Beginning With God
Four connected resources help you study Genesis, read with Will, practice independently, and lead a group. Each serves a distinct part of the same journey.
Selected teaching covers Genesis 1–11, with three guided bridges and a final independent practice in Genesis 12. The commentary remains the substantive foundation. Participants can begin with a Bible and the teaching.
Choose the resource for your task
The World God Made and the World We Broke
The substantive theological and interpretive foundation. Seventeen chapters develop Genesis 1–11 through sustained commentary and deeper questions.
Explore the commentary →Beginning With God Teaching Resource
Eight approved teaching scripts, thirty-two supported reading checkpoints, independent readings, and three reading bridges. The show demonstrates how to follow a passage and explain what its words establish.
Explore the eight teachings →Beginning With God Participant Guide
Observation, questions, writing space, reflection, short self-checks, three bridges, and a final independent reading. Try an answer before checking the explanation. Prepared for pilot use.
See how to use the guide →Beginning With God Leader Manual
Preparation notes, an adaptable meeting plan, suggested responses matched to participant prompts, difficult-question guidance, and checks for independent reading. Prepared for pilot use.
See how to lead the season →These catalog references identify the matching resources. BA-43500 remains the original commentary book number. TR identifies the Teaching Resource, PG the Participant Guide, LM the Leader Manual, and S01 the first teaching season. PK identifies the assembled set. The eight episode references remain unchanged.
Begin with your Bible
For personal reading
Read the assigned passage and attempt the first task before hearing the teaching. Use the Participant Guide during the reading pauses, then explain the passage in your own words. Check the answer from Scripture and prepare the next independent reading. Consult the commentary when you want fuller study.
For a church, home group, or class
Add the Leader Manual to prepare the passage, guide discussion, and offer supported feedback. Its suggested responses help you examine reasons rather than require everyone to repeat the same wording. Personal disclosure remains optional; questions and disagreement have room within careful reading.
The teaching manuscript can support a leader while recordings are pending. An eight-episode season need not be eight meetings. Allow time for reading pauses and bridges; the flood teaching may benefit from two meetings.
What to expect from each resource
The commentary gives depth. The teaching provides a complete guided encounter with a Bible alone. The Participant Guide gives learners work to attempt; the Leader Manual helps another person lead that work. The companions support the teaching rather than repeat the commentary chapter by chapter.
Genesis teaching scripts and reading exercises are approved; recording and release remain pending. The two companions are prepared for pilot use. Access and release details will be added as the resources become available.
Keep the matching references together
Session 1: Beginning With the Creator
43500-TV-263001 · Genesis 1:1–2:3
Learning aim: Follow Genesis 1:1 to 2:3 as one complete movement, identify its repeated patterns, and explain its emphasis using the passage.
Commentary BA-43500: Chapter 1, In the Beginning, God
The same session number appears in Participant Guide BA-43500-PG-S01 and Leader Manual BA-43500-LM-S01.
Explore the teaching →Session 2: Dignity Before Achievement
43500-TV-263002 · Genesis 1:26–31
Learning aim: Distinguish the identity humanity receives from the vocation humanity is given, and connect an application to the verses supporting it.
Commentary BA-43500: Chapter 2, Made in the Image of God
The same session number appears in Participant Guide BA-43500-PG-S01 and Leader Manual BA-43500-LM-S01.
Explore the teaching →Session 3: Life in the Garden
43500-TV-263003 · Genesis 2:4–25
Learning aim: Trace how the two parts of Genesis 2 develop gift, responsibility, and relationship, reading a command within its surrounding provision.
Commentary BA-43500: Chapter 3, Dust, Breath, Garden, and Command, and Chapter 4, It Is Not Good to Be Alone
The same session number appears in Participant Guide BA-43500-PG-S01 and Leader Manual BA-43500-LM-S01.
Explore the teaching →Session 4: When Desire Rewrites the Word
43500-TV-263004 · Genesis 3:1–7
Learning aim: Compare an earlier command with its retelling, identify what changes, and evaluate a proposed conclusion against the words of Scripture.
Commentary BA-43500: Chapter 5, The Voice That Made God Seem Untrustworthy, with attention to Genesis 3:1–7
The same session number appears in Participant Guide BA-43500-PG-S01 and Leader Manual BA-43500-LM-S01.
Explore the teaching →Session 5: The God Who Meets Us in Hiding
43500-TV-263005 · Genesis 3:8–24
Learning aim: Follow an encounter through speech and action, and distinguish narrated consequences, divine commands, and theological interpretation.
Commentary BA-43500: Chapter 5, The Voice That Made God Seem Untrustworthy, with attention to Genesis 3:8–24
The same session number appears in Participant Guide BA-43500-PG-S01 and Leader Manual BA-43500-LM-S01.
Explore the teaching →Session 6: The Brother Beside Us
43500-TV-263006 · Genesis 4:1–26
Learning aim: Distinguish description from endorsement, follow a developing pattern across a narrative and genealogy, and test a later biblical connection.
Commentary BA-43500: Chapters 6–7, Your Brother’s Blood Cries Out and Building East of Eden; Chapter 8, And Then He Died, continues the reading
The same session number appears in Participant Guide BA-43500-PG-S01 and Leader Manual BA-43500-LM-S01.
Explore the teaching →Session 7: Judgment Covenant and a Wounded World
43500-TV-263007 · Genesis 6:5–9:17
Learning aim: Trace an extended narrative through its turning points, interpret a promise within its stated scope, and distinguish evidence from unanswered questions.
Commentary BA-43500: Chapters 9–14, from When God Grieves through When Interpretation Becomes Oppression, support the flood teaching and its additional guided readings
The same session number appears in Participant Guide BA-43500-PG-S01 and Leader Manual BA-43500-LM-S01.
Explore the teaching →Session 8: A Name We Try to Build for Ourselves
43500-TV-263008 · Genesis 11:1–9
Learning aim: Trace a theme across adjacent passages and an explicit New Testament reading while keeping each passage in its own context.
Commentary BA-43500: Chapters 15–17, One Family, Many Nations, Let Us Make a Name for Ourselves, and God Works in the Quiet Generations
The same session number appears in Participant Guide BA-43500-PG-S01 and Leader Manual BA-43500-LM-S01.
Explore the teaching →The readings between sessions
After Session 6 and before Session 7: Genesis 5 and Genesis 6:1–4. After Session 7 and before Session 8: Genesis 9:18–29. After Session 8: practice a new reading independently in Genesis 12:1–9.
Open the three guided readings →Continue through Scripture
Future seasons follow coherent passages and learning needs. Their length and exercises can change with the biblical genre. Commentary volumes need not each become a matching teaching season. Briefly treated material will have an identified place in teaching, a bridge, guided reading, or dedicated treatment.