Long ago the descendants of Abraham were slaves in Egypt. The pagan Egyptian culture surrounded them. God sent Moses to lead them out of Egypt to a new home in the Promised Land. Moses followed God’s instructions for rescuing the Israelites from slavery. As they traveled toward the Promised Land, God inspired Moses to write the first five books of the Old Testament. These writings included the Ten Commandments and other laws that God wanted the Israelites to follow. God also gave them a history lesson. That history lesson began with the account of Creation in Genesis. God told them about the origin of light, the origin of the heavens and the earth, of the plants and animals–and of us. Every culture has a Creation story. The people living in the world today can hear secular Creation stories from various sources any time of the day. Perhaps the Israelites were familiar with the Egyptian Creation story, but God wanted them to know His Creation story—the real Creation story from the One Who was there in the beginning–God Himself. By starting with Creation, God was helping the Israelites to know who they were.

A loving Father wants His children to know and remember who they are. It is easy to forget. Many parents have called to their children as they headed out the door: “Don’t forget who you are!” God doesn’t want His children to forget either.

The first thing God wanted the Israelites to know was that God Himself was in the beginning. He wanted them to know that everything they knew with their five senses was something He had made. He also wanted them to know that each of them—male and female—was created in His image. He wanted them to know the origin of marriage. He wanted them to know that all people were descended from that first married man and woman.

Psalm 100, verse 3 instructs us…

Know that the Lord Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. 

What does that verse say? It says, we didn’t make ourselves. God made us. We live in a culture where people want to make themselves in their own image or in the image of some popular icon. It is not our place to make ourselves, and if we could do that, what a comedown it would be. We are made in the image of our loving Almighty God. The Israelites needed to know who they were. We need to know who we are, and our children need to know, too.