Priesthood Was a Job for Life

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Aaron, priesthood

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

The priesthood was a job given to Aaron, and his sons, and his descendants for ever.

Discussion Questions:

• Do you like it when people ask you what you want to be when you grow up?
• How would you feel if you knew what job you would have because you were born into a specific family?
• Would you like not having to think about what you were going to do when you grow up?
• Do you think that you would resent not being able to pick your profession?

Creative Thinking:

• It was common for people to learn a profession and stick with it for life. Today that is uncommon. Write a list of advantages and disadvantages for staying with a profession for life and for frequent changes in profession.
• Do you think that a descendant of Aaron would do a better job than someone else because his family had always done the same job?
• Do you think that it is more important to like a job, be good at a job, or make a good living from a job. Explain your answer.

Activities for Homeschooling and Afterschooling:

• Pick a job that you might want to do when you get older. Outline all the steps that you will need to accomplish in order to get that particular job.
• Is there a difference between a job and a profession? If so what is the difference.
• Do you think that you are more qualified for a job if you train for it as an apprentice or if you study for it in University? Explain your answer.
• Write a journal entry explaining how you feel when you get to the age of going into the priesthood like your brothers, father, grandfather, etc.
• Write a journal entry from someone who really would like to be a priest but can’t because he is not of the lineage of Aaron.
• Do you think that you would worry more or less about doing a good job as priest because your whole family is part of the priesthood? Explain.
• Write a song or a poem explaining how you feel about your life being mapped out for you.

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No Cursing in My House

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

Discuss:

• What does it mean to curse someone?
• Is cursing someone the same as talking negatively?

Creative Thinking:

• Come up with three ways of criticizing your government (local or federal) on something that you are not happy with in a constructive way.
• How is cursing God the same as cursing a leader?
• Do you think that it is okay to curse a leader that is not of “your people”?
• Explain the differences between cursing a friend, a leader, God, and your parents.

Bible Homeschool Activities:

• Write about a leader that you admire.
• Write about a leader that you do not agree with.
• Think of 10 questions that you would like to pose to a current leader that you do not agree with.
• Think of 10 questions that you would like to pose to God about decisions that you think He made that you do not agree with.
• Write about “your people”.
• Create a flyer explaining why people should not curse their leader.
• Create a flyer explaining why people should not curse God.
• Explain any differences that you would have between a flyer getting people to refrain from cursing their leader and a flyer dissuading people from cursing God.

Why do People Protest?

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Children of Israel, God, Moses, protest

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

The children of Israel protest to  Moses that they are thirsty. Moses asks the children of Israel why they protest against him and why they test God.

Discussion Questions About Quarreling and Protesting:

• What is a quarrel?
• When do people quarrel?
• What does it mean to protest?
• When do people protest?

Creative Thinking About Protesting:

• What do you think makes some protests peaceful and some protests violent?
• Make a list of ten things that you think are worth protesting about.
• Make a list of ten things that people complain about that are not worth protesting about.

Homeschooling Activities which can be used for discussion around the family table, youth groups, English Language Arts, or just to think about:

• In the Bible it is very clear that the water came from God. Why do you think that the children of Israel protested to Moses?
• Write about three recent protests in your country.
• Write about three recent protests in another country.
• Write about a quarrel that you or someone else has with God.
• Create a flyer to give out to the children of Israel before their protest to make sure that it stays peaceful.
• Write out ten rules to give to the police before they go to guard at a protest.
• Create a live broadcast from the scene where the children of Israel were protesting against Moses because they were thirsty.
• Explain in  detail to someone what it is to be thirsty.
• Write a diary entry that God or Moses might write about the children of Israel protesting because they are thirsty.

Weights and Measures

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manna, omer, weights and measures

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

Each person was allowed an omer of manna. Manna was the special bread which God made for the children of Israel.

Discuss Weights and Measures:

• For what purposes do we use weights and measures?
• Do you think that weights and measures were a good invention?

Creative Thinking About Weights and Measures:

• What are the pros and cons for being allowed only a very specific portion of food?
• What is the advantage to a supermarket of having a price per weight for some foods?

Homeschooling Activities for Homeschoolers and Everyone Else:

• Is one kind of food as satisfying as another kind of food? For instance is a pound/kilogram of rice cakes as satisfying as a pound/kilogram of chicken?
• An omer was a unit of measure. Make a chart of various units of measurement.
• Why do you think that God only created one kind of food for the children of Israel?
• In your house are you given food on your plate or does everyone take what they want from the serving dishes? Explain the benefits for the way that your family serves food. What are the disadvantages.
• Would you mind measuring your food before eating it? Why or why not?
• Do you think that most of the children of Israel would have measured their food as requested? Why or why not?
• God told the children of Israel to measure their food. Do you think that someone could have tricked God and take a different measurement of food?
• Do you think that we would be a healthier nation of we stilled used weights and measurement to control our food intake?

Remembering Specific Days

Tags

Children of Israel, Egypt, Moses

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

Moses admonished the children of Israel not to forget the day that God took them out of Egypt.

Bible Study Tools

Discussion Regarding Remembering Specific Days:

• What is a holiday?
• Why would Moses tell the children of Israel to remember the day that God took them out of Egypt?
• Name some holidays and their origins.

Creative Thinking About Special Days:

• Describe what it would be like if there were no special days in the year.
• If you could create a holiday what would it be called and what would its purpose be?

Homeschooling Activities for Everyone – Homeschooled or Not:

• If we didn’t have holidays like Passover or Christmas, do you think that people would think about their origins? Defend your answer.
• Do you think that most people think about the origins of holidays, or just how they are celebrated?
• Why is it important to remember things that happened in the past?
• How does our memory work?
• What are the similarities and differences between our memory and the memory of a computer?
• Why is it important to mark specific days?
• What is the origin of the word holiday? Would the original name still be appropriate? Why or why not?
• Make a chart with two sides and write down points for why the children of Israel would remember leaving Egypt longer because Moses told them to remember the day and a side with reasons why the children of Israel would have remembered the day just the same had Moses not said anything.

The Children of Israel Must Save Themselves

Tags

Children of Israel, Egypt, God, plague

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

God promises the children of Israel that if they mark their doorposts He will pass over them and not kill their firstborn on His way to kill the firstborn of the Egyptians.

Bible Study Tools

Discuss the Children of Israel Marking Their Doorposts:

• Why would God tell the children of Israel to put blood on their doorposts? Would God not know where they live?

Creative Thinking About the Children of Israel Marking Their Doorposts:

• Name as many reasons as you can why God would have the children of Israel use blood to mark their doorposts.
• Name as many reasons as you can why God would have the children of Israel mark the doorpost as opposed to somewhere else.
• In which circumstances is it okay to leave everything up to God and when do we have to do something to help ourselves?

Homeschool Activities for Everyone:

• God gave the children of Israel a chance to save their firstborn. Write how God felt if one of the children of Israel did not mark his house with blood.
• If one of the children of Israel put blood on the lintel but only one door post what do you think happened? Why?
• God did not give the Egyptians a chance to save their firstborn. Do you think that He liked killing the Egyptians, was ambivalent, or did not like to do it at all? Explain your answer.
• Blood was used to mark the doorposts of the children of Israel. Research blood.
• Write a note of thanks to God for having your firstborn saved.
• Write a dialogue between a firstborn asking his father to put blood on the doorposts and the father refusing.
• This is the first plague that the children of Israel had a part to play. In all the other plagues God made a clear divide between the Egyptians and the children of Israel. Why do you think God now made the children of Israel do something to protect themselves?

Three Days of Thick Darkness

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darkness, Moses, plague

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

Bible Study Tools

Discussion Questions About Darkness:

• What do you think a thick darkness would feel like?
• How is a thick darkness different from regular darkness?

Creative Thinking Questions About the Plague of Darkness:

• If the thick darkness came from God why would Moses have to stretch out his hand?
• For what reasons would God pick three days for the thick darkness?
• There is only one letter difference in think and thick. What could be a connection between these words?

Homeschool Activities for Everyone – Homeschooling or Traditional Schooling:

• What would be the difference between a sighted person in a thick darkness and a blind person in regular light?
• Research blindness
• Write a poem about living in darkness.
• Write about your feelings living in darkness.
• See if there is a blind institute near where you live. If there is check if you can go for a visit to find out more about how blind people live. If there is not one near you try to visit a blind institute online.
  • Write a letter to someone explaining something that you learned through your visit (whether live or on the web).
• Write a thank you note to a doctor or to God from someone who was blind but had an operation and can now see.
• Write a thank you note to God from someone who is blind for what they do have.
• Describe what the plague of thick darkness looked like from someone looking at it from the side where the children of Israel lived.

 

The Plague of Locusts Expanded Throughout the Borders of Egypt

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borders, Children of Israel, Egypt, locusts, plague

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

God said that He would spread locusts throughout the borders of Egypt, but no locusts would enter over the border to where the children of Israel lived.

Bible Study Tools

Discussion Questions About Borders:

• Why do countries have borders?
• Do you think that it is good that there are different countries or should we just be people of the world?

Creative Thinking Questions About Borders:

• Describe a world without borders.
• On what basis would you assign borders?
• Do you think that countries should still be allowed to change their borders?

Homeschool Activities for Homeschoolers and Non-Homeschoolers Alike:

• Are there any customs, food, or language that are specific to the country in which you live? If so, what are they?
• Are there any border disputes today in the world? If so where?
• God sent a plague of locusts throughout Egypt. Make a list of the harm that locusts can do.
• Write a journal entry for a locust in Egypt near the border with the children of Israel .
• Write a newspaper report from a reporter watching the Egyptian border from the side of the children of Israel.
• How would you mathematically figure out how many locusts it would take to fill the land of Egypt.
• There are no lines in the ground defining borders. What are the different ways that countries mark their borders?
• Countries are not the only places that have borders. Make a list of other borders.
• God sent locusts throughout the borders of Egypt as a plague. Research locusts.

A Divide Between the Egyptians and the Children of Israel

Tags

Children of Israel, Egypt, God, Pharaoh, plague

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

God created a plague. All the Egyptian livestock died from the plague. But, the cattle that belonged to the children of  Israel did not die.

Discussion Questions Related to Cattle Dying in Egypt From the Plague:

• Is it normal for cattle to die?
• Is it normal for disease to spread?
• If it is normal for disease to spread and cattle to die why was this plague exceptional?

Creative Thinking About Cows Dying in Egypt:

• If an Egyptian said to you that it was just coincidence that all the Egyptian cattle died and none of the cattle from the children of Israel died, how would you convince him that this was God’s doing?
• If you were an Egyptian cow and you went over to where the children of Israel lived, do you think you would be spared, or you would still die? Explain.

Homecshooling Activities for Even Non- Homeschoolers About Cattle Dying in Egypt From the Plague :

• Write a journal entry from a cow on the Egyptian side that sees all of the cattle around her is a dying.
• Write a journal entry from a cow on the side of the children of Israel that sees the cows dying on the Egyptian side but all the cows healthy on the Israelite side.
• Create a TV news broadcast standing right on the division line between the Egyptians and the children of Israel.
• Write a poem from a dying cow.
• Research a disease.
• Research death.
• What do you think happens to someone after they die?
• What do you think people would do with all the cows after they die?
• Do you think that the children of Israel realized at the time that all the cattle of the Egyptians were being killed and their cattle was being saved? If they knew do you think that they felt lucky that God didn’t kill any of their cattle from this plague? Why or why not?

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Grief

Tags

God, Pharaoh, plague

Click to see the book trailer for Enjoying Genesis: The Bible in Rhyme Workbook. This workbook is filled with discussion and  creative thinking questions about the book of Genesis and lots of different activities that will get anyone’s mind thinking and pen writing! This book is great for homeschooling, youth ministries, religious schools who want to integrate English Language Arts and Bible, and anyone who wants unique ways to talk about the book of Genesis.

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

Moses told God when Pharaoh wanted the frogs to disappear. God took care of the frogs and they died. There were piles of frogs everywhere.

Bible Study Tools

Discussion Questions related to Pharaoh’s heart being hardened:

• What does it feel like when someone is nice to you until they get what they want and then they go back to not caring or being mean to you?
• What does relief feel like?
• What is grief?

Creative Thinking Questions:

• If you could harden someone’s heart, whose would it be and why?
• If you could soften someone’s heart, whose would it be and why?
• If you could relieve the situation somewhere in the world, where would it be and why?

Homeschooling Activities Related to God making the frogs disappear and hardening Pharaoh’s heart:

• Describe the feeling of the land when the frogs were gone.
• Write a journal of a frog as he saw what was happening to all the frogs around him.
• Many people have hardening of the arteries. What is this and how does it affect the heart?
• After Pharaoh saw that the frogs died he was not concerned with the situation. Do you think that this is a good quality for a leader? Why or why not?
• Learn how to make an origami frog. See how many you can make in ten minutes.
• Write a poem about grief.
• Research the heart.
• Why is the heart associated with love and caring?
• Describe the feeling of Pharaoh, or an ordinary Egyptian, when s/he saw that God had caused the plague of frogs to be gone from the land.