Week 1: Genesis 1-24, 1 Chronicles 1:1-27

Laura’s Bible Blog—Week 1—Genesis 1-24, 1 Chronicles 1:1-27

Hello, and welcome to the first week of reading the Bible in a year! Each week I write it and format it a little differently, just to keep things interesting.

This week’s post is a day-by-day review of  what happened in the first chapters of the Bible. This is an amazing amount of human history to cram into one week of reading!

Day 1: Genesis 1-3

Creation, the Fall, the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden

Day 2: Genesis 4-6, 1 Chronicles 1:1-4

The first murder, the first of many genealogies, God’s first meeting with Noah. If you do the math based on Genesis 5-6, you can see that we have covered 1,656 years since creation.

Day 3: Genesis 7-10, 1 Chronicles 1:5-23

The Flood, the first covenant, and another genealogy. Time is flying here, too, but not as fast.

Day 4: Genesis 11-14, 1 Chronicles 1:24-27

The tower of Babel, more genealogy, the calling of Abraham. What struck me when I looked at the numbers was that the generations after the flood lived shorter and shorter lives. Shem, Noah’s son and the father of the line that would lead to Abraham, outlived 7 of the 8 generations that would come after him. What a shock, to go from having many generations older than you to seeing your great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren die. Even Noah outlived one of these generations. If you look closely, you see that Noah was still alive when Abraham was born. It is possible that these two men could have met.

Day 5: Genesis 15-17

Time slows down considerably, as the rest of the book of Genesis is dedicated to one man, Abraham, and the three generations that come after him. On this day we read that God makes a covenant with Abraham and establishes the practice of circumcision.

Day 6: Genesis 18-21

The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the sin of Lot’s daughters, and God’s careful preservation of his promise that Abraham and Sarah would have a son. Did you miss it? In chapter 20, Abraham and Sarah repeat the “Tell everyone you’re my sister” routine they had used in Egypt is chapter 12. According to chapter 20, Abimelech never comes near Sarah. She is released back to Abraham. After this, Sarah conceives and then gives birth to Isaac. God made sure that Sarah’s child was Abraham’s, not Abimelech’s. Really, this was God protecting Abraham from his own foolishness.

Day 7: Genesis 21-24

Isaac’s birth, near death, and marriage. Kids grow up fast, don’t they?

My plan is to write about each week in advance, to give you a head’s up as to what’s coming, and to ask you some questions and give you some things to look for, especially when we get to Leviticus and Numbers.

I won’t give day-by-day notes each week. No other week of our reading is going to cover 2,000 years of history, either! Keep reading! I hope you are enjoying it!