Reading Genesis

My focus over the past few weeks has been reading my Bible. At the youth group I help out at, the challenge was put forth to these young teens to read the entire Bible from cover to cover by the end of the year. I love this challenge, and so I have joined the youth, and I am attempting to complete the task as well.

Currently, I am done Genesis. Now I have already read Genesis multiple times, and the whole Bible at least twice. One thing I love about this book though is that it never gets old. There are a few books that you read once, and then you never pick them up again. But I find myself drawn to continue to read the Bible over and over again simply because each time something new draws my attention.

This time, I've been drawn to the fact that God always knew what was going to happen, yet He let the characters in His story choose what they wanted to do. That may seem like a confusing statement, but breaking it down makes it much clearer.

I believe Genesis is a testament to the fact that God had, and still has, a plan for each individual, and a plan for the world as a group. Reading through each story, and how they tie in together reveals exactly how God wanted for each situation to occur, and it always happened in that way. Well, perhaps not always how He wished, but how He knew it was going to occur.

At the same time, He lets the characters in His story form their own lives. He lets them make the decisions, and He just acts as a guider, counsellor, judge, provider, and guardian. Every single major character in Genesis talked to God, found out the possibilities of either choice they would make, and then made a choice whether it be bad or good.

The reason why I think God still knew what was going to happen even if He let His creation have free will is that fact that He knew His creation so well. He knew Adam and Eve to their last bone, he knew Noah, Abraham, and Joseph down to every single hair, every single thought, every single tendency. In fact, He knew them better then they knew themselves. Because of this, He knew what they were going to choose.

Although this is a "historical" book, the lessons that can be applied in our lives today are tenfold. First, we can feel confident that everything happens to us for a reason. Everything good, and everything bad, God uses for a certain purpose. Just like how Joseph was able to say that God intended to use harm for good in his situation, we should be able to view trials and persecution in the same way. Secondly, we should feel confident in the fact that God is ultimately in control. The world is definitely a messed up place, and it is progressively getting worse, but we as Christians should be able to take solace in the fact that God has the master plan, and the final result is in His hands. Finally, we should be able to learn from the mistakes of the forefathers of our faith. Unity is key, being patient is important, and many other lessons along those lines should be understood from the stories contained in Genesis.