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Bible Study: Worship our God of grace

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NASHVILLE (BP) — This weekly Bible study appears in Baptist Press in a partnership with Lifeway Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. Through its Leadership and Adult Publishing team, Lifeway publishes Sunday School curricula and additional resources for all age groups.

This week’s Bible study is adapted from The Gospel Project curriculum.

Bible Passage: Exodus 15:22 – 17:16

Discussion Questions:
— Why is the root of all grumbling ultimately a complaint about God?

— How have you experienced God’s undeserved faithfulness?

— What do we reveal about our hearts in our complaints?

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Food for Thought:

God brought His people out of the slavery of Egypt and through the Red Sea by His mighty hand, simultaneously crushing the Egyptian army. This omnipotent God displayed His goodness by saving Israel in keeping with His covenant to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In the wilderness on the other side of the Red Sea, the Israelites quickly found themselves in need of resources. The people were tested as their water and food supplies ran low. Israel would need to trust in the God who saved them, but they were also tempted to grumble against that same God.

God’s people who had been given such great privileges, and for whom He had assigned great responsibility, did what we humans always do — they ran away from God and His covenant privileges. They failed in the wilderness, breaking God’s law, worshiping idols, and so on.

We do the same thing today. God gives us His grace, and we are prone to run away. This is why the hymn writer Robert Robinson penned these words in “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing”: “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love. Here’s my heart, Lord, take and seal it. Seal it for Thy courts above.”

We are all prone to wander. But when we see Israel wandering, we see God pour out even more grace. In Exodus 16–17, the Israelites run away from Him in fear, complaints and despair, yet God remains gracious in His responses.

As we see ourselves in the contemptuous Israelites, then, we should find welling up in us a desire to worship our Lord. The deeper our awareness of our own sin becomes and the more intensely we understand God’s grace, the more we should find ourselves running to worship Him.

The Gospel Project

The Gospel Project is a chronological, Christ-centered study for kids, students and adults. The Bible is not a collection of stories. It is one story of God’s plan to rescue His people from sin and death. It is the story of redemption, the gospel message of Jesus Christ. More information can be found at Lifeway.com/gospelproject [3].

Other ongoing Bible study options for all ages offered by Lifeway can be found at Lifeway.com/SundaySchool [4].