If you were to chop off Genesis 1–5, you would not be able to competently answer this about the instructions and teachings of the Father and Messiah: “Why should I do that?” Two-thirds of children from Christian homes will walk away from their faith to varying degrees, and one of the main reasons for that fall off is they are not given honest answers about the authority of the Scriptures.
Some Bible versions translate Gen. 1:1 as “In the beginning, God created…” or “In the beginning of God’s creating the heavens and the earth….” בְּרֵאשִׁית Bereysheet (Genesis) is not a science book. It is not designed to teach you how God created anything. The purpose of the beginning of Bereisheet is to teach us who God is, what He did and how powerful He is, much like Devarim (Deuteronomy) starts with reminding the people who God is and why the Ten Commandments say to have no other gods before Him.
Each one of the patriarchs listed here are listed for a reason: to show us where Noah came from. Each one of the these patriarchs had other sons and daughters besides those mentioned here, but God singles out these particular men to teach a specific lesson.
Cain’s offering was not rejected because it was the wrong offering. It was rejected because of the condition of Cain’s heart. God warns Cain that he has let sin into his heart and his house. God instructs Cain that he is to rule over sin not to allow the sin to rule over him, but the sin in Cain’s heart was too pleasurable to him.
God gives us free will and the option of choosing the good, which leads to righteousness and eternal life, or the bad, which leads to evil and eternal death.
God gave Adam several profound responsibilities: tending the Garden of Eden; naming the animals and choosing between the Tree of Life v. the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad.
Adam made the wrong choice. All of us as Adam’s heirs also have a similar choice to make. God gives each of us us free will to choose the good, which leads to righteousness and eternal life or we can choose the bad which leads to evil and eternal death.
The last two things God created was the Shabbat/Sabbath and the Garden of Eden. God did not create the Shabbat because He was exhausted or tired. Rather, He wanted to set aside a day for mankind to have a special time with Him. Also some are confused about the creation narratives of Gen. 1 and Gen. 2 but a careful reading of each shows us that Gen. 2 focuses specifically on the creation of mankind and the special Garden called Eden that was made by God as mankind’s primary residence.
The end will be greater than the beginning, according to prophesy. If you want to know how the current world will end, you need to know how it began. We are continuing our survey through the start of creation.
Did God create the world in chaos and confusion? Isa. 45:18 says no. So how do we understand Gen. 1:2 because it seems to imply otherwise.