Theme 1: Covenant
There are two types of covenants: conditional & unconditional. Conditional is an agreement that says that if you do this, I will do this. An unconditional covenant is an agreement that says that a person will do something no matter what. I chose this visual because it is one of the covenants from the bible that stands out to me. The covenant at mount sinai, a conditional covenant, stood out to me because I feel it is an important part of the bible. There are a lot of covenants in the bible, and I think they are very important. I feel like the covenant that has to do with me the most is that God said that no mater what we do, he’ll never love us more, and will never love us less.
Theme 2: Slavery & Salvation
All throughout the bible, there has been struggles, like when the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, but God is present in the struggles, and he always helps us through the struggle. There are a lot of examples of people struggling in the bible, like Moses, Noah, Ruth, Saul, Adam, and most of the people in the bible, but God helped them. I chose a big knot as my visual to represent the struggles that we have, like a giant knot in our life line that is difficult, but God helps us and saves us. Another reason I chose a knot as my visual is because sometimes we find knots, or stuff that’s hard to untie, but God helps us through our struggles, and saves us. One time, when God saved me when I was struggling is when my great grandmother died, but God helped me get through it. I’m glad that God helps me in times of struggles, and happy that he has helped me, and a lot of people before me.
Theme 3: Promised Land
When Israel was sent to the promised land, they needed to trust God to help them on the way. They had to trust God with a lot of things, like for food, how God gave them manna, crossing the Jordan, which he stopped the flow, and a lot of other thing on the way. I chose the word “trust” as my visual, because I think it plays an important part in the promised land. I chose it because, on many occasions, they had to trust God, and when they didn’t, he punished them. My connection to that is that I feel like I need to trust him more with my life. I feel that I need to let go, and let God guide me through my life as he planes, and that I need to trust him.
Theme 4: Slide to Destruction
Before the Israelites were exiled to Babylon, they were in a cycle. First, Israel worships idols, like baal, they’re selfish, and do stuff like taking advantage of the poor, then God sends a prophet and they turn back to God, and the cycle starts all over again. I chose money as my visual because I feel like greed played a big part in Israel getting exiled, and we still have that problem. I think that they turned away from God because they wanted to be rich, and have a lot of stuff. I see that a lot in our society, how people are being very selfish and are always doing things to get more stuff, even if it is taking advantage of people. If you look at the world, there is a lot of brokenness, and there is a lot of selfishness, and people aren’t doing things to help each other, they are only doing stuff for themselves.
Theme 5: A Savior
In all of the old testament, there is the covenant of God’s grace, forgiveness and love. Jesus is the person who fulfilled the covenant, by coming down and dying on the cross, and by doing so, saving us and forgiving our sins. I chose the cross as a visual because it reminds me of how Jesus died, and that he came down to earth to rescue us. It also reminds me the way how he died; not just being executed, or hanged, but he died the most painful death, which was meant for people who did the worst crimes. There are a lot of people who haven’t heard of the good news of God’s grace and forgiveness. Jesus’ sacrifice was was the ultimate sacrifice, when he didn’t sin, but he died because people didn’t think he was the messiah, so they killed him, and I think that everyone should know about God’s grace and forgiveness through Jesus.
Theme 6: Names
In the bible times, names were very important: they weren’t only names to call someone by, it described who the person was. Every name has has a meaning, but in the bible times, your name would be the meaning, so it would be like your name being “grateful”, which would describe who you are. I chose this as my visual because they are all bible names, which all have meanings that describe who they are. I also chose this as my visual because it puts a lot of the most known bible names up there, like David, which means “beloved”, Adam, which means “man” and Elijah, which means “Jehovah is God”. There are a lot of bible names and meanings, like Yahweh means “relational God”, which describes how he interacts with his people. God is many things, he’s loving, graceful, caring, powerful, kind, and a lot of other things, and I think that that’s why he has many names, like Yahweh, Jehovah, Christ, and a lot of other names.
Theme 7: Sinai Law
At mount Sinai, Israel and God made a covenant, saying that God will be with them and help them as long as they follow the ten commandments. Right when Moses comes down from Mt. Sinai, he sees the golden calf, and throws the two covenant rocks down on the ground, and they break. I chose a golden calf as my visual to represent the sin that the Israelites did. I chose it because it represents their sins, and that I think that we all have our own “golden calves”. I don’t think anybody actually has a statue of a calf made of gold, but I think there are things in our lives that we put before God. My “golden calf” right now is stuff, like owning a lot of things and having as much stuff as possible.
Theme 8: Salute to a King
When Israel wanted a king, what they wanted is a king to lead them into battle and to help them in battle, and that type of king is called a melek. What God wanted for them is a king who help his people follow him, and to keep them away from idols, and that type of king is called a nagid. I used this visual because I think they wanted a king because all the other people had one, so they wanted one too. I think that the Israelites wanted a king, because they were jealous of the other people who did have kings, so they wanted one too. I see a lot of that in the world around us, some people have some stuff that looks appealing to them, so they’re jealous of them and want to have what they have. There is a lot of jealousy around us, and in some cases, like with the Israelites, it’s actually better without the “king”.