Deborah & Barak

It's really been a while since my last post. We're well into this year working with these kids, and I'm still talking about last year.

In the next week on the list, we finally came to the first woman we specifically talked about in the series, and she was certainly worthy to make the cut. Deborah was a prophetess and the only female judge. In her time, the streets were empty; the villages abandoned. She became a mother to Israel during a difficult time. She called Barak, the commander of Israel's army to come before her. God had called Barak to fight Israel's enemies, but Barak had not done so yet. Barak needed a push from Deborah. “Has not the Lord, the God of Israel, commanded you...” Barak told Deborah he would go, but only if she went with him.

I decided to paint a picture for the kids of what this must have looked like. I compared one of their favorite wrestlers (these kids love wrestling) to Barak, and one of our then current leaders (a short, petite gal) to Deborah and told them this would be like that petite gal bringing the burly wrestler before her, saying “What's the matter with you? Go in there and fight that guy,” only to have him respond with “Okay....but only if you go with me.” What a wimp. The kids laughed. Barak was really pathetic.
At the end of the story, Deborah and Barak had defeated Sisera, the enemy commander, and Sisera was killed by Jael—a woman, just as Deborah told Barak would happen before the battle. Deborah and Barak sang (that would be the whole next chapter), and all was well.

I asked the guys to vote whether they thought Barak lived by faith, or didn't. The vote was an even split. The guys who voted “no” voted that way because Barak's faith was quite weak. The guys who voted “yes” did so because Barak obeyed—he needed convincing to obey, but in the end he did it. My vote would have been “no” as well, but Hebrews 11 names Barak as a person who lived by faith, so it would seem the Bible votes “yes.”

I told the guys two things to take away from this story:
#1) Don't underestimate/undervalue women. God made them in His image too, and He uses them to do extraordinary things.
#2) Even a guy with pathetically weak faith can be counted as a man who lived by faith, if he listens and obeys.

The First Judges (Othniel, Ehud, & Shamgar)

Old Sketch of the First Three Judges

At this point, I printed out maps of Israel so the kids could see the places we'd be talking about from then on. I quickly noticed Israel surrounded by enemies—enemies the people failed to drive out. God left those inhabitants there to continually test Israel. That map reminds me of my own heart, with the inhabitants representing sins I have failed to drive out. This made me think Judges is a book about purity (and obedience, of course). Its story repeats from one generation to the next:

1) The people forget God and serve idols.
2) God delivers them into the hand of their enemies
3) They cry out to Him.
4) He sends a judge to deliver them.
5) Israel repents and serves God until the judge dies.
6) Repeat.

I always read Judges like a Western. The last verse of the book says, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (Jd. 21:25) That sounds like the plot to almost every Western ever written. Just replace those sandals with boots, bronze-age weapons with six-shooters, and....well, you get the idea.

Just remember: The judge always gets the white hat.

The people forgot what God had done, served idols, and He sent Cushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia. That's a pretty tall name. I looked up its meaning and found “Twice-Wicked Cushan.” Now there's a name the boys would remember! And it definitely doesn't discourage the Western version of the book in my head. God raised up Caleb's son-in-law Othniel to drive him out.

Fat King Eglon

Then there was Ehud, the most famous southpaw in the Bible. Southpaws tend to throw right-handed people off-guard, and that's exactly what Ehud did with Eglon, the fat Moabite king. Ehud assassinated Eglon, then slipped away before being discovered, rallied Israel's army, and drove Israel's oppressors out of Israel.
After Ehud was Shamgar. His judgeship seems a lot shorter than most, but his contribution is far from insignificant: Shamgar killed 600 Philistines and saved Israel.
And the people did evil again...

Joshua & Caleb

In the myriad of godly examples recorded in the Bible's pages, there are a few who stand out even more than the rest in my eyes. Joshua and Caleb are two such fellows.

They were born slaves in Egypt. They were almost forty years old when Moses returned to Egypt and the Exodus began. They witnessed all the things the Lord did to rescue His people. Both men were heads of their respective tribe, and Joshua became Moses' protege and eventual successor.

They spied out the Promised Land. The land was rich and plentiful, but the inhabitants were strong—some were even giants. When the other spies caused Israel to fear, Caleb stood up and told them they could defeat the giants. “We're like grasshoppers compared to them!” The spies cried. I guess they forgot what God had done. Somehow they missed the fact that, at best, those giants were like grasshoppers compared to our God.

Caleb vs. the Giants

What I admire most about Joshua and Caleb is how faithful they were in those forty years. They wandered as a consequence of other peoples' sin, but they didn't complain about it. That's an example all of us can learn from. All that wandering seemed to me like a real waste of two godly lives, but they didn't waste those 40 years at all. Joshua was Moses' protege and Israel's military commander, gaining experience he'd need when leading Israel and conquering Canaan.

Caleb faithfully lead Judah and fought under Joshua. After entering the Promised Land and fighting five years of war, an 85 year old Caleb made his request: He asked for what God promised him and proceeded to conquer Kiriath-Arba, the main city of the giants. Caleb and his descendants received the hill country around the city, whose name was changed to Hebron—what a legacy to leave his children! Caleb then offered his daughter's hand in marriage to the man who conquered the next city. That man was Othniel, a relative of Caleb's.

(I had way too much fun with the liver spots on old Joshua.)

At the end of his days, Joshua set a challenge before Israel to serve the Lord.

"...But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." (Joshua 24:15)

After Joshua died, Israel strayed away from the Lord, and the time of the judges began, with the first judge being none other than Caleb's son-in-law, Othniel.

I haven't commented much on the artwork lately. Since the school year has wrapped up I've been trying to depict each person we talked about with our group in this current style. More on that later.

Moses - Part 2

Since only two kids showed up on the night we talked about Moses, we decided to do the real lesson on Moses the following week. Someone was occupying my group's usual room, so we ended up with a bigger area than normal. That worked perfectly. It gave us the chance to make the lesson more personal by having the kids act like Israelites following Moses.

We imagined we were marching toward the Red Sea. The Lord was leading us in the pillar of smoke, until....wait—what's that behind us? Pharaoh and his army were quickly approaching! Moses (I think that was me again) told the children, “Take a good look at Pharaoh's army—after today you'll never see them again!” I pointed out that the Lord, in the pillar of smoke, was moving from ahead of us to behind us, blocking Pharaoh's path while we crossed the Red Sea on dry ground in safety. It was a lot of fun! I think the kids enjoyed themselves too.

It was a wonderful personal reminder of the way the Lord takes care of His people—the way He takes care of me. We finished the night by reading the song the children of Israel sang in celebration to the Lord.

One last thought on Moses:
“He considered the reproach of Christ greater than the wealth of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.” (Heb. 11:26)

Moses - Part 1

Back at the time these lessons were happening, I knew Halloween would fall on one of the nights we met. I wasn't sure which person from the Bible we would discuss that night. It turned out to be Moses.

There was no decision to be made—I had to dress up as Moses. I borrowed a Biblical-style robe from another church, put my bathrobe over it, added flip flops and a Middle-Eastern headdress left over from the barbershop show I sang in a few weeks earlier, went into the kitchen, grabbed the Ten Commandments tablet sitting near the spatulas, and headed out the door (it was originally part of a still life from college days).

 
I had no idea God had any purpose for all that stuff beyond my own silliness.

The still life & the headdress costume

When I got there, no other leader was dressed up (those bums!). Most kids were out trick-or-treating, but two of our kids showed up. Of course, the other leaders made the guy dressed up like Moses give the lesson, but I found myself unprepared, despite making lesson plans earlier in the week.

So....I just started talking....about the Ten Commandments...
...which made sense—they happened to be in my hand at the time...

...The topic quickly shifted to the Gospel. When I mentioned that Jesus died for us, one of the kids piped up and said, “I never heard that before!”

So "Moses" spent the rest of Halloween telling this kid about what Jesus had done for him.

I'm really thankful God orchestrated all of that. I'm really thankful that He caused me to feel/be unprepared, so He could direct the night where He wanted it to go—so this one kid could hear that Jesus died for him for the very first time.

I'm also thankful for what I saw in the other kid who was there that night. This young man was one of the two kids who got to hear about Enoch and receive that challenge to be leaders and walk in such a way that would point people towards Christ. When all the adults in the room were sharing the Gospel with the other kid, he joined us. That too, was something God orchestrated. That too, was something I'm really thankful for.

I thought that night was supposed to be Halloween. It sure felt a lot like Thanksgiving.

Joseph

The kids I work with each week tend to be an exaggerated picture of how adults like myself are. One kid gets upset because another took too much cheese, another gets mad because he didn't get a third cup of applesauce, etc. Such conflicts are always present.

Then we got to the part where we talk about Joseph. If ever there was a guy who didn't get his “applesauce,” Joseph was that guy. His brothers sold him into slavery when he was 17. He did right as a slave, and that got him his second job as a prisoner. Joseph was left to rot. I'm sure there were times he thought he'd never get out.
 

Finally, at the age of 30, Joseph was released from prison. After 13 years of hardship, God propelled him into a powerful position where Joseph was able to save countless people by preparing for the upcoming famine. He was the second most powerful man in Egypt, which really meant he was the second most powerful guy in the world. That's quite a career change from his previous job.

The most notable thing about Joseph is his attitude. I have no doubt he had his rough moments—who wouldn't? His actions, however, always show that he chose what honored God—even at great personal cost. When his brothers—the same brothers who sold him into slavery—came to Egypt during this famine for grain, Joseph had his chance to give all that hardship and misery back. Of course he didn't, but that's not the part that gets me. The part that gets me is where he tells his brothers they weren't the reason for his hardship, God was. Joseph explains that God caused him to suffer through all those things so Joseph could save his brothers. God's plan is so much bigger than we can imagine—especially while we're going through it. The part that blows my mind the most is how grateful Joseph was for all his suffering.

...And I'm still upset about the applesauce.

Jacob

I didn't get to post yesterday; one of my roommates got married. It was a big day (multiple days actually with all the festivities). It was also a wonderful reminder of what God has done in his life, in his new wife's life, and in both of their lives together. It will be wonderful to see what He does with them in the years to come.

Their wedding and the reminder of God's amazing work in two lives is a great segway into the guy we talked about next with the kids: Jacob. My favorite part of his story is the way God brought Jacob to Himself. Jacob's salvation appears to be a long, winding road and a fantastic testimony of the change only God can do.

Jacob's parents called him Jacob (“heel catcher/supplanter”) because his struggle went all the way to the womb, and he was born grabbing the heel of his older twin brother. God promised him the birthright, even though he was the younger brother. Jacob decided to get the birthright his own way, instead of waiting for God's way.

On Jacob's journey to find a wife, God made Jacob the same promises He had given to Jacob's father and grandfather. Jacob worked 7 years for the woman he loved, then discovered his father-in-law had married him to the wrong woman, so he worked 7 more years for the woman he loved. 

Eventually, after God had made Jacob prosper, God sent him back to Bethel, the place God first revealed Himself to Jacob—where God established His covenant with him.

Finally, Jacob dedicated himself and all who were with him to the Lord. He told them to get rid of all their idols and everything that kept them from God. 

I drew a few different versions of Jacob. Each one is different—each Jacob depicted is a different man. This final Jacob is the one I really like. He's leading his family and living by faith.

Abraham

Isaac wants to know where
the Lamb for the sacrifice is.

The first guy we talked about of those after the flood was Abraham. The Lord called him from his home to travel to the place God promised to give his descendants. The Lord promised to make him into a great nation, a promise which must have required increasingly more and more faith as the years wore on, Abraham became an old man, and he remained childless.

We brought up this term “covenant” again with our guys. When Abraham was old, the Lord made a covenant with him stating that he would become father of many nations, God would greatly multiply his descendants. The Lord even changed his name from Abram to Abraham.

We also mentioned how God tested Abraham when his son Isaac was born. He instructed Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. On the way there Isaac asked Abraham where the lamb for the sacrifice was. Abraham's answer: “God will provide for Himself the lamb...” (Gen. 22:8) God stopped the sacrifice before it happened and provided a ram as replacement. Close to Easter is perfect timing for this post, even though the night we talked about Abraham with the kids was actually last fall. We pointed ahead at to God sacrificing His Son for us. He provided for Himself the Lamb (with a capital “L”).

I'm not sure what else you could want here. We've got a great picture of faith—Abraham “died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar...” (Hebrews 11:13). We've got God's promises, and we've got a fantastic picture of salvation.

Noah

That next week, we wrapped up the pre-flood people with good ol' Noah. Enoch had Methuselah, and Methuselah had Lamech before God took Enoch. Not long after that, Lamech had a son. He called him Noah, saying “Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall brings us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.” (Gen. 5:29) That seems to have happened in Gen. 8:21.

Man had become extremely corrupt in God's sight, and He determined to destroy the earth. He told Noah to make an ark. The flood He was bringing would destroy everything on earth, but He would establish His covenant with Noah and his family. Here's how Noah responded: Noah obeyed.

Noah's obedience was pretty important, wouldn't you say? I'm personally very grateful he decided to listen to what God told him to do and do it. Things have a funny tendancy of working out better that way.

The other thing I wanted the guys in my group to pay attention to is this word covenant. It shows up a lot. In Noah's story, God made two. The first was protecting Noah and his family in the Flood. The second was that He would never again destroy all the earth with a flood. God set a rainbow as the sign of this covenant. I like the way the Bible words it, “I have set My bow in the cloud...” (Gen. 9:13a). It's not just any bow, it's His bow. When I read Revelation 4:3, I find a rainbow surrounding the throne, and I remember this story.

So, let's see what this obedience of Noah's probably looked like. Hint: It looks like a lot of hard work. Here's a quick animation cycle of a character hammering a nail into the ark. I set all the curves on “cycle post-infinity,” so it's going to take him a while.

*Malcolm character courtesy of AnimSchool.com

Enoch

The next guy listed in Hebrews 11 is Enoch. Originally, I planned to skip him, but one of the other leaders needed a catch-up week with her group, so he ended up on the schedule for the other groups.

Enoch was a part of the line descending from Seth, the son Adam and Eve considered a replacement for Abel. When Seth became a father, people began to call upon the name of the Lord. Four generations later, Enoch was born. When Enoch's son Methuselah was born, Enoch walked with God for 300 years, and then God took him. Enoch never died (quite the contrast after talking about Abel).

What stood out to me when I was preparing this one is the legacy of faithfulness it seems Enoch was a part of. His great, great grandfather, Seth, definitely seemed to live by faith, as Seth's older brother Abel had. The generations between Seth and Enoch also probably lived by faith—all of them were still around when Enoch came on the scene. It reminded me of the examples my parents and grandparents set for me, and the examples I and the other leaders try to set for these kids.

The night Enoch was supposed to be covered was pretty rough. It gets that way sometimes. I'll spare you the details, but it meant only two guys heard about Enoch. These two are the smallest and youngest guys in the age group. They are also the biggest leaders. They are good examples for the rest of us, myself included, so I told them Enoch's story, challenged them to continue walking by faith, and we all went home.

Enoch's life is defined by the verb “walk,” so instead of a sketch, I figured I ought to do a walk cycle (good practice). The important parts of Enoch's “walk” are the parts that can't be animated, of course, but this slow, leisurely stroll should suffice. I had the rig walk off-screen so, like Enoch, at the end of his walk....he's gone. 

         *Malcolm character courtesy of AnimSchool.com

Cain & Abel

Cain and Abel's story is where the consequences of Adam and Eve's sin suddenly become horrifically real. At the appropriate time, each brought his offering to sacrifice to the Lord. Cain gave a portion of his produce; Abel gave the firstborn of his flock. God accepted Abel's sacrifice but not Cain's.

I explained it to the kids this way: if you have one hundred dogs, and you are going to give one of them to the Lord, do you choose the one that sleeps in your bed at night? That's essentially what Abel did. His outward actions demonstrate his inward heart attitude.

Cain's heart attitude, on the other hand, went from bad to worse. Not only was his sacrifice rejected, but he let sin take a hold of him, became enraged, and killed his brother. What a shock that must have been! Death is horrible now, when we're used to it—but Adam and Eve had never seen it before. It's horrible now, when children are burying their parents—but these parents buried their child. For the first time, Abel's name made sense: “Vapor”—that's all it was. I brought a can of air freshener to use as a visual aid for the kids (best smelling lesson ever, by the way): “Life is like [squirt] a vapor....did you miss it? Here it comes again [squirt]. That quick [squirt]. -That's how long Abel had to live by faith....[squirt]....That long.”

Abel made it count. His name is first on the list of men and women who lived by faith (and first on the list of men and women killed or tortured for their faith). His sacrifice of his firstborn lamb points forward to the time when God would send His Lamb to be the sacrifice for all our sins.

This sketch is in a bit of a different style for me and not the exact moment I expected myself to depict. Anticipation...

Adam

Kind of got off to a shaky start with this first lesson. I think I had a tough time trying to figure out what to say about Adam. Adam isn't on that list in Hebrews 11 of men and women who lived by faith. The chapter skips him and starts with his son Abel. I think that made it a bit more difficult.

That difficulty, combined with the fact that it was the first night back, made the lesson long and labored, but somehow it resonated with these kids (mostly boys). Adam failed to take responsibility for himself and his family, twice. He failed when he and his wife ate the fruit God told them not to eat. Then Adam failed again when God called him to answer for his actions, and he passed the blame. In the words of one young fellow in my group, “Adam should have been a man.” The consequences of Adam's sin brought sin and death to all mankind. It affected Adam's children far more than I'm sure he could have imagined. One child murdered another. I'm not sure it could get worse.

Of course, no lesson on Adam would be complete without the Gospel. Sin enters the world, and death by sin, then God points Adam and Eve forward to the day when Christ would provide the way of salvation (see Genesis 3:15). This NT verse puts it nicely: “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” (I Cor. 15:22)

When I thought about drawing Adam, I definitely wanted to convey the sorrow and the impact of his sin. So here he is, presumably after a hard day of work, wiping the sweat off his brow—or maybe those are tears, perhaps some of both. I think I drew him a bit too gaunt and stiff, but thinking about it, I'm sure he was exactly that in those early days after the Fall. Adam also looks kind of shaky to me—just like the lesson about him was. Maybe God will use this drawing like He used that lesson.

New Year, New Post

Every year, I pack up the car and drive home for Christmas. Home happens to be 1,000 miles away, so I find I have a lot of time to spend with God and pray. I also get a lot of time to think about the year behind me and plan the year ahead of me. It is always a profound blessing. This time, most of what I thought about was this blog. It is challenging to regularly post compelling Bible animation, especially since animation takes a considerable amount of time, and Biblical subject matter requires a considerable amount of care.

There are a lot of different things involved in the process of doing Biblical animation that could also serve an independent purpose. One of them is character studies. I've been doing a lot of those lately. I'm interested in how these people thought and acted—their hopes, their fears, their strengths, their weaknesses. I'm most interested in how they lived by faith and served God....or how they didn't. Their lives are examples for us—challenges to live for Christ.

This is a great challenge. The age group of the ministry I'm involved with at my church thought so too when planning out this year's lessons. The ministry serves the kids in the neighborhood around my church. Our idea was based on Hebrews 11, where we have a list of men and women who lived by faith and were examples for us. We decided to talk about these men and women who lived by faith and throw in a few that didn't—let the kids discern the difference. It has made a difference in them and in us, their leaders.

This is a Biblical animation blog, so I'd like to add some artwork to the character studies. It's been refreshing to spend a few hours studying a person and turning it into a 15 minute lesson—immediate application. This is such a difference from the couple of years I usually spend studying one guy and the people around him (like Nebuchadnezzar). It's also quite beneficial, though it will definitely be less in depth.

When that ministry started up last fall, we began by talking about Adam. My plan is to share some of what I learned, what we talked about with the kids, the things that resonated with them, and add some artwork to it as well. Character sketches are the most obvious thing to add to character studies. Beyond that....we'll see what happens.

The most important part of each lesson with the kids is to point them toward Christ through that person's story. That's also the most important part of this blog.

So, Happy New Year! I hope this year is off to a great start for you. I hope it's even better by the end, and if this blog can be a part of that, well, then it'll be even better for me too.