Preface

The Purpose of Studying the Old Testament

As a teacher in the Church Educational System, you should have as one of your objectives to help your students develop greater faith in Christ. When Jesus said to the Jews, “Search the scriptures; for … they … testify of me” (John 5:39), he referred to the books of the Old Testament, the scriptures at the time. They do indeed testify of Christ and of the path to eternal life, which he has made available to all. Similarly, Paul spoke of the Old Testament when he observed to Timothy that from his youth Timothy had learned the scriptures, which were “able to make [him] wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15). One of the purposes that guided the writers of the Old Testament should guide you and every other teacher in the Lord’s kingdom: to help people develop faith in Christ, for “salvation can come unto the children of men, only in and through the name of Christ” (Mosiah 3:17).

Too few people understand that the Old Testament scriptures testify of Christ and his work and mission, by which we are enabled to return to the Father. Your responsibility and opportunity in teaching this course is to help students appreciate the great value of the Old Testament in developing faith in the Master. The prophet Jacob taught that “none of the prophets have written, nor prophesied, save they have spoken concerning this Christ” (Jacob 7:11). Jesus Christ is Jehovah. As your students learn to know Jehovah through the message of the Old Testament, they will love him more and draw nearer to him and thus to our Father in Heaven. They will see that the God of the Old Testament, who created the earth under the direction of the Father, covenanted with Abraham, gave the law to Moses, and loved and led his people, was the premortal Christ. Students must learn that his work is “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). His purpose is the same in all ages. Christ taught: “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3). Your challenge is to help students learn to use the Old Testament as an aid in the quest for eternal life.

Philosophy of Teaching

One who teaches God’s word is engaged in a sacred work that has eternal consequences. President David 0. McKay said: “True education—the education for which the Church stands—is the application of knowledge to the development of a noble and godlike character” (Improvement Era, Feb. 1970, p. 84).

Teaching with eternal perspective is far more than imparting knowledge; it is inspiring students to apply eternal principles. “Be ye doers of the word,” James admonished, “and not hearers only” (James 1:22). The teacher who inspires has truly taught.

How do you inspire change? Can you do it if you yourself are not inspired? From what source does inspiration come? It comes from the Lord himself through the Holy Ghost. The teacher who is in tune with heaven is best able to inspire the quest in others. “A religious teacher assumes the responsibility of leading the youth into the realms of spirituality. … Leading youth to know God, to have faith in his laws, to have confidence in his fatherhood, and to find solace and peace in his love—this is the great privilege, the most sublime opportunity offered the true educator.” (David O. McKay, Gospel Ideals, pp. 435–36).

No two students are ever the same. The needs, experiences, maturity, and responses of each student may differ. Your challenge is to meet each student at his own level. For this reason, no centrally prepared outline can or should dictate the content of a given lesson. Only you, the teacher, having been inspired of the Lord through the Holy Ghost, can determine that. Therefore, this manual is to help you prepare lessons, not to dictate them to you.

Three important assumptions have guided the preparation of this instructor’s guide. First, you, the teacher, will know best your own students’ needs; second, you will “treasure up in your minds continually the words of life” (D&C 84:85); and third, you will teach as the Holy Ghost directs.

The wise teacher will strive to know the spiritual strengths and weaknesses of his students and will teach in a way that helps his students grow in the gospel. He will use as his pattern the Savior’s teaching of the Nephites. He perceived the condition of the people and drew from his abundant store to give them what they needed most (see 3 Nephi 17).

The effective teacher knows the scriptures. He can therefore draw from them what would help his students most. President Joseph Fielding Smith said: “Treasuring up his word is far more than merely reading it. To treasure it one must not only read and study, but seek in humility and obedience to do the commandments given, and gain the inspiration which the Holy Spirit will impart.” (Doctrines of Salvation, 1:305.)

Having properly prepared, the teacher can communicate with power to his students. How often have you heard a student say, “I had a problem when I came to class today. But now I think I know how to handle it. Something you said was in answer to my prayers.” The imparting of special inspiration in answer to individual need is a function of the Holy Ghost.

In the Foolishness of Teaching, an address to Church Educational System personnel delivered 18 September 1981, Elder Bruce R. McConkie gave the following commission to teachers:

We are commanded to teach the principles of the gospel” (p. 4).
We are to teach the principles of the gospel as they are found in the standard works” (p. 6).
We are to teach by the power of the Holy Ghost” (p. 7).
We are to apply the gospel principles taught to the needs and circumstances of our hearers” (p. 10).

Texts for Religion 301 and 302

The text for Religion 301 and 302 is the Old Testament. Students should have their own copies of it and the other standard works. A student manual and an instructor’s guide have been prepared as resource tools. The student manual is for both you and the student to use as an aid in scripture study; the instructor’s guide is for your use.

Certain books, called the basic library, are also available for your use. They contain valuable statements and insights from the modern prophets. The following abbreviations designate books in the basic library:

AF	James E. Talmage, Articles of Faith.
CR	Conference Reports of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1970 to the present. (Only talks by the First Presidency, the Council of the Twelve, and the Patriarch to the Church are included in Conference Report in languages other than English.)
DBY	Brigham Young, Discourses of Brigham Young, compiled by John A. Widtsoe.
DS	Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, compiled by Bruce R. McConkie, 3 volumes.
GD	Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine.
JC	James E. Talmage, Jesus the Christ.
MF	Spencer W. Kimball, The Miracle of Forgiveness.
TPJS	Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, compiled by Joseph Fielding Smith.

Other sources use shortened references. The Bibliography supplies full publication facts of all sources used.

Suggestions for Using This Instructor’s Guide

This guide, unlike past instructor’s guides, does not give a theme for each lesson. Many valuable themes and concepts could be taught in each lesson. It is your responsibility as a teacher to obtain inspiration and to teach the message that will best help your students understand the Old Testament and apply its principles in their lives.

Because the Old Testament contains so much material, you will not be able to cover all its contents with your class. The instructor’s guide leaves the responsibility upon you to select the concepts and principles that should be emphasized. Some suggestions for presentation are given, but they are given solely as suggestions, which you can use if you desire. If you have difficulty in selecting concepts to emphasize, use the titles of the student manual chapters and the suggestions for presentation in the instructor’s guide to help you choose. You should always watch for the emphasis given by the Lord in the scriptures themselves.

Several important themes recur throughout the Old Testament—for example, the scattering and gathering of Israel, the keeping of covenants, blessings for righteousness and cursings for disobedience, the Lord’s mercy, marriage in the covenant, the restoration of the Lord’s covenant people, and the establishment of Zion. Some recommendations have been made to indicate where several of these could be emphasized, but you should select the place in the course that each concept can best be emphasized for your students.

Format of This Instructor’s Guide

Each lesson in the instructor’s guide is printed on both sides of one sheet. The first part provides an outline of the content of the material to be covered by the teacher and some supplementary resources. The second part provides suggestions for presentation.

Scripture heading. This heading identifies the part of the Old Testament scripture from which your lesson is to be taken. You should study the scriptures first. Your responsibility is to teach this material in its historical setting and to help students to apply in their lives the principles contained in the chapters. You will not have time to teach all that is covered in each scripture heading, but you must center your lesson on concepts from that block of scripture. All other material in the outline is secondary and supplements the scripture identified in the heading.

Scripture content outline. This outline helps you readily identify the major themes and concepts in the scripture from which the lesson is taken. Since you will not usually have time to teach all the material outlined here, you should select and teach the portions of this outline that you feel will best meet the needs of your students.

Supplementary study sources. Each list of sources supplements the corresponding division of the scripture content outline. The study sources are of four kinds: First, references to the student manual, identified by reading block numbers (references cited in the student manual will not be duplicated here); second, other scriptures that relate directly to the scriptures in the content outline; third, basic library sources (doctrinal sources, including the teachings and writings of some of the Presidents of the Church); fourth, additional sources that, if they are available, could further enrich your presentation.

Some suggestions for presentation. These suggestions provide you with ideas that may be useful in preparing and presenting your lesson. The part of the scripture content outline that each suggestion is designed to help you teach is identified in parentheses. To prepare lessons that fit the needs of your students, select one or more of the suggestions for each lesson, or develop methods of your own. Remember, however, that your charge is to faithfully teach the Old Testament.

Suggestions for Lesson Preparation

The following procedure is recommended in preparing each lesson:

Read the scriptures identified in the scripture heading.
Read the chapter in the student manual associated with the lesson.
Review the scripture content outline.
Determine an objective for the lesson, based on the parts of the scriptures that you feel should be emphasized to your students.
Read the suggestions for presentation for ideas for teaching that material.
Study the supplementary sources associated with the material you plan to teach.
Develop your own outline to guide you in teaching the scriptural concepts you have chosen to emphasize.

Overhead Transparencies

A set of overhead transparencies is available for use with some of the lessons as is indicated in the respective suggestions for presentation. This set of transparencies must be ordered from the Salt Lake City Distribution Center (stock number PMSI0982).

Instructor’s Guide and Student Manual

There are separate student manuals for the Old Testament courses: the Religion 301 student manual covers Genesis through 2 Samuel and Psalms, and the Religion 302 student manual covers 1 Kings through Malachi. The instructor’s guide, however, is to be used for both Old Testament courses. It contains fifty-five lessons, twenty-eight lessons for Religion 301 and twenty-seven lessons for Religion 302.

Adapting the Student Manual for Semester, Quarter, or Yearly Programs

Although most students in the Church Educational System are on a semester schedule, many are on a quarter system and others participate in yearly-study programs.

The average semester provides approximately twenty-eight classroom periods of instruction. The average quarter provides eighteen. Yearly-study classes, which usually meet only once per week for about eight months, give students twenty-eight to thirty class meetings.

The following schedule could be used to guide your teaching the full course:

In a semester system, the first semester would cover lessons 1–28; the second semester, lessons 29–55.
In a quarter system, the first quarter would cover lessons 1–18; the second quarter, lessons 19–37; the third quarter, lessons 38–55.
The yearly-study program would follow, approximately, the timetable of the semester system and cover two lessons per class meeting.

Adapt the lessons to your own time requirements, perhaps expanding some lessons into two or more presentations or combining two or more lessons into one presentation.