Archive for year: 2019

Read Together:  Esau despised Jacob for tricking him, and Rebekah, their mother, discovered his plot to kill him. Rebekah advised Jacob to go to her brother Laban’s home and stay there until Esau had calmed down. Now Isaac and Rebekah were not pleased that Esau had taken Hittite women as wives, so Isaac told Jacob to take a wife from his uncle’s daughters in Padan Aram. Jacob set out from Canaan to the land of Haran with nothing but his staff. On his way, Jacob stopped for the night, and he had a very strange dream while sleeping under the stars. He dreamed there was a ladder that reached from heaven to the earth with angels going up and down. God spoke to him in the dream and gave Jacob the same promises that He had made to Abraham and Isaac. God promised to give him the land of Canaan and to multiply his descendants.  God promised to be with him and to bring him back safely to the land. Jacob was filled with awe! He anointed the stone where he slept and called the place Bethel, which means house of God. For his part of the covenant, Jacob promised to obey God and to tithe to Him. Jacob completed his journey, arriving at his uncle Laban’s home in Padan Aram.

Read Together:  Genesis 27:41-46; 28:1-22; 29:1-13

Discuss:

• Esau was very angry with Jacob and thought to kill him.  Discuss with your child how thoughts become actions, and we must learn to control our thoughts.  One strategy is to replace bad thoughts with good ones; we can also pray for anyone we may have bad thoughts about. How could Esau apply this?
• Explain to your child that most dreams do not have any meaning; they are just dreams. Jacob’s dream was special and God caused him to understand that.
• Discuss with your child what a tithe is.
• Remind your child that Haran is the place where Abraham and Sarah lived before their sojourn in Canaan; it is near modern day Syria. Laban was Rebekah’s brother, but he was also the son of Abraham’s nephew Bethuel.
• Point out to your child that Bethel is an important place in biblical history and that we will hear more of it in future Bible studies.

Review Memorization:

Genesis 27:29 “Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be master over your brethren and let your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be those who bless you.”

by Janth English

Read Together: God chose Moses to bring Israel out of Egyptian slavery and to the Promised Land. He then chose Joshua to lead the people into that land and divide their inheritance among the tribes. God chose judges, or leaders, to teach the people His laws and to judge matters that came up according to those laws. Israel was obedient to God for as long as Joshua and the elders that he trained lived. However, after the generation who saw God’s works in the wilderness died, the people began to turn away from God. They wanted to be like the peoples around them, copying their ways and customs. To punish the Israelites for their disobedience, God sent these nations against them. Time after time, Israel suffered under the cruel hand of their enemies. When they cried out to God for relief, he mercifully sent a judge to save them. After a few years of peace, Israel would forget the God who saved them and return to their foreign idols. Again, God would remove His protection and the neighboring nations would invade the land of Israel. For many generations, the people of Israel followed their own rebellious heart, doing what was right in their own eyes.  

Read Together:  Exodus 3:6-10; Deuteronomy 31:7; 1 Samuel 12:12; Judges 2:6-23, 21:25

Discuss:  

• Discuss with your child God’s criteria for leadership positions (See Exodus 18:21 and Titus 1:7-8). God’s standards have not changed, and they will not change. Remind your child that they are training now for future leadership positions.
• Discuss with your child Israel’s desire to be like the people around them.  Do we sometimes fall into the same trap? What was the result for Israel? What would be the result for us if we do the same thing?
• Point out to your child how God showed mercy to Israel time and again.  Help them to see that God’s mercy is forever.
• Discuss with your child the consequences of everyone doing what they think is right. What happens when my thoughts and your thoughts are not in agreement? What happens in society when there are no absolute standards?

Review Memorization.

Judges 21:25 “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

By Janth English

Read Together:  Abram was born in the city of Ur in Chaldea which was near the Middle Eastern country of modern day Iraq. He was the son of Terah, who was a descendant of Shem. Shem was one of the three sons of Noah, and lived through the Flood. Abram married his very beautiful half-sister Sarai, but they had no children. Terah left Ur for Canaan and took Abram, Sarai, and Lot, his grandson, with him. For a period of time, Terah and his family lived in Haran, where the Bible tells us that Abram became a very wealthy man. He had gold, silver, livestock and many servants. In time, Terah died, leaving Abram as the leader of the family. His life would change dramatically, however, when, God told Abram to take Sarai and leave Haran. Where was he supposed to go? God told Abram that He would guide him to the right place. In return for his obedience, God promised to make Abram a great nation and to bless all nations through him. At this point in his life, Abram was already 75 years old and had a home and great wealth in Haran. He made the right decision, however, and obeyed God. He took his wife, his nephew Lot, all their possessions and left Haran just as God commanded.

Read Together:   Genesis 11:26-32; 12:1-9.

Discuss:

• Show your child where Abram lived and where he traveled   (There are many maps available over the Internet.) Talk about how different it would have been to travel over long distances in those days, in comparison to today. People walked and used animals like camels to travel instead of cars!
• Help your child to understand what Abram was willing give up in order to obey God. For Abram and his family, Haran was home. Yet God asked them to leave everything they knew behind.
• Explain to your child that it took faith for Abram to obey God.  All he had was God’s word to believe that things would work out.

Review Memorization.

Genesis 22:18. “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

Read Together: God told ancient Israel that they were to put out all leavening from their homes, and He also instructed them to eat unleavened bread for seven days. The first and seventh days were to be holy convocations.God’s people continue to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread by eating unleavened bread for seven days and celebrating the first and seventh days as Holy Days. These days have important meanings in God’s plan for mankind. Passover commemorates Christ’s sacrifice in payment of our sins. The Days of Unleavened Bread picture our effort to put sin out of our lives and replace it with living according to God’s ways. We don’t just avoid doing bad things. We must fill our lives wit good actions, just like our elder brother Jesus Christ.

Read Together:  Exodus 12:14–17; Leviticus 23:6–8; Ephesians 4:22–24; John 6:47–51; Galatians 2:20; 2 Timothy 3:16–17; Philippians 1:6; Hebrews 12:2

• Discuss with your child the biblical meaning of righteousness. Read and discuss Psalm 119:172 together.
• Remind your child that the Feast of Unleavened Bread is the only one that has two Holy Days and that Passover is a separate feast but it is not a Sabbath.
• Ask your child to summarize the meaning of the Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread, the first two steps in God’s plan of salvation.

Discuss:

Review Memorization.

1 Corinthians 5:7  “Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.”