Chapter 1 of the first book of the Bible is a display of days or “Yom” in the Hebrew language. As can be seen in Genesis, a day to the Hebrew mind begins in the evening and finishes the following day: about 24 hours. In the first year of our Discovery Guide we focused on Genesis 1:1-8. In the sec...

The LORD’s people should always try to avoid strife. This does not mean that we compromise and become disobedient to God, but that we are people who choose to find peace rather than enjoying the fight. Abram gives us an example here in Genesis 13. As the senior, and more wealthy member of the fam...

Whenever we have a task to fulfill, we usually have a couple of plans at hand to make sure it gets done. We see this concept at play with Sarah. She knew that God had promised a child and so she made plans for the child to be born. Abraham and Sarah were childless despite many years of marriage, ...

When evil begins to take over it’s often a slow fade, it’s not an obvious mega shift to those experiencing it. Evil hides in our culture and makes its investments in people, changing their ways and their desires slowly. Evil grows and grows unchecked, with any opposition quickly swept away in its...

Even after about 3,900 years, Abraham is still well known. A recent Middle Eastern peace treaty was named after him: The Abraham Accords. Many people still know his name, and many others have taken religious meaning from him. It is important though, that we allow the Bible to be the rule of truth...

We are told that death is a part of life, but it is not. Death was not originally a part of life! God told Adam and Eve to steer clear of sin so that they would not die. The book of Romans also makes this connection, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Je...

Jacob was finally returning home from the East. He had spent many years working to support his wives and children. He was wealthy now, but there was something he could not forget. In Genesis 32, we read how the LORD wrestles with Jacob all night and as morning dawns, Jacob asks Him for a blessing...

Dreams are images, emotions, and events that take place deep in our mind. When we sleep, we’re not preoccupied with the events happening around us, our minds are at rest. It’s interesting to think that only Adam and Eve experienced what sleep was like before sin entered the world.

There are time...

The heart-wrenching disappointment and moral failures of Jacob’s sons continues as we read through the book of Genesis. The remaining eleven sons, future tribe leaders of Israel, led their father to believe that his beloved son Joseph had been killed by a wild animal. Jacob was inconsolable. At t...

Jacob and his sons were very unpleasant people at the time of Joseph’s reign in Egypt. Years before, they had kidnapped Joseph and sold him into slavery, thinking they could get rid of him from their lives. But God’s plan for Joseph was very different. Through time and great struggles, God never ...

When Jacob travelled to Egypt, he thought it was to see his son again, but God had bigger plans. God knows the future, the past, and the present, and in this case, He was working to make a nation. The LORD told Jacob in a dream what he was going to do: God addressed him as “Israel”, the name his ...

The LORD does what He says and says what He does. He keeps His Word, and we should keep that in mind. Sometimes, the things that we need to fulfill God’s will seem impossible. Remember though, that the plagues of Egypt were brought by God to fulfill His intent to save Israel, and they were miracl...

When God gives a command, why won’t He listen to our negotiations? When God lays out His will, sometimes we try to figure out how we can still get what we want. What if we give God just a little bit less than He wants? God does not take second best. So when we fail to respond appropriately to His...

The LORD has placed wonderful promises of eternity in His Word. This is one of the things that makes the Bible as relevant today as it was when it was first written. Many of these promises can be seen in the covenants of the Old Testament; some of which have been fulfilled, while others have only...

God revealed Himself as Provider in Israel’s absolute need. God had rescued them from slavery in Egypt and now He was showing them who He really was. In years past, Abraham and Isaac knew God, Jacob found out who God was; now, it was their descendants’ turn. God was establishing them as a unique ...

The Ten Commandments only appear twice in Scripture. They have been a topic of much division. By and large, our modern society claims that we have outgrown these very old ideas, but do we even know what they are? The Ten Commandments from God are recorded in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. Many peop...

In many of the recorded situations that we see him in, Moses seems to have been a hothead. When God is ready to release His wrath on the people however, it inspired Moses’ mercy. Moses challenged what God said He was going to do to Israel, and God relented. This is a challenge to understand becau...

When God began the process of restoring Israel, they were instructed in giving and the art of making things for the LORD. It is not that the LORD needed anything to be made, but they were workers and God had to put their work priorities in proper order. Remember that they had been slaves for year...

The worship articles for God were inspired by God Himself and then crafted by the people of Israel. The altar was one of those items. The way it was fashioned made a statement about who it was they were worshipping. In the ancient world, a sacrifice was a deep symbolic ritual of great importance....

If you are like me, you love board games. But even if you don’t like old-school board games there are many people who love to play video games, which has become one of the world’s largest industries in the last 25 years. In fact, the video game industry is projected to reach approximately 159.3 b...

Many of the laws of Leviticus are still relevant now, and lying is one of those laws. God’s people are commanded not to lie about anything. If our lying results in the loss of property from our brothers or sisters, then we are commanded to restore that lost property. This is part of the cost for ...