everybody what is going on you know what time it is you're listening to join the journey podcast

with your host emma daughter thanks for joining today we're reading genesis 12 and answering the question

what's the key to understanding the old testament what's the key when we approach our bibles we often

find ourselves asking how does the Old Testament relate to the new?

And what I've found as I've studied God's word is that it's helpful to think of the Old Testament as a prequel to the New Testament Gospels and Epistles, just like Avengers Endgame comes after Avengers Infinity War.

When we look at the New Testament epistles, books of the Bible that are actually letters,

we see broken people writing two broken people who are in need of help as they all try to navigate a broken world.

And we have to ask ourselves, how did the world get so broken?

It all starts back in Genesis, the first book of our prequel, or really, we could think of it as the first chapter of our prequel, since the Bible's all one book, which we're currently reading and is exactly in line with what the New Testament tells us.

As John 1, 1 through 3 says, in the beginning was the

word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things

were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made. Then we look at Genesis 1.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

But God didn't design this world to be broken. In fact, God created it perfectly, and humanity dwelt initially in right relation with him.

But about five pages past the table of contents in Genesis chapter 3, we see sin entered the world as humanity deceived by

the serpent turned from God's way leading to the curse of sin. But amidst the consequences of sin,

we see a glimmer of hope in Genesis 315 as we get the slightest glimpse of the Messiah

we read all about in the New Testament. This Messiah is said to someday crush the

head of the serpent. And as life for this broken humanity continues on, the curse of sin multiplies,

as do the people, as we read in Genesis 6, 7, and 8. We see the magnitude of sin culminate first in the

flood, and then in the Tower of Babel, Genesis 11,

as God graciously disciplines his broken people, first through Noah and the flood,

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