What is the Value of Being Unique?

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unique

Excerpt from Enjoying Exodus: The Bible in Rhyme by Marcia Goldlist

Discussion Questions:

• What does it mean to be unique?
• How do you feel when you want to buy something and it is no longer available?

Creative Thinking:

• Think of at least five reasons why this oil was not to be made again.
• Why is marketing something as only being manufactured for a short time a good sales technique?
• What reasons could God have for saying not to pour (use) the oil on human flesh?

Activities for Homeschool and After-school:

• Name at least one unique quality about yourself and tell about it.
• Explain why the oil would be more special if it was never made again.
• Why can companies charge more for something that is a limited edition?
• If you were a product would you prefer to be manufactured for a long time or to be only produced for a short time? Explain.
• Design a campaign to sell a product that was only going to be made for two weeks.
• What qualities make people want to buy or use a product?
• Describe how the oil felt when it heard that it was never to be made again.

 

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God Wants Our Best

Excerpt from Enjoying Exodus: The Bible in Rhyme by Marcia Goldlist              

God told Moses exactly what spices and in what amount He wanted to inaugurate the tent of meeting and the ark of the testimony.

Discussion Questions:

• Does God really like things such as spices?
• What does it mean to inaugurate something?
• God asked specific spices to be mixed together. He specified that they were to be the best of these species. Picking the best spices might be easy, but can we always do our best?

Creative Thinking:

• What difference could the exact mixture of the spices make to God?
• God told  Moses to take the choice of the spices. Make a list of when people take the best of something.

Activities for Homeschooling and Afterschooling:

• Find out what types of things are inaugurated and why.
• Research spices.
• Do you believe that God likes earthly pleasures such as the smell of spices? Explain.
• Research how we smell.
• Most people do not do their best all the time. Explain what makes you do your best?
• God tells Moses to take the choice of the spices. Do you think that there was a chance that Moses would not have taken the best of the spices for inaugurating the tent of meeting and the ark of testimony?
•  Do you think that Moses ever got tired of God telling him what to do? Explain.

 

 

The Significance of Ritual

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Aaron, water

Excerpt from Enjoying Exodus: The Bible in Rhyme by Marcia Goldlist

Aaron and his sons and their future generations are to wash their hands and feet before serving God.

Discussion Questions:

• What does spiritual cleansing mean?
• Do you think that the washing was used for a physical or spiritual cleaning?
• Washing before serving would have been a ritual.
  • What is ritual?
  • How could a ritual help people concentrate on their job?

Creative Thinking:

• Give as many reasons as you can for why washing hands and feet would be important?
• Why would the feet and hands be picked for cleansing?

Activities for Homeschool and Afterschool:

• Research how water cleans.
• Research a ritual from another cultural that you didn’t know about before.
• Write a diary entry for the water about how it felt being used to wash the hands and face of Aaron and his sons.
• Write a comic strip featuring the hands and feet talking to each other during the washing ritual.
• Write a tweet or a blog post for a descendant of Aaron being washed for the first time.
• How do you think Aaron’s thoughts would differ from that of a descendant while being washed for the first time?
• Research ways to wash yourself when there is no water available.
• See how many different things you can find that water is good for.

Setting a Meeting Spot

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Moses

Excerpt from Enjoying Exodus: The Bible in Rhyme by Marcia Goldlist

God tells Moses that He will speak to him and meet him at the altar in the tent of meeting. 

Discussion Questions:

• Are all meetings important? Explain.
• Are some places more productive for meetings than others?
• What kinds of places are good for listening to someone intently?
• What kinds of places are good for meetings?

Creative Thinking:

• Design a place which would be conducive to having important meetings.
• Is it the people at a meeting or the agenda that make it important?

Activities for Homeschooling and Afterschooling:

• Describe the things that make a place conducive to a good meeting.
• Describe the things that make a place not conducive to a good meeting.
• Do you think that it is a good idea to have a specific place to talk with someone about important things? Why or why not?
• Does having a consistent place for a meeting help produce results? Explain.
• Describe the things that make a meeting go well?
• Why would God pick the altar as His place of meeting?
• What is the difference between a meeting with God and God speaking to someone?
• Many people say that a car is a good place to talk to someone. Why would they say this?

 

Water in the Bible

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Aaron, water

 Excerpt from Enjoying Exodus: The Bible in Rhyme by Marcia Goldlist  

Before Aaron and his sons were brought into the tent of meeting they were to be immersed in water.

Discussion Questions:

• Aaron and his sons were to be immersed in water before they did their work. Think of other instances where there is something done before someone starts doing something. (eg stretching before doing exercise)
• Do you think that getting ready to do something in the above ways is important? Why?

Creative Thinking:

• Why would Aaron and his sons need to be brought to the the tent of meeting? Why would they not be allowed to come themselves?
• What was the purpose of the  water?

Activities for Homeschooling and Afterschooling:

• Research water. Find out:
  • how much of the world is water
  • how much of the human body is water
  • how much of animals is water
  • why some water is salty
  • what exactly water is
• Aaron and his sons were to be immersed in water. Find out how various religions use immersion in water.
• Find at least five times that water is mentioned in the Bible.
• Aaron and his sons were to be brought to the tent of meeting. Write about other official entries (monarchs, prime ministers, presidents, etc.) where someone is brought to a specific place for a specific purpose.
• If so much of the world is made up of water why is it a scarce resource?
• Take a map of the world and see if you could sail around the whole globe returning to your starting point. Try to map out a route. If you can’t get through on a route where are you blocked?
• Why do you think water was used to immerse Aaron and his sons?

 

Discussion Questions:

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Aaron, Children of Israel

Excerpt from Enjoying Exodus: The Bible in Rhyme by Marcia Goldlist

 

God is about to tell His requirements for how Aaron and his sons are to become holy so that they can serve God. 

• Can anyone serve God?
• Why did Aaron and his sons have to become holy to serve God?
• Should we be doing something to become holy?
• Is everyone able to become holy?

Creative Thinking:

• Write a journal entry for God describing how He feels people today do in the holiness department.
• Aaron and his sons had responsibilities to the children of Israel and to God. Read about what was involved regarding Aaron and his sons in the book of Exodus chapter 29 and then write a modern day version.

Activities for Homeschooling and After-Schooling:

• Read chapter 29 in the book of Exodus and record what Aaron and his sons were to do to become holy.
• Why does God give a list of things that have to be done for Aaron and his sons to be holy?
• Describe ways that people today can be holy.
• Write about someone that you believe deserves the title “holy”.
• Describe in your own words what you believe God means by “holy”.
• Why is it important to God that Aaron and his sons serve Him?
• God tells Moses what has to be done. Why doesn’t He speak directly to Aaron?
  • Think of an example in your life where something was told to someone else about how to prepare you for something important. How did this make you feel? Was there a reason that the person did not talk directly to you?

Aaron Approaches God With Care

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Aaron, Children of Israel

Excerpt from Enjoying Exodus: The Bible in Rhyme by Marcia Goldlist

When Aaron entered the holy place of God he was to wear the names of the twelve sons of Israel on a breastplate which was to be placed on his heart. Aaron was to be thinking of the children of Israel when he came before God. He was also to approach God with care.    

Discussion Questions:

• What does it mean by the judgment of the children of Israel?
• Why would wearing the names of the sons of Jacob help Aaron concentrate on the children of Israel?
• Why was it important for Aaron to concentrate on the children of Israel when he approached God?
• What does it mean to approach God with care?

Creative Thinking Questions:

• Why do you think that it would be more effective to place each of the twelve names of the sons of Jacob on the breastplate rather than just write “the sons of Jacob” or “the children of Israel”?
• If you were Aaron what would you do in order to properly “approach God with care”?

Activities for Homeschooling and After-Schooling:

• Aaron was told to come with care before God. This referred to going before God into a special place. Should we treat going before God any differently?
• Aaron was to bear the judgment of the children of Israel. Should we bear the judgment of others? If so, whose and under what circumstances?
• Aaron walked into a special place to be with God. Go to two or three houses of worship in your community and ask about how the people and the clergy talk to God. Note any differences between the religions.
• Why do you think that Aaron wore the judgment of the children of Israel on his heart and not on his head?
• Write a journal entry for Aaron describing how he prepared to enter God’s holy place.
• Find the accounting of how Aaron was to approach God in the book of Exodus and write out an accounting, in bullet points, of what he had to do.
• Aaron carried a heavy responsibility. Do you think that anyone was jealous of him? If so describe why.
• This description of how Aaron was to approach God is in the book of Exodus. Why do you think it is included in this book of the Bible?

Review for Enjoying Genesis: The Bible in Rhyme Workbook

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book review

Enjoying Genesis: The Bible in Rhyme Workbook by Marcia Goldlist will get minds thinking and pens writing.

Please check out this review by I’m a full-time mummy which I received for Enjoying Genesis: The Bible in Rhyme Workbook

Enjoying Genesis: The Bible in Rhyme Workbook is a collection of 120 exercises covering the book of Genesis. Each exercise consists of:

• one or two verses from Enjoying Genesis: The Bible in Rhyme
• discussion questions
• creative thinking questions
• at least 7 activities

This book is geared for:

• homeschooling
• family discussions
• youth groups
• religious schools

The advantage of this book is that it gets kids (and adults) thinking about the personalities and events which occurred in the Bible and relating to them.

Enjoying Genesis: The Bible in Rhyme Workbook is available in both paperback and ebook formats.

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.ca

The Children of Israel are Told Not to Cause Pain to Widows and Orphans

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Children of Israel

Excerpt from Enjoying Exodus: The Bible in Rhyme by Marcia Goldlist

The children of Israel are told by God that they are not to cause pain to widows or orphans.

Discuss:

• Why would widows and orphans be considered special?
• Is it okay to cause pain to people who are not widows or orphans?
• What kind of things do people do that cause you pain?

Creative Thinking:

• When is it acceptable to cause someone pain? Make a list of at least 5 circumstances.
• List at least 5 reasons that the Bible would single out widows and orphans.
• The only difference between window and widow is an ‘n’. Find similarities between the two.

Homeschooling Activities:

• Should we have to be told not to cause pain to someone or should this be automatic? Explain.
• Should a person who was wronged or hurt complain? Explain.
• If a person who was wronged or hurt does not complain is s/he somewhat to blame if someone else is hurt by the same perpetrator?
• Why would God not just tell the children of Israel not to cause pain to anyone?
• God links the widow and orphan to the children of Israel because they were slaves in Egypt (which was a foreign land). What is the relationship between being slaves in a foreign land and being a widow or an orphan?
• Why do you think some people complain more than others?
• Make a list of five rules for the children of Israel to follow to make it easier for them not to hurt a widow or an orphan.

Unity and Obedience From the Children of Israel

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Children of Israel

Excerpt from Enjoying Exodus: The Bible in Rhyme by Marcia Goldlist

After God told the children of Israel that they should listen to His voice and follow His covenant they responded that they would do whatever God asked of them. 

Discussion Questions:

• Is it usual to say that you will do what someone asks when you don’t know what will be asked of you?
• Have you ever agreed to do something before knowing what was going to be required? How did it work out?
• Do you think that you have the same point of view as a whole group of people? How does it feel?

Creative Thinking:

• Do you think that the world would be a better place if everyone had one point of view? Explain.
• How would the world be different if everyone followed all the laws?
  • Would this solve all of the world’s problems? Why or why not?

Homeschooling Activities:

• Try to get someone to agree to do whatever it is that you are about to ask of them without revealing what you are about to ask.
  • Was it hard to find someone who would blindly agree to your request?
  • Now try to get a whole group of people to agree to do whatever it is that you are about to ask of them without revealing what you are about to ask.
    • How much harder was this than just convincing one person?
• What do you think it would be like if your whole country or everyone of your religion had one point of view?
• Make a chart with ten different groups (such as your city, religion, sports club). Beside each group mark off if you can say that there is something of significance that everyone in the group can agree on. For the groups that have a view point in common write down what they agree on.
• Try doing everything that your parents ask of you for one week. Describe the experience.
• Describe a point of view that your immediate family agrees on very strongly.
• Describe a point of view that your immediate family disagrees on strongly. Describe the different points of view.
• Write a speech to try and get people to hold your point of view about something that you really care about.