As He Leads - A Bible Study For Busy Women

By Rachel L Kennedy

Welcome, sister! Join us as we study God's Word in chronological order. The mission of this podcast is to get you in His Word, especially in the midst of your busy schedule.

In each episode, I'll rea... more

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The podcast currently has 11 episodes available.

As He Leads - A Bible Study For Busy Women episodes:

April 12, 2021 Genesis 10
Welcome back to As He Leads - a Bible study podcast for busy women!
I hope you enjoyed walking through Genesis 10 with me today. It is certainly a tongue twister! (Read that as there was heavy editing in this episode.) As promised, I am including a list of resources that I hope you will find useful.
This is a link to the Map of Nations we read about today. ( https://www.bible-history.com/maps/2-table-of-nations.html )
The Bible app I mentioned is the Tecarta Bible app. I don't make any money by recommending them, but I have had such a great experience with their product, I am happy to do so. You can check them out in both the Google and Apple stores as well as online at https://tecartabible.com/home .
They also have the super awesome Tecarta Bible Search app. It is also available for both Android and Apple products. All you need is a key word or phrase, or general theme of a verse, to start a search and the app does the digging for you.
The other resource I mentioned is also wonderful - The Blue Letter Bible. You can check out there website at https://www.blueletterbible.org/ or their app for Apple and Android products.
I'm working on adding the podcast information to a blog style page. I'll also post occasional updates there. You can find it at https://asheleadsabiblestudyforbusywomen.wordpress.com. You can reach me there or at [email protected].

I look forward to our next journey together, As He Leads!
Rachel Kennedy
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13min
February 10, 2021Genesis 9
Welcome to As He Leads - a Bible study podcast for busy women. Today's podcast covers Genesis 9 and is read using the English Standard Version (ESV) of The Bible.
In today's show, I mentioned several resources that I'd share with you. I was trying to upload show notes from my phone and accidentally published the podcast, so I apologize if a random link was all you found here!
Resource links I promised:
For post-flood information, click here.
If you are struggling with pornography addiction, I have Christian resources here from Focus on the Family or here from Hope & Joy in Christ. There are many other Christian based resources out there. Please feel free to reach out directly to me if you are in need of a listening ear.
Notes used from The MacArthur Bible Commentary
9:25-27 Cursed be Canaan. The shift from Ham to his son Canaan established the historic legitimacy of Israel’s later conquest of the Canaanites. These were the people with whom Israel had to do battle shortly after they first heard Moses’ reading of this passage. Here, God gave Israel the theological basis for the conquest of Canaan. The descendants of Ham had received a sentence of judgment for the sins of their progenitor. In 10:15-20, the descendants of Canaan are seen to be the earlier inhabitants of the land later promised to Abraham.

9:26 may Canaan be his servant. Conquered peoples were called servants, even if they were not household or private slaves. Shem, the ancestor of Israel, and the other “Semites” were to be the masters of Ham’s descendants, the Canaanites. The latter would give their land to the former.

9:27 dwell in the tents. This means that spiritual blessings would come to the Japhethites through the God of Shem (v. 26) and the line of Shem from which Messiah would come.
Notes from Dr. Thomas L. Constable's Notes on Genesis available online here.
The Noahic Covenant was a suzerainty treaty that God made with humankind through Noah.[526] In it, He promised to "never again destroy all flesh" with a "flood [of] water" (v. 11).

"A peculiar difficulty arises in v. 10 for those who hold that the Flood was partial and not universal. They must support the strange supposition that God made a covenant with those creatures only which went forth from the ark. Others that never entered the ark must do without the benefits of such a covenant."

The sign God appointed to remind people of this promise, and to guarantee its veracity, was the rainbow ("bow"; v. 12-15; cf. 6:12). There may have been rainbows before this pronouncement, but now God attached significance to the rainbow.

"It is not impossible that with the Flood came altered atmospheric and cloud conditions, for geologic evidence points to an earlier age when a climate uniformly tropical prevailed also in the artic region.

The Canaanites became known for their shameless depravity in sexual matters.[550] ... In view of what studies on the effects of viewing pornography have taught us, it should be no surprise that the root of the depraved Canaanite culture was looking at someone's nakedness. We need to be very careful about viewing nudity. It can lead to an addiction that results in complete corruption, and finally ends in divine judgment.
As always, please feel free to reach out with any thoughts or questions!
Rachel Kennedy
[email protected]
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21min
February 06, 2021Genesis 8
Welcome to As He Leads, a Bible study podcast for busy women! Today's show notes include notations and situations from the podcast episode, as well as other interesting tidbits that didn't make the cut into the show this time.
My favorite verses from this chapter:
verse 1: "Then God remembered Noah..." Noah was not truly forgotten by God but was delivered by Him.

verse 13: "...in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth..."

verse 21: "And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma..." Our worship today is the same pleasing aroma when we bring it to God with an obedient and joyful heart!

verse 22: The implied global changes here just astound me.
Another interesting thing I found while combing through this chapter was the choice of birds used. Ravens and Doves are very different types of birds in many ways. I'll include notes from both MacArthur and Constable below on the details.
Our Takeaways from Genisis 8:
God Remembered Noah. He extended mercy and deliverance from death and destruction. God made a promise to us, through this covenant with Noah, that He will not completely destroy the earth. His reference to seasons is repeated in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.

Noah was patient and obedient. Gen 8:6-18 detail each step in the process Noah took before God said he could leave the ark. His first act on dry land was to build an altar and make a sacrifice of thanksgiving and worship.
When you are facing your ark moments - those seemingly unending trials, periods of unrest, family struggles, relationship issues - be like Noah
Remain Faithful - 1 Corinthians 10:13

Be Patient - Psalm 33:18

Be Obedient - Matthew 26:39
From Dr. Thomas Constable's Notes on Genesis available at planobiblechapel.org/soniclight/
"When Moses wrote that "God remembered" someone, in this case "Noah," he meant that God extended mercy to him or her by delivering that person from death or destruction or from barrenness (30:22). God's rescue of Noah foreshadows His deliverance of Israel in the Exodus."

"The raven in seeking food settles upon every carcass it sees, whereas the dove will only settle on what is dry and clean."

Noah's "altar" is the first altar mentioned in the Bible. His "burnt offerings" were for worship. Some of the burnt offerings in the Mosaic cultus (system of worship) were for the same purpose. Specifically, a burnt offering made atonement and expressed the offerer's complete personal devotion to God. As the head of the new humanity, Noah, with his sacrifice, represented all humankind.
From The MacArthur Bible Commentary
8:7-12 a raven . . . a dove. Ravens survive on a broad range of food types. If any food was available outside the ark, the raven could survive. In contrast, a dove is much more selective in its food choices. The dove’s choice of food would indicate that new life had begun to grow; thus Noah and his family could also survive outside the ark.

8:14-16 Noah and his family had been in the ark for 378 days (cf 7:4, 10, 11).

8:22 While the earth remains. With many alterations from the global flood, God reestablished the cycle of seasons after the catastrophic interruption.
Please reach out with any questions or concerns at [email protected]!
Rachel K
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20min
February 04, 2021Genesis 7
Welcome back to As He Leads, a Bible study podcast for busy women! I apologize for the long break. I had some health issues that had to get sorted out at the end of 2020 and they prevented me from being able to move forward with this study. God is good and I am feeling much better, so we begin again where we left off.
As promised, I want to provide you with information from people who have done their ark research. Click here for comparative details about the size of the ark and the Biblical account of the flood versus other localized, mythological floods. Click here for more details about the number of and caring for the animals on board.
Reference notes:
Dr. Thomas L Constable's Notes on Genesis from soniclight.com
"7:1-10 God, in His grace, invited Noah to enter the ark with his family (v. 1; cf. 8:15). God took the initiative, as He later did in calling Abram (cf. 12:1). This is the first occurrence of the offer "Come" in the Bible (v. 1, NET). This invitation continues throughout Scripture, the last offer being in Revelation 22:17. God extends the invitation to people, He urges them to take advantage of the perfect provision He has made for their preservation, and He offers it in a time of impending judgment and gloom."
MacArthur Bible Commentary
"7:11 ... all the fountains of the great deep were broken up. The subterranean waters sprang up from inside the earth to form the seas and rivers (1:10; 2:10-14), which were not produced by rainfall (since there was none), but by deep fountains in the earth. Such a catastrophe would also easily explain why so many of the earth’s mountain ranges give evidence of having once been under the sea. the windows of heaven. The celestial waters in the canopy encircling the globe were dumped on the earth and joined with the terrestrial and the subterranean waters (cf 1:7). This ended the water canopy surrounding the earth and unleashed the water in the earth; together, these phenomena began the new system of hydrology that has since characterized the earth (see Job 26:8; Eccl. 1:7; Is. 55:10; Amos 9:6). The sequence in this verse, indicating that the earth’s crust breaks up first, then the heavens drop their water, is interesting because the volcanic explosions that would have occurred when the earth fractured would have sent magma and dust into the atmosphere, along with gigantic sprays of water, gas, and air-all penetrating the canopy and triggering its downpour."
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
"7:16 and the Lord shut him in — literally, “covered him round about.” The “shutting him in” intimated that Noah had become the special object of divine care and protection, and that to those without the season of grace was over (Matthew 25:10)."

Today's challenge was brought to you from Hebrews 13:8 (ESV), which says, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." Friends, if we believe the Bible is the true and living Word of God, then we believe Noah built an ark that was divinely filled and protected. Then we believe Methuselah lived to be 969 years old. We believe that the God of All Creation spoke and everything came into existence, then we must also believe He can and will and does carry us through the storms of life.

As always, feel free to send me questions, concerns, comments, or compliments through the messages here or at [email protected]! I look forward to our next study!
Rachel Kennedy
P.S. If you are enjoying this podcast, please share it with a friend!
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16min
November 04, 2020Genesis 6
Welcome back to As He Leads - a Bible Study Podcast for busy women! Our passage for today covers the increasing corruption of earth and Noah's pre-flood instructions. I want to apologize for the awkward end of the podcast. I was having technical issues during editing and couldn't get it quite the way I wanted.
Excerpts from The MacArthur Bible Commentary:
6:2 the sons of God saw the daughters of men. The sons of God, identified elsewhere almost exclusively as angels (Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7), saw and took wives of the human race. This produced an unnatural union which violated the God-ordained order of human marriage and procreation (Gen. 2:24). Some have argued that the sons of God were the sons of Seth who cohabited with the daughters of Cain; others suggest they were perhaps human kings wanting to build harems. But the passage puts strong emphasis on the angelic versus human contrast. The NT places this account in sequence with other Genesis events and identifies it as involving fallen angels who indwelt men (see notes on 2 Pet. 2:4, 5; Jude 6). Matthew 22:30 does not necessarily negate the possibility that angels are capable of procreation, but just that they do not marry. However, to procreate physically, demons had to possess human, male bodies.

The word nephilim is from a root meaning “to fall,” indicating that they were strong men who “fell” on others in the sense of overpowering them (the only other use of this term is in Num. 13:33). They were already in the earth when the “mighty men” and “men of renown” were born. The fallen ones are not the offspring from the union in verses 1 and 2.

The word order is one of increasing spiritual quality before God: just is to live by God’s righteous standards; perfect sets him apart by a comparison with those of his day; and that he walked with God puts him in a class with Enoch (5:24).

6:15, 16 While the ark was not designed for beauty or speed, these dimensions provided extraordinary stability in the tumultuous floodwaters. A cubit was about eighteen inches long, making the ark 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. A gigantic box of that size would be very stable in the water, impossible to capsize. The volume of space in the ark was 1.4 million cubic feet, equal to the capacity of 522 standard railroad box cars, which could carry 125,000 sheep. It had three stories, each fifteen feet high; each deck was equipped with various rooms (lit. “nests”).
Excerpts from Dr. Thomas L. Constable Notes on Genesis, 2020 Edition (available here)
The ark was about 450 feet long (1 1/2 American football fields), 75 feet wide (7 standard parking spaces), and 45 feet high (a typical four-story building). It had three decks, and over 100,000 square feet of deck space. There were over 1 million cubic feet of space in it. This is a volume capacity of approximately 860 railroad boxcars. It had a floating capacity (its buoyancy; the total weight it could float) of almost 14,000 gross tons.

What a splendid figure this man makes, a picture of solitary goodness! He was the one saint of that day. It is possible, therefore, to be good even though we have to stand alone. It is possible to be right with God even amidst surrounding iniquity. God is the same today as He was to Noah, and if only we are willing to fulfill the conditions we too shall walk with God and please Him.
Please reach out with any questions or concerns at [email protected]!
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15min
November 03, 2020Genesis 5
Welcome back to As He Leads - a Bible Study Podcast for Busy Women!

Today, we are in Genesis 5, the Geneology of Adam to Noah. I wanted to include the quotes I used from MacArthur and Constable so that you can reference them, too.
From The MacArthur Bible Commentary:
In reference to Gen 5:5, he writes, "These are literal years marking unusual length of life. The pre-Flood environment, provided by the earth being under a canopy of water, filtered out the ultraviolet rays of the sun and produced a much more moderate and healthful condition. See notes on 1:7; 2:6. and he died. God told Adam that, if he ate of the tree, he would surely die (2:17). It included spiritual death, immediately and then physical death, later."
From Dr. Thomas L. Constable's Notes on Genesis 2020 Edition, which you can read here.
Assuming closed (or "tight") genealogies in chapters 5 and 11, J. Paul Tanner calculated the Creation as having occurred about 4200 B.C., and the Flood about 2550 B.C.

Repetition usually reinforces and emphasizes in Scripture. The central lesson of the section appears to be that the godly can experience victory over the effects of the curse by walking with God. God will snatch some away (cf. 1 Cor. 15:51-53; 1 Thess. 4:17), like Enoch, but most have to endure physical death, though not necessarily spiritual death.
The last resource I wanted to share is the Answers in Genesis website. They have a wealth of knowledge and data to help bolster your faith from both Biblical and scientific standpoints. You can find information about the age of the earth here: https://answersingenesis.org/age-of-the-earth/
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13min
November 02, 2020Genesis 4
Welcome to As He Leads - a Bible study podcast for busy women! Today we'll be reading through Genesis 4 in the ESV translation. Genesis chapter 4 records the first murder in history and the devastation it cast onto Cain's lineage. In today's podcast, I reference information from Dr. Thomas Constable and The MacArthur Bible Commentary. I also wanted to include those notations here for you.

From The MacArthur Bible Commentary:
4:4-5 Abel’s offering was acceptable (cf. Heb. 11:4), not just because it was an animal, nor just because it was the very best of what he had, nor even that it was the culmination of a zealous heart for God, but because it was in every way obediently given according to what God must have revealed (though not recorded in Genesis). Cain, disdaining the divine instruction, just brought what he wanted to bring: some of his crop.

4:23-24 Lamech killed someone in self-defense. He told his wives that they need not fear any harm coming to them for the killing because, if anyone tried to retaliate, he would retaliate and kill them. He thought that if God promised sevenfold vengeance on anyone killing Cain, He would give seventy-seven-fold vengeance on anyone attacking Lamech.

4:25 Seth. With Cain removed as the older brother and heir of the family blessing, and with Abel dead, God graciously gave Adam and Eve a godly son through whom the seed of redemption (3:15) would be passed all the way to Jesus Christ (Luke 3:38).
From Dr. Thomas L. Constable's Notes on Genesis 2020 Edition which can be viewed here in full.
Chapter 4 shows the spread of sin from Adam's family to the larger society that his descendants produced. Cain became the first murderer and Abel the first martyr. Chapter 3 records the root of sin, and chapter 4 the fruit of sin. Not only did sin affect everyone, but people became increasingly more wicked as time passed. Human self-assertion leads to violence. Verses 1-16 show that the Fall affected Adam and Eve's children as well as themselves. Verses 17-26 trace what became of Cain and Seth and their descendants. Note that the chapter begins and ends with the subject of worship.

Cain's punishment consisted of his being banished from God's presence ("from Your face I will be hidden"), unable to enjoy his family's company and the fruitfulness of a settled agrarian life ("cursed from the ground will no longer yield its strength"; vv. 11-12, 14). He would have to wander from place to place ("a wanderer"), seeking food ("a vagrant"), rather than living a sedentary life. This punishment was appropriate and just, since he had alienated himself from his brother and God by his horrible crime.

The commentators have interpreted Cain's "sign" or "mark" (v. 15) in a variety of ways. One view is that it was partial paralysis, based on the meaning of the word used to translate "sign" in the Septuatint. An old Jewish interpretation understood it to be the word "Yahweh," and another viewed it as a long horn growing out of the middle of Cain's forehead. Some medieval paintings represent Cain with a horn on his head following this view. Other ideas suggest that it was some other identifying mark on Cain, in view of parallels with other marks that identify and protect their bearers in Scripture (cf. Ezek. 9:4; Rev. 7:3; 13:16-18; 14:1)Still other interpreters believe that the mark was a verification of God's promise to Cain. This last view rests on the usual meaning of "sign" in the Old Testament (cf. Judg. 6:36-40; 2 Kings 2:9-12; et al.), which the Hebrew construction supports here.
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14min
November 01, 2020 Genesis 3
Today we're reading through Genesis chapter 3 and the ESV version. Genesis chapter 3 really makes me emotional. I see God in this chapter as a very disappointed parent. If you're a parent yourself, you understand how God's feeling here. I hope that you enjoy this episode. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions or concerns at [email protected]!
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13min
October 30, 2020Genesis 2
Welcome to As He Leads Podcast - a Bible study for busy women! I am Rachel Kennedy and I'll be guiding our journey through scripture today. In case you notice a discrepancy in dates, I wanted to offer an explanation. I was sick with a bad cold and lost my voice so I couldn't record anything for about a week. Hopefully, that won't happen again and we'll be meeting daily.
Today's Takeaways:
Woman was created as a helper (êzer) for man. We were given one of God's own names!

God saw Adam's need for a partner but didn't immediately fulfill the need. He met the need when Adam realized the need, too.

We cannot meet the needs of our husbands if they don't recognize their own needs. As a helpmate, watch for ways to help.
From The MacArthur Bible Commentary:
2:17 surely die. To die has the basic idea of separation. It can mean spiritual separation, physical separation, and/or eternal separation. At the moment of their sin, Adam and Eve died spiritually but, because God was merciful, they did not die physically until later (5:5). There is no reason given for this prohibition, other than it was a test (see note on v. 9). There was nothing magical about that tree, but eating from it after it had been forbidden by God would indeed give man the knowledge of evil-since evil can be defined as disobeying God. Man already had the knowledge of good.
From Strong's Bible Concordance
verse 18 the Hebrew word helper here is ‛êzer. There are 21 uses of the word ‛êzer in the Old Testament. In all but three of those instances, ‛êzer is used in reference to God Himself.
From Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible for Genesis 2:18-25:
it is not good for the man to be alone (vs 18-19) — In the midst of plenty and delights, he was conscious of feelings he could not gratify. To make him sensible of his wants, God brought unto Adam — not all the animals in existence, but those chiefly in his immediate neighborhood to be subservient to his use.

Genesis 2:19-20 ESV

And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name - His powers of perception and intelligence were supernaturally enlarged to know the characters, habits, and uses of each species that was brought to him. The design of this singular scene was to show him that none of the living creatures he saw were on an equal footing with himself, and that while each class came with its mate of the same nature, form, and habits, he alone had no companion.

took one of his ribs — “She was not made out of his head to surpass him, nor from his feet to be trampled on, but from his side to be equal to him, and near his heart to be dear to him.”
Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions, concerns, observations, comments, or complaints at [email protected]. I look forward to hearing from you!

Rachel Kennedy
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10min
October 22, 2020Genesis 1
Welcome to As He Leads - a Bible Study Podcast for Busy Women!
I'm so glad you are joining to listen in as we start at the very beginning of all creation! Today, our passage was Genesis chapter 1. As I mention at the end of the podcast, I have two takeaways from today's passage. I wanted to include them here just to make it easier to find.
God is omnipotent! He could have spoken creation into existence in a single day. He could have thought it into being in a moment! But God took six days. I see this as a lesson and reminder to us that we don't have to do all the things in a single day.

We are image-bearers of God! He made you in his image! He made that annoying person, your kids, the bus driver, every person you ever have, or will, see in passing! He made you just the way you are, and on purpose.
My challenge for you today is to see yourself as an image-bearer and to view others in that same light. To provide feedback or ask questions, feel free to reach out to me at [email protected]. You can also leave voice messages at https://anchor.fm/as-he-leads/message. I look forward to hearing from you and continuing our journey through scripture together, As He Leads.

Rachel Kennedy
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11min

FAQs about As He Leads - A Bible Study For Busy Women:

How many episodes does As He Leads - A Bible Study For Busy Women have?

The podcast currently has 11 episodes available.