Online Bible Study

In this session, we will see David, who has been given rest from his enemies, turn his attention to the internal affairs of his kingdom. This, in and of itself, was not surprising, but one of his acts was quite startling. Years before, David had promised Jonathan (1 Sam. 20) and Saul (1 Sam. 24) that he would not cut off their family’s descendants but that he would show them kindness instead. We will see David make good on that promise by extending kindness to Jonathan’s son, Mephibosheth. And in this account, we will see a picture of a greater act of kindness from a greater King: God adopting us into His family through faith in Jesus and giving us a place at His table. 

After David became king and God gave him rest from his enemies, David considered why the ark was in a tent while he was in a palace. In this session, we will see God deny David’s plan to build the temple and instead promise to give David, and Israel, blessings that would extend beyond this life into the next. God was showing David that He would remain faithful to His promises, despite the frequent faithlessness of His people. We will see that these promises also come to us who believe in the greater David, Jesus Christ. In Christ all the promises of God find their yes (2 Cor. 1:20). Therefore, we have hope beyond this life, and if we keep our eyes on the future God has for us, we can endure to the end.

David, the young shepherd boy, had squared off against the fierce giant named Goliath and, through the Lord’s power, defeated him and won the victory for the Israelites. It wasn’t long before Israel’s hero became King Saul’s nemesis. When Saul heard the people praising David, jealousy began consuming his heart, leading to multiple attempts to kill David. As a result, David feared for his life and fled to the wilderness. In this session, we will see David’s character on display as he, a fugitive, refused to take an opportunity to eliminate his rival. At the same time, we’ll see how this story points us to Jesus, who loved His enemies in even greater ways than David, to the point of dying for them.

When Samuel’s career as prophet and judge was winding down, the people of Israel demanded that Samuel appoint them a king so they could be like the nations around them. God warned them of the foolishness of this demand and gave them over to the consequences of their request, consequences that did not take long to manifest under King Saul’s failed reign. In this session, we will look at David and see how he became the second king of Israel. In David we see the kind of king that God desires while also catching a glimpse of the future King God would one day provide. David won the battle over Goliath, one of the most dangerous enemies Israel ever faced, but Jesus, our perfect King, won the ultimate victory in His battle with sin and death. 

In this session, we will see the Israelites ask for a king to judge them and lead them in their battles against the nations around them. They believed a human king would do better than Samuel and his sons to protect them from their enemies. But in rejecting the leadership of Samuel, they were actually rejecting the kingship of the Lord. The king they would get would fail to be one devoted to God’s own heart. Instead, he would fail to trust the Lord for provision and protection and he would fail to obey the Lord’s word. The people got whom they wanted, but who they wanted didn’t measure up.

In this session, we will see the prophesied punishment on Eli’s family become reality. Because of the sin of Eli’s sons, the Israelites faltered in their battle with their enemies, the Philistines. In an effort to turn the battle in their favor, the Israelites looked to the symbol of God presence, but they didn’t look to the God behind the symbol. This led to a crushing defeat and the departure of God’s glory. When God brought His glory back home, the people responded with joy and worship, but they also forgot God’s holiness and suffered the consequences. God’s holiness must be respected as it drives us to repentance. 

In this session, we encounter Hannah, a woman in a  difficult position with no hope in sight. When she came to her breaking point,  she chose to go to the only One who could help her in the midst of her pain.  The Lord responded and blessed her with a son who would one day become a great  prophet for the Lord. He was cause for worshiping God, and he was called to  share God’s word in a ministry that pointed forward to the great Prophet to  come—Jesus Christ. 

   In the previous session we saw God humiliate the proud in Samson, and in the Philistines. Once again God used the weaknesses of His people to reveal His true strength. In this session we turn our attention to the story of Ruth, a Moabite woman who lived during the period of the judges. Here we will see how God loves and cares for the humble, the needy, and the lonely. God wanted to make His matchless love known to Ruth, and God continues to want to make His redeeming love known to every tribe, language, and nation. No matter how hopeless and desperate the situation may be, the Lord’s redeeming love is ever-present and stronger still.

God had used Deborah, Barak, and Jael to give the Israelites victory over the Canaanites and peace and rest in the land for forty years. But once more, the Israelites would do what was evil in the sight of the Lord. This time God would hand His people over to the Midianites, who would oppress them for seven years to such a degree that they would resort to hiding in caves. In this session, we will see God’s patient lovingkindness once more as He responded to the desperate cries of His people. He would provide Gideon, another unlikely judge, to rescue His people and turn them back to Him. Through Gideon, we will see that God uses our weaknesses to shine the light of His glory. 

The era of the judges began with God providing Othniel to deliver Israel and give God’s people peace for forty years, followed by Ehud and Shamgar delivering the people (Judg. 3:7-31). In this session we will find that the Israelites were once again under God’s discipline because they had done what was evil in the Lord’s sight. This time, God used King Jabin of Canaan, along with his commander, Sisera, to oppress His people. But once again we will see the pattern unfold of the people crying out for relief and God providing a deliverer, although this time the deliverer would be someone the Israelites may not have expected. We will see that God gives His people gifts and works through them so that He might receive glory. 

The Israelites knew the names well: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua. The stories of these men and God’s miraculous ways and mighty hand had shaped their identity and their history. But the identity and history of a person’s parents, grandparents, and beyond does not take the place of individual faith and obedience. In this session, we will see that the children of Israel had conquered the promised land, but they had not conquered their own sin and rebellion against God, the One who had given them the victory. The opening chapters of the Book of Judges reveal a cycle of sin that would plague God’s people for generations. God had been faithful to His promises, and He would remain faithful, even when His people were unfaithful.

Easter is the most important day in history, the pinnacle of God’s plan to redeem people from sin through Jesus Christ. In this session, we will explore the resurrection of Jesus from Matthew’s account. Jesus’ arrest, crucifixion, and death prompted great fear in His disciples, but we will see that when they encountered the risen Christ, that fear gave way to belief, joy, and obedience. The resurrection of Jesus offers the same to us today. 

In the previous session, the Israelites began their campaign to conquer the promised land with a victory over the fortified city of Jericho. We saw that God provided the victory and how Rahab was spared and brought into the people of God. Next, the Israelites suffered defeat at the city of Ai because they failed to follow God’s instructions, but then they were given victory over that same city after they repented. In this session, we will see that Israel had learned an important lesson: Victory was theirs if they obeyed God, but defeat was certain if they relied upon themselves. 

The Israelites prepared for their conquest of the promised land, and first up was the fortified city of Jericho. In this session, we will see that word of God’s works and power had gone before the Israelites, and the people of Jericho were terrified. Yet that did not prevent everyone in the city from retreating behind their city walls, hoping they could hold out against the advancing Israelites, everyone except for a woman named Rahab. We will see that Rahab alone among the people of Jericho believed that God would be victorious and appealed to Him and His people for an act of kindness: to spare her and her family from the coming destruction.

Forty years earlier, the Israelites had failed to trust God and refused to enter into the promised land God had given them. Because of their faithlessness, God forced that generation to wander in the wilderness until all of them, except Joshua and Caleb, had died off. Now it was time for the next generation, those who were children or who were born during the wilderness wandering, to enter the land. In this session, we will see that God called on this generation to follow Him in faith, just as He had called the previous generation. And once again, God revealed His presence and power to His people. But this generation would do what their parents and grandparents had failed to do—they trusted the Lord.

In the last session we looked at God’s people failing to trust in His faithfulness to bring them into the land of Canaan. In this session, we will see that the next generation of Israelites, the children of the people who had rejected God’s provision of a land flowing with milk and honey, grumbled and complained about God’s provision for them in the wilderness. We will see once again that God is gracious and merciful, but He also takes rebellion against Him seriously. We will also see that just as God made a way for the Israelites to be saved through the judgment He poured out on them, He has made a way for us to be saved from the ultimate consequence of our rebellion, which is eternal separation from Him. 

As we have looked into the lives of the Israelites, how God delivered them from slavery in Egypt, provided for them in the wilderness, and brought them to the promised land, we have seen God’s patience and faithfulness over and over again. In this session, we will see that the Israelites’ failure to trust God and enter into the land He was giving them was not a small misstep but outright rebellion against Him. We will also see that Israel was not alone in their rebellion. We too have rebelled against God. God created us for His glory, but we all fall short of His glory, and the consequence of our sin is death. 

The Book of Exodus describes how sinful people were rescued and reconciled to holy God through a deliverer He Himself sent. Now in this session, we turn our attention to the Book of Leviticus and see that God provided a high priest for His people. Year after year, this representative brought a sacrifice to atone for the sins of the people. We will see that God appointed the Day of Atonement as a way for the people of Israel to be in relationship with Him and as a picture of a better way to come—a way that sin would be dealt with once and for all when the perfect high priest and sinless substitute would take our place and pay the punishment our sin deserved. 

In this session, we will trace the construction of the tabernacle, God’s place of dwelling among His people. We will see that God provided the resources for the tabernacle and moved the hearts of His people to obey the instructions He had given them through Moses. Then we will see that when their work was done and completed according to God’s plan, God came to dwell with His people. However, we will also see that God had a better way to dwell with His people—a way that was realized in the person of Jesus Christ.

Moses had left the Israelites at the base of Mount Sinai and had gone to speak with God. But while Moses was receiving the law, the people were in rebellion, calling on Aaron to fashion a golden calf to fulfill their desire to worship something tangible. In this session, we will see what the heart of idol worship looks like and God’s rightful response to it—judgment. But once again, as we have seen so often throughout Exodus, we will see that God offers grace in the midst of His people’s disobedience.