My Summer time Bible Readings with 11 year old Jessica.
John5:1-15
Do you have any questions or thoughts?
J – Why wasn’t he allowed to carry his mat?
Remember the 10 commandments?
J – Yes, but I don’t remember exactly what they say.
One of them is to honor the Sabath. Do you know what the Sabath is?
J-No.
God made the Earth in 6 days and rested on the 7th. God said to honor the Sabath and to rest like he did. They were not to work on the Sabath.
J – So carrying their mat was work?
Well, the pharasees & teacher at Jesus’ time had made a lot of rule of what was work and wasn’t. They considered carrying his mat work. I think God just wanted people to set aside a day to slow down and think about Him, but they made it about rules instead. [Note to self: Slow down on Sundays!]
Jesus was God and he said to carry his mat, so that rule must not have mattered to God, right?
J – Yes.
John 5:16-30
There’s a lot of statemants in there by Jesus. Do you have any questions about them?
J – Why did they oppose him for doing the right thing even if it was against their law?
They were more concerned about thier law than doing good things for people. They were the ones who made the laws so if the laws were wrong that meant that they were wrong. They didn’t want to be wrong so they decided Jesus was wrong.
J – I still don’t understand
Even though God had said not to work on the Sabbath, they had made lots of rules, making it hard for people to do even good things on the Sabath. Their rules were kind of a good idea, to help people obey the command to keep the Sabath holy, but they went too far and now the rules were more important than the commands of God.
Jesus was saying that they were wrong and they didn’t want to be wrong. They were the leaders, so they decided Jesus was wrong. They were prideful.
John 5:31- 47
He says some strong words here. What do you think about what he said?
j – Who was he talking to
The leaders, the pharasees.
So he was telling the leasders that they don’t know God. You think that made them more mad?
J – Yes.
What does he say was the witness that he was from God?
J – I don’t know.
First he said John was a witness (John 5:33). Then what was it?
J – It says ‘It gives witness that the Father has sent me.”
What does?
J – The work the father gave him to finish?
Yes. So they can tell he’s from from God by what he’s doing. Just like people can tell if we’re Christians by our lives as well. How we treat people and what work we’re doing.