Today, I’m sharing with you a special free download for those who would like to teach children (or any age) about Handel’s Messiah, Part 1 (which is the Christmas portion). This study is not on the biographical details of Mr. Handel, nor the historical background of the time period it was written in. Instead, it is about the Messiah.
Handel’s ultimate purpose wasn’t to write a piece of music to gain popularity because it was so poetically fitting to beautiful and intricate melodies, harmonies, and rhythms.
It was instead to give honour to his Messiah – Jesus Christ Whom Handel loved so much! Handel was passionate in wanting his audience to know Who Jesus Christ is and what Christ had done for people so that they could have hope in the present and hope in the future.
The Saviour, God-Man, the only One Who could pay for the penalty of our sin, came to this earth because He loved us. Like Handel, do you know this Messiah as your Saviour, your Lord, your Friend, your God?
This is the thought I’d like you to think about throughout this study – do you know the Messiah? It is my prayer that you will know and love Him too!
When you download this free 26-page pdf (click on the graphic to do so), you will find a teaching outline chart plus the large print handouts, some with small graphics or words to colour in or trace.
You will also find a link to the performance of Handel’s Messiah that our family liked to listen to for this study.
In addition, there is mention of one other (free) resource on our own website in one of the lessons (the one on Isaiah 9:6). That resource is an audio sermon from my dad and can be found on The Word In Our Hearts website here.
Have a wonderful Christmas season!
Below, I’ve included a personal story of what I remember especially when I think about the music of Handel’s Messiah.
“What is truth?” a professor asked a small class of students taking an English literature course.
God called me to attend secular universities and colleges for various coursework as a young adult. This was one of the classes I was told I was supposed to take. Sadly, a number of my classmates answered that they didn’t think they could know anything was true and some of them weren’t even sure they existed as a person. I spoke a couple of sentences for my part at the end of that class (mentioning that I believed there was truth, one could know it, and God and His Word is truth) but then dropped out of the class, asking the guidance counsellor for special permission to rejoin my previous choice for that timeslot – a course on the history, religious and cultural aspects of Judaism.
On our way to a class event, my new professor asked “what” I was (a Christian) and nodded that he had guessed right. “Welcome to my class,” he said simply. And it was a very good and insightful course; I learned a lot. My classmates also looked up to me to answer some of the Bible-related questions the professor would ask and I sometimes briefly shared parts of Bible verses or other things in the class discussions or my oral presentation on Zionism. Besides me, there was one other Gentile, but our backgrounds were not mentioned; we just all carried on with respectful conversations and sincere appreciation for each person gathered there.
Towards the end of the course, we were asked to pick a topic for an independent research assignment. I went to my professor and told him I wished to do my essay on the various Jewish perspectives on who the Messiah was.
He replied, “I think that will be a very good topic for you. I look forward to reading it.” He knew I would also include my perspective (which would be the same as a Messianic Jewish one).
You see, for me, the reason to attend a “non-Christian” school shouldn’t be just about getting an education or finding friends. It goes deeper than that, whether it is high school, post-secondary, or even elementary levels. For the Christian student, it is about making the most of every opportunity to love others the way God wants us to, and that includes spreading His message of hope and truth.
As I went to my professor’s office to pick up my essay after exams, I was rather surprised to hear the familiar sounds of Handel’s Messiah, playing softly in the background from my professor’s cassette/CD player behind his desk. He handed me my essay back, telling me that he had taken the liberty to copy it out for another one of the top students who had often sat next to me and had told him, “I copied her essay out for you. You need to read it. By the way, she is a Christian.”
He went on to say that he wasn’t sure if the Jesus I had written about was the Messiah – he didn’t know. But he hoped he would know. He had to still think about it. Then he leaned forward and with a sincere pondering, concluded our conversation, words that echo back to me over all these years….
“I want to ask you to promise me three things.” (I did)
“First, will you pray to God that I will know the truth about who the Messiah really is?
Second, will you continue to memorize the Scripture? In it is the truth, I know that, but so many of us do not know our own Scripture. I’ve only known a few rabbis who have memorized a bit of our Scripture.
Third, will you pray that next year, I will have another Christian student in my class [who will also speak about this]?”
God knows the rest of the story. I don’t. But I remember that God has given a special promise in His Word:
“And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
I will be found by you, says the LORD…”
Jeremiah 29:13-14a
The ending of this blog post simply repeats the beginning…
Handel’s ultimate purpose wasn’t to write a piece of music to gain popularity because it was so poetically fitting to beautiful and intricate melodies, harmonies, and rhythms. It was instead to give honour to his Messiah – Jesus Christ Whom Handel loved so much. Handel was passionate in wanting his audience to know Who Jesus Christ is and what Christ had done for people so that they could have hope in the present and hope in the future.
The Saviour, God-Man, the only One Who could pay for the penalty of our sin, came to this earth because He loved us. Like Handel, do you know this Messiah as your Saviour, your Lord, your Friend, your God?
This is the thought I’d like you to think about throughout this study – do you know the Messiah? It is my prayer that you will know and love Him too.
