Living God's Word Workbook

Discovering Our Place in the Great Story of Scripture

J. Scott Duvall, J. Daniel Hays

• Publisher: Zondervan Academic
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9780310109150
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

A Companion WORKBOOK to Help You Discover the Great Story of Scripture and Find Your Place in It

Living God's Word is your pathway to read the Bible as it was meant to be read: as God's Great Story. This WORKBOOK is designed for use alongside the second edition of Living God's Word. While the textbook helps you see the big picture of what God is doing throughout the Bible, the WORKBOOK lets you reflect on and internalize what you are reading.

Many Christians resolve to study the Bible more fervently, but often struggle to grasp the progression of Scripture as a whole. They encounter various passages each week through unrelated readings, studies, and sermons and it all feels disconnected. But once they see the Bible as God's Great Story, they begin to understand how it all fits together and they start see how their own lives fit into what God has done and is doing in the world.

In Living God's Word, Second Edition, New Testament scholar J. Scott Duvall and Old Testament expert J. Daniel Hays help Christians consider how their lives can be integrated into the story of the Bible, thus enabling them to live faithfully in deep and important ways. Living God's Word explores the entire Bible through broad themes that trace the progression of God's redemptive plan. Each section deals with a certain portion of Scripture's story and includes:

• Reading/listening preparation
• Explanation
• Summary
• Observations about theological significance
• Connections to the Great Story
• Written assignments for further study

These features--combined with the authors' engaging style--make Living God's Word an ideal book for those who want to understand the Bible better, for introductory college courses, Sunday school electives, or small group study.

When used alongside the textbook, this workbook is the ideal resource for anyone looking to better understand how the entire Bible fits together as God's Great Story.

CHAPTER 1

CREATION AND CRISIS:
Who Am I and What Is Wrong?

NAME: DATE:

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

1–1. List the seven days of creation and identify what was created on each day.

[Your Response Here]

1–2. Discuss how the events in Acts 2:1–13 work as a reversal of Genesis 11:1–9.

[Your Response Here]

1–3. Using a concordance, identify all the uses of the word “name” in Genesis 1–11. Discuss the role of “name” and “naming” in this unit.

[Your Response Here]

1–4. Sneak a peek at the ending of this story (read Chapter 20: Consummation). Discuss the ways in which the ending of the book of Revelation (chapters 19–22) answers or resolves the problems introduced in Genesis 1–11.

[Your Response Here]

NAME: DATE:

CHAPTER 1 FOCUSED READING: GENESIS 1–2

1. Discuss the implications of Genesis 1:1. If God is the Creator, then what are we? How should Genesis 1:1 affect what we think of God and how we relate to him? Does it give him authority over things? How would Genesis 1:1 affect the way we view miracles later on in the Bible? That is, can God perform miracles?

[Your Response Here]

2. Throughout Genesis 1:1–31, identify when the phrase “God said” occurs and when the phrase “God saw” occurs. Why does God “speak” the world into existence? How does this connect to John 1:1–5?

[Your Response Here]

3. Which things in Genesis 1 does God “separate”? On which days does God say, “It was good,” and on which does he say, “It was very good”?

[Your Response Here]

4. Describe the creation of the first man (Gen. 2:7). That is, how does God create him? Why would God create him from the “dust of the ground”? Why does God breathe into him the breath of life rather than just say, “Be alive”?

[Your Response Here]

5. Note that in Genesis 2:18, God says, “It is not good for the man to be alone.” Summarize God’s use of the term “good” in Genesis 1 and 2.

[Your Response Here]

6. In Genesis 2:18 God says, “I will make a helper suitable for him.” The same Hebrew word translated as “helper” in this verse occurs in Exodus 18:4, Deuteronomy 33:7, and Psalms 54:4, where it is translated as “help” or “helper” (NIV). Who is the “helper” in those verses? How does the use of that term in those three verses inform our understanding of Genesis 2:18?

[Your Response Here]

CHAPTER 2

COVENANT:
God Makes a Promise and Establishes a People

NAME: DATE:

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

2–1. Discuss the similarities and differences between the elements of the covenant that God promised to Abraham (Gen. 12:1–8; 15:1–21; 17:1–22) and the elements of this same covenant that God promised to Isaac (Gen. 26:1–25).

[Your Response Here]

2–2. Read Genesis 21–22 carefully and answer the following questions:

a. Why was Isaac so unique and special to Abraham?

[Your Response Here]

b. In 22:8, does Abraham really believe that God will provide a lamb, or is he just hiding his intentions from Isaac? Give reasons for your answer.

[Your Response Here]

c. This event in Genesis 22 occurs nearly two thousand years before the crucifixion of Christ, yet there are several similarities between the two events. List as many similarities as you can find. For a review of Jesus’s crucifixion, see Matthew 27:32–56 and John 19:17–27.

[Your Response Here]

NAME: DATE:

CHAPTER 2 FOCUSED READING: GENESIS 12:1–7

1. What does God command Abraham to do? What does God promise to do? Be specific and list out the individual things God promises.

[Your Response Here]

2. Compare Genesis 12:1–4 with Genesis 11:1–9. Focus on comparing the people, their attitudes, their interaction with God, and God’s actions and statements.

[Your Response Here]

CHAPTER 3

CALLING OUT:
“I am the LORD who brought you up out of Egypt”

NAME: DATE:

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

3–1. Discuss each verse in Exodus that mentions Abraham: Exodus 2:24; 3:6; 3:15–16; 4:5; 6:3; and 6:8. Then summarize by describing the role Abraham plays in the first six chapters of Exodus.

[Your Response Here]

3–2. In Genesis 12:3, God tells Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse.” Discuss how Exodus 1–15 relates to that promise.

[Your Response Here]

3–3. In Exodus 12:38, as the Israelites exit Egypt, the text notes that, “Many other people went up with them.” Discuss the theological implications of having these non-Israelite people included as part of the exodus community.

[Your Response Here]

NAME: DATE:

CHAPTER 3 FOCUSED READING: EXODUS 2:24–3:22

1. Discuss the different names and terms that are used for God in this passage.

[Your Response Here]

2. What is Moses doing at the beginning of chapter 3? What does God want him to do? Does Moses accept that task?

[Your Response Here]

3. Discuss the movements of God and his pres...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Ebook Instructions
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1. Creation and Crisis: Who Am I and What Is Wrong?
• 2. Covenant: God Makes a Promise and Establishes a People
• 3. Calling Out: “I am the Lord who brought you up out of Egypt”
• 4. Commandments: Terms for Living In the Promised Land With God In Their Midst
• 5. Conquest and Canaanization: Good News and Bad News
• 6. Creation of the Kingdom: Nobodies and Somebodies
• 7. Communion and Common Sense In the Kingdom: Worship and Other Ways to Live Wisely
• 8. Crumbling of the Kingdom: The Prophets and the End of Israel and Judah
• 9. Captivity and Coming Home: Surviving the Exile and Returning to the Land
• 10. Interlude: Time Between the Testaments
• 11. Christ: Jesus Enters Our World
• 12. Christ: Jesus’s Message
• 13. Christ: Jesus’s Journey to Jerusalem
• 14. Christ: Jesus Dies On the Cross
• 15. Christ: Jesus Is Raised from the Dead
• 16. Church: The Coming of the Spirit
• 17. Church: In Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria
• 18. Church: The Mission to the Gentiles
• 19. Church: The Gospel Spreads from Jerusalem to Rome
• 20. Consummation: The Happy Ending to the Great Story
• Conclusion