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A Spiritual Lesson In Toon Language: Lesson 12a

Topic: Keeping Promises, Breaking Promises I - Keeping Promises Can Be Hard

Series: Superbook, Tom and Jerry

Episodes: "That's a Promise" (Superbook), "The Truce Hurts" (Tom and Jerry)

Lesson PDF link: 12a.pdf

Introduction

Fun Fact: In my opinion, this two-part lesson is very solemn. Not only does this lesson show that promises are serious to God, but that they are hard to keep a lot of times too.

This lesson shows the above thought extremely graphically. We use the Tom and Jerry short "The Truce Hurts". Even though this cartoon is funny, it is extremely serious as well. It starts to show that promises are not easy. However, this lesson is not very funny for long, as we see in the Superbook episode "That's A Promise". This Bible cartoon has some funny points but it ends very sad. This cartoon is on the account of Jephthah and his daughter. Jephthah makes a foolish promise that must be kept. One of my friends who was going to a music Conservatory didn't like the ending of this cartoon at all. She actually said 'That's crap!! What happened to her is total crap!!!'. Anyone who likes happy endings won't like this Bible account's ending either. I think that even though a tragic account in the Scripture, Jephthah is very honorable here. His promise still was a bad one though.

Scriptures used include Judges 10: 6 through 11: 40.

What is a promise? Have you made a promise that you didn't keep? Why didn't you keep it? Sometimes keeping promises can be hard, as you will see in this set of cartoons.

Cartoon: Tom and Jerry Short: "The Truce Hurts":

Tom and Jerry: "The Truce Hurts": Direct link for video/webm

What was the promise made here?

Bible Study: God takes promises seriously. Read Exodus 20: 16, Deut. 23: 21, Ecclesiastes 5: 1-7

I will show "That's A Promise" (Superbook), this covers Judges 10: 6 - 11: 40 (The Story of Jephtha and his daughter):

Superbook: "That's A Promise": Direct link for video/webm

What was the promise made here? Do you think it was a good promise? Why or Why not? God required this promise to be kept. Why? God expects our best. A young unmarried girl was and is very valuable. Children are what are needed to keep a family bloodline going. Jephtha didn't expect such a high price for his victory over his country's enemies. He regretted doing so but made good his promise because it was the right thing to do.

What would you have done if you were Jephtha? I think that this would have taken a lot of guts to do what he did. I would have to pray for a major portion of strength to make good this promise. Wouldn't you?

In the Tom and Jerry cartoon, what happened to their promise? Was it wrong to break this treaty? Sometimes we make promises that we break. Breaking your word is dangerous because it reduces the trust in the promise breaker's trustworthiness. Breaking these kinds of promises listed here so far would be wrong, no matter how hard it is not to break them. Breaking your word is like lying in God's sight. What can you do to make better promises than the ones in today's session?