DAY 82 - BIG PICTURE IN A YEAR - THE PROMISE
Now these are the records of the generations of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah; and sons were born to them after the flood.
Genesis 10: 1
Reading: Genesis 3:15; Genesis 11:10; 27-29; Matthew 1:1
Today we move to a new section in our Big Picture in a Year studies. We’ve already spent two full months looking at the Creation and the People – Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. Here we saw that God created everything and it was good. It worked perfectly and it pleased Him completely. We saw that He had made all of it as a home for His people, where He intended to live with them.
Then we picked up the story in Genesis 3 where everything went horribly wrong and the Fall of man occurred. We then moved on to Genesis 4-11 and had a look at the Great Judgment (or, Great Salvation) of the Flood.
For the next month we will immerse ourselves into the last 38 chapters of the book of Genesis as we look at the life of Abraham and the other patriarchs and see where God introduced His Great Promises.
As we explore it together, you will discover many reasons why The Promise is vital to your personal walk with the Lord. The Biblical history that transpires from after the Flood to the end of Genesis still speaks to our lives today. So as you get the picture of what happened to God’s people in this sweep of 38 chapters of Genesis, I pray that you grow in the revelation of how The Promise that God made is designed to unfold in your life today.
We have reached the section that we call The Promise in Big Picture in a Year. It covers Genesis 12 to Genesis 50 and includes some of the most significant words in the whole Bible, including the power-packed promises that God gave Abram. If you’ve done our Big Picture course, then you’ll already know that these promises continue to have huge significance for us today. If you haven’t yet done the course, I hope you’ll discover this as we go through this month’s devotional.
You’ll notice as you read the book of Genesis that the author, Moses, uses the phrase “these are the generations of..” ten times in total. Page through Genesis now and look out for this phrase. This oft-repeated phrase is known as the toledot, which is Hebrew for ‘generations’. Lists of names and family lines are presented to us throughout the Biblical story, not just in Genesis – clearly, knowing family descendants is a big deal. Why is that?
Genesis 3:15, one of our readings for today, gives us a clue as to why the descendants of our first parents, Adam and Eve, were so meticulously recorded. It’s all about the promise of salvation that God planned for us. In Genesis 3: 15, God made a promise to Adam and Eve that He would send a human, one born from a woman, to crush the head of Satan, our enemy. The serpent-crusher. The Bible holds such a detailed record of the genealogies so that we can trace the arrival of the serpent-crusher. Abraham, who we will spend much time with this month, along with his wife, Sarah, had a major role to play in bringing the serpent-crusher into the world.
This month we’ll discover that God’s unfolding story is a clear record of His faithfulness to break into our world by the birth, life and death of Jesus – and we’ll realize that we can be certain that He keeps his promises.
Prayer
Thank you Lord for keeping such a clear record of the predecessors of Jesus, and revealing to me how he has become my Saviour. I praise you Jesus my Saviour.
FOR THE FAMILY
Engage
Spend some time today creating a simple family tree that you can stick on the fridge or wall. Use the video below as a reference.
Explain
While you’re cutting, chatting and sticking, explain the study in an age-appropriate way.