old testament

Joshua at Jericho

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Hey all! Today we begin the book of Joshua. Last year’s lesson can be found HERE.

This story is from Joshua 1-5 in the Bible.

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If you remember, the Israelites had been wandering around the desert for 40 years on their way to the land God had promised them. It shouldn’t have taken that long, but they had disobeyed and as a consequence weren’t allowed to go there for a loooong time. Moses, their leader, had gotten very old and died and now Joshua (one of the people who DIDN’T disobey God) was in charge.

And finally…it was TIME! Time to go into the promised land!

The Israelites were getting closer to Jericho. Jericho was a strong city surrounded by a HUGE wall. So Joshua sent two men to go check out the city. They met a woman in Jericho named Rahab who helped them. She hid them from the soldiers of Jericho and asked that they would keep her and her family safe when the Israelites take over Jericho. They agreed (and they did keep their promise!) The spies returned to Joshua and they said, “YES! God has given us this land! Let’s go!”

To get to Jericho, the Israelites had to cross a river. God dried it up for them so they could cross, and then once they were across, He let the waters flow again. (Just like how they left Egypt with the parting of the red sea, their journey ended with God parting the waters for them again!) If God asks you to do something, you can be sure He will help make a way–even if it seems like a crazy idea. But walking through water wasn’t God’s only crazy idea for His people.

They soon came to Jericho. The Israelites were supposed to take over this land, but they were scared about the big wall and the big people in the city. They talked about going back to Egypt, or finding a different way to go.

But Joshua reminded the people that God had led them here and He would help them. Joshua prayed (talked) to God and God sent an angel who told him what to do.

The angel told Joshua and the people of Israel to march around the city one time for 6 days. The priests (the guys in charge of the church) were to carry trumpets and then, on the 7th day, all the people would march around the city 7 times and the priests would blow the trumpets. Then everyone would shout really loudly and the walls would fall down.

Sounds kind of funny, doesn’t it? “Just walk and then yell and blow the trumpets? Doesn’t God want us to smash the wall? Or kick it? Or shoot cannon balls at it?”

No. God wanted the people to OBEY and TRUST Him. HE would knock the wall down.

So the Israelites obeyed. They marched around the city one time for 6 days and on the 7th day, they marched around 7 times. Then Joshua told the people “Shout! God has given us this land!” The people shouted, the trumpets blasted and the walls fell down. The Israelites ran in and took over the city, defeating all the people who lived there. (Saving Rahab and her family though)

GOD is the one who knocked down the wall. He was showing the people of Israel AND of Jericho that HE is God and we know God can do….ANYTHING! Nothing is too hard for God. No matter how hard something may seem, with God all things are possible. (Matt 19:26). When God has a plan, anything is possible. We only need to TRUST Him and OBEY Him.

We watched the Veggie Tales “Josh and the Big Wall” today.

THIS is another cute video of today’s story from Little Heroes Bible Stories posted by Gold Quill. And THIS is a little video about Rahab who helped the Israeli spies.

THIS is an acapella version of “Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho” posted by Keith Lancaster. THIS is the same song but by Cedarmont Kids.

 

Thanks for joining us again! Love to you all!

Deuteronomy

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Hey all! We did our overview of Deuteronomy today. I used last year’s lesson found HERE.

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So today I will add links:

THIS SONG  posted by Jelly Telly is from the “What’s in the Bible?” series.

THIS is a song by Steve Green (Posted by Christian SingersVEVO) based on Deut 6:5.

THIS is a sign language demonstration of Deuteronomy 31:6 posted by Colonial Church.

THIS is a cute video of Deut 6:4-9 by Mark Teachy.

 

 

Pinterest does have a few crafts ideas and some coloring pages related to Deuteronomy.

The most important thing for us to remember, as parents, grandparents, teachers is this:

“18 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 20 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, 21 so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.”

All day every day we can be teaching our children about God. The words we use, the love we show. Let’s take some time to pray about being good leaders for the children we teach (our own or others) and that we would follow and obey God 1st, to be good examples for the children who watch us.

Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!

Balaam’s Talking Donkey

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Hello all! Today’s story is from Numbers 22-24. Last year’s lesson and craft can be found HERE.

The Israelites were spending  40 years wandering around the desert because they had disobeyed God. During that time, they had to fight a lot of other countries. One of them was Moab. Now the king of Moab was scared of the Israelites so he called for one of his prophets (someone who tells people what God says) Balaam, and said, “I need you to curse the Israelites. Say bad things about them and say that WE will win!”

But Balaam said, “I can’t come to curse them….I can only say what God tells me to say?”

“What if i give you a lot of money? THEN will say what I want?” asked the king.

Balaam talked to God and God didn’t want him to go. Eventually though, God said he could.

And you know what? Balaam was going to go and curse the Israelites and take the money. He was riding his donkey back to the king to curse the Israelites when suddenly,  in the rode, his donkey stopped. Balaam was mad. “Move it!” he yelled to the donkey. “Why aren’t you moving?!” He even hit the donkey.

Then the donkey turned around and said, “Why are you hitting me?!”

Balaam answered “Because you won’t move!” (He talked to a donkey!)

Just then Balaam saw an angel of God. He was blocking the road. The donkey had seen the angel and stopped, but Balaam did not see the angel until just then. God did not want Balaam to go to the king and say bad things about the Israelites. God had told him that in prayer, with a donkey and with an angel!

Balaam went anyway, but when he got there, three times he spoke the words of God and he said that the Israelites would be strong and brave and that THEY would win. He also said that anyone who went against God’s people would lose.

It took a LOT for God to get’s Balaam’s attention. He even made an animal TALK to get Balaam to listen to Him. We need take time to pray and to LISTEN to God. We can know what God wants by reading the Bible, listening to grown ups who know God and by praying and listening to God in our own hearts. Maybe you can pray right now and take some time to give God your attention.

Today’s craft is made from a gift bag (or a paper lunch bag). We cut out a donkey head shape and drew on some nostrils and then glued on some googly eyes. Then we cut another strip of brown paper and fringed it. This we glued to the back of the bag.

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THIS is a video from SabbathSchool about today’s lesson.

Thanks for joining us! Love to you all!

 

Our forgiving God

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Hey all! Today we talked about the next part of Numbers (chapters 17,20,21). Last year’s lesson and craft can be found HERE.

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The Israelites were following God through the desert on their way to the promised land…but no matter how many GREAT things God did…the people just COMPLAINED! It’s easy for us to complain instead of THANKING God for all the great things He has given us and done for us. Let’s take a minute to think about those things and thank God.

In the book of Numbers there are 3 stories about the people complaining and not trusting God. The first time they didn’t trust God’s choices. Aaron (Moses’ brother was the chief priest–the one who would give sacrifices and pray to God to forgive the people for their sins (bad choices). It was important that the people listen to Aaron because God had chosen him to stand between the people and God. But the people had disobeyed and as a consequence, some of them had died. Instead of telling God they were sorry, instead they said “It’s ALL YOUR fault, Aaron!” They wanted a NEW chief priest. They didn’t like the one God had chosen.

But God told them to bring 12 staffs (one from the leader of each tribe/family) into the tabernacle (the church). The next morning, when Moses went to see the staffs, Aaron’s staff (big stick) had grown some flowers! All the people were amazed and reminded that God would choose who He wanted to lead the people. They put Aaron’s staff back in front to remind everyone not to doubt God’s choosing and to be thankful that He is a forgiving God.

But, it didn’t take long before the people forgot about God’s goodness and again started complaining. They were complaining this time about the food and water. God told Moses to talk to a rock to give the people water. But even Moses didn’t always obey God. Instead of talking to the rock, he bonked it with his staff. It did give water to all the people, but God wasn’t happy. So God told Moses even he wouldn’t get to go into the promised land, only his kids and grandchildren. Even though the people had complained and not obeyed God, He still took care of them and gave them the water they needed. The people were reminded that He is a forgiving God.

Then later, many years later, the people were still following God around the desert and again, they started to complain. God was very frustrated with the people for not trusting Him and He sent snakes to bite the people. It hurt a lot and some of the people died. Moses asked God to forgive the people and God told Moses to make a big snake statue and the anyone who got bitten by a snake could look at that and get better. If the people believed God and obeyed Him and looked at the snake statue, they got better. If they didn’t obey God, then they died. Was the statue God? No. Did the statue have any powers? No. Only God has the power to make someone better. He just wanted the people to OBEY and look at the snake. He wanted them to TRUST HIM and obey. Even though the people complained and complained, God still gave them a way to get better. The people were reminded that He is a forgiving God.

Sometimes when we make bad choices, there are bad consequences, but God still forgives us and still loves us. We can always remember that He is a forgiving God. The people did not trust God…instead they complained. When we trust God, we will be thankful. Let’s try to be more thankful and trust God’s plans.

THIS video by Steven Bussell has all three of our mini stories in paper-bag puppet form (very cute and well done).

THIS is a great overview of the book of Numbers from the “What’s in the Bible” series posted by JellyTelly.

THIS is a very thorough overview of Numbers posted by The Bible Project.(Today’s lesson starts at about 3:15 into the video and goes until about 4:35).

Thanks for joining us again! Love to you all!

Do not be afraid

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Hello again! So last year we did an overview of Leviticus found HERE and then covered the first part of Numbers HERE.

Today, however we are just going to jump in and continue following the Israelites. This story is from Numbers 13/14. Last year’s lesson and craft on this can be found HERE.

So Moses and the Israelites had been freed from Egypt and had been given God’s rules on Mt Sinai and God was leading them to a special place He had for them. This was the land He had promised Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. God was bringing His people back to this promised land.

As they got closer they realized this place (called Canaan) had people living there. So Moses asked 12 guys (one leader from each tribe/family) to go check it out. They were like secret spies. For 40 days (a little more than a whole month) they watched the place. They wanted to see what kind of people lived there and if food would grow well there. They wanted to know what kind of weapons the people had, or if they had a big army.

Well…when they came back to report to all the Israelites they said “Good news! It has LOTS of great food! It’s beautiful!’

“But the bad news is….those are BIG scary people! And the city walls are BIG….it’s too scary…we shouldn’t go in.”

Two of the men, Caleb and Joshua tried to remind everyone that GOD was leading them. They didn’t have to be afraid with God on their side! God was on THEIR team! God had PROMISED them this land! But the people didn’t want to trust God’s promise. Instead…they trusted their fear. They said “It doesn’t matter what God promised us!? This is too scary! We shouldn’t try to take that land.”

And they all decided to NOT obey God. God was not happy and He said “Only Caleb and Joshua (who wanted to obey) and the children will get to go in someday. The rest of you, who didn’t obey Me will never live in the promised land. The grown ups who were too scared to obey Me will be old and die before it’s time to go in to the promised land.”

And even though their trip from should have taken about two weeks….God kept the Israelites in the desert for 40 YEARS!!!

We NEVER have to be afraid to obey God. God might ask us to do some pretty scary things sometimes…but we can always know that God loves us, and protects us, and the best thing we can do is obey God, no matter what. Like Caleb and Joshua said “Do not disobey the Lord, and don’t be afraid…the Lord is with us! Don’t be afraid!” (Nu 14:9)

For our craft today we used paper plates to draw a face. Then we traced our arms in a “strong position”. We cut out the arms and taped them to the face. Then we bent them in half so they could cover the eyes of the face OR be bent out to be like strong, muscle arms.

Our text reads: We never have to be afraid to obey God! Numbers 13/14

Thanks for joining us! Love to you all!

The Cloud and Fire

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Hello again. Today we reviewed the tabernacle (from Exodus 24-39). Last year’s lesson (AND A LOT MORE DETAIL) can be found HERE. We also learned about the pillars of cloud and fire (Exodus 13:21-22)

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God’s people, the Israelites were living in the desert while they followed God to the land He had promised them.

God showed the people He was with them by leading with a cloud. During the day it was a cloud, at night it was fire. If the cloud stayed, the Israelites stayed. If the cloud moved, the Israelites moved.

God told Moses to build a tabernacle (like a church). He gave Moses all the instructions and was very clear about what the church should be like. Since they moved around a lot, the tabernacle was really a big tent.

The church had a place where the people could make their sacrifices to God–to show Him they were sorry for their sins and/or to give God gifts.

It also had a place to worship God and then it had a special room called the Holy of Holies or the Most Holy Place. Only one person one time a year could go into that special place and that’s because God’s spirit was there. The chief priest was the only person and he only went in one time a year to talk with God. He would talk to God for the people and ask God to forgive their sins. God was WITH His people the whole time they were in the desert.

When Jesus died on the cross, the big curtain that separated God’s spirit (in the Holy of Holies) from the rest of the tabernacle was torn in two pieces and it showed us that we were no longer apart from God. Because of Jesus we can have God’s spirit in our hearts and we can talk to Him anytime we want!

Later, instead of a tent tabernacle, God’s people would build a “real” temple (church) for God. But one day we will worship God in heaven! And the Bible says that Jesus is like the chief priest now…serving God and talking to Him for us. (Heb 4:14-16)

God is aways taking care of us. He took care of the Israelites and led them with the cloud and the fire. He gave them shade in the day and warm fire at night. He was close to them and stayed right with them.

God leads us too–He uses His words in the Bible and in our hearts to lead us. He keeps us safe and stays close to us. God is always with you–loving you.

We found THIS cute craft posted by Ginri Jordan based on the Bogard Press 2013 VBS “Mighty God.”
THIS is a cute video from SabbathSchool that goes along with today’s lesson.

Thanks for joining us, love to you all!

Israel Disobeys

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Hi all! Welcome back! Today’s story is from Exodus 32/33. Last year’s lesson and craft can be found HERE.

So Moses was up on Mt Sinai with God getting all the rules for God’s people. Moses was gone 40 days (about a month) and the Israelites were just sitting down at the bottom of the mountain. In those 40 days they already started to think “Maybe God forgot about us? Maybe God isn’t real? Maybe God doesn’t care about us?”

So they came up with a plan. “We need a NEW god!” they said.

Aaron, Moses’ brother said, “Ok! We’ll make a new god! Everybody take off your rings, earrings, your bracelets…give us your gold cups, plates…whatever you have.” Then he called some guys who knew how to build and they made a cow shape. They heated up all the gold until it was very soft, poured it into the cow shape and let it harden. Then they took the cow shape off and they had made a golden cow statue.

The people then danced and sang and prayed to the cow.

Does God hear us? (Yes) Does God see us? (Yes) Does God love us? (YES!)

Can a cow statue hear us? (No) Can a cow statue see us? (No) Does a cow statue love us? NO!

God was NOT happy. He sent Moses back down the mountain to tell the people to STOP IT! Only GOD is the real God. He is the One we pray to and sing songs for and dance for. He is the One who loves us.

God was very frustrated, but Moses asked God to please forgive the people.

There were still bad consequences for the people worshipping the cow (some of them died and some more got very very sick). God just told us in the 10 commandments to put Him first and not worship any other thing…and His own people turned around and were doing just that.

You probably won’t see too many people where you live worshipping gold cows…but sometimes we DO put other things before God. Sometimes we worry more than we pray. Sometimes we want to watch tv or play games more than we want to talk to God. Sometimes we are more worried about getting toys than we are helping other people. We worry about what WE want, not what God wants.

We should always try to put GOD first. God’s own people forgot all about Him in a month. Let’s pray right now that God will always remind us of who He is and that we will always worship ONLY Him.

For our craft today, we cut out a golden cow shape.

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Then we added some gold glitter and our text: We worship ONLY God. Exodus 32.

Thanks for joining us again. Love to you all!

The Law

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Hello again! Today’s lesson is from Exodus 19-23, Romans 3,5, and 8. Our lesson and craft from last year (focusing on the 10 commandments) can be found HERE. Today’s lesson focuses more on the law and WHY God gave His people the law.

 

After God saved His people from the Egyptians, He led them through the desert and provided food and water for them. The people came to a mountain called Mt Sinai. God told Moses to come up the mountain and He would give Moses the rules the people needed to follow.

For 40 days and nights Moses talked with God and God told Moses everything the people needed to do or not do to obey God. God even wrote the rules on some stone tablets.

Do you know why your mom and dad have rules for you? They have rules to keep you safe (don’t touch a hot stove, use gentle hands, hold hands when you walk in a parking lot) and rules to help you become good people (study for school, clean your room, help take out the trash).

God’s rules for His people were the same way. Some of the rules keep the people safe and some of them help us be more like God.

Can we ALWAYS obey God? No…we can’t. (Romans 3:23) Only one person has ever perfectly obeyed God…do you know who that is? It’s Jesus! Jesus is the only person who was perfect. We all mess up and disobey God’s rules sometimes. So one thing the rules does is it shows us our sin. If we don’t know what the rules are, then we don’t know we are disobeying God. Now that God gave His people the rules, they would know when they disobeyed. (Romans 5:20)

Do you remember what the consequence for disobeying God is supposed to be? It’s dying. Back in Moses’ day, the people would ask God to forgive them and change their hearts to follow Him again. Then an animal (like a sheep) would have to die–to show that they were sorry and wanted to be right with God again.

If they people disobeyed God and never tried to make things right in their heart, the consequence would be forever death, in hell, away from God.

But God had a better plan. One day, He would send His OWN son, Jesus to be the sheep. Because He was perfect, He was the only one who could stay with God and take the place of our consequence-Romans 3:10, 19. Jesus died just like the sheep used to die. And He didn’t stay dead. He lived again…just like when we sin, we are supposed to die, but if we choose Jesus, then we will live again, forever. (Romans 8:3, 11)

The law (the rules) God gave His people showed them (and us) that we sin. And it shows us that we NEED a savior. (We need someone to save us from the consequences of our sins.) The Bible tells us that Savior is Jesus. And ALL we have to do, is believe in Him. (Romans 3:22, 25-26)

When we love God, we WANT to obey Him…so we try our best to follow His rules. (Romans 3:31) But when we mess up (and we all will), we trust that Jesus has taken that consequence for us and if we tell Him we are sorry and stop doing those bad things, that He WILL forgive us.

 

Even God’s people didn’t always obey the rules (as we’ll see next time). But now they had God’s plan–His plan to keep them safe, to help them be more like Him, to show them their sins, and to show them their need for a Savior.

Today we made little stone tablets like the ten commandments, but instead of writing the 10 commandments on them we wrote this:

The rules show us that we: SIN, and that we need a SAVIOR.

 

Thanks for joining us again! Love to you all!

God’s graciousness in the wilderness

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Hello again! Today we continue to follow Moses and the Israelites. This is from Exodus 16 and 17 in the Bible. Last year’s lesson and craft can be found HERE.

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Moses and the Israelites had been freed from the Pharaoh and from living as slaves in Egypt. But now what?! God had led them through the Red Sea, saving them AGAIN from the Pharaoh and his army…and now? Sand. Lots and lots of sand. They walked around the desert for a LOOOOOONG time. (It wasn’t supposed to be THAT long…but they ended up disobeying God…but we’ll get to that part later.) For now…they were wandering around the desert.

What is a desert like? Do you know? (My kids said BOOOORIIIIING). There is little water or food. And the Israelites were hungry! Do you know how people act when they are hungry? That’s right…they get GRUMPY! They whined and complained and said, “WHY would God brings us out here?! At least we had FOOD in Egypt…I mean…it was terrible! But at least we had food!”

How do think God responded? Was He mad? Did He let them starve to death?

God was patient and He listened to the people and then He was gracious. (That means He was extra nice to them even though they didn’t deserve it.) God told Moses that He would send birds (called quails) that the people could eat every evening and that each morning He would provide a special bread called manna.

Every day (except for church day) they were supposed to go out of their tents and get as much manna as they needed for THAT day. If they got too much, it would get yucky. God wanted the people to trust Him every.day. If they could get as much as they wanted, they wouldn’t have to trust God to give them food every day. God wanted them to have just enough for each day (and twice as much the day before church day so they could rest on church day) so that every single day HE could give them what they needed.

And God DID give them manna every morning and quail every evening.

The people SHOULD have been thankful….but they got grumpy…again. They were tired of just eating the quail and manna. And one day, when they stopped walking, they were complaining about not having enough water. God AGAIN was gracious to His people and told Moses to go to a certain rock and to touch it with his staff (big stick). So Moses went before all the people and water came pouring out of the rock. Remember, nothing is too hard for God!

Every time the people needed something God provided (He took care of them and gave them what they needed.) When God asks you to do something that seems crazy (like pack up and move your family away from a wicked Pharaoh) you can be SURE that God will take care of you. Anything God asks you to do, He will take care of you through it.

God loved His people and took good care of them…providing for them every day. God loves YOU too and He will take care of you every day too!

Thanks for joining us, love to you all!

Through the water

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Hey all! Welcome back! Today we are continuing to follow Moses and the Israelites out of Egypt (found in Exodus 13-14) and last year’s lesson can be found HERE.

 

After Pharaoh said the Israelites could go, he changed his mind and said “But who is going to build things for me? Or clean my house? Or serve me?! Why did I let those slaves go?”

So he gathered up his soldiers (there were thousands!) and took off after God’s people.

The Israelites were not an army…just regular people…mommies, daddies and kids so they were moving kind of slow, and it was easy for the Egyptian soldiers to catch up.

Soon the Israelites got to a big sea called the Red Sea….(but it’s regular blue water) and they saw the Egyptians coming and they were scared.

But God told Moses to raise his hands and lift up his staff (his big stick). Remember, there wasn’t anything special about that stick–it’s not a magical stick or anything…GOD was the one who did the cool things. God made a big wind come and He parted the water. There were two big walls of water on either side on the sea, but a dry path down the middle.

The Israelites walked through the water…water on this side…water on that side…but dry on their feet. Can you believe it?!

Pharaoh and his men chased after the Israelites. The Israelites hurried through and when the last of God’s people were through, Moses raised his staff again, and the water came crashing down on the Egyptians. They were all washed away.

God protected His people. God had a plan to lead His people back to the land He promised them and nobody, not even a big king with a HUGE army was going to stop God. God can do ANYTHING and nobody can stop God’s big plans. (Is 14:27, Job 42:2)

We watched Veggie Tales Moe and the Big Exit and talked about what was the same in the video and the Bible and what parts were different.

For our activity today, we parted the Red (pepper) Sea based on THIS VIDEO. You take a bowl of water and sprinkle red pepper on top, then dip your moses (however you want to make him–we used a spoon and some paper) in dish soap and when he gets in the water it separates. (Full disclosure: this worked awesomely the 1st time and then not again….I guess because there was now dish soap already in the bowl? But it’s pretty cool the 1st time you try it.)

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Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!