God’s World and God’s People

The word creation is applied to accomplishments in various fields of endeavor. Likewise, the word recreation has a wide range of uses, applying primarily to leisure activities that provide a break from stressful routines.

The lessons for this quarter focus on the uniquely creative and re-creative activity of the Lord God. The lessons are drawn from Genesis, the Bible’s book of beginnings. Genesis is rightly associated with God’s work as Creator. But Genesis also emphasizes God’s power to re-create, to address what happened when his “very good” creation (Genesis 1:31) became very bad due to sin.

The Creator

The first unit of studies consists of five lessons drawn from the first three chapters of Genesis. The opening chapter (covered in lessons 1–3) moves from the general statement of God’s creation of “the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1) to the day-by-day record of specific items created, climaxed by the crowning glory of the Creator’s handiwork: the man and the woman created “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27)—which launches God’s gift of the family as well (lesson 4).

Sadly, the Creator must become the confronter in response to the first humans’ sin (lesson 5). The intimacy with God that was Adam and Eve’s privilege to experience was shared by their choice to heed the destroyer rather than the Creator.

The Re-creator

Even in the midst of confronting Adam and Eve with their wrongdoing, the Creator announced his plan to recreate and to reverse the effects of sin’s curse (also covered in lesson 5). Indeed, the remainder of the Bible is the account of God’s longing to re-create and humanity’s stubborn desire to follow its own path. God had commanded the first couple to fill the earth (Genesis 1:28). By Noah’s time it was indeed “filled”—with violence (6:13)! God destroyed the world by means of the flood and established a covenant with Noah, who walked with God (Genesis 6:9), as part of his re-creating program (lesson 6).

Another step in God’s re-creation was his covenant with Abraham (lesson 7). God promised to make of this man a “great nation” (Genesis 12:2). But 25 years passed from the time Abraham and his wife Sarah left home for Canaan to the time when the promised son, Isaac, was born (lesson 8). God then continued to provide for Isaac by guiding Abraham’s servant to Rebekah, who became Isaac’s wife (lesson 9).

The Re-creator’s Challenge

Isaac and Rebekah’s son Jacob appears to put the Re-creator’s expertise to the test. The “sibling rivalry” that began in Rebekah’s womb became much more serious and personal when Jacob negotiated the birthright away from Esau and later (with Rebekah’s assistance) obtained the blessing intended for Esau (lessons 10 and 11).

But the Re-creator’s purposes weren’t thwarted, even by such a clever schemer as Jacob. As Jacob fled from Esau’s revenge, God appeared in a dream and assured Jacob of his continual presence and also promised to bring him back to his homeland (lesson 12). And God was with Jacob, even during the often stormy years in Harran, keeping his word in spite of the maneuvers of Laban, who was every bit the conniver that Jacob was (lesson 13).

Jacob’s life reminds us that the Recreator has often had to work with some truly “damaged goods.” Let’s be humbly grateful that he is still making a “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17) out of the most improbable candidates.

by Douglas Redford

Unit 1: God creates the World

Date	Title	Bible Text
September 2	God Creates Heavens and Earth	Genesis 1:1–13
September 9	God Creates Lights and Life	Genesis 1:14–25
September 16	God Creates People	Genesis 1:26–31; 2:4–7
September 23	God Creates the Family	Genesis 2:18–24; 4:1, 2
September 30	God Confronts Sin	Genesis 3:8–17, 20–24

Unit 2: God Destroys and Re-creates

Date	Title	Bible Text
October 7	The Righteousness of Noah	Genesis 6:9b–22
October 14	The Call of Abram	Genesis 10:1; 11:10, 27, 31, 32; 12:1–4
October 21	The Birth of the Promised Son	Genesis 18:9–15; 21:1–7
October 28	The Marriage of Isaac	Genesis 24:12–21, 61–67

Unit 3: God Blesses and Re-creates Regardless

Date	Title	Bible Text
November 4	Siblings’ Rivalry	Genesis 25:19–34
November 11	Jacob’s Deception	Genesis 27:5–10, 18, 19, 21–29
November 18	Jacob’s Dream	Genesis 28:10–22
November 25	God’s Blessing	Genesis 30:22–32, 43