DVD Review: Prophets & Kings of Israel

That the World May Know: Faith Lessons on the Prophets & Kings of Israel Length: 2 hours 15 minutes Publisher: Zondervan First Released: 2005

Source: Rented it from Netflix.

Netflix Description:
The wisdom of the Bible will fill your heart as you experience Israel through the lives of its kings and prophets. You'll learn about how far a soul can sink as you witness Baal worship. And you'll wander the wilderness with David and know the heart of the shepherd. You'll learn to fully realize your responsibility to represent God to a troubled world. This video is the second volume of the "That the World May Know" series.


Review:
Prophets & Kings of Israel is the second volume of the "That the World May Know" series. If you've never had a chance to travel in Israel and you can rent or borrow this series, then I'd highly recommend you do. It has nice footage of the Holy Land so that you can get a feel for what the land looks like now. It helps to bring the Bible alive.

I've heard most of this information before in "cultural background to the Bible" books, but it was nice to see visuals for a few of these things, like the temple in lesson 5.

The lessons were filmed like you were a part of a tour group, but with added graphics, pictures, and aerial shots when appropriate. The format was that at each new site the teacher would give us the history related to the site, describe what the site originally looked like (if it was now in ruins), and give a faith lesson related to "impacting the culture" based on what we learned at that site. The faith lessons on this disk were pretty decent and related to the site.

Lesson One: Megiddo and the Jezreel Valley - the group sat in the ruins of Megiddo overlooking the plains and were taught about ancient trade routes, the water system at Megiddo (a tunnel to the spring), and about Baal worship (while sitting near the ruins of an ancient altar).

Lesson Two: Mt. Carmel - the group sat on Mt. Carmel overlooking the plains toward the sea. Related Scripture was read.

Lesson Three: Lachish - the group toured various parts of the ruins of Lachish. The gate and gateway were show as well as sewer channels in the streets. A brief aside showed the tunnel which Hezekiah dug at Jerusalem to bring spring water into that city. He talked about the assault on Lachish by Shalmaneser king of Assyria and showed the frieze and record of this attack which was found in Shalmaneser's palace in Assyria.

Lesson Four: Beduin in Negev - the group sat in a tent of some beduin and watched them herd a group of sheep and goats past. The lesson was on shepherding in the wilderness.

Lesson Five: A temple in Arad - This temple was a well-preserved smaller version of the Jerusalem temple that was built in Arad back before Hezekiah's reign. The lesson was about how the Jerusalem temple was laid out and what went on in the temples. He also explained covenants.


If you've watched this DVD, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the DVD in the comments.