The book that begins it all

Reading through Genesis

My favorite book genres are varied and eclectic: mysteries, cozy mysteries, history, historical fiction, biographies, and especially thrillers. I can dash through a Kindle thriller in just a few hours – witness what I did with “The Attack” and one I bought just this weekend. Sadly, my reading through the Bible is much more slowly paced. And I’ve had one devotional book on the end table by my couch for the better part of a year.

My Ladies’ Bible Study has been tackling the book of Genesis for the last six months. Our leader wrote the guides herself, and we completed Part 1, Chapters 1-15, in the Fall of 2023. Now we’re working through Part 2, Chapters 16-through 50, this spring. And the way she is teaching this huge section has whet my appetite for this important book.

An Adventure Story

To my shame, often I wonder how little I can read to satisfy my daily devotional. Now I am reading this fascinating and yet foreign book, of people who lived thousands of years ago in lands I can barely imagine, with fresh perspective. It’s all due to the way our leader instructed us to read the book in the two weeks we have before our next session:

Here is the assignment – on days 1-6, read through Genesis 16-50 as if it were a novel. …. Read without taking notes or use an audio version…. Enter into the hearts, minds, and world of the patriarchs. Their stories will resonate with your own. To emotionally connect with the book will increase our appetite to understand it.

Genesis, Part II – Lisa Wheeler

This way of the reading Genesis is a revelation. I haven’t censored my own thoughts about what I’m reading. I’m mentally commenting on the action as I would an action-packed novel by Lee Child, Vince Flynn, or Kyle Mills. What I’ve discovered so far:

• Rebekah. Rebekah agreed to far away to be Isaac’s wife – of her own free will. At first I was thinking of the lack of agency women had in who they married – but Rebekah’s family left the choice to her. She is recorded in Scripture as saying, yes, I will go. However – the women who accompanied her – her nursemaid and others – didn’t have that choice. Sadly, that was the state of servanthood and slavery as it existed then, throughout the world.
• Hagar. When Sarai sent the pregnant Hagar away, God looked after her. Hagar, an Egyptian, didn’t even know the God of the Jews, but He knew her. And He spoke to Hagar, reassuring her that she would be fine even returning to live in Sarai’s household, but that her offspring would be “wild” – meaning that child would not be a slave or servant.
• Ishmael. Just as God took care of Ishmael’s mother Hagar, so he took care of Ishmael. For 12 years he was the son of Abraham. Then he was sent away with Hagar – but God intervened to provide. And God once again reassured the two that Ishmael would found a nation, with twelve sons who were called princes.
• Isaac and Ishmael. Whenever I read the story, I always thought of Ishmael exiting stage left, and that was it for him. But at the end of Abraham’s life – both his sons buried him (Gen. 25:9.) That means to me that the two brothers had some sort of relationship. Were they close? Did they communicate over the decades? Or did Isaac reach out to Ishmael as Abraham grew weaker? I prefer to think that they stayed in touch. It’s something I never considered before.
• Esau and Jacob. We all know the story of how Esau sold his birthright for a “mess of pottage.” (As a Southerner I love that phrase.) And Esau went far away from Jacob to other lands. But just like Isaac and Ishmael – there’s one line that surprised me. After Isaac died, we see in Gen 35:29b: “And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.” They had to have some kind of relationship, then, and that pleases me.

So much action

I make the mistake of thinking of the Old Testament as dry, recitations of ‘begats’ and names. But reading Genesis as a novel made me realize how much action there is: dysfunctional family drama, loyalty, betrayal, intended murder, sex scenes (that Potiphar’s wife was a hussy!), prostitution – yep, check out chapter 38 – dream interpretation, family, aristocracy and monarchy, drunken feasts and misunderstandings, a heartwarming family reunion, and at the end, blessings upon all the sons of Jacob.

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good….

Genesis 50:20a