2/17 The Weekly Preview

This is Scripture for Students. I’m Steve Whitacre, president of Trinity College and a pastor at Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville. I want to help students build a daily habit for life-long Bible reading. Today is February 17, 2025 and this episode of Scripture for Students is a preview of what we’re going to read this week. Grab your Bible and let’s get started.

What is your favorite appetizer? If you go to a restaurant, some appetizers are just filler; they’re just buying time, giving the kitchen a few more minutes to cook your entree. But some appetizers are almost good enough to be a meal. In fact, my family likes appetizers so much that on New Years Eve, we always do a meal made up entirely of appetizers: you got your shrimp cocktail, buffalo wings, jalapeño poppers, caprese salad… I could go on but I won’t because it’s making me hungry and New Years Eve is quite a ways off. 

Let’s think of today as a little appetizer for the week to come. We’re going to get some nibbles of a few different flavors today and come back the other days this week for more of a meal. 

Over the next 7 days, we’ve got some great chapters of Scripture to read. We’ll be reading: 

• Genesis 50–Exodus 6
• Luke 3–9
• Job 16–23

I want to take a couple minutes to talk about what we’re going to find as we read. Think of this as a few pointers for the next seven days of reading. 

Genesis 50–Exodus 6

• Today, we finish the book of Genesis. Congratulations! That’s an accomplishment. It’s not the longest book in the Old Testament but it might be the most theologically significant. If you really want to do justice to the book as we wrap it up, take a few minutes today to read, reread, and think about Genesis 50:20. Now that you’ve read all of Genesis, how many different stories in Genesis do you think this verse can apply to?
• Tomorrow we embark on the book of Exodus. Exodus is an adventure and we’ve got a lot to look forward to in this book. 
• We’re going to ease in by establishing characters and settings. You know the setting: the great great great great great grandchildren are right where we left Joseph when he died at the very end of Genesis: they are in Egypt. But their situation has deteriorated quite a bit. 
• In addition to setting the stage for the great reversal of the Exodus, these early chapters of the book also introduce us to at least three main characters. 
• First, we’re going to learn a lot about Moses. We’ll get his backstory and read about some very interesting complications in his life. From a story-telling standpoint, Moses is a fully-developed character. Let’s pay attention to his words and his actions and especially his motivations and his fears.
• Second, we’re going to meet Pharaoh. He’s the king of Egypt. Here’s a really important thing about this guy: we never actually learn his name. Pharaoh is a title, like king or president or Caesar. We don’t know exactly which of the pharaohs this is and that is an exquisite detail. It’s incredibly disrespectful to this Pharaoh—which he fully deserves—but it is also a huge contrast, because on Thursday we’re going to read about the third main character we need to pay attention to in this story and we’ll meet that character when he tells Moses his name. It’s right there in Exodus chapter 3. See if you can figure out what I mean.

Luke 3–9

For our New Testament Reading, we’ll continue reading the gospel of Luke, chapters 3–9.

• We’ll be reading some iconic passages of Luke’s gospel, like the temptation of Jesus, Jesus calling his disciples, conflict with the religious leaders, extended teaching, such as Luke’s version of the Beatitudes, and all sorts of healing and other miracles. Kind of like with Exodus, these early chapters set the stage for much of the drama that will come later in the book. 
• As I’ve mentioned before, Luke is an exceptional storyteller. He was trained as a doctor so he pays attention to detail, and the details in Luke’s stories are all important. One thing that all four gospels do really well is record people’s reactivity to Jesus. So as you are reading, watch for how Luke presents people’s reactions to Jesus’ teaching, his miracles—anything he does that goes against their expectations.

Job 16–23

Finally, we will read Job 16–23.

• Yes, we are still in the long middle section of Job. Lots of speeches between Job and his friends. We’re continuing the themes that we talked about last week: Job’s friends have a simplistic and mechanistic view of the universe. They believe that if bad things happen to you, it must be because you did something bad. On the other hand, Job insists that his suffering is not the direct result of specific sin in his life. Part of his defense is to point out that lots of people who are bigtime sinners seem to be happy, healthy, and otherwise prosperous. We’ll see this especially in chapters 17, 19, and 21—today, Wednesday, and Friday this week. Job essentially asks a question that appears in many different forms throughout Scripture and has been asked by many of God’s people throughout the years. We might see it most clearly in Jeremiah 12:1, “Why does the way of the wicked prosper?” 
• So let’s keep walking with Job and learning from Job in his grief and anguish as he grapples with the sovereignty of God in his situation.

Two more things before we finish up. I hope this podcast is serving you by helping you read more of God’s word. That’s the only reason I’m doing this. I want to help students build a daily habit for life-long Bible reading. Here’s one small tip that will help. Each day this week, as you are reading, be asking God: is there one verse in these chapters that you want to use to teach me more about you and your ways? If there, write it down. I usually read through all the chapters for the day and then go back to one or two verses that I think were encouraging, informative, or instructive, and I write those verses down in my journal. It’s incredibly encouraging to look back in my journal three months or three years later and see how God was using his Word to feed my soul.

Second, who else do you know that is listening to Scripture for Students? Do you have siblings or friends in your youth group or school or sports team that you think would benefit from building a daily habit for life-long Bible reading? The reading schedule we’re on is designed to lead us through reading the entire Bible in a year, but anyone can pick up with us right now and still benefit. I think you will also be encouraged to know that you are reading along with family members or friends and that you can talk about it anytime. See who you can recruit to join us!

That’s all for today. If you enjoyed this episode please share it with a friend and follow us on Apple Podcasts.

This content is sponsored by Trinity College of Louisville. We shape young men and young women for Christ and for the church. Learn more at TrinityCollegeLou.com. Until next time, keep growing!