Last year, I reviewed "The Promised One," a Bible study about seeing Jesus in Genesis by Nancy Guthrie. Since August, our ladies' group at church has been doing a study by the same author called "The Lamb of God, Seeing Jesus in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy." We met twice a month since August, doing one of the ten chapters each time.
After having read her book on Genesis, I was curious to see how Guthrie would fit the next four books into one study. It turns out that the first seven chapters are all on Exodus. Despite starting the next chapters with verbiage stating that many consider Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy boring, Guthrie seems to confirm that idea by giving each of them just a single chapter and focusing those on just a few narrative chapters within each, mostly ignoring the more mundane parts.
Some things I found interesting in the commentary and marked:
* Guthrie says that rather than Moses meaning "drawn out of the water," it actually means "he who draws out of" and makes the connection of Moses drawing the Israelites out of Egypt.
* The prophecy "out of Egypt I called my son" was interesting, considering that could refer both to Egypt (who fled Egypt with his parents as a baby) and the Israelites (who fled Egypt with Moses).
* Guthrie makes the point that we may feel it was harsh of God to kill the Egyptian first-borns, but to consider that God also killed his own first-born in Jesus.
* I liked the point about the Israelites being told to "fear not, stand firm, and watch God's salvation," yet they still had to take action by stepping into the Red Sea before it parted. Those steps were not "accomplishing their own salvation" but showed them responding in faith to God's words.
* Guthrie made an interesting observation by saying that the 10 commandments were written in stone, indicating their timeless nature. But the Book of the Covenant was written on parchment, implying that it didn't have the same eternal force, but was only necessary prior to Jesus's sacrifice.
* "There is no love for Jesus apart from keeping his commandments ... the way God intends for us to enjoy communion with him is by keeping his commands."
* The system of animal sacrifice "was not plan A that didn't work. They served their function, which was to serve as a symbol of the sacrifice God would accept; the sacrifices were not the reality of it. And once the reality came, there was absolutely no further need for the symbol."
* "Will I spend my life learning all that God wants to teach me about his provision, his holiness, and his ways here in the wilderness of this world, knowing that he is preparing me for life in his presence? Or will I spend these years called 'my lifetime' simply seeking satisfaction for my cravings, grumbling, and complaining when I do not get everything he has promised here and now?"
* Regarding the Israelites grumbling about their daily ration of manna: "What they perceived as lack was actually a gift that would help them come to terms with their need for God and his provision."
There were insights in this study that I found helpful. I have to say though that since doing some Jen Wilkin studies, others seem to pale for me. I loved Jen's combo of individual study, small group discussion, and video of her speaking on each chapter. This study was fine for Exodus, but you're not going to get much out of it on the other three Biblical books it purports to cover.