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The Bible, Our Sanctuary - Week One

September 06, 2026 0 0

 

Week 1 – A Place to Meet

 

The Bible is a library and it contains many books from many different genres written in multiple languages and cultural backgrounds. Over the course of this theme we will explore teaching, narrative, poetry, prophecy, gospels and epistles. The Torah (the first five books of the Bible also known as the Pentateuch) is sometimes translated as 'The Law' but it could also be translated as 'The Teaching'. These fascinating books are the foundational texts of how humanity discovers God and it is where our study begins…

 

1. God is here – Genesis 28: 10–17 (Jacob at Bethel)

  • Theme: Recognising God's presence in the times when we least deserve it. Often in familiar places, we can encounter revelation.
     
  • Context: Jacob, often described as a cheat, was a fugitive running for his life, resting his head on a hard stone in the middle of nowhere, when he dreams of a stairway to heaven. He suddenly realises God is already in this place: God is here! Over time the people in the Bible discover that God is not remote, located far away, that we are closer to heaven than we realise. God meets us where we are in this moment, we don't have to trek to reach God. 
     
  • Discussion questions: As we meet Jacob, what words or phrases stand out to you in this reading? What do you make of his heaven-escalator? And what does his surprise teach us about how easily we miss God in the "here and now," pointing us to the beyond? Have you experienced an unexpected sense of God's presence during a very stressful, ordinary, mundane, or even difficult moment in your daily routine?
     

2. God speaks – Exodus 3:1–17 (Moses and the Burning Bush)

  • Theme: God speaking through nature – bursting into the middle of our lives.
     
  • Context: Moses, a disgraced leader and murderer, was simply doing routine work — tending sheep in a quiet desert — when God used a common feature of nature, a bush, to capture his attention and call an unlikely, aging fugitive into a massive mission. This dramatic scene tells us an everyday truth - that God surprises us by meeting us in when we least expect it. And when we pray we can come ourselves the burning bush, we can listen to God and unburden ourselves. Note also how the people we have met so far, Jacob and Moses, are not paragons of virtue, they are flawed fascinating characters who God still speaks to directly.
     
  • Discussion Questions: What "burning bush" moments—ordinary sights, sounds, or elements of the natural world — might God be using to get your attention today? What usually distracts us from "turning aside" to notice them? Notice how Moses communicates with God. Comment on the reason Moses gives as to why he was unsuitable for the task. Does it sound familiar?
     

3. Meeting Jesus – John 3: 1-2, 16-21 (Jesus teaches Nicodemus) and 4: 4–26 (The Woman at the Well)

  • Theme: God breaking boundaries to meet the most unexpected and marginalised people in daily life.
     
  • Context: In the first part, from chapter 3, we hear Jesus explaining to Nicodemus – a high status religious insider — about how God has crossed the boundary from heaven to earth — to come face to face with humanity. In the second Jesus intentionally crosses social, cultural, and religious barriers to have a meaningful spiritual conversation with an isolated outsider, a marginalised woman from a rival cultural group during a routine midday chore at a well. In the New Testament Jesus offers continuity with the tradition of the past while also radically expanding our understanding of it for the future. Jesus has come to earth to demonstrate divine love and forgiveness face to face and this relationship is for all humanity.
     
  • Discussion Question: If Jesus were to meet you during your most ordinary daily chores or in places you feel overlooked, what might He reveal about Himself to you? What would He ask you for, and what do you need most that He would ask for in order to give you your heart's desire? Furthermore, how does this encounter challenge us to look differently at the "unexpected" people through whom God might want to speak today?

 

Head to Week Two!