Performed at Victoria Avenue Baptist Church on December 7th, 2008
Inspired by Micah 5:1-5a
- Joey:
- Martha, I don’t get it. We were told that this week’s scripture is about Christmas, but it is in the Old Testament, before Jesus was even born! How is that possible?
- Martha:
- Did you read it?
- Joey:
- Well… not yet….
- Martha:
- It says,
He will stand and shepherd his flock
in the strength of the LORD,
in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God.
And they will live securely, for then his greatness
will reach to the ends of the earth.
And he will be their peace. - Joey:
- That sure sounds like Jesus… I wonder who it’s about
- Martha:
- Another verse says,
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
though you are small among the clans of Judah,
out of you will come for me
one who will be ruler over Israel,
whose origins are from of old,
from ancient times.” - Joey:
- Hey! Jesus was born in Bethlehem. When was this written?
- Martha:
- It is about Jesus, and it was written more than 700 years before Jesus was born.
- Joey:
- How did they know about Jesus before he was born?
- Martha:
- It’s a prophecy. The Old Testament is full of them.
- Joey:
- A prophecy? How does that work?
- Martha:
- Well, in the Old Testament, God would pick one person to give messages to His people. That person would be called a “prophet”. Sometimes a prophet would tell people what is going to happen really soon, and sometimes they prophecy about the distant future, like about Jesus.
- Joey:
- So, in the Old Testament, prophets are kindof like superheroes! Why don’t we have them anymore? I want to be a super-hero prophet of God!
- Martha:
- Well, it’s different now. Thanks to Jesus, we don’t need to have one special prophet. We can all hear God directly.
- Joey:
- What? I haven’t heard God…
- Martha:
- Have you read the bible?
- Joey:
- Well… some of it…
- Martha:
- That’s one of the ways that God talks to us. It’s the most common way. But there are other ways - God talks to people through dreams, coincidences, other people, and sometimes he just puts a message on our hearts.
- Joey:
- Well.. how do I know if it’s God, or just too much pizza before bedtime?
- Martha:
- That’s what the bible is for. God won’t ask us to do anything unbiblical. That’s why we have to make sure we read the bible, so that when we think that God might be talking to us, we’ll know for sure.
- Joey:
- So, I should read the bible more, huh?
- Martha:
- You betcha! If you read it every day it won’t even take that long to read the Bible from cover to cover.
- Joey:
- Let’s go read the bible now! Maybe your mom will -
- Martha:
- My mom ran out of cookie dough. You ate all of it!
- Joey:
- Maybe… she… will… make… brownies?