The Bible is a library of many books, written by many authors, across many generations. And yet those books tell one unified Story.
It begins in a garden.
It moves through God’s promises to Abraham and Israel, the rise and fall of kings, and centuries of waiting. Then Jesus enters the Story. He announces God’s Kingdom, enters another garden, gives His life on a tree, rises from the dead, and sends His Spirit to empower His people.
And the Bible ends where it began: with God, humanity, creation, a river, and the Tree of Life.
Except now it isn’t simply a garden.
It’s a Garden City.
Each day this week, we’ll practice four movements:
READ
What does this passage actually say? Pay attention to repeated words, images, locations, characters, and ideas.
TRACE
Where have we seen this before? Biblical authors intentionally develop ideas across Scripture. Look backward and forward.
SEE JESUS
How does this part of the Story ultimately lead us toward Jesus?
LIVE
If this is God’s Story and we have been invited into it, how should we live?
Genesis 11:1–9
The opening chapters of the Bible describe humanity repeatedly choosing life on its own terms rather than trusting God. In Genesis 11, people gather together to build a great city and a tower reaching toward the heavens. Their motivation is revealing: they want to “make a name” for themselves. They are searching for significance, security, and greatness apart from the God who created them. God responds by confusing their language, and the people who wanted to gather themselves together are scattered among the nations.
QUESTION: What do you think the people of Babel were really searching for when they wanted to “make a name” for themselves?
Pay attention to what happens next because Genesis 11 and Genesis 12 belong together. Genesis 11 ends with humanity scattered among the nations. Then, in Genesis 12, God calls a man named Abraham and promises that through him all the nations of the earth will be blessed. God has not abandoned the scattered world. He begins His plan to bless it through one man and the family that will come from him. The answer to Babel begins with Abraham.
QUESTION: What does God’s response to Babel tell you about His desire for the scattered nations?
As the story of the Bible unfolds, Abraham’s family eventually becomes the nation of Israel, and generations later Jesus is born from this family. Through Jesus, God’s blessing begins spreading to people from every nation. What humanity could not accomplish by building its way up to God, God accomplishes by coming down to us. The Bible is telling one connected story of a God who pursues and restores people who have wandered from Him.
QUESTION: How does knowing that God came toward us in Jesus change the way you think about your relationship with Him?
We still build our own versions of Babel. We can look to our careers, accomplishments, money, homes, relationships, reputation, or success to prove that our lives matter. None of those things are necessarily wrong, but they were never meant to carry the weight of our identity.
QUESTION: Where are you most tempted to build your own significance rather than receive your identity from God?
Genesis 12:1–9
God’s plan to bless the scattered nations begins with a surprising command. He tells Abraham to leave his country, his extended family, and everything familiar and travel to a land God will show him. Abraham doesn’t receive a detailed plan for what comes next. He receives a promise and an invitation to trust the One making it. God promises Abraham land, a family, a great name, and blessing. But the blessing isn’t meant to end with Abraham. God tells him, “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
QUESTION: What do you think would have been hardest about obeying God’s command if you were in Abraham’s position?
This becomes one of the most important patterns in the Bible: God blesses His people so they can become a blessing to others. God’s choice of Abraham isn’t simply about giving special privileges to one family. God intends to work through this family for the sake of the world. What God gives Abraham has a purpose beyond Abraham. His blessing is meant to flow outward.
QUESTION: How does seeing blessing as something meant to flow through you change the way you think about what God has given you?
Abraham’s family eventually grows into the nation of Israel, and many generations later Jesus is born into that family. The New Testament identifies Jesus as the descendant of Abraham through whom God’s promised blessing reaches the nations. The promise God makes to one man in Genesis begins reaching people throughout the world through Jesus.
QUESTION: What does this connection between Abraham and Jesus reveal about how long God had been working out His plan to rescue and bless people?
The same principle should shape how we see what God has given us. Our abilities, opportunities, experiences, relationships, homes, resources, and influence aren’t simply things to enjoy. They can become ways we serve others and participate in what God is doing.
QUESTION: What has God entrusted to you that could become a blessing to someone else this week?
Genesis 15:1–6
There is a problem with God’s promise to Abraham: years have passed, and Abraham still doesn’t have a child. God promised to make a great nation from his family, but Abraham cannot see how that could possibly happen. God brings Abraham outside and tells him to look at the night sky. He tells him to count the stars, if he can, and promises that his descendants will someday be just as numerous. Abraham still doesn’t know how God will accomplish it, but he chooses to believe God.
QUESTION: What stands out to you about the difference between Abraham’s circumstances and what God had promised him?
This moment teaches us something essential about biblical faith. Faith isn’t optimism, positive thinking, or pretending difficult circumstances aren’t real. Faith is trusting God’s character and promises even when we cannot see how He will accomplish them. Abraham has questions, and his circumstances haven’t changed, but he chooses to trust the One who made the promise. Later in the Bible, the apostle Paul returns to Abraham’s story when explaining what it means to have faith in God.
QUESTION: How is trusting God different from simply hoping that circumstances will turn out the way you want?
The gospel invites us into that same kind of trust. Christianity isn’t ultimately about proving ourselves to God through our effort or becoming good enough to earn His acceptance. It is about trusting what God has already done for us through Jesus. Abraham trusted God’s promise even when he couldn’t see the outcome. We are invited to trust God’s promise of forgiveness, new life, and restoration because of what Jesus has accomplished for us.
QUESTION: Where are you tempted to rely on your own performance rather than trust what Jesus has already done for you?
There are seasons when we desperately want God to show us how everything is going to work out. Sometimes He doesn’t. Faith means we can trust Him even when we don’t have the answer yet.
QUESTION: Where are you struggling because you cannot see how God is going to work? Name it honestly before Him, and then pray: God, I don’t know how, but I trust You.
Genesis 18:16–33
As Abraham’s story continues, we discover that God’s purpose for his family involves more than simply receiving God’s promises. God says Abraham and his family are to “keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just.” God wants Abraham’s family to become people whose lives reflect His character. Then Abraham learns that judgment is coming upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of their wickedness, and he pleads with God on behalf of the people living there. The man God has blessed is beginning to use his relationship with God for the sake of others.
QUESTION: What do you learn about God’s purpose for Abraham from both His call to live rightly and Abraham’s concern for others?
This idea becomes enormously important throughout the rest of the Bible. God wants a people who don’t merely claim to belong to Him but actually show the world what He is like. They are called to lives marked by righteousness, justice, generosity, mercy, and faithfulness. Later, God’s prophets will repeatedly confront Israel when they practice religion while mistreating people. God’s people cannot separate their relationship with Him from the way they live and the way they treat others.
QUESTION: Why do you think God cares so deeply about how people who claim to follow Him treat others?
Jesus ultimately becomes the perfect picture of the life God’s people were always intended to live. He speaks truth while extending mercy. He welcomes outsiders, cares for the overlooked, confronts injustice, forgives sinners, loves His enemies, and gives Himself for others. Jesus doesn’t simply tell us what God is like. He shows us what God is like.
QUESTION: Which part of Jesus’ character do you most want to become more visible in your own life?
God’s work in our lives was never intended to stop with us. The grace, resources, opportunities, and influence He gives us can become ways His goodness reaches the people around us. Think about the people you will encounter today at home, at work, in your neighborhood, or somewhere unexpected.
QUESTION: Where can God’s blessing flow through you today rather than merely to you?
Genesis 22:1–18
Genesis 22 brings Abraham to the most difficult test of his life. God has finally given Abraham and Sarah the son He promised, Isaac. Everything Abraham has waited for and everything God has promised seems connected to this son. Then Abraham is asked to surrender Isaac. The tension of the story is enormous: will Abraham trust the gift God has given him, or will he trust the Giver? At the crucial moment, God stops Abraham and provides a ram for the sacrifice instead. Abraham names the place “The LORD Will Provide.”
QUESTION: What do you think this test reveals about what Abraham had learned about God during his journey?
Abraham’s entire journey has been teaching him to trust God. Again and again, Abraham discovers that God’s promises don’t ultimately depend upon his ability to make everything work. God provides what Abraham cannot. The themes in this story—an only beloved son, a mountain, sacrifice, substitution, provision, and blessing—will continue appearing throughout the Bible. They are preparing us for something much greater still to come.
QUESTION: Where have you seen God provide something you could not have produced or controlled yourself?
Centuries later, another beloved Son will climb a hill. But this time there will be no substitute waiting to take His place. At the cross, God provides His own Son, and Jesus willingly gives His life for us. The promise God made to Abraham that the nations would someday be blessed through his family ultimately leads to Jesus. The God Abraham discovered as “The LORD Who Provides” provides what humanity could never provide for itself.
QUESTION: How does seeing Jesus as God’s provision change the way you understand what happened on the cross?
We often discover what matters most to us when we’re asked whether we could surrender it. Our plans, careers, money, relationships, future, security, or even our dreams for the people we love can become things we hold more tightly than we hold God. Abraham had to learn to trust the Giver more than the gift.
QUESTION: What gift from God would be hardest for you to surrender back to Him, and what would trusting God with it look like?
Explore BibleProject’s Abraham Classroom, particularly its treatment of Genesis 1–11 as the theological foundation for Abraham’s story. Understanding what happens before Abraham helps us see why God’s promise to bless all nations through his family is such an important turning point in the Bible.
QUESTION: Looking back over these five days, how has Abraham’s story changed the way you understand God’s larger plan to bless and restore the world?
