Listen up, little ones
Listen for the words king and Bethlehem.
Reading
Matthew 2:1–12—Jesus, the Promised Shepherd-King
Optional Reading
Micah 5:1-6
Keys for kids
- When Jesus was born, wise men from the east came to find him.
- They went to Jerusalem to find out where to look for him.
- The scribes and priests knew Micah said Jesus would be born in Bethlehem.
Questions
- How did the scribes and priests know where Jesus would be born?
- How can you work at knowing the Bible? Are you?
- What must we do with what we come to know in the Bible?
Notes
(See Saturday for authors. )
In Jesus’s day, the Bible scholars (remember that the Old Testament was the only Bible yet written) knew that the promised king of the Jews would be born in Bethlehem. They knew this because they knew the Scriptures—namely Micah’s prophetic promise that the Shepherd-King to come would be born in little Bethlehem.
[As a side application, we should work hard at knowing the Bible, too. Reading it. Meditating on it. Memorizing it. Listening to it read and preached. Are you working hard to know the Bible?]
Although Herod didn’t know it as well as the priests and scribes, once he heard that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem he pretended to want to worship him along with the wise men from the east. But really, Herod wanted to kill him. The scribes and priests would also try, eventually successfully, to kill Jesus. So, knowing the Bible isn’t enough. When we pore over the Bible, we will find that it testifies about Jesus from cover to cover. We must come to Jesus to have eternal life. Hughes comments that the Bible is not an end in itself but is a window through which we can learn marvelous truths about God and Jesus Christ.
Swedish Method questions
Praise
Psalm 2a, 88a
Prayer
- Rejoice in prayer that you have come to Jesus for eternal life.
- Pray for a specific application from yesterday's sermons.
- Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.