Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:10 Going to the World The's Car.
Speaker 1 00:00:14 Welcome to the Village Kids and Podcast 22, the Adventure of Christmas
Speaker 0 00:00:24 And Scene.
Speaker 2 00:00:35 Welcome back to the Village Kids Advent podcast. We're pretty excited as we're adventuring this Christmas, just to try to understand who are all the characters, what is going on, what is the importance of this first Christmas story. And so today, before we begin our book, we wanted to have the opportunity to talk through what has just happened. And so as we are about to approach the Gospel of Luke, to see these characters and see what is going on, what has happened right before this. And so having context often is one of the most important ways to study the Bible so we understand what we're reading about, what happened before, what happens after as we dig in to what we're looking at. So I have a very special guest today. I might have to say that he's gonna be one of my favorite ones this entire season, um, because I did birth him. And so special guest. What is your first name?
Speaker 1 00:01:25 Eli.
Speaker 2 00:01:26 And what is, what grade are you in?
Speaker 1 00:01:28 Fifth.
Speaker 2 00:01:29 And what is your favorite thing about fifth grade so far?
Speaker 1 00:01:31 The teachers.
Speaker 2 00:01:32 The teachers. That's a pretty special answer. And what, what do you enjoy about them?
Speaker 1 00:01:36 They're really fun. That's
Speaker 2 00:01:38 Great. That makes my heart all warm and fuzzy. And so, um, as you are looking forward to Christmas this year, I love to hear from you, what are you looking forward to most about Christmas this year?
Speaker 1 00:01:49 Every year we go to Michigan. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And I also like my grandma's tomb roll.
Speaker 2 00:01:56 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yep. That sounds absolutely delicious. That's one of my favorite things too, that we get to enjoy. Right. Special treat. Can you tell me about one of the, your favorite adventures that you've been on?
Speaker 1 00:02:07 Last year we went to Zion National Park. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And we went on a hiking trail mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And we had no idea what was gonna happen. So we were hiking through it mm-hmm. <affirmative> and all the sudden we thought we had to cross a river mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but the people in front of us went in the river and started hiking through the river. We had to ask 'em if we had crossed mm-hmm. <affirmative> or went through the river. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> like into the river. Yeah. And so we hiked through the river for like a mile. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 00:02:41 <affirmative>. And, and was it cold or warm Water.
Speaker 1 00:02:44 Cold. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:02:45 It's very cold water. And so you're right. We had a very special opportunity to be able to hike the narrows at Zion. Since then, um, your mom has gone back and hiked it several times without children, but it's one of your desires to go back, right? Oh, he's currently sticking his tongue out at me. <laugh>,
Speaker 1 00:03:01 What did you say,
Speaker 3 00:03:02 <laugh>?
Speaker 2 00:03:06 We were ill prepared for that hike. Right. We didn't know what we were doing and so we found ourselves kind of in the middle of a much thicker adventure than we expected to be having. But you did, you were an absolute champ. And was it, did you enjoy hiking the water? What was that like?
Speaker 1 00:03:21 It was fun.
Speaker 2 00:03:22 Was the water moving or was it still
Speaker 1 00:03:25 It was moving.
Speaker 2 00:03:26 Right. And so that's hard too, cuz like in one direction you're going against the water and in the other direct it's kinda like pushing you back, which is really nice in my opinion. Is that something you like to do again? Yeah. Yeah. Hiking the neuros is probably one of the most beautiful hikes that I've ever been on. So if you don't know what we're talking about, you should totally Google, um, the neuros in Zion and just check out some pictures. It's a slot canyon. When we were on that hike, what was one of your most like, striking memories of that hike?
Speaker 1 00:03:54 When we were hiking, there's like all these twists and turns mm-hmm. <affirmative> and the wall in front of you looks like pure
Speaker 2 00:04:01 Gold. What is it actually
Speaker 1 00:04:02 Stone?
Speaker 2 00:04:03 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so we were just there at a time of day where a little bit of water was rushing down the side of this rock and the sunlight was hitting it on the perfect angle that it made the whole wall just light up and look like it was gold. That was very beautiful. So as we're talking about adventures this podcast season, what, what do you like most about adventures in general?
Speaker 1 00:04:24 I like the risk.
Speaker 2 00:04:25 Oh, that's not super surprising for me. So, um, what does that risk make you feel like, like when you're an adventure and maybe you're cliff jumping, you've gotten to do some cliff jumping, you've gotten to do some pretty narrow hiking. What do, what do you enjoy? What does that risk make you feel? Like?
Speaker 1 00:04:41 It makes me feel like sort of scared, but I know what's gonna happen. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 00:04:46 <affirmative>. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so like, when you kind of overcome that feeling of being scared, then what does it make you feel? Like?
Speaker 1 00:04:51 Happy.
Speaker 2 00:04:52 Yeah. I love that. And so you've kind of learned that sometime that uncomfortable situation, that risk that you take, right? It it, if you kind of push through it, it has a really good reward. What do you like least about adventuring?
Speaker 1 00:05:05 The other side of the risk, like getting lost or <laugh>, you can just turn the corner and there could be a bear
Speaker 2 00:05:13 <laugh> that's legit. And that's happened before too. And so that's such a good answer. A likes that Yes. Risk has two sides, right? One where you're like, oh, that was fantastic. One where you're like, this is not going well. So that's very true. Love it. And so what are we talking about today? What is our subject for today?
Speaker 1 00:05:31 The 400 years of silence between the Old Testament and New Testament.
Speaker 2 00:05:35 And so I'm gonna talk about that. What do we mean when we have like one page in our Bible Right. That separates the Old Testament and the New Testament. But when the Jewish people were living, you're telling us that that one page in our Bible is actually representative of 400 years. Yeah. Where they did not hear from God. Can you tell me a little bit about what, what that 400 years looked like for them? What it felt like
Speaker 1 00:06:00 During the 400 years they stopped honoring God and God just let them be captured by many people, including the Milo, Persians, Greeks, Egyptians, and Romans. Most people gave up on God because he didn't send the messages.
Speaker 2 00:06:17 Yeah. They were like wondering like, where are you? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. How do you made that, how do you think that made them feel at that time?
Speaker 1 00:06:25 Like lonely.
Speaker 2 00:06:26 Yep. Yep. Kind of abandoned,
Speaker 1 00:06:28 Like God wasn't with them. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:06:30 Like, uh, we thought you were doing something here, but I guess you weren't right. So mm-hmm. <affirmative> and 400 years is a long time to try to remember these things too. And so no scriptures written during that time. They kind of turned to idols. They were like marrying pagans. They had stopped like working on the temple. They were neglecting so many things that the Lord had told them, don't, don't stop doing these things. And then they stopped them. But during that time there's also fulfilled prophecies. And so if they had been watching for what God was doing, they would've been able to see that he was still up to something, but they got distracted. Right. And they felt desperate. And so tell me a little bit more. Anything else? What else did we know about this time?
Speaker 1 00:07:11 That was when the Pharisees and the Sades like became a bigger thing.
Speaker 2 00:07:19 Yeah. Cuz they kind of like stepped up in power, right? Yeah. There were no prophets that were, um, speaking the words of God to the people that were leading the people. And so they kind of came in really fiercely, um, to kind of control the situation. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 00:07:34 <affirmative>. And before that, Malachi, the prophet had foretold the coming of the Messiah mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And when he didn't come during those 400 years, that's when they like gave up on him. Yep. Cause it was a long time and they thought it would be like, oh, he's coming tomorrow.
Speaker 2 00:07:52 Right. And they were not patient. Right. They had, they had like an expectation of what God was gonna do. And that was different than what reality was. Do you think that sometimes our expectations of what God is going to do are different than what he's doing?
Speaker 1 00:08:05 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:08:05 Yeah. And so how do you think that makes us feel when we're kind of in that place?
Speaker 1 00:08:09 Sometimes that's when most people turn away from God. It
Speaker 2 00:08:13 Is Right. Because they're like, I I don't have the patience to try to figure out what you're doing or to wait or to watch you work. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, what do you think is the solution? What do you think the Lord is wanting from his people when he's silent?
Speaker 1 00:08:26 I think he just wants them to turn to him. Even though, even though like they have to trust him. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 00:08:33 <affirmative>. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. That's exactly right.
Speaker 1 00:08:35 He's not doing anything. They have to trust that he's there. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and that he
Speaker 2 00:08:40 Will, and that's hard sometimes, right? Faith is having a confidence, right? And something that's unseen. And so sometimes it's hard to be able to be like, can I just see what's going on here? Right? And he's like, no, I'm doing something that's unseen. It's not, not that I'm not doing anything. He was still fulfilling prophecies. He was still working. He was still in control this entire time with that guy. Confusing for them. Go ahead and read for us today's scripture
Speaker 1 00:09:06 Now in the first year of Keenan Cyrus of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cys, king of Peria. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cys King of Persia. So that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in his read that says Cys King of Persia, the Lord, the God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Juah. Whoever is a man of all these people, may the Lord these God be with him. Let him go up.
Speaker 2 00:09:50 All right. So we hear it, we see that he's making this proclamation. This is Second Chronicles chapter 36 verses 22 and 23. And we see that this is kind of the end actually of what is happening before this 400 years of silence. So second Chronicles actually, even though it's further up in the Bible, it actually is talking about some of these last Chronicles of what happened. And this is that proclamation of Cyrus. And then we have in Malachi chapter four, verses five and six, it says this, behold I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers so that it will not come and smite the land of the curse. And so we see that the 400 years ends with John the Baptist, the Messiahs war runner who had come to tell everyone, start paying attention.
Speaker 2 00:10:44 And so I hope that all of you see how important it was because they had all this silence they'd forgot to keep watching. They were desperate and they were thinking that the Messiah was gonna come and he was gonna look like a political savior that was gonna save them from all of these things that alike was talking about these rulers who were ruling over them. But John the Baptist, his whole job was to come and say, no, no, no. Beyond the lookout, the Messiah, the Savior, he's gonna come and he is gonna look different cuz he's building a different kind of kingdom than what you're expecting him to do. And so we see here that John the Baptist is really the beginning of closing out that 400 years of silence. So I hope that our listeners today that you are thinking about the silent times in your life, the times when you don't understand what's going on, that you do not grow weary of watching for what the Lord is doing around you and trusting him in the process. Any other thoughts, alikes that you have for our listeners on what to do with silence?
Speaker 1 00:11:48 Don't give up and you can trust people to do it. You don't have to to do it all by yourself. Mm.
Speaker 2 00:11:55 I love that. Right? Like when you're in silence, you don't have to sit there and try to figure it all out by yourself. You can rely on other people too. And so, uh, x will you disclose this in prayer today?
Speaker 1 00:12:06 Your God, I pray that whenever we're lonely or in times of silence, that we can just trust you and that turn away from you and that you can just help us do anything and that everybody has a great Christmas. Amen.
Speaker 2 00:12:23 Amen. All right. Can you close out our podcast today by wishing our listeners and Merry Christmas.
Speaker 1 00:12:27 Merry Christmas. Woohoo.
Speaker 2 00:12:29 Have a great merry Christmas guys.
