Lesson video

Make sure that you've got a pen, some paper, and if you've got some colouring pencils or some felt tips around, then you might want to grab those because we're going to be doing some drawing in today's lesson as well.

And in today's lesson, we're going to be looking at the future.

We've been looking quite a lot at the past.

We've been looking at this ancient religion of Judaism 4,000 years old, and we're learning about the past, but in today's lesson, we're going to be learning about what Jews believe about the future.

And there's a special name that's given to what Jews believe about the future, and it's the Messiah.

So we're going to learn about what Jews believe about the Messiah.

I'm going to talk a little bit more about what that will mean when we get to that part of the lesson.

The first thing we're going to have to do though, is we're going to have to learn about David and Goliath.

So this is a story from a while ago.

We're going to learn about the story of David and Goliath.

You might have heard that story before and not realised that this is a Jewish story, this is a story about Judaism.

David went on to be King David, the King of Israel.

We're also going to learn about what the Messiah might be like, what Jews believe the Messiah, this person who's promised to come, a saviour, who's promised to come might be like, we're going to learn about the Messianic Age and you'll see that those words are linked, Messiah, Messianic.

Try saying them to get used to saying them.

Messiah, Messianic.

So we're going to be learning, we're going to learn a little bit more about those two and we'll learn about what about what scripture says, what does the Tanakh actually say? And that will help us to understand what Jewish people draw upon from the Tanakh, when they want to understand the Messiah, the Messianic Age.

And we'll finish, wrapping it all up together with our end of unit quiz.

So, first of all, our story of David and Goliath, I'm going to ask you to draw this story out.

So make sure you're paying lots of attention to the story as I tell it.

So the story of David and Goliath is all about an army that came and were fighting with the Israelites.

They were fighting with the people in Israel, and they had a huge soldier, this enemy army, and he was called Goliath.

There he is, look, he was like a giant, he was so much taller and bigger and stronger than all of the rest of the soldiers.

And in this story of David and Goliath, the Jews needed to send out one champion to fight Goliath.

And whoever won that battle just between Goliath and the Jewish soldier, they would be the person that won the whole battle.

The whole battle depended on this one fight.

And one boy put himself forward and that boy was not big and he was not strong.

He was weak and he was scrawny and he was small.

And his name was David.

He was a little shepherd boy, he was a shepherd boy nearby.

And David went up to the king, the king was called Saul, another famous Jewish king, King Saul.

And David said to Saul, "I will fight Goliath." And Saul laughed at him.

He said, "You're going to fight Goliath? "Look at how big he is.

"You don't stand a chance.

"You're far too small to beat Goliath." But David said, "Trust me.

"I know with God, I can defeat Goliath." And so David walked out onto the battlefield and he took out this thing here, it's a sling.

And really it's just a strap of leather.

It's a long strap of leather.

And if you've got that strap of leather and fold it over, then you can put a stone or a pebble in it.

And shepherds would be really good with these back in the time, because there might have been wolves trying to eat their sheep.

And so, they would have these slings with them and they would have these very hard, smooth, round pebbles on the ground, and they would pick them up, put them in the leather and they would swing it around their head again and again, and again, until it went faster and faster and faster, until that pebble was spinning around in the leather.

And then they just let go of one of the bits of leather just at the right time, so the pebble flew off and it could fly hundreds of metres a second.

And that's exactly what David did.

He let the swing, he let the sling off and it hit Goliath right in his head.

And David won the battle of David and Goliath.

Now that meant that the Israelites won the battle.

And later David actually became the king of Israel.

He became very important king of Israel, King David.

And we'll find out a bit about why that's really important in the next part of the lesson.

But first of all, I want to see if you can remember the story of David and Goliath.

So I'm going to ask you to draw it for me.

I put some words at the bottom here to remind you of the key parts.

So King Saul was fighting, was facing this big army, King Saul, the king of Israel.

He was facing this big army, and one of the big soldiers was this giant Goliath.

And he said, "I will fight any of your soldiers." 'Cause he was so big, he was sure he would win.

And the only person to come forward for the Jews was a little shepherd boy called David.

But he had with him a sling and he used that sling to fire a pebble at Dave, at Goliath and it hit him on the head.

And that meant the Israelites won.

The Jews won the battle and later, David became King of Israel.

So I wonder what pictures you're going to draw to show each part of those, each part of that story.

Pause the video and draw your own picture map, showing the story of David and Goliath.

Super.

So we need to know about the story of David and Goliath because David became this important king.

And one thing that Jews believe is that the Messiah, who is going to be a person that comes, is going to be a descendant of King David, a descendant just means a great, great, great, great, great, great grandchild, or a great, great grandchild, somebody where if it's your grandfather or your grandmother, then you were a descendant of them.

You're passed down the same family line and Jews believe that somebody special is coming, somebody very special is coming.

And this person will be called the Messiah or the saviour or the liberator, somebody that frees somebody.

So they believe the Messiah is going to be this great saviour that comes.

This saviour will be either a king or maybe like a great rabbi, a great teacher.

And they will bring peace across the whole world.

They believe that the Messiah would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey and they get all of this prophecy, so things that are promised, they get it all from their holy book, the Tanakh, and they're reading the Tanakh, and it tells them about the Messiah that's going to come.

And they believe that the Messiah will be a descendant of King David.

And that's why we learned about about David and Goliath, who came on to become King David.

So they believe that he's going to be a saviour.

He's going to save Israel, free Israel, free the Jewish people.

He'll be a high priest or a king.

He'll bring peace across the whole world.

And he's going to ride in Jerusalem as a donkey.

That will be a sign that it's the Messiah.

So see what you can remember about the Messiah and let's write it out in a nice full sentence, or maybe even a paragraph, if you're feeling like you want to change yourself and taking the time to write it out helps to, helps your memory process it so that you remember it for much longer, in a better way.

So finish this sentence.

Jews believe that the Messiah will, when this person comes, what they believe about him? Finish that sentence.

Pause the video and finish the sentence.

Jews believe that the Messiah will.

Great.

I hope that you wrote down lots and lots that you can remember about what Jewish people believe about the Messiah.

I had a go answering this question.

I didn't want you to have all of the fun.

So I had a go at writing an answer.

This was my answer, compare it to yours.

And if you put down any of the ideas, the same as me, then you could tick them.

And if you missed any, now's a chance to add it in.

So I wrote Jews believe that a Messiah is coming.

He will bring peace to the world.

When he arrives, he will ride into Jerusalem on a donkey, and become king of Israel.

It is believed that it will be a descendant of King David and that he will bring the dead back to life.

He will save and free Jewish people everywhere.

So I actually included it, but I didn't tell you about that, one of the beliefs that, that when the Messiah comes, the dead will be brought back to life.

Everybody will come back to life to be together.

And these ideas come from from scripture.

So these ideas come from scripture.

So we know that that Jewish holy book is the Tanakh, the first part of that, the Torah, given to Moses on Mount Sinai and read in the synagogue and the Tanakh gives prophecy or promises about the Messiah, the person that's to come.

So God has said to have promised this person to the Jewish people.

So let's look at some real scripture and we're going to see if we can interpret it.

I'm going to ask you to think, what does this mean? And this is sometimes called an exegesis.

My turn, your turn, exegesis.

Exegesis.

Great.

We're going to do some exegesis.

So an exegesis is just when you write what you think scripture means.

That's all it is.

So you look at a bit of scripture and you think, what does that mean? What does this bit from the Tanakh, What might this mean? You're doing exegesis if you do that, 'cause you're thinking about what scripture means.

So let's do some exegesis.

First of all, let's look at this passage from the book of Isaiah and it's from chapter two, verse four.

That's what the 2:4 means.

This book of Isaiah is from chapter two, verse four.

And this is what it says about the Messiah.

It says, "He will judge between the nations "and will settle disputes," that means arguments, "for many people.

"Nation will not take up sword against nation, "nor will they train for war anymore." Okay, so some ideas about what the Messiah is going to do when he comes for Jewish people.

So let's do some exegesis.

What do you think it means? What could this passage tell Jews about the Messiah? Write down your ideas about what Isaiah 2:4 tells Jews about the Messiah.

Great.

I'd love to see your idea.

So maybe ask your parents or carers to take a photo and pop it onto Twitter.

I'll show you how to do that at the end of the lesson.

Let's have another look at another piece of scripture so we can get even more of an idea about the Messiah.

This is from Zachariah 8:23, and this says, "This is what the Lord almighty says.

"In the those days," the Messianic days, the Messianic Age, so the age or the time when the Messiah comes, in the future, so that'll be an age, or a time in the future, when the the Messiah comes.

"This is what the Lord almighty says.

"In those days, 10 people from all languages and nations "will take firm of one Jew by the hem of the robe." So the hem of your robe is just like the bottom of your robe, they'll take the hem of the robe.

"And they will say, let us go with you because we have heard "that God is with you." 10 people from all languages and nations.

So what does that tell people about the Messiah? What does that tell Jews about what the Messiah will be like and what will happen when the Messiah comes? Pause the video and write down your ideas now.

Great.

Another good piece of exegesis that you've done there, where you're writing about what you think scripture means.

Well done.

Last one, one more piece of scripture.

This time from Jeremiah 31:33-34.

And it says, "This is the covenant," the promise, "that I will make with the people of Israel "after that time." So after the Messianic Age, when the Messiah has come, "Declares the Lord.

"I will put my law in their minds "and write it on their hearts.

"I will be their God and they will be my people.

"They will all know me.

"I will forgive their wickedness "and remember their sins no more." Last piece of exegesis, what does that tell Jews about the Messiah? Pause the video and write your exegesis now.

Super! Whew! You've just written three exegeses.

Well done, everybody, that's tough stuff, and you are so smart for doing it.

I'd love to see what you think those passages tell Jews, 'cause that's what Jews do.

They read scripture and they think, what does this mean? What does this tell us about the Messiah or the Messianic age? And they don't always agree.

They don't always agree.

Sometimes, they disagree.

And we're going to find out a little bit about that now.

So here's two different types of Judaism, two denominations of Judaism, where they believe lots of the same things, but they disagree about other things.

They disagree when they read the Tanakh, exactly what it means.

And we've looked at these before.

There's Orthodox Judaism and Reform Judaism.

So within Orthodox Judaism, this orange part, they believe, they might believe that the Messiah is going to be a human, and he's going to have some sort of special abilities and he'll be descended directly from King David.

They'll believe that when he comes, he's going to defeat the enemies of Israel and he'll destroy all the weapons so that everyone will live in peace.

And they believe that it's important to pray, to bring this Messiah, this actual person that's going to come, pray, please can this Messiah come.

Reform Judaism is slightly different.

So within Reform Judaism, they don't necessarily believe that the Messiah will be a person, but instead it might be an age or a period of time.

So Orthodox Judaism, the Messiah is going to be a person.

Reform Judaism, not necessarily.

It could just be the name that we give to a time when these things happen.

So during the Messianic Age, there won't be any more fighting, but that won't be because a person has come and said, "Stop fighting." It's just because everybody has chosen to follow what God says and stop fighting with each other.

And Reform Jews might believe that it's important to pray, to bring redemption.

So to give forgiveness and help everyone act in a way that will bring the Messianic Age about.

So they don't believe that they're praying for a person to come, they're praying for everybody to act like the Messiah, everybody to act like the person that brings peace.

So you can see that there's two slightly different beliefs there amongst Orthodox Jews and Reform Jews.

I'm going to muddle up their beliefs and see if you can remember whether an Orthodox Jew might hold it or a Reform Jew might hold it.

Here we go, get ready.

So I've muddled them up.

Can you write on your piece of paper, Orthodox Judaism and then all of the beliefs that Orthodox Jews believe, and then Reform Judaism and all the beliefs that Reform Jews believe.

So you might want to do it in two columns, Orthodox, Reform and see if you can match up the correct belief, 'cause they're all jumbled up here.

Pause the video and have a go at that task now.

Well done.

That was a tricky one.

Lots of writing, as well, so well done if you stuck with it and you didn't give up and you didn't just skip through that task.

It's important to write it down, it helps you to remember.

I'm going to show you the answers now, so you can tick them if you've got them correct.

Have a look at those, and you can pause the video and tick your answer if you got them correct, and just edit them if you didn't quite get them right.

So one last thing that we haven't talked about is you might have heard about the Messiah already because Christians believe that Jesus was the Messiah.

So Jesus was a Jew, and Christians called him Messiah or Saviour or liberator.

They said, Jesus is the chosen one.

And some of the things that Jesus did did match with some of the prophecies that are in scripture.

He did ride into Jerusalem on a donkey, for example.

So there's some of these things that made people think, oh, Jesus was the one that saved everybody.

He brought the dead back to life because Christians believe that if you believe in Jesus, then you'll have eternal life.

But Jews don't believe that Jesus is the Messiah.

They believe that we're still waiting for the Messiah.

They don't believe that Jesus is the Messiah, 'cause they think that all of the prophecy hasn't been met.

So for example, prophecy says that peace will come, that when the Messiah comes, there will be peace on earth.

And there isn't peace on earth at the moment, there are wars happening and nations are still fighting with each other and people are fighting within nations.

And so for Jews, they say well, that shows that the Messiah hasn't come yet.

So a key difference in belief between Christians and Jews is that Christians believe that Jesus is the Messiah, and Christ just means Messiah.

It's the Greek word for Messiah.

So Jesus the Messiah or Jesus the Christ and Jews believe we're still waiting for the Messiah.

So that's a key difference that it is important to know.

And with that, we're finished.

If you want me to see your work and I would love to see it, then you need to follow those instructions.

Ask your parents or carers.

You can't send it in because you shouldn't have a Twitter account, so I won't reply to anything if it's come through, from you.

It needs to be your parent or your carer.

And if you would like to see your work in these lessons then ask your parent or carer to write, "I give permission to share" on the tweet.

In our next lesson, we're going to put together all of our ideas, and we're going to write another essay.

Your essays rocked last time, they were so good.

I was so, so, so impressed with the long pieces of writing to show what experts you've become in your learning about Shang dynasty there.

And we're going to write another great essay about Judaism and you're going to really, really smash it again.

So I can't wait for those lessons next week and I'll see you then.

Bye!.