Genesis 19 - Sodom and Gomorrah Quiet Book Page

In Genesis 19, Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed and Lot's wife turns into a pillar of salt, but Lot and his two daughters escape.

Memory Verse: “At dawn the next morning the angels became insistent. “Hurry,” they said to Lot. “Take your wife and your two daughters who are here. Get out right now, or you will be swept away in the destruction of the city!”” Genesis 19:15

Materials needed to create the Sodom and Gomorrah quiet book page:

• A4 felt background sheet - I used cream
• felt scraps in brown, orange, yellow, gray, light blue, sparkly white (or white plus glitter glue), and various other colours
• furry yarn in a smokey/fire colour
• one pop stick
• hot glue and glue gun
• my free Sodom and Gomorrah template download

This quiet book page was inspired by a page from Glued To Glory's Quiet Book #16: Old Testament Bible. If you want to simplify this page - head over to her site and take a look. Heck, just take a look anyway! The more inspiration the better.

Cut out a section of brown felt to cover the bottom half of your page and sew a horizontal buttonhole in matching thread towards the top of the brown and just to the left of the middle of the page. (You can use the template to line up where other things may be positioned to work out where a good spot is. This will form the pop stick slot for Lot's wife to be inserted in and out of so it should be wide enough for that but not much wider to stop her from moving around too much.) Then sew the brown felt to the bottom of the page around all edges.

Sew down your sun, the buildings, three little people and the right mountain. Double the felt for the left mountain and sew it down leaving the cave mouth open.

Cut out Lot's wife out of yellow felt and sew her down around all edges except the bottom to a piece of sparkly white felt (or add sparkles with glitter glue later), making sure she is facing the right direction for each colour. Cut her out and insert a pop stick, securing it and the bottom edge of lot's wife with hot glue.

Sew down the city in rows, adding your fire and brimstone furry yarn over the top of the two rows of city using zig zag stich before finishing with the city wall. 

Finished!

Difficulty Level = Intermediate.

You will need to do a fair amount of hand turning of the wheel on your sewing machine as there are lots of small fiddly pieces.

Key Learning Areas and Skills

• Genesis 19 - Learn about where our focus should be - on where we are going (Heaven) rather than love of our current situations. Also, there is a Tale of two cities going on here - repentance is the difference between the different treatment of Sodom and Gomorrah and Nineveh.
• Inserting - insert Lot's wife into the buttonhole, then pull her out, flip her over and insert again! Explore the cave with your finger.
• Imaginative play - Lot's wife runs away but looks back and becomes a pillar of salt
• Fine Motor Skills - all quiet books encourage fine motor skill development
• Hand-eye Co-ordination - all quiet books encourage hand-eye co-ordination

Read the Chapter

Genesis 19

Devotional

Sodom & Gomorrah · Tiko & Gitta

Verse 13 talks about the outcry that has reached the ears of the LORD against Sodom. The things reported to have been done there are recorded in Ezekiel 16:49-50. "Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen." Whilst God longs to forgive and have all come to repentance, Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed as a warning that sin results in death. You can read a thorough explanation of the text at What was the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah? by Greg Koukl.

Had Lot taken the warning more seriously, would his wife have looked back? Yes, she was sorrowing for her other children who had not left with them, but should we also loose our salvation because someone else chooses not to accept it? Did she end up any happier? She showed that she cared more for her treasures that she left behind than for the favour God had showed her.

Jesus said that the people of his day were worse than those of Sodom - it is because they claimed to follow God, yet their lives did not reflect that. It seems to me that the Third Commandment applies to Christians more than anyone else. I know that mis-using the Holy names of God as swear words is not good, but it seems worse to me to claim that you are a Christian and then not live up to that claim as of course I frequently don't. People who use God's name as a cuss word probably don't even believe in God and therefore it is not such bad intent. But to actively say "I follow Christ" and then live life like there are no consequences to sin is to malign His name so much worse. We are giving Christ a bad name. People think that if that's what Christianity is like then I want no part of it, and we can hardly blame them.

Rather than miss out because others we care about are missing out, we should use our witness to encourage others to take the warning seriously. This world is destined for destruction, and we should make every effort to influence those we care about to accept God's love and provision of salvation. As the song Freely, Freely by Carol Owens says "Go in My Name and because YOU believe, others will know that I live."

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Genesis 24 - Rebecca at the Well Quiet Book Page

Rebecca at the Well in Genesis 24 is a beautiful story and every girl's matchmaking dream come true.

Memory Verse: “And when she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I will draw water for your camels also, until they have finished drinking.”” Genesis 24:19 NKJV.

Materials needed to create the Rebecca at the Well quiet book page:

• A4 felt background sheet - I used orange
• this printable from LambSongsNZ
• a method of sublimation printing - see below
• white acrylic/polyester felt
• sewing thread to best match the page
• two mini black split pins
• string or wool
• hot glue and glue gun
• scissors!

Firstly, get the printable transferred onto white felt by the sublimation printing and heat press method - see my post on Sublimation Printing on Felt - Test. Print the Rebecca and bucket section in reverse as well so you can glue her back to back.

Cut out the printable picture and both buckets and Rebecca's.

Attach your wool or string to the background felt underneath where your picture will be sewn using zig zag stitch. Go back and forth a few times to reinforce the hold.

Sew down the picture along three sides to form a pocket at the top.

Use the split pins to join each Rebecca to her bucket. Hot glue the buckets together and enclose the other end of the wool or string inside, leaving space for the split pins to remain free to turn. Hot glue Rebecca together, again leaving space for the bucket to swivel between her arms and the bottom edge open to form a finger puppet.

Finished!

Difficulty Level = Easy, plus No Sew version.

A very easy quiet book page! The hardest part is lining up both side of Rebecca when hot gluing (but that's not that hard)!
Just use hot glue wherever sewing is recommended for a no sew version.

Key Learning Areas and Skills

• Genesis 24 - God is a good matchmaker!
• Imaginative Play - draw water from the well to give the camels a drink
• Finger Puppet - Rebecca
• Fine Motor Skills - all quiet books encourage fine motor skill development
• Hand-eye Co-ordination - all quiet books encourage hand-eye co-ordination

Read the Chapter

Genesis 24

Devotional

How great are the rewards for being faithful in little.

All Rebecca was asked for was a simple drink of water - something which would have taken one minute max. But she offered to water the camels too. Surely Abraham sent more than his "oldest servant who ruled over his house" with the caravan to Nahor! They could have easily drawn the water for the camels. And in fact there were more servants, although they are not mentioned until after Rebecca is found and secured.

I was wondering how many camels there were - can you guess? I was guessing at least five, probably more - but I read it again and it says there were ten. There was all the presents for Rebecca and her mother and brother to carry, plus a bride price, food for the camels and servants to last a good portion of the journey, and possibly camels to ride for the servants. It seems to me that this trip was an urgent one. Everything happens in a rush!

Abraham asks and in the next sentence, Eliezer has left and arrived. Before he finishes praying, Rebecca has appeared. He "runs" to her and she "quickly" lets down her pitcher. She "runs" home to make arrangements for him to stay and her brother "runs" out to invite him in. Then he refuses to eat before he tells them his mission, and after being asked to stay ten nights he will only agree to stay one before returning home.

Giving Eliezer a drink would have fulfilled his request, and is more than Rebecca was obligated to do. But to offer to water ten camels must have taken quite a while even though she did it "quickly".
The below podcast by experienced people says that a thirsty camel can drink between 100-150 liters of water in around 15 minutes. So to water 10 camels, Rebecca might have had to draw 1000-1500 liters of water. I imagine that Rebecca could lift no more than 20 liters at once, so she would have to draw water at least 50-75 times in order to draw that much water which must have taken a couple of hours. It was no casual offer that she made.

How Much Water Does a Camel Drink?

by Camel Connection

Rebecca is not the only virtuous person we can learn from in this chapter. Eliezer is pretty impressive too. Although he is not named in this chapter, Abraham thinks in chapter 15 that Eliezer his servant will be his heir. Eliezer must have known this at the time too. Not only does he not become hurt or offended when he is no longer heir, but he is the one trusted to secure a Godly wife for his replacement Issac. What faithfulness! We can learn so much about how to behave when we are disappointed by not receiving what we thought we were going to. Like when we don't get the promotion we thought we deserved. God has a plan, and often it is not our business!

Isaac and Rebekah Rap

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Genesis 13 - Abram and Lot Separate Quiet Book Page

In Genesis 13, Abram allows Lot to choose which part of the Land to use because their families and herds have grown too large for them to stay together.

Memory Verse: “Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.”” Genesis 13:9

Materials needed to create the Abram and Lot Separate quiet book page:

• A4 felt background sheet - I used light blue
• felt scraps
• shiny blue material scrap for the lake
• clear craft glue (optional) - I used polyacetic acid & ethylene resin based glue
• ribbon scraps in vegetation motifs and colours
• thin grey ribbon
• letter beads
• my free Abram and Lot Separate template download

Cut out a section of shiny blue material to fit where the lake goes. My material was very prone to fraying, so I folded it over the edge and glued it down and then zig zagged around the sides at the back once it was dry. The front was covered by the mountains and foreground so I don't think I worried about zig zagging around that, but I did glue it down.

Next I sewed down the mountains followed by the foreground and a series of decorative ribbons to look like rows of fields and vegetation on the same side as the lake.

To make Abram and Lot, first sew the hands to a piece of the same coloured felt and cut them out. Wedge these under the sleeves of their coats when sewing the coats to a piece of the same coloured felt to double it up and cut then cut them out. Sew a small button hole in the center of their coats to thread them onto ribbon with for sliding across the page.

Cut two heads for each person - you can't sew one to a larger background and then cut it out for this one as it will be difficult to cut out afterwards because the coat is in the way. But it doesn't really matter if the sewing is messy here anyway. It will be covered up by a beard and turban.

The beards have a slit up the middle to allow them to sit correctly over the coat. I only cut one side of the beard and left a large piece of felt on the other side so it could be sewn neatly from one side and cut away on the other later.

Sew the turbans in a similar way, cutting the back felt piece away after sewing.

Thread Abram and Lot onto a piece of grey ribbon each and cut it to the length of your page. Melt the edges of your ribbon - see my post on How to Stop Ribbons Fraying.

Cover the bottom section with grey felt and then cover the line where the grey and foreground meet with grey stones. Thread the word 'left' using alphabet beads onto Abram's ribbon on the left side and the word 'right' onto Lot's ribbon on the right side. Sew down both ends of the grey ribbons using zig zag stitch so that  Abram and Lot can slide along the bottom of the page. Cover the ends with more rocks so you can't see the ugly stitching.

Finished!

Difficulty Level = Intermediate.

Getting the beards and turbans right is the most difficult part of this page, but I have shared my tips on how to do this in the tutorial.

Key Learning Areas and Skills

• Genesis 13 - selfishness often harms us without us even realising it.
• Directions - this page teaches about right and left. There are very few quiet book pages that teach this.
• Imaginative Play - would you choose the left or the right side?
• Fine Motor Skills - all quiet books encourage fine motor skill development
• Hand-eye Co-ordination - all quiet books encourage hand-eye co-ordination

I did consider putting Abraham's tent on the left side, but I decided against it -
the starkness of the landscape contrasts better with the lushness of the right.

Read the Chapter

Genesis 13

Devotional

Lot leaves Abram as a very rich man, having so many herds and servants that they cannot continue to live together. He chooses the best part of the land for himself however, and it is not long until we find that Lot has not benefited from his decision.

It is only the next chapter in which he is taken captive when an army attacks the cities of the plain. Following his rescue by Abraham, he remains living there. Why?

When we find Lot in Sodom, there is no longer any mention of his flocks and herds and servants - the very reason he left Abraham in the first place. I often wonder what happened to them. They must have been sold before the visit from the angels, else surely Lot would have been given a chance to save them as he was with his other daughters and sons-in-law.

I always wonder how different things might have turned out had Lot chosen the other side. I don't imagine that Abraham would have lost nearly everything if he had lived near Sodom. Perhaps that is where Lot went wrong. He moved to a wicked city. Abraham stayed in his tent. And I imagine if he had been given the other side, he would have still lived in his tent. Don't let the priorities of the world sway you. Romans 12:2 NKJV says "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

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Which side would you choose?

Genesis 37 - Joseph's Coat Quiet Book Page

In Genesis 37, Joseph is given a special coat by his father - his brothers get jealous and sell him as a slave.

Memory Verse: “Then they said to one another, “Look, this dreamer is coming! Come therefore, let us now kill him and cast him into some pit; and we shall say, ‘Some wild beast has devoured him.’ We shall see what will become of his dreams!”” Genesis 37:19-20

Materials needed to create the Joseph's Coat quiet book page:

• A4 felt background sheet - I used green
• felt scrap in brown for the back of the pit pocket
• hot glue and glue gun
• Betty Lukens Felt book 01 Bible Stories available at Koorong
• sewing thread to best match the page
• scissors!

Cut out all the pieces for this page, and the page itself from the set. The Betty Lukens FAQ section has posted a cutting tips PDF.

Cut out a section of brown felt to cover above the pit pocket to as far down the page as you can manage whilst leaving room to sew the page onto the background felt sheet. Hot glue it in position along the top edge of the pit and down both sides and the bottom to form a pocket for the small Joseph.

Sew the page onto the background felt along three sides, leaving the top edge open to form a pocket. Pop the pieces inside (or better yet, play with them)!

Finished!

The pocket is not big enough so Joseph looks like he could easily get out!

Difficulty Level = Easy, plus No Sew version.

A very easy quiet book page!
Just use hot glue wherever sewing is recommended for a no sew version.

Key Learning Areas and Skills

• Genesis 37 - jealousy can lead to devastating results
• Imaginative play - tell the story of Joseph - his dreams, his coat of many colours, and how he was treated badly by his brothers and sold as a slave to Egypt
• Dress up - dress Joseph in his coat of many colours
• Colours - name all the colours on Joseph's coat
• Inserting - insert Joseph into the pit pocket
• Fine Motor Skills - all quiet books encourage fine motor skill development
• Hand-eye Co-ordination - all quiet books encourage hand-eye co-ordination

Read the Chapter

Genesis 37

Devotional

What a difficult life for a young man to find himself in suddenly! One minute the favourite son of a wealthy man, the next a slave in a foreign country. Nevertheless it seems that his father had brought him up with good values despite his favouritism because we find Joseph sticking to his God and his morals through some very tough circumstances.

Whilst scripture doesn't say what the heinous crime that Joseph dobs his brothers in to their father for, the rabbis have recorded it in chapter 38 of the Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer. While you might not believe everything written in this document, the reason Jacob sends Joseph to check on his brothers and the flocks makes sense in this context. Apparently Zilpah and Bilhah's sons were eating the flesh of the animals in the flocks whilst the animals were still alive. Pretty gruesome no matter how you interpret that. And quite a no-no for a group of people who were bound by kosher law to drain the blood before roasting the meat. If they were in that much of a hurry to eat that they didn't bother to kill the animal, I can only imagine what passed through their lips. Eww.

It may be that Jacob's favouritism of Joseph was well deserved. And it may be that the coat was a present to try to cheer him up after enduring the harsh treatment of his brothers, who knows? There is a lot of back-story missing I think.

Joseph's clothes give punctuation to his story. I love the Joseph quiet book page that Patricia from Patty Cake Cafe made (with a free template) showing all four of Joseph's "costume changes" as he passes through each stage of his life.

The four stages are:

1. Favoured son
2. Slave in Egypt
3. Prisoner in Egypt
4. Pharaoh's Second-in-command

Image source

The coat of many colours is a bit of a mystery. The fact that Jacob made it kinda says to me that he was still a bit of a Mama's Boy. Weaving was a woman's job.  It takes longer to weave using many colours, so that increases it's value. But was the coat made of many colours? Scholars are not so sure. The word is largely unknown in the Bible, being used only one other time in connection to Tamar the daughter of King David. Some think that this coat was 'girly', and I think I remember reading in Robert Alter's commentary on Genesis that Jacob calls his other sons 'handsome' but Joseph he calls 'beautiful', presumably because he looked like his mother Rachel. While this is all very interesting, I can hardly imagine Joseph's brothers being jealous of a 'girly' robe.

Other scholars I read said that the word more likely refers to the arm-length of the robe. I guess it would also take longer to weave a coat with sleeves in it, so it would also be more valuable. It probably reached to the palms of his hands, and a coat like that was not made for hard work. Perhaps Jacob kept him from hard work in order to keep him from being corrupted by his brothers. Or perhaps he wanted to keep him home to teach him God's word as it had been revealed that Joseph was to be the leader of the family through his dreams.

Whatever the case, Joseph's coat has a story to tell. And I am sure his brothers enjoyed dirtying it up on him. But they couldn't stop God's plan for Joseph. In fact their attempt to rid themselves of him ultimately helped Joseph achieve his greatness. So next time you are in a tough situation, just remember that all things work together for the good of those who love the LORD (Romans 8:28) just as they did for Joseph.

The same is true for the story of Jesus. It is well-known that Joseph is a type of Christ. There are many similarities occurring within the two stories. Whilst Jesus started out as the favoured Son of God in Heaven, like Joseph He lost His glory, descending to Earth and was sold, betrayed, and was unrecognised by His brethren, but will ultimately take up a position of power once again. The Jewish leaders betrayal of Jesus ultimately helped Him achieve God's plan of reconciling man to Himself by providing for our sins, just as Joseph's betrayal ultimately led to reconciliation with and provision for his brothers.

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Jacob and Sons/Joseph's Coat

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What have you always imagined Joseph's coat looking like?

Genesis 39 - The Temptation of Joseph Quiet Book Page

Genesis 39 demonstrates Joseph's integrity.

Memory Verse: "No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” Genesis 39:9

Materials needed to create The Temptation of Joseph quiet book page:

• A4 felt background sheet - I used black
• sublimation printed Ancient Egypt dress-up dolls by Gabi's Paper Dolls (I only printed some of the female costumes and the dolls) - you can read how I had it done on my Sublimation Printing on Felt - Test post
• Veltex material (also called loop fabric or industrial webbing) in skin colour
• Velcro dot
• hot glue gun and glue
• Double sided iron-on interfacing scrap
• gold coloured material that won't fray - I used pleather but it was difficult to sew due to it's stretchiness (made easier by gluing first)
• clear craft glue if using pleather to make sewing easier - I used polyacetic acid & ethylene resin based glue
• decorative material
• two decorative buttons
• jump ring tassel
• gold ribbon
• gold elastic
• felt in gold/straw colour
• sewing thread to match
• my free template (Egyptian wardrobe only)

First cut out your paper dolls, clothes and wigs, cutting off the tabs as you go. Then use your male paper doll to cut out a section of Veltex and double sided iron-on interfacing to the same shape as his torso/legs.

This one is Tahlia's favourite dress

Arrange your pieces onto the background and iron on the Veltex to the background in the correct position using the interfacing. Sew around the edge to hold in place.

Potiphar's wife acting like a 'cougar'... - this one is my Grandma's fav dress

Hot glue the feet of the male doll to the background in place over the Veltex. Cut out his undergarment and finish gluing down his legs. Hot glue the Velcro dot to the back of his undergarment and place in position. Then line up the head and glue the remainder of his body down. Hot glue the woman into position.

To make the wardrobe, trace the pieces using the template onto the back of your pleather using pen - this will avoid puncturing the pleather unnecessarily. Cut them out. For the decorative panel, cut the size to the back piece and then trim down slightly so it doesn't show on the edge of the wardrobe when layered. Using the clear craft glue, glue the decorative panel to the gold/straw felt and allow it to dry. Then glue the gold edging on top and allow to dry. Sew the inner section around the decorative panel.

Glue two sections of gold ribbon on the back to form hinges for the front door of the wardrobe. Then glue some pleather to the back of your felt and allow to dry. Sew around the outside edge of your wardrobe door and then cut it out, making sure not to cut off the hinges.

I found I had to shorten the bottom of the wardrobe base by around 5 mm and overlap the door over the lower section of the wardrobe front slightly to fit it on my page. I didn't change the pattern as you may be using a different size page to me.

Glue the pleather wardrobe base to the background page and insert the hinges from the door underneath on one side and insert a short loop of gold elastic with a jump ring tassel threaded onto it on the other side where you want the latch to be. Allow to dry and sew in place, reinforcing the stitching over the hinges and elastic loop.

Glue the remaining pleather pieces to the gold/straw felt and sew along the top edge of the draw and lower section of wardrobe front. Cut the draw out and sew the lower edge in place over the lower section of the wardrobe front. Then sew the lower section of the wardrobe front down over the base on the bottom and sides to form a pocket. To complete the wardrobe, hand sew your buttons on.

Finished!

Difficulty Level = Hard

It will be easier if you use something other than pleather that stretches! If you use pleather, be sure to use the glue.

"Hey Joseph, want to see my secret garden?"

Key Learning Areas and Skills

• Genesis 38 - This page teaches about how we need to be prepared to suffer even when we do the right thing.
• Buttoning - Open and close the wardrobe
• Tucking - Tuck the wigs into the wardrobe draw
• Imaginative Play - dress up Potiphar's wife in all her outfits
• Velcro - rip off Joseph's undergarment (and re-position them)
• Fine Motor Skills - all quiet books encourage fine motor skill development
• Hand-eye Co-ordination - all quiet books encourage hand-eye co-ordination

Read the Chapter

Genesis 39

Devotional

I admire the way that Jacob brought up Joseph. He was only around 17 when he was sold as a salve and yet His devotion to God is to be greatly admired. It must have been difficult to follow God in the situation he found himself in, and it would have been easy to go along with new cultures and customs and tell himself that God had forgotten him, so he may as well do likewise.

"Hey Joseph, do you want some 'trifle'..."

There are a few boundaries Joseph put in place to reduce the chances of finding himself in less than ideal circumstances. You can read about Joseph's 5 Steps to Avoid Temptation: Genesis 39:6-23 on the God Running blog. He had resolved to keep himself from "strange" women (those who did not follow God) as told in the story of Joseph and Asenath, translated by H. F. D. Sparks. He must have envisaged a celibate life, exiled in the land of Egypt. And not only exiled, but imprisoned. Nevertheless, as stated at the end of the blog post mentioned above, God preserved his life in that the punishment due Joseph was death. I noticed that Joseph was sold to Potiphar the Captain of the Guard (Genesis 37:36) - and the same titled person is in charge of the prison. It looks like Potiphar realises that Joseph is innocent because instead of putting Joseph to death, he saves face by putting him in his prison, but eventually puts him in charge of it just as he had done with his household (Genesis 40:3-4). Despite his circumstances, Joseph sticks to his values and God rewards him with freedom, power, and a beautiful convert, Asenath.

There are so many parallels between the story of Joseph and Jesus in the Bible, and I can only see more told through the love story of Joseph and Asenath.

Dreamcoat Part 8 - Potipher

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Hearing from you gives me great encouragement!