Daniel and Esther

In 4th grade Bible class we spend the year digging deeper into the Old Testament. We review a lot of the stories that children grow up learning, but we go deeper into them and examine the time in history that they take place, the location, and how the stories and characters affect everyone around them. We spent a long time looking at the kings of Israel and Judah and just finished learning about the exile. Last week we learned about Daniel, a young man affected by the exile. My students spent three days in groups reading different stories from Daniel, researching about Babylon, and drawing pictures of the key items in the stories. One group had the story from Daniel 5 where King Belshazzar gives a banquet for a thousand of his nobles. During the meal a human hand appears and writes on the wall. Daniel is the only one that can interpret what it means. My students had never heard this particular story and were amazed that it was in the Bible. "Did that really happen? It sounds like a ghost story. How can a hand just appear out of nowhere?"

On Friday we started talking about Esther. My students had all heard this story as well, but they didn't know much of the background on it. They learned about the size of King Xerxes kingdom and the hatred that Haman had for Mordecai and the Jews. We learned about signet rings and scepters and the different roles people had in the palace. I read them the first part of the story from a Bible story book, and for the first time that day, they all sat perfectly quiet. They groaned when I put the book down to start math. I love that God's stories can captivate us, just like any good book can.

We are now down to two and a half weeks of school. Most schools in the States are out or are getting out this week. My students are ready to be done - but the fun isn't over yet!