Tales from the Great Book #2

With Moses gone, Joshua takes command of the Israelites and leads them across the Jordan River toward the Promised Land—but their path is blocked by the heavily fortified city of Jericho. After scouting the seemingly impregnable fortress alone, Joshua receives a divine message detailing an unconventional battle strategy that tests the faith of his own people. As doubt and mutiny threaten to tear the camp apart, Joshua must rally his army and prepare for a march unlike any they've ever known.

King Saul, desperate and abandoned by God as the Philistine armies close in, disguises himself and ventures to seek counsel from the Witch of Endor—risking everything to summon the spirit of the prophet Samuel. What Saul discovers in that fateful encounter will shake him to his core, as the boundaries between desperation and divine judgment begin to blur. John Lehti writes and illustrates this dramatic retelling of one of Scripture's most haunting episodes, exploring the price of a king's estrangement from faith.

As Jesus travels toward Jerusalem, he encounters a group of afflicted lepers who cry out to him for mercy—and receives an instruction that sets them on an unexpected path to healing. When one among them returns with gratitude while the others vanish into their newfound lives, Jesus reflects on the nature of faith and thanksgiving. This 1955 tale from Tales from the Great Book brings a timeless moment of compassion and spiritual truth to vivid life.

In ninth-century B.C. Israel, the prophet Elijah boldly confronts King Ahab and his pagan queen Jezebel, declaring that drought will plague the land until they abandon their worship of the false god Baal. Fleeing the king's wrath, Elijah finds shelter and sustenance through divine providence—first by a brook tended by ravens, then with a widow whose barrel of meal and jar of oil miraculously never empty. When Elijah returns to challenge Ahab's false prophets on Mount Carmel in a spectacular test of divine power, the stage is set for a confrontation that will shake Israel to its core.

Jesus recounts the parable of a traveler brutally robbed and left for dead on the roadside, where two passersby ignore his plight. When a Samaritan happens upon the wounded man, he shows genuine compassion, tending to his injuries and ensuring his care at a nearby inn. This timeless lesson in mercy and human kindness has echoed through the centuries, defining what it means to truly help those in need.