2 kings

King Josiah

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all! Welcome back! Yesterday we did the story of Israel’s Exile and Hezekiah’s Trust. Todays lesson is from 2 Kings 22-23. Last year’s story and craft can be found HERE.

God’s people had forgotten to obey Him. They disobeyed God and worshipped pretend gods called idols. They did what the wanted and didn’t take care of the temple (the church.) The church was falling apart because no one cared enough about God to fix it.

The kings of God’s people had mostly not been very good kings. They did not remember God’s words and did not care to obey Him. But then, a young boy named Josiah became king. His father had been king and now he would be the new king. Even though he was young, God was about to use him to do GREAT things.

Josiah obeyed God and tried to always do the right thing. As he got a bit, he had his helpers fix up the church. As they were fixing and cleaning, they found some old parts of the Bible. Josiah had his helpers read it to him and 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. But we can forget God’s words if we don’t read our Bible…so it’s important to read the Bible a lot…and reading with your mom or dad can help you understand it!

King Josiah called all the people together and told them the words of God. He and all the people made a new covenant (promise) to follow God and obey Him.

The people took down their pretend gods and did what was right.

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 wrote out 1 Timothy 4:12 and then drew pictures of each of the ways we can show other people how to love and obey God.

 

Speech: a face with a big, open mouth

Life: we traced our hands–loving God with our life means doing what He wants us to do

Love: a heart

Faith: a cross

Purity: a star–purity means perfect, nothing yucky in it–like a bright, shining star

 

We found THIS VIDEO from KidMo.

SabbathSchool has a two part video on today’s lesson found HERE and HERE.

 

Thanks for joining us! Love to you all!

Elijah/Elisha

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Hello all! So yesterday and today at our house we did the stories of God whispering to Elijah  and Elisha and the chariots of fire.

For the Elijah story we found:

THIS VIDEO from Gracelink posted by SabbathSchool.

THIS VIDEO is a song posted by Linda Harper. (Not professional quality or anything, but simple lyrics and motions that any church or home could adapt to help kids remember to listen to God’s voice.)

THIS VIDEO  is another summary of today’s lesson from Sunnyside Church.

 

For the Elisha story we found:

THIS VIDEO by ShareFaithSolutions which is a recap of today’s story.

Thanks for reading through the Bible with us this year! 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!

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

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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

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

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!