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Herein Is Love #2
Herein Is Love, Vol. 2: Exodus
The story of God's magnificent rescue of his people, a people that began with a family of boys who tried to kill their brother and now numbers nearly two million. A people with many different personalities and attitudes. Some quickly wanted to go back to their land of captivity. Some would never worship and love the God that rescued them.
The first books of the Bible are essential to our understanding of God's redemptive story. Nancy Ganz, author of Herein Is Love, creatively focuses our attention on the events that bring this story to life. The series has the richness of well-written literature and the depth of understanding inherent in a commentary. The result is a series of books that live and sing. They help parent and child understand the Christ-centered Word, and they are enjoyable reading for both. Your own faith will be strengthened while reading to your children, and your children will be encouraged, lesson by lesson, to believe in the Lord Jesus.
The first books of the Bible are essential to our understanding of God's redemptive story. Nancy Ganz, author of Herein Is Love, creatively focuses our attention on the events that bring this story to life. The series has the richness of well-written literature and the depth of understanding inherent in a commentary. The result is a series of books that live and sing. They help parent and child understand the Christ-centered Word, and they are enjoyable reading for both. Your own faith will be strengthened while reading to your children, and your children will be encouraged, lesson by lesson, to believe in the Lord Jesus.
258 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
31 people are currently reading
61 people want to read
About the author
Nancy E. Ganz
7 books5 followersNancy Ganz has spent the last twenty years in her native land of Canada, helping her husband, Dr. Richard Ganz, in church-planting work and home-schooling their four daughters. She received her formal theological training from the University of Toronto prior to her conversion to Christ at L'Abri in the Netherlands. However, it has been the many years of Bible study since that time which has produced her Herein is Love commentaries on the Old Testament. Currently, most of her time is spent studying the Scriptures, writing various books, and taking long walks along the country roads and woodland paths near her home.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 11, 2017
Our family, which has in it eight children, wanted to use this for family worship time in the evening before bed. We made a valiant go at it, too, having already finished her Genesis commentary (we forged on despite the reasons that we did not like it, which I am getting to). There are three reasons that we finally decided to ditch it. First of all, it's very long. Each section is too long to keep the attention span of most children, in my opinion. Second, the content is often inappropriate for children. Which leads me to my next point--she takes liberties with the text and adds to the biblical accounts. She says something about, "making love all night long" in one of the stories of the patriarchs (probably Jacob and Rachel). The final straw for us was when she mentions dead babies floating down the Nile to the hungry crocodiles in the story of Moses in the beginning of Exodus. I am willing to bet she has no children of her own because this doesn't seem at all like something aimed at kids.
March 20, 2019
This commentary gave some valuable background/cultural information that helped clarify and explain the Biblical text. I know I learned some new things from reading it.
However, it was very wordy and repetitive; the author often used three sentences in a row to say the same thing in slightly different ways. It began to feel like an insult to our intelligence. The writing was also rather dramatic...almost too dramatic. The author certainly had enthusiasm and wrote in earnest, I'll give her that.
The chapters were too long for us to finish in one sitting, especially if we had already read the Biblical text (often a chapter or more) in preparation to reading the chapter-lessons in this commentary. We had to split our lessons between two days (sometimes three). And then the commentary told the whole thing over again that we had just read straight from Exodus, except in great detail with lots (and lots) of dramatic repetition.
It was neat to make some connections I hadn't before, and understand some of the foreshadowings of Christ, but it began to feel like one long narration as if she told back to us the Bible passage in her own words. This would have been more fruitful for us, I suspect, if we had read the Scripture text one day, and the corresponding commentary chapter split up over the following several days (rather than Scripture + commentary back to back every day). This is what we will do in the future if we ever cycle back to this portion of Scripture for school. The way we proceeded according to our SCM lesson plans sadly made this somewhat tedious and I don't want any of us to have that view of Scripture. So I'd counsel anyone planning to use this study to take it slowly!
We did not read the entirety of every chapter; we also didn't use the teacher's guide in the back of the book, so can't speak to that.
However, it was very wordy and repetitive; the author often used three sentences in a row to say the same thing in slightly different ways. It began to feel like an insult to our intelligence. The writing was also rather dramatic...almost too dramatic. The author certainly had enthusiasm and wrote in earnest, I'll give her that.
The chapters were too long for us to finish in one sitting, especially if we had already read the Biblical text (often a chapter or more) in preparation to reading the chapter-lessons in this commentary. We had to split our lessons between two days (sometimes three). And then the commentary told the whole thing over again that we had just read straight from Exodus, except in great detail with lots (and lots) of dramatic repetition.
It was neat to make some connections I hadn't before, and understand some of the foreshadowings of Christ, but it began to feel like one long narration as if she told back to us the Bible passage in her own words. This would have been more fruitful for us, I suspect, if we had read the Scripture text one day, and the corresponding commentary chapter split up over the following several days (rather than Scripture + commentary back to back every day). This is what we will do in the future if we ever cycle back to this portion of Scripture for school. The way we proceeded according to our SCM lesson plans sadly made this somewhat tedious and I don't want any of us to have that view of Scripture. So I'd counsel anyone planning to use this study to take it slowly!
We did not read the entirety of every chapter; we also didn't use the teacher's guide in the back of the book, so can't speak to that.
November 13, 2017
I used this as a reference in teaching parts of Exodus to a group of toddlers. Ganz is insightful and occasionally memorable in her phrasing, and she does well at explaining passages within their historical and literary contexts and with an eye to their location in biblical-theological trajectories. Throughout the book her emphasis is on the mighty works of God (a helpful contrast to most children's curriculum on Exodus), and her hope is that a clear vision of who God is and what he does will elicit faith in children.
The 28 lessons are 3-8 pages apiece, with the exception of Lesson 10, on "The Just Judgments of God: The Ten Plagues," which inexplicably is 45 pages long (though of course it could be broken down). The lesson themselves are not broken down in any way as in a curriculum; each lesson is basically a fulsome telling/synthesis of the story, like a simple biblical commentary (hence "A Commentary for Children" as the subtitle). Each lesson has a corresponding Teaching Guide at the back with suggestions for visual aids, memory work, crafts, review questions, prayers, psalms to sing, and field trips to consider.
Recommended for use with kids ages 8-12.
The 28 lessons are 3-8 pages apiece, with the exception of Lesson 10, on "The Just Judgments of God: The Ten Plagues," which inexplicably is 45 pages long (though of course it could be broken down). The lesson themselves are not broken down in any way as in a curriculum; each lesson is basically a fulsome telling/synthesis of the story, like a simple biblical commentary (hence "A Commentary for Children" as the subtitle). Each lesson has a corresponding Teaching Guide at the back with suggestions for visual aids, memory work, crafts, review questions, prayers, psalms to sing, and field trips to consider.
Recommended for use with kids ages 8-12.
January 12, 2026
This was so helpful! I was very impressed with how much it brought everything to life for the kids (and me)!! I was encouraged and uplifted and praising God after every chapter!
I would add that some chapters get wordy and long. And there are a few things that went a bit farther than I would've liked or hoped, especially geared towards children.
I would add that some chapters get wordy and long. And there are a few things that went a bit farther than I would've liked or hoped, especially geared towards children.
January 27, 2020
Solid teaching, but too wordy and repetitive.
April 6, 2024
Good commentary for kids. I enjoyed this as a parent as well. Lots of connections from the OT and Christ fulfillment. Very impressed! It was long and repetitive but I don't mind and feel it helps get it into our heads. There were several instances where I felt she added to the text inappropriately. Overall enjoyed and appreciated
February 8, 2017
Too long-winded and theologically suspect for its intended audience.
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March 9, 2013"Let my people {children} go..." away from poorly written books on theology. GReat, great book. Highly recommend. I want to read all of her works.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews