A Spiritual Lesson In Toon Language: Lesson 13

Topic: Greed: The Devil's Treasure Chest

Series: TaleSpin

Episode: "The Bigger They Are, The Louder They Oink" (TaleSpin)

Lesson PDF link: 13.pdf

Introduction

This lesson takes a goodly amount of imagination to understand. This is arguably one of the most figurative lessons (if not the most figurative) of God's and my collection. When greed gets in the way of one's life, usually things don't work out, and if it is true greed without discernment, things won't work for the better. This lesson is about taking unnecessary chances in one's life. This means of course chances that are not godly ones. We study King Saul's fall, King David's rise to power, and King Agag's death. I used the TaleSpin episode "The Bigger They Are, The Louder They Oink". It may be a funny cartoon, but pay attention to its symbols and you will see some good truth.

Scriptures used include I Samuel chapters 15 and 16.

Sometimes good people do foolish things. Have you done something in your life that you regret doing? What is it? What made it so foolish? Can you change the fact that it happened? What were the consequences of your actions?

Cartoon Show: We are going to show a cartoon on the subject of greed and its consequences. We will have a discussion after and a Bible story.

TaleSpin episode "The Bigger They Are, The Louder They Oink":

What's so bad about Becky's Plan? Would you consider her greedy? Why or Why not?

Bible Study: I Samuel 15 and 16 (King Saul vs. King Agag, and the rejection of Saul as King of Israel, the anointing of David)

What are the similarities between the story in the Bible and the cartoon? Do you think that King Saul was greedy? Why or Why not?

Part A: In the cartoon, Becky felt inspired to go on a truffle hunt despite repeated warnings and not being able to get the hunter she wanted. This truffle hunt is like Saul and his men going after all of the things God said not to go after.

Part B: Becky thought that she could and would get rich, but all she found was trouble. Saul and his men felt the same way and plundered their enemies (instead of leaving it), and taking their king live (instead of killing him).

Part C: Becky ended up in a truffle stew, so her hunt almost killed her. The king of the Amalekites was dangerous and sly. If God hadn't intervened, Saul might have not lived.

Part D: The pig in the cartoon represented Becky's plan. The pig wasn't very nice; the pig stunk and trashed everything when he went berserk. In our story, this is like the plan of King Saul. Saul's plan was not very nice to God, so it stunk and Samuel probably felt like Saul went a little nuts.

Part E: In the cartoon, a narrow escape happened using the pig as a substitute to help the broken Seaduck. After King Saul did what he did, Israel was broken because God left Saul. The loss of one pontoon on the broken Seaduck is representative of Israel at this time. Israel still had a king but the anointing was gone or torn away (one side OK, the other broken). David eventually becomes God's substitute for broken Israel. So, the pig has a second symbol. He symbolizes the anointing of David and a fix for Israel.

Part F: Becky, in the cartoon, was stubborn until the very last minute and wouldn't admit she was wrong until she had no more excuses left and was humbled. King Saul was the same way as Becky in the cartoon. He kept blaming everyone else for his mistake and didn't accept responsibility until he knew that there were no more excuses. He didn't do what he was supposed to do.

Have you been greedy before? What were the consequences of your actions? Even if something good happened, was it a good chance to take?

If you are greedy, you are taking chances that may hurt you very badly in the future.

I'll ask you one more question. How can you prevent your life from turning out the way King Saul's did? In other words, what ways can you obey God's warnings and do what needs to be done for God?