The Bible

The word ‘sabbath’ simply means ‘stop’. It is God’s instruction that we should stop our usual activity for one day in every seven. The Jews kept this day on the Saturday.

Mountains often had a significant role in God’s dealings with His people. In the English language we have the expression “mountain-top experience”.

Men and women are of equal value

Genesis 1v27 tells us that:

Word@Work's series in the letter of James sparked a number of reader's questions about James.

The snake (or Uraeus) was a symbol of “Wadjet” – an early Egyptian goddess who was said to control and protect the land. The imagery came to symbolise Pharaoh’s sovereignty, royalty, deity, and divine authority in ancient Egypt. It was used in the headdress of the king of Egypt.

Using the symbolism of the snake God was showing Moses that He alone is God in control over Egypt – Not Pharaoh. He is the one true God who is sovereign over the land of Egypt and a higher authority than Pharaoh himself!

In the Bible darkness represents a number of different things:

• Evil ways: see Proverbs 4:19
• The absence of God’s presence: see 2 Peter 2:17; 1 John 1:5; Mk 15:33

First, we understand that heaven is God’s heavenly realm now. The place where God is. We pray in the Lord’s prayer: “Our Father in heaven" (see Matt 6:9).

God’s Glory

The Hebrew word for "glory" is from the same root word for "heavy/weighty". Glory refers to the sheer, mind-blowing, weightiness of God's presence. (And this metaphor fits with the extreme reactions of people in the Bible who get even a glimpse of God's glory. They are literally/physically blown-away, overcome, almost crushed at times as they glimpse the “weightiness of God”). As one might describe a King’s glory so the Bible tells us that God’s glory is so awesome that even the angels in heaven bow down on the ground before Him (see Revelation 19:1-2, 4).

To understand this passage and others like it from the Old Testament we first need to look at the context in which the promises were given.