The Bible Timeline: Session 4- The Patriarchs: Part 1 1. The context As the world becomes populated, the descendants of Adam and Eve continued to make choices like the one that precipitated their fall from grace. Over time, two types of civilizations grew up - some people, like Enoch and Noah called on God's name and worshipped and obeyed God. Others were more like Cain - violent and wicked, choosing themselves over God.

God set apart the righteous Noah and his family and destroyed the rest with the flood, but nothing changed in the heart of humankind. By Genesis 11, they had banded together to provide strength and security. They sought self-sufficiency, power, and a name for themselves through building a tower to heaven. True to His promise, God reacted not by destroying but by confusing their language. The early world closed with God's children scattered in confusion.

We pick up the story in Genesis 12, many generations later, around 2200 BC in Mesopotamia - the territory in and around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and their tributaries. It is the middle Bronze Age. Rival city states have been united under the kings of horror. The culture is Polytheistic. Ziggurats like the tower of Babel are being built in many countries, while in faraway Britain Stonehenge is under construction. The epic of Gilgamesh was written during this time and so was the code of Hammurabi, an ancient law code that gives us insight into the Mesopotamian culture. This part of the world is represented by the “northern countries.” It is from this ancient civilization that God will select one of the descendants of Noah's son Shem, a man named Abraham, calling him to leave everything and travel to a new place where God will make of him a nation, a new kind of civilization that will call on God's name. This is the beginning of the period of the patriarchs: the father of God's chosen people, the nation of Israel. What will this people be like? Pay attention - the answer foreshadows the Kingdom of God.

2. Reading the Story The rest of the book of Genesis tells the story of the patriarchs and the beginnings of the people of Israel. There are two parts to the story. Part one focuses on the life of Abraham and God's promise to him and his descendants. Part two will look at the growth of his family and the passing down of that promise. Read Genesis 12:15-18, 22 to get familiar with the incidents that will be covered in this session- the covenant promise God forges with Abraham, which provides an outline for God's plan and the rest of the story. The faith that grows in Abraham from the time he is called, through his struggle with childlessness, to the ultimate test when God asks him to give up the son on whom all of God's promises rest. Trace the action in the identify the main characters and note the flow of key events.

3. Take a Deeper Look Use these questions as a guide into the heart of the story. If you do not understand something, make a note of it so you can bring it up during our discussion. a. Read Genesis 12: 1-3 What three-part promise does God make to Abraham? Hint: The promise is simplified into the “Abrahamic covenant” which we will discuss this week.

b. Review Genesis 15 – 17. Which of the original promises do these covenants strengthen, and what new information does each one add?

c. In Genesis 15:8 – 21. Why is it significant that God, represented by smoke and fire passes between the pieces of the animal, and how would that reassure Abraham? (cf Jeremiah 34:17 – 20).

d. Read Genesis 17:1 – 23.

e. What is to be the significance of circumcision to Abraham’s family? To what does it bind them?

f. Under the new covenant, the old covenant sign of circumcision is replaced by a sacrament, which is a tangible sign that brings into reality what is it effects and what it signifies. Read Colossians 2:11-12. What is that sacrament and how does it relate to circumcision?

4. The promise of the child! Frustrated and probably bewildered at their childlessness in the face of God's promise, newly named Abraham and Sarah take things into their own hands. In Genesis 16, they produce an heir (Ishmael) for Abraham through his servant Hagar. What astonishing promise does God give them in Genesis 17:15 through 22:18-15 and what will the role of the promised child (Isaac) be in relationship to God's covenant promise?

Application: God proclaims to Abraham and Sarah that He will give them a son. When they hear this, Sarah laughs with unbelief (Genesis 18:12). Are there issues in your life at which you have laughed in response to God's promises? What from Abraham’s life can you remember and take for guidance on your faith journey?