Typology studies offer a great opportunity for continued conversation at home. Parents are invited to read the portions of the book of Exodus on their own. Then when the opportunity arises, parents are ready to engage with children in conversation. Your opportunity for continued conversation may not occur right now. By reading now, you'll be prepared to engage when the time is right. Maybe some current event inspires a connection or something your child shares with you that they studied at school. At that time, you can wonder together about its connection to the Exodus.

God worked His plan through Moses over 3000 years ago. If we can see connections with a leader or event today, then we can see that such works of God are not far-off, long-ago events. They are also today events. And God's human collaborators are not just distant prophets and saints. God's human collaborators are people today. Such insight nourishes one of the central messages of Level III. We are each - men, women, and children - called to work for God's Plan and write a page in God's history.

Our Bible study this first week will cover two topics shown below. I've listed some questions for thought. These may or may not be the insights the children discuss or discover.

Persecution of Israelites and Birth of Moses (Exodus 1:6-22, 2:1-10)

• Do we know other examples of times when a people or a cause or a belief have grown to become a threat? How does a threatened group respond?
• The Israelites have been in Egypt about 400 years now. But they still remember God. What can we learn through reading this story about God? About humans? About our relationship?

Cry of Israel and Vocation of Moses (Exodus 2:11-22; 2:23-25; 3:1-17) 

• The story of Moses' leaving Egypt is intriguing because Moses has murdered someone and then has run away. Is this how we expect a great leader to act? What can we learn about God's plan and God's collaborators through learning about Moses?
• How does Moses change over the course of this Bible study (not just the first set of readings, but the whole study)? 
• When Moses and Aaron first make their request of Pharaoh, the result is even more work for the Israelites. How do the Israelites react? Change is hard. How do we react to change and the leader(s) associated with change today?

Typological reading is a way of reading scripture in which we look for the imprint of God throughout history. Have you ever looked at a work of art and had a good feel for who the artist was? You might "know" that the new work, which you have never seen before, is a Monet or Picasso or Van Gogh. Something in the color or method, the style or subject connect to something you have seen before by the same artist.

Something similar occurs in typological reading. We read accounts from the Old Testament and look for parallel imprints in the New Testament (i.e., in the life of Jesus). Perhaps we sense connections with our liturgy or sacraments. We can also look for parallel imprints in scripture passages which provide insight into Parousia, the time when God will be all in all. These imprints, or "types," convey a connectivity throughout all of God's Plan.

When we practice seeing the connections from Old to New Testament, from Old Testament to Redemption to Parousia, we are more able to start seeing the connections all around us in all history. This nourishes the Level III message (perhaps hidden message) that secular and sacred history are not separate, but one.