Romans 4:6-12 In order to demonstrate his point about righteousness from the life of Abraham, Paul uses an example from David in the Psalms. However, in David's case, it was not something that was credited to him, but something that was not credited to him. David says such a person is blessed. Paul then addresses the question of what kinds of people are blessed in this way. What is the importance of the timing of Abraham's circumcision to this issue? How long after he was credited with righteousness did God tell Abraham to be circumcised. Given what circumcision is a sign of, why did God wait so long? What does it mean that Abraham is the father of those who believe? (43 min.)

Keywords Faith, Works, Abraham, David, Forgiveness, Righteousness

Genesis 50:15-18 After Jacob's death, the brothers of Joseph fear that he harbors a grudge which he will now feel free to express. Why, after all that has happened and Joseph's care for the family for seventeen years, do the brothers have such fears? What had they left undone when they were first reconciled to Joseph that left room for such suspicions? Were the brothers telling the truth about what they said Jacob had said to them. What lessons are we to learn about experiencing God's forgiveness from this narrative? How were the brothers trying to leverage forgiveness from Joseph? What was wrong with this? Why did Joseph weep when he received the message from his brothers? What did Joseph mean by saying he was not in God's place? What is forgiveness? What is the relationship between forgiveness and retribution? (62 min)

Keywords Jacob, Joseph, Forgiveness, Sin

Genesis 45:1-15 (pt 2) This lesson continues last week's lesson about Joseph's making known his identity to his brothers. What was Joseph's perspective on the things which had happened in his life? How did the "man" at Shechem figure into God's working in Joseph's life? What makes this particular passage so powerful to us? How is Joseph's forgiveness of his brothers so different from the forgiveness we often see in our experience? How can we learn to show the same kind of forgiveness? Do we even want to? What must have been the most wonderful thing in Joseph's message to his father? How did the brothers' submission turn out to be different from what they had expected, dreaded, and resisted? (61 min.)

Keywords Joseph, Jacob, Forgiveness