Lesson 1:  Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael

Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible during the forty years he led the nation of Israel in the wilderness before they entered the promised land of Canaan.  They had been slaves of Egypt, but now God was making them a nation and giving them a land.  Moses wrote Genesis (meaning origins) to record their beginnings and to give them an understanding of the covenant between Abraham and God essential to understanding the rest of the Bible.

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Lesson 2:  The Life of Jacob – The Greatest Soap Opera

Abraham’s promised son, Isaac, married Rebekah.  In Gen 25:21, she becomes pregnant.

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Lesson 3:  The Call of God and the Reluctance of Man

 At the close of Exodus 2, Moses was forty years old and was intervening for his Hebrew relatives when he killed an Egyptian, thus becoming a fugitive in the wilderness.  He lived in obscurity in the wilderness of Midian herding sheep and goats for forty years until God miraculously intervened in his life.

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Lesson 4:  The Wise Counsel of Balaam       

 After the great exodus from Egypt, God had led Moses and the people of Israel to Mt. Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments and the rest of God’s instructions to form them into a nation set apart for God.  God then led them to the southern boundary of the “promised land”, but they disobeyed and would not go in.  Therefore, the first generation was doomed to wander in the wilderness for 40 years.  Now in Numbers 21-22, the second generation has been led by God to the eastern border of Canaan, and they are camped in the plain of Moab preparing to enter the Promised Land.  Because of Israel’s victories over the Kings of the Amorites and Bashan, the Moabites fear Israel and seek an alternative to war.  Balak, the King of Moab, sends for the notorious “diviner” and “soothsayer” Balaam in hopes he can curse Israel.

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Lesson 5:  Gideon – The Lowest of the Least

 At the close of the book of Joshua, Joshua gathers the people and reminds them of all that God had done for them.  God preserved them in Egypt as a nation, He heard their cries for freedom and led them out with great miracles, He gave them His holy Law, He made a covenant with them to bless them if they would worship Him only as God, and He gave them the land for a possession.  “Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him, put away other gods, and serve Him only—If you forsake the Lord then He will turn and do you harm.”  And the people said “No, we will serve the Lord and obey Him.”  And Joshua said, “You are witnesses against yourself (Joshua 24:14, 20-22).”  The book of Joshua gives us the history of the people possessing the land, and the book of Judges gives us the history of the people failing to hold on to it.

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Lesson 6:  Samson – “It’s All About Me”

 Moses had brought the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt and to the promised land of Canaan.  Joshua led Israel to conquer the land through trust in the power of God.  The book of Judges is a stark contrast to Joshua because succeeding generations were disobedient and idolatrous therefore they were frequently defeated because of their rebellion against God.  Judges lists seven cycles of sin where “everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (21:25).  God mercifully raised up military heroes to deliver Israel from oppression whenever Israel was repentant.  Samson was one of these reluctant “judges” that God raised up.

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Lesson 7:  Jonah – The Reluctant Evangelist

 Jonah was a prophet in Israel during a time when Assyria was Israel’s bitter enemy and had taken much of Israel’s territory.  This of course was a judgment from God against Israel for its apostasy.  Nevertheless, Israel hated Assyrians.  Nineveh was the capital of Assyria.  Jonah feared he would be used to help the enemy that would later destroy his own nation.

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Lesson 8:  Paul’s Ministry in the book of Acts

In the first chapter of Acts, the risen Christ gives his last instructions to his disciples to “be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” They witnessed Christ’s ascension to heaven and then stayed together waiting for the events on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2), which caused their body of believers to grow from 120 (1:15) to well over 5,000 (4:4) in just a few days. It wasn’t until 10-12 years later that anyone understood that God wanted the gospel taken to the gentile world. The burden of this mission was given to Paul.

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Lesson 9:  Johnny Thunder

The Apostle John called himself the disciple “whom Jesus loved” (Jn 13:23), but Jesus called him the Son of Thunder. In fact, he was the son of Zebedee which means thunder. In studying the nature and character of John we find that he was intolerant, selfish, overly ambitious, elitist, and a hothead; yet in the tradition of church history he is known as the “Apostle of love” because he wrote more about the importance of love than any of the authors of the Bible. Leonardo Davinci painted John as a meek effeminate teenager, but in the Bible he was an aggressive, ambitious outdoorsman. Perhaps the most amazing thing about John’s Gospel is that he reveals himself during the ministry of Jesus to be utterly CLUELESS, but later he became the great author and dispenser of truth in the New Testament.

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Lesson 10:   Clueless Disciples on the Road to Emmaus

In the Gospel accounts, even though Jesus had repeatedly predicted His resurrection, no one understood it or believed it the way He intended. It appears His disciples interpreted the three day reference to setting up an earthly Kingdom (Luke 24:21). They didn’t understand God’s plan of redemption that the death and resurrection of Jesus was absolutely necessary and the foundation of Christianity. In Luke 24, two disciples of Jesus are leaving Jerusalem and walking to Emmaus. Along the way they were “conversing and discussing” about their great disappointment over Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion. Even though the women had reported that Jesus had risen, “they would not believe them”. As they walked the seven miles to Emmaus, a stranger (Jesus incognito) joined them, and asked questions which revealed that they were CLUELESS.

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