This first book of the Bible tells us the first thing we must know about God, He is the creator, He made all

things. Read the whole of chapter 1 and make a list on a piece of paper of the things that God created. If you do not

miss anything, you will see that God made everything, as we are told in other parts of the Bible.

The greatest of God's creation that we read of in this chapter was man. The first man's name was Adam and his

wife was Eve. They lived in a beautiful garden in a place called Eden. In chapter 3 of Genesis we are told of

someone else who came into this garden, the serpent.

The serpent is the great enemy of God, and has always tried to spoil God's plans. Today we call him Satan or

the Devil. You can read some of his names in the last book of the Bible, Revelation chapter 20, verse 2:

`the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan'.

He entered the garden of Eden and spoilt things. He persuaded Eve to disobey God, and Adam disobeyed also

and when they disobeyed, two things came into the world: sin and death.

There were two trees in the garden that were special. You can read their names in Genesis chapter 2, verse 9.

They were:

1.

The tree of life.

2.

The tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Adam and Eve were allowed to eat of any tree in the garden (including the tree of life) except the tree of knowledge

of good and evil. If they chose to eat of the tree of life they would live for ever. Read Genesis chapter 3, verse 22

where we are told this.

If they chose to eat of the other tree they would die. Now read chapter 2, verses 16,17, where we are told this.

When Adam disobeyed God he chose to eat of this tree, and so became a sinner. He also let sin and death into the

world.

Adam is sometimes spoken about in the New Testament. In Romans chapter 5, verse 12, he is called the one

man, and the verse tells us that sin and death entered the world by him. It also tells us that sin and death have come

upon us all.

Adam chose death by his disobedience. We can choose everlasting life by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ as

the one who died for us and became our Saviour.

After the story of Adam and Eve, we are told of those who lived after them. There were Cain and Abel and

others. Do you remember Noah and the great flood of water over the earth? This flood was brought upon the world

by God because Satan had again spoilt things. Everyone was destroyed except Noah, his family and the animals in

the ark. It was a terrible thing that God had to do, but the world had become so ungodly. Read 2 Peter chapter 2,

verse 5, which tells us about the flood.

In Genesis we also read about the time when people began to speak different languages, and why it was so.

Read the story in chapter 11, verses 1 to 9.

Abraham is the next important person in Genesis. He was the father of the Jews, and it was to him that God gave

the wonderful promise of the place that the Jews would have in His earthly plan. Abraham was also shown the

special country in which they would live.

From this point on in the Old Testament we read mostly about the Jews, other people are only mentioned when

they had something to do with the Jews. God was working out His earthly plan, and was getting the Jews ready for

their important place in it.