Habakkuk

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all!

Today’s story is from the book of Habakkuk.

Habakkuk is a short book in the Bible, written by a man named Habakkuk. He was another prophet. Do you remember what a prophet is? A prophet is someone who talks to God and then tells people what God said.

Habakkuk was around during the time when the Israelites were taken from the promised land. He was very very sad about this and he cried. He talked to God and said, ‘WHY GOD!? These Babylonian people are SO bad! Why would You let this happen?! Why would You let us be taken away from the promised land? Why aren’t you coming to save us!?”

God answered, “The Israelites have disobeyed me. Your hearts are no better than theirs. There will be bad consequences for Israel disobeying me. But don’t worry, they will have bad consequences too.”

Habakkuk then praised God, because he remembered that God is always in control. God can do anything. God always has a plan and we can trust Him. God works on His time, not ours. Sometimes we want something to happen RIGHT NOW, but God says “not yet.” God is always on time to help us. Habakkuk knew that even though the people in Judah were making bad choices and that bad consequences were on the way, that God was in charge.

We can trust God too, to always care for us, to listen to us when we talk to Him, and to always have a perfect plan.

Today we made clocks based on Habukkak 2:2-3

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Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!

Esther

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all!

Welcome back. Today’s story is one of my favorites.

It is from the book of Esther.

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The Israelites had been taken from the promised land and some of them from Judah (Jews) were living in Persia. The king of Persia was Xerxes. One day, the king had a party and called for the queen. “Come show my friends how pretty you are!”

“Excuse me?!” she said. “No.” The queen refused to show off for all the men, and because she had “disobeyed the kin,” king got rid of her and decided he would pick a new queen.

The king’s helpers went out and found all the unmarried young women and brought them to the castle.

One of the girls they found and took to the palace was named Esther. She was an Israelite, and her cousin, Mordecai took care of her. He visited everyday to see how she was doing and he made sure she didn’t tell ANYONE she was an Israelite.

All of the girls had to take turns going before the king. Most chose to wear a lot of makeup, fancy clothes and jewelry. Esther decided to just be herself and the king chose HER to be his new queen. He liked her very much.

Later, one day while Mordecai was at the castle gates, he heard two of the king’s helpers making a plan to kill the king. He told Esther who told the king and the men were killed, but nobody really told Mordecai “thank you.”

Now King Xerxes had a helper named Haman. He was the king’s best helper, and he expected everyone to bow down to him, like the king. But Mordecai would NOT bow down to him and that made him very very angry. When Haman learned Mordecai was an Israelite, he decided to kill ALL the Israelites.

So Haman went to the king and said, “There are some people here who do not honor the king and do not do what the king says. Now sign this piece of paper that says we can destroy them.” The king said, “Sure…whatever. You can do whatever you want,” and he signed the paper.

Mordecai was really really sad about the news and when Esther found out he was really sad, she sent one of her servants to find out why. Mordecai told the servant everything and he said Esther needed to go before the king and ask for help.

The rule was though, that anyone who walked into the king’s room without being invited, would be killed. Esther was scared.

Mordecai reminded her that maybe God had let her become queen for such a time as this. Maybe God planned to use Esther. She could trust God and not be afraid to do the right thing.

So Esther asked Mordecai to gather all the people and pray for 3 days. She also prayed for 3 days and then…she went to the king.

So Esther got dressed up, tried to be brave and she went to the king…knowing he could have her killed if he wanted to. But when he saw her, he was happy! He invited her in and said, “What can I do for you?”

Esther asked the king and Haman to come to dinner.

At dinner that night, the king said, “What do you really want? You can have up to half my kingdom…anything for my Esther.”

“If it pleases the king, I would like you and Haman to come to dinner tomorrow too!”

“Yes, that’s a good idea! We will come!” answered the king.

That evening Haman saw Mordecai and was so angry, he decided he would kill Mordecai himself. Also that evening, the king couldn’t sleep. He called in one of his servants to read to him. The servant was reading some of the stories of the castle and the king was reminded of the time Mordecai had warned him about the bad guys.

“Did we ever do anything for him?” asked the king.

“No sire.”

“Hmm…bring in Haman!” the king called. “Haman! what should be done for the man the king wants to honor?”

(Now Haman thought the king was talking about HIM, he was SURE the king wanted to celebrate HIM, so…he came up with a great plan.)

“If the king wants to celebrate somebody,” said Haman, “he should put on the king’s best clothes, and ride on the king’s best horse. Let one of the king’s best helpers walk the horse around town and shout, ‘This is what is done for someone the king likes!'”

“Great!” replied the king. “Go do that for Mordecai.”

MORDECAI?! Haman HATED Mordecai!?But he had to obey. So they brought Mordecai and Haman put the king’s best robe on him, and put him on the king’s best horse and he led Mordecai around town saying, “The king wants to celebrate this man. This man is honored by the king!”

When he got home that night, Haman was SO SO angry…but he had to hurry off to the dinner with the king and Esther.

At dinner, the king again asked, “What can I do for you, my Esther? You can have up to half my kingdom…anything for you.”

Esther answered, “If you are pleased with me…please save my people! Someone is planning to kill my whole family! All my people!”

“Who would DO such a thing to my wonderful queen?!” shouted the king.

“Haman. He is our enemy.”

The king was SO angry with Haman he ordered Haman be killed. Just the way he had planned to kill Mordecai, now Haman would die. And Mordecai became the king’s best helper.

The king made a new rule, that the Israelites could defend themselves. And when the day came for them to be destroyed, they fought and won!

Esther was a regular girl, but she trusted God and He had big plans for her. God has big plans for you too and we know we can always trust in God. Sometimes things in life seem scary or we don’t understand why they happen, but we can trust God and see how we can show others His power and love.

There is a cute veggie tales video of Esther. Thanks for joining us today. Love to you all.

Daniel in the lions’ den

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all!

Today’s story is a well-known story from Daniel 6.

So Daniel and the rest of God’s people were living in Babylon. They had to work very hard and had a lot of rules they had to follow. They had been taken from the good promised land God had given them because they had disobeyed Him and worshipped pretend gods.

King Nebuchadnezzar had died and another guy was king for a while and then he died and now a king named Darius was in charge.

Darius was really impressed with Daniel. Remember God helped Daniel be really good at making decisions and the King thought Daniel was really organized, smart and in control. He put Daniel and a couple other guys in charge of everyone else. But the other guys in charge were jealous (they were angry because the King liked Daniel more than them). They decided to watch Daniel and find a way to put him in jail.

But…after they watched and watched…they couldn’t find ANYTHING that Daniel was doing wrong. Daniel followed God and made good choices. So the guys came up with a plan.

They went to the king and said “Oh Great King! We have an idea! For the next 30 days everyone can only worship and pray to YOU! What do you think?”

“Ooh,” said the king, “I like that idea!”

So the king’s helpers wrote up the rule and he signed it. Everyone would worship and pray to only king Darius for the next 30 days or else they would be thrown into the pit of lions so the lions could eat them.

But Daniel loved God and he knew he couldn’t follow that rule. He prayed to God anyway…because Daniel knew it is more important to follow God than what other people say. The bad guys were watching and when they saw Daniel praying to God they ran back to the king.

“Hey! Hey! Remember that decree you made saying everyone has to worship only you or else they get thrown in the lions’ den? Well we found someone NOT obeying that rule!”

“Really?” the king answered. “Who is it?”

“Daniel!” they said. “He HAS to be thrown to the lions…it’s the rule!”

This made the king very sad because he really did like Daniel. But the rule was the rule. So they brought Daniel to the lions’ den. The king said to Daniel, “I hope your God can save you!”

They put Daniel in with the lions and closed up the pit.

The king went back to his castle and stayed up all night worried about Daniel. He couldn’t eat, he couldn’t sleep. In the morning, he rushed to the lions’ den and said, “Daniel? Are you there? Are you ok? Did your God save you!?”

A voice answered back, “Yes King Darius! I am ok! My God DID save me! He sent His angel to shut the lions’ mouths…they didn’t even scratch me!”

The king ordered his men to get Daniel out. The king was so mad he threw the bad guys in to the lions…and they did get eaten up! (Yikes!)

Daniel knew it is more important to follow God and do what He says than to do what other people tell us to do. He trusted God and God saved Daniel. God saved Daniel to show the king and all his men that HE is the almighty God, the ONE who is worthy of our worship and prayer. God shut the mouths of the lions, He can do ANYTHING.

There is a veggie tales of this story, and we also made lion crafts. We used paper plates and some cut outs for eyes and a mouth. Then we glued strips of yellow paper for the mane. Lastly, we took tape and closed the mouths of the lions. (The angel probably didn’t use tape…but this reminds us how their mouths were closed and they didn’t hurt Daniel.)

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Thanks for joining us today. Love to you all!

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hello all!

Today’s story is from Daniel chapters 1 and 3.

image from religious doodles.com
image from religious doodles.com

The people of Israel and Judah had been taken away from the promised land and were under the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar.

There was a man named Daniel from Judah and his 3 friends (who were given new names when they went to Babylon) who were called Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They loved God. And they were all told to work for the king.

The king provided food and drinks for the workers, but it was food that God’s people weren’t supposed to eat. So Daniel and his friends obeyed God and only ate vegetables and drank water…and they were healthier and stronger than all the other workers!

The king was very happy with Daniel and his friends and God made them very wise. (They understood a lot of things and were good at giving advice). The king made them his helpers and whenever he needed help figuring something out, he would go to these 4 guys.

Later, the king made a big gold statue and told everyone they had to bow down to it and worship it. Anyone who did not worship the statue would be put into a fire and burned.

But Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego remembered that they were only supposed to worship God, not statues and they refused to bow down and worship it.

This made the king very angry and he had them brought to him. “Is it true that you won’t worship my statue? If you don’t, I will put you into the fiery furnace and you will die. No god can save you from that?!”

But Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego told the king, “We will not worship your statue. If we are thrown into the fire, our God CAN save us. But, even if He chooses not to, we will never worship your pretend god.”

So the king had them tied up and he told his servants to make the fire SEVEN times hotter than usual. It was so hot, the servants who threw them into the fire even died!?

But when Nebuchadnezzar looked in…there were not three guys…there were FOUR! They had no more ropes on them and one was very very bright and shiny! He knew it must be God.

The king called for Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to come out. They had not been burned at all by the fire! They didn’t even smell like smoke!

The king was so amazed, he told all the people that their God MUST be the real God and that from now on, everyone was worship the REAL GOD.

Sometimes it can be hard to do the right thing. We can know that God is always in control and that His way is the best way. Sometimes doing the right thing for God, might have bad consequences with other people (like when they were thrown into the fire). But we can trust that God ALWAYS loves us, ALWAYS knows what is best for us and will ALWAYS honor us if we obey Him.

Today we watched the veggie tales Rack, Shack and Benny.

We’ll have more from Daniel tomorrow. Love to you all!

Judah Into Exile

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Hi again!

Today’s story is from 2 Kings 24-25.

So Israel had disobeyed God. They had worshipped other gods and statues besides God. And because they disobeyed, they were taken away from the promised land to Assyria.

The one tribe (big family) called Judah had been saved so far…but they also worshipped other pretend gods and they disobeyed God. The prophets told the people of Judah to stop and to come back and worship only God, but they didn’t.

Nebuchadnezzar from Babylon came and invaded Judah. Twice. He and his men took all the people and made them move. They also put everything on fire…the peoples’ houses and even God’s temple, the church. They took all the special things from the temple and destroyed the whole city.

God’s people had to leave for 70 years.

How do you think that made God feel?

He could have stopped them from destroying everything, because He’s God and He can do ANYTHING. But He didn’t. God let it happen as a consequence for His people.

Sometimes when we make bad choices, we can say we’re sorry, but our mom and dad still have to give us a consequence. A consequence helps us make it right and it helps us remember to make better choices next time. God LOVES His people and He wanted them to make better choices next time, so He let them be taken away (kind of like a really long time out!) It was a very sad time. God had saved His people from Egypt and brought them to this land. He had given them every good thing…but they were not thankful. They did not listen to God, or worship only Him. They did not do all the things He said were good for them and now they were very very sad.

(We will have a few stories from the time in exile over the next few days. And then we’ll learn of the return to the promised land.)

For our craft today, we painted some fiery pictures and then added a silhouette of the temple and the sad people leaving Judah.

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Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!

The Prophets

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all.

Bit of a different lesson today. Sometimes there are stories that have a clear beginning, middle and and even a nice lesson for kids to take away. Sometimes, in order to give them a picture of the whole story and what all the Bible entails, we have to do one of these what i call “A to B” lessons. No real story or nicely packaged lesson, but it gets us from where we were in the Bible to where we’re going.

So, today we’ll be talking about some of the prophets.

There is a big part of the Bible that has books written by the prophets. Remember, a prophet is someone who talks to God and then the tells the people what God said. Sometimes it’s good news, sometimes it’s bad news. Sometimes it’s directions for the people and sometimes it’s about something that will happen later.

Most of the books of prophecy in the Bible were written around the time we’ve been studying…when Israel was taken captive (and Judah was about to be). Which means a lot of these guys lived at the same time and God was telling them all the same things.

Some of the things God was telling them was:

  1. Israel has disobeyed and worshipped other pretend gods and will now be have bad consequences (being taken captive into Assyria and then Babylon)

Isaiah 10:5-6, 7:17-20, 8:1-10, Amos 2:6-8, 3:10, 5:11-12, 5:21-24, Micah 1:6-3:12,

2. Judah has also made bad choices and will be taken away

Jeremiah 1:15, Zephaniah 1:2, 1:4, 2:10, Joel 1:13-14, 3:16-21

3. When His people come back to Him, God will later forgive them and bring them back to the promised land

Isaiah 44:28, Jeremiah 29:10, Obadiah 1:17-18, Zephaniah 3:17

4. God will then punish the people who took Israel and Judah captive

Zephaniah 2:13-15, 10:11, Isaiah 31:8-9, Jeremiah 25:12, Obadiah 1:3, Nahum,

5. A messiah (a savior) would come to be with and to save and forgive God’s people once and for all (this would be Jesus).

Isaiah 2:3-4, 7:14,  9:6-7, 28:16, 35:4-6, 42:1-7, 49:6-7, 53:1-12, Jeremiah 23:5-6, 31:31-34, Ezekiel 34:23-24, Daniel 9:26, Joel 2:32, Micah 5:2, Zechariah 9:9, 11:4-13, 13:7, Malachi 3:1, 4:5-6

And ALL of these things came true. In the book of Proverbs 30:5, it says, “Every word of God proves true.”

There are still some things in the Bible, some prophecies that have not happened yet. But we know they will, because we know EVERY word of God proves true.

Every thing God said would happen did. Israel and Judah disobeyed, they were taken away, they were later restored (returned to their homes and made right with God), their enemies were punished and God brought them a savior, who would be with them, love them, die for them and forgive them.

**There is of course SO much more we could do with these books (and i hope to add some more lessons in later) but this is an introductory lesson for preschoolers**

We made a little Bible today with the names of the books of prophecy. (You may note there are several not included in this list and that’s because we’ll be covering more from them later: Jonah, Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel, Hosea, Habakkuk, Haggai, and Malachi)

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Thanks for joining us today, love to you all!

Jonah

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Welcome!

Today’s story is from the book of Jonah.

Jonah was a prophet. That means he talked to God and God talked to him and then he told all people what God said. Sometimes it was good news, sometimes it was bad news, sometimes it was about what the people should or shouldn’t do, and sometimes it was about something that would happen later.

If you remember, Israel was divided. Most of the people in Israel (God’s people), had decided to follow one king and they disobeyed God. God let them captured by the Assyrians and they had to leave the land God had promised them. There was another part of Israel (called Judah) that followed a different king and they were still living in the promised land.

Jonah usually brought God’s word to His people in Israel. But this time, when God spoke to Jonah, He told him to go to Ninevah (a city in Assyria…the people who had just taken the rest of Israel captive) and tell all the people to STOP IT. Stop making bad choices!

Jonah was scared for the people of Ninevah. They were really REALLY bad, and he didn’t want to go.

So, he bought a ticket and got on a boat….and went the OTHER WAY. He tried to run away from what God had asked him to do.

Can we ever run away from God?

No…God is everywhere and He knew what Jonah was doing.

As Jonah was on the boat, a big storm came. Everyone on the boat was terrified. “We’re gonna die!!! Jonah, pray to your God and ask Him to help us!”

“I can’t,” Jonah said. “I have disobeyed God and that’s why there’s this big storm. Throw me over into the water.” The people on the boat didn’t want to, but the storm was so big and scary, eventually they did and as soon as they threw him into water, the storm stopped.

Then, a grey BIG fish came and swallowed Jonah. (Most people think it was probably a whale, but the Bible doesn’t say for sure what kind of fish.) Jonah was inside the fish for 3 days. It was probably slimy, and stinky and hard to breathe. It was groooooosssssssss.

While Jonah was in the whale, he was so sorry. He asked God to forgive him for disobeying and promised that if God would let him out of the fish that he would go to Ninevah. God did forgive Jonah. The Bible says in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins (tell them to God), that He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse from unrighteousness (clean away the bad choices and we’ll be right with Him again.)

So God forgave Jonah and after three days, the fish was sick of having Jonah inside and he spit him up onto the beach.

This time, Jonah did the RIGHT thing and he went to Ninevah. He told the people there what God had said. “Stop making bad choices or God will destroy this whole city and all of you!”

The people were so sorry. They asked God to forgive them and they started making better choices.

Jonah went away from the city and sat up on a hill and waited. He was waiting for God to destroy the city. It was very hot on the hill and God even made a big plant grow up to cover Jonah from the hot sun.

Jonah waited and waited…but God didn’t destroy the city?! Why not!?

(Because the people had confessed and asked God to cleanse them)

The next day, God took away Jonah’s plant. Jonah whined and he was angry. “Why aren’t you destroying the city?! Why did you take away my plant?!”

God answered Him. “You care more about this plant than all the people down there!? You think you can be angry about this?!”

“YES!” Jonah was angry. God had forgiven him in the fish and given him a second chance. But when God forgave the people of Ninevah, Jonah was angry.

No matter how bad we think someone is, if they turn to God and ask Him to forgive them, He will. We need to remember that the things we have are a present from God. He doesn’t HAVE to give us anything…but He does, because He loves us. He loves EVERYONE, and we should care more about other people than about the “stuff” God has given us.

This story also reminds us, that ANYONE can learn to trust God and make better choices, no matter how bad they seem. We can talk to God and ask Him to help us be thankful for the things He’s given us, to be thankful for forgiving us when we make bad choices, and we can pray and talk to God and ask Him to help us care about other people.

For our craft, we made some Jonahs and big fishes. We cut out fish shapes and glued on a googly eye. Then we cut out and decorated scared Jonahs. We taped them to a piece of cardboard. Next, we taped a strip of cardboard to the back of our fish and slid the Jonah cardboard through the loop we had made. Then we could slide the Jonah in and out of the fish’s mouth.

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We also watched the Veggie Tales Jonah movie.

Thanks for joining us today, love to you all!

King Josiah

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all.

Today’s story is from 2 Kings 22-23.

So the northern kingdom of Israel had been taken captive by the Assyrians. Most of the kings of Judah (the other tribe or big family) were not much better than the kings of Israel had been. They disobeyed God and worshipped pretend gods called idols. They did what the wanted and didn’t take care of the temple (the church.) It takes work to keep a church looking nice. You have to clean it, keep the paint and finishes nice. Sometimes you fix things…but the church was falling apart because no one cared enough about God to fix it.

Then, a young boy named Josiah became king. His father had been king and now he would be king. But he was just a kid? That didn’t stop him from doing great things for God, though.

He obeyed God and tried to always do the right thing. As we got a bit older, he has his helpers fix up the church. They found some old scrolls (rolls of paper) that were part of the Bible. Josiah had his helpers read to him from the Book of the Law (the older books of the Bible). When he heard what it said, he cried and cried. Do you know why? Because the people were NOT doing what the Bible said and he felt so sorry to God. We don’t know what God wants us to do unless we read the Bible. When we know what His word says, then when we have decisions to make, we can know if it’s something that God would want us to do or not.

He called all the people together and shared with them the words of God. He led all the people in making a new covenant (promise) to follow God and obey Him. Then the people celebrated Passover (which is when they remember God leading them out of Egypt and His angel passing over the houses of the people who put the blood on their door and not killing the boys in the house.)

The people took down their pretend gods and did what was right. It doesn’t last for long as we’ll soon see, but Josiah is remembered in the Bible for doing the right thing.

You don’t have to be a big grown up to do the right thing. Josiah was a good example to all the people in Judah for how to love God…worshipping only Him, helping keep the church nice, praying to God, and obeying Him.

In 1 Timothy 4:12 it says, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.” Even little guys can do the right thing for God and sometimes you can even show grown ups how to love God.

For our craft today, we cut out a smallish circle and two arms from red paper and one big crown from yellow paper and then we decorated them. (to show Josiah was a young boy filling a BIG position, even little people can do BIG things for God.)

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The description says “young King Josiah leads the people back to God” and if you can’t see, both of my kids drew him crying…apparently that part stuck out to them.

Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!

Israel’s Exile and Hezekiah’s Trust

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all. Today we are learning two stories. They are right next to each other in the Bible and they show a big difference in obeying and listening to God. These stories are found in 2 Kings 17-18.

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Recap: The Israelites were all living in the land God had promised and given to them, but they were divided. Judah had their own king and the rest of Israel had their own king. It had been this way a while, and a couple of Judah’s kings tried to follow God, but pretty much none of Israel’s kings obeyed God.

The Israelites worshipped pretend Gods and did whatever they wanted. God got very frustrated at them not obeying Him and He allowed their enemies to fight them over and over again. Eventually, the Assyrians came and defeated the Israelites. The Israelites had to leave the promised land and move to Assyria and work very hard for the Assyrians. They and disobeyed and not followed God and now they would be away for a very very long time.

The kingdom of Judah was not doing much better. They had some good kings who followed God and some real stinkers. Some of the kings let the people worship who or whatever they wanted and God’s temple (the church where God’s spirit lived) was falling to pieces because the people didn’t take care of it like they should.

The Assyrians came to attack Judah too, but at this time, Judah had a good king, named Hezekiah. Hezekiah trusted God. He got rid of many of the pretend gods and he had the workers in the temple start fixing everything up. Hezekiah paid the Assyrians a lot of money (even taking gold off the temple to give to them!) to leave Judah alone but that only worked for a little bit.

Soon, the Assyrians came back and made fun of the Israelites. “You think your God will save you? We defeat EVERYONE we fight. We got Israel and we’ll take you too!”

The people were scared, but they said nothing because Hezekiah had told them not to…they were to be still and trust God. Hezekiah went and prayed and asked God to keep them safe. A prophet (someone who speaks the words of God) named Isaiah told Hezekiah that God said “Don’t be afraid.” God would take care of them. Hezekiah trusted God and that night while they were asleep, God killed the Assyrians. When the people of Judah got up the next morning, there was whole Assyrian army….dead.

Because the people trusted and obeyed God, HE took care of them and protected them.

The Israelites disobeyed God and He let them be taken away. The people of Judah obeyed God and He protected them. When we obey God, that doesn’t mean only happy things will happen to us. Sometimes, even when we love and obey God, sad things will happen..but God promises to be with us and to help us through. (We will see later that even the Israelites who sinned and were sent away, were still God’s people and He still cared for them and took care of them.)

But Hezekiah and the people of Judah trusted and God and followed Him and HE fought for them. When we put our trust in God, who can do ANYTHING, we don’t have to be afraid of ANYTHING, because we know God is control.

Thanks for joining us today, love to you all.

Elisha and God’s Chariots of Fire

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Hi again!

Today’s story is from 2 kings 6.

Elisha was now God’s chosen prophet (after Elijah). God used Elisha to perform many miracles (things that shouldn’t be able to happen, but do!) like someone who was dead got up and lived again! And a lady needed money and she poured a tiny bit of oil into a jar and it just kept coming and coming and coming until she had enough she could sell and make all the money she needed.

God talked to Elisha just like He had with Elijah. Then Elisha told the people what God wanted them to know, because he was a prophet.

Now Israel (God’s chosen people) were always fighting other countries. Everybody seemed to want to fight Israel. The King of Aram was the one at this time. He planned to attack the Israelites, but God told Elisha his plan and Elisha told the king and they went a different way so they wouldn’t get attacked. The king of Aram kept planning and planning but every time God told Elisha and the Israelites how to escape. This made the king of Aram very very angry and frustrated and he wanted to capture Elisha.

So one night, the king of Aram and his army surrounded the Israelites. When they got up the next morning, the Israelites were scared. Elisha’s servant said, “What are we going to do?”

“Nothing,” said Elisha. “Don’t be afraid.” He prayed to God and ask God to show his servant what he could see. Then God let the servant see something he hadn’t before. There were lots and lots and lots of angels (God’s heavenly, spiritual helpers). They had horses and chariots (kind of like a big wagon that people could ride in), and they looked like they were on fire. They were ready to fight for Israel.

Then God blinded the Arameans so they couldn’t see at.all. Elisha went out to them and said, “Um…you’re going the wrong way! Here, come this way!” and he led them straight to king of Israel.

Since this was the enemy, the king of Israel wanted to kill the soldiers, but instead Elisha told the king he should give them some food and water and let them go. after that, the soldiers from Aram didn’t attack the Israelites anymore.

God is always working, even now. He lives in our hearts and He cares about us and what happens here and with our friends and neighbors. And He has angels, who we can’t always see, but they are His helpers and they do what He tells them to. God let Elisha and his servant see the mighty and huge army of God.

Elisha followed God and he trusted Him. Because Elisha was so close to God and talked to Him all the time, he knew what God wanted to do with the other soldiers. Do you know God cares for ALL people, even the Aramean soldiers? God doesn’t just love the Israelites. He loves everybody, even us and even the Arameans who were attacking Israel. Elisha knew that God is love and God had given the soldiers over to them by making them not see. Elisha trusted God to take care of it, instead of killing everyone himself. The Bible tells us to love those who are mean to us and to not be mean back just because someone is mean to us. Elisha showed the king of Israel how God loves, by being nice to his enemies, and letting God take care of them.

For our craft today, we drew some blind Arameans and angel soldiers and then added tissue paper fire to them.

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This video is a great retelling of the story posted by SabbathSchool.

Thanks for joining us today. Love to you all!