Relevant Verses: Gen. 1-3; 4:1-9

Leading Question: If you were to look at our created world without any reference to Scripture, where would you place it on a spectrum extending from good to evil?

Our lessons this quarter focus on God’s care for those in need, and by extension, our care for our needy fellow humans. Interestingly enough, our study guide begins with a perfect world where everything was declared by God to be good. Indeed, at the end of the sixth day of Creation, God surveyed everything he had made and declared it to be “very good” (1:31).

Question: In Genesis 1, what features of the good created world have within them the potential for being evil? Water and darkness! Is there anything else in that perfect world that has the potential to be sinister?

Question: What phrases point to a certain “exuberance” in the newly created world? “Be fruitful and multiply” (1:22) and “Let us make humankind in our image” (1:26).

Question: Is there any thing disquieting in Genesis 2?

• What about the tree?
• “Naked but not ashamed”?

Question: How would one characterize the main players in Genesis 3?

• Serpent
• Woman
• Man
• God

Comment: By the end of Genesis 3, the full Great Controversy setting has been established, the framework within which the “disadvantaged” in God’s world must be addressed.