No…this is not Harry Potter’s magical creatures…but soon we’ll be learning about putting on the armor of God so today is an intro to that. But WHY would we need armor? We need armor to battle against the evil that tries to keep us from God.

Today we’ll be learning about spiritual beings like angels and the war between good and evil…between Satan and God who are fighting for our hearts.

We drew as I talked and ended up with the images above. You could do that, or just talk about it, or cut out some shapes of angels and put one talking point on each one.

***Disclaimer: I think I overloaded my kids on info…so I’ll TRY to keep it more brief here….if you REALLY want a VERY basic intro for very small children (or to review because today’s lesson is info heavy and kind of long) i’d stick to:

1. God has made helpers called angels

2. Some of them love God and help Him

3. Some of them choose to NOT love God

4. God (and the good angels) wants to love us and have us know God

5. The bad angels want to keep us from God, so they fight with God

6. But God will always win

7. We have a choice (just like the angels)… if we will love God or not

The slightly longer version follows:

First of all, do you know what an angel is? (my kids actually said “they fly and are shiny and talk to people!” I was surprised they knew that much…so see what your kids know or think and feel free to share in the comments!)

The Bible tells us a few things about angels.

1. Who they are:

Angels are creatures made by God (Colossians 1:16)

They are not people, but like people, they can make their own choices (Jude 1:6)

They don’t know everything and are under God’s command (1 Peter 1:12, Job 1, 1 Peter 3:22, Matt 24:36, 1 Kings 8:39)

There are tens of thousands of angels! (Hebrews 12:22, Daniel 7:10, Luke 2:13, Rev 5:11)

2. What they do

Angels serve God (Psalm 103:20)

-they worship and praise Him (Revelation 5:11-14, Nehemiah 9:6, Isaiah 6:1-4)

-some share His messages (like to Mary, Jesus’ mommy, to John in Revelation, and to the disciples at the empty tomb in John chapter 20)

-some help Gods people (like Jesus in the desert (Matt 4:11) or Daniel in the lion’s den (Daniel 6:22))

-sometimes they carry out a punishment from God (2 Kings 19:2-34, Psalm 78:49)

Angels also LOVE when someone decides to follow Jesus (Luke 15:10)

3. What they look like

Some of them have wings (cherubim and seraphim) (Exodus 25:20, Ezekiel 10, Isaiah 6:2)

Sometimes they look like people (Hebrews 13:2, Mark 16:5), sometimes they shine with God’s glory…like the halos you see in pictures (Luke 2:9), and sometimes they look very strange! (Ezekiel 1)

Angels are not for us to worship, they serve God just like us (Revelation 22:9, Colossians 2:18)

Demons

1. Who they are

Since angels have a choice, some of them decided NOT to follow God. Lucifer (Satan) was one of God’s best helper angels but he decided that HE wanted to be God ….but of course only GOD can be God. He said “I can be better than YOU!” and he got a bunch of other angels to go against God too. He has been trying to mess up God’s relationship with us ever since. He wants people to follow Him, not God. (Isaiah 14)

2. What they do

Satan and the demon angels are LIARS. (Genesis 3, Matt 4:6-11, Revelation 12:9-10, Matthew 13:19) They get people to believe God is bad and they change how people read the Bible or think of God, they also remind us of all the bad choices we’ve made (even after God has forgiven us!)…anything to keep us away from Him. (Job 1:9-11, Zechariah 3:1, Psalm 91:11-12, 2 Corinthians 4:4, 1 Timothy 4:1)

When Satan first went away from God, he went to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden and lied to them about the fruit they weren’t supposed to eat. He got them to sin and be separated from God, just like he tries to do with us… BUT as soon as Adam and Eve sinned, God said “I will fix it! They should have to die for sinning, but I will send my son Jesus to die in their place, and if they accept that then they can be with me again!” (1 John 3:8, Hebrews 2:14) So when Jesus died on the cross, Satan was defeated. He can’t keep us from God if we want to be with God forever in heaven. (Colossians 2:13-15)

He and the demons still try to keep us from God, but in the end, God said he will punish Satan and the demons forever. (Matthew 25:41, 2 Peter 2:4, Revelation 20:7-10) They know God and are scared of Him because they KNOW He is better and more powerful than they are. (James 2:19, Mark 3:11)

God has promised us that He is greater than anything else in this world. (Romans 16:20) We only need to trust in Him. (James 4:7-10)

Tomorrow we’ll be learning about the armor of God, which is some ways we can fight against Satan’s lies and stay strong for God. Love to you all.