What do Rosh HaShannah, Noah, the Aramaic Targums, Messiah rising from the dead, Moses, and Exodus 12:2, Ex 23:16, and the Creation of the World all have in common? Tune in and find out! One of the things I love about teaching context is introducing the kids to some of the extra-biblical writings because we can sometimes find surprising historical tidbits. Now, not all of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and not all of the Targum material is inspired, but when the material answers questions to things that look like inconsistencies in the Bible we definitely need to give them a closer look.

The Targums were Aramaic interpretations – in other words, they are what Jews believed the Bible was saying around the time of Yeshua and much of that information found it’s way into the Gospels and Epistles – especially when it comes to the Targumic writings about the coming Messiah! The Targumic writers clearly saw two Messiahs – a suffering servant and the conquering king. What they didn’t know was this – “would it be two separate Messiahs or one Messiah who comes twice?” Of course, we know the answer to that now!

This week’s extra resource is called The Bible Project – I really enjoy the animation:

I just noticed that my meme for this portion looks like a demented Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.. hmmm. So anyway, totally weird Torah portion because it doesn’t feature anyone we know! Just this strange prophet Balaam who isn’t even necessarily an Israelite but lives in Northern Ammon. This week we are going to look at actual documents from Mari that contain references to Balaam himself, even making mention of his father’s name, which we also know from Scripture.

This week’s featured link is to my friend Sarah Hawke’s Valente’s latest book called, “Marriage, a Mystery, and Me.” If you are like most parents, discussing sex with kids is like pulling teeth and so you might want to consider allowing Sarah to help you out with that. I’m afraid I just flat out answered my kids when they asked, but then I am a scientist and hard to embarrass.

http://www.whatislovely.com/marriagemysteryme/

Korah had a great job, he and his immediate cousins had the privilege of carrying the ark of the covenant, the table of shewbread, the menorah and the golden altar when Israel travelled! They were the most honored out of all the clans of the Levites – but Korah was jealous of Moses and Aaron and so he gathered up 250 other leaders and challenged the right of Moses and Aaron to lead the people!

Can you even believe it? Didn’t he see Moses go up onto the Mountain with God? Didn’t he see the plagues in Egypt and in the Wilderness? Didn’t he see all of the miracles? The rock split open at Horeb? The Manna and Quails? Everything that Moses and Aaron said would happen, happened!

Korah was guilty of a specific sin called encroachment, which is coveting, theft and rebellion against God all rolled up into a big mess of sin.

If your kids want to laugh at the ancient video game system I referred to this week, here’s a video – and yes, I played about half these games. I was disappointed that Pitfall wasn’t there as I played that a LOT. 

This week we are going to do something completely different – I will be teaching the kids about ancient manuscripts and how we compare them in order to figure out what the Bible is saying. In this case, I am going to stick very close to the Bible with the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Septuagint, the Masoretic text, and the works of Josephus – with some actual documentary (not meaning a movie but ancient documents!) archaeology thrown in from the Babylonian Etemenanki Ziggurat and the excavation of burial sites from Ancient Israel.

An important reason to know about things like the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint is because anti-missionaries (people who want to destroy our faith in Yeshua (Jesus) ) will point out that NT quotes of OT verses aren’t accurate with the Masoretic – and they are right, but they are accurate with the more ancient Dead Sea Scrolls and Septuagint, so we will talk about that too. I am not going to let the anti-missionaries get our kids without a fight!

If you want to get an idea of the height disparity between David and Goliath according to the oldest Biblical documents, check out this awesome video of Spud Webb and his teammates!

As our “extra” resource this week, we are going with something fun. I am hoping that you will show your kids the source of all those fake giant photos on the internet – they were actually taken from a photoshop contest site called worth1000.com – which has now been absorbed by another blogsite but the pics are all still here. Check out all of their archaeological anomalies entries, they are very funny (note:I have never found anything inappropriate on this site, but as always, we need to be careful)

http://blog.designcrowd.com/article/880/giant-skeletons-seem-too-real-to-be-a-hoax

Here is the general archaeological anomailes page!

I wanted to present this information to the kids this week because there are people who take these photos, which were supposed to be for fun, and use them in order to lie to people. When believers reshare them, we look like fools – whether or not the original poster was just desperate to prove a point or was actively wanting to see how gullible we are.

If you ever want to know the source of a picture, from google chrome you can right click on it, and there should be an option to search google for the image. It works great when dealing with those pesky internet memes!

Oh my goodness, all the complaining this week. Poor Moses was ready to die but he still had to put up with these people for another 39 years.

So this week we are going to look at the importance of gratitude and why we should be very careful about criticizing a free gift. We will also be answering that age-old question about Moses’ “Ethiopian” wife and how the seventy elders were vested with  the same spirit that was on Moses. Oh – and why was Miriam the only person who got afflicted with leprosy? And why, after like ten tries, won’t youtube allow me to change the thumbnail on my video? Inquiring minds want to know!

This week I want you to check out another resource called Torah Puppets, they even have a character called the “Grateful Dude.” 

Okay, so kind of a weird week – but since the entire section involves a census of the army, I wanted to talk to you about the rules of war in Ancient Israel as opposed to the Ancient Near East. Those other nations were MESSED UP!

I read through many Ancient Near Eastern Law codes to look for the rules of war – want to know what I found? Watch and see.

Also one of my friends has a new youtube channel for kids – it’s called Love 4 Yeshua/Youth and Chris Knight and Ephraim Judah are answering questions from teenagers. Definitely check it out and subscribe!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLM3YPYjxOA

Here’s the crazy thing about the gods of the ancient world, they didn’t have laws like YHVH! People weren’t entirely sure what they had done wrong when famine struck and things went absolutely haywire – they just knew that the gods must be angry!

The God of the Bible, on the other hand, tied chaos to sin, and told them exactly what sin was so that it could be easily avoided. This week we’re going to talk about that. You can watch the video either here or on youtube <—- if you like my videos, I would appreciate a thumbs up!

I also encourage you to check out this really cool video on unicorns and the Bible by Nathan Hoffman – if you like it, be sure to like his video because everyone needs encouragement. I am sure that the kids will love it and I am also linking the article that he wrote on it here <—– 

This week is like the shortest Torah Portion EVER. One chapter plus two extra verses, so what’s up with that? Well, the subject matter is extremely important – exactly how are we supposed to treat the things that are precious to God? Do we do whatever we want with them? Do we use them up, or sell them off, or treat them like something common?

The Land was given in a Covenant promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the form of an eternal Grant Covenant. This week, we’ll be going over what makes the Grant Covenant so unique and special, and why they can never be broken or taken back. The Grant Covenant is also the basis of Yeshua’s (Jesus’) rights to the throne of David and the descendants of Aaron’s rights to the Priesthood.

Teaching your kids about the eternal nature of God’s promises is one of the most important keys in establishing a trust relationship between them and God. Once they see that God, historically, has never broken a promise no matter what, they can begin to see His long-suffering and loyal character.

Praying for you this week!

Love,

Miss Tyler

Welcome to my still totally ugly website, but then, computer design isn’t really my cup of tea. My plan is to have posts up every Monday morning with the new week’s video link and maybe a small article or fun fact or character lesson to help with teaching the kids. Context for Kids was never simply designed for homeschoolers, but for families to do together. If education is not a family affair then it tends to be a losing proposition. My goal is for the entire family to learn something that they can talk about throughout the week, whether it is from this blog, the videos, or my books. I will also be introducing your family to other children’s ministries that I am proud to associate with and which I believe will benefit your family. Children’s ministry isn’t just about one ministry trying to do everything, but about ministries banding together to work as a team with each ministry meeting needs from a different angle. There is no “one true way” to do Children’s ministry, and there is no one-stop shopping network. What works with one child may or may not work with another. Working together, we can try and get all kids equipped according to their needs and their gifts.

Much love,

Miss Tyler