How to wrap up in a neat little bow the first book of Scripture that begins, well, “In the beginning?” So much of my childhood Sunday School memories come from this book: Adam and Eve, Cain killing Abel, Noah’s Arky, Arky, Abraham and Sarah, almost sacrificing Isaac yet God provides otherwise, poor Esau tricked by the supplanter, Jacob, who later wrestles the angel and is renamed Israel, then Jacob’s twelve sons and the jealous brothers of Joseph who sell him with his coat of many colors into slavery in Egypt, only to have dream-interpreter Joseph rise to power second only to Pharoah and thus save all Israel from famine, and, and, and…

In fact, I remember a seminary Old Testament professor sharing with us 40 years ago in class that nearly all biblical scholars, whether Jewish or Christian, believe that the most ancient and foundational Old Testament biblical narrative is actually the story of Moses, the burning bush, telling Pharoah to “Let my people go!”, the plagues, the parting of the sea, the wandering in the wilderness, the giving of the law. But I digress, because that’s all in the book of Exodus, not Genesis!

No, Genesis ends in chapter 50 with Papa Jacob having just died, Joseph instructing doctors in the care of his body in preparation for burial, and the reminder that God will lead them again to the land promised to Abraham, our ancestor in the faith. All that is to say that it’s commonly held among biblical scholars that, in modern terms, Exodus was the first novel or movie, and then it was such a smash hit that Genesis came out as the prequel!

The essence and purpose of Genesis? To reflect back—all the way to the beginning—on the God who is most fully revealed in the deliverance (exodus) from bondage in Egypt, the God who fulfills promises, the God stronger than Pharoah, who chooses Israel as God’s own people. One might even say that Genesis is essentially the detailed Joseph narrative with a long introduction. And, the purpose of that Joseph narrative is to set the stage for Israel’s being in bondage in Egypt in the first place, to set the stage for the bad Pharoahs coming along, the rise of Moses, and, indeed the Exodus! The same God whom we know primarily in deliverance, in setting us free, is surely the same God who called (“Let there be…”).