The first five books — Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy — are credited to Moses as their author. They cover the topics that are foundational to everything that follows, which is why we start here and why it is worth going slowly.

We often translate the word Torah as “law,” but it means something warmer than that: instruction, teaching — the guidance a father gives a child. Read them as legislation and they will feel like a rulebook. Read them as teaching and you will find they are mostly story.

Why everything rests on these five

Here we learn who God is, who we are, and why a rescue was needed at all. Here God binds Himself to one family; that family becomes a nation; and that nation is given a way to live in His presence.

If you find yourself lost later in the story, it is almost always because something here has not yet come into focus. The covenant, the sacrifices, the priesthood, the feasts, the tabernacle, the promised descendant — every one of them is introduced in these books and assumed by every book after them.

Two halves, and they do different work

Genesis stands somewhat apart. It is the book of beginnings — creation, the fall, the flood, and then one family followed for thirty-eight chapters. There is no nation yet, no law, no tabernacle. What there is, is a promise.

Exodus through Deuteronomy is the making of a people. A nation is delivered out of Egypt, brought to a mountain, given a covenant, taught how to live in the presence of a holy God, and marched to the edge of a land it does not yet occupy. Four books, and about one year of it is spent at Sinai.

So the movement of the Torah is: a promise made, and a people formed to carry it.

Where it is all pointing

Jesus read these books as being about Himself, and said so plainly on the road to Emmaus:

Then he began with Moses’ Teachings and the Prophets to explain to them what was said about him throughout the Scriptures.

Luke 24:27  ·  God’s Word

Watch for that as you read. The promised descendant of Genesis 3, the lamb whose blood turns away death at Passover, the priest who goes in on behalf of everyone else, the sacrifice that covers what the worshipper cannot — all of it is introduced here, and all of it is waiting for someone.

We first journey through Genesis

Start there. It is the easiest of the five to read and the one everything else refers back to.

• Genesis — The book of beginnings — the foundation upon which all of Scripture is built
• Deliverance and the Law — Redemption out of Egypt, and a people shaped at Sinai

Where to go from here

Read the text itself: Genesis 1–3 to begin, or Deuteronomy 6:4–9 for the sentence Israel was told to say twice a day and teach to its children. Six minutes.