If you ever needed an outline for a soap opera, you could find it in the Book of Genesis. Maybe you need a movie with a great sweep of characters and action. Genesis has everything. There are great dynasties, wealthy and powerful men, murder, sex, and intrigue. In fact, everything you could hope to find in a modern, prime-time drama is right there.

Some fools look at it and shudder thinking, Is this what the God of the Old Testament was like. Of course not—this is what people are like. For his own reasons, God has decided to work with man toward his own goals. And that brings us to the reason for this series of programs. What in the world is God doing?

God has a long term plan for man, and the outlines of it are barely evident in Genesis, but they are there. Someone once called Genesis the story of one man’s family—the one man being Abraham. And with his grandson Jacob—and Jacob’s sons, the patriarchs of the storied twelve tribes of Israel—God took a major step in his plan.