When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why do you just keep looking at each other?”

• Genesis 4:10-17

“‘If anyone sins because they do not speak up when they hear a public charge to testify regarding something they have seen or learned about, they will be held responsible.

• Leviticus 5:1

When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there.

• Deuteronomy 18:9

Assemble the people—men, women and children, and the foreigners residing in your towns—so they can listen and learn to fear the Lord your God and follow carefully all the words of this law.

• Deuteronomy 31:12

Then they said to him, “Please inquire of God to learn whether our journey will be successful.”

• Judges 18:5

So I summoned Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jarib, Elnathan, Nathan, Zechariah and Meshullam, who were leaders, and Joiarib and Elnathan, who were men of learning,

• Ezra 8:16

As I wrote last week, I have been in an instructional mode lately.  I am following the quiz on the word “teach” with a quiz on the word “learn.”  Last week, I pointed out that there are over three times the number of references to teach as there are for learn.  Does that mean we need to be repetitious?  Repetition helps in retaining what we learn.

The questions are in Biblical order, but not necessarily in a chronological order.  All questions come from the Old Testament.

The Questions:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	The man prayed and then he spotted a woman.  He watched her closely to learn if his mission was successful.  What mission and who was the woman?
2	Who learned that marrying Canaanite women was disliked by his father when his brother stole his blessing? Bonus: What did he do as a result?
3	When Moses died, he was the second person to be grieved over for thirty days by the Israelites after being freed from slavery.  Who was the one before him?
4	Moses reminded the people to remember what they learned when they stood before the Lord at Mt. Horeb.  They were to pass this down to their children.  What did they learn?
5	David was being chased by Saul.  He went to the king of Moab to ask a favor, at least until David heard from God as to what to do.  What was the favor?  And bonus: What did the prophet Gad tell David to do before inquiring of God?
6	At Horesh in the desert of Ziph, what did David learn, but then Jonathan came to Horesh to tell David that no matter what his father intended, David would become king?
7	Adonijah declared himself king, making sacrifices on the altar.  Who approached David while the king was being attended by Abishag, saying all Israel wants to know who will follow David as king of Israel?
8	When Rehoboam was defeated by Shishak of Egypt, the king and his men humbled themselves, but God allowed Shishak to rule over them for a while.  What was Rehoboam supposed to learn?
9	When Haman learned something, he changed his plans of killing Mordecai.  What did Haman learn and what put Haman’s plans on a “grander” scale?
10	Psalm 119 mentions the word learn(ed) four times.  Each time the psalmist uses a different term for the things God wants us to obey.  Name at least two of the four.

In classical industrial training, we have what is called “Learning Objectives.”  It should never be a mystery.  It should be stated in their textbook, “By the end of this course of instruction, you will be able to: …”

That provides a measurable goal.  The instructor knows what the goal is.  The trainee knows what is expected.  And the measurement of that learning objective is proof that the trainee has obtained that skill or knowledge.  I have even attended courses where the overall objective is “corrected to 100%.”  That means that there is a pass/fail to the test, but if you pass, you must recognize what you got wrong and change that answer on your test paper.  That results in you theoretically leaving the class with all misconceptions erased from the mind.

Not all tests are valid.  Learning retention is like an old farm boy that attended a nuclear physics class that I taught.  Note: He was a good mechanic, and he could take a pump apart and put it back together with his eyes closed.  But he was a farm boy at home and in his heart.

He told me when he arrived in class to take is final exam.  “Teacher, give me the test quick.  I been studying all night.  I got it all packed in there, but it’s a steady leaking out.”

The farm boy understood the problem.  When you know the test is coming, you can cram for it, but do you retain it long term?

A good industrial training program has a secondary evaluation by offering another test a few months later, a pop quiz of sorts, just to see if people retained what they had “learned.”

Bible References:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	The man prayed and then he spotted a woman.  He watched her closely to learn if his mission was successful.  What mission and who was the woman?	Genesis 24:21
2	Who learned that marrying Canaanite women was disliked by his father when his brother stole his blessing? Bonus: What did he do as a result?	Genesis 28:6-8
3	When Moses died, he was the second person to be grieved over for thirty days by the Israelites after being freed from slavery.  Who was the one before him?	Numbers 20:29
4	Moses reminded the people to remember what they learned when they stood before the Lord at Mt. Horeb.  They were to pass this down to their children.  What did they learn?	Deuteronomy 4:10
5	David was being chased by Saul.  He went to the king of Moab to ask a favor, at least until David heard from God as to what to do.  What was the favor?  And bonus: What did the prophet Gad tell David to do before inquiring of God?	1 Samuel 22:3-5
6	At Horesh in the desert of Ziph, what did David learn, but then Jonathan came to Horesh to tell David that no matter what his father intended, David would become king?	1 Samuel 23:15
7	Adonijah declared himself king, making sacrifices on the altar.  Who approached David while the king was being attended by Abishag, saying all Israel wants to know who will follow David as king of Israel?	1 Kings 1:20
8	When Rehoboam was defeated by Shishak of Egypt, the king and his men humbled themselves, but God allowed Shishak to rule over them for a while.  What was Rehoboam supposed to learn?	2 Chronicles 12:8
9	When Haman learned something, he changed his plans of killing Mordecai.  What did Haman learn and what put Haman’s plans on a “grander” scale?	Esther 3:6
10	Psalm 119 mentions the word learn(ed) four times.  Each time the psalmist uses a different term for the things God wants us to obey.  Name at least two of the four.	Psalm 119:7, 71, 73, 152

My son was a music teacher.  He mostly taught elementary music, but he has been a middle school and high school band director.

While above, I discussed learning objectives, in formal education in the USA, they have teaching objectives.

This statement describes what you plan to impart during a certain timeframe.

You never tell the children what you are going to teach them.  And it is up to them to learn what you intended to teach, whether they understood what that intention was or not.

As a music teacher, there was a clear standard.  In math, there is objective rules that are measurable.

But in History, it starts to get muddy.  I only took two semesters of military history in college.  I learned from friends who took college history that the only thing they tested was your ability to apply dates to major events in history.  I can see the logic, but you must take it a step further for the logic to take hold.  When you understand the government, attitude of the people, education level, what type of economy there was, etc.  Then the date leads to that socioeconomic structure that explains why some of those major events happened.  Memorizing dates in a vacuum teaches nothing that really makes sense.

In studying military history, we were really studying how strategy and tactics played a part in the outcome of the battles.  For example, the Roman legions were extremely powerful and could resist any frontal attacks, but they were weak when they were outflanked from the side.  Thus, strategy and tactics changed to defeat such a foe.  And once defeated, the Romans had to change the way they did things.  And amazingly, I could not tell you a single date regarding those Roman legions.

My point is that the schools in the USA set themselves up for failure in that the students have no idea what the objectives are, and the teacher’s only measure in completing the objective is that the material was mentioned in class.  Whether the student learning it or not is the student’s problem.  But society suffers as a result.

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The Answers:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	The man prayed and then he spotted a woman.  He watched her closely to learn if his mission was successful.  What mission and who was the woman?	Genesis 24:21	Mission: Find a bride for Isaac. Who was the woman: Rebekah
2	Who learned that marrying Canaanite women was disliked by his father when his brother stole his blessing? Bonus: What did he do as a result?	Genesis 28:6-8	Esau – and although he had married more than one Canaanite woman, he married a daughter of Ishmael to try to make his father happy.
3	When Moses died, he was the second person to be grieved over for thirty days by the Israelites after being freed from slavery.  Who was the one before him?	Numbers 20:29	Aaron
4	Moses reminded the people to remember what they learned when they stood before the Lord at Mt. Horeb.  They were to pass this down to their children.  What did they learn?	Deuteronomy 4:10	Revere the Lord as long as they live.
5	David was being chased by Saul.  He went to the king of Moab to ask a favor, at least until David heard from God as to what to do.  What was the favor?  And bonus: What did the prophet Gad tell David to do before inquiring of God?	1 Samuel 22:3-5	The favor: Let David’s parents stay with the Moab king to be safe from Saul. What next: Gad said to return to Judah before asking of the Lord.  I guess to make that equivalent to modern times, Moab was so sinful that they were in a cellphone dead space when it came to God.
6	At Horesh in the desert of Ziph, what did David learn, but then Jonathan came to Horesh to tell David that no matter what his father intended, David would become king?	1 Samuel 23:15	David learned that Saul intended to kill David
7	Adonijah declared himself king, making sacrifices on the altar.  Who approached David while the king was being attended by Abishag, saying all Israel wants to know who will follow David as king of Israel?	1 Kings 1:20	Bathsheba.  She went on to say that if Adonijah would be king, she and Solomon would be treated as criminals.  Note: Solomon was the only son of David not invited to Adonijah’s feast.
8	When Rehoboam was defeated by Shishak of Egypt, the king and his men humbled themselves, but God allowed Shishak to rule over them for a while.  What was Rehoboam supposed to learn?	2 Chronicles 12:8	Rehoboam and his family must learn the difference in serving God and serving other kings,
9	When Haman learned something, he changed his plans of killing Mordecai.  What did Haman learn and what put Haman’s plans on a “grander” scale?	Esther 3:6	Haman learned that Mordecai was a Jew, and he changed his plan so that all Jews would be killed, not just Mordecai.
10	Psalm 119 mentions the word learn(ed) four times.  Each time the psalmist uses a different term for the things God wants us to obey.  Name at least two of the four.	Psalm 119:7, 71, 73, 152	Verse 7: righteous laws Verse 71: decrees Verse 73: commands Verse 152: statutes

Whether you did well on this quiz or, ummm, not so well, for the first video, here is McKenzie Fuller singing Christ Our Wisdom.

Whether you did well on this quiz or, ummm, not so well, for the first video, here is Lucy Condy and David Zimmer singing Christ Our Wisdom.

Here are the Asidors (children) with All in All.

Here are the Asidors (children) singing Give Thanks.

We should always be learning.

The first song has a repeated line that we all need to learn.  In praying to God, the song says, “You are God, and we are not.”  We would get into a lot less trouble if we could remember that one.

If you like these Saturday morning Bible quizzes, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Saturday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.