Week 23: Exodus Part 4

4. Feast and first-born The tenth plague was that every first-born boy in every Egyptian family would die. This was the pivotal plague to the whole drama. The tragedy would also happen to the Jews unless they followed God’s instructions. They were to paint the blood...

Week 22: Exodus Part 3

1. Multiplication and murder In this opening section we discover that the number of Hebrew slaves must have been around 2.5 million by the time the Exodus narrative starts. This may seem a large number given that they started with just the 12 sons of Jacob, their...

Week 21: Exodus Part 2

STRUCTURE As well as there being two halves to the book of Exodus, there are ten different portions within it: six sections in Chapters 1-18 and four in Chapters 19-40. They can be arranged as shown in the following table. Chapters 1-18 Chapters 19-40 (people mobile)...

Week 20: Exodus Part 1

Introduction Exodus is the story of the biggest escape in history. Over two million slaves escape from one of the most highly fortified nations in the entire world. It is humanly impossible, an extraordinary story, and it features a series of miracles, including some...

Week 19: Genesis Part 17

Jesus in Genesis Once we have seen that Joseph is a picture of Jesus, we can see Jesus in many other places throughout Genesis. Joseph is a model of God’s response to faith in him, and his story demonstrates how God can take a person’s life and use him to...

Week 18: Genesis Part 16

Joseph The final part of Genesis concerns a story which is familiar to many, the story of Joseph. It is a story that appeals to children as well as adults, a “goody wins over the baddy” story. It has even been made into a musical, although the popular...

Week 17: Genesis Part 15

Abraham Let us look at those three men in greater detail. God made a promise to Abraham on which Christians still rely. God began creation with one man and he began redemption with one man. We are told that God made a covenant with Abraham, a theme which continues...

Week 16: Genesis Part 14

WHY DID GOD CHOOSE THE JEWS? What is different about these stories, however, is that God talks with the people in them and they talk to him. So we find that the God of the entire universe makes a special friend called Abraham. Indeed, God calls him “Abraham my...

Week 15: Genesis Part 13

JUSTICE AND MERCY Two themes predominate in these chapters: from the Fall of Adam onwards we see both human pride and God’s response of justice and mercy. He showed justice to Adam and Eve in banishing them from the garden and telling them that they would one...

Week 14: Genesis Part 12

THE RESULTS OF THE FALL Chapter 3 is usually referred to as “the Fall”, when man fell from the beautiful state described in Chapter 2. It could all have been so different. If Adam had not tried to blame Eve, or even God, but had responded in repentance,...