king

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!

The New King

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Welcome back. Today’s story is from 1 Samuel 31-2 Samuel 5.  Today’s story has a LOT of people making bad, sneaky choices.

davidking

 

The Philistines attacked Israel (again) and King Saul and his boys were helping to fight. Three of Saul’s boys died and Saul was so sad, he fell on his sword so he could die too. Jonathan (David’s best friend) died that day too.

When David found out, he was very very sad. The man who told David Saul and Jonathan were dead said that HE killed Saul. That man lied. David answered, “Why did you kill the man God put in charge as king? Weren’t you scared to kill the man God chose?” Then David had that man killed too. The man lied…and then he died because of his lie.

Now, if you remember, there were 12 tribes (like big family groups) in Israel. Only one of the groups, Judah, wanted David to be their king. The rest wanted Saul’s son to be king. He has a long, confusing name: Ishbosheth. For a long time the people fought over who they thought should be king. A lot of people died. Which was kind of silly because God already said He wanted DAVID to be king…but the people didn’t listen. The leader of David’s army and the leader of Ishbosheth’s army fought and fought. The leader of Ishbosheth’s army, Abner, killed the brother of the leader of David’s army. So the leader of David’s army, Joab, killed the OTHER leader. See ALL these people making bad choices?? They ALL forgot that you’re not supposed to be mean to people just because they are mean to you. Lots of people kept dying because they were all being sneaky and lying and forgetting to obey God.

David and his army got stronger and stronger and Saul’s son and his army got weaker and weaker. Finally one day two men killed Ishbosheth (which did not make David happy–he was sad Ishbosheth had died). Then all the people decided David would be their new king.

David made a covenant (like a promise) to the people of Israel to be a good king and all the people decided yes, he would be the new king over all the families in Israel. David will make his own bad choices too. When we read the Bible there aren’t just “good” people and “bad” people. EVERYONE except Jesus makes bad choices, disobeys God and sins. And LOTS of people in today’s story made bad choices too.

God still had good plans for His people though and He put David in charge because David had a heart like God’s. He wasn’t happy when people died. David didn’t want the people to fight. But now all of Israel was following him and we’ll learn more about King David next time. Thanks for joining us, love to you all.

God looks at the heart

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hey everyone! Welcome back! Today’s story comes from 1 Samuel 16. Last year’s lesson can be found HERE.

 

So God was unhappy with Saul as king and He told Samuel to go pick a new one. God would show him who should be king next.

God told Samuel to go to Bethlehem (that’s the city where Jesus would later be born). There he should find a daddy named Jesse. One of Jesse’s boys would be the new king. So Samuel found Jesse and he found Jesse’s biggest boy. The biggest boy was VERY big..and handsome and strong…everything a king should be.

“This is him, right God?’ asked Samuel.

“No” answered God. “I have not chosen him….don’t just look at how big and strong he is. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

One by one Jesse brought each of his boys before Samuel (just like the step sisters in Cinderella) but every time God said no.

“Are these ALL of your boys?” Samuel asked.

“Well…” Jesse said, “There’s my youngest boy…but he’s out taking care of the sheep.”

Samuel said “Go get him.” So they went to get David, the littlest boy and God said, “THIS is the one!” Samuel poured special oil on David’s head and declared him the new king. (I wonder how his brothers and his dad felt!?)

God knew that David would love him. God doesn’t always pick the biggest, smartest, prettiest, or tallest. God doesn’t care if you have yellow hair or black hair, purple skin or blue skin, if you wear glasses or braces, if you can’t speak very well or if you’re not very good at school work. What matters to God is what is in your heart. Do you love God? Will you obey Him?

God chooses people who will love and obey Him. He chose little David. God had big HUGE plans for David, and He has big plans for you too if you will love and obey Him.

For our craft today, we cut out people shapes and decorated them. Then we took a heart sticker and added it and our text which reads: Man looks at what’s on the outside, but God cares about what’s in our hearts! 1 Samuel 16

 

Thanks for joining us! Love to you all!