Day 1 · Part 1: Beginnings
In the Beginning · East of Eden
In the Story
In context
The Bible opens before there are any nations, kings or cities: God makes the heavens and the earth in six days and rests on the seventh (Genesis 1:1–2:3). The rest of the Bible keeps coming back to this beginning. The psalms praise the Lord as the one “who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:2), and the Gospel of John opens with the same words, “In the beginning” (John 1:1).
Chapter 2 tells the making of the first man and woman more closely, in a garden God planted in Eden. Two of its rivers, the Hiddekel (the Tigris) and the Euphrates, still flow through Iraq today (Genesis 2:14). Chapters 3 and 4 tell how things went wrong: the serpent, the fruit of the one tree God had forbidden, the man sent out of the garden, and the first murder. The man named his wife Eve “because she would be the mother of all the living” (Genesis 3:20).
I will lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from Yahweh, who made heaven and earth.
Psalms 121:1–2 · Genesis begins with God making heaven and earth; this psalm looks to the same Maker for help.
For families
Genesis 4 tells of the first brothers. Cain was angry when God accepted Abel’s offering and not his. God warned him that sin was crouching at the door, but Cain killed his brother (Genesis 4:3–8).
God asked Cain, “Why are you angry?” What do you think Cain was feeling when God asked him that?
In the Bible
World English Bible, as published by eBible.org (public domain).
Genesis 1
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Genesis 2
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Genesis 2:8–10
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Genesis 2:16–17
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Genesis 2:19–20
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Genesis 3
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Genesis 4
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Genesis 5:3
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A hymn for today
Holy, Holy, Holy · words by Reginald Heber
- Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee;Holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty!God in three Persons, blessèd Trinity!
- Holy, holy, holy! all the saints adore Thee,Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;Cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee,Who wert, and art, and evermore shalt be.
- Holy, holy, holy! though the darkness hide Thee,Though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see,Only Thou art holy; there is none beside TheePerfect in pow'r, in love, and purity.
- Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!All Thy works shall praise Thy name, in earth, and sky, and sea;Holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty!God in three Persons, blessèd Trinity!