At this point, I think it would be good to do another little cliff notes style catch up session. We have covered ALOT! So much in fact, that I’m already thinking- we could totally do this again and draw different parallels and pick up something new that perhaps I’m missing this go round. I have to keep reminding myself- the goal here simply to read The Bible, cover to cover, and look at it as a whole. Future Bible studies will definitely be needed to really grasp and analyze the stories and account within our current much more broad task.

We left off from our last catch up sesh (after week 2) with the Hebrews fully in Egypt. Joseph has lived a long life and has died, in Egypt. From there, we:

In Exodus-

The Israelites grow and their size starts to worry the new king- who didn’t know about Joseph

The Egyptians assign slave masters over the Israelites and oppress them with forced labor

The king orders the midwives to kill all the baby boys born to Israelites

The midwives lie to the king and say they can’t

The king orders all Israelite baby boys to be thrown into the river

A Levite woman gives birth to Moses

Instead of throwing him in the river, she places him in a basket in the Nile and has his sister hide in the bushes and watch the basket

The Pharaoh’s daughter finds the basket and decides to keep the baby in the palace

Pharaoh’s daughter sees the baby’s sister (not knowing she is the sister) and asks the sister to go find an Israelite woman who can nurse the baby for her

The sister brings back their mom (Moses’s birth mother) to nurse the baby

The baby grows up as a member of the pharaoh’s household

At this point, Moses is an adult

One day he sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew man; Moses defends the Hebrew and kills the Egyptian man

Moses is afraid and flees Egypt and lives in Midian

In Midian- he comes to the aid of a women trying to water their father’s flock when shepherds drove the women away

The father hears about Moses standing up for his daughters and invites him over to eat

Moses stays with Jethro, meets Zipporah (Jethro’s daughter), marries her, they have a son (Gershom)

Moses sees a burning bush while he’s tending his father-in-law’s flock

God speaks to Moses through the burning bush

Moses responds “Here I am” HAVEN’T WE HEARD THIS BEFORE?! (cough Abraham cough 😉)

God sends Moses to save the Israelites from Egypt- after some hesitation from Moses saying “nope, no thank you; you’ve got the wrong guy”

Moses takes his wife and sons back to Egypt.

In the desert, the Lord met Moses and is about to kill him so Zipporah (Moses’s wife) circumcised their son

His calls Aaron to go meet Moses in the desert and go with him into Egypt

Moses & Aaron talk to the Israelite elders

Elders believe & agree

Moses & Aaron go to Pharaoh and ask for the people to leave for a 3 day festival to worship God

Pharaoh says no and orders the straw be taken away to make their jobs harder. Basically “if they have time to plan a festival then they must not be working hard enough”

The people get mad at Moses for making the pharaoh mad

God tells Moses to ask pharaoh to let them leave Egypt

Moses and Aaron go to talk to pharaoh

Aaron’s staff becomes a snake

The palace magicians also turn their staffs into snakes and Aaron’s staff eats their staffs

Pharaoh won’t listen and won’t let the people go

God sends plagues on Egypt

After the plague on the first born

Pharaoh allows the Israelites to leave Egypt

Egyptians change their mind and chase after the Israelites

Moses parts the Red Sea, Israelites walk through on dry land

Egyptians follow them in then the waters close up and drown the Egyptian army

God provides for the Israelites in the desert- water, manna, & quail

Amalekites attack the Israelites

God defeats the Amalekites through the Israelites and Moses keeping his hands raised in the air

At some point, apparently Moses had sent his wife and sons to live with his father in law?

Jethro (Moses’s father-in-law) comes to the desert to visit Moses and brings Moses’s wife and sons

Jethro recommends Moses outsource some of his duties by appointing lower judges to help with the smaller cases

Jethro leaves and returns to his own country

Moses goes up Mount Sinai to talk to God

God gives Moses the 10 commandments, various rules/ laws, and details on festivals to worship God

Moses brings elders up the mountain to also worship at a distance

God gives Moses the details for the tabernacle & articles

God gives Moses 2 tablets of testimony

Meanwhile Aaron & the Israelites make a golden calf from their gold jewelry to worship

Moses gets super angry when he sees the people dancing and singing to the golden calf. He throws the tablets and breaks them into pieces

Moses goes back to the Lord for atonement for the people

The Lord struck the Israelites with a plague because of their sin

Moses sets up a tent of meeting, goes back up the mountain and chisels out two new stone tablets

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai his face glowed because he was with the Lord for 40 days and 40 nights

Moses collects an offering to collect the materials for the tabernacle

Calls out Bezalel and Oholiab for using their skills to make the tabernacle

Uses the collected offerings to create the tabernacle and things as God commanded

In Leviticus-

The lord speaks to Moses in the tent of meeting and explains offerings- different types and how they are so be done

Aaron and his sons are ordained according to the Lord’s commands

2 of Aaron’s sons are killed because they don’t follow the Lord’s commands in the presence of the Lord

God spells out clean vs unclean food and various laws

He also spells out various punishments, the rules for priests, the sabbath and holidays

On to Numbers-

God commands a census be taken and how the tribals camps are to be arranged

And spells out more rules- the test for an unfaithful wife, Nazirite rules, offerings of each clan

Israelites leave Sinai and complain about their hardships

The Lord sends fire to burn the outskirts of the camp

Then they start complaining about not having meat so the Lord sends quail but the quail makes them sick because the Lord is mad about their constant complaining

Miriam and Aaron talk against Moses because the Lord has spoken to them too and Moses married the cushite woman

The Lord gives Miriam leprosy to punish them

Moses sends a group out to explore Canaan

When the group gets back, they basically say the land is great but the people are too big for us to fight

Of the group, Caleb tries to silence them and tell them they could do it

The Israelites are basically throwing a temper tantrum and want to go back to Egypt

God basically says “ok fine, now none of y’all get the promised land, you have to wander the desert for 40 years until this generation dies and then your ancestors can have Canaan”

Korah , Dathan, and Abiram try to start and uprising and lead 250 men to oppose Moses and Aaron

The ground under Korah , Dathan, and Abiram opened up and swallowed them, their families, and all their belongings

Fire came out of the incense and burned up the other 250 involved in the rebellion

The 12 tribes collect staffs to see who is the chosen leader- Aaron’s staff budded, blossomed, abs produced almonds

God spells out some more commands- duties of the priests, water of cleansing,

Reach the desert and have no water, again Israelites are having another temper tantrum

God tells Moses to speak to the rock and it will pour out water but instead Moses struck the rock with a staff

They get water but now Moses is also in trouble for not listening and also doesn’t get to go into the promised land

Moses asks the king of Edom if they can go through but the king won’t let them

Aaron dies on Mount Hor, first giving his son Eleazer his clothes

Arad attacks the Israelites so the Israelites retaliate and completely destroy them and their towns

Again the Israelites are complaining about not having food or water so god sent venomous snacks

God commands Moses to make a bronze snake and put it on a pole for people to look at and save them if they get bitten

Take over more towns & people- Sihon & Of

Balak (king of Moab) calls for Balaam to curse the Israelites bc he is afraid but instead Balaam blesses them

Moab seduces the Israelite men

God sends a plague to punish them for their sexual immorality

Phinehas the grandson of Aaron, kills an Israelite and the Moabite woman he was with to stop the plague

God commands another census

God commands the land be allotted to each clan based on the size of the clan

Zelophehads daughters go to the Tent of Meeting to ask for land even though they have no males left in their line. The Lord agrees

God appoints Joshua to succeed Moses

God commands offerings and details how and what is to be offered

God again specifies the feasts and holidays

God sends the Israelites to take vengeance on the Midianites; they killed every man and brought their plunder and spoils back to Moses

Moses is mad that they allowed the women and children to live so he orders all women they are not virgins and all the boys be killed and all the spoils be sanitized

The Reubenites and Gadites ask to stay where they are and not cross the Jordan but still agree to fight for and with the other Israelites

God specifies where the boundaries of Canaan are to be and where the Levites are to live

In the New Testament-

We learn the genealogy of Jesus

“Meet” Jesus-

Learn about his creation & how his parents find out about the child Mary is getting ready to have

Meet Mary & Joseph

Meet Mary cousin, Elizabeth- pregnant with John the Baptist

John the Baptist is born

Jesus is born during a census in a barn in Bethlehem

Visited by magi and shepherds

On the 8th day Jesus is circumcised

On their period of purification ends, Joseph and Mary take Jesus to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord

Meet Simeon in temple courts, He blesses them

Anna, a prophetess at the temple, also comes to them to give thanks to God

Jesus & his parents move to Egypt to avoid Hared

Return from Egypt and live in Galilee

Jesus was 12 and goes with his parents to Jerusalem for Passover; after the feast, they left but Jesus stayed in the temple in Jerusalem

“Meet” John the Baptist

Jesus is baptized by John

John sees the sky open and hears God say “this is my son”

Jesus goes into the desert for 40 days and 40 night where he is tempted by the devil

Jesus is rejected in Nazareth

Jesus calls and later send out his 12 disciples

Jesus changes water into wine at a wedding

Jesus is performing miracles and healing people

Jesus clears the temple

We “meet” Nicodemus

Jesus talks with a Samaritan woman

Jesus is “famous” and attracting huge crowds

Jesus is teaching and telling parables

The Pharisees don’t like the crowds Jesus is attracting and are starting to accuse him of blasphemy

John the Baptist is beheaded

Jesus predicts his own death but the disciples don’t understand

Jesus is transfigured on the high mountain in front of Peter James and John

Jesus appoints 72 others and sends them out 2 by 2 ahead of Him

We “meet” Mary and Martha

Jesus teaches the Lord’s Prayer

“Meet” Zacchaeus

Lazarus dies and Jesus raises him from the dead

Chief priests & elders plot to kill Jesus

While at Simon the Lepers house, a woman (Mary? Martha’s sister?) washes Jesus’s feet with alabaster (or nard??) (very expensive perfume)

At Mount of Olives, sends two disciples ahead to fetch the colt that He will ride into Jerusalem on what becomes Palm Sunday

Judas agrees to betray Jesus for 30 silver coins

Jesus washes the disciples feet

The disciples celebrate the feast of the unleavened bread with Jesus (which is really the last supper)

Jesus predicts Peters betrayal

Jesus goes to Gethsemane to pray and asks the disciples to look out but they keep falling asleep

Judas arrives, gives Jesus a kiss- signaling to the chef priests and elders which one was Jesus

Disciple cuts off ear of soldier

Jesus is arrested

Peter follows them back to Caiaphas where he denies knowing Jesus

Judas hangs himself

Pilate tries to let Jesus out as the tradition of feast but the crowd demands he free Barabbas instead of Jesus

The soldiers mock Jesus as they lead him to be crucified

Simon from Cyrene carries the cross to Golgotha for Jesus

Jesus dies on the cross

The curtain of the temple was torn in two

The earth shook

Tombs broke open and holy people raised from the dead

Joseph, a rich man from Arimathea, asked Pilate for Jesus’s body and buried Him in clean linen cloths in a new tomb

The tomb was guarded because the chief priests were worried the disciples would steal the body and claim He had risen

After the sabbath, on the 3rd day after the crucifixion, Mary Magdalene and Mary went to the tomb but the stone was rolled away and the body was gone

An angel appeared to the women and told them He had risen and to go tell the disciples

The chief priests tell the guard to tell everyone the disciples stole the body

Appears to Mary Magdalene

Appears to 2 of them on their way to Emmaus

The 11 disciples go to Galilee and see and talk to Jesus

Appears to Thomas

Appears to disciples at Sea of Tiberias and has them throw their net over the right side of the boat; they caught so many fish they couldn’t lift the net

Jesus reinstates Peter

The ascension