The name Samuel means “name of God” or “his name is El,” where El is the name of the God of strength and power. His parents were a Levite named Elkanah and Hannah, who was unable to have children for many years. Elkanah and Hannah were devout Jews who visited the sanctuary at Shiloh every year to worship and sacrifice (1 Sam. 1:3).
Can it be “fun” to study Exodus? Maybe the phrase should be “eye-opening” when we consider some of what we will see in this book. A burning bush. A pillar of cloud. A river of blood. Frogs falling from the sky! An entire Sea that splits and has a dry bottom to speed Israelites across to freedom. We have an opportunity to journal all of these miraculous and explosive events!
Year 1 begins with the gospel of John. Wait- we don’t start with Genesis? Don’t worry...Genesis is the next
book. John is an excellent starting place because it is an evangelistic book- John wrote this book to
persuade people to come to a saving belief in Jesus. I have personally done in-depth Bible studies of John
several times and have seen and learned something new every time.
