Chronicles Family Guide
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IMMERSE The Bible Reading Experience™ CHRONICLES FAMILY GUIDE Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, grant, we pray, that we might be grounded and settled in your truth by the coming of your Holy Spirit into our hearts. What we do not know, reveal to us; what is lacking within us, make complete; that which we do know, confirm in us; and keep us blameless in your service, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Immerse: Chronicles Family Guide copyright © 2018 by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Features and Bible helps copyright © 2018 by the Institute for Bible Reading. All rights reserved. Cover design by Company Bell. Illustrations copyright © Rachael Van Dyke. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. TYNDALE, New Living Translation, NLT, and the New Living Translation logo are registered trademarks of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. The Reading Bible is a registered trademark of the Institute for Bible Reading. Immerse, Immerse the Reading Bible, and Immerse: The Bible Reading Experience are trademarks of the Institute for Bible Reading. FAMILY READING GUIDE 5 Scriptures they have read. (Talking Together is also useful for guiding your family discussions.) The readings in the family guide are intended primarily for children in grades 4 to 8. Older children may be better suited for reading the full text of Immerse: Chronicles. (These age suggestions are only provided as a guideline. You know what is most appropriate for your children.) Welcome to Sometimes the best way to get everyone on the same page is to read IMMERSE something together aloud. If your family enjoys reading aloud together The Bible Reading Experience on a regular basis, that may be the most natural way for you to use the family reading guide. For families that haven’t tried this, you may want to experiment with it by reading from this guide. Begin each daily reading with the introductory paragraph to give context, followed immediately by the daily Scripture passage. Then the Talking Together Leading a family is arguably one of the most challenging tasks a person feature can help you lead a family discussion. can undertake. And since families are the core unit in the church, their growth and development directly impacts the health of the communi- And don’t forget about the audio and video resources available at ties where they serve. The Immerse: Chronicles Family Reading Guide is ImmerseBible.com. These small group tools could be just what your a resource designed to assist parents, guardians, and other family lead- family needs to stay engaged in the Immerse experience. ers to guide their families in the transformative Immerse experience. Enjoy your journey into Scripture with your family. We hope and pray that this family resource will help you and your family to experience Planning Your Family Experience God’s Word together. This family guide is essentially an abridged version of Immerse: Chroni- cles. So it’s an excellent way for young readers in your family to partici- pate in the Immerse experience without becoming overwhelmed. The readings are shorter than the readings in Immerse: Chronicles and are always drawn from within a single day’s reading. This helps everyone in the family to stay together, whether reading from the family guide or the complete Chronicles volume. Each daily Bible reading in the family guide is introduced by a short paragraph to orient young readers to what they are about to read. This paragraph will also help to connect the individual daily Scripture pas- sages to the big story revealed in the whole Bible. (This is an excellent tool for helping you guide your family discussions.) The family guide readings end with a feature called Talking Together, created especially for young readers. These provide reflective state- ments and questions to help them think more deeply about the 4 FAMILY READING GUIDE 7 reached. God wants a people who worship him well so they can go out into the world to share his light and life. The Exile had caused a crisis in Israel’s story, leading many to ques- tion God’s own faithfulness to the covenant as well as their status as his chosen people. God’s vision for Israel and for the world could not DAY 1 be fulfilled as long as foreign powers controlled God’s people and their land. A New History of Israel These books at the end of the First Testament were written to re- (from Chronicles, pages A9-A10) mind the people of their true story and their ultimate hope. The issues raised will continue into the period between the First Testament and the New Testament. As the years go by and Israel’s struggles persist, This final part of the Immerse First Testament contains its three remain- the longing for God to keep his covenant promises will grow stronger ing books. This last collection focuses once again on telling stories. The and stronger. This is a story begging for its fitting conclusion. Hebrew expression translated as Chronicles means “words or events of the days.” That is, it’s a record of day-to-day events, much like a diary or journal. The stories in this volume are all “chronicles” that tell how the people of God lived out their faith after his covenants with Noah, We begin with the book of Chronicles–Ezra–Nehemiah. Israel’s previ- Abraham, Moses, and David were established. ously written history (from Genesis to Samuel–Kings) addressed the situation of Israel’s exile and answered the question: Why did the Exile First comes the book of Chronicles–Ezra–Nehemiah. This unique telling happen? Chronicles–Ezra–Nehemiah addresses the situation of the of Israel’s history is presented in most Bibles as four separate books, people after the Exile and answers the question: Who are we now? although it was originally a unified work. (Notice that the ending of 2 Chronicles overlaps with the beginning of Ezra.) This book of Chron- TALKING TOGETHER: icles–Ezra–Nehemiah emphasizes the importance of the true worship of God. The shorter books in this volume, Esther and Daniel, show It is striking that we often find the same events in the Bible told from God’s people facing extreme challenges in foreign lands. Whether in more than one angle or viewpoint. We’ll see this in the New Testa- their careful day-to-day observance of God’s Law or in their willingness ment where there are four presentations of the story of Jesus. Here we to suffer death through persecution, faithful and courageous men and are entering the second telling of Israel’s main history. Why would the Bible do this? What’s the advantage of hearing different perspectives women demonstrate an unfailing loyalty to God. on something? All three works presented here were written after the Jewish people were conquered by foreign empires and scattered among the other nations. These books tell stories that carry on the grand Story of God’s covenants into later centuries. It is important to read these final books of the First Testament with the overall development of the Bible’s story in mind. God created the world to be his temple, the place where he would dwell in fellowship with humanity. After sin entered the world, God chose Abraham and his family, the people of Israel, as those who would bring blessing and life back into the world. But most of the story so far has been about Israel’s struggle to live up to its divinely given vocation. God initiated covenants with humanity in order to move the story closer and closer to his intention for all of creation. But the goal has not been 6 8 IMMERSE • CHRONICLES FAMILY READING GUIDE 9 for during his lifetime the people of the world were divided into different language groups. His brother’s name was Joktan. DAY 2 Joktan was the ancestor of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Back to the Beginning Jobab. All these were descendants of Joktan. (from Chronicles, pages 3-5) So this is the family line descended from Shem: Arphaxad, Shelah, Eber, Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, Terah, and Abram, later known as This new telling of Israel’s history begins with an elaborate genealogy Abraham. (or list of ancestors) that goes all the way back to Adam and reveals the origins and development of the twelve tribes of Israel. Special attention is given to Judah (the tribe of King David) and Levi (the tribe of priests). The sons of Abraham were Isaac and Ishmael. These are their This genealogy helps the current generation see that they are linked to genealogical records: Israel’s most ancient people and stories. Thus, the lists begin the work The sons of Ishmael were Nebaioth (the oldest), Kedar, Adbeel, of reminding them of who they are. Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. These were the sons of Ishmael. Abraham was the father of Isaac. The sons of Isaac were Esau and Israel. The descendants of Adam were Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, and Noah. The sons of Noah were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The sons of Israel were Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, The descendants of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Dan, Joseph, Benjamin, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. Meshech, and Tiras. The descendants of Gomer were Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. The descendants of Javan were Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Rodanim.