Old Testament Sunday School Lessons

Daniel faced a serious problem.  Darius the king had been tricked by his princes into outlawing prayer.  But Daniel felt beholden to pray to his God.  The society in which he lived restricted his personal freedoms more than his religious society did.  In fact, his religious community went underground due to the persecutions and restrictions of the [...]

Quite some time ago I read Kevin Barney’s excellent article he wrote for Dialogue:  “How to Worship Our Mother in Heaven Without Getting Excommunicated.”  One of his references was a book by archaeologist, William Dever, called “Did God Have a Wife?: Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel” which I just finished reading.  The gist of the [...]

. . . and who is this Steve guy? Discuss.

A couple of months ago, while gathering up all of the data required to “render unto the IRS” and trying to feel better about all of the work involved in doing so, I ran across an interesting piece of Biblical literary criticism. It became even more interesting to me when I started thinking about the [...]

My son’s recent experience in early morning seminary caused me to look a little more closely at the church’s stance (or perhaps lack thereof) on evolution.  While teaching about the book of Genesis, his teacher made a few claims: that she is not descended from monkeys that the earth is literally 6,000 years old that evolution contradicts the [...]

The Sunday School curriculum is a success in one way — it does return us to the scriptures instead of commentaries or instead of the time when entire years could go by with minimal scriptural references (Ardis could give you links to those days). But …

OT SS Lesson #48 Ever since Malachi 3 (ca 455 BC?), covenant Israel has been waiting for the coming of the Lord. Lest any Christian mistake that Old Testament prophecy of the coming of the Lord in glory was fulfilled in the meridian of time, Christ himself taught that he would return and would at [...]

OT SS Lesson #47 Any Mormon worth his salt knows that scripture is meant to be “likened” unto ourselves. Latter-day Saints from Joseph Smith to the most recently-called missionary have cheerfully wrested scriptures from their context and misapplied the prophecies to their own lives. One might be tempted to urge caution when so doing, but [...]

OT SS Lesson #46 Well, who doesn’t think of the Old Testament Daniel while watching Daniel Radcliffe perform his role as the famous Harry Potter? Young boy is taken away from his home to enter a fantastical world he never knew existed – Check. Along with other elite youth, he is instructed in the wisdom [...]

OT SS Lesson #45 If there still exists anyone in the greater world of Mormon blogs who thinks I am writing these Old Testament posts as a resource for Sunday lessons and not for my own simple entertainment, this one should surely disabuse them. Let me start out all faith-promoting, though, and I’ll degenerate as [...]

OT SS Lesson #44 Here’s a section from our manual this week: Ask class members questions similar to the following: Have you ever been excited while watching a sporting event or some other kind of entertainment? Have you ever been so excited at such an event that you stood and shouted or cheered? Can you [...]

OT SS Lesson #43 When my now-returned-missionary daughter was in second grade, her class had a Halloween party. I sent her to school in a little blue Sleeping Beauty princess costume. As the teacher was setting up for the party, one of the students informed her that she was one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and that [...]

OT SS Lesson #42 For a complete understanding of the Book of Jeremiah, one must keep in mind three different time periods. The first is that to which Jeremiah is ostensibly referring: his own. In this history, Jeremiah describes the rise of Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar in the 600′s BC, the fall of Jerusalem, the deportation [...]

OT SS Lesson #41 Did you know that the Prophet Jeremiah and I have a lot in common? You can read about it in Chapter 19. The Lord tells Jeremiah to get a clay jar and go to the East Gate of Jerusalem. Then he throws it down, breaking it into little pieces, and warning [...]

For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. OT SS Lesson #36 When you read the words of the prophet Isaiah that [the Lord's] hand is stretched out still, does it give you comfort, or does it cause you to tremble? The phrase is a picturesque one, [...]

OT SS Lesson #33 If your ward happens to be just a little bit behind on the Sunday School lessons, you might experience the synchronicity of having the Book of Jonah read on Yom Kippur.  This year, the Jewish holiday falls on September 18 (close enough to Sunday the 19th!) and Jonah is traditionally read [...]

OT SS Lesson #32 After the Satan figure is given permission to afflict Job as a test of his faithfulness, three of Job’s friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, come to visit him, sitting with him in silence for seven days. On the seventh day, Job speaks, beginning a conversation in which each of the four [...]

OT SS Lesson #31 Feminist readers of the scriptures are well aware of the passages in Proverbs 8 which personify Wisdom (GK Sophia, HEB Hokhmah). These passages affirm that Sophia was there when God made the earth and acted as a partner with God in the creation. This idea fits in well with my conceptualization of [...]

OT SS Lesson #29 The prophet Elisha is introduced for the first time in 1 Kings 19.  Elijah has recently had his encounter with the 400 prophets of Baal and the still small voice of God on Mt. Horeb.  On his way from the mountain to the wilderness of Damascus Elijah finds Elisha plowing in a field.  He [...]

OT SS Lesson #27 “Take an old piece of clothing,” our Sunday School lesson advises, “or a piece of paper that is cut in the shape of a piece of clothing and tear it into 12 pieces. Explain that toward the end of Solomon’s life, the prophet Ahijah prophesied that Jeroboam, one of Solomon’s 12 superintendents [...]