Reading the Bible in One Year as One Story
Bible Readings 2026, Week 4; January 19-25
Verse of the week to live by:
“I will bless you…so that you will be a blessing.” (Gen. 12:2)
Stage 3: Redemption
Abraham (Gen.12-25)
In the flow of the biblical story, Abraham appears in Genesis 12 immediately after the fall (Gen 3), the flood (Gen 6–9), and Babel (Gen 11), where humanity stands fractured and alienated from God. Genesis answers the question raised at Babel—how will God restore blessing to a scattered world?
God chooses Abraham so that blessing may overflow to all nations (“In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed,” Gen 12:3). From this point forward, the redemptive story moves from Eden to Christ to the New Creation through the Abrahamic covenant (Gen 12; 15; 17; 22). God’s promises to Abraham include land, seed, and blessing—the seed fulfilled both in a great multitude and ultimately in one representative Son, and the blessing defined as reconciliation with God for the nations. Genesis 15 stands at the heart of this covenant, where God alone passes through the covenant pieces, declaring that fulfillment rests entirely on His faithfulness, not Abraham’s performance—anticipating justification by grace, (“he believed the LORD, and He counted it to him as righteousness,” Gen 15:6). The New Testament bears witness to the fulfillment of this promise in Romans 4, Galatians 3, and James 2. As the promise of the seed moves from corporate to singular, it reaches a typological climax in the near-sacrifice of Isaac (Gen 22), where a beloved son is offered on a mountain and God Himself provides the substitute—pointing forward to Christ, the true Seed (Gal 3:16). Through Him, Abraham’s blessing reaches the nations, the people of God are defined not by ethnicity but by faith (Isa 51:1–2; Luke 3:8; Rom 4:16–17), and the land promise expands beyond Canaan to the inheritance of the whole world (Rom 4:13), the better country Abraham longed for (Heb. 11), and finally the renewed creation where God dwells with His people forever (Rev 21–22).
January 19; Stage 3: Redemption
Gen 17-19
1. Gen. 17:5; “No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.”
What is the meaning of the name “Abraham?”
2. Gen. 18:1-3; “And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. 2 He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth 3 and said, “O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant.”
Who were the three men?
3. Gen. 19:37-38; “The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. 38 The younger also bore a son and called his name Ben-ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites to this day.”
Who was the grandfather of the Moabites and the Ammonites?
January 20; Stage 3: Redemption
Gen 20-23
1. Gen. 20:2; “And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.”
Was this the first occasion on which Abraham lied about Sarah?
2. Gen. 21:4; “And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.”
Where did God command Abraham to circumcise his offspring?
3. Gen. 22:14; “So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
Does this passage point to the coming Messiah?
January 21; Stage 3: Redemption
Gen 24-26
1. Gen. 24:4; “But will go to my country and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son Isaac.”
What was Abraham’s homeland?
2. Gen. 25:11; “After the death of Abraham, God blessed Isaac his son. And Isaac settled at Beer-lahai-roi.”
What is the meaning of the name “Isaac?”
3. Gen. 26:34-35; “When Esau was forty years old, he took Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite to be his wife, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite, 35 and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.”
Do you think Isaac and Rebekah were distressed because Esau married foreign women?
January 22; Stage 3: Redemption
Gen 27-29
1. Gen. 27:33; “Then Isaac trembled very violently and said, “Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him? Yes, and he shall be blessed.”
How did God bless a Jacob despite his deception?
2. Gen. 28:12-13; “And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder[a] set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! 13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring.”
How did Jesus apply this passage to Himself in John chapter 1?
3. Gen. 29:35; “And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she called his name Judah. Then she ceased bearing.
What is the meaning of the name “Judah?”
January 23; Stage 3: Redemption
Gen 30-32
1. Gen. 30:24; “And she called his name Joseph, saying, “May the Lord add to me another son!”
What is the meaning of the name “Joseph?”
2. Gen. 32:9-12; “And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’ 10 I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. 11 Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. 12 But you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’”
How does this passage show Jacob’s repentance and renewed commitment to the Lord?
3. Gen. 32:30; “So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.”
What is the meaning of the word “Peniel?” Did Jacob see God face to face?
January 24; Stage 3: Redemption
Gen 33-36
1. Gen. 33:18; “And Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, on his way from Paddan-aram, and he camped before the city.”
What is the significance of Shechem in Abraham’s story?
2. Gen. 35:1-4; “God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” 2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments. 3 Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.” 4 So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears. Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree that was near Shechem.”
What is the meaning of Bethel?
3. Gen. 35:18-19; “And as her soul was departing (for she was dying), she called his name Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin. 19 So Rachel died, and she was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem)”
What do the names Ben-oni and Benjamin mean, and how do they reveal God’s redemptive grace in turning sorrow into blessing and death into hope?
January 25; Stage 3: Redemption
Gen 37-39
1. Gen. 37:28; “Then Midianite traders passed by. And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt.”
How does Joseph compare to Jesus in this situation?
2. Gen. 38:29-30; “But as he drew back his hand, behold, his brother came out. And she said, “What a breach you have made for yourself!” Therefore his name was called Perez. 30 Afterward his brother came out with the scarlet thread on his hand, and his name was called Zerah.”
How did Perez and Zerah enter the genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:3), despite the circumstances of their birth?
3. Gen. 39:9; “He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?”
How does sin against Potiphar and his wife ultimately constitute sin against God?