EXODUS: MISSION OF GOD
By Jenny Baker
64 pages
ISBN 1 85078 500 7
MOSES: FRIEND OF GOD
By Elizabeth McQuoid
64 pages
ISBN 1 85078 519 8
A STUDY GUIDE TO THE BOOK OF EXODUS
By Paul Blackham
60 pages
ISBN 1 85078 504 X
(The first two are Spring Harvest Bible Studies, and all are published by Authentic Lifestyle.)
I have, for long, had a passion for the book of Exodus and a deep desire to see its message 'liberated' into the hearts, minds and wills of God's people.
It is encouraging, then, when efforts are made to make personal and group Bible study aids available. It is also exciting to see attempts made to make such studies 'learner friendly' and emphasise the importance of the visual (Blackham is designed to be accompanied by a video) and the experiential (as in some of the exercises and questions on Baker and McQuoid). Spring Harvest, in particular, is to be commended for its desire to promote such material.
However, I have another passion. It is to take seriously the shape of the text and to try to follow the LORD's thoughts after him, rather than impose our 'agenda' on the material. At this point I become increasingly unhappy with these studies.
Blackham, it is true, attempts to tell the story: but rather than see Exodus as part of an unfolding redemptive history, he tends to short-circuit application by viewing the story as mainly illustrative. Then, McQuoid's study, while commendable in many ways, falls foul of most character studies by failing to recognise that the biblical text is less about 'us' and more about God. Thus, while the stories are exemplary tales, they are far more than that! Most seriously, Baker's work takes a theme, the 'Mission of God', and finds passages that 'fit' this pattern (and contemporary evangelical emphases). Thus the great redemptive drama of the LORD is obscured. Where is the text's emphasis on God delivering his people from the 'gods of this world', establishing his relationship of grace with them in blood and water, making known his presence among them, revealing the parameters of a God-honouring lifestyle and community and the means of ongoing access to himself? Most are, sadly, missing. Oh! for deeply biblical and highly contemporary guides!
