Abraham, Isaac and Jacob {Israel}

In our last Biblical History lesson, we left off where Abraham journeys to Egypt. We ventured off into a unit study on Ancient Egypt and we now pick up where we left off with the life of Abraham and his descendants.

Readings:


Highlights:

We have learned that Yahveh promised Abraham that he would give him:

Yahveh changed Abram’s name to Abraham, Abraham marries Sarah and YHVH promises them a son through whom the promise will continue. This son was Isaac.

(Notebooking pages from Grapevine’s OT Overview)

The covenant YHVH made with Abraham passed on to his son Issac. Issac marries Rebekah, and they have twin sons: Esau and Jacob. Jacob receives the firstborn blessing instead of Esau. The promise continues with Jacob, who was later renamed Israel.

I could share more in depth, but the most important thing to understand about this lesson is that this promise is forever!

YHVH told Abraham,

“And I will make your seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall your seed also be numbered.” ~ Genesis 13:16

Many Christians reject their Hebrew roots and YHVH’s Torah, because they don’t recognize that they are Israelites. Are you a part of this nation set apart for God?  If you believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, you could be! Read my post on our spiritual heritage to learn more.

This week we also began a study on the “Seven Wonders of the Ancient World” from Homeschool in the Woods’ Olde World Style Maps collection. I used the notebooking page (below) as an introduction and we are listening to Diana Waring’s reading from True Tales (an audio reading from the Ancient Civilizations and the Bible curriculum). We will listen to each “wonder” when we get to the time period we are studying.


We are now moving on to the life of Joseph, which will take us through the time of Israel in Egypt and also right up to the Exodus, just in time for the Passover (which is anticipated to be March 31st). We will journey with the Israelites through their first week wanderings as we remember the Feast of Unleavened Bread during YHVH’s Spring Feasts Days and the fulfillment of this Feast by Messiah Yeshua. Earlier this year, I was thinking that we were moving far too slow in our history studies, but I see now that this is His perfect timing!

Also in this series:

  1. Introduction to Biblical History
  2. The First Week of History
  3. Watercoloring Through the Days of Creation
  4. Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve and The Fall
  5. Cain and Abel, Seth to Noah, Corruption of Man
  6. Noah, the Ark and the Great Flood
  7. After the Flood, The Tower of Babel
  8. Abram’s Journey

Delightful Links:

Torah Explorers: (Torah Study for children)

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Posted by Michelle on March 6th, 2010 in Ancient History, Biblical History | 3 Comments




Abram’s Journey

In our last History lesson, we covered what happened after the Flood, Noah’s descendants, and the Tower of Babel. In this lesson (which took 2 weeks) we learned about the ancient city of Ur and why Abram was called out of that city.

Readings:

Links:

Audio:

Highlights:

After Noah, the Scriptures follow his son Shem. After Shem, ten generations pass before Abram is born. Through Abram/Abraham we see Yhvh bring a family out of the Nations and redeem a people for Himself.

Abram (whose name was changed to Abraham) lived in the ancient city of Ur. Abraham is not only in the Bible, he is in recorded history – he lived in a real place during a real time in history. In our discovery of the civilization of Ur, we learn that Ur was a religious center devoted to the moon god. Yhvh intended to bless Abraham with His promised seed, so it is clear that He called Abram out of this land of confusion and rebellion for His purpose.

Abram obeyed Yhvh’s Word and walked by faith.

“Now faith is the substance (physical) of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.” (Hebrews 11:1, 8)

Highlights: (from Torah Explorers)

Stick Figuring with Grapevine’s Old Testament Overview

Mapping Abram’s Journey

Malachi (who is 4) diligently worked to copy the Euphrates River onto his map, all by himself! I prompted him to outline the river in blue.

Daily Life Lessons and Activities:

From Old Testament Days: An Activity Guide

Living in Tents ~ Nomadic Life

Abraham traveled with his family and lived in tents wherever they went. People who live in tents are called nomads.  They carried their tents and all their belongings with them and traveled from place to place looking for water and food to feed their family, flocks and servants.

They slept on sleeping mats that they made with wool from their sheep. The mats could be rolled up and carried with them easily.

A Picnic Style Meal

They ate picnic style everyday as their table had to be carried with them, too. Their “table” was a large piece of leather spread out on the ground.

For all practical purposes, we used a picnic table cloth for this project so that we can use it while camping. I folded and sewed the edges for strength, We then added grommets along the edge to string the rope.

Around the edges were loops of leather so that they could thread a rope through the loops to form a bag to carry their belongings in.

Abraham and his family ate food from the animals they raised and plants that grew in the area. A typical meal might have included a stew made from lentils, cheese made from goat’s milk, and dried figs.

Lentil Stew and Whole Wheat Tortillas

People who lived in the desert used bread to scoop up stew.

Their bread was round and flat but more crispy than a tortilla.

Abraham and his family also ate locusts!

{Fake} Locust Biscuits

Cut butter into flour until it is crumbly. Add baking powder, salt, baking soda and almonds.(Add cheese if desired) Stir in buttermilk just until dry ingredients are moistened (don’t over mix for fluffy biscuits). Spoon onto baking sheet and bake at 425 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Served with homemade whipped honey butter (unless you add the cheese and garlic!).

Also in this series:

  1. Introduction to Biblical History
  2. The First Week of History
  3. Watercoloring Through the Days of Creation
  4. Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve and The Fall
  5. Cain and Abel, Seth to Noah, Corruption of Man
  6. Noah, the Ark and the Great Flood
  7. After the Flood, The Tower of Babel

What’s Next?

We are studying History chronologically through the Bible in this series. We will have to break from our regular Bible readings to study the ancient civilizations that are being built during Bible times. Since Abraham traveled to the city of Egypt, we began our study on Ancient Egypt. We also brought out the Adam’s Chart of History to see what other civilizations were beginning during this time and made a plan for how we will proceed with our studies:

Disclosure: During our study of History, you will not see the typical activities that others do for these lessons. For example, in our study of the Tower of Babel, we did NOT build a ziggurat.  In our study of Ancient Egypt, we will NOT study Egyptian gods. The Bible tells us to not even have the name of false gods on our lips, let alone devote study to the them.  We will be exposed to some of them in our studies, but we will not make a big deal about them. Likewise, when we get to Ancient Greece, we will NOT study Greek mythological gods. And we will NOT do some of the hand on activities that go along with those cultures, UNLESS they are Biblical. For example, Paul was a Roman, dressed like a Roman, and I do NOT think that making ancient Roman tunics for an activity is glorifying pagan Roman ways.

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Posted by Michelle on January 9th, 2010 in Ancient History, Biblical History | 4 Comments




After the Flood, The Tower of Babel

Here is what we have been up to for Biblical History:

Readings:

Audio:

Links:

Highlights:

After the Flood waters settled, there were . . .

‘Billions of dead things, buried in rock layers, laid down by water, all over the earth.’

I love this song and it is a great way to teach kids the effect that the flood had on the earth and why we have billions of dead things, buried in rock layers all over the earth!

Chapter 9

Discussion:

We read Carl and Julie Parker’s article and discussed that Noah may have taken the vines with him on the ark to plant afterwards and that it would have taken several years (5) before the grapes could be harvested for pressing to make wine.

I love what Carl and Julie Parker say about the lesson to be learned about Noah’s sons covering him:

Noah’s youngest son Ham found his father laying naked inside his tent, quite drunk from the wine. “Ham, the father of Canaan, ‘saw’ his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside” (Genesis 9:22). The word saw is ra’ah (Strong’s #7200) in Hebrew, which means to look, see and understand. The lesson of this story in Scripture is that we are to “cover” (forgive) each other’s “sins”/blunders, not expose them.

Chapter 10

Recorded in the above Scripture reference is the list of recorded generations and lines of descent within their nations that filled the earth after the flood.

Chaper 11

Babel comes from two words: “gate” (bab) and “god” (el), which means “gate to heaven” or “gate of god.” It came to mean confusion or “babble” because of what Genesis 11:1–9 says happened there.

In Genesis 11 we see the extent of evil has intensified upon the earth once again. YHVH kept His word not to flood the earth again. Instead He caused great confusion among the populace by changing their language so that the nations could not function in a single language again. The various languages they spoke were thereafter just babble to those listening that spoke in a different tongue. With this, YHVH scattered them over the earth.

Stick Figuring with Grapevine’s OT Overview

Discussion:

Remnants of Noah and his descendants can be found all around the world in the names of modern people groups and places.

The Table of Nations:

People tend to marry people with similar features and that is how races developed as they only used a part of the gene pool available. {Answers book}

We are not different races of men, rather we are just different families or people groups because we are all related (one blood) Acts 17:26There are 7,000 languages today. 78 family groups left Babel and there are a max of 94 language families out there, so it is possible that each language family came from Babel (and in fact many languages are a combination of two languages, such as English is German and Latin ~ anglo-saxon) Languages changed rather quickly before the invention of Gutenburg’s printing press and then stabilized after the printing press.

For further discussion, we used Natan Lawerence’s study guide and compared Nimrod and his rebellion (from the faith of his fathers) with that of the Man of Sin (2 Thess 2:1–12) in the end times and compared the formation of Babylon and the building of the Tower of Babel and the end-time one-world system called Babylon the Great (Rev 18). We discussed how history repeats itself and how man, incited by Satan, the arch-rebel, has been continually in rebellion against Yhvh-God and his purposes.

Ancient Civilizations highlights:

  • where it began{ in the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in the plain of Shinar}
  • what archaeology is  {ancient + study}
  • what an oop  artifact is {out of place}
  • that an oop is not as reliable as the bible itself as it does not tell the whole story

Coil pots, stone tablets, stone oil lamps, fossils are all ancient artifacts from this time period.

The Great Ice Age

  • Ice age 500 years after the flood is the peak of the ice age – people could have traveled on land bridges during this time
  • What Happened to the Dinosaurs? {after the flood, the climate changed drastically so that there was not enough vegetation to support them. Because of all the water on the earth, polar ice caps formed and then the ice age came and the dinosaurs lost their lush habitat with plenty of food and warmth. Job lived during a time not to long after the dinosaurs and describes them, so we know that some lived during this time and possibly into the Middle Ages from stories that we can read, such as Sir George and the Dragon and Beowulf, and drawings were found from Ancient Babylon, and even modern day stories such as the 1977 Japanese find of a plesiosaur confirm that dinosaurs (dragons) were on the Ark!}

We are finishing up the book, The Great Ice Age, and although there is so much more that we I want to do with this time period (think dinosaurs and ice age stuff with the little ones!), we are moving on to learn about the ancient city of Ur and why Abraham was called out of that city.

Also in this series:

  1. Introduction to Biblical History
  2. The First Week of History
  3. Watercoloring Through the Days of Creation
  4. Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve and The Fall
  5. Cain and Abel, Seth to Noah, Corruption of Man
  6. Noah, the Ark and the Great Flood
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Posted by Michelle on December 28th, 2009 in Ancient History, Biblical History | 5 Comments




Noah, the Ark and the Great Flood

Here is what we have been up to for in our study of Noah in Biblical History:

Readings:

What was it like In the Days of Noah? Often portrayed as a quaint story for children, the Biblical account of the Flood of Noah’s day is the account of God’s judgment, power, and love that changed the face of the earth forever! Part 1 is the story of Noah’s struggle to obey God, preach His word, survive the Flood, and begin life in the “new world”. Part 2 answers 47 questions about the Flood such as:

What was it like for Noah and his family before the Flood?
Were there dinosaurs on the Ark?
How long did the flood really last?
What does Mt. St. Helens tell us about the Flood?

Jesus said, “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man” (Luke 17:26). As we look around us today we see violence, corruption, and a worldwide anti-God movement just as it was in the days of Noah!

Audio:

Video:

From Noach/Noah by Carl and Julie Parker at Sheepfold Gleanings:

The story of Noah is about real men and women, their families and their children. Not only is this story true, but it is a prophetic story foreshadowing future events. These life accounts are stories within stories on physical and spiritual levels. Thus the study of Torah is very descriptive and illuminating for all in pursuit of their Messiah. He is revealed in every story, and this story of Noah and his family is no exception.

Highlights from our lesson:

(Timeline review and Character Event Cards)

(Notebooking pages from Grapevine’s Stick Figuring Through the Bible.)

Topical Studies:

What is a mabbul? {a hebrew word meaning “flood of water” and this implies a worldwide cataclysmic flood, and is a different word that is used for local floods elsewhere in the bible}

Ignorant Scoffers {the apostle Peter said that in the last days people will scoff at Noah’s flood and deny that it ever happened. That they will even be “willingly” ignorant!}

What Does Seven Mean? {7 signifies completion. God rested on the 7th day, the rain began after they were on the ark for 7 days, God told Noah to take 7 of each clean animal, 7 Sabbaths of years, 7 fat/lean cows, 7 years of plenty/famine, 7 priests carried the Ark of the Covenant, 7 days in the Feast of Passover and Tabernacles, 7 angels, 7 plagues, 7 bowls, etc.}

Where is the Ark? {lost somewhere in the mountains of Ararat, probably buried under snow and ice, although past stories have mentioned sightings and contact with the Ark}

Noah’s Ark Paper Model

1:290 scale model of Noah’s Ark, based on the Graeco-Roman cubit of 18″

Conceptual design of Noah’s Ark by researcher Tim Lovett

We have five of these model Arks “floating” around our house. And the kids have had fun with them, from playing with them to turning them into a piggy bank.

Also in this series:

  1. Introduction to Biblical History
  2. The First Week of History
  3. Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve and The Fall
  4. Cain and Abel, Seth to Noah, Corruption of Man

You can also see how we apply the lessons of Noah in our everyday life in my post on Noah in Biblical History for the Very Young.

Next up: After the flood, the descendants of Noah and the tower of Babel.

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Posted by Michelle on December 8th, 2009 in Ancient History, Biblical History | 1 Comment