This Is Our Story

Yael Eckstein  |  October 8, 2026

The boy drags his finger down the line of names.

One after another, they come—fathers and sons, years counted out like grains of sand.

He shifts in his seat. He glances toward the door, where sunshine waits beyond the room.

He sighs. Not too loud. But loud enough.

“Do we have to read them all?” the boy asks. “Every single name?”

His teacher leans over the Torah. “These are not just names. This is the story of Adam…

“…and all who came from him,” the teacher says.

The boy’s eyes return to the very beginning, to the first words written there.

And this time, he reads not just names, but the story of all that God has made—and has never forgotten.

Genesis 5:1

This is the written account of Adam’s family line. When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God.

Genealogies. A lot of people find them boring—never-ending lists of names and ages.

But, like any part of God’s Word, there’s a message, even in the genealogies.

Today’s Bible verse begins one of those genealogies, and it says, “This is the written account of Adam’s family line. When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God.”

Here it is in Hebrew:

זֶה סֵפֶר, תּוֹלְדֹת אָדָם:  בְּיוֹם, בְּרֹא אֱלֹהִים אָדָם, בִּדְמוּת אֱלֹהִים, עָשָׂה אֹתוֹ.

The great Sage Ben Azzai says, “This verse is the basic principle of the entire Bible.”

Doesn’t that seem strange? Of all the important verses in the Bible, of all the amazing Bible stories, of all the inspiring people in the Bible, of all the inspiring quotes, of all the important lessons and commandments the Bible gives us…

…this simple verse contains the essence of God’s Word?

What does it mean to be created in God’s likeness, in God’s image?  Well, it means that we can always know and feel that God is with us, and that He loves us. And it means that God wants us to do good things for ourselves, our families, and for others.

As we continue these daily devotionals, we’ll meet some of the generations this chapter of Genesis tell us about. Some of those generations acted as if they were made in God’s image. And some did not.

Even today, some people recognize that they are made in God’s image, and live their lives that way, and some people don’t. But we know that God shows us the right way to live, through His Word, the Bible. So, as we study the Bible each day, let’s remember that we are reading the Holy Word of the very same God in whose image we are created.

One More Moment:

Think you know the Torah? Take our Fellowship Quiz to test your knowledge on God’s Word.