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!
The books of Joel and Amos are two of twelve books known as the minor prophets; not minor as in unimportant, but minor because of book length- in fact, the books of Isaiah is as long as all of the minor prophet books put together. Jewish tradition groups them into a single book called the “Book of the Twelve.”
