Told for family reading. Inspired by: The Larger Catechism p.162 "Brief History of Religion"
In the beginning, God made heaven, earth, and everything that exists. Although He could have made everything in an instant, He chose to order His work in six periods that Scripture calls “days”.
In the seventh period, God rested. For this reason that day, called the Sabbath (which means rest), was later designated through Moses as a day consecrated to God.
God made man in His image and likeness. He formed his body from the earth and gave him an immortal soul. He called this first man Adam, a name meaning formed from the earth, and placed him in a place of happiness: the earthly Paradise.
Since man was alone, God wished to give him a companion. During a deep sleep, He took one of Adam’s ribs and formed the woman from it. Adam received her with joy and called her Eve, which means “life”, because she would be the mother of all human beings.
Man and woman were created to be united and to complement one another. It is a central truth, written from the very first day.
Before creating man, God created the Angels, beings of a higher nature. They are pure spirits: they have neither body nor visible form. God made them capable of knowing and loving Him, and free to choose between good and evil.
When the time of testing came, many remained faithful. Others sinned through pride: they wanted to be like God and not depend on Him.
God had placed Adam and Eve in a state of innocence, grace, and happiness, free from death and suffering. They could eat from everything in Paradise except the fruit of a tree that Scripture calls the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil”.
That command was not arbitrary: it was the way to acknowledge God as Lord. If they obeyed, they would grow in grace and happiness. If they disobeyed, they and their descendants would lose that fullness and come to know evil in both soul and body.
The devil, out of envy, tempted Eve through the serpent. She took the forbidden fruit, ate it, and persuaded Adam to do the same. Thus both sinned.
“By the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread, until you return to the ground from which you were taken.”Gn 3:19
That sin is passed on to all the descendants of Adam. We call it original sin, and all of us are born with it, with one exception: the Virgin Mary. It stains the soul from the very first moment of life, distances us from God, and subjects us to death. Understanding this helps us understand why we need to be saved.
But God did not abandon mankind. In His infinite mercy, He promised to send a Savior, the Messiah, who would free humanity from sin and the power of the devil and open once again the gates of heaven.
This promise was repeated throughout time: to the Patriarchs and later to the Hebrew people through the Prophets. The entire history that follows is understood in the light of this hope.
Adam and Eve had two sons: Cain and Abel. Cain worked the land; Abel tended flocks. Abel, good and sincere, offered God the best of his flock, and God accepted it. Cain offered the worst, and his offering was not pleasing. Filled with envy, Cain led his brother into the field and killed him.
To console them, God gave them another son, Seth, a righteous man who feared God. Throughout his long life, Adam had many more children, and thus the earth became populated.
Centuries passed and the descendants of Adam became corrupt. Wickedness filled the earth. God first warned and then punished with a flood: it rained for forty days and forty nights until the highest mountains were covered. Everyone died except Noah and his family.
One hundred years earlier, in obedience to God, Noah had built the Ark, a great vessel. Into it he entered with his wife, his three sons—Shem, Ham, and Japheth—their wives, and the animals God indicated. Noah’s patient obedience saved his family.
🗼 The Tower of Babel. Noah’s descendants multiplied so greatly that they needed to spread out. But first they wanted to build a tower reaching to heaven. God, offended by their pride, confused their languages. Unable to understand one another, they had to scatter and abandon the project. Therefore that place was called Babel, which means “confusion”.
After the flood, mankind soon returned to its errors. People even forgot the true God and fell into idolatry: worshiping created things as gods. To preserve the true religion on earth, God chose a people and guided them with special care.
As the father of that people He chose Abraham, a man from Chaldea descended from the ancient Patriarchs, faithful in the midst of a nation devoted to idols. God commanded him to leave his land and go to Canaan (also called Palestine), with a promise: he would become the origin of a great people, and from his descendants the Messiah would be born. As a sign, his wife Sarah, already elderly, gave birth to a son: Isaac.
To test his faith, God asked Abraham to sacrifice that beloved son. As he was about to do so, an angel stopped his hand. Abraham’s trusting obedience remains a model of faith for every family.
Isaac married Rebekah, and they had twin sons: Esau and Jacob. As the elder, Esau was entitled to his father’s blessing; however, he had previously given that right to Jacob for a meal, and God ordained that the blessing would ultimately fall upon Jacob.
To escape his brother’s anger, Jacob went to the house of his uncle Laban, who gave him his daughters Leah and Rachel as wives. Twenty years later he returned wealthy and with a large family. On the journey, before reconciling with Esau, God changed his name to Israel.
Jacob had twelve sons. The youngest, Joseph and Benjamin, were the sons of Rachel. Joseph was the most prudent and his father’s favorite, which aroused the envy of his brothers. They even considered killing him, but in the end they sold him to merchants who took him to Egypt.
There, thanks to his good conduct, Joseph gained the trust of his master. Falsely accused, he was imprisoned for two years. He was released after interpreting two dreams of Pharaoh: he foretold seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine. The king appointed him viceroy of Egypt. During the good years he stored provisions, so that when famine came, Egypt had food in abundance.
After seventeen years in Egypt, nearing death, Jacob gathered his sons and Joseph’s two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. He asked them to one day return to Canaan and take his remains there. He blessed each one and announced to Judah that supreme authority would not depart from his descendants until the coming of the Messiah.
From Adam to Joseph, a single promise runs through history: God does not abandon His people, and He patiently prepares the coming of the Savior.
What story will you read with your family this week to continue following the thread of this promise? 🕊️