This is the essay for the 1st week of the 9th Grade Tom Woods Homeschool. It’s A Summary of the Hebrew History from Abraham to Moses.

Abraham

Abraham had a divine promise from God that he had to travel from Mesopotamia to Canaan. In canaan, he would become the father of a great empire. So, he travels west and he arrived in Canaan. Back then it was believed that the biggest sacrifice to god was blood and the persons most valuable thing. In this case, Abrahams dearest thing was his son Isaac. He was about to sacrifice Isaac to god when God intervened and told Abraham that he didn’t have to sacrifice his son. Instead, Abraham sacrificed a ram to god.

When Isaac had become the right age, Abraham went looking for a good wife for Isaac. The wife couldn’t have been a Canaanite because she wouldn’t worship the true God. So Abraham went all the way back to Mesopotamia, found a suitable wife for Isaac, Rebekah. Then they traveled back to Canaan. Then Isaac and Rebekah marry, and Abraham dies.

Isaac, Jacob, and Esau

Isaac spent a pretty normal life. He had 2 children. Jacob and Esau. Esau was the older one. Jacob was jealous about this because Jacob had all the privileges for being the older son. First Jacob tricks Esau in giving him his birthright. When Isaac is about to give Esau a blessing, with the support of his mother, Jacob, deceives his father, and Isaac accidentally gives the blessing to Jacob instead. Esau is furious about this and plans on killing Jacob. Jacob has to flee from his home. While he is traveling Jacob sees a dream where God renews the promise he made to Abraham.

Eventually, Jacob reaches his uncle, Lahan. His uncle has two daughters, Leah and Rachel. Jacob makes a deal with Lahan, that if he works for him for 7 years he can marry Rachel. After this work and after the marriage ceremony it turns out that Jacob was tricked into marrying Leah, so he works another 7 years and then he marries Rachel. He finally decides to return to Esau and they are able to forgive each other. After this moment Jacob is called Isreal. He now has 12 sons. 10 from Leah and 2 from Rachel. Jacob spoils, Joseph a lot, which was his first child from Rachel. The other children know this and eventually, they get so annoyed at this and they sell Joseph to slavery.

Joseph

Joseph was sold to the pharaoh’s guard. He becomes a trusted servant but is thrown into jail for a false accusation on him. In jail he gains the ability, to be able to interpret the meaning of other people’s dreams. This makes him come to the attention of the pharaoh, who has had several cryptic dreams that he wants to know the meaning of. Joseph tells the Pharaoh that there is going to come to a great famine. So the Pharaoh makes a big stockpile of food and during the famine, Joseph’s family and other Hebrews come to Egypt for food. When Joseph and the Pharaoh that was Joseph’s friend, the next pharaoh enslaved the Hebrews. He orders all of the Hebrew boys to be killed.

Moses

One of the babies is cast on a river and the pharaoh’s daughter picks him up and brings him into the pharaoh’s household. This baby was Moses. He grew up in the pharaoh’s palace and would visit the Hebrews frequently. One day he sees an Egyptian overseer beating a Hebrew slave, Moses gets angry and kills the Egyptian overseer. For this, Moses has to leave the city and for some time he becomes a shepherd. During this time he saw a burning bush, that was not consumed by the flames. This signaled him to return to Egypt and free the Hebrews. The pharaoh wouldn’t agree though and instead, he increases the work the Hebrews have to do. God punishes this and brings on a big plaque, which makes the pharaoh release the Hebrews. This is the exodus. Moses crosses the red sea with the Hebrews, by praying for god and god in return, opens a passage through the water. Then Moses and the Hebrews travel for several days and eventually they reach Mt. Sinai, which Moses climbs. He comes down with the ten commandments when he sees the people worshiping a golden calf. He is furious and throws down the ten commandments, breaking them. The ten commandments are eventually rewritten and are put inside the ark of the covenant.