Names

In bible times God had many different names, therefore the people of Israel did not just call him God. Some of the names that we learned were El Elyon, El Hai, Yahweh Nissi, and more. But the two names that we focused on, were Elohim and Yahweh. Because they use different names for God, it also means that they have different meanings, but they can refer the name to the same person. The reason why his names change, is because it is showing the meaning of a person’s heart or character. They use Elohim for calling him the creator, they use Yahweh when God is loving and caring for them. The photo I picked is laugh, I put it there because my name, Isaac, and Isaac means laughter. I learned that calling God different names, does not mean that they have the same definition, they all have different meanings.

 

Covenant

A covenant is what people used between them and God. Covenants where like promises that they made in between each other. The word covenant means an agreement between two groups. There are Conditional and Unconditional covenants that God made with the people of Israel. Conditional covenants meant, if the people do this then God will do this in return to help them. An Unconditional covenant is where God will keep his promise no matter what the people do. God keeps his promise no matter what. The picture that I put up there was a handshake. The handshake represents a covenant because the people are agreeing to something important. We can relate this to our lives because we make promises with friends or family a lot, although they might not be as serious as the times back in the bible, but we still make promises these days.

 

Slavery/Salvation

Back in bible times the their was slavery especially in Egypt. I think it is cool how two major people in the bible, who were in times of slavery helped groups and people. Those two people were Joseph and Moses. Joseph got sold by his other brothers into slavery and he got took to Egypt. Joseph became second in command of Egypt, because he could read dreams and was a good person. The other person is Moses. When Moses was born he did not have a choice but to be born into slavery, but when he was older he led the Israelites out of Egypt to the promised land. God can do good things from the outcome of bad things, and that shows us that God is faithful even in present day. God tells us in those verses “I am who I am” and that is telling us that God is who he is and there is nothing we can do to change it. My picture is handcuffs, I put hakuffs as my picture because it reminds me of slavery and getting imprisoned. One way I can connect Slavery/Salvation to my life, is that you might think that someone based on how they look what they do, that they can’t do as much stuff, but they could do something amazing like Moses and Joseph did.

 

Sinai Law

The Sinai Law is where God gave Moses the tablets of the Ten Commandments on mount Sinai. At that time they did not call the tablets the ten commandments but called it the two tablets of covenant of law. The ten commandments are in a way how to live our lives and guide us. The ten commandments are not supposed to take control of our lives but to keep us safe and doing the right thing. The ten commandments are like covenant from God to us, God would lead his people, if his people wanted followed his commandments. Now in our time we can get distracted by our own personal life, such as sports, electronics, beauty/appearance, clothes and how you look, also activities, and money, all of those get in our way between us and God. The picture I put up was a presidential bill. I put it up there because when I think of the Sinai Law or any type of law, I think of a Bill. What I learned from the Sinai law is that we have a lot of things that we have in the way us and God. We can use the ten commandments to help us get closer to God and live a better life.

 

Salute to a King

After the israelites got to the promised land, God sent them Judges to keep them in order. Every time the judge, died the israelites would sin, someone would attack them, the israelites would pray to God, God would send a judge and they would be doing well, then it started over again, and then it became the cycle of the Judges. After a while the israelites got tired of the judges and the israelites wanted a king. The reason why the israelites wanted to have a king was because they wanted a king that they could see with their eyes. They also saw that all of the countries around them had kings and were doing just fine. Sometimes people want what the people have around them because it seems normal, but God wants us to do what is right. In class we talked about how we made our choices. One thing we talked about is how we made our decisions, if we did what we thought was right or do what God wants us to do. My picture is of one person going the opposite direction as everyone else is going. I picked it because that is what we have to do sometimes to do what is right, instead of what is everyone else is doing. Just because lots of people do something, doesn’t mean it’s right.

 

Something is Rotten

After the israelites got what they wanted (a king) it did not go the way that God wanted it to go. The kings that they got, got worse by the king. In the bible it says “ and he was worse than all of the kings before him”. God was getting frustrated with the kings, so he sent Elijah, the first prophet, to go and talk to the people about how they need to change. The people did not listen to Elijah, so Elijah asked the people to bring their god (baal) to confront God at mount. Caramel. It was known as the story of God vs. Baal at Mt. Caramel. On Mt. Caramel Elijah asked them how long they would waver in between God and baal. He told them to pick a dead bull, put it over some wood, and ask their god (baal) to light it on fire. When baal did not answer Elijah started to tease them. Then Elijah took is bull, put it over the wood, and then asked them to poor water over it. Then he sat down and prayed to God so that He could light the bowl on fire. God listened and sent down the fire from heaven. After the Israelites saw the amazing things that God did right in front of their own eyes, but after they saw it they still did not believe. What I learned from this is that even though God might dent us help or signs, we still might not listen. The picture that I picked was a picture of a soccer ball. I picked a soccer ball because soccer is my favorite sport and I think that we can waver in between Sports and God a lot.

 

Slide to Destruction

There were lots of kings of Israel but really only one king was good and that was David. The rest of the Israel kings did evil in the eyes of the Lord or worshiped false gods like baal. There were also kings of Judah that did not follow God, only two of their kings followed God. Both Israel and Judah had consequences Israel got skaterd by the Assyrians, the consequence for the Judahns it was getting took over by the Babylonians. I learned that the kings focused on there self a lot more than they focused on their people, but I also learned that their were consequences for the people and the kings if they did not do what was right and knew it was wrong. The same thing applies to our life, if we do something wrong we get in trouble, therefore we should listen to people around us. Our prophets today our not so much like the prophets in the bible, our prophets could be a pastor, parents, aunt, uncle, members of your church, but everyone has a different person they look up to for advice. I think that we like the kings, we focus on or popularity and power to, we just have to decide when we are going to care about others. The picture I picked was a balance, I picked a balance because when I think of popularity and power I think that you need to be kind and nice to others, but also be yourself, and find the happy-medium.

 

A Savior

The people of Israel could not keep the Sinai covenant God made with them on Mount Sinai, so God was willing to make a new covenant with them. This time the covenant would not be conditional. The people of God would not have the covenant on stone tablets this time, but have it on their hearts and minds. Another thing that was different than the covenants before them, this covenant they did not need to sacrifice animal, Jesus was their ultimate sacrifice. Earlier in the bible Jeremiah gave them the Davidic covenant. The Davidic covenant was based on grace and forgiveness, unlike the Sinai covenant. Later Isaiah told the Israelites about a Savior that would come for them, and he made it make sense so that they could relate to it. My picture is a star. I picked a star because whenever I think of the birth of Jesus, I usually think of the star that was over Jerusalem. One way I can relate to A Savior to my life is that now that Jesus has died on the cross, he has took all of our sins away, and now we don’t have to worry about any of the sacrificing of the animals anymore because Jesus was our ultimate sacrifice.