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Who puts the words in your mouth?
Theme:
The ventriloquist
Bible story/reference:
Numbers 22
The point the children are
to go away with is that we cannot blame others for what we ourselves say – or
the way we say it. No one can ‘make us’ say what we do not wish to.
Resources:
A puppet – preferably one
with a mouth that moves.
Introduction:
Invite 2 or 3 children to
help you. Give them a puppet (with moving mouth) and see if they can get the
puppet ‘to talk’. You might like to suggest that they get the puppet to talk
without their own mouth moving!
Perhaps get the school to
vote on who they think was best!
Main Content:
Ideas for presentation:
Use large or small puppets
behind a screen.
Use 1 puppet on your arm to
tell it with you (take a paragraph each)
Use pictures
Adapted from Numbers 22
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“There was once a nasty
King called Balak who was the king of a certain country. Normally he was happy
but at the moment he was very unhappy. Downright miserable! And he was very
afraid.
A huge, huge crowd of
people had just arrived on the doorstep of his country and Balak did not like
the idea that they were there. He did not want to have battle with them and he
certainly did not want to put up with them. But how to get rid of them? And then
he had a bright idea.
The king knew of a man
whose name was Balaam. And Balaam was a strange man. People were afraid of him –
he had the habit of saying that something terrible would happen – and it did! So
Balak the king invited Balaam invited to come and say something really horrible
about all these people who were coming to live in his country; and that if he
did as the king had asked; the king would reward him richly.
Well, when Balaam heard the
message he was confused. Should he go or not? He did not like the idea of saying
something horrible about all these people. But in the end,
he liked the idea of being really
important. So the next
morning he put a saddle on his donkey and took the road.
When they got to a
particular part of the road,
God sent an angel to stand right in the middle of the road.
Balaam did not see it but
the donkey did – and it turned off the road into a field. Balaam beat her to get
her back on the road.
Then the angel stood in a
narrow part of the road - between two walls. When the donkey saw the angel, she
pressed so close to the wall that she crushed Balaam's foot against it. Balaam
was so angry that he beat the donkey again.
A third time the angel
moved on ahead and stood in a narrow place where there was no room to turn,
either to the right
or to the left. Anyway, when the donkey saw the angel, she lay down on the road
with
Balaam sitting on top of
her. He was so angry and he beat her again and again with his staff.
Then God did something
amazing – he made the donkey talk.
"What have I done to you to
make you beat me these three times?"
Balaam was so angry that he
talked back to the donkey: "You have made me look a fool! I have a good mind to
kill you right now."
But the donkey argued back.
"How long have I been your donkey? Have I been in the habit of doing this to
you?" "No," said Balaam. And then God opened Balaam's eyes,
and he saw the angel of the LORD
standing in the road with
his sword drawn. So he bowed low and fell face down.
Then the angel asked
Balaam, "Why have you beaten your donkey three times? I have come here to stop
you going and saying something bad about these people. If it wasn’t for the
donkey I would certainly have killed you by now... but I would have let her
live."
“Oh dear!” thought Balaam.
“I have done the wrong thing. I must go home.”
But the angel told him to
continue on his journey – but only to say what he was told. Nothing else!
And so Balaam did get to
meet Balak – and even though Balak the king asked him to say horrible things –
he didn’t! No one was going to put words into his mouth again– except God.
Pupils
response/Outcomes/Prayer:
How often do you say things
just because that is what others want you to say? Or because you think it is the
right or ‘cool’ thing to say? How often do you say the things that you really
think or want to say? How often do you ‘think’ before you speak?
Dear
God,
Teach me to be careful what
I say ... how I say it ... when I say it. Help me to realise and learn that it
is better,
more important,
to show my care in the way I speak to
others. Help me to
understand that it is not my reputation that is important – but the feelings of
others. Amen.
© Spinnaker 2005
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