Author: OwenPitts

God sent prophets to Judah to warn them of the destruction that was going to happen if they didn’t repent of their sin. Judah was sent the prophets Joel, Isaiah, Micah, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Jerimiah, and Ezekiel. None of the kings heeded the warnings of the prophets except the most wicked king. When he was in captivity, he repented of his sins. Then God freed him from captivity and he went back to Judah, tore down all the idols, and restored the worship of God.

Destruction did come because the Judeans didn’t repent of their sins. The Babylonians came, conquered Judah, deported some of the Judeans, and set up a puppet king, Jedekiah. Because Jedekiah refused to send tribute to Nebuchadnezzar (the king of Babylon), he raided Judah and took everyone in the city captive, but he was eventually conquered by the Persians. The Persians liked the Judeans, so they let them go to rebuild Judah and the temple of God after spending 70 years in captivity.

During their captivity, the Judeans finally repented. If only they had repented earlier, they would not have been captured and their city wouldn’t have been destroyed. I learned from this lesson that I should always obey God, even when things are hard.

The first king of Judah was Rehoboam, who was the son of Solomon. He was king over the twelve tribes of Israel until they separated and ten tribes remained faithful to Israel and the other two tribes of Israel became known as Judah. He was a bad king because he set idols on high places and worshiped them. He was succeeded by his son, Abijah. Abija tried to reunite the tribes of Judah and Israel but was unsuccessful. He was a bad king because he followed the ways of his father. He was succeeded by his son Asa. Asa was a good king because he brought back the worship of God. He was succeeded by his son Jehoram. Jehoram was a bad king because he married a daughter of a king of Israel. His wife led him back to the worship of idols. He was succeeded by his son Ahaziah. Ahaziah reigned a short time before he was killed and his mother became queen. Her grandson, Joash, succeeded her. Joash started out as a good king, but when someone died, he brought back idol worship to Juday. He was succeeded by his son Amaziah. Amaziah was a good king for a short time, but then he also set up idols in Judah. He was succeeded by his son Uzziah. Uzziah was a good king because he did many great things for the kingdom of Judah, but he died because of leprosy for doing a horrible sin and was succeeded by his son Jothan. He was a good king because he was a faithful godly king, but his people worshiped idols. He was succeeded by his son Ahaz. Ahaz was a bad king because he erected many idols and committed many sins. He was succeeded by his son Hezekiah. Hezekiah was a great king because he was quick to clean out the temple, tear down the idols, restore the worship of God, and many more great things. He was succeeded by his son Manasseh. Manasseh was a bad king because he brought back the worship of idols, but before he died he repented of his sin, returned to Judah from captivity, and removed all the idols from Judah. He was succeeded by his son Amon. Amon was a bad king because he continued to worship idols. He did not repent and was succeeded by his son Josiah. Josiah is the last king of Judah and made repairs to the temple. While people were doing this, the book of the Law was rediscovered. Josiah had someone read it to him. Josiah found out it was God’s law and told his people to worship God and follow him. He died in battle and the people of Juday mourned for him many days, but they continued to worship God. Was that amazing?

God led Samuel to a new king after Saul’s sins. God led Samuel to a house where he would find a new king. The person He led him to was David, son of Jesse. He was just a shepherd boy, and he played the harp. When King Saul was troubled, he asked David to play the harp for him. Saul asked David to do this many times. This gave David the opportunity to find out how Saul responded to his people.

One day, the three oldest sons of Jesse went to help Saul fight the Philistines. 40 days past and the three sons had not come back, so Jesse told David to check on them and while he is there to give them food. So, David went to the camp and do you know what he saw? He saw a giant! Its name was Goliath. He told the entire camp that they an Israelite to fight and the Israelites won they would be their servants, but if Goliath won, the Israelites would be their servants. So, David told the king he was going to fight Goliath. Then he traveled to a stream, picked up five smooth stones, and trampled to the place where he would fight Goliath. After he got there, Goliath said, “Am I a dog that you come to me with sticks?” David answered, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, whom you have defied… For the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand.” Then, he got one of the stones he had, put it in his sling, swung it, and threw it at Goliath. It hit and sunk into his forehead. Then, he ran up to Goliath, drew his sword from his sheath, and cut Goliath’s head off! The Philistines were afraid so they ran away, but the soldiers ran after them and won. Isn’t David’s life extraordinary?

When Samuel wasn’t born yet, his mother kept praying for a baby in the temple. She also said to God, “I will dedicate him to you if you give me a son.” She probably kept doing this for months. Then one day, she had a son and named him Samuel. His mother took him to the temple when he was weaned to dedicate him to the Lord. She also gave him to Eli, the temple’s priest to take care of him. He served in the temple for years. Then, one night, God called to him. Samuel thought it was Eli and goes to his room and says, “You called me so here I am!” Then Eli says, “I didn’t call you. Go back to sleep.” This happened three times, then Eli knew God was calling him. So he said to Eli, “When you hear someone call you, say, ‘Speak Lord, for your servant hears.'” So Samuel goes to bed and God calls him again. Then Samuel said, “Speak Lord, for your servant hears.” Then God told Samuel, “I am going to do something the land of Israel has never seen before.”

God does fulfill this prophecy and makes Israel lose a battle. Ark of the Covenant also has been stolen. After this, Eli died. The Ark was bringing diseases among the people who stole it, so they gave it back to the Israelites. By this time, Samuel was now a judge.

The Israelites wanted a king, so God told Samuel to anoint a man named Saul. Saul does three sins which made him not a king anymore. These sins were offering a burnt sacrifice even though he wasn’t a priest, made a foolish oath, and not destroying all the Amorites as he was commanded. Samuel found out that Saul had spared the Amorite king and the best of the animals. After Samuel got to Saul, Saul said, “The best animals I spared are to be used for burnt sacrifices.” Then Samuel said, “To obey is better than sacrifice.” You will not be king anymore and your son will not take your place as king.”

After Samuel anoints someone else (who is David) to be king, but Saul is still king so after that he died. Isn’t that sad?

In the Bible, there were a lot of people sho proceded against God’s will. God judged Egypt for not letting his people go. He judged the land by sending ten plagues. There were lice, frogs, flies, and so much more. Egypt was judged when they rebelled against God’s will.

Israel also plummeted into wickedness. They complained about the food God had given them, so God sent poisonous snakes to the Israelites and a lot of Israelites died. God saved them by telling Moses to make a bronze snake and anyone who looked at it would live. Sadly, God had to judge the Israelites this way.

God judged Balaam in a scary way. God told him not to go somewhere, but he floundered. So God sent an angel to block the road. His donkey saw it, but Balaam didn’t. He tried to get his donkey back on the road. Suddenly, the donkey started talking. Then God opened his eyes and he saw the angel. Balaam started worshiping it. Balaam said, “I will go back if you want me to.” Then, the angel said, “I would have killed you but spared the donkey if he hadn’t stopped, but go on.” Isn’t that a scary judgment?

God used judgments like ten plagues, snakes, and killing people to punish them for careening against His will. God also judged several different people in multiple ways. Some may happen in your life.

This year has been the craziest year of my life. Two months ago, we were in slavery when a guy named Moses, who used to be an Egyptian prince, told us that he was going to free us from Egypt. We didn’t think he could, because Pharoh would never let us go. The next day, Moses did wonderful signs to try to make Pharoh let us go.

First, we didn’t have any water because Moses turned all the water in the land of Egypt to blood, but Pharoh would not let us go. Then, we had to deal with frogs, but Pharoh would still not let us go. Then, we had to deal with lice, but Pharoh would still not let us go. Thank the Lord the plagues 4-10 did not harm us. Only plagues 1-3 harmed us. The 4th plague was flies, the 5th plague was animal livestock dying, the 6th plague was boils on the Egyptians, the 7th was hailstones and storms, the 8th was locust (grasshoppers), and the 9th was darkness, but Pharoh would still not let us go. We were safe from plagues 4-9 at Goshen.

Now the last plague was tragic for all the Egyptians, even Pharoh. It was when the angel of death killed all the firstborn of all the Egyptian families. We were to prepare for this plague by putting lamb’s blood on the doorposts and lintel on the Hebrew houses. That night, the Angel of Death passed over the houses with the lamb blood on it, but it killed all the firstborn of the Egyptians. After that plague, Pharoh finally let us go. Who knows what lies ahead?

The Egyptians were fascinated with their death and the afterlife. We see this because of their interest in spirits. There are two spirits, the Ha and the Ba. After you die, the Ba goes to watch over your family and the Ha goes to enjoy a certain kind of land. At night, they go to the tomb in which the person of whom they belong to rest for the next day. The Egyptians painted food pictures on the walls of the tomb so the spirits could turn the food pictures into real food, so they could eat and live eternally.

The Egyptians make someone a mummy when they die. To make a mummy, the Egyptians first take the brain out through the nose. Then they take out the internal organs and store them in canopy jars. They put the body in oils then leave it in the oils for about 70 days. After those 70 days, they wrap the body in linen, then put the mummy in a sarcophagus, then they bury it.

The Egyptians don’t just bury people in the ground. They were also buried in pyramids. They said that if you were really rich, you could be buried with your riches, but the holes in the ground weren’t big enough for all the dead person’s riches, so they built huge pyramids so a dead person can be buried in it and hold all of their riches. There are pyramids that are still around today, so archeologists can study them and find out how the Egyptians lived.

Today the 39-foot tall statue of Ramesses II was moved to the Mit Rahina Museum in the Ancient Capital, Memphis. Memphis is near modern-day Cairo.

I asked a mover about how he felt about the statue. He told me, “It was hard work moving it to the museum.” Another mover told me, “It was amazing artwork.” I also asked a geologist what was it made of. He said, “It was made of red granite.”

I asked a mover about how they moved it to the museum. He said, “It was too big to move, so we had to cut it into 3 pieces to move it.” I was amazed. I also asked him how heavy it was. He said, “About 38 tons.” Now that’s a big and heavy statue!

In order to reduce the risk of damaging the statue while it is being delivered, they wrapped the parts in rubber. They delivered the parts in three separate trucks. It took 30 men to complete the task. The entire process took 3 months to complete.

The museum’s curator, Dr. Ahmed Basara, is extremely excited to be receiving this piece of Egyptian history. Dr. Ahmed is expecting at least 10,000 people to show up at the museum that day. In fact, an average of 13,000 people arrived at the museum to see it!

Sovereignty is when God says something and makes it happens. god told Abraham to go to Cannan. Later on, in history, Cannan is where the Israelites lie. God also tells Abraham that he will have a son when he is 100 years old and his wife, Sarah, is 90 years old! Sarah thought she was too old, but guess what? She had a baby and they named him Isaac.

Isaac married Rebekah, which one of his father’s servants found him, and had two children. their names were Esau and Jacob. Isaac had to have children to carry on the promise that God gave Abraham. the promise was that his relatives will be as many as all of the stars and as many as all of the grains of sand.

God promised that Israel would come from the line of Jacob, not Esau. One day when Esau came back from hunting, Jacob was preparing a pot of stew. Esau was like, “I want a bowl of stew.” So Jacob said to Esau, “Give me the birthright and you can have a bowl of stew.” Esau willingly offered the birthright to Jacob. When Isaac was about to die, he told Esau to hunt and make him a bowl of stew and he will give him the blessing. When he went to hunt, Rebekah and Jacob hurried to make a stew and get it to Isaac before Esau can come back. Rebekah also made a disguise for Jacob to look and feel like Esau, but Isaac was blind, so he can only feel. After he gave Isaac the stew, he gave Jacob the blessing. After Esau found out about Jacob, Jacob had to run away because Esau wanted to kill him. He ran away to his uncle Laman. He wanted to marry one of his daughters. That is the beginning of God’s sovereignty with Israel. One way I see God’s sovereignty in my life is that He put me into my family.

God has revealed Himself through creation. I see Him in the way flowers grow. I see God in how He created the Heavenly bodies. God has revealed Himself to us because we are made in His image.

The Bible says God is a God of order, not chaos. Flowers only produce the same kind of flower. This is because God told His creation to produce after its own kind. God also ordered the heavenly bodies into their exact locations. We know this because if the earth was any closer to the sun, the earth would burn up and explode. Also, if the earth was any farther away from the sun, the earth would be too cold to have any life on it and the earth would just be a frozen ice block. God put the earth in the perfect place. God is the only one that can give life. We are made in His image because we are the only created beings with a soul.

After the Tower of Babel, the three different tribes scattered across the earth. The parents stopped teaching their children about God. They began to worship the creation instead of the Creator. They chose to ignore God. Unlike the early civilizations, I choose to worship God because I see Him revealed in His creation.