TeacherAide
A weekly teaching aide for student developers

The First Epic

SESSION 13


ILLUSTRATING THE POINT 

 

Name Game

At church one morning, my friend Gwen was about to start her 4-year-olds' Sunday school class when a little boy showed up without any identification. Gwen managed to get his first name, but couldn't find out his last name. "Brian, what's your daddy's name?" she asked. "Daddy," he replied. She tried again, "Brian, what's your mommy's name?" "Mommy," he answered. Suddenly she realized exactly how she could get the answer she needed. "Brian, what does your daddy call your mommy?" His face lit up. With a grin and a deep voice, he replied, "Hey, Babe." - Today’s Christian Woman, “Heart to Heart”

Eight is Enough

Being one of eight children, I’m used to hearing remarks about the size of our family. Once when my father had taken four of us to the grocery store, a woman asked him, “Are these all of your children?”

“Oh, no,” he innocently replied.

Seeing the look of relief on her face, Dad said with a twinkle in his eye, “The other four are at home.”- Christian Reader

 

THE MORE YOU KNOW

 

It is interesting that for this section of Genesis 10-11 we have the establishment of the nations of the world. All the nations with their various languages were descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Japheth’s descendants would settle to the north, east, and west of Ararat. Ham’s descendants would move east, south, and southwest into Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Africa. Shem’s family settled to the northwest and southeast of the Canaanites.

This section also reveals God’s plan to bless the human race by dividing the family of man by languages, locations, and leaders. Before, God had blessed the earth by dividing the light from the darkness, the earth from the heavens, and the land from the seas in Genesis Chapter 1.

Within the list of descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, there is only one person who is personally described. The grandson of Ham and the son of Cush was Nimrod. Genesis 10:9 describes him as a mighty hunter before the Lord. Many theologians believe that Nimrod was a warrior and founded the region of the Assyrians and the Babylonians. From this point of view, it can be possible understood that Ham’s grandson became a great nemesis to the sons of Shem in Israel later. 

 

THOUGHT I HEARD YOU SAY

 

“Throughout the years I wanted to disbelieve (Christ’s) story. But I thought on this record it would be more interesting to open my mind and believe it on my own terms. He was the first celebrity, the first rock star.”- Marilyn Manson 

“Two men look out through the same bars: One sees the mud, and one the stars.”- Fredrick Langbridge                                                                                                   

“We have a society which is psychiatrized in the same sense in which medieval European society was Christianized, religionized—everything was a matter of religion. Now everything is a matter of psychiatry, from homosexuality, to heroin, to murder.”- Thomas Szasz

  “An expectant friend with sons 4 and 2 asked the older one, Ben, if he would like to have a new brother. After careful thought, Ben replied, “No, let’s just keep Brian.”- Christian Reader