Each meeting covers one lesson. The passage, questions and notes are all on the lesson page, and group members can print their own copy.
Leaders need only this guide: first the flow that is the same every time, then the focus points and tips for each lesson.
A lesson takes about an hour. Meet weekly or every other week — whatever fits your group.
Each Meetingabout 55 min
Snacks and catching up
10 min
Read together
10 min
Discussion
25 min
This week
5 min
Close (prayer optional)
5 min
Opening: Start with last time’s ‘This week’: ‘Did you do it? How did it go?’ For the first lesson, ask everyone to say in one sentence why they want to read about this person. The leader goes first.
Read together: Take turns reading the passage, a few verses each. The leader reads the short notes between sections.
Discussion: You don’t need to discuss every question in ‘Think It Through.’ Pick one or two from each group, add this lesson’s focus points, and that is plenty.
This week: Read it together, and ask each person to decide on the one small thing they will do this week.
Close: You can pray using a verse from the lesson. If some aren’t used to praying aloud, a minute of silence together is fine too.
Focus 1 (vv. 11–12): ‘Who am I?’ and ‘I will be with you.’ Ask the group: when they hold back, are they usually asking ‘Am I enough?’ or ‘Who is going with me?’
Focus 2 (Exod 3:11–4:13): Count Moses’ five objections together. Ask which one sounds most like them.
Focus 3 (This week): Everyone writes down one thing they keep putting off. Next time, ask each other: did you take the first small step?
Leader tip: This lesson can easily turn into ‘Whatever God tells you, you have no choice but to do it,’ or into calling every hard task ‘God’s calling.’ The passage is about God’s call to Moses. Don’t decide for group members that what they face is God’s call; pray and discern together, and when needed, ask a pastor at their church. Question 6 may touch low self-worth or past failures. Don’t press; let people share only if they want to.
Focus 1 (vv. 7, 13): Blood on the door. Ask the group: what saved Israel that night? How is that different from the common idea that ‘good people get good things’?
Focus 2 (vv. 26–27): The children will ask. Ask the group: how did you first hear the story of faith?
Focus 3 (This week): Everyone thinks of a child or young person they could tell. Next time, ask each other: did you tell them?
Leader tip: Verses 29–30, the death of Egypt’s firstborn, are heavy. Do not explain what the passage does not explain, and do not pass over it lightly; it is fine to admit that this is hard to read. Some in the group may have lost a child or a loved one. Don’t ask about personal experiences here; if needed, stay with them after the meeting. Also, don’t turn this into ‘God loves only Israel’: “A mixed multitude went up also with them” (v. 38), and foreigners could keep the feast too (vv. 48–49).
Focus 1 (vv. 11–12): ‘Better to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.’ Ask the group: when do people prefer to go back to a bondage they know?
Focus 2 (vv. 13–15): ‘Be still’ and ‘go forward.’ Discuss together: how can both be true at the same time?
Focus 3 (This week): Everyone names one thing they cannot get past. Next time, ask each other: did you take that small step?
Leader tip: This lesson is easy to turn into ‘if you just have faith, every hardship will part like the Red Sea.’ The passage makes no such promise. Keep the focus on how God stays with a frightened, complaining people, not on guaranteeing the outcome. Read the death of the Egyptian army as the passage gives it — don’t dramatize it, and don’t use it to teach that ‘enemies always get what’s coming to them.’ Question 10 may touch real hardship. Don’t press; let people share only if they want to.
Focus 1 (v. 2): Rescue first, then commandments. Ask the group: do we often get the order backwards, feeling that we need to keep the rules first before God will accept us?
Focus 2 (vv. 18–20): ‘Don’t be afraid’ and ‘his fear.’ Ask the group how these two can be true at the same time.
Focus 3 (This week): Everyone names the half day they plan to set aside this week. Next time, ask each other: did you stop and rest?
Leader tip: Guard against both errors in this lesson — don’t present it as ‘keep the law well and you will be saved,’ and don’t present it as ‘now that we have grace, the law doesn’t matter.’ On the fourth commandment, churches practice the Sabbath differently (Saturday or the Lord’s Day). Don’t debate it in the group; talk only about stopping to remember God. Question 11 is for each person alone — don’t ask, and don’t share.
Focus 1 (vv. 1–5): The people did not say they were leaving the LORD, yet they made God into a calf. Ask the group: when are people most likely to make God into the shape they want?
Focus 2 (vv. 11–14, 30–32): Moses pleads for the people twice. Ask the group: how is going to God for someone who has done wrong different from making excuses for them?
Focus 3 (This week): Everyone thinks of one person they care about. Next time, ask each other: did you pray for them this week?
Leader tip: Don’t pin the ‘golden calf’ on any one group member or name what someone else’s idol is; let each person look at themselves. Don’t turn the pleading into ‘if you pray for someone, their sin is forgiven’ — what God says to Moses is, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot him out of my book” (v. 33). If someone asks about the three thousand who were killed, read the passage as it stands, admit that it does not explain further here, and don’t open a debate in the group; anyone who wants to go deeper can talk with a pastor at their church afterward.
Focus 1 (v. 10): ‘Shall we bring water out of this rock for you?’ Ask the group: when you are worn out, what kind of words come out of you most easily?
Focus 2 (v. 11): Moses got it wrong, and the water still came. Talk about the comfort in this — and why it cannot be used as an excuse.
Focus 3 (This week): Everyone thinks of one person they have recently spoken to rashly. Next time, ask each other: did you say that sincere word?
Leader tip: Many in your group serve, lead, or care for family members, and some are worn out or have lost patience with people. This lesson is not for rebuking them, and do not turn it into ‘one mistake and it is all over.’ Questions 10 and 11 may touch self-blame and regret; don’t press. If someone needs it, stay with them after the meeting, and if needed ask a pastor from their church to help. Don’t stretch 1 Cor 10:4 into something like ‘striking the rock equals the crucifixion’ — Paul does not say that.
Focus 1 (v. 4): ‘Seeing it, but not going in.’ Ask the group: is there something you have worked at for a long time and may never see finished?
Focus 2 (v. 9): Joshua carried it on. Ask the group: what in your hands could you pass on, or teach to someone?
Focus 3 (v. 10): The passage’s last word on Moses is about his relationship with God. Ask each person to say in one sentence how they most hope to be remembered.
Leader tip: This lesson is easy to turn into ‘Moses’ whole life was wasted,’ or into ‘God will surely make your dream come true.’ The passage says neither. Some in the group may be elderly, seriously ill, carrying an unfulfilled hope, or recently bereaved. Be with them first; don’t argue a point. On questions 10 and 11, don’t press — let people share only if they want to. If needed, check in privately after the meeting, or involve a pastor from their church.
Principles
The leader is not a teacher, but someone walking alongside everyone else.
Give everyone a chance to speak. If some talk a lot, you can gently say, ‘Let’s hear from those who haven’t spoken yet.’
Don’t rush to give answers. If there is silence, wait a few more seconds.
If you can’t answer a question, it’s fine to say, ‘I don’t know — let’s look into it together,’ and come back to it next time.
What is said in the group stays in the group.
At the start, the leader can share their own answer first. Keep it simple and honest.
In the lessons, words in double quotes with a reference are scripture. What the passage does not say, we can only guess; guessing is fine, as long as we say we are guessing.
Don’t press on painful things. If someone becomes upset, stay with them after the meeting; if needed, involve a pastor from their church or a professional counselor.