Herodian building marking Machpelah, the burial place Abraham purchased for Sarah

How Firm a FoundationLesson One: Abram part 1Chapters 1-25

Maps Used with permission from Dr. Terry C. Hulbert

7 days of the Creation week Genesis 1:1-2:3

• The Context: Pentateuch means “five-volume” and was given by God to Moses at Mt. Sinai and in the Wilderness.

• The Audience: The Israelites, descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, had been set free from Egypt and slavery and were about to possess the land of Canaan.

• The Ten Commandments starts with:“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house

of slavery.”

G

7 days of the Creation week Genesis 1:1-2:3

The Book of Genesis

Genesis 1-11

1. Generation of

2. Generation of

3. Generation of

4. Generation of

5. Generation of

Genesis 12-50

6. Generation of

7. Generation of

8. Generation of

9. Generation of

10.Generation of

7 days of the Creation week Genesis 1:1-2:3

Day God Said Visible Result Ps. 24:1

1 Let there be Light There was LightThe earth

is the Lord’s2 Let there be expanse in

midst of watersIt was so

3 Let there be dry land and waters become seas

It was so

4 Greater/Lesser Lights/Stars It was so

And everythingin it

5 Birds/water creatures God created them

6 Creatures on earthMankind

It was so

7 God rested on the 7th day God sanctified it

• What God says…is so.• God’s Dominion is over everything.• There is nothing in man’s realm of experience

that is outside of God’s dominion.

Seven Days of Creation Week

7 days of the Creation week Genesis 1:1-2:3

Seven Promises to Abram

Chapter Location Method Receive-Respond

12:1-3 Haran The Lord said Abram went.

The Great Sea

The Black Sea

Nineveh

Egypt

Abraham and Sarah travel from Ur to Haran to Canaan to Egypt

and return to Canaan.

Ur

Haran

From Mesopotamia and Damascus

Salem

E

To Egypt

Jericho

TransJordanian Highway

Shechem Bethel

Hebron

Beersheba

“ . . . All the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever.” (13:15)

Abraham arrives in the land God had promised to him in Ur and at Haran.

“To your descendants I will give this land.” (12:7)

To Elat / Gulf of Aqaba

Dead (Salt) SeaJordan Valley

E

Site of Shechem (center, between Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Ebal)

W

From Mesopotamia and Damascus

Salem

E

To Egypt

Jericho

TransJordanian Highway

ShechemBethel

Hebron

Beersheba

Faced with a famine, Abraham travels to Egypt and returns to Bethel. (12:9 – 13:4)

To Elat / Gulf of Aqaba

“He pitched his tent . . . and there built an altar to the Lord, calling on the name of the Lord.” (13:3,4)

The Mediterranean Sea

Dead (Salt) SeaJordan Valley

Nahal Gerar in the Negev“Now Abraham journeyed from there toward the Negev . . . then he journey in Gerar.” (20:1)

Hebron

Salem

WILDERNESS OF ZIN

E

Angels appear to Abraham at Mamre (Hebron) en route to destroy Sodom where Lot lived. (18)

Beersheba

Shechem

GerarNEGEV

The Mediterranean Sea

The (Salt) Dead Sea

Bethel

Jericho Zoar

Sodom / Gomorrah?

3000’

- 1300’-1200’

3000’

(Note relative elevations.)

Abram migrates south to Hebron and the Negev.