Come Follow Me Teacher Prep: Leading Deeper Old Testament Discussions

Teaching Come Follow Me in 2026 means navigating the Old Testament -- one of the most rewarding and most challenging corpora in all of scripture. The Old Testament's unfamiliar cultural context, dense historical narrative, and poetic language can make lesson preparation feel overwhelming. This guide gives teachers and family leaders a practical preparation framework that goes beyond reading the manual and produces discussions that stick.

The Three-Layer Preparation Method

Effective Come Follow Me teaching requires three layers of preparation: the literal layer (what does the text say?), the contextual layer (what did it mean then?), and the application layer (what does it mean now?). Most lesson preparation focuses only on the third layer -- the application -- and assumes the first two are obvious. For Old Testament lessons, this assumption fails. The literal and contextual layers are often the key to unlocking the application.

Layer 1: The Literal Layer -- What Does the Text Actually Say?

Many Old Testament lessons suffer from teachers who have not read the assigned chapters carefully. The first step in preparation is to read the entire week's assignment slowly, with a pencil, marking what surprises you, what confuses you, and what you notice for the first time. Old Testament surprises are often the best teaching moments.

If you have access to an interlinear reader, choose one or two key verses from the week's reading and look at the original Hebrew. Ask: does the Hebrew add anything the English translation misses? Common discoveries include: - A word translated generically ("fear") that the Hebrew makes specific (reverential awe vs. terror) - A name that the Hebrew reader would immediately recognize as meaningful (Isaac means "he laughs"; Bethel means "house of God") - A verb tense that implies ongoing action where the English implies a one-time event

You do not need to share the Hebrew in your lesson. But knowing what the text actually says -- at the word level -- gives you confidence and depth that participants notice.

Layer 2: The Contextual Layer -- What Did It Mean Then?

The Old Testament was written for ancient Israelites in specific historical circumstances. Understanding those circumstances does not reduce the scripture to mere history -- it magnifies its application to our own time by showing the pattern God uses across different eras.

For example, the plagues of Exodus are more than miraculous events. Each plague targeted a specific Egyptian deity: the Nile (Hapi, the river god), the frogs (Heqet, the frog goddess of fertility), the darkness (Ra, the sun god). The Exodus narrative is not just a story of physical deliverance -- it is a systematic theological confrontation, demonstrating that the God of Israel commands every domain that Egypt's gods claimed to control. Teaching this context gives the lesson a doctrinal argument that participants find compelling.

Resources for contextual preparation include the LDS Bible Dictionary (available in the manual's footnotes), scripture maps showing the geography of each week's reading, and the background sections in the Come Follow Me manual itself. A timeline tool showing where this week's events fit relative to other scriptural events is particularly useful for establishing the big picture.

Layer 3: The Application Layer -- What Does It Mean Now?

The application layer is where most Come Follow Me preparation begins and ends, but it should be the third step rather than the first. Once you understand what the text says and what it meant, the application usually emerges naturally rather than requiring you to manufacture it.

The most productive application questions are personal and specific, not generic. "How does this apply to your life?" is a weak question. "When have you experienced something similar to Moses's response at the burning bush -- feeling inadequate for a calling God gave you?" is a strong one. The difference is specificity: the strong question identifies a specific biblical moment, connects it to a category of personal experience, and invites reflection on that specific category.

Practical Tools for Teacher Preparation

Covenant Tracker: Before each Old Testament lesson, review which covenants are introduced, renewed, or broken in that week's reading. The Old Testament's narrative spine is covenant -- every major event is either a covenant being made, kept, broken, or restored. If you can explain the covenant dimension of each week's reading, participants will understand why it matters.

Scripture Chains: Build a short scripture chain (three to five verses) connecting the week's Old Testament reading to passages in the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and New Testament that illuminate it. For example: Genesis 22 (Akedah) → Mosiah 3:8 (Christ as the Son of the Father) → John 3:16 → D&C 19:18 (Gethsemane). The chain shows participants that the Old Testament is not isolated from the rest of their scripture study.

Prophet Commentary: Before each lesson, review what General Authorities have said about that week's passages. Recent conference talks are particularly valuable because they show participants how living prophets apply ancient scripture to contemporary life. Connecting an Isaiah passage to a recent Elder Holland or President Nelson talk makes the Old Testament feel immediately relevant.

Leading the Discussion

The best Come Follow Me discussions do not feel like a lecture with audience participation. They feel like a group of people genuinely thinking together. As teacher or family leader, your job is to ask questions that open the text rather than close it, then get out of the way and let the group explore.

Start with an observation question: "What did you notice in this week's reading that surprised you?" This invites participants to share what is alive for them rather than performing the "right" answer. Follow with interpretation: "What do you think that means?" Then application: "Has something like that ever happened to you?"

The teacher's knowledge of the Hebrew, the historical context, and the doctrinal connections is the background that makes the discussion possible -- but most of it stays in the teacher's preparation notes, surfacing only when the conversation needs a catalyst or clarification. The goal is not to demonstrate preparation but to generate light.