philistines

David vs Goliath

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Welcome! Today’s story is from 1 Samuel 17. Last year’s lesson can be found HERE.

david1

The Philistines again went to war with Israel. Saul, the king, and the Israelite army went to meet them. There was a valley and each army was on either side.

The Philistines had a champion named Goliath. He was REALLLLLY tall (like a big basketball player). He had scary armor, a big sword and a BIG shield.

Kind of like this guy:

tallbasketball

Everyday Goliath stood and shouted to Israel, “Choose one of your men and have him come down to me. If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your servants; but if I kill him, you will become OUR servants!” Saul and all the Israelites were very sad and very scared.

But do you remember David? He was the littlest son of Jesse from Bethlehem. Samuel had said that one day he would king!  Jesse’s three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war and David went back and forth from Saul to taking care of his father’s sheep back home.

For forty days Goliath the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and said mean things about God and asked the Israelites to send out a champion to fight him.

Jesse told David to go to Saul and check on his brothers and give them some food (because they had been gone a long time by now.)

So early in the morning, David left the sheep, loaded up and set out. He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions. Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other. David left his things, ran to the battle lines and asked his brothers how they were. As he was talking with them, Goliath stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual words “Who will fight me?!” But whenever the Israelites saw the man, they all ran away from him very afraid.

David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine? Who does this guy think he is that he should defy God and His people?”

“He will be given great honor, get to marry the king’s daughter and get to work for the king!”

 

David went to find Saul and said to him, “I, your servant, will go and fight Goliath.”

Saul answered, “You can’t go out to fight this Philistine!? You are only a young man, and he has been a warrior his whole life.”

But David said to Saul, “When a lion or a bear came and carried off one of my sheep, I went after it, killed it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. Your servant has killed both a lion and a bear; this guy will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.  The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of Goliath.”

Saul said to David, “Ok, go, and may the Lord be with you.”

Then Saul dressed David in his own armor and put a heavy helmet on his head. David fastened on his sword and tried walking around, because he was not used to them.

“I can’t go in these,” he said to Saul, “I am not used to them.” So he took them off. Then David took his staff (his big stick) and he chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his slingshot in his hand, went up to Goliath.

Goliath looked David over and saw that he was just a boy and he hated him. He said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” And Goliath said bad words to David. “Come here,” he said, “and I’ll kill you and feed you to the birds and the wild animals!”

David said to him, “You come against me with sword and spear, but I come against you in the Name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel. This day the Lord will give you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day the whole world will know that there IS a God in Israel. Everyone here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.” (God would defeat Goliath, not any army or staff or slingshot).

Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, David put it in his sling and slung it around and around and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground. Goliath died. Then David ran over and chopped off his head (ew).

When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they all turned and ran.

From that day on, David stayed with Saul and fought with him against all of Israel’s enemies. God had big plans for little David. He would one day become king of all Israel.

Even though he was young and small, God still used him to do big things. Even though YOU might be young or small God can do big things with you right now too! We just have to trust Him. David knew when he fought Goliath he wouldn’t be alone. Every battle (every hard thing) we have to do, belongs to God. He will help us.

For this story we enjoy the veggie tales “Dave and the Giant Pickle.” (Currently 2.99 to rent on Amazon).

Thanks for joining us. Love to you all.

The Ark Moves

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hello all! Yesterday we did “Samuel hears God” found HERE. Today’s story is from 1 Samuel 4-7.

The Israelites were living in the promised land (the land God had promised to them). They had a tabernacle (like a church) where they would worship God. Inside the tabernacle, there was a big curtain and behind the big curtain was the Holy of Holies–the special place where God’s Spirit lived and where the chief priest only went one time a year to be with God. There was a box in this special place called an ark. (Not a boat, like Noah’s ark–this was a box). It was called the ark of the covenant. A covenant is like a promise. God had made a promise to always be with His people and to always love them. (He promises us that too!)

This box had a lot of special rules. Only the Levites (the people in charge of the church) could touch it and only in a special way. It was supposed to stay in the tabernacle and stay covered behind the big curtain. If they had to move it, it was supposed to be covered with three blankets so the people couldn’t see it. (The Bible says we can’t look at God because He is so bright and amazing!) God even told Moses EXACTLY how it was supposed to be built. Inside the box they put the rules God gave Moses for the people to obey, they also put Aaron’s staff (his special stick) and they put some manna (that special bread God gave His people). God’s Spirit, His power was over the box. God was very specific in how He wanted it to look and how the people should treat it. They should be very careful and very worshipful. (Because it wasn’t “just” a box–it was God’s Spirit and power.)

 

Samuel was a grown up now and Eli the priest was now a grandpa. He had two boys who were grown ups too. One day, the Israelites went to fight the Philistines and they decided to take the ark of the covenant with them so they could win. (They did not ask God is they could). They fought and fought…but they lost and the Philistines TOOK the ark with them!

Eli’s two sons died during the fight and when Eli heard they died AND that the special box was gone, he fell over in his chair, bonked his head and he died too.

The Philistines took the special box (the ark) to one of their cities and put it next to one of their pretend gods. The next day, they found the pretend god statue face down on the ground in front of the ark (like it was worshipping the REAL God). They put the statue back up and the next day they found it again on the ground, like it was worshipping God, but this time the statue’s head and hands were broken off. The people in that city were scared and then they got very very sick and they decided to move the ark. “That God must not like us having His ark, we should move it!”

So they moved it to a different Philistine city. And all the people in THAT city got sick. They moved it AGAIN and those people got sick too! So they decided maybe they should just send it back to Israel!

They put the ark on a special truck and had two cows pull it. The cows brought the ark back to Israel. When it got to Israel, the Levites (the people in charge of the church who were allowed to touch the ark) carefully took it off the truck. Some of the Israelites didn’t obey God’s rules though and they peeked into the box and then they died.

Then they took the ark to a man’s house. His name was Abinadab. Abinadab loved and obeyed God. His son was put in charge of watching the ark and taking care of it. And it stayed at his house a looooong time. It SHOULD have gone back to the tabernacle…but it didn’t for a long long time.

 

The people did not take care of God’s special box. They did not respect God’s power or His instructions. The people in this story did not ask God if they could take the box from the tabernacle, the Philistines didn’t care about moving the box away from God’s people…the Israelites didn’t obey God and they looked inside…everyone thought God’s power was something THEY could move around. But no one is bigger, stronger, or smarter than God.

God is WONDERFUL and PERFECT and POWERFUL, He can be everywhere at all times and He is bigger than everything and He loves us and takes care of us….isn’t that amazing?! That’s why we worship Him! We love Him and pray to Him, we trust only Him…but the people in this story did not. They thought they could do whatever they wanted with God’s things…instead of respecting God and asking HIM what they should do.

God tells us what He wants us to know in the Bible–we can read His words and know what He wants. When God tells us to do something (or to not do something) we should always obey because we know God’s way is the BEST way.

 

For our craft today, we drew the ark of the covenant. (Instructions from Exodus 25). This is my 5 year olds’ interpretation of what it looked like.

Thanks for joining us again. Love to you all!