The Book of Exodus

It took me a few readings to 'get' the beauty of of the book of Exodus. Maybe it was all those harsh acts of God, killing blameless Egyptian children and all those animals, that put me off, I don't know.

But if I look past all that what I see is the universal story of escaping from a prison of trouble and pain and all the doubts and false starts that usually go with it. People can be enslaved by so many things: addiction, the past, an abusive partner, the list is near endless.
And it's never easy to to leave any difficult situation, even if you really want something better for yourself. I feel the failed first entry into Canaan and the subsequent 40 years of wandering in the wilderness is a great reflection of that sad fact.

One of the reasons I love the bible, especially the First Testament, so much, is that these are stories about real people with real feelings. You may think you're struggling with new and unique difficult stuff, but when you read your bible it becomes clear that even in biblical times people struggled with the exact same stuff. That always puts things in perspective for me, knowing that a lot of the big questions and big problems really haven't changed all that much over thousands of years.

So ... Exodus. Just as Genesis, it's filled with lots of exciting adventures, unlikely heroes and a God with some extremely human emotions. Let's go!!