This page is for the adults in the room, and as such, has no lesson plans. Each "play" can be performed by two people sitting on a bench, script in hand. The "Teacher's Wink" provides the scripture and context for a moderator to lead a guided discussion about the topic.
As a side note, the "Chief" can be played by a man or a woman--if it's a woman, the running joke is that she won the name in a poker game, should the subject ever come up.
And yes, some of the viewpoints in these lessons can be a little controversial, the whole point is to get God's messages across, and we believe that good, honest conversations can help bring light to those darker corners of the stories that most of us gloss over because they might make us feel uncomfortable...This is how we learn.
Let's talk a little about Noah, shall we? He builds an ark, rescues the human race and the animals, builds a vineyard, and then one night, is out back in his tent, or shed, and enjoying a little too much wine. We won't hold that against him. What was not fair, however, was for his two sons to go barging in and interrupting him and then carrying him inside the house, where Scripture records curses, and for thousands of years, this chapter has caused an unlimited amount of hatred and animosity between races...All we are asking, is have we interpreted everything properly? We are NOT questioning the Scripture, only what we have historically taken from it.
Job 3:25
The actual text reads: "For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me." (KJV).....Centuries later, Paul wrote to Timothy from prison, 2 Timothy 1:7. KJV reads: "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." In other words, Job had left the door open for Satan to test him. We're all glad that Job passed the test and was twice blessed as a result, but he may have suffered a lot less hardship and loss if he had simply trusted and given thanks, not prayed out of fear of loss...We believe that is a discussion worth having.
There is one final detail the Bible does not linger on regarding Leah, but perhaps should. Rachel — the beloved, the one Jacob wept for, the one he worked fourteen years to earn — died young on the road to Bethlehem, in labor with Benjamin, and was buried there by the highway where she fell. Jacob kept moving. Leah was the unloved one, but her duty, faithfully kept, turns out to be worthy of the same dignity that love receives, and her final resting spot was alongside Jacob in his tomb.
The Hebrew verb in Genesis 19:26 — translated "she became" — is "hayah," the same root word used in Genesis 1:2 when the earth "was" without form and void. Same verb. Different form, different context, but the same fundamental Hebrew word for states of being: to be, to become, to exist as. The significance is that hayah is not a passive verb of punishment. It is a verb of transformation into a new state of existence. The earth became formless. She became salt. It is the same word the text uses when things come into being. The grammar does not say she was struck down, destroyed, or sentenced. It says she was transformed — the same way the raw earth was transformed at creation. She didn't cease. She became...The little illustration for this one is a saffron in bloom...
Deborah stands alone in the Old Testament as the only figure to hold three roles simultaneously — prophet, judge, and military commander. She is not called to any of them dramatically. The text in Judges 4 introduces her the way you might introduce a fact of nature: she was leading Israel at that time, under a palm tree, and people came to her. No burning bush. No angel. No three chapters of arguing with God about being unqualified. Just a woman doing the work, and all of Israel knowing where to find her.