To Make:
This Advent we are going to make our own Jessie Tree out of cardboard. We are going to make decorations out of cardboard depicting the ancestors of Jesus and special events in the Old and New Testament in which God revealed Himself to His people. This week I have sent you four scenes from the Bible. Each week until Christmas I will be sending you more symbols to paste onto your tree.
1. Adam and Eve
Symbol: The Apple
Genesis 3: 20
We regard Eve is the mother of us all.
The Bible says, “So God created humankind in His image’ male and female He created them.
God blessed them, and God said to them be fruitful and, multiply, and fill the earth.
But by their rebellious disobedience to God, Adam and Eve spoilt everything and are attributed with introduced sin into human history.
They disobeyed God by eating the fruit from the forbidden tree. God punished them and made them leave the garden of Eden.
Christ died on the cross so that our sins will be forgiven. Because of His love for us we are no longer banished, but accepted. In Christ there is freedom from the bondage of sin.
In Christ nothing can separate us from the love of God.
2. Noah
Symbol: The Rainbow
Genesis 9: 8-17
God said to Noah, Build an ark. I am going to bring a flood and the water will cover the earth and wipe out humankind. Because Noah walked with God and stood blameless among the people of his time God told his family to go into the ark so that he and his family would survive the flood.
Noah obeyed God. It rained for forty days and the water covered the whole earth. When the water began to recede, Noah sent out a dove and the dove returned with an olive branch and Noah realized that it would be safe to leave the ark with his family and animals.
Because Noah was obedient to God. God made a covenant with Noah and his family. God said that never again would He destroy the earth. The rainbow is a sign of that covenant.
After the destruction of the world by the waters of judgement man is offered a new beginning.
4. Isaac
Symbol: The Rams Head.
Genesis 22:1-18
Isaac was the child of a promise from God, born when Abraham and Sarah were really old.
God decided to test Abraham, Isaac’s father.
He told Abraham to take his son to a place where God would show him and to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac to Him.
And because Abraham loved God so much he was prepared to obey God. But instead of having to sacrifice Isaac God provided a ram for Abraham to sacrifice.
Because of Abrahams obedience to God, God promised Abraham as many descendants as there are stars in the sky or grains of sand on the sea shore.
The words of Abraham, “God will provide Himself a lamb” are prophetic.
They fore shadows the death of Christ on the cross.
5. Jacob
Symbol: The ladders
Genesis 28: 10-22
In a dream Jacob (son of Isaac) saw a ladder reaching from heaven to earth, with angels descending and ascending.
God promised Jacob that the land that he was lying on would be his and his descendants. That his descendants would be as numerous as specks of dust and that everyone on earth would be blessed because of him and his descendants.
Jacob said that if God protected him and kept him safe on his travels he would be faithful to God. God promised to bless Jacob and to go with him where ever he went and to bring him back to his land. Despite Jacob’s deceit, God in His grace stood by the promise.
Christ the incarnate, God is the Ladder reuniting earth to heaven, mankind to God.
Thank you Revd Peta May for today’s Sunday School lesson.