The period of the patriarchs is the groundwork and basis of all history. It covers the time from Adam to Moses. In consequence of the failures on the part of people during this early period, God called out an individual. He put aside the nations and called a man, Abraham, who was to become the father of the Hebrew nation. We enter into this period in Genesis 12.
There are five patriarchal fathers: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Job. (The book of Job must be put after the book of Genesis and before the book of Exodus. Job certainly lived before Moses, and we read of Moses in Exodus 2.)
God called Abraham and with him made a covenant, known as the Abrahamic Covenant. Become familiar with this covenant (Genesis 12:1-3). If you are not, the whole study of the Chosen People (in fact, the whole Old Testament) will have little meaning. God repeated that covenant to Abraham’s son Isaac and again to his grandson Jacob (see Genesis 26:1-5; 28:13-15). He repeated it to no one else.
These three, therefore, are the covenant fathers, and that is why you read in Scripture, “I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” (Acts 7:32). He never adds anyone else. God gave His covenant to these three and it is for them to communicate it to others. What is the covenant? Read Genesis 12:1-3, 26:1-5 and 28:13-15.
This content is from What the Bible Is All About, written by Henrietta Mears. Copyright © 1953, 2011 by Gospel Light. Copyright assigned to Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. 2015. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a division of Tyndale House Ministries., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.