The Story of Scripture

  • Part One journeys through the first five books of the Bible, also known as the Torah. Torah is Hebrew for instruction.

  • Though it may not always feel like it, these 5 books reveal God’s instruction to humanity and eventually his chosen people.

  • In a world that God created and loves, he clarifies what it should look like to inhabit his kingdom and flourish within it.

  • At the heart of this instruction is Deuteronomy 6:5, which states: “You must love the Lord your God with your whole mind, your whole being, and all your strength.”

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…

Listen to Genesis 1

  • 1:26-28 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness, so they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move on the earth.”

    God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.

    God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply! Fill the earth and subdue it! Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that moves on the ground.

  • Through a covenant.

    • First, he makes a covenant with Noah - the Noahic Covenant - in Genesis 9:8-17. In this covenant, God commands Noah to do the same thing as the first created humans: be fruitful and multiply. But this time, God won't wipe out creation with a flood when they inevitably fail at being the humans they are supposed to be. A rainbow in the sky serves as a sign, a reminder, of this covenant.

    • Generations later, after Noah's people have multiplied and once again gone astray from God, God looks at one person in particular: Abram. In Genesis 12:1-3, God initiates the next covenant- the Abrahamic Covenant. This time, God commits to Abram that he will bless Abram and his family in order that the rest of the world will be blessed by God. God calls Abram to leave his home and relatives and begin to follow the Lord into a Promised Land set apart by God.

    • In both of these covenants, God demonstrates that he is committed to a flourishing humanity that multiplies his life to the world, regardless of humanity's lack of commitment to God.

“The famine was severe throughout the land…

Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt…

and Israel settled in the land of Egypt…

Listen to Exodus

  • 29:45-46 “I will reside among the Israelites, and I will be their God, and they will know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out from the land of Egypt, so that I may reside among them. I am the LORD their God.”

  • Even though God has the Promised Land in mind for the descendants of Abraham -there's a slight detour. The Israelites spend 430 years in Egypt (Exod. 12:40), which means multiple generations have passed since the time God made a covenant with Abraham. Once the Israelites finally do make it out of Egypt and head to the Promised Land, they need to know the God that they're following and the wisdom of the world he has created them for. Enter the Mosaic Covenant.

    • Exodus 19-24 tells us that the people of Israel will be God's special possession, his chosen people, if they obey the laws that he gives them. As they become a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, they will be able to exhibit God's wisdom and redemption for the world - IF they keep his commandments. If they don't, punishment is inevitable. Since God is the author and giver of life, anything they choose that negates God will lead to destructive, deadly effects.

The Lord spoke to Moses: “You are to say to the Israelites…

You must not walk in the statutes of the nations…You yourselves will possess this land and I myself will give it to you as a possession…You must be holy because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the other peoples to be mine.”

Listen to Leviticus

  • 27:34 “These are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses to tell the Israelites at Mount Sinai.”


    20:22-26 “You must be sure to obey all my statutes and regulations, so that the land to which I am about to bring you to take up residence does not vomit you out. You must not walk in the statutes of the nations which I am about to drive out before you, because they have done all these things and I am filled with disgust against them. So I have said to you: You yourselves will possess their land and I myself will give it to you for a possession, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God who has set you apart from the other peoples. Therefore you must distinguish between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean, and  you must not make yourselves detestable by means of an animal or bird or anything that creeps on the ground- creatures I have distinguished for you as unclean. You must be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the other peoples to be mine.”

  • Don’t give up! Keep reading, absorb what you can, and continue with the overall story of the Bible.

    You may not understand every detail that’s described, but by the time Jesus arrives in the New Testament, you’ll be glad you have the background information from Leviticus. Trust the process, be patient, and read for the long haul!