| Isaiah 9:6 – “He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Almighty God, the Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” |
My wife and I are teaching Bible class at our church for the 1st through 5th graders. The material is “Prophecies about the coming Messiah” from Isaiah.
This past Sunday morning, our Journeyman heard them say their memory verses. One of them was “Love one another for love is of God. He who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” After they had finished I told them that I could also say that verse, thanks to a song that we sing, The Greatest Commands. I sang it for them, and some of them sang along. I reminded them that we learn lots of things by singing them, such as our ABCs. We all sang that one together. Then we sang the books of the Old Testament, and then the Books of the New Testament.
I would say that most of the people I would quiz on this could say the Lord’s Prayer from memory. Singing and oral repetition are ways that we commit to memory. I would say that song memory lasts longer. One of the questions I was to ask the class about Isaiah was “What are the 4 names for Jesus listed in Isaiah 9?” After I looked it up, I saw that I know the answer thanks to my mother exposing me to Handel’s Messiah at a young age. She played it around the house, and I soaked it in, unawares. The lyrics are straight from scripture. “All we like sheep have gone astray.” “For unto us a child is born, a son is given. And the government shall be upon His shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Almighty God, the Everlasting Father, The Prince Of Peace. “Every valley shall be exalted.” “And He shall purify.” Actually I thought it was “and He shall glorify.” I misheard it.
There is an oft quoted verse in Proverbs, “train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” In this case, my mother put the gospel story into my mind through music via my ears. And now that I am old, I cannot escape it. I love that music and the message.
Father in heaven, thank You for saving us, in Jesus’ name, Amen!
– Jeff Beall
