The history of the ENTIRE WORLD !!!

Well, not really. But a good discussion of the Israelites in the Old Testament is a pretty good start. I started this week with the idea that we have mentioned "what happened to the 12 tribes". As I read and dug a little deeper and started putting together a couple of slides I was reminded of what I know everyone thinks of when they study the bible, organic chemistry. Right?? Let me explain. I went to college for 8 years. I don't even remember all the classes I sat through. I do remember organic chemistry, I had 2 full years of it. It was painful. I was horrible at it. Today I could write everything I know about it on a post-it note. But what I did learn in all those years, was not really the information, it was how to learn. If I had to research a topic in organic chemistry and present on it, I could stumble through it, but I still wouldn't really get it.

Sometimes, the bible is like that. It is a very large book. It was written over a very long time about a lot of people. Just the OT covers some 4,000 years! Sometimes I get lost in when did this happened, and how this is tied to that, and who was when. Did Daniel come before Samuel? Was Isaiah after Kings? We're the Romans before or after the Persians, and what about the Babylonians? Was Jonah before Job? Getting all that in context can help put some of the pieces together to help us "learn how to learn".

I spent a couple hours today on a single PowerPoint slide putting some of these things in order and when I backed up and looked at it, it was one of those "oh, that kinda makes sense now" moments. I never had that feeling during organic chemistry!

This week we'll look at timelines (OT only!), maps, books of the bible, people, times. It'll be fun! And I promise, no chemistry!!