live in (the universe we live in) as something that came from Him, not some random, unexplainable chaos that just happened to explode and evolve to our current state.

It is not a book about creation, though the story of creation is in it.

We are mistaken to simplify Genesis down to just a story of creation. That is only 2 chapters of the 50.

It is God’s story. How He created us, how we messed up His creation, and how He intends to fix and restore what has been broken.

It is a book about promises and God’s relationship with us, His most important creation.

3) Why is it important for us to study the book of Genesis?

4) How are we to understand the relationship between science and the bible? Does science contradict the bible? Why or why not?

Moses Wrote it for Israel

As we begin to study this book, it is important to know that Moses is thought to be the author of Genesis.

He likely wrote it as before the people of God were to enter the promise land.

He actually wrote the first 5 books of the bible.

Moses wrote the book of Genesis so that the people of God would better know themselves and better know and trust God as they came into the promise land.

As Moses was writing, the people of God had been enslaved in Egypt, and now were in the wilderness wandering and waiting to enter the land.

The book of Genesis, as well as the other 4 books, were written to remind the people of God then and now that :

God is still with us.

God really does keep His promises.

Sin destroys our relationship with God and causes chaos in our lives and in the world.

But, God really is working in all things to restore His broken creation and bring His people into relationship with Him.

5) “In the beginning God,” these are the first 4 words of the bible and they establish a very important focus to the rest of the Bible. God is at the center of all of creation. Why is that important and how does that influence how we view the world and the purpose we exist?

6) How does knowing we were created by God help us understand who we are and how we should live?