In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

The earth was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep,

and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

And God said, let there be light.

And there was light.

And so begins the old, old story, the beginning of history, as recorded in the book of beginnings, Genesis.

The first book of the Torah, the law, the instruction, the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses.

And these five law books, along with the prophets and the writings, form the Tanakh,

the three major parts of what we call the Hebrew Bible.

This book, or better yet, this library of books, tells a story not only of the creation of the

world by the one and only true God, but the fall of humanity into sin and misery.

Yet in man's despair, a promise hope of a redeemer to come is announced.

The seed of the woman is going to crush the serpent's head.

The seed from the godly line, a people chosen by God, the descendants of the

Sethites through Noah and his son Shem, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who is renamed

Israel, from which the 12 tribes of Israel descend. A people called out of sin and obscurity and called into holiness and covenant faithfulness to God as a kingly priesthood.

This is the people that Moses leads out of slavery in the land of Egypt at God's command, those to whom he reveals his

covenant name Yahweh and gave his holy law at Mount Sinai and the instructions for the building

of the tabernacle. These are the people of the kingdom, of Joshua and the judges of King David

and his son Solomon. This is the royal priesthood to God, the people of the Passover and of the

Sabbath, the festivals, the temple. those that Paul the Apostle says in Romans

3-2 were entrusted with the oracles of God. There's is a story of faith and faithfulness

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