Genesis
Memory Verse:
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
Purpose: to record God’s creation of the world and His desire
to have a people set apart to worship Him.
Author: Moses. It was
written to the people of
Key people: Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob,
Joseph.
Lesson #1: God’s Creation of earth.
Lesson #2: God’s creation of man
Lesson #3: Noah and the
Lesson #4: Abraham’s Story, a lesson of trust.
Lesson #5: The story of Joseph, a lesson of God’s using
the bad things in our lives for
good.
Lesson One: The Story of Creation. Genesis 1:2–3:3
“In the
beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and
empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was
hovering over the waters.
And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and
there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light
from the darkness. God called the light
‘day’ and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was
morning the first day.
And God said,”
Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the expanse and separated the
water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. God called the expanse “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning.
The second day.
And God
said, ‘let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground
appear.’ And it was so. God called the
dry ground ‘land’ and the gathered waters he called ‘seas.’ God saw that it was good. Then God said, ‘Let the land produce
vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed
in it, according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it
according to their kinds. God saw that
it was good. And there was evening, and
there was morning the third day.
God made two great lights, the sun and the moon. The
greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. He gave light to the earth to separate light
from darkness. God saw that it was good. And there was morning the fourth day.
And God
said,’ Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the
earth across the expanse of the sky. So
God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing
with which the water teems. Let the land
produce creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move
along the ground, and wild animals, each according its kind. This was the fifth
day.
God said,
Let us make man in his own image, the image of God he created him; male and
female he created them. God gave them every thing he had made, everything that
has the breath of life in it. This was the sixth day.
By the
seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so he rested. God blessed the seventh day and made it holy”.
You have two choices of
getting the information out of this text.
(1)
Fold an eight by
12 piece of paper into four squares by folding it in half and folding it in
half again. Using both sides the girls
can label each square one through eight and draw a picture of each day’s
creation using the eighth square to have a picture of the complete creation.
(2)
Answer the questions.
1. What
did the earth look like at the end of day one? (God made light and
darkness. One he called day and one he
called night.)
- What did God add to his creation of day two? (God created sky above the water.)
- On day three God created another thing. What was it? (God placed the water together
and the ground was dry. The land produced plants.)
- What four
things does the earth have at the end of day four? (God made two great
lights. The sun and the moon. The greater light to govern the day and
lesser light to govern the night.
There was evening and morning.)
- Day five God added what food for us to eat? (The
land provided living creatures of all kinds.)
- God added the image of himself. What was that image? (God created man.)
- On day seven God made it a special day. What was special about that day? (On the
seventh day God blessed His creation and rested.)
Lesson Two: God
created Adam and Eve. The fall of man. Genesis 2:4-3:24
“The Lord
formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils and
breath of live, and the man became a living being. Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the
east, in
‘The Lord
God said, ‘it is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. So the
Lord made Eve.”
1.
What was the name of the garden? ( The garden was
2.
What trees had God planted in the garden?
(All kinds of trees that produced fruit.)
3.
Who did God put in the garden? (God put
Adam in the garden.)
4.
What were God’s instructions to Adam about what he could and could not eat? (Adam
could eat any of the fruit from the trees except the fruit from the tree of
knowledge of good and evil.)
5. What
would happen it he did. (He would surely
die.)
6. What did God create as a helper for
Adam? (God created women and called her
Eve.)
“Now the
serpent was more crafty than any other of the wild animals the lord God had
made. He said to the woman, ‘Did the God
really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’ The women said, ‘We may eat fruit from the
trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree
that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will
die.
‘You will
not surely die,’ the serpent said to the woman. For God knows that when you eat
of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and
evil. They ate of the fruit and their eyes were opened to good and evil.”
Satan is a tricky
tempter. A person can choose to do the
wrong thing or to do what is right. They
had a choice, to do what God wanted them to do or to be tempted by the serpent
(Satan) and disobey God. We all have
these choices everyday. Have a short
discussion about some of the things they are tempted with everyday. Share ideas of ways to avoid the temptations.
Lesson Three: Noah, the
“Noah was a righteous man, blameless
among the people of his time, and he walked with God. Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and
was full of violence. God saw how
corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their
ways. God said, “I am going to destroy
both man and the earth. Make yourself an
ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch (tar) inside and
out. God gave Noah exact instructions on how to build the ark, and what
materials to use. It was to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet
high. You are to take your family with
you and two of every kind of bird, two of every kind of animal and two of every
kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept
alive. You are to take every kind of
food that is to eaten and store it away as food for you and for them. Noah did everything just as God commanded.
For forty days and forty nights the rain
kept coming to the earth. The waters increased, they lifted the ark high above
the earth. The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days. At the end of this time the ark came to rest
on
- What was
special about Noah in God’s eyes?
(Noah was the only living man that was blameless in God’s eyes.)
- Why was God angry with his people he had created?
(God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had
corrupted their ways.)
3.
What did God tell Noah to do? (God told Noah to build an ark.) Why was
this strange? (There was only dry land with no water
nearby.)
- How long did it rain and for how many days did
the water stay on the earth? (It rained for forty days and forty nights.)
(The water stayed on the land for 150 days.)
- What was the covenant God made with Noah and the
earth after the flood? (God said he
would never destroy the earth again with water. He made a rainbow in the clouds to
remind us of His promise.)
6. Spend some time discussing ways that the
ladies are finding it hard to remain faithful to God in there everyday
lives. Can you keep from doing what the
other kids do and not go along with your
friends? Is it easy?
Lesson Four: Abraham: A Lesson in Trust.
Genesis 17:1-22:9
“The Lord
had said to Abram, “leave your country, your people and your father’s household
and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I
will bless you; I will make your name
great, and you will be a blessing, I
will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all
peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
So Abram (God changed his name to Abraham) did as he was told.
When Abraham was ninety-nine years old, the Lord
appeared to him and said, ’I am God almighty, walk before me and be
blameless. I will confirm my covenant
between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.’
Abraham
fell face down and God said to him, ‘You will be the father of many
nations. I will make you very fruitful;
I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an
everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the
generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.
Then
Abraham threw himself down in worship before the Lord, but inside he was
laughing in disbelief! ‘Me be a father?’ he said in amusement. ‘Me – 100 years
old? And Sarah, to have a baby at 90?’ Isaac was born to Abraham.
God tested Abraham. He said to him ‘Abraham!’ ‘Here I am’ he
replied. Then God said ‘Take your son,
your only son Isaac, whom you love and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on
one of the mountains I will tell you about.’
Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his
son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood
for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. When
they arrived at the place, Abraham prepared the offering of his son as
asked. However God knew Abraham would
obey and not even hold his beloved son from God. God provided a ram for the offering. Abraham
called that place The Lord Will Provide.”
We all know there are consequences to any
action we take. Abraham had to choose
between the security of what he knew and the uncertainty of traveling under
God’s direction. All he had was God’s
promise to guide and bless him. His obedience affected the history of the
world. His decision to follow God put
into motion the development of the nation that God would eventually use as his
own when he visited earth himself. When
Jesus Christ came to earth, God’s promise was fulfilled: through Abraham the
entire world was blessed.
1.
What did God ask
Abraham to do? (Leave your country, your people and your household and go to
the country I will show you.)
2.
Why was this a
hard thing for Abraham to do? (He had to
leave everyone and everything he knew.)
A good opportunity to talk about kids that have had to move and how
scary it was to them.)
3. When God told Abraham he would become a father
of many nations why did Abraham
find this hard to believe. (He had no
children, he was 100 years old and Sarah was ninety.)
4. Abraham
was very trusting when he took Isaac up to the mountain for a burnt offering?
Can you tell why? (Abraham knew
God had promised to make great nations from him. He knew God would provide substitute burnt
offering.) Nothing is too hard for God. Do you have this kind of faith in your
everyday life when things happen to you?
Share some of these times with each other.
5. Can you become more trusting? Discuss ways that they can use to do this. (Pray, talk to adults, etc.)
Lesson Five: Story of Joseph. Genesis: 37:3-44:34
“Jacob was
Joseph’s father. Joseph had 11
brothers. He was the favorite of his
father. Now it happened, Jacob loved
Joseph more than any of his other children, because Joseph was born to him in
old age. So one day Jacob gave him a
special gift – a brightly colored coat.
His brothers of course noticed their father’s special gift to Joseph and
consequently hated Joseph; they couldn’t say a kind word to him. One night Joseph had a dream and promptly
reported the details to his brothers, causing even deeper hatred. ‘Listen to this,’ he proudly announced. ‘We were out in the field binding sheaves,
and my sheaf stood up, and you sheaves all gathered around it and bowed low
before it!’ So you want to be our king,
do you: And they hated him both for the
dream and for his cocky attitude. The
brothers had a plan to get rid of Joseph. They took off his coat of many colors
and threw him in a well. But instead of leaving him in the well they sold him
Egyptian traders. They took his coat
home to Jacob after they had killed an animal and put animal blood on the coat
and told Jacob that Joseph had been killed by a wild beast.
Meanwhile,
in
The Lord
continued to bless Joseph in everything he did.
He was placed in charge of
1.
Why was Joseph
the favorite of his father? (He was born to Jacob in his old age.)
2.
How many brothers
did Joseph have? Joseph had 11 brothers.)
3.
Why were the
brothers angry at Joseph? (Joseph was
his father’s favorite son. He had given
him a coat of many colors.)
4.
What did the brothers do to Joseph? (The brothers took Joseph’s coat away from
him and threw him into a well. Then they decided not to kill him and sold him
to an
Egyptian
trader instead. They took his coat
smeared, animal blood on it and took it to their father saying Joseph had been
killed by a wild beast.)
5.
How was God with
Joseph through all of his hard times? (God blessed Joseph in everything he
did. God had taken a bad thing and used
it to bring honor to himself.)
6.
How can you react
when someone you love receives a gift and you don’t? Are you upset if a brother or sister gets
more presents at Christmas than you? Do
you consider the value of the gifts? Are
you happy for that person or do you become angry? How can you deal with these feelings?
*The scripture utilized in
this merit was taken from the “NIV Young Women of Faith Bible”.
