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Reply to "An edible food idea for 1 Samuel 14: Jonathan defeats the Philistines"

Hi Renee.

I thought this would be a tough one, being that the story is pretty obscure and not a lot of churches teach "battle" stories these days. I have to admit, I hadn't paid attention to this story in many years. 

When I'm looking for creative hooks, the first thing I do is look for clues and cues in the text. What immediately jumped out at me in 1 Sam 14 is the description of the "cliffs" that border the difficult terrain that Jonathan and his armor-bearer crossed to defeat the Philistine outpost.  That led me to a little research, which led me to the idea of constructing an "edible story map" which kids construct to both retell the story and visually recreate the terrain and cliffs.  The difficulty of the terrain features PROMINENTLY in the story, AND it is analogous to the point of Jonathan's words: nothing is too difficult for God. 

Materials: Kids can build the pass and cliffs out of dense cake (pre-baked and cut by the kids into shapes) and then covered in sheets of "fondant" (that icing sheet professional bakers use). Fondant is like edible playdough icing. Fondant can be written on with icing or other edible paints. Fondant can also be shaped into tiny people and placed in the landscape. 

The passage:

4-5 The pass that Jonathan was planning to cross over to the Philistine garrison was flanked on either side by sharp rock outcroppings, cliffs named Bozez and Seneh. The cliff to the north faced Micmash; the cliff to the south faced Geba (Gibeah).

The names of these towns give you clear decorating ideas:  "Bozez" means shining or bright white. "Seneh" means thorny. "Micmash" is not only a funny sounding word, it means, "concealed or hidden" ...as in "around a corner" or "hidden above the trail." "Geba" is also the well-known town of Gibeah. It simply means, "hill town." Probably fortified. 

Jonathan said to his armor-bearer, “Come on now, let’s go across to these uncircumcised pagans. Maybe God will work for us. There’s no rule that says God can only deliver by using a big army. (i.e. "size or level of difficulty doesn't matter") No one can stop God from saving when he sets his mind to it.”

(The translation I've copied here is from THE MESSAGE. The passage reads really difficult in anything too literal. It's almost unintelligible in the KJV for example. I've BOLDED what I think is the "take away.") 

Please post back here what you end up doing and take photos!

Neil

Last edited by Neil MacQueen
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