Fast Track Chapter 1: The Beginning

Introduction

We are all busy, very busy.

We may have heard that the Bible is the best-selling book of all time. Even if we own a Bible, few of us actually read it. Those of us who do aren‟t always sure where to start. If only there was an easy-to-digest study that summarized the main characters, the plot, and the culmination in a way that was fast, fun, and understandable ... something that you could read on a flight, at your child‟s soccer practice, or while bored in study hall.

The goal of Fast Track is to introduce the entire Bible quickly, in a format that can be read in one sitting. We‟ll whisk you through the main ideas of scripture in a way that is meant to be fun, memorable, and easy to follow. We hope that once you‟ve read it, you will be intrigued enough, and have the confidence, to pick up the Bible itself and read the details for yourself.

Before we dive in, keep these helpful hints in mind. Fast Track is divided into eight sections to help partition its central themes: The Beginning, The Conquests, The Monarchs, The Predictions, The Doubts, The Christ, The Church and The End. Every good story has its major movements; these sections are the major movements of the Bible.

Each section begins by introducing us to a theme, the books of the Bible being covered, and the main topic, along with nine memory icons to help us retain the key ideas. These icons act as a road map. They‟ll help move the plot-line along and keep things unified from section to section. They will also trigger our memory later, when thinking back over the Bible‟s big picture themes and historical arcs. As you flip through the pages and events, you can always look back at the icons to track the key ideas or events covered in each section.

So in the spirit of moving fast, we‟ll wrap up the introduction there. Let‟s get on the track at the beginning: the Book of Genesis.

Beginnings

The first book of the Bible is called Genesis, and it’s about beginnings.

Genesis describes how God created the Heavens, the universe, and the Earth in seven days. He created the animals and mankind. The Bible says Heavens because it includes the atmosphere of Earth, outer space, and God‟s dwelling place. The world He created was good; no pain, death, or decay.

The world was a beautiful piece of heaven-on-earth. That‟s how the world was: marriage without tension, life without stress, and a world without death. It was pure sweetness. God created people so that He could love them, and they could love Him. As the Bible says, “He created man and woman and placed them in a garden” and gave them everything they needed.

God had an intimate friendship with His first children, Adam and Eve. God wanted them to enjoy the world forever, so He placed them in a garden paradise. God placed a tree in the garden and told Adam and Eve not to eat any of its fruit. It was God's way of saying, "You can trust Me." He gave his children freedom to choose, but warned them that the fruit from the tree would cause separation between them and God. This tree was filled with darkness and was called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God didn‟t want his people to know the temptations and consequences of evil. God said, “Don‟t eat that or you‟ll hurt yourself and die. Trust Me!”

The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil

Temptation entered in the form of a serpent who said “God‟s a liar. You can‟t trust Him.” Adam and Eve fell for his story and decided to touch the darkness. They ate the fruit and felt instant hurt. For the first time, there was shame, blame, nakedness, and pain. God saw His hurting children and offered to help. “Did you touch the darkness? Did you decide not to trust Me?” They blamed each other. Their lack of trust had separated them from God. He said, “The same rebelliousness that led you to question My goodness and not heed My warning has unleashed the knowledge of evil into the world.”

Thinking they knew better than God affected relationships, as well as the Earth itself. The beautiful creation was now broken. The darkness was released into creation, causing earthquakes and tornadoes. The animals were affected too, turning from vegetarians into carnivores. Childbirth became a source of great pain. These were just some of the consequences of a world that was now out-of-sync with its loving Creator. God then promised to fix what they had broken by sending a Rescuer in the future. God would send a hero to rescue mankind from their rebellion. Even though times would be tough, they could trust God for the future solution. The Rescuer would conquer death and fix everything – some day.

The darkness of rebellion grew worse. Cain, one of Eve‟s sons, became consumed with jealousy and wanted to kill his brother Abel. God stepped in and asked Cain to “Trust Him” by rejecting anger and jealousy, but he didn‟t. Instead, Cain committed the world‟s first murder. For the next several generations, society used the darkness of pride to accomplish its purposes through murder, manipulation, envy, and evil. Things got so bad, so corrupt, and so evil, that God stepped in to stop the devastation. In the middle of this rebellious generation there was one man who did trust God, and his name was Noah. God told Noah that a flood was coming to wash away the corruption.

Noah's Ark

The whole world was a filthy aquarium, and God needed to wash it clean. He also asked Noah to trust Him and build an ark, a giant barge meant to serve as a safe place for anyone who would choose to trust God. This ark was wider than a football field, taller than a three-story building, had a deck the size of 36 tennis courts, and a length of four hundred and fifty feet. God told Noah to take two of each kind of animal into the ark so God could save them too. The safety boat was big enough for thousands of people. Sadly, only Noah and his family got on the ark. Their trust saved them from God‟s righteous earth-washing.

God was saddened that His people again chose evil over good. He closed the huge door to the ark and poured rain onto His creation for forty days and forty nights, destroying everything on the Earth. Water came down from the sky and out of the great fountains of the deep. For over a year, water sloshed back and forth on the Earth, forming the mountains and canyons that we see today. (Many scientists consider the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and other sea floor rifts as evidence of the great flood. Giant oyster fossils have been found on mountains all over the world, including Mount Everest, lending further support to this account.)

When the waters subsided, Noah and his family got off the ark with the animals. They promised to trust God with their lives. God promised to never again destroy the Earth by flood, and sent a rainbow to symbolize His pledge. God instructed Noah's family to go out, populate the land, and enjoy the newly cleansed world. Unfortunately, they too chose not to trust Him.

The Tower of Babel

The following generations decided to build a tower to heaven instead of trusting God. This monument to themselves was a tangible example of their continued rebelliousness. (Archeologists have found evidence of this kind of tower, which they call a ziggurat.) The people refused to spread out and enjoy the new world God had provided for them. In defiance of God's desire for mankind to fill the Earth, the following generation decided to stay in one place and build a tower to heaven. This blatant disregard for God's command was evidence of mankind's arrogance. In response to their pride, God confused their language, scattering them over the entire Earth and putting limits on how far mankind's pride could take them. Prior to this, everyone on Earth spoke the same language. God invented new languages and assigned them to different groups in the city. The builders could no longer talk with one another. People began to “babble” in different languages. This place was called the Tower of Babel. As a result of this Divine intervention, people groups with similar languages banded together and spread out all over the world.

Abraham, father of many

Mankind continued to trust in its own destructive (and unproductive) habits, rather than God. Even though there were many different societies living in different places, they all eventually stopped trusting. Despite their pride, God still loved His children dearly and decided to come down to the country of Ur to speak to a man named Terah. He and his family were worshipping other gods, and God spoke to Terah's son, Abram (who would later be renamed Abraham.) He made a promise to Abraham: “If you trust Me, leave your family's gods, and go to a new land, I will bless you in three ways: I‟ll give you a family, a land flowing with milk and honey, and a promise that a Forgiver will come from your family line to bless the world.” Abraham trusted God...some of the time. His story began, like those before him, with rebellion.

God told him to leave without his extended family ; but Abraham disobeyed and took his nephew Lot with him, which caused numerous problems over the next few years. Abraham tried to trust God for a family, but his wife was barren. After years of waiting, Abraham and his wife impatiently decided to "help God out." Abraham decided to have a child with Hagar, an Egyptian woman. Hagar was a servant of Sarah who joined them when Abraham lied twice to the Egyptian Pharaoh a few years earlier. Hagar had a son with Abraham, and he was named Ishmael. Abraham‟s manipulation of the situation is not what God would call trusting Him.

Many more years passed. God reiterated through His angels that this old couple, now approaching their 100th birthdays, would have their own son. They laughed, they waited, and then they were shocked. Sarah got pregnant in her old age and decided to name her son Isaac, meaning laughter. They realized they could – and should – trust God to provide, even when His solutions took longer than they expected. God reminded Abraham about His promises. At last, Abraham believed God and was given a right standing by God. Joy filled the home upon Isaac‟s birth.

A few years later, God asked Abraham to sacrifice this long-awaited son as a test of faith. Abraham trusted God, placed his son on a mountaintop altar, and prepared to sacrifice him. God was pleased with Abraham's trust and offered a ram as a scapegoat in the shrubbery to take Isaac‟s place. God never wants children sacrificed, and specifically condemns the practice throughout the Bible. So why did He give us an "almost" sacrifice of a child? This was a foreshadowing of the future Forgiver -- the Messiah and Son of God, who would be sacrificed for mankind and serve as scapegoat for mankind‟s moral failures. God also asked Abraham to circumcise his descendents as a sign of their trust in God as Promise Keeper and Righteousness-Giver.

Jacob's wrestling uniform

God told Isaac to trust Him for the great promises He made to his father. Isaac grew up, married, and had children of his own: twins named Jacob and Esau. Jacob was the younger of the two by mere minutes. (Think of Jacob wearing a wrestling uniform with an embroidered letter “L.” His name means “L”iar or deceiver.) He used deception to get his way, rather than trusting God. He wrestled his brother into giving up his birthright with a bowl of food. Jacob wrestled the blessing from Isaac during his father‟s last hours by pretending to be Esau. The elder brother became furious and tried to kill him. Jacob ran off to another land to visit a relative, Laban, who was another renowned liar and wrestler.

Jacob wanted to marry Laban‟s daughter, Rachel, so the man made him a deal. “You work for me for seven years; then you can marry Rachel.” Seven years later, Laban deceived Jacob and gave his older daughter, Leah, to him instead . Now Jacob felt the sting of deception and lying. He worked for seven more years to marry Rachel, and decided to turn from his deceitful ways and finally trust His heavenly Father. God came down to Earth as an angel and “wrestled” Jacob all night long, urging him to stop lying his way through life. God wanted Jacob to turn from his wrestling, lying, and manipulation and fully trust. Jacob agreed, and his name was changed from changed from “L”iar to “I”srael. With the new name, Jacob/Israel reconciled with his brother Esau and started down a new path of trust. Jacob and his two wives had twelve sons, which would later be known as the twelve tribes of Israel. (That‟s why Jacob‟s wrestling number is “12.”)

Joseph's colorful coat

Israel (Jacob) loved his family dearly, but he showed favoritism toward his son Joseph, much to the frustration of the other eleven. He gave Joseph a beautiful multicolored coat. Joseph‟s brothers ambushed him in the fields one day, sold him to Egyptian merchants as a slave, and deceived their father into believing his favorite son had been killed. Meanwhile, Joseph was sold to an Egyptian named Potiphar, in whose house he performed well as a slave. After Joseph rebuffed Potiphar‟s wife‟s advances, she accused Joseph of attacking her and had him thrown into an Egyptian prison. In prison, God was with Joseph as he interpreted the dreams of the Pharaoh‟s taster and baker who were imprisoned with him.

During the difficult ups and downs of Joseph‟s time in Egypt, God was there -- reminding him to trust – even during the difficult times in prison. God‟s presence brought Joseph peace and comfort. A few years later, the Pharaoh had a dream about seven fat cows being eaten by seven skinny cows. He called his wise men to provide an interpretation, but had no luck. One of the men in his court remembered being in prison with Joseph, who had interpreted dreams earlier. Joseph was called from prison to explain the dream. He told the Pharaoh that the God of Abraham was warning that there would be seven years of great crops followed by seven years of famine. Joseph recommended a national savings plan to store up grain for the coming famine. Pharaoh was so impressed that he elevated Joseph to second-in-command of the Egyptian empire.

The seven years went by, the food was stored up, and then the famine struck just as predicted. Its devastation was felt back in Israel‟s fields where Joseph‟s father (Israel) and brothers still resided. Israel sent his sons to Egypt to find food before the family starved. Little did the brothers know that their “dead” brother was now in charge of the known world.

Joseph recognized his brothers, but they didn‟t recognize him. Through a series of “tests,” Joseph determined whether they had learned to trust God, or if they were still corrupt. They eventually passed the tests and brought his younger brother, Benjamin, and his father to Egypt. The family secret was brought to light when Joseph revealed his true identity, hugged his father, and forgave his brothers. He gave them his secret to trusting God those many years, saying, “What you intended for evil, God used for good.”

The entire family and budding nation of Israel moved to Egypt to experience the joy of living under the wise and gentle leadership of Joseph. Genesis ends with Israel‟s death and a renewed commitment to forgiveness. Eventually, Joseph died.

The burning bush

The book of Exodus begins. The old Pharaoh who knew Joseph died, and his legacy died with it. The new king of Egypt didn‟t remember Joseph or his empire-saving work, and enslaved the Israelite descendants of Jacob. They were enslaved to keep them under control , providing a plentiful workforce for government projects.

Jacob/Israel‟s descendents were enslaved in Egypt for 400 years performing hard labor. They prayed and cried out for a deliverer that entire time. God answered their prayers when a young boy named Moses was born. Moses had to be hidden from the Pharaoh, who was killing young Hebrew children as a means of population control. Moses‟ parents placed their baby in a basket and pushed him out into the Nile River, hoping that God would save him from death. Pharaoh‟s daughter found Moses and raised him in the Egyptian society until he was around forty years old. As he matured, Moses saw his people abused in slavery and decided to be their deliverer. In anger, he struck out at one of the Egyptian guards and killed him. The people rejected Moses‟ leadership, and he went on the run from the Egyptian militia.

Moses hid in fear, out in the wilderness in Midian for 40 years, where he married Zipporah. Moses learned about leadership and business in the fields of his father-in-law, Jethro. One day, while Moses was tending sheep, God appeared to him in a burning bush. God told Moses that He had heard the people's call for delivery from slavery. God wanted Moses to be His delivery man. Moses told God, “I don‟t deliver!” and "I don't even speak in public due to my stuttering problem." God showed Moses several miracles and asked the familiar refrain, “Will you trust Me?” Moses agreed and headed to the Pharaoh, demanding that he “deliver” God‟s people.

God taught His people how to trust – one miracle at a time. Moses‟ staff turned into a snake, but Pharaoh was unimpressed. God then turned up the heat, sending ten plagues (which were miraculous judgments) against Pharaoh to change his mind and free the Israelite people. Each plague was aimed at one of the Egyptian gods, to prove that there‟s only one true God. Pharaoh refused to recognize God despite the darkness, the frogs, the boils, the blood, and eventually the death of his own firstborn child.

The tenth plague required an act of trust. God told His people to take a perfect lamb, sacrifice it, and put the blood over the door so that this plague would “pass over” every house with blood on the door. God had formulated a way for his people to be rescued from pain and judgment. Many Egyptians decided to trust God, so they too painted blood on their doors, trusting God for deliverance from judgment. This blood on the door may seem primitive and gruesome and perhaps a little weird. Why would God institute such a strange ritual? He was using this as an object lesson for his people in order to teach them that something needed to die in their place. God was teaching them to depend on something besides themselves to achieve a right standing with Him.

The Pharaoh didn‟t trust God and lost his own son that night. He decided to let God‟s people go – only to chase them down soon thereafter. Pharaoh cornered the Israelites at the Red Sea. Moses trusted God, raised his staff and saw the mighty waters of the Red Sea part, opening a path for deliverance. Pharaoh chased after them and God allowed the waters to come together, drowning the army.

God showed them the exit

Now that God‟s people had “exited” out of Egypt, He taught them how to trust Him. He gave them bread every morning. This bread was called manna, which literally means, “What is it?” God asked His people to collect enough bread for one day at a time, so that they would learn to trust God daily. This object lesson worked for a while, but all too often the people grumbled and complained rather than trusting.

When water became scarce, the people complained and begged Moses to take them back to Egypt. God instead provided a giant fountain of water to quench their thirst. Moses then went up on Mt. Sinai to receive God‟s commandments on how to live a life characterized by loving God and others.

While he was gone, Moses left Aaron in charge to remind the people to pray and trust God. Moses was gone for a long time. How long? Long enough for the people to melt down their earrings and watch Aaron fashion a golden calf from the metal. The people began to worship the statue and gave it credit for delivering them from Egypt.

Moses finally came down from the mountain and saw the people not trusting God. They were breaking many of the commandments just handed down: Do not have any other gods but me. Do not make statues of idols. Do not lie, steal, or commit adultery. Do not covet or use God‟s name in vain. Honor your parents and keep the Sabbath holy. These laws show mankind what an obedient/trustworthy life looks like. Ironically, it also showed them how far short they fell from living obediently.

Moses taught the people how to seek God for forgiveness. He also received instructions on how to make a tabernacle for worship and steps for offering various sacrifices for forgiveness. God outlined the blueprints for making the Ark of the Covenant and told Moses which duties the priests would perform. The Ark of the Covenant was a portable box overlaid with gold that contained the tablets with the Ten Commandments, symbolizing the presence of God. The most important part of the Ark was the mercy seat, a section on top that made a way for God‟s people to find forgiveness.

The book of Exodus reached its climax as the God of the heavens, who cannot be contained in our universe, chose to live among His people in this tabernacle. God's glory, which means the full weight of His greatness, came down and resided in the tabernacle. God was now close enough to experience. He appeared to His people in a pillar of fire and cloud. The people were given the same choice that we all have today: "Will we trust Him to be our leader and forgiver?”

Watch "The Beginning"

Watch Pastor Chad Hovind present the first part of the Fast Track series, "The Beginning."