Meeting God in the Old Testament Provider In Genesis 22:14, God has just saved Isaac the son of Abraham from being sacrificed by his father. He has commanded Abraham to stop and has provided a ram in Isaac’s place. In gratitude, Abraham names the place of sacrifice “The Lord will provide.” Abraham’s descendants could easily have taken that statement for their motto for the next 150 years, as God continually provides for them. Let’s study what God does so that we can better understand Him as Provider. 1. Drawing on what you know of the story of Joseph, how many things happened to Joseph that we would consider Really Really Bad if they happened to us? 
 2. Did God know about the Bad Things that were going to happen? Could He have prevented them? Why didn’t He? 
 3. What did God know that Joseph didn’t know? 
 4. Why did God set up such a complicated series of events? 
 Genesis 45:1-15 Main Scripture More Scriptures Genesis 30:25-43; Genesis 32:1-12; Genesis 33:1-19; Genesis 50:22-26 Questions: Genesis 45:1-15 What does God’s constant provision for His people tell us about Him?

Perhaps the hardest thing for us to understand about God is not His existence—whenever we look up at the stars at night, we see that proclaimed—but the fact that God is interested in mankind. Why would a being of such power and magnificence bother interacting with puny mortals like us? Nonetheless, Scripture is quite plain: God DOES care what we do. These passages tell the story of the first agreements ever made between the human and the divine.

For thousands of years, scientists, philosophers, and mystics have been asking, “Where did we come from?” The Bible gives us the definitive answer to that question. The universe is the handiwork of God. In this lesson, you’re going to use Genesis 1-2 and other Old Testament Scriptures to answer the questions below. Then, in class, we’re going to use everyone’s answers to build a portrait of the God who can create something from nothing.