The Old Testament is Awesome

This year in Sunday School we're learning about the Old Testament. Every four years I get very excited for these lessons again. I keep up with reading the lesson material during the week so I can get more out of Sunday's lesson and I feel like I get a lot out of Sunday School this way. I love it.

Then the lessons start to get longer (as far as the reading material goes for that week's lesson). That's when it starts to get tough to keep up on the reading and then I end up not doing well for the rest of the year. If I can make a good habit then I can keep up my momentum. And that's what I've been doing this year.

A few weeks ago, when we were in the thick of talking about Joseph (the "Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" Joseph) and his brothers getting ready to sell him as a slave, there were comments made in class about stuff that I didn't read in all the lesson material. It was some really cool stuff that I wished I had read and I didn't remember it from previous years of Sunday School or lessons from seminary/institute. What's up with that?

That's when I decided to read the chapters between the lessons (or the chapters that got skipped in the lesson) and I found all sorts of awesome stuff going on. Yes! That was super cool. I loved finding all that stuff...and more!

So for the last few weeks I have been reading all the chapters of the lesson plus the chapters that get skipped (in the lesson and between lessons). I've totally loved it.

This week's lesson is about Moses and Aaron and all the pestilences against Pharaoh and the Egyptions. It took a lot of time to read, more than what I normally read for my personal scripture study, but it's been worth reading all of it and getting tons more out of the history and connecting people to their stories, there wheres, whens and whys. Nice!

I just read this morning about Pharaoh driving the Israelites out of the land (600,000 men plus their children), quickly regretting his decision (after all the plagues the Lord just sent upon him!) and chased after the Israelites with 600 chariots to enslave them again. (It's pretty obvious from these chapters he didn't want to lose his slave labor.)

The Israelites turned to Moses and said they preferred to be slaves than to die in the wilderness. Whatever! I was thinking, "Please, guys, listen to the prophet. He knows the way!"

The Lord put a cloud between the Israelites and the Egyptians for the night and Moses parted the Red Sea with "a strong east wind all that night" (and I wondered about the crickets that could have still been floating in it from that past pestilence...they were driven into the Red Sea by a strong West Wind). They made it through on dry ground and during the next morning's watch they saw the Egyptians chasing after them. The Lord told Moses to stretch forth his hand and let the water come over the Egyptian army. And so it was. And then the Israelites were glad they listened to the prophet.

Oh, and the reason the Israelites went that way was because the Lord didn't want them to go toward the Philistines, see war and want to head back into slavery. That was a nice little gem to pick up too.

Wow! Good stuff in the lesson this week. I loved it. The Old Testament is totally awesome!