The word "genesis" means "beginning." In this first book of the Bible, the Lord reveals the beginnings of creation, the sabbath, humanity, marriage, sexuality, sin, suffering, murder, and alienation. These beginnings are treated in the first ten chapters. The next forty chapters are concerned with the beginning of the chosen people. After the devastation of the Babylonian exile, the people are going back to their roots to see if they are really the chosen people. If your life has fallen apart, go back to the "genesis" of God's work in your life.

Key word    BEGINNING
 
Key verse    "In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters." —1:1-2
 
Command verse    "Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it." —1:28
 
Promise verse    "Even though you meant harm to me, God meant it for good, to achieve His present end, the survival of many people." —50:20
 
Difficult verse    "When men began to multiply on earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of heaven saw how beautiful the daughters of man were, and so they took for their wives as many of them as they chose." —6:1-2
 
Surprise verse    "So Sarah laughed to herself and said, 'Now that I am so withered and my husband is so old, am I still to have sexual pleasure?' But the Lord said to Abraham: 'Why did Sarah laugh and say, "Shall I really bear a child, old as I am?" Is anything too marvelous for the Lord to do?' " —18:12-14
 
Prayer: Father, turn all things to the good, even the greatest catastrophe of my life (Rm 8:28).