The Brick Testament

4 April 2011

I was looking for pictures of the Jordan River the other day, in preparation for our Bible lesson on the Israelites crossing the Jordon into the Promised Land.  And this is what I came up with.

Turns out there's a whole site dedicated to "acting" out the Bible in pictures, through lego people!  The creator poses them, takes a pic, then moves on to the next scene. 
I ended up showing this story to my kids, and they LOVED it. 

Joshua 3:7-8
Yahweh said to Joshua, 'Instruct the priests carrying the ark of the covenant '"When you reach the edge of the Jordan, wade in the waters of the river."'

Joshua 3:9,13
Joshua told the Israelites, 'When the feet of the priests carrying the ark of Yahweh touch the water of the Jordan, waters flowing downstream will stop flowing and pile up.'

 Joshua 3:10
'This is how you will know the living God is with you and that he will truly drive out before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites.'

Joshua 3:14
So when the people left their tents to cross the Jordan, the priests carried the ark of the covenant ahead of them.

Joshua 3:15-16
As soon as the feet of the priests carrying the ark of the covenant touched the water, the water coming downstream toward them stopped.

Joshua 3:16
And so the people crossed the Jordan opposite Jericho.

Joshua 4:17
Then Joshua commanded the priests, 'Come up out of the Jordan.'

Joshua 4:18
As soon as the priests carrying the ark of the covenant of Yahweh set foot on dry land, the water of the Jordan flowed over its banks again.

Cool, huh?!

As I explored the site more, I realized I needed to send out a warning to parents for all the kids who were rushing home to check out the site.  I already knew that many Bible stories weren't exactly kid-proof or kid-friendly... but was kind of hoping they would spare some of the details in the stories on this website.  Turns out, they didn't.  (Let's just say they act out certain scenes *very* explicitly...) :(


So, it seems there's good news and bad news.  The cool thing is that this site definitely gets people's attention.  The bummer is the lack of restrictiveness in what to show... and, as I discovered later, that the guy isn't actually a believer.  Which in one sense is really cool that he's engaging with the Bible so much, but on the other hand, it makes me look again at the material that is shown for possible inconsistencies.  If you're interested, there's another (much more critical) review of the page here.  Anyway, if you want to check out more, click here... but be sure to check out the story first before showing your kids! :D