Old Testament Survey - Genesis and Exodus: Videos
Genesis #1: Genesis and Creation
This lesson introduces Genesis as the book of Creation, designed to correct pagan conceptions of God, Man and Reality, and the reveal the essence of divine order in the world. We should ask as we read each piece, “What does this text tell me about God, Man and Reality?” “What does this text teach me about how to live well in God’s world?” “What do I learn about the present from this story about the past?” We review the essential flow of the book from chapters 1-12.
Genesis #2: The Birth of Mankind
This lesson unpacks the theological power of Man's creation in Genesis. It explains the truest sense of man as image of God in the pagan context of the inspired author—functional. God made man to reign over His creation as His Holy Spirit filled representatives. This lesson also considers the beauty of God's plan for man as male and female in the exclusive sexual union of marriage, where, with God's help, the right people become the right partners creating the right home to raise children spiritually equipped to repeat the cycle.
Genesis #3: Where Are You? The Story of the Fall
This lesson considers the fall of man into sin. The human race faced and faces a dangerous point of decision–“Are we going to live life God’s way or are we going to live it our way?” Our first parents failed the test, and plunged creation into a cursed state. God will not be thwarted, however. He has continued to rebuild His kingdom in the hearts of those who will respond to His call and wholly commit to Him. God continues to reach out, all we have to do is respond with confession, repentance, and obedience.
Genesis #4: Where is Your Brother: The Story of Cain and Abel
This lesson considers the fallout from Adam and Eve's sin as their children inherit their corrupt hearts and build a world saturated with conflict. It looks specifically at the story of Cain and Abel and strives to both expose the roots of human conflict in human selfishness and to find a path toward a more peaceable life.
Genesis #5: The Father of Faith: the Story of Abraham
This lesson explores the life of Abraham, the first patriarch of the people of Israel. It explores the life of Abraham as the great exemplar of the man of faith. It tells God's side of the story and Abraham's using four altars of worship Abraham builds during His journey of faith with God.
Genesis #6: Who Are you? The Story of Jacob
This lesson explores the life of Jacob, Abraham's grandson, and the father of the 12 patriarchs of the tribes of Israel, which is Jacob's second name. The key word in this lesson for Jacob is "grace." Jacob the grasper learns through a series of life experiences crafted by God for the cause, to look up, look in, and look out and realize that everything Jacob gains in this world and the next is the product of divine grace at work in his life in spite of, not because of, his grasping ways.
Genesis #7: The God Who is in Charge: The Story of Joseph
This lesson explores the life of Joseph, Jacob’s favored son. The key word for Joseph is "providence." God uses traumatic events to make Joseph what he needs to be and to put him where he needs to be to save the nascent people of Israel and many others from famine. Joseph rises from slave to the right hand of Pharaoh by way of false accusation and prison that he might be poised to create the perfect nursery for Israel’s growth as a people. Seeing God’s hand in his life, Joseph becomes the emblem of forgiveness.
Exodus #1: Moses Learns Humility
This lesson considers the tensions between the positives and negatives of choosing Moses as the deliverer for Israel from Egyptian bondage. The key word for Moses in this lesson is Humility. Moses spends 40 years thinking he is really somebody, 40 more learning that he is a nobody, and yet another 40 learning what God can do through a willing and obedient nobody. The true power of Moses is revealed when God shows Moses, "I Am with you."
Exodus #2: Moses Learns Four Spiritual Laws
This lesson rehearses four closely connected spiritual laws regarding the role of God vs. the role of Man in the work of God. It applies them first to the calling of Moses and his complaints about being called, in Exodus 3, and then applies them to Jesus' donkey who rides Him into Jerusalem, and finally to the Apostle Peter on the day of the miracle catch. Never forget: It's all God, not us. But God is with us. He needs our availability far more than our ability.
Exodus #3: Principles of Deliverance
This lesson explores the miraculous hand of God in the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage, which stands also as an allegory for our deliverance from sin. It draws a comparison between the miraculous hand of God at work in this deliverance with the processes and needs in our own. The tricks of Pharaoh parallel many Satanic tricks as he seeks to both prevent and then corrupt our escape from the power of sin. Just so, the actions of God to help Israel in their escape, especially the Passover, parallel God’s acts to sustain us in the journey as well.
Exodus #4: The Ten Commandments
This lesson reviews the 10 commandments as God’s loving gift to the world. Divided between right actions toward God and right actions toward man, these commandments provide critical stability for a thriving society. We must, however, go beyond the letter of a law, seeking loopholes, and instead strive to live out the spirit of these laws, so they can nurture the abundant life that God lovingly envisions for us. The lesson ends with a summary of God’s purposes in the Book of Exodus: Providing the way, the walk, the wonders, the word, and the worship.