Living God's Word Workbook: Discovering Our Place in the Great Story of Scripture

By J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays

A Companion WORKBOOK to Help You Discover the Great Story of Scripture and Find Your Place in It

Living God's Word is your pathway to read the Bible as it was meant to be read: as God's Great Story. This WORKBOOK is designed for use alongside the second edition of Living God's Word. While the textbook helps you see the big picture of what God is doing throughout the Bible, the WORKBOOK lets you reflect on and internalize what you are reading.

Many Christians resolve to study the Bible more fervently, but often struggle to grasp the progression of Scripture as a whole. They encounter various passages each week through unrelated readings, studies, and sermons and it all feels disconnected. But once they see the Bible as God's Great Story, they begin to understand how it all fits together and they start see how their own lives fit into what God has done and is doing in the world.

In Living God's Word, Second Edition, New Testament scholar J. Scott Duvall and Old Testament expert J. Daniel Hays help Christians consider how their lives can be integrated into the story of the Bible, thus enabling them to live faithfully in deep and important ways. Living God's Word explores the entire Bible through broad themes that trace the progression of God's redemptive plan. Each section deals with a certain portion of Scripture's story and includes:

• Reading/listening preparation
• Explanation
• Summary
• Observations about theological significance
• Connections to the Great Story
• Written assignments for further study

These features--combined with the authors' engaging style--make Living God's Word an ideal book for those who want to understand the Bible better, for introductory college courses, Sunday school electives, or small group study.

When used alongside the textbook, this workbook is the ideal resource for anyone looking to better understand how the entire Bible fits together as God's Great Story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Release date: Jun 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9780310109150

J. Scott Duvall

J. Scott Duvall (PhD, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) is professor of New Testament at Ouachita Baptist University. He is the coauthor of Grasping God’s Word, Journey into God’s Word, Preaching God’s Word, and God’s Relational Presence, and author of The Heart of Revelation and Revelation in the Teach the Text Commentary series. He teaches and preaches frequently in local churches.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

1. The biblical Story and the story of Western civilization are often incompatible. Write out short answers to the Five Basic Questions in Living God’s Word on page xiii, first from the point of view of the Western story and then from the point of view of the biblical Story. Your answers need to be thoughtful but not necessarily lengthy. Then write a concluding paragraph showing where the two stories overlap and where they are radically different. We will ask you to do this same assignment again at the end of our study to see how much you have learned.

[Your Response Here]

2. What metaphor of conversion have you grown up with, if any? Does your model lean more toward the ask Jesus into your heart approach or the merge onto a superhighway model? Compare and contrast these two images of conversion.

[Your Response Here]

CHAPTER 1

CREATION AND CRISIS:

Who Am I and What Is Wrong?

NAME: DATE:

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

1–1. List the seven days of creation and identify what was created on each day.

[Your Response Here]

1–2. Discuss how the events in Acts 2:1–13 work as a reversal of Genesis 11:1–9.

[Your Response Here]

1–3. Using a concordance, identify all the uses of the word name in Genesis 1–11. Discuss the role of name and naming in this unit.

[Your Response Here]

1–4. Sneak a peek at the ending of this story (read Chapter 20: Consummation). Discuss the ways in which the ending of the book of Revelation (chapters 19–22) answers or resolves the problems introduced in Genesis 1–11.

[Your Response Here]

NAME: DATE:

CHAPTER 1 FOCUSED READING: GENESIS 1–2

1. Discuss the implications of Genesis 1:1. If God is the Creator, then what are we? How should Genesis 1:1 affect what we think of God and how we relate to him? Does it give him authority over things? How would Genesis 1:1 affect the way we view miracles later on in the Bible? That is, can God perform miracles?

[Your Response Here]

2. Throughout Genesis 1:1–31, identify when the phrase God said occurs and when the phrase God saw occurs. Why does God speak the world into existence? How does this connect to John 1:1–5?

[Your Response Here]

3. Which things in Genesis 1 does God separate? On which days does God say, It was good, and on which does he say, It was very good?

[Your Response Here]

4. Describe the creation of the first man (Gen. 2:7). That is, how does God create him? Why would God create him from the dust of the ground? Why does God breathe into him the breath of life rather than just say, Be alive?

[Your Response Here]

5. Note that in Genesis 2:18, God says, It is not good for the man to be alone. Summarize God’s use of the term good in Genesis 1 and 2.

[Your Response Here]

6. In Genesis 2:18 God says, "I will make a helper suitable for him. The same Hebrew word translated as helper in this verse occurs in Exodus 18:4, Deuteronomy 33:7, and Psalms 54:4, where it is translated as help or helper (NIV). Who is the helper" in those verses? How does the use of that term in those three verses inform our understanding of Genesis 2:18?

[Your Response Here]

CHAPTER 2

COVENANT:

God Makes a Promise and Establishes a People

NAME: DATE:

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

2–1. Discuss the similarities and differences between the elements of the covenant that God promised to Abraham (Gen. 12:1–8; 15:1–21; 17:1–22) and the elements of this same covenant that God promised to Isaac (Gen. 26:1–25).

[Your Response Here]

2–2. Read Genesis 21–22 carefully and answer the following questions:

a. Why was Isaac so unique and special to Abraham?

[Your Response Here]

b. In 22:8, does Abraham really