Perhaps the best way to illustrate this is with another story. If anyone has ever read the Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, and then watched the movies directed by Peter Jackson, you know Jackson’s version leaves out many things. There are a variety of reasons for this, but the fact remains that Tom Bombadil is nowhere to be found in Jackson’s version, whereas several chapters are devoted to him in the original books. In the same way, other characters and backstories are condensed. The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy is still excellent, but it pales in comparison to the books. In similar fashion, when we omit important stories from the Torah for any other reason, we create a condensed movie version of the Torah that does not attain to the heights of the original.

It is even worse when the Torah not only is taught without the obscure “connecting” stories, but when those more well-known stories are taught out of order to correspond with a topical format. To be sure, there is nothing wrong with topical teaching, but to teach portions of the Torah only every three months when one of the major stories fits well with a topic that is being covered reduces a student’s understanding of the Torah to little more than illustrations. Jumping around from story to story may suit a topical format, but it will not help students grasp the story the Torah presents. This story is full of people to whom students can relate. It follows God and his dealings with humanity from Creation to the death of Moses, his servant. The Torah shows us God never gives up on humans, even when they give up on him, and gives us the foundation for everything that comes later – the former and latter prophets, the gospels, Acts, and the epistles – and prepares us for the finale in Revelation. None of the rest makes sense without the Torah, and the Torah does not make complete sense as disjointed stories. Students need the stories in the Torah, and they need to hear them starting with Genesis.

Students also need youth ministers who know those stories, and not just as individual illustrations, but as one story that runs from Genesis to Deuteronomy – and beyond. The best way to learn these stories is to read them in the Bible. We need to read them again and again until we have a grasp on them – until we can pass along the stories as confidently as we might pass along ghost stories around a fire at our next summer retreat. For those who have the time and opportunity, taking a class on the Old Testament, or on the Pentateuch, at a local Bible college or seminary might be helpful. Reading some commentaries on the Torah dealing with its Ancient Near Eastern background could yield illustrations or ways to get students interested in the story, like the Azazel example above.

Already, as youth ministers, our time is stretched thin. We have sporting events to attend, lessons to prepare, retreats to plan, staff to train, meetings to attend, and the list goes on. How can what seems to be such an obscure area of the Bible warrant more of our already too limited time? Yet, students need to know the Torah as much as they need to hear our thoughts on sex, drugs, and dating. Students need the Torah, and as youth ministers, so do we.

So, we may cringe at the idea of having to read through the Torah in order to be able to teach its lessons, but the importance cannot be denied. Even a passage as obscure as Leviticus 16 can help students to grasp the way God interacts with humanity. Teaching the entire story of the Torah opens wide vistas to students so they can see the history, of which they are a part, as members of God’s family. Ultimately, teaching students the Torah should not be optional for youth ministers who hold a high view of Scripture and seek to help students draw near to God.