Messages from Heaven Part 3, Friday

0:00Hey kids, welcome to Junior's for Jesus. Go grab your Bibles, we're gonna be digging in and learning some really exciting stories. Let's get started. We're wrapping up the third of our lessons on messages from heaven, from the minor prophets. Yesterday, we learned about Malachi. Malachi lived in a time where the people he was talking to weren't doing their best to follow God's rules. They were not showing the respect that God deserved. They were not offering God their best, but bringing him the leftover. These people were religious to be sure, but they were all rituals. Their hearts were far from God. They did not love God with all their heart. They were only going through the motions. God tried to reason with them eight different times on everything from love, to respect, to sacrifices, to pretending to be sorry. They even said that what was good was evil and what was evil was good.

1:00Because of this, Malachi had to deliver some difficult news to these people, telling them to give God the honor that he deserved. As the book ends, God promises to send one who would come in the spirit of Elijah to prepare the way for the Lord. Thankfully, some of them repent it. That's what our memory verse has been for this week. Malachi chapter three, verse 16, then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another and the Lord listened and heard them. So a book of remembrance was written before him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on his name. As Malachi chapter three, verse 16, Friday, the Old Testament ends. We've studied only parts of the 16 books of prophecy in the Old Testament. There's much more to learn from them. And you can do that as you continue studying the Bible. Try to set aside some time for Bible study every day.

2:03All the books of the Old Testament are important, but some people don't understand that. They don't realize that the Old Testament was the only Bible people had when Jesus was on earth. It was the Bible Jesus and Paul studied, and from which they quoted. The New Testament books were not written until many years after Jesus went back to heaven. Did you understand everything we studied in the Old Testament books of prophecy? If you didn't, don't be discouraged. Daniel didn't understand everything that he wrote. And that was only one of the 16 books. Daniel 12, eight and nine. Although I heard, I did not understand. And then I said, my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? And he said, go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the end of time. Neither did some of the other prophets understand everything that they wrote. They especially wanted to know the meaning of what they had written about the coming of Jesus, his death for us, and the wonders of heaven

3:05and the new earth. These prophets not only studied what they had written themselves, they searched the writings of other prophets too. Daniel studied what Jeremiah had written. Daniel's after nine, verse two. In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the words of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of the Jerusalem. And tried to imagine Zachariah longing to understand what Isaiah had written about the man Amsaros and Isaiah 53. It was revealed to those Old Testament prophets that they were writing their messages not to themselves, but to us. Yet they studied their prophecies to learn all that they could. First Peter chapter one, verses 10 through 12, of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching that of what manner

4:07of time the spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when he testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. To them, it was revealed that not to themselves, but to us, they were ministering to things which now have been reported to you. Through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things which angels desire to look into. Now let's apply it. How many troubles God's people are spared when they study and accept the prophecies? Oh, how much more we need to study them. This podcast is brought to you by My Bible First. Visit us at MyBibleFirst.org to find other great resources for children, youth, and adults. All of our resources are geared to help you understand the Bible better.