All eighteen nights

Three terms of six

Everything we are going to do, all eighteen nights, laid out in advance.

Nobody gets ambushed

The whole plan is here on purpose. Read as much or as little as you like — skim one line, or read every session before we start. Both are completely fine, and knowing what is coming is what lets us move quickly in the room.

Three nights have a payoff that only works once. On those pages it sits behind a closed door with a note on it, so you can decide for yourself whether to look. Nothing is hidden from you; you are just holding the handle.

Term 1 — The Toolkit

Sessions 1–6. Before the story, the equipment: the land, a change of posture, and the language. This is the dense stretch. It is also what makes everything after it land.

  1. 1A Small Place in a Big WorldOct 20  ·  How small is Israel, really? Small enough to drive across in a morning — and sitting on the only land bridge between Egypt and Mesopotamia.
  2. 2Five Things That Unlock the MapNov 3  ·  A handful of facts that do all the heavy lifting for the rest of the year.
  3. 3Reading the LandNov 17  ·  Three worked examples. The land is not a backdrop — it is doing something in the story.
  4. 4Thinking DifferentlyDec 1  ·  A change of posture, not a set of facts. This is the night that asks the most, and the one that changes how you read permanently.
  5. 5Letters, Roots, and a Few Good WordsDec 15  ·  Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek — who spoke what and when. Then you write your own name in Hebrew letters.
  6. 6Little Words, Big DifferenceJan 5  ·  The payoff session — and then the discipline session, which matters just as much.

Term 2 — The Story: Eden to Exile

Sessions 7–12. Now the narrative, with culture, calendar, and cosmology taught at the point where the story makes them vivid.

  1. 7Genesis 1–11: The World Behind the StoryJan 19  ·  Creation, de-creation, and scattering as one arc. This is the wound the rest of the Bible is healing.
  2. 8Abraham: A Man Called Out of UrFeb 2  ·  The hinge of the whole series. Everything from here to Pentecost is the working out of what gets promised tonight.
  3. 9Household, Land, and the RedeemerFeb 16  ·  Session 4 gave us the posture. This gives us the machinery — and then we read Ruth.
  4. 10Egypt, Exodus, and a Firstborn SonMar 2  ·  Exodus 4:22 — Israel is my firstborn son — is the hinge verse of the whole series.
  5. 11Sacred TimeMar 16  ·  The calendar is a curriculum. Every year the whole nation walked through its own story with its body.
  6. 12From Tent to Temple to ExileApr 6  ·  The fast arc — centuries in one night. We will trace the covenant line rather than the history.

Term 3 — Exile to Pentecost

Sessions 13–18. The world Jesus was born into, the way he taught, and the day the scattering was reversed.

  1. 13Between the TestamentsApr 20  ·  The four hundred silent years were extremely loud.
  2. 14Rome, Herod, and the World of JesusMay 4  ·  Client kings, taxation, and the temple economy — and the four parties whose arguments fill the Gospels.
  3. 15The Rabbi from NazarethMay 18  ·  Jewish teaching method — and why 'take my yoke upon you' is a technical term.
  4. 16Feast, Cross, and CovenantJun 1  ·  Jesus laid over the calendar from Session 11, straight through to the end.
  5. 17Pentecost: Babel UndoneJun 15  ·  Shavuot — already the feast of the covenant at Sinai — and what it means that the Spirit comes on that day of all days.
  6. 18Reading the Bible AgainJul 6  ·  Synthesis. The covenant spine end to end, the son thread gathered, and a reading plan to take home.