I've been working on this article for several months now, which has greatly evolved from my original intent. It is a work in progress. Though it's very simplistic, hopefully you will find it useful as an overview of the Bible, and maybe even get a different or more accurate perspective of the Bible narrative, especially if you have never read the Bible.
Introduction
"God created man in His image, in the image of God He created them, male and female" (Genesis 1:27). Of all the things that God created, man is the most precious in His sight because they bear His image. Everything else pales in comparison. He created man to know Him, to be known by Him, and to be with Him. No other thing in all of creation has this amazing privilege and honor.
After reading the Bible for many years now, I have come to the conclusion that it is a story about God's longing to be with His people. He has always wanted His people to be with Him. He has always wanted to be their God. In the Garden of Eden, God walked with Adam and Eve until they sinned against Him by disobeying Him, and He had to cast them out. He came down as a Pillar of Cloud by day and a Pillar of Fire by night to lead Israel to the Promised Land. He wanted them to be the royal subjects of His Kingdom, where He ruled as their King. He met with Moses on the mountain. He continuously sent His prophets to Israel with a message to turn back to Him so they could be with Him in His Kingdom. He sent His Son Jesus to come down to live among us as a human. Jesus was tortured, died and was resurrected so we can be with God forever. God sent the Holy Spirit to be with Jesus's disciples after He went to be with God in heaven, and He gives the Holy Spirit to live within believers of Jesus today, so He can be with us and help us to fulfill His purposes. He has given believers in Jesus a place in His Kingdom, where He will be their God, and they will be His people. God's primary purpose for mankind is that we will be saved from our sins so we can be with Him always. This is the core of the Gospel.
Sin and God's Desire to be the God of His People - Adam, Eve, Noah, and Tower of Babel
Ever since Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden by doing the one thing He told them not to do (Genesis 2:16-17), both man and the earth have been cursed with sin, and their fate is death (Genesis 3). And just as they sinned by disobeying God by eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, so we sin by our disobedience to God. God's plan all along has been for man to walk with Him; to be in relationship with Him. This is the picture we see of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden prior to the fall, and it's the very purpose of God creating us in the first place. However because of man's disobedience to God - his sin - he can not walk with God, therefore he must turn away from his sin (repent), and turn to God. After Adam and Eve sinned against God, He cast them out of the Garden of Eden and placed armed guards at the gate to guard the way to the tree of life. Mankind was longer allowed to live or walk with God in His perfect paradise forever, as Adam and Eve had the opportunity to do.
After Adam and Eve's disobedience and their exile from the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:23-24), their firstborn son Cain killed their younger son, Abel, resulting in the first murder and death of a human being, and the first shedding of blood (Genesis 4:1-15). From that point on, evil continued to increase upon the earth until God finally had enough, and He caused a flood to destroy all but one family who were considered righteous in His sight, who would reproduce the human race (Genesis 7-9:17).
Following the flood, God said to Noah that He would "never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done" (Genesis 8:21). God also said to Noah, "Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God He made man. And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; Bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it."
Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: "And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth" (Genesis 9:3-11).
Immediately following the flood, within Noah's own family, man falls into sin once again. By Genesis 11, the descendants of Noah already thought of themselves as being greater than God, so to deter them from thinking this way, He confused their language and scattered them throughout the earth (Genesis 11:1-5).
*Note - Just for verification, I am sometimes using man/mankind to describe the human race; not man only, but man and woman.
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