Showing posts with label Old Testament. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Old Testament. Show all posts

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Return from Exile


Many years after God's people were exiled from their land by Nebuchadnezzar,
a new king came along named Cyrus who allowed everyone to come home,
and even gave back their treasures.

Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther were leaders that God chose
to help rebuild his people after they went back to their homes.

(from: wikipedia - esther)

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Nebuchadnezzar


We just learned about some of the Other Kings in the Bible.

In the books about Kings, the Kings that ruled Israel turned away from God.

Becaus they stopped listening to him, God let a king named Nebuchadnezzar come in and rule over his people.

Nebuchadnezzar was not a nice guy!
He took away all of the special treasures that God had given his people,
and sent them away (exiled them) to a place called Babylon

They were exiled from their land for 60 years!


(from: wikipedia - nebuchadnezzar ii)

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Other Kings


From the time of the prophets Samuel and Elija and Kings Saul, David and Solomon, there were over 40 different Kings over Israel!

Some of them were good, but most of them were very very bad.

The people asked God for a person to be king over them to be a ruler in place of Him,
but all of these kings showed that people can not be trusted in the way we can always trust in God.
king of israel
(from: wikipedia - kingdom of judah)

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Elijah


After the death of Solomon there were other kings and rulers.
One bad king was Ahab and God sent his prophet Elijah to fight against him.

Elijah was a very powerful prophet.
He declared a drought from God because of the bad king,
and helped fight against people believing in things that weren't true.

In the end Elijah was such a great servant that God took him straight up into heaven!

(from: wikipedia - elijah)

Sunday, June 2, 2013

King Solomon


Let's keep learning about the kings from the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles.
We already learned about the prophet Samuel, King Saul and King David.

Solomon was the son of King David and when David died he became the next King of Israel.

When Solomon was young, the Lord appeared to him and asked him what he wanted.
Solomon asked for wisdom, which made God happy because he could have wished for anything in the world!

Solomon was known as one of the wisest men who ever lived,
and he wrote a book of the bible called Proverbs which is full of wisdom he was given by God.


(from: wikipedia - solomon)

Sunday, May 26, 2013

King David



Let's keep learning about the kings from the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles.
We already learned about the prophet Samuel and King Saul.

Next up is King David.

David was a small boy, but he had great faith.

When the Israelits were fighting a giant named Goliath none of the soldiers would meet him in battle,
but David went up against him using only a sling to throw rocks.
He hit Goliath right in the head and killed him, because he believed in God's power.

David was also a musician, and met with King Saul because his music helped make the king's bad headaches go away.

Eventually David became king after Saul died.
He is such a popular king that some people called Jesus a son of David because Jesus was from David's family.

David was a great king until one day when he saw a woman that was not his wife,
and stole her away from her husband.

God was angry because David could have had anything he wanted, but he stole something that wasn't his.
David loved the Lord and so he begged for forgiveness.
God forgave him, but because David had done something bad, he had many other problems with his family.

Eventually David died as an old man in his bed after making his son Solomon the next king.

(from: wikipedia - david)

Sunday, May 19, 2013

King Saul


Let's keep learning about the kings from the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles.
We already learned about the prophet Samuel.

Next up is King Saul.

Saul was a very handsome man, and led God's people to win battles with other people.

He later had problems because he was impatient.
When he didn't listen to some instructions God gave him through Samuel, God was angry.

Saul was also jealous of David, because people were talking about how great a warrior he was.
So he planned to kill David, but Saul's son Jonathan was David's best friend and he saved him.

Saul was eventually killed in a battle.

king saul
(from: wikipedia - saul)

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Samuel, Kings & Chronicles


Let's keep learning about the other Books of History in the Old Testament.
We already learned about Joshua, Judges and Ruth.

Next up are the books of 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles..
For the numbered books we say first or second, like First Samuel and Second Samuel.

These six books all talk about some prophets and very famous kings that ruled over Israel for some time.

The first person is Samuel. He was a prophet of the Lord, which means he talked to God, and got instructions from God that he told to other people.
Samuel also anointed Kings, which means he declared to all the people that God had chosen that person as King.

Samuel was a very faithful man, and anointed both King Saul and King David.



(from: wikipedia - samuel)

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Ruth


Let's keep learning about the other Books of History in the Old Testament.

We already learned about Joshua and Judges.

Next up is Ruth.

During the days from the book of Judges, an Israelite woman named Naomi had a husband and two sons.
Both of the sons married women that were from the land of Moab, where they didn't know about God's laws and his people.

Then Naomi's husbands and her two sons both died!
She was alone, and only her one daughter in law Ruth stayed with her.

Naomi and Ruth both returned to Bethlehem, and there Ruth worked very hard to help gather leftover crops, and because of her hard work a man named Boaz noticed her and ended up marrying her!

Ruth was a very important mother, because her great grandson was David who went on to be king of Israel.


(from: wikipedia - ruth (biblical figure))

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Judges


Let's keep learning about the other Books of History in the Old Testament.

We already learned about Joshua.

Next up is Judges.

After Joshua dies at the beginnng of the book of Judges, the people of Israel start to disobey God.
So God sends them many different rulers over many years, to serve as Judges for his people.

Some of them are very famous, like:

Gideon - A great warrior for God who led only a few hundred men to battle and defeated thousands.

Samson - A warrior for God that was so strong he couldn't be defeated unless his hair was cut.
He once killed a lion with his bare hands!


(from: wikipedia - book of judges)

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Joshua


We've just finished up learning about the five books that make up the Old Testament books of law

Now let's learn about the next part of the Old Testament, the books of history.

There are 12 books of history: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicle, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther.

Let's start with the book of Joshua.

Remember that at the end of Deuteronomy Moses dies and Joshua becomes the leader of the Israelites.

In this book, Joshua leads the Israelites into God's promised land of Canaan,
and conquers all the cities.

The first city conquered is Jericho, and the Israelites conquer it using God's power
by marching around the city 7 times and then blowing their trumpets
and yelling at the wall to make it come crashing down!


(from: wikipedia - book of joshua)

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Deuteronomy


Let's keep learning about the other Books of Law in the Old Testament.

We already learned about Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers.

The last of the five books of law is Deuteronomy.

The word Deuteronomy means second law.
Just like Leviticus there are many laws listed in this book.

At the end of Deuteronomy Moses dies and Joshua becomes the leader of the Israelites.


(from: wikipedia - book of deuteronomy)

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Numbers


Let's keep learning about the other Books of Law in the Old Testament.

We already learned about Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus.

Next up is Numbers.

The book Numbers is mostly about counting the people of the lord,
and God's people wandering in the desert and complaining too much.

Because they complained too much, God said that not all of them could enter the promised land,
and that Joshua instead of Moses would lead them into the promised land.


(from: wikipedia - book of numbers)

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Leviticus


Let's keep learning about the other Books of Law in the Old Testament.

We already learned about Genesis, and Exodus. Next up is Leviticus.

The word Leviticus just means a book about the Levites.
The Levites were the group of people that God picked to be in charge of keeping his laws.

So the book of Leviticus is mostly about rules or laws that God made for his people.
There are over 200 different laws in Leviticus!



(from: wikipedia - book of leviticus)


Sunday, March 24, 2013

Exodus


Let's keep learning about the other Books of Law in the Old Testament.

We already learned about Genesis, next up is Exodus.

The word Exodus is Greek, and it means "Going out".
It is all about God's people the Hebrews and how the escaped slavery from Egypt with God's help.

The main person in Exodus is Moses.

The book tells of his birth and how as a baby he floated down the river
and was found by the Queen of Egypt to be raised as his own.

Then when he became older he fled Egypt and spoke to God in the burning bush

He returned to Egypt and demanded the Pharaoh let the Hebrews go.
When they didn't, God punished Egypt, sending things called plagues.

Then finally the Hebrews were free and they fled Egypt, but the Pharaoh tried to get them back.
When they chased Moses and the Hebrews, God parted the Red Sea for the Hebrews, but let it flood and drown the people chasing them.

Finally the Hebrews were free, and God gave Moses the Ten Commandments as rules to live by.

(from: wikipedia - the exodus)

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Genesis


Remember we learned about how the Old Testament is all about what happened before Jesus was born, and that you can split it up into 4 parts: Law, History, Poetry, Prophecy.

There are five books of Law, and they are:
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

The first book Genesis means beginning.

There are many well known people from this book that you might remember:

Adam & Eve - The first people God created.

Cain & Abel - Children of Adam & Eve.

Noah - Built the ark to avoid the flood.

Abraham - Made a promise with God, father of the Israelites.

Isaac - Abraham's only son, almost sacrificed but saved by an angel.

Jacob & Esau - Twins, Jacob gets renamed as Israel.

Joseph - Coat of many colors.


(from: wikipedia - Book of genesis)

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Old Testament


We just learned a little about the Old Testament and New Testament.

The Bible can seem like a really huge book if you look at the whole thing.

But if you can look at it and can understand the different parts, it can be less confusing.

The Old Testament can be looked at in four sections:
Law, History, Poetry, Prophecy

There are 5 books of law, 12 books of history, 5 books of poetry,
5 books of major Prophets, and 12 books of minor prophets.

We'll learn more about these next time!


(from: wikipedia - old testament)

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Old Testament and New Testament


We just learned about the Apostle's Creed.

Did you know that the the Bible is split up into two parts?

The Old Testament and the New Testament.

The Old Testament is a history of all the things that happened up until the birth of Jesus.

The New Testament starts during the time of Jesus, and tells of his birth, death and his followers.


(from: wikipedia - old testament)