Year B. 4th Term. Lesson 12. Bible buddies- The wise men

Scripture: for teacher background:  Matthew 2:1-12

Making contact:

Discuss the different ways people travel? They walk, travel by train, taxi, car, bus, aeroplanes, ship, horse, ox wagon or camel!

Imagine taking months to travel across a desert on camel.

 Exploration:

There were people long ago who studied the stars. They could tell things from these stars. Some Bible scholars think that there were Jews far away in Babylon who stayed there after the exile instead of returning to Israel with the others and they were so longing for their Messiah that they watched for signs in the sky.

 They saw a new star and believed it represented a very important king for Israel – maybe the most important king of all time!

They felt so strongly about it, that they had a big meeting and decided they had to actually travel a long, long across the desert, wherever the star went they would follow it.

Imagine them telling their wives and children – “Darling, Daddy is going on a long journey. I could be gone months, but you see I have to follow that new star.”

We know they were very rich, because they gave baby Jesus such expensive presents.

We sing a song about “We three kings” but the Bible doesn’t say how many there were, people have guessed 3 because there were 3 gifts.

Anyway, they packed provisions and loaded their camels and left on their adventure. They had a problem at one stage. 

The star disappeared. 

So they presumed they had reached the country where this new king was to be born. And of course it was Israel!

They asked people of Jerusalem – “So where’s the new king? We’ve seen his star and we’ve come to worship Him.”

The people didn’t really know what they were talking about, and King Herod got very worried. He called all the teachers of the Bible and the priests from the temple. 

He asked them what the prophets had predicted about the Messiah. They knew the answer – Bethlehem! (Later on they said Jesus wasn’t the Messiah – so you can have all the knowledge and still be very stupid!)

King Herod said the visitors must go and find this baby and then come and tell him so that he could also worship.

When they set out again they were overjoyed because the star reappeared and they could follow it to the house where Mary and Joseph and the young child Jesus were staying.

 They had probably moved out the stable and found better accommodation because the Bible says the house where they were staying.

They gave them the expensive presents of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 

They went back home another way, because God warned them in a dream. 

After that Joseph took Mary and Jesus to Egypt, as the angel also warned him because of  jealous King Herod.

Herod killed all the boys up to 2 years old in Bethlehem but Jesus life was spared. 

Application

The wise men were prepared to go the extra mile and they traveled very far. They were also very generous.

Sometimes the people close by don’t see the truth. 

Many of the people living in Bethlehem and Jerusalem didn’t all recognize that Jesus was the Son of God. 

Are we prepared to go the extra for God?

Do we understand why for some people it is dangerous to be Christian? Some leaders today are like Herod and they try and kill Christians.

Challenge to Mission

Some people travel very far to be missionaries in other countries. 

We can be interested in supporting or praying for a missionary like this.

Consolidation

 Worksheet. The children can colour the 3 wise men in bright colours.

There are 3 mixed up words for the children to put in the correct order. 

The answers are STAR, BETHLEHEM and GIFTS.

There is a picture where the children must colour in the dots. It then shows a camel.

Memory Verse

"They knelt down and worshiped Him. They brought out their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh and presented them to Him. (Matthew 2:12,13)