Context for Kids

A huge theme in ancient writings (and especially the Bible) is the difference between foolish and wise people. When we aren’t aware of it, we are tempted to look at everything people are doing in the Bible as examples of what is good and right but the Bible isn’t that sort of book. It’s a book about God being wise and putting up with humans—when even the best of them do some incredibly foolish thi...

Hurray! Isaac is weaned and has passed through the very dangerous first three years of life in the ancient world. Abraham throws a big party to celebrate but not everyone is happy. What happens when seventeen-year-old Ishmael expresses his anger over being replaced by a toddler? Why did Sarah even think that her solution was okay? In talking about the rejection of Ishmael, we’ll also have a conver...

We’ve been waiting for ten chapters, since Sarah was introduced at the end of chapter 11, and finally Isaac is here. But why is the story so short??? In fact, why are all the stories about Isaac so short? For someone we’ve been anxiously waiting for so long, he doesn’t get nearly as much attention as his father Abraham and his son Jacob. Sometimes the mysteries tell us just as much as the long sto...

Few things are less understood and acknowledged than God's incredible patience, and there’s no better time to discuss the patience of God than when we are beginning to wrap up the story of Abraham, Sarah, Ishmael, and Hagar. Impatience wrecked their family peace while God’s patience leads to Jesus! And Jesus shows us God’s patience in how He dealt with His very annoying disciples.   Transcript: ht...

Anyone who knows me knows how much I enjoy studying the history of the ancient Near East because it is also the history around the Bible. But what is it? Where is it? And how is it different from the Greco-Roman Near East of Jesus? And does it make any difference?   Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/08/07/episode-149-what-is-the-ancient-near-east/ YouTube: https://youtu.be/kRAxGPzjLIU

I have been wanting to do this lesson for a long time and I wish someone had shared all of this with me—or even any of it with me—when I was a beginner. We never read anything without translating it in our own minds, and the Bible is no exception. We read the Bible and decide what it means based on our own lives, understandings, and what we have heard from others. How does the Spirit help us with...

Our last teaching in Genesis 20. Abimelech finally does what he should have done in the first place if he wanted to marry Sarah, and he finds himself in the unpleasant position of having to reward someone who lied to him so that Abraham will pray for him and his household. Although this would have made sense to Abimelech, what are we supposed to think about it? Transcript: https://contextforkids.c...

God is getting Sarah back home, but Abraham starts making excuses—can we believe any of them, or is he just trying to keep himself out of trouble? Abimelech is furious, and so are his people when they hear about Abraham’s plan. But what are we supposed to think about all of this? And what do we do when a friend tells us to lie if we want to still be friends? Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/...

Considering the fact that Abimelech has kidnapped Sarah, it’s shocking to us that when he tells God how innocent he is, God agrees. But God is most certainly not giving Abimelech a pass and makes a terrifying threat that Abimelech had better do what is right—or else.   Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/07/07/episode-145-is-abimelech-really-as-innocent-as-he-thinks/ YouTube: https://youtu...

Audio fixed on this--my apologies. I uploaded the parent version. You’re not going to believe this but we’re going to have a replay of Genesis 12 where Abraham lies to Pharaoh about Sarah his wife and gets her into more trouble. How is this time the same? How is it different? And how is God going to get her out of it this time? And who is Abimelech and who are the mysterious Philistines?   Transcr...

We are circling back to talking about what it means to become more like Jesus again because, as we will see again next week when we start Genesis 20, Abraham has a real problem with lying when he is scared and not trusting God. What did Jesus do when He was afraid? What does the Bible tell us about lying and when is it the right or wrong thing to do? Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/06/...

Were all disciples men? What does the word even mean? What did Jesus have to say about disciples and why He had them in the first place? Was Jesus the only person to ever have disciples? Are you a disciple of Jesus or are you not quite sure? What should we think of when we hear the word disciple? What words did Jesus say about what it takes to be one of His disciples? So many questions. This week...

This week we close out Genesis 19 and say goodbye to Lot. Sometimes it is easy to forget that this chapter of the Bible is about Lot and not about the wicked city he is living in. Lot isn’t done with his bad decisions, and some of the worst are yet to come. Why can’t Lot just trust God and obey? Why do there always have to be arguments and foot dragging? What can we learn from looking at the end o...

Lot is super irritating and what he does this week proves that just being unhappy with how people are acting isn’t enough to make a difference in a wicked place. No one respects Lot or takes him seriously—not even his future sons-in-law. Lot still isn’t willing to leave Sodom, even when his neighbors want him dead but God keeps forgiving Lot and giving him chances to do what is right. We’ll also b...

There are a lot of bad dads and moms in the Bible but if Lot isn’t the worst one then he is near the top of the list. Being a young girl in the ancient world was a very dangerous thing and sometimes the members of your own family could be your worst enemies. How far will Lot go to obey the hospitality codes of the ancient world? Who is he willing to sacrifice in order to look good? And what can we...

This week we will be talking about the mysterious angels in disguise, what Lot did to make his neighbors angry, and what a city gate was.  Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/05/06/episode-138-mysterious-strangers-in-sodom/ YouTube: https://youtu.be/b2LMiM2ulJg

The truth is that we know more about angels on tv and in Christian art than we do about angels in the Bible, and so before we dive into our first real encounter with angels in Genesis 19 we’re going to see what the Bible does and doesn’t say about Angels. And we’ll talk about the three most famous angels of all! Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/04/09/episode-137-talking-about-angels-in-...

Who is the first intercessor in the Bible? Abraham! He went to bat for the people of Sodom, appealing to and reasoning with God's mercy over His sense of justice. This makes him very different from everyone who went before Him--especially Noah! Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/03/27/episode-136-the-one-when-abraham-tries-to-save-sodom/ YouTube: https://youtu.be/3S6g6yZth5M

Last year, we talked about the stories of Esther and Vashti, but this year, we are going to focus on irresponsible King Ahasuerus, Esther’s cousin Mordecai, who didn’t follow his own wise advice, and the wicked Haman. Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/03/20/episode-135-esther-and-the-great-big-mess/ YouTube: https://youtu.be/Fq9diKf9mG8

Do you know what a prophet is? There are many stories going around that make it look like prophets were fortune tellers, but nothing could be further from the truth. God is going to name Abraham a prophet in chapter 21, but in Genesis 18, he is already being treated like one. Understanding prophets and what they are and are not will help you understand much more of the Bible than if you think they...

Most people look at Sarah’s laughter in Genesis 18 and think nothing of it. We think of what it looks like in the movies or in our picture books but what does the Bible tell us about Sarah laughing when she heard she was going to finally be a mom? Why are we so confused about what the Bible does and doesn’t say and what does it tell us about the story Moses was telling the children of Israel? Tran...

This week we are beginning Torah portion Vayera, which covers the time from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah to the Akeida in chapter 22. Today we start out with a very mysterious appearance of three strangers soon after Abraham circumcised all the men in his household. From the very first line, we know that one of the strangers is God but why is He there and how will Abraham react? Transcrip...

Well, I was planning on doing a teaching on patience but that isn’t going so well lately so I decided that this was the perfect time to do a lesson on hospitality because that’s mostly what Genesis 18 and 19 are about! Just like Honor and Shame and Covenants, once you understand the rules of ancient hospitality, you will know it when you see it and it makes the Bible a lot more interesting. So, un...

Kindness is complicated. It’s a lot different than just being nice because Jesus wasn’t always nice but He was always kind. Being nice is just being pleasant to people, but kindness is treating people better than we think they deserve to be treated. And that isn’t easy when we are angry, sad, in pain, or just plain frustrated. Kindness is going to be really important to understand when we get back...

Well, whenever someone says goodness is how to be like Jesus, it makes me want to say, “Well, duh…” but what does goodness even mean? It means so many different things in English that it makes your head spin. This week we will talk about what “goodness” means in the Bible and how the Holy Spirit works in us to get us closer and closer to being good. Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2024/02/0...