Pineapple on pizza. Clapping when a plane lands. Sleeping with socks on. When it comes to the ordinary decisions of life, people are rarely on the same page. This morning, however, thousands—if not millions—will be.
It’s become customary for Bible readers across the world to print out a fresh plan and begin their new year in Genesis 1. As the month continues, reading plans will branch off, people will continue at various paces, and others will abandon the resolutions they started. But today we’re all together, opening to the same place in Scripture.
The first few chapters of the Bible feel like common ground. They’re familiar, a wide on-ramp to the rest of Scripture. No laws yet. No genealogies to trip over. Just God speaking, and light and water and sky coming to be. It feels simple because it sounds like a story we already know. Most of us have heard the creation account and the history of Adam and Eve before.
But you could return to these pages for years and never notice all they contain. You could spend your entire year in Genesis 1–3 and never stop uncovering new layers that help explain the story of the Bible, the world we live in, and the God who made it.
Today you’ll be tempted to skim through these introductory chapters, thinking you already know what they say. This will likely be the easiest box you check off on your reading plan all year. But don’t rush through these pages. Genesis rewards slow reading.
Think of these chapters as a map: one that shows the terrain, the landmarks, and the paths that wind all the way through Scripture. The longer you linger here, the more you’ll discover the rock-solid foundation of God’s plan of redemption.
How to Read Genesis with Care and Wonder
The initial chapters of Genesis don’t merely introduce the story of the Bible; they help train us to read the rest of it. So take today slowly, asking the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to behold the wonder of His Word. Read and reread each chapter, paying attention to the details, delighting in new discoveries, and allowing Scripture’s picture of who God is (and all the hints of Christ!) to captivate your heart anew.
1. Read in light of the God of the beginning.
Have you ever wondered why the Bible opens with the creation of the universe? It may seem obvious to you that the story would start here, but it could have begun with any Old Testament person or event—Abraham, the Exodus, or even the laws of Leviticus—keeping the focus national or historical rather than cosmic and universal. Instead, Moses, the author of Genesis, introduces God as the source of everything, the Creator who exists outside of time and space.
Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” God wasn’t created. He wasn’t formed by biology or shaped by culture. He’s self-existent, in no way dependent on anything. He’s also self-giving, choosing to reveal Himself to those He’s made.
“From the outset, Genesis confronts us with the Living God, unmistakably personal,” writes one Old Testament scholar, “and the book continues to make this emphasis in its account of man’s constitution in God’s image, and of God’s persistent concern for a personal relationship with His servants.”1
Remember this as the story unfolds: God is not only the Creator but the all-powerful Sustainer of life. He names, blesses, and provides. His authority is absolute, and trusting and obeying Him is the natural response of those He has made.
Yet soon after creation, humanity quickly failed. In Genesis 3:1–7, instead of depending on God, Adam and Eve tried to take His place, questioning Him and redefining their world on their own terms. By Genesis 6, at the time of Noah, the broader world disregarded God’s supremacy and continued in wickedness. By Genesis 11, the people, proud and dishonoring, attempted to make a name for themselves at the Tower of Babel, seeking security apart from God.
As humanity descended into deeper corruption, it was almost unrecognizable compared to the world that was designed for life to flourish and for people to prosper. The people God made in His image had rebelled against their perfect Creator—and naturally, judgment followed. What hope is left?
Return to the beginning. The people of God failed, but the God of Genesis 1 remained the same. From the very first page, He demonstrated His power to redeem:
He brought the cosmos out of chaos, turned darkness into light, made divisions between them, transformed cursing into blessing, and moved from what was evil and darkness to what was holy. This parallels the work of God in Exodus, which records His redeeming Israel by destroying the Egyptian forces of chaos. . . . Ultimately He who caused light to shine out of darkness made His light shine in the hearts of believers (2 Cor. 4:6) so that they become new creations (2 Cor. 5:17).2
The pattern echoes throughout Scripture. The whole of Genesis—and the Old Testament and the Bible—is not just about God’s plan for redemption; it’s about Him.The first five books of the Bible don’t merely record historical information; they give an extended answer to one specific question:
Moses had asked, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” (Ex. 3:13). The short answer he was to give them was simply, “I AM has sent me to you” (Ex. 3:14). The long answer was the Pentateuch.3
2. Keep in mind that Genesis is part one of a five-volume book written to a pilgrim people.
Perhaps you’ve previously done Bible studies at church on Genesis, Exodus, or Deuteronomy. Maybe you’ve intentionally avoided books like Leviticus or Numbers. We often think of each of these books as separate, self-contained accounts. But Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, which are known as the Pentateuch in English (or the Torah in Hebrew), were written as one book.
While they may be read separately,something is lost when we don’t slow down to notice the threads that run through them. These books were written by one author at a pivotal point in their story. They were given to the generation of Israelites about to go into the promised land, needing to remember who God was and what He’d already done.
The Creator God of Genesis 1 had formed a covenant with the people of Israel, and He had promised a future with them. One theologian said, “For Moses, the author of the Pentateuch, biblical Israel was not an ordinary people and Israel’s history was not an ordinary history. The history which is recounted in the Pentateuch is a history of God’s redemption of his people and through them the redemption of the world.”4
3. Take note when important words and themes show up for the first time.
As Genesis begins, it doesn’t merely set the stage for what’s to come; it introduces the main themes that you’ll find throughout all of Scripture. As one scholar explains, “The first three chapters of Genesis introduce all the major concepts that are developed in the rest of the Bible: God’s nature, man’s purpose, the divine image, divine mercy, divine grace, temptation, human depravity, atonement, blessing, the future Messiah, etc.”5
When you come across important words for the first time, consider what is being said about them. Notice, for example, the first time God calls something good:
The “good” which the author has in view has a very specific range of meaning in chapter 1—the “good” is that which is beneficial for humankind.6
What does this tell us about the Creator?
Throughout this opening chapter the author depicts God as the one who both knows what is “good” for humankind and is intent on providing the good for them.7
As you continue reading the Pentateuch, pay attention to when these same words show up again. “Good” shows up again right after the creation account. In Genesis 3:6 “the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at.” As one scholar notes, “When we read the portrayal of God in chapter 1 as the provider of all that is good and beneficial, we cannot help but see an anticipation of the author’s depiction of the hollowness of that first rebellious thought.”8
What the woman sees as good is different than what God sees as good. This parallel is not only ironic, it highlights the limitations of human wisdom compared to the all-knowing, gracious Creator. Surely that truth still has implications for us today.
Genesis is filled with deliberate patterns and recurring words that point to deep truths—because there’s no better writer in all the world than the Holy Spirit. So, when you notice details that seem to reach back and echo what was said in the beginning, see them as an invitation to slow down, pay closer attention, and seek to understand why they’re there. These guide us to recognize God’s character and the way He works to accomplish His purposes.
4. Pay attention to all the signposts pointing to Jesus.
When the original audience heard the first few chapters of Genesis, they didn’t have the joy of reading through a New Testament lens—but we do. Genesis 1 finds its fulfillment in Christ, the eternal Word through whom all things were made (John 1:1–3).
- Throughout Genesis 1, we see God’s power bringing about the beauty of creation from a formless, dark, and empty earth. It gives new depth to 2 Corinthians 5:17, which says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.”
- In Genesis 1:3, “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” In 2 Corinthians 4:6, we see that “God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ.”
- God’s work in creation ends with rest (Gen. 2:2). At the cross, as Jesus completes the work His Father gave Him to do, He declares, “It is finished” (John 19:30).
As you read Genesis and are reminded of Jesus, jot down your discoveries and let them lead you to gratitude and worship. These don’t just mark the beginning of the Bible—they’re the beginning of the gospel.
5. Celebrate what the beginning reveals about the end.
By starting with “in the beginning,” God tells us from page one that there will be an ending. Better than that, when we reach the end of the biblical story in Revelation, we learn that there will be a new beginning (Rev. 21:5).
It’s hard to imagine, but the garden gives us a glimpse. In Genesis 3:8 “the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze.” Can you imagine being so close to the Lord that you could hear Him moving, His presence filling the world He made? Humanity was meant to live in intimacy with God—a closeness that was broken by sin.
In the New Testament, we see God fulfilling this original intention, as “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). One day soon we’ll experience a return to the way “it was in the garden at the beginning, only better, and this time, forever. God’s people in God’s place, enjoying God himself in their midst for all time.”9
Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. (Revelation 21:3)
Let This Beginning Shape Your Life
As you begin a new year reading through God’s Word, whether this is your first time or whether you’ve read through the Bible more times than you can count, remember that Genesis is not merely the beginning of a story. This book offers you a blueprint of God’s heart: the Creator who chose to make Himself known, who brings life out of nothing, who planned a path to redemption in Jesus, and who has promised a new creation yet to come.
Let these early chapters shape the way you read the rest of Scripture. More than that, let them shape the way you live. Learn to recognize patterns of promise, mercy, and hope that will unfold again and again throughout the Bible—and look for them all around you. The same faithful Creator is still at work, making all things new in your life and in the world He loves.
1 Derek Kidner, Genesis (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2019), 35.
2 Allen P. Ross, “Genesis,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F.
Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 28.
3 John H. Sailhamer, The Pentateuch as Narrative: A Biblical‑Theological Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 1995), 6.
4 Sailhamer, The Pentateuch as Narrative, 6.
5 Michael Rydelnik and Michael Vanlaningham, eds., The Moody Bible Commentary (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2014), 30.
6 Sailhamer, The Pentateuch as Narrative, 88.
7 Sailhamer, The Pentateuch as Narrative, 88.
8 Sailhamer, The Pentateuch as Narrative, 88.
9 Nancy Guthrie, The Promised One: Seeing Jesus in Genesis (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2011), 54.
As you read, God’s Word will shape your heart, renew your mind, and transform your life. This is more than a reading plan—it’s a journey that draws you closer to Him, moment by moment, page by page.
Join Thousands of Women Reading Through the Bible in 2026
Join the Discussion