I finally did it a few years ago:  I went to Amazon and began a wish list.  There isn’t much on it because I have very few wishes—at least ones that a human can do anything about.  And for most of our married life we have lived so closely that wishes for earthly things just made me discontent and unhappy so I avoided making them.  But every time I ordered something we needed from Amazon, there was that wish list icon in the top corner, so I gave in and made one.  I had to browse to come up with more than 2 things to put on it. I haven’t touched it since—and neither has anyone else.  In fact, I have completely forgotten what I put on it.  Must not have been too important, huh?
            I hear that some people have spiritual wish lists too.  Usually I find out when they come up to me and say, “I wish I had as much Bible knowledge as you do.”
            Let me set the record straight first.  I don’t have a passel of Bible knowledge in my hip pocket.  I have to look things up just like you do.  And, the knowledge I do have is courtesy of a husband whose knowledge is nearly encyclopedic and whose willingness to help is overflowing.  He is, in fact, the one who taught me how to study, so you could say that he is responsible for all of my so-called knowledge, both the answers he has given me and the things I have learned on my own.
            But about that knowledge you wish you had—why don’t you just do what I did and fulfill your own wish?  No one can do it for you anyway.  All it takes is time.  By that I mean hours at a time over a succession of years.  Do you really think I learned what I know in 2 weeks?  I have been working on this so long I have even had to unlearn a few things, because that’s the next step—growing in your knowledge as you hone your understanding of what you have learned.  It isn’t just a list of facts; it’s a compilation of concepts that weaves itself into a complex tapestry, and the more you learn the more clearly you will comprehend it.
            Don’t talk to me about “not having enough time.”  Nearly every one of us has changed our schedules to add something that was important to us.  You added children to your life.  That really changed your schedule.  You went back to school.  You started exercising.  You took on a new job.  When it mattered to you, you found the time.        
            I have learned this about wish lists—don’t put anything on them that you really need.  You may never get it when you are depending upon someone else.  Instead, buy yourself the present.  Buy this one—knowledge--with the same time and energy you spend on things that are not nearly as important. 
 
​Buy truth, and do not sell it; buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding. Prov 23:23
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…Hos 4:6.
 
Dene Ward

For probably the first ten years of my life we had a holiday ritual.  We spent every Christmas Eve with my daddy's parents and we had Christmas Dinner at my maternal grandmother's house with all her children, their spouses, and grandchildren.  Altogether there were about 20 of us in a small frame house, which might have been 800 square feet at most.  I still remember my grandmother's cornbread dressing which, despite her giving me her "recipe" of "this and that and a little more of the other if that looks like this," I have never been able to duplicate.  Like my mother I finally came up with my own and have stuck with it.  Then there was her banana pudding—vanilla wafers, very ripe bananas, a real egg custard, and meringue on top, usually still warm.
            The adults at this huge feast of a meal always sat in the dining room.  The babies still in high chairs sat next to the parents at the dining table.  The rest of us kids stood by as our mothers fixed us a plate and then set us up at "The Kids' Table," a small table in the kitchen.  Seems like we seldom talked much, and we certainly didn't play around much—both the table and the kitchen were too small for rambunctiousness if we wanted to stay out of trouble.  We usually sat there and listened to the grown-ups talking and laughing in the next room as we ate.  Sometimes we watched the backyard through the screen door right by the table, and always a cool December breeze blew in and chilled us and our food a little too quickly.  But a kitchen in Central Florida, even in December, needed an open door or a tiny house with twenty people in it would have been far too warm.  Some of the kids actually got up as soon as they could to go sit on the front porch and swing or play on the gray-painted planks, missing dessert entirely, but I have never skipped dessert in my life, if it was available.
            We moved away when I was nine and after a couple of years traveling the long road back from Tampa to Orlando, we began keeping our own holiday traditions and meal at our house.  Once in a while we returned for some special year, like the year Keith was introduced to the family.  By then, the kids' table had added the front porch as its adjunct for the teenagers.  Not many were still small enough for that tiny kitchen, and we could all fill our own plates.  We were responsible for what we ate, how much, and when.
            If you called the church a holiday celebration, who would be sitting in the dining room and who would be sitting at the Kids' Table?  Paul seemed to think the Corinthians might be in the kitchen or perhaps in the high chairs with the babies.  But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready (1Cor 3:1-2).  If you keep reading, their problems were jealousy, strife, and divisions which manifested themselves in a host of ways, as the remainder of the book shows. 
            But that isn't the only way we act like children.  …So that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes (Eph 4:14).  Once again if you read the surrounding verses you find issues with unity and love as well as their lack of a foundation in the Word, which is why those gifts were given—apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to provide them that foundation.
            And of course, the classic passage:  For when by reason of the time ye ought to be teachers, you have need again that someone teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of solid food. For every one that partakes of milk is without experience of the word of righteousness; for he is a baby (Heb 5:12-13).
            If I wanted to make just one application from these passages and the metaphor I began with, it might be this:  The children had to have their plates dipped out by their mothers.  They not only couldn't reach across the big dining table, they did not know how to put a balanced meal on their plates.  I remember thinking that Nannie's dressing and banana pudding would make one fine meal, thank you very much, but for some reason I also ended up with green beans and collard greens, too.  How are we doing at dishing up our spiritual plates?  Do we only eat what the elders' choose to dish out in the Bible classes of our assembly, picking at it like it was collard greens, or do we study on our own, making the time to dig deeply into the Word as if it really meant something to us?  Do we ever attend the extra studies offered, or even go to a more-studied brother and ask to study with him?  Do we have to be force-fed the Bread of Life?
           We kids always felt a little resentment at being at the Kids' Table, waiting very impatiently until we were grown-up enough to move to the porch at least, if not the dining table.  How about us?  Are we ready to grow up and move on, or are we perfectly happy being spoon-fed?
 
But solid food is for fullgrown men, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil (Heb 5:14).
 
Dene Ward

I just took my 88 year old mother grocery shopping.  In the past two or three years, her eyesight has gone downhill considerably.  She has to be careful when she picks up an item to make sure it is the right variety, especially as a type 2 diabetic.  “No sugar added” or “sugar free” are important to her. 

My eyes aren’t much, if any better, than hers.  But having shopped for her several times recently when she was ill, I had a much easier time of it.  I have been dealing with bad eyesight since I was born.  When you cannot see well, you adapt.  I learned a lot of tricks a long time ago.  I cannot see faces across a room, but I recognize walks; I memorize clothing colors; I know voices and laughs.  So after the first time I shopped for my mother I knew that her variety of yogurt had a little blue circle on it.  I didn’t need to turn the box upside down looking for the necessary phrase, nor try to read the fine print.  I didn’t even need to know that the little blue circle said “60 calories.”  The reason the calorie count is so low is that there is “no sugar added.”  I learned that the first time, when I did have to pick up the box, hold it close to my nose and scour the surface.  I learned that her favored fruit cups have a blue banner on them.  No blue banner and it’s the wrong fruit cup.  I do a lot of things like that.
 
A long time ago we did not have color coded road signs.  But once they came out, I was home free.  I picked up on the colors immediately.  Forty years ago we were in a strange town visiting a friend at a hospital.  We did not know exactly where the hospital was, but it was a small town so we figured we could find it.  As we crossed every intersection I looked one way down the cross street and Keith looked the other.  “There!” I said.  “Turn here.”
            Keith turned and seeing no hospital said, “How do you know?”
            “Because there’s a square blue sign down there.”
            “So?” he said.
            “Hospital signs are blue squares with a big H on them.” 
And sure enough, as we got closer, there was an H on that sign and two blocks later the hospital appeared on our right.  I could not read the sign, but I could see a blue square. 

Before long Keith picked up on the color coding too.  When we camp, we always look for brown, the telltale color of a state park sign.

Do you know why I can do those things?  Because it’s necessary to my functioning independently.  As long as I want to do for myself, regardless my decreasing vision, I pick up on these things and use them.  My various eye drops have different colored tops.  The individual vials that look almost the same, feel different in my hands.  That is very important because each eye requires different medications.  I could cause a lot of damage if I mixed things up. 

I started teaching myself these things before I could even read.  When I was 4 and there were a lot fewer car models, I recognized them by their taillights.  It used to tickle my Daddy to death when four-year-old me identified cars to startled friends and neighbors.  I learned those tricks and devices then and I just keep on doing it.  It’s habit, and it’s habit because it’s important.

Now don’t tell me you can’t learn Bible facts because you are “too old” or you’re “not smart enough.”  That is not the problem.  The problem is that it’s not important enough to you.  Didn’t you have to take a driving test?  How about tests at work to earn promotions?  When it becomes a necessity in your mind, you can do just fine.  You may have to learn a few mnemonic devices, but you can do it.  I am not good with numbers any longer, but I always remember what side of the page a verse is on, and once I remember the book I can browse through and find it.  I make up silly songs and sing them (silently) in my head.  I remember alphabetic tricks. 

And finally there is this:  if you read something enough times and study it deeply enough, not just once but again and again and again, you will eventually know it just like you know your own name, address, phone number, cell number, social security number, PIN number, and the dozen passwords you have to know to function in this technological world.  And I bet you know the addresses and most of the phone numbers you had before the ones you have now.  Why?  Because you had to know them all at one point in your life.  4916 Bristol Court, 8011 Pine Hill Drive, 125 W Walnut Street, Route 4 Oak Drive, Route 2 Box 790-B, Route 3 Box 1559—all of those used to be my addresses, the first one before I even started elementary school.

Don’t tell me you can’t learn the Bible.  Don’t tell me that so-and-so’s Bible class is too deep.  Don’t tell me you can’t remember the 12 sons of Jacob, the judges, the kings, the apostles, and all the books of the Bible.  If you can’t, it’s because you don’t want to badly enough.  It isn’t necessary for you to function in this life.  And that’s where the problem lies.  God and His Word do not constitute your life and your reason for being.  If they did, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.
​
With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you…In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word. Ps 119:10-11,14-16
 
Dene Ward

I can remember my daddy uttering those very words every time we pulled up to what was then called a “service station,” a glassed-in office with two service bays and usually two gas islands, sporting regular, premium and mid-grade pumps, the older models rounded on the top and the newer ones square-cornered and squat.  An attendant came out of one of the bays, summoned to us by the double-ding of the bell hoses we ran over with both front and rear tires, usually wiping his hands with a greasy blue rag, and did the honors while we sat in the car waiting.  He also checked the water in the radiator and battery, and cleaned the windshields.  When the pump kicked off, he carefully finished filling the tank and then bent his head to the open window to tell us the amount we owed.  If we paid cash, he brought back change.  If we used our gas company credit card, he took it and ran it, bringing back a dark blue clipboard with slip attached and a pen for a signature.
            The first drive-in gas station similar to that one, opened in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on December 1, 1913.  According to Smithsonian Magazine it sat on the corner of Baum Boulevard and St Clair Street.  Before that drivers pumped gas from curbside pumps beginning in 1905, or bought gasoline in cans from pharmacies and blacksmith shops.  This new full service station in Pittsburgh offered free air and water, and a few basic maintenance services for crankcases and tires.  This station was opened by the Gulf Refining Company, which would have made my daddy proud to know since he worked for that company most of his adult life.
            Back to the station I sat in as a child, we never left the car, never lifted a finger.  It was all done for us.  Maybe that’s why we seem to expect God to “fill ‘er up” without having to make any effort at all ourselves.  Maybe that’s what we’re thinking when we sit in our pews on Sunday morning—we’re expecting the teachers, song leaders, and preachers to “fill ‘her up.” 
            “I didn’t get anything out of services this morning,” we say, as if that were the only purpose to our being there, to allow others to wait on us just like an attendant at an old-fashioned service station; as if that were the only possible way to fill oneself up spiritually.
            Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled, Matt 5:6.  Do we really think that righteousness can be poured in like gasoline, that we can sit passively while it happens?
            John tells us, Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, 1 John 3:7.  Being filled with righteousness has far more to do with what I do anywhere else besides a church building than it does with listening to a sermon and expecting to walk away holy because of it.
            God also expects us to fill ourselves with knowledge.  Anyone who thinks that comes from osmosis on Sunday mornings as we doze in our pews or play with the babies in front of us had better not apply for a school teaching job any time soon. You won’t keep it long.
            Paul says, And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, Colossians 1:9-10.  Becoming knowledgeable takes work far above and beyond listening to a couple hours a week of sermons and Bible classes.  Making it stick means applying what you learn, “bearing fruit” as you put that knowledge into practice.
            But others have the problem of which tank to use.  They seem satisfied with “regular.”  Since my daddy worked for Gulf, we always went to Gulf stations.  “Regular” was called “Good Gulf” and premium was called “Gulftane,” a play on the fact that the octane was higher.  A soul created in the image of God requires nothing less than premium.
            I read a book once in which the writer was at a loss to know how to refill herself after giving so much to marriage, children, and society.  Her problem was thinking she could do it herself, with things that have no eternal existence and purpose.  She was trying to fill up on “regular.”   Christians know better.
            May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope, Romans 15:13.
            “Fill ‘er up,” we used to say to the gas attendant.  Far more important, we should say it to God, and then do our part as He fills us to the brim.  It’s the only way to keep your life from running on empty.
 
And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God, Philippians 1:9-11.
 
Dene Ward

I recently followed a link on Facebook to an excellent article on parenting.  I, and many others, commended the article, and I even passed it on myself.  The title to that article contained a figure of speech, actually two-in-one, both hyperbole and metonymy.  The hyperbole seemed to be the one that had a couple of people up in arms.  Notice, I said, just a couple.  Everyone else understood perfectly well what was being said. 
            And why would they understand those big hard to spell words, metonymy and hyperbole?  Because we all use both those figures every day.  You do not have to know what they are called to use them.  Just concentrate on hyperbole for a moment.  Have you ever said things like this?
            “You do that every time!”
            “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.”
            “It’s so hot out here I’m about to melt!”
            “I have a million things to do.”
            “If I can’t have those new shoes, I’m gonna die.”
            We know exactly what every one of those statements mean.  It is no mystery.  It’s not even difficult.  So why do we get all in a frenzy over using hyperboles when talking about spiritual things—especially when the Bible does it again and again?
            Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there. Deut 1:28
            Among all these were 700 chosen men who were left-handed; every one could sling a stone at a hair and not miss. Judg 20:16
            And the king made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stone, and he made cedar as plentiful as the sycamore of the Shephelah. 2Chr 1:15
            For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. Ps 50:10
            Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars and who was as strong as the oaks; I destroyed his fruit above and his roots beneath. Amos 2:9
            That’s just a tiny portion of the hyperboles used in the Old Testament, probably less than 1%, but what about the New?  Just this past Sunday, our preacher began his sermon with the statement, “Our Lord loved hyperboles.”  He then read portions of Matthew 18:1-22, where Jesus used one after the other after the other.  And these are not even the half by a mile (aha! a hyperbole!).  Here are some others:  “Let not your right hand know what your left hand doeth.”  “Go into your closet to pray.”  “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter Heaven.” Etc., etc., etc. 
            Even the common people used them and plainly understood them.  So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.” John 12:19
           Then we have Paul using hyperboles in his teaching. In Gal 5:12 about the Judaizers he said, “I wish they would go beyond circumcision,” certainly a hyperbole.
           And here is one the denomination world misuses all the time: Paul said, I thank God that I baptized none of you save Crispus and Gaius, 1 Cor 1:14.  Do we really think Paul was glad he did not baptize more people personally?  No!  The point was that because of what the Corinthians were doing with the matter of who baptized whom—making divisions in the church—he was just as happy that few could do that with his name.  He would certainly have baptized anyone who wanted to be baptized if he had not had so many helpers traveling with him to do it. 
          Paul used an exaggeration to make a point, just as his Savior did over and over and over.  And the prophets before him between Kings and Malachi.  And the writers of the histories, and the Law.  And the poets probably more than anyone.  I recently ran across a book called Figures of Speech in the Bible.  The hyperbole section included 86 “examples,” meaning just a small amount of the total.  There must be literally (not hyperbolically) thousands of hyperboles in the Bible.  And many of the men who used them are set forth for us as examples to follow.  Yet all my life I have seen people try to take them literally, as if God had no idea how to communicate with us in everyday language, and jump on preacher’s for using something “that might be misunderstood.”
          Why would they do that when they would turn right around and say to their children, “If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times…”?  Maybe we jump on these things as our excuse not to listen to something we would rather ignore.  That article did touch a few nerves.  But if we think we are well-versed in the scriptures, we need to be sure our objections do not make us appear otherwise.
 
Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Isa 5:21
 
Dene Ward

"That's too much work!"  "That's too hard!"
            I have heard both of those half a dozen times in nearly fifty years, and always in connection with either my or Keith's Bible classes.  Other teachers have told me that they have heard it, too.  It always refers to any Bible class that asks for a couple hours prep time with several chapters of reading and answering questions that are not easy multiple choice or true/false or simple one word answers.
            I understand that many of us are busy.  But I also understand that a Christian ought to be spending some time every day in study and prayer.  That should go without saying.  Maybe that's the first problem—it can't go without saying.
            If you read your Bible every day, which I hope you do, try letting that time be your prep time for class.  If nothing else, you can attend a class having read the scriptures that were assigned.  Then be prepared to take copious notes when you get there, rather than just sitting there while the information floats in one ear and out the other.  Go home and spend the next day's Bible reading time going over your notes and rereading the scriptures to see if they make more sense now.  That will also help cement them into your mind. 
            But if you can't do that because you aren't spending time in prayers and study every day, you have some serious thinking to do about where you stand with God.  Some priorities need rearranging because when you call Jesus "Lord," you are telling him that you will dedicate your whole life to him, not just Sunday mornings.  When you claim to be a child of God, you are telling Him that you love Him as much as any child would love a Father.  How does refusing to attend or study for a Bible class in order to receive His communication with us fit with that?  How much trouble was it for God to put on mortality and experience, for the first time in Eternity, discomfort, pain, hunger, exhaustion, and even such minor indignities as heartburn and indigestion?  How hard was it for him to bear being mocked, ridiculed, spat on, and flogged to within an inch of his life?  And how difficult was it for him to suffocate over several hours' time on a cross with what amounted to railroad spikes pounded into his ankles and wrists?    Nothing should be too hard or too much trouble for us in our service to God and Christ. 
            I would hope that I will never hear that statement again.  Unfortunately, since I wrote this a few weeks ago, I already have.
 
…Who has given {God} so much that He needs to pay it back? For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! (Rom 11:35-36).
 
Dene Ward

Bible study is one of my favorite pastimes.  We are blessed to live in an era when all sorts of tools are available that make research fairly easy, and much less tedious than ever before.  They also make it much more dangerous.  It is easy for me to read a commentary, lexicon, or Bible dictionary and suddenly think I have become a great scholar, when the truth is, not only am I not instantly a Hebrew or Greek scholar, I am not even a good English scholar!
            Some of us studied Latin in high school and learned why it is called a “dead” language—it is no longer spoken and therefore no longer changes.  A living language changes every day.  Take the word “silly.”  We know it means “absurd, foolish or stupid.”  Did you know that it originally meant “happy and blessed?”  How about “lewd?”  It now means “sexually unchaste;” originally it meant “a common person as opposed to clergy.”  “Idiot” now has the specific meaning of “someone whose mental age does not exceed three,” and a colloquial meaning of “a foolish or stupid person.”  Originally it meant “someone in private station as opposed to someone holding public office.”  So five hundred years ago, most of us could have been described as silly, lewd idiots and we would not have taken offense!
            The same changes are true of every language, including Greek and Hebrew.  When you search for meanings in a lexicon, be sure you find out what meaning the word had when it was written in the scriptures.  In fact, that is why I usually limit my studies to the various ways a word was translated into English.  Psallo once meant “to pull out one’s hair,” but by the time Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 were written it had gone through several changes and simply meant “to sing praises.”  That is why we sing to God instead of standing before Him pulling out our hair!
            Another thing to be careful of is root words.  A lot of arguments have been made based on the root of a Greek word.  Let me just give you a quick example in English to show you how dangerous this can be.  Do you know what the root word for “nice” is?  The Latin nescius.  Nescius means “ignorant!”  Think about that the next time someone tells you how nice you look on Sunday morning.
            We do all sorts of other things that we think are so smart and really are not.  We talk about compound words as if just knowing the two parts to one will instantly enlighten us to the real meaning of a Greek word.  Not necessarily.  How about “pineapple?”  The bush certainly does not look like a pine, and the fruit neither looks, tastes, nor smells like an apple!  Truly, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.
            Then there are those simplistic definitions we often use.  “Faithful means full of faith.”  Really?  Ask someone whose spouse has been “unfaithful” what that word means and you are much more likely to get an accurate and useful definition.
            And what does all this have to do with anything?  God chose to use His written word to communicate His will to us.  I need to be very careful how I use it.  Translations are fine.  Jesus used one—the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, completed about 200 BC.  However, I must be careful in my study lest I think that learning a few things makes me an authority.  I know it is a cliché, but it is so true—the more I learn, the more I realize I do not know.  But God has made sure I know what I need to know.
            We have in our hands the Words of Life.  Be careful with them. 
 
…many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.  Jesus said therefore unto the twelve, Would you also go away?  Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  John 6:66-68
 
Dene Ward

It's been a couple of years since I shared the Life of David game with you, a board game I made up and used with my children, my young Bible students, and now my grandsons.  That's not the only one I made.  This past spring my grandsons had their first time playing the Major Prophets game.
            First, let me explain this:  this is not about the five books we call the Major Prophets, Isaiah through Daniel.  This is a game about the four major literary prophets—Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel—and three of the major nonliterary prophets—Nathan, Elijah, and Elisha.
            Second, this is not a wind around the trail start to finish game.  This one is built along the lines of Monopoly, a repetitive rectangle with squares all around the perimeter.  You play for a certain amount of time or until someone reaches a certain point total, however you wish to do it.  My grandsons and I play for a half hour, after which the one with the most points wins.  And, when we hit the half hour mark, we finish a round so that each person has the same number of turns.  Each square around the board contains one prophet's name or a place that is important in one of their lives, scattered at intervals.  Only the names are repeated here and there; the places are not.
            Third, unlike the David game, you do not have to know much to start playing.  You learn as you play, as long as you keep control and don't let them try to rush from one person's turn to another's.  You have to explain the stories as they come up, and the children must listen as you go, so YOU need to know your prophets' lives even if they do not.
            In the center of the board are places to put stacks of card (each the size of one-third of an index card) for each of the prophets.  On these cards are events in the prophets' lives or events they prophesied.  For example, in the stack of Nathan cards you will find, "Go to Jerusalem.  Tell David the story of the ewe lamb, 10 points," and when a child draws that card it is up to you to tell that story.  Or you might find in the Elisha stack, "Go to Shunem.  A wealthy woman there has built a room onto her house for you to stay in when you travel through.  10 points."  Or you might find in the Jeremiah stack, "Go to Jerusalem.  King Jehoiakim burns your book.  Lose 10 points."  Each time you tell a story or explain an event, go over pertinent details carefully, and repeat them at least once.
            Also in the center of the board is a stack of questions.  If they have listened carefully to all the cards, which they will eventually hear again and again, they will be able to answer them when they land on a "?" square, several of which are also scattered around the perimeter of the board.
            And finally, you will find in the middle of the board the really bad places they might have to go should they pick up that particular card:  the Lion's Den, the Miry Pit, Prison, and the Cave of Mt Horeb.  At any time you might draw a card from the Daniel or Jeremiah or Elijah stacks and be sent to one of those places.  The only way to get out is to answer a question correctly.  Instead of rolling, they will choose one from the question stack.  If they get the right answer, then they come out one square (three squares lead out from each place), receive the points on the card, and the next turn they roll as usual, finding their way back to the outside perimeter trail.
            Just as with the David game, this is not rocket science.  And it must be painfully obvious that I am not any kind of artist at all, but it has never bothered any of the children who played these games.  You can do this yourself.  This one does require more work for you than the David game did.  Not only do you have to know your prophets, but then you have to make the cards for each prophet and the question cards, besides drawing the board itself.  Click on the gallery in the left sidebar to see what it looks like, but you can use and adapt  this idea for any number of things you wish to teach your children or your Bible class.  You will have also taught them that Bible study can be fun and interesting as well. 
 
I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him (Deut 18:18).
 
You can find the article on the David game in the book Two Little Boys or the July 2018 archives at July 12.  Also a picture in the gallery at left.

Dene Ward