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The Heart of God
Six characteristics from Exodus 34:6-7
The six lessons linked below focus on the characteristics of God listed in Exodus 34.
The historical context is this: Moses had led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. As the people gathered at the base of Mt. Sinai, God established a covenant with them. Moses was on the top of the mountain to receive a copy of the covenant (which was sort of like an ancient treaty, an agreement between a reigning king and his people).
"Then the LORD came down in a cloud and stood there with him [Moses]; and he called out his own name, Yahweh. The LORD passed in front of Moses, calling out,
'Yahweh! The LORD!
The God of compassion and mercy!
I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.
I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations.'" (Exodus 34:5-7a, NLT)
God does not change. The God we read about in the Old Testament is the same God of all time. And because Jesus was God in human flesh, all the characteristics mentioned in Exodus 34 are embodied in Jesus during his earthly life.
This series of lessons will take you deep into the heart of God, helping you know him more deeply.
Before Starting
Before starting this series with your students, consider reading the entire book of Exodus yourself if you never have. It only takes about three hours to read it from beginning to end. It's an amazing story that sets up the biblical themes of rescue, redemption, salvation, and covenant faithfulness. The story of the first Passover is there in Exodus, pointing ahead to Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross.
You don't need to have your group read the entire book of Exodus — though it would be a great study? — but you for sure should be familiar with it so you can help them understand the context and bigger story of this series.
Be sure to watch the Exodus overview videos from the Bible Project embedded here. You can do that before or after reading the book itself. Below the videos, you'll find the series overview and a link to each lesson.
Before jumping into each lesson with your group, open with some starter questions to get people comfortable and engaged. Here are some fresh openers that go deeper than "highs and lows" but are still easily relatable.
Each lesson starts with a short intro section that helps frame the content for leaders. The intro content can also be used in the small group teaching itself. After the intro comes the following sections:
Warm-Up: Questions to start conversation related to that lesson's theme.
Watch: The embedded BibleProject video. We've listed things from each video that might be unfamiliar to some viewers so that you can do some background reading and learning if needed. After watching the video, ask people to name one new thing they learned and one question they want to learn more about.
Read: Scripture directly related to the video and theme.
Respond: Discussion about the "Read" scripture passage.
Engage: Questions and activities connected to additional scripture.
End: Wrap-up thoughts
P.S.: Other helpful items or information.
