Lesson 2
How to Read the Bible
Culture & Customs
Unit Game
Play the Books of the Bible Game you have chosen for today’s lesson as students arrive and settle in. (This should only take up about five minutes of your time. The point is to repeat a handful of games throughout the year so that the kids memorize the books of the Bible, so this really shouldn’t take a long time. If the students are new to it, feel free to help them find the answer so the game keeps moving.)
Prayer
Prayer time should take only about 5-10 minutes
We are going to always start our lessons with prayer. We want to make sure we are inviting the Holy Spirit to lead our class and help us to understand God’s word.
Last week we learned about a prayer that Jesus gave His disciples as an example of how they should pray.
Does anyone remember what it is called? The Lord’s Prayer.
Let’s read Matthew 6:9-13, the Lord’s Prayer, again. Assign a reader or read it yourself.
What does Jesus say about God and His name in verse nine? His name is hallowed (holy).
God is Holy! Holy means He is without sin—He is always good! He is far above us. He is awesome and powerful! And He is always trustworthy and faithful and just.
Jesus is starting His prayer with praise! Before we ask for things that we want or need or start telling God what is bothering us, we should take some time to focus on how awesome and holy He is, and praise Him. Just like being thankful, this puts us in the right frame of mind to pray about our needs. It reminds us of God’s goodness, faithfulness, and power and that He is able to answer all of our prayers.
Today, we are just going to stop here with the Lord’s Prayer and focus on praising God for His holiness, goodness, faithfulness, and power.
Before praying help students to think of things to praise God for.
Examples: God I praise you that you are powerful! You are able to do anything! I praise You because You are holy! You are always good! You are faithful!
Allow each student a turn to praise God and then end the prayer with an invitation for the Holy Spirit to take charge of the lesson.
Lesson
Review
Last week we went over some things to keep in mind when we read the Bible. Does anyone remember what they were? The Bible is God’s Word. Make sure we read a real translation.
The first one we talked about is that the Bible is God’s Word.
Why do we call it that? God inspired different men to write down His Words to them and that’s why we call it God’s Word.
We also learned that we should want to read a real translation of the Bible. What makes a good translation? One that translates each word from the original language. Not one that sums things up (a paraphrase.)
Culture
The next thing we are going to talk about that is really important to think of when we read the Bible is culture! Culture is the customs, traditions, habits, values, morals, and heritage (something handed down from the past) of a certain group of people. The best way of describing culture is to just say it’s the “way of life” of a certain group of people. It’s all the things that group of people think of as “normal.” Going to McDonald’s and Wal-Mart (or whatever is “normal” for your culture) is “normal” for Americans. But it’s not normal in every culture of the world.
Have any of you ever been to a different country? Have you noticed that their culture—even how they dress, talk, and live—is usually very different from ours? Allow answers.
Sometimes words or phrases don’t mean the same thing there as they do where we live, right? We understand that about our world today, but we also need to remember that the world of the Bible was very different from our own. We can’t take our culture—that’s how we think, our morals, habits, and traditions; and how we live, dress, and talk—and try to fit the Bible into it. It won’t work!
We need to learn about the culture of the Bible so we can understand better what it is saying.
Do you think they dressed the way we do in the time of Jesus? Or the time of Moses? Allow answers.
What about food? Or how they talked? Did they speak English? Allow answers.
Customs
Customs are a part of culture. They are things people do in a certain culture, and the people of that culture may not even know why! But that’s just the way it is. It’s normal for them!
There are customs like shaking hands when people meet each other. But do they shake hands to say hello in every country of the world today? No, they don’t. Let’s play a game to show just how many different customs there are in the world today just to say hello!
Play Customs Game found in Games
There are lots of customs all over the world today because there are many cultures in our world today. In the times of Abraham, Moses, and Jesus there were very different customs than what we have today anywhere in the world.But sometimes it’s easy to forget that when we are reading the Bible. Some of the things we read in the Bible will seem strange to us, because we have a very different culture. Let’s look at a couple of strange customs right now!
Genesis 24:1-3. Assign a reader or read yourself.
Was there anything strange in these verses to you? I see three things that are very different from our culture. Abraham had a servant. He told his servant to “swear by the Lord” to him. He told him to place his hand under his thigh.
Yes, first of all Abraham had a servant! Some people do have servants today, but most people don’t. But the strangest thing is that he had his servant place his hand under his thigh.
How would you feel if your friend told you to do this and swear to them to do something? Allow answers.
It may seem very strange to us, but in the time of Abraham this was how people made promises to each other. Not only is this a strange way for us to make a promise, but in our culture (Western culture) making promises to each other isn’t that big of a deal any more. People don’t take promises very seriously! But Abraham told his servant to swear to him. That’s a vow—a lot more serious than a promise! A vow is more than just a promise. A vow is like marriage vows. Have you ever been to a wedding? The bride and groom make vows (promises) to each other, and they give each other rings, and they are more than just a promise. They mean that after that they are legally married. So vows are much more serious than promises. In Abraham’s time they made vows about very important things, not just about marriage. That is part of the culture and customs of the Bible.
If you have younger students you can skip to the next section.
[Older Students:
Modern Christian Culture vs. the Culture of the Bible
Even the fact that Jesus was crucified on a cross can be meaningless to us, unless we learn about the culture of the Roman Empire which ruled over Israel during the time of Jesus.
Most people today know that Jesus died nailed to a cross. But what is a cross? Allow answers.
Most people already know the shape of the cross, because we see it everywhere. We live in Western Culture—which basically includes all of Europe and places that Europeans moved to—like America, Australia, and South Africa. We see crosses in cemeteries, on top of churches, and as jewelry. That’s because the cross is a part of Christian culture.
What? Christians have a culture? Yes, they do! We even have our own language. It’s called “Christianese!” That is kind of a joke, but Christians really do have a certain way of talking that comes from the culture of being a Christian! The cross is now a very Christian symbol. But what exactly was a cross in Jesus’ time?
Does anyone know? Allow answers.
It was something invented by the Roman Empire as a way to execute criminals. The Romans were very cruel people. They came up with “crosses,” made of heavy, rough wood, and nailed people to them so they would die very slow and painful deaths. And that is the death Jesus chose to pay for our sins. How amazing is that? He loves us so much, doesn’t He? He suffered and died for us so we don’t have to! But unless we learned exactly what a cross was in the culture of Jesus, we would never fully understand what Jesus did for us, because to us the cross might be just a shape on a piece of jewelry. That’s why it’s so important to know about the culture and customs of the Bible, so that we can understand it the best that we can!
In our modern Christian culture, there are a few really obvious things that are different from what we read about in the Bible. In the Bible, some of the most famous people in it had more than one wife. In our Christian culture we know that to be wrong, and in some places even illegal. But why do we know that is wrong? Any ideas? Allow answers.
The reason we know this, in modern Christian culture, in the places of the world where the gospel has gone, is because of the Bible. We know from the Apostle Paul’s letters that having more than one wife was not God’s original intention for mankind. God made one man and one woman in the Garden of Eden, so obviously the Lord wanted husbands to have only one wife. But there was actually no command from God in Genesis that men should have only one wife. So when Abraham married a second wife, was he sinning? Allow answers.
The point is, God never said, “You shall not have more than one wife!” It wasn’t until the New Testament, and Paul’s letters to the Gentiles (people who are not Jews), that having more than one wife became something that was discouraged (1 Tim 3:2). But we can see that, since God created one man and one woman originally, that was His intention from the start, so we want to follow that. But we can’t look at Abraham and Jacob, two righteous men with more than one wife, and say they were sinning either. We can also look at the stories of Abraham and Jacob and see that neither one of them really wanted a second wife, but they ended up with more than one anyway.
Another difference between the culture of the Bible and the culture of today is the existence of slavery. But not all the slavery of the Bible was like the very evil, modern slavery we would think about today where someone is kidnapped and forced to work for someone else. Some slavery in the Bible was actually voluntary. A person sold themselves as a slave for a period of years so that they could repay a debt. So we can’t look at all of the slavery in the Bible and look down on it as something that was evil. There was also unfair slavery in the Bible, like when Joseph is sold by his brothers as a slave. But when God gave His Law to Israel He made a rule that all of the slaves were supposed to be set free after six years of service (Num 15:12). So we can see the Lord’s heart is that people not be enslaved unfairly. The Law of God brings freedom and justice wherever it is taught.
We very easily forget that the reason we think of things like slavery and having more than one wife as wrong or unfair is because we have the Bible. The Israelis had to learn the right way to live from the Law God gave them. We already have that Law and we live in a world that has been transformed by the Ten Commandments and also the gospel, which takes the Ten Commandments to another level. We just take it for granted.]
Younger Students continue from here:
Having the Right Perspective
There are two questions we should always ask ourselves to help us think about the culture of the Bible: who wrote it, and who were they writing it to? If we understand who the person was who wrote it—the time period they lived in, the country they lived in, and what their customs were like—then we will understand better what that part of the Bible means. The same is true about who that part of the Bible is written to. If I was writing to someone in another country, I would try to keep in mind what makes sense to them. That’s what the writers of the Bible did too.
The entire Bible, except for maybe one book, was written by Jews. Most of the Bible was also written to the Jewish people.
Do you think that in order to understand the Bible better we should try to understand the Jewish people and their culture? Yes, we definitely should!
Awesome job listening today! Let’s play a review game now to see how much you remember of what we learned about how to read our Bible.
Review Game
Play the Review Game you have chosen for today’s lesson using the questions below.
Review Questions
- What is the prayer Jesus gave His disciples as an example of how they should pray? The Lord’s prayer.
- What does holy mean? Without sin. Set apart.
- The Bible is God’s _______. Word.
- Why do we call the Bible God’s Word? God spoke it! He inspired different men through the Holy Spirit to write down His Words.
- What is the easiest way to describe what culture is? The way of life of a certain group of people.
2. What is a custom? Something people in a certain culture do that is normal for them, but they may not even know why they do it. It’s part of their culture! Like shaking hands when saying hello.
3. Can we take our culture and try to fit the Bible into it? No!
5. Name one thing that was different about Abraham’s culture? He had a servant. How they made promises to each other.
6. How did Abraham have his servant make a promise to him? He had him place his hand under his thigh and swear by the Lord.
7. What group of people was the Bible mostly written by? Jews.
8. What group of people was the Bible mostly written to? Jews.
9. What are the two questions we should always ask ourselves when we are reading the Bible to make sure we are thinking about the culture of the Bible? Who wrote it and who did they write it to.
10. The Bible is God’s _______. Word.
11. What is the name of the prayer that Jesus gave us to follow as an example of how to pray? The Lord’s Prayer.
12. Can we trust God’s Word? Why? Yes. Because He never lies!
13. What does your memory verse say about God’s Word? It is God-breathed.
[Older Students]
14. Most people in Western Culture (Europe, America, etc.) know what a cross is and what it looks like because it is a part of what culture? Christian culture.
15. What was a cross originally? Rough, heavy pieces of wood in the shape of a cross that people were nailed to, so they would die a slow painful death. A torture device. An execution device.
16. Who invented crosses? The Romans.
17. What are two things that existed in the Bible that could be confusing to people who live in our modern Christian culture? Slavery & having more than one wife.
18. Why do we understand that those things are wrong now and not what God originally intended for people? We have the Bible, the Law, the 10 commandements, and the gospel.
19. What is the “language” of Christian culture? Christianese.
20. Why is it so important to learn about the culture and customs of the Bible? So we will understand it the best that we can.
Memory Verse
Choose a memory verse that fits your classes’ abilities. Or choose more than one and award prizes accordingly.
Non-Readers/Beginner Readers:
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Psalm 119:105
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1
Older Students:
“Forever, O Lord, Your word is firmly fixed in the heavens. Your faithfulness endures to all generations; You have established the earth, and it stands fast.” Psalm 119:89-90 ESV
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” John 1:1-3
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17
Note: NIV was chosen because it uses the word “God-breathed,” which is the literal meaning, and also because NIV is easier for children to understand. NASB can also be used.
Play the Memory Verse Game you have chosen for today’s lesson or play the memory verse song to review the memory verse.