TIMELINE – Week 4 Skit

Key Words: Prophets, Defeat, Rebuild, Remnant

Memory Verse: “But in your great mercy, you did not destroy them completely or abandon
them forever. What a gracious and merciful God you are!” Nehemiah 9:31

Main Teaching Scripture: (Prophets) Nehemiah 9:29; (Defeat) Nehemiah 9:32, (Rebuild and
Remnant) Ezra 1:1-4

Characters –
Abigail: Abigail is a funny, at times sarcastic, tween girl.

Father: typical dad. Can be a pre-recorded or live character. Does not necessarily have to
be on stage (to help keep actor numbers manageable.) He helps up set-up Abigail’s
dilemma and duties.

Television Characters: These characters will be different every week but will all be based
on recognizable shows. Week three is “Judge Judy” with David as the Plaintiff and Absalom
as the defendant.

Stage design –
Stage Right (with extra platform area) is a female tween room. Abigail needs a place to watch
tv from and fall asleep. This area will stay consistent all 7 weeks.

Stage Left- “What’s playing on television.” Week four is sesame street

Props –
LARGE trashcan

SFX: Television channel surfing sounds.

Abigail- GOODNIGHT DAD!

FATHER- Good night! Wait… what? Abigail its only 4:30pm. You just got home from school.

ABIGAIL- I know. It’s just been such a long day that I think I need a nap. (aside) plus I am beyond
pumped to see what today’s dream brings. I feel like a modern-day Joseph. Is it weird that I
think God might be speaking to me through these dreams (pauses) Nah! Night night teddy.
Okay. Bible story. check. Television. Check. (She clicks on the tv and we hear sesame street
opening theme song)

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SFX: Sesame Street theme song.

ABIGAIL- This ought to be interesting. Okay. Ezra 1, Chapter 1. In the first year of Cyrus king of
Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of
Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing:
“This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:“‘The Lord, the God of heaven, (yawns) has given me all
the kingdoms of the earth (begins to trail off and should overlap with puppet) and he has
appointed me (Once abigail falls asleep… she can become Maria (maybe change into a fun and
bright shirt…)

Elmo- he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah.3 Any of his people
among you may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel,
the God who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with them. 4 And in any locality where
survivors may now be living, the people are to provide them with silver and gold, with goods
and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.’”

Cookie Monster- me confused

Maria- Basically, the king wanted everyone to come and help rebuild the temple. And for
everyone far and near to help pay for it.

Cookie Monster- Everyone far and near?

Oscar the Grouch- Yes cookie. Near (gets close to monster) Far (moves away) Near (gets close
to monster) Far (moves away)

Cookie- Ohh!!! Me think that is Terrific

Elmo- Terrific. Just like todays letter of the day.

EFX- Letter of the day video. Puppets dance at same time and elmo lip sings.

Elmo- Elmo loves the letter T. T is for timeline, testimony, and Temple!

Cookie- And cookies!

Maria- No cookie monster. T is not for Cookies. Cookie starts with C

Cookie- Oh… Maybe t is for… tagalong. That is cookie.

Oscar- I do sort of not hate girl scout cookies.

Maria- Everyone loves girl scout cookies! Hey friends. What else can T stand for? (to audience)

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Elmo- Oh! Oh! Elmo know! T can also mean Trouble.

Oscar, Elmo, and Cookie all scream at the same time.

Maria- I know that word can be scary.

Cookie- What word?

Elmo- Trouble

Oscar, Elmo, and Cookie all scream at the same time.

Maria- But sometimes we do things, things that make God sad, things that cause tro…
problems.

Oscar- That stinks almost as bad as this old can of tunafish (hold up can)

Maria- Remember when God rescued Israel from Egypt. And led them through the wilderness,
even providing manna from heaven as food.

Cookie- me wonder if the manna taste like cookie. That would be so yummy.

Elmo- but even after all of that. Even after God led his people into the promised land, they did
not follow god.

Maria- That’s right Elmo. They rebelled.

Oscar- sounds like my kind of people. What’s so bad about living in the trash with a bad
attitude.

Maria- Oscar, God wanted more for Israel. God had a plan and He wanted to remind Israel of
his promise. That’s where the prophets came in.

Oscar- Ah yes! The prophets. Also my kind of people. Telling everyone what they are doing
wrong

Maria- The prophets had many different jobs. Yes, they pointed out where the people of Israel
where not honoring their covenant with God. They also told them to repent, and then told
them what was going to happen if they kept choosing trouble.

Oscar, Elmo, and Cookie all scream at the same time.

Maria- Most importantly, the prophets called the people of Israel to follow God again.

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Elmo- But Gods people did not listen to these prophets. So they got in even more (whispers)
trouble, for a long time, even having their Temple

They all whisper yell-

Cookie- T

Elmo- Even having their temple destroyed. Until King Cyrus came along.

Cookie- and then everything perfect again! Cookies for everyone

Maria- Not exactly cookie monster. They had a long road ahead of them. The prophets are just
a part of their story.

Oscar- Hey! Before we continue our story, can we find out the number of the day?

Elmo- Elmo thinks that a great idea! Lets go ask Count. Hey count! Whats the number of the
day?

EFX- Video of Sesame Street- Number of the day 17 (Count) Add name of the prophets with
each number.

Elmo- I love the number 17. That’s how many prophet books there are in the bible.

Cookie- Me thought there was only 5.

Maria- You mean (read off screen ) Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekial, and Daniel. Those
are the Major Prophet books. There are also the minor (screen)

Cookie- Wow! 17 is a big number

Elmo- But what happens after those books, Maria?

Oscar- Yeah, what happens to all the junk and trash that keeps building up with rebellion and
sin…

Cookie- Please tell cookie there is a sweet ending.

Maria- The sweetest. In fact, one prophet, Jeremiah, told us of a coming king. A king that would
fix everything, cleaning up all that junk and trash. But do you remember how big you thought
the number 17 was.

All three puppets- yeah! The biggest.

Maria- Well what about the number 400!

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Puppets all react in their own funny way.

Maria- 400 years is how long everyone would have to wait to meet this very important king.

Oscar- 400 years from today?

Maria- that's a great question Oscar. It would be 400 years from the time the prophets called
the people of Israel to follow God again. Prophets like Malachi and Jeremiah.

Elmo- is this king better than king Cyrus way better Oh no whoa whoa whoa whoaIs this king
better than King Cyrus.

Maria- way better

Oscar- but I bet not better than King David

Maria- even better than King David

Cookie- woah woah woah. Is this king better than a million chocolate chip cookies?

Maria- We may just have to wait until next week to find out. That’s all the time we have for
today on sesame street.

EFX- Sesame street ending theme

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