PDF, Lesson #5 Person to a People DISCUSSION GUIDE From a Person to a People 
This lesson completes Genesis by showing how God narrowed His focus from all humanity to one family that would become the nation of Israel. It reviews Genesis as four major events (creation, the fall, the flood, Babel) followed by four major people (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph). The lesson explains that God’s focus on Israel does not mean He stopped caring about the rest of humanity, but that through Israel God would preserve His Word, model worship, and serve as witnesses so that all nations would ultimately be blessed through the coming Savior, Jesus.
The lesson also explores the relationship between God’s sovereignty and human responsibility. God’s plan of salvation is certain, like a ship with a set destination, yet individual choices still matter and shape a person’s experience and consequences along the journey.
Through the lives of the patriarchs, we see both faith and failure: Abraham’s obedience and trust, Isaac’s quiet endurance and repeated missteps, Jacob’s scheming and God’s steady covenant promises, and Joseph’s suffering that God used to preserve many lives. The lesson closes by emphasizing that God can be trusted as the captain of the journey, even when life is unsettling, and that His promises will be fulfilled in His timing.
Following, is the podcast and the video on the lesson. NOTES, and an all new DISCUSSION Guide that can also be used as a journal are below the podcast and video. Click on the cover images to download the handouts.
For FREE, editable source material to teach the lesson yourself, go to the Bible805 Academy, where you can also download all the resources you need to teach the lesson.
This lesson introduces Abraham as a central figure in Genesis and a key example of how God chooses and shapes His people. While Abraham is often called a hero of the faith, the lesson makes clear that the true hero throughout the Bible is God Himself. Abraham’s story is not primarily about human greatness, but about God’s grace, initiative, patience, and faithfulness in working through imperfect people.
This lesson introduces three foundational questions that shape the entire story of the Bible: Why we are here, what went wrong, and whether this life is all there is. Using the books of Genesis and Job, the lesson begins with God as Creator, establishing that human life is intentional, dependent, and designed for meaning and purpose. Job reinforces this truth when God speaks of creation as the basis of His authority and wisdom.
