Bible Year: Week 2 (January 20)

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Congratulations! We have finished reading the first book of the Bible together and today we begin the book of Exodus. 


As we look back over the book of Genesis, we first affirm the key themes from the first three chapters that shape the story of the whole Bible:

  • God has made us in the divine image and we part of a good and beautiful creation.
  • We struggle with a downward spiral of sin, rebellion, and disobedience.
  • God never gives up on creation, or us, but continually works for our redemption and restoration.

God's promise to Abraham at the beginning of chapter 12 opens up a whole new movement in the story. God calls Abraham to leave his home and go to the land of Canaan, which God says will become his one day. And in that land, God promises to make Abraham into a great nation, to make his name great, and to bless him.

The question is why is God going to bless Abraham and his family? Genesis 12:3 makes God’s purposes clear: so that all the families of the earth will find God's blessing in you (Abraham).

Now, this blessing is key for understanding the whole rest of the biblical story. God's plan is to rescue and bless his rebellious world through Abraham's family and this is why the whole rest of the Old Testament story is just going to focus on this one family, eventually called the people of Israel.

And those original themes keep replaying throughout the stories in Genesis 12-50.

  • Each generation of Abraham's family is marked by repeated failure. They just keep making bad decisions that mess up their lives and that put God's promise in jeopardy.
  • However, God remains faithful to them. He keeps rescuing them from themselves and reaffirming his commitment to bless them and bless the nations through them despite their failings.

Indeed, God’s redemptive work is seen right up until the very end of Genesis. Joseph seeks to reassure his brothers once last time, saying, Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today. (Genesis 50:20).

Now these words are strategically placed at the end of the book because they summarize not only the story of Joseph and his brothers, but the book as a whole. From Genesis 3 onward humans keep acting selfishly and doing evil. But this God is not going to leave his world to its own devices. He remains faithful and determined to bless people despite their failures. And the author then connects this promise directly to the line of Abraham. This is a part of how God's going to bring his blessing to the nations.

And so, the book of Genesis ends with all of these future hopes and promises left hanging and undeveloped and it forces you to turn the page to see how it's all going to turn out.

We turn that page today as we begin the Book of Exodus. We can think of Exodus as Israel’s second book of origins. The central story of the book is the fundamental act of salvation for God’s people in the Old Testament: their deliverance from oppression and slavery in Egypt. The exodus is the Jewish people’s most important story, remembered each year at Passover. In the New Testament, the exodus becomes the framework for understanding the work of salvation through Jesus Christ (they were all Jewish after all): Jesus frees us from our bondage to sin and brings us to new life through the waters of our baptism.

The rest of the book of Exodus focuses on what it means to live as the redeemed people of God. They are God’s chosen people only because of the gracious actions of God who delivered them from slavery in Egypt.  And their response to salvation is to be faithful and obedient in the service of God’s mission to bless all of humanity. 

These themes of God’s grace and our response continue to play throughout the rest of both the Old and New Testaments.

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A few reminders:

  • Our Bible Year Pastor's Bible Study meets every Wednesday night at 5:30 pm in-person (FLC) and online (Zoom).  We hope you will join us!
  • I also encourage you to join the Ocala FUMC The Bible Year Small Group on Facebook. The group allows for ongoing discussion of the daily readings.
  • The Sunday sermons may be a helpful resource as we move through the readings. You can watch the full sermon on YouTube (CLICK HERE)

 

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