As I mentioned in the outline of our study, we’re reading our way through twelve Biblical time periods that are narrated to us in fourteen books of the Bible. Having finished Genesis last week, we’re now through our first book and two of the time periods we’re going to study. This week, we begin looking at our third time period, Egypt and the Exodus, which will cover the period between 1800 BC-1446 BC, and will include the familiar story of Moses. While this time period is narrated through the forty chapters of the book of Exodus, the book of Leviticus also fits into this time period (but that book is not something we’re covering in this study.)

There will be two great temptations as we look through the book of Exodus. The first is to assume, because Moses’ life represents one of the Bible’s more famous stories (as told in such movies as The Ten Commandments and The Prince of Egypt), that we already know all there is to know about this book. Every movie takes some artistic license with whatever story it portrays, and the Exodus is no different. If your whole knowledge of Moses’ story comes from Hollywood, you will be missing out on some important things! The second is that for the first time, you’re going to see the story slow down. You’ll find chapters where God will dictate to Moses certain laws and liturgical norms. These are not the most exciting or inspiring parts of the story but they do set the stage for future Israelite & Christian worship. (So I encourage you not to give up when you hit those passages.)

At the bottom of this post, I’ve included my video explanation for what we’ll be reading over the next three weeks. I’d encourage you to watch that as you dive into this week’s readings: