Happy Anniversary

 I started this blog five years ago in January 2021. That was when I decided that I wanted to learn Hebrew so I could do a deep dive into the Old Testament in 2022. I studied Hebrew all of 2021, and in 2022, I wanted to teach Gospel Doctrine so much that I asked the Bishop for the calling.  He didn't give it to me, so I vented my pent up "scriptorian" energy by posting on this blog. 

Now it is time to study the Old Testament again, and this time I am teaching Sunday School  I am not teaching Gospel Doctrine to the adults, but instead I am teaching 15-year-olds. This is a fun an interesting challenge.  How can I make the Old Testament engaging and understandable to that age group?

I taught my first lesson today.  It was an introduction to the Old Testament. I started off talking about memes.  I found three memes, printed them off and showed them to the class.  The first was a picture of Justin Bieber looking ticked off at the camera.  The second one was of Taylor Swift and her fiancé at a football game looking rapturous. The third was a Star Wars Yoda joke. Some of the kids understood the memes right away, and were able to explain why they were clever.  Others didn't understand them.  I asked them what they needed to know to understand each meme.  Then I explained that the Old Testament gives us the information and cultural background to understand key symbols and incidences in the Bible, New Testament, and even the Doctrine and Covenants. If we don't understand the story of manna in the wilderness, we can't really understand why Jesus called himself the "Bread of Life." If we don't understand the sacrifice of a sheep during the Passover, we won't understand when John said about Jesus, "Behold the Lamb of God."  

I will try to make this second round of commentary on the Old Testament fresh and worthwhile. I hope the two or three of you who actually read my blog will find it interesting. :-)