|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||
 |
 |
||
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
| EXPLORE THE BIBLE: (15-20 minutes) Explain that you would like the students to close their eyes and use their imaginations as you take them back in time—back more than 2600 years ago to the year 608 B.C. Encourage them to imagine how it would feel to be a person in this story: You are a person who belongs to the tribe of Judah. It’s time for the annual celebration of the Festival of Weeks, and you and your family have walked over fifty miles to come and worship in the temple. Your dirty, sweaty feet ache from the days that you have spent walking with your family to Jerusalem. You hear a low rumble of voices and excited shouts from the people milling around in anticipation of arriving at the temple. You smell smoke from campfires that are cooking food….it smells so good…your mouth starts to water and you realize how hungry you are. You wipe the sweat from your forehead, then rub your lower back, which is screaming to lie down somewhere. But you can’t relax now--you must stand with your family just as you have for the past few hours to get into the temple. You turn your head to the right to see how close you are to the gate--you’re getting closer, but there still seem to be hundreds of people in front of you. You turn your head around to see the end of the line, but it’s impossible. There are thousands of pilgrims who have flocked to the temple for the festival. “Yes,” you think to yourself, “I’m just going to have to deal with this back pain for a little longer, but it will be worth it.” Yes, you believe that the pain and the waiting will be worth it because you are among the people of Judah who believe that the most important part of your religion is that you have the temple to worship in. Continued... |
|||||||||
| Back |
Page 4 of 9
|
||||||||
