Context for Kids

What’s Pentecost? Why do we study Exodus and Ruth this weekend? And how does the story of Ruth change God’s mind about the Moabites? Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/05/24/episode-103-pentecost-ruth-and-how-kindness-changes-everything/ Video: https://youtu.be/xH2npc9_Ehw

Before we start chapter fifteen of Genesis, I want to talk about what will start happening in chapter sixteen and continue all the way to the end of the Bible. There are a lot of bullies and God doesn’t like it. We’re going to look at some surprising bullies and also the people who were bullied and read a Psalm that tells us how people who are rich, powerful, strong, and popular are expected to tr...

The King of Sodom wants to make Abram an offer that he figures can’t be refused. But Abram has other ideas because of his growing trust in God. But why does that rascally king think he can accomplish and why is he even doing it? Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/05/10/episode-101-abram-and-the-rude-dude-from-sodom/

One of the great unsolved mysteries of the Bible is the identity of Melchizedek, the priest king of Salem (which will later be called Jerusalem). We’ve seen it before, as with Nimrod, that when the Bible and history don’t tell us anything about someone in the Bible, there are a lot of crazy stories trying to fill in those gaps. However, what we really can know about Melchizedek is still very impor...

At one point, Lot was camped by the city of Sodom and now we see that he is actually living in the city—and when the rebellion of the five kings goes terribly wrong, Lot and his family get taken as captives and all their stuff gets taken too. Instead of paying a ransom for his safe return, Abram and his allies assemble an army and take back all the people and all the stuff that was taken. Transcri...

If you have read my curriculum book The Ten Commandments and the Covenants of Promise, then some of this will be a review for you. Otherwise, this week you will be learning about why these kings were fighting and how understanding their relationship with King Chedorlaomer also helps us to understand God’s relationship with the children of Israel and with us too! Transcript: https://contextforkids....

Today we are going to talk about the most exciting fifty days in the history of all the world! And also about why the strangest day on the entire Biblical calendar turned out to be the most important of all. If you have never heard of the counting of the omer, hold on to your hats because that’s what we will be learning about today. Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/04/12/episode-97-jesu...

There are terrible times in our lives when everything seems to have gone so wrong that nothing will ever be right again. When Jesus died, the disciples must have felt like their whole world ended. They had given up their jobs, their families, and everything to follow Him. They had hoped to be rich, famous, and powerful when Jesus became King and suddenly, they probably wished that none of it had e...

Do Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob show up in archaeological records? Why or why not? Chapters 14 and 15 of Genesis are going to need a lot more archaeology to explain than what has gone before and so I thought it would be a good idea to talk about how we know what we know about the Biblical world, who figured it out, and how and most importantly, where I get my information from so you guys can find it...

Abram wisely solved the problem of the family squabbles by allowing Lot to choose whatever land he wanted—which could have gone terribly wrong, but Abram trusted God that no matter what, his children would still inherit the Land of Canaan. Lot chose the very best of the Land for itself, but that is going to come with a high price tag. Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/03/15/episode-94-lo...

Maybe during COVID you found out how difficult it can be for a bunch of people to be in a small space for a long time, and that’s what happened with Abram and Lot, who had so much stuff and so many slaves and hired men that there was a lot of arguing over who should be able to feed their animals in what places. What is Abram going to do to solve this terrible problem? And how does it show us how m...

This weekend, Jewish people from all over the world will be celebrating Purim, a holiday which honors God for saving His people from the wicked Haman during the time of the Medo-Persian Empire. We can learn a lot about courage and bravery from this story about two Queens who stood up for what was right. Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/02/28/episode-92-esther-and-vashti-two-brave-queens...

Every once in a while, something is going on with Christians or the world and I think it is important to explore it with the kids so that they understand better what everyone is talking about. This week we’re going to learn about revivals and outpourings of the Holy Spirit and what we can learn about them from looking at Ezekiel, Acts, and the ministry of Jesus. Transcript: https://contextforkids....

Abram, Sarai, and Lot all return to the land of Canaan and when Abram returns to his home base in Bethel, he calls on the Name of the Lord again. But what if he had done that before he went to Egypt? How might that have changed the story for the better and saved a whole lot of people a whole world of hurt—and especially Sarai and her maidservant Hagar. Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/0...

Sarai got into big trouble by agreeing to lie about who she was, and now she is a captive of the Pharaoh but God has special plans for her life so He does something pretty amazing to save her. We will also be talking about the importance of ethics in the Bible and in our real lives. Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2023/02/08/episode-89-god-saves-sarai/

Abram has a lot of ups and downs in his walk with God and this week we will be talking about one of the downs. Famine strikes the land of Canaan and Abram takes Sarai and their household down to Egypt where there is plenty of food. There’s a big problem though—Sarai is a very beautiful woman and Abram asks her to promise him something that puts her in a lot of danger. Transcript: https://contextfo...

Everyone is talking about Baby Jesus now, all over the world, but what you may not know is that God just loves to do things through “impossible” babies who couldn’t have even been born without God working incredible miracles. So, this week we are going to look at Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptist to see how God makes impossible things possible and especially through the gr...

What if the Maccabees never stood up to Antiochus Epiphanes? What if they had lost the war? What if Mary and Joseph had never been born or they had been raised as pagans? Thousands of things could have gone wrong, but fortunately, Hannukah is the story of how things happened in such a way as to make sure that Jesus, our Savior, was born! Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2022/12/14/episode-86...

We are taking a break for the next two weeks to talk about the celebration that made the birth of Jesus possible! That’s right—the Feast of Dedication aka Hannukah. This week we’ll talk about the importance of being loyal to God no matter what! Next week, I will explain why there is no Jesus without Hannukah! Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2022/12/07/episode-85-hannukah-and-the-importance-...

Abram, Sarai and Lot all arrive in the Promised Land and God actually appears to Abram for the first time and makes him two more promises that help to explain his very first promise to Abram! But uh oh, what problem will this cause with Lot? We’ll talk about sacred groves, regional gods, altar building and what it meant for Abram to “call on the Name of the Lord” outside a Canaanite city. Transcri...

Wow! Abram listened to God, believed His promises to bless him—almost—and left his home for the land of the dreaded Canaanites. But why did he disobey and bring his nephew Lot? And how does all this relate to the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness? Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2022/11/24/episode-83-the-journey-to-canaan/

This week we will tackle one of the most important things in the Bible—God’s very first promise to Abraham! Up to now, the world has mostly been a mess but God is about to take matters into His own hands to create for himself a nation unlike any other on earth. We’ll be talking about the words bless and blessing and what they mean when they are referring to people. As a bonus, we’ll see exactly wh...

Today we are going to introduce the family of Terah and discuss why the Bible is about to change so drastically! The life of Abraham literally changes the world forever, and as we would expect, the story of the Bible is going to change as well. Up until now, we have only been in the introduction—God has been introduced as the Creator, as the Savior, and as the one who has never stopped wanting to...

The Bible really changes when we get to Genesis 12 and so I wanted to take a week to talk to the kids about what the Bible is and isn’t and why there are so many different kinds of writings by so many different people in it, and why we can trust it. Transcript: https://contextforkids.com/2022/11/02/episode-80-what-is-the-bible/

Before we start talking about Abraham next week, it’s really important to talk about “the prayer before the Lord’s prayer” which we find in Deuteronomy and begins with the Hebrew word shema, which isn’t an easy word to translate into English but it is a very important word that we need to understand. If that wasn’t confusing enough for us, we also have to figure out what the heck it means that God...