Category: Bible Challenge

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Bible Challenge, Week 18: The Nation – Ruth

After all the mayhem of the book of Judges, Ruth is a sweet breeze blowing from the barley fields surrounding the House of Bread (or as it’s better known, Bethlehem).  It’s reassuring that even in times of war and strife, normal life goes on.  But Ruth is also a sweet story, a lovely example of ancient literary storytelling, and a significant link in the redemption story.

To see how, read on.  Here’s the .pdf of this week’s study, including scripture passages to read, questions to discuss, and activities:

Bible Reading Challenge, Week 18: The Nation – Ruth

(This is a continuation of a series of posts about the “whole story” of the Bible.  I plan to run one every week, on Tuesdays, with a printable PDF.  The printable includes a brief 2-3 paragraph introduction, Bible passages to read, a key verse, 5-7 thought/discussion questions, and 2-3 activities for the kids.  Here’s the Overview of the entire Bible series.)

Previous: Week 17: The Nation – Failure!

Next: Week 19: The Nation – Samuel

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Bible Challenge, Week 17: The Nation – Failure!

All that the LORD commands us, we will do.”  That’s the solemn promise of God’s own people, first to Moses and then to Joshua.  But, as we’ll soon see, they couldn’t even keep the first commandment.  (By the way, do you remember what the First Commandment is?)  I find the book of Judges to be one of the most depressing books of the Bible, with some of the most appalling stories.  Samson’s pathetic decline isn’t the half of it.

But perhaps we shouldn’t be so quick to judge the third and fourth generations of God’s own people.  We often assume they deserted their God for the pagan deities of Canaan, but that’s probably not the case.  More likely, they kept the Tabernacle and the sacrificial rites and the feast days and so on, but added a few other practices too.  Just to keep from offending the local gods.  They may not have seen this as blatant disobedience; it just made sense at the time.

But the results were tragic.  To find out why, click the link below for a printable download with this week’s reading passages, questions, and activities:

Bible Reading Challenge Week 17: The Nation – Failure!

(This is a continuation of a series of posts about the “whole story” of the Bible.  I plan to run one every week, on Tuesdays, with a printable PDF.  The printable includes a brief 2-3 paragraph introduction, Bible passages to read, a key verse, 5-7 thought/discussion questions, and 2-3 activities for the kids.  Here’s the Overview of the entire Bible series.)

Previous: Week 16: The Nation – Home at Last

Next: Week 18: The Nation – Ruth

 

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Bible Challenge, Week 16: The Nation – Home at Last

Did you catch the change in headings from last week to this week?  We’re no longer talking about “the people,” but “the Nation.”  By crossing the Jordan, Abraham’s wandering descendants passed a milestone.  A promise made to that landless patriarch almost 500 years earlier is fulfilled by the dramatic events that open the book of Joshua.

After the tribulations of the wilderness and numerous setbacks, the book of Joshua seems like an unblemished triumph.  But there are problems, both within the text and outside it.  Some of them you’ll encounter in this week’s reading challenge.

Click here for the printable .pdf, with scripture references, discussion questions, and activities:

Bible Challenge Week 16: The Nation – Home at Last

(This is a continuation of a series of posts about the “whole story” of the Bible.  I plan to run one every week, on Tuesdays, with a printable PDF.  The printable includes a brief 2-3 paragraph introduction, Bible passages to read, a key verse, 5-7 thought/discussion questions, and 2-3 activities for the kids.  Here’s the Overview of the entire Bible series.)

Previous: Week 15: The People – Blessings and Curses

Next: Week 17: The Nation – Failure!

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Bible Challenge, Week 15: The People – Blessings and Curses

The book of Deuteronomy is two things: a renewal of the covenant between God and his people, and Moses’ farewell.  Except for a brief introduction and a postscript, all of it is in Moses’ own voice, as he summons the people to give them a history lesson–all the amazing things their God has done over the last 40 years.

Now they stand on the brink of a new chapter in their saga.  Looking over Jordan, they see the promised land.

It’s time for a second covenant ceremony, and a reminder of what a covenant is.  The notion of a solemn agreement between a king and his underlings wouldn’t have been foreign to the people; it’s how things were done back then.  But God adds an element they might not have been expecting, an angle foreign to covenants at the time.  Any guesses?

Click here for the printable download, with scripture passages, discussion questions and activities:

Bible Challenge Week 15: The People – Blessings and Curses

(This is a continuation of a series of posts about the “whole story” of the Bible.  I plan to run one every week, on Tuesdays, with a printable PDF.  The printable includes a brief 2-3 paragraph introduction, Bible passages to read, a key verse, 5-7 thought/discussion questions, and 2-3 activities for the kids.  Here’s the Overview of the entire Bible series.)

Previous: Week 14: The People – Sacrifice

Next: Week 15: The Nation – Home at Last

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Bible Challenge, Week 14: The People – Sacrifice

Leviticus is often called the “graveyard of daily Bible reading plans,” because when you turn the page after Exodus all your good intentions to stay awake fall off a cliff.  Detailed instructions for festivals and holy days, scrubbing your leprous walls, burying your polluted waste, purifying your bodily discharges . . .   What could have less relevance today?

The problem of our inattention just may be with us.  Leviticus is all about that which is holy and unholy, clean and unclean.  Israel is a people set apart, and so are we.  The sacrificial system is obsolete, and we don’t have to worry about sanitation rules so much, but one takeaway remains: to be set apart takes thought and effort. Last week we saw how God intended to remain among His people, and took the steps to make that possible.  It’s worth asking, how does He remain among us today, and what does it take for us to be “set apart”?

Click here for a printable download of this week’s challenge, including scripture readings, questions, and activities:

Bible Challenge Week 14: The People – Sacrifice

(This is a continuation of a series of posts about the “whole story” of the Bible.  I plan to run one every week, on Tuesdays, with a printable PDF.  The printable includes a brief 2-3 paragraph introduction, Bible passages to read, a key verse, 5-7 thought/discussion questions, and 2-3 activities for the kids.  Here’s the Overview of the entire Bible series.)

Previous: Week 13: The People – Tabernacle

Next: Week 15: The People – Blessings and Curses

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Bible Challenge, Week 13: The People – Tabernacle

After last week’s fiasco, most of us would have ditched our “chosen people.”  The Lord even indicated that that was his inclination, but Moses (speaking in human terms, from a human perspective), “changed his mind.”  Or, as the first paragraph of the download puts it,

After the golden calf incident, God declared that He would let the Israelites go on to the promised land, but He would not go with them.  Moses intervened again: if God would not go with them, it wouldn’t be worth going.  The tabernacle was God’s answer.

Of course the Lord does nothing on the spur of the moment–even the words, “spur of the moment,” mean nothing in regard to a Being who lives outside of time.  So this was the plan all along.  But what was the purpose of the tabernacle?  And what made it even possible?

Click below for the printable download, which includes scripture readings, thought questions, and activities:

Bible Challenge Week 13: The People – Tabernacle

(This is a continuation of a series of posts about the “whole story” of the Bible.  I plan to run one every week, on Tuesdays, with a printable PDF.  The printable includes a brief 2-3 paragraph introduction, Bible passages to read, a key verse, 5-7 thought/discussion questions, and 2-3 activities for the kids.  Here’s the Overview of the entire Bible series.)

Previous: Week 12: The People – Failure!

Next: Week 14: The People – Sacrifice

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Bible Challenge, Week 12: The People – Failure!

“All the LORD commands us, we will do.”  I’ve heard people say it’s easy to obey God.  Maybe they don’t realize how easy it is to think they’re obeying God, while they’re really obeying their own insights and personal revelations.

True obedience begins with true worship.  “You shall have no other gods before me” is not just about graven images to some fertility deity, or even a well-meant stand-in for Yahweh when he seems to be occupied elsewhere.   It’s also about bowing down before your own ideas about him; casting him in your image, rather than the reverse.

Aaron’s intentions might actually have been good, or what we would consider “good.”  Maybe he knew better, but was trying to keep the situation from getting out of hand.  But guess what?  The situation got out of hand anyway.  Before judging him too harshly, I need to think about myself.  With all the advantages of insight and knowledge I have (which Aaron and the primitive Israelites did not) how many times have I failed to worship the true God?

Click here for the printable download of this week’s challenge:

Bible Challenge Week 12: The People – Failure!

(This is a continuation of a series of posts about the “whole story” of the Bible.  I plan to run one every week, on Tuesdays, with a printable PDF.  The printable includes a brief 2-3 paragraph introduction, Bible passages to read, a key verse, 5-7 thought/discussion questions, and 2-3 activities for the kids.  Here’s the Overview of the entire Bible series.)

Previous: Week 11: The People – Sinai

Next: Week 13: The People – Tabernacle

 

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Bible Challenge, Week 11: The People – Sinai

Two weeks ago we read how Moses first met Yahweh on Mt. Horeb.  This week, Moses has a famous meeting with God on Mt. Sinai.  Did you know it was the same mountain?  Moses has become the mediator of a covenant, and now the people are called to a covenant ceremony similar to Abraham’s in Genesis chapter 15–but bigger.  Much bigger.

Also, last week we learned that Yahweh was far superior to the gods of Egypt in power.  This week we learn his superiority in another aspect, which is so taken for granted these days we forget how utterly striking it was for the time.  It’s connected with the idea of ‘holiness’–a word we’ve encountered but haven’t examined very closely.  Now is the time to do that, with fire on the mountain and the people of God coming face to face with their deliverer and Lord.

For a printable download of this week’s reading challenge, click below:

Bible Challenge Week 11: The People – Sinai

(This is a continuation of a series of posts about the “whole story” of the Bible.  I plan to run one every week, on Tuesdays, with a printable PDF.  The printable includes a brief 2-3 paragraph introduction, Bible passages to read, a key verse, 5-7 thought/discussion questions, and 2-3 activities for the kids.  Here’s the Overview of the entire Bible series.)

Previous: Week 10: The People – Deliverance

Next: Week 12: The People – Failure!

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Bible Challenge Week 10: The People – Deliverance

The stage is set for a great contest between the God of Israel and the many gods of Egypt.  Almost all cultures at that time worshipped many gods, and each deity was limited to control of a particular land, city, or natural phenomenon–not one of them was in control of everything.  But the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was about to draw a line in the sand, so to speak, and challenge the “gods” of Egypt to come out and fight.

Pharaoh thinks he is in control–he owns Egypt, doesn’t he?  He’s put his mark on the people of Israel, and they belong to him.  But God will override Pharaoh’s claim with an indelible mark of His own, ensuring that these people will never be erased from His mind, or from history.

An 80-year-old shepherd is on his way to Egypt with a thundering message . . . .

Click here for the printable download of this week’s Bible Reading Challenge:

Bible Challenge Week 10: The People – Deliverance

(This is a continuation of a series of posts about the “whole story” of the Bible.  I plan to run one every week, on Tuesdays, with a printable PDF.  The printable includes a brief 2-3 paragraph introduction, Bible passages to read, a key verse, 5-7 thought/discussion questions, and 2-3 activities for the kids.  Here’s the Overview of the entire Bible series.)

Previous: Week 9: The People – Moses

Next: Week 11: The People – Sinai

 

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Bible Challenge, Week 9: The People – Moses

The sons of Jacob have become tribes, and the tribes will become a multitude called “Israel.”  God started with one man who trusted him (Abraham), chose one of his sons (Isaac) to carry on the promise, and chose one of that man’s sons to continue.  From the grandson with two names (“Cheater” and “Striver”) God is building a great nation.  It seems that Genesis has a happy ending.  But two problems come up right away . . .

Something huge is about to happen, certified by an explosion of supernatural events.  As much as unbelievers scoff at the Bible as a “book of fairy tales,” miracles are not that common in its pages (and fairies are  nonexistent).  God reserves miracles for special events, and we’re coming up on a big one.   But first we need a messenger, a human agent to put events in motion: someone who was planned for, and set aside, and providentially preserved for a time such as this.

To learn more, click here:

Bible challenge Week 9: The People – Moses

(This is a continuation of a series of posts about the “whole story” of the Bible.  I plan to run one every week, on Tuesdays, with a printable PDF.  The printable includes a brief 2-3 paragraph introduction, Bible passages to read, a key verse, 5-7 thought/discussion questions, and 2-3 activities for the kids.  Here’s the Overview of the entire Bible series.)

Previous: Week 9: The Promise – Joseph

Next: Week 11: The People – Deliverance