solomon

A victory for Abijah

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Hello again! Today’s story is from 2 Chronicles 13.

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Abijah, Rehoboam’s son began to rule over Judah after Rehoboam died. If you remember, God took most of Israel away from King David’s family because Solomon had disobeyed God. Now only the family (tribe) of Judah stayed with David/Solomon/Rehoboam/Abijah. 

Then war broke out between Abijah and Jeroboam. Jeroboam was king over the rest of Israel. Judah, led by King Abijah, had 400,000 warriors, and Jeroboam had 800,000 warriors.

When the army of Judah arrived in a place called Ephraim, Abijah stood on a mountain  and shouted to Jeroboam and all the soldiers of Israel: “Listen to me! Don’t you realize that the Lord, the God of Israel, made a lasting covenant (promise) with David, giving him and his children and grandchildren and great grandchildren the throne of Israel forever? But Jeroboam is the son of one of the servants of Solomon, who rebelled against his master. Then a whole bunch of people joined him, defying Solomon’s son Rehoboam when he was young and inexperienced and could not stand up to them. Do you really think you can stand against the kingdom of the Lord that is led by the children of David? You may have a great big army, and you have pretend golden gods. But you have chased away the priests of the Lord and you let anyone be a priest for your pretend gods! But as for us, the Lord is our God, and we have not forgotten Him. We obey God and worship Him as He told us to. We are following the instructions of the Lord our God, but you have abandoned Him. So you see, God is with us. He is our leader. His priests will blow their trumpets and lead us into battle against you. O people of Israel, do not fight against the Lord, for you will not succeed!”

While he was talking though, Jeroboam had secretly sent part of his army around behind the men of Judah. When the warriors of Judah realized that they were being attacked from the front and the back, they cried out to God for help. Then the priests blew the trumpets, and the men of Judah began to shout. At the sound of their battle cry, God defeated Jeroboam and all Israel and scared them away.

The Israelite army fled from Judah, and God handed them over to Judah in defeat. Jeroboam never regained his power during Abijah’s lifetime, and finally he died.  Meanwhile, Abijah of Judah grew more and more powerful.

Judah was small, but they trusted God and served Him like He told them to and the consequence was a good one for them. God protected them and gave them victory.

 

Here is a song posted by Cedarmont Kids to help us remember that victory lies with God.

 

Thanks again for joining us!

King Solomon Disobeys

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Hello again! Today’s story is from 1 Kings 11.

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For all of King Solomon’s wisdom and good decision-making, he had a big problem. He LOVED the ladies. And he didn’t just love one lady…he got married a whole bunch of times, which God said you’re not supposed to do. The ladies he married also didn’t love the One True God, they worshipped other pretend gods.

After a while, one said, “Solomon, hunny…please build a statue of my god!” And he did. Then another said “What about me?! Please build a place for me to worship MY god.” And he did. He built places for them to worship their pretend gods and he even worshipped them too sometimes. His heart was not faithful to God like King David’s had been. And God was NOT happy. 

So the Lord said to him, “Since you have disobeyed my rules and not been faithful to Me, I am going to tear this kingdom away from you and give it to one of your servants. But because of how much your father David loved and served Me, I will not do this while you are still alive. I will take the kingdom away from your son.  And even then, I will not take away the entire kingdom; I will let him be king of one tribe.”

King Solomon’s choices were going to affect a lot of other people. When we make decisions, we need to think about how it might help or hurt others. Especially people in power…like kings, presidents, moms and dad, teachers, pastors…the things you do and say don’t just have good or bad consequences for you, they can help or hurt others. When we try to follow God’s laws and live a life of love (because of how much He loves us), then our choices will have good consequences for others. But Solomon wasn’t thinking about that. He was only thinking about what HE wanted…not what God wanted and not about what might happen to other people.

The funniest part is that King Solomon wrote a whole chapter of the Bible about this exact thing. Proverbs 29 talks all about how children’s actions affect their parents and how parents affect their children. How bosses and kings and neighbors all affect the people around them. But in the end, Solomon did not follow his own advice. He chose to live the way HE wanted, not the way God wanted…and the people of Israel would soon pay a big price for his poor choices.

“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”  Colossians 3:17 (ESV)

 

Thanks for joining us again, love to you all.

 

The Queen of Sheba

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Hello again!

 

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Today’s story can be found in 1 Kings 10.

The Queen of Sheba heard about how famous Solomon was and she heard about his relationship with God, she came to test Solomon with hard questions. She came to Jerusalem with a very great caravan—camels carrying expensive spices, LOTS of gold, and precious jewels—she came to Solomon and talked with him about all that she had on her mind. Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her. When she saw all the wisdom of Solomon and the palace he had built, all the food on his table, how many servants he had, and all the burnt offerings he made at the temple for God, she was overwhelmed.

She said to the king, “The reports I heard in my country about you are true! But I did not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes. And your wisdom and wealth have far exceeded what I heard! How happy your people must be! Praise be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. 

She was so impressed, she gave King Solomon lots of presents including gold, spices, and jewels. King Solomon also gave the queen of Sheba lots of gifts and then she left and returned to her own country.

 

The Queen of Sheba had heard of how different Solomon was. He knew God well and had asked God for wisdom. Even from very far away, the Queen had heard about this. When we follow God and love others the way He loves us, it will make an impression on others. People will say “that boy or girl is different and i want to know why!” Then we can be ready (1 Peter 3:15) to explain why we give so much, love so deeply, are patient, humble, kind or just different. She was so intrigued about the things of God BECAUSE of the life Solomon lived. At the end of their time together, she wanted to give gifts to Solomon and he gave some to her too. When people see us living different, God-filled lives, they will want to be a part of that too! And we can continue to show them God’s love and share His riches (like joy, peace, patience, gentleness etc) with them.

 

 

Thanks for joining us again!

Proverbs-Wisdom

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Hi all! The next few days we’ll be talking about the book of Proverbs. King Solomon (David’s son wrote a lot of this book, but some other people helped too.

If you remember, Solomon asked God for wisdom. Wisdom is knowing a lot of things and being able to make good choices. God was happy that Solomon asked for wisdom. The book of Proverbs tells us a lot about how God wants us to live….and how to make good choices.

Proverbs tells us how God wants us to live and then we can obey it!

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Our first lesson today is about wisdom. Proverbs 1:1-4 says (TLB for easier understanding)

“These are the proverbs of King Solomon of Israel, David’s son: He wrote them to teach his people how to live—how to act in every circumstance, for he wanted them to be understanding, just, and fair in everything they did.”

v. 7-9 “How does a man become wise? The first step is to trust and reverence the Lord!” (The way to be wise is to love and obey God!)

Chapter 2: 6-14: “For the Lord grants wisdom! His every word is a treasure of knowledge and understanding. He grants good sense to the godly. He is their shield, protecting them and guarding their pathway. He shows how to distinguish right from wrong, how to find the right decision every time. For wisdom and truth will enter the very center of your being, filling your life with joy. You will be given the sense to stay away from evil men who want you to be their partners in crime—men who turn from God’s ways to walk down dark and evil paths and exult in doing wrong, for they thoroughly enjoy their sins.”

Chapter 4:7 “Getting wisdom is the most important thing you can do! And with your wisdom, develop common sense and good judgment.”

4: 23 “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” 

That means put good things into your mind and heart–think about good things, learn the things God wants you to learn. Whatever you put into your mind and heart is what will come out. (Luke 6:45) If you think about bad things and learn yucky things, then you will make yucky choices. If you learn about God and love and obey Him, then you will make good choices and have a good life. (Not always an easy life, or even a happy life…but the best kind of life is a life that follows God.) (1:33, 2:6-8, 11, 12-15, 20-22, 9:11-12, 11:5, 12:28, 19:8, James 3:13)

So the next few days we’ll be learning about wisdom and what makes a good choice. We will read more of Proverbs and see how to follow God and how to guard our hearts so we can love and obey Him.

THIS VIDEO is the wisdom song posted by CelestinoZ.

Thanks for joining us! Love to you all!

Solomon’s Wisdom

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Hi all! So this week we did the story of David and Bathsheba (and used last year’s lesson) found HERE.

And for today’s story we did King Solomon’s wisdom. Story found HERE and in 1 Kings 3.

For our craft today we took an oval of orange construction paper, and cut out a yellow crown and a white thought bubble. Then we decorated King Solomon’s face and wrote the word “wisdom” in the thought bubble.

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THIS is a cute kids’ song posted by CelestinoZ.

And THIS is an overview from jellytelly, from their 5 minute family devotional series.

Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!

 

Israel Divided

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Hello again!

Today we are continuing the stories of Israel’s history through the old testament. Today’s story comes from 1 Kings 12.

So King Solomon had done some great things for God, but also made some bad choices, and worshipped other pretend gods and set up statues and places to worship those pretend gods. God told him that because he had done this, that Israel would have bad consequences.

Solomon got old and died and his son Rehoboam became king over Israel.

The people of Israel had to work really hard when Solomon was king. They went to Rehoboam and said, “Please don’t make us work that hard! Can things be a little bit easier now?”

Rehoboam didn’t know what to say, so he told the people to come back in 3 days and he would think about it.

So he went to the old, smart leaders and said “What should i tell the people?”

The leaders responded, “Yes, if you are nice to them, they will love you forever and they will do good work for you.”

The Rehoboam asked his friends, “What should i do?”

They were young and not as smart and they said “No man, show them who’s boss! Make them work REALLY hard to prove YOU a powerful king.”

Well, Rehoboam liked the sound of that, so when the people came back he told them they would have to work TWICE as hard! The people were very angry. And just like God had said, that only one tribe (big family) would stay with Rehoboam and the rest would leave, that’s just what happened. The tribe of Judah stayed with  Rehoboam and the rest of Israel followed a new king, Jeroboam.

The people fought and fought. Rehoboam’s people and Jeroboam’s people fought a lot and God’s people were not living the life He had wanted for them. This promised land was supposed to be a great place where all God’s people could live together with him and worship Him at the temple. But Jeroboam decided the temple was too far so he built other places for the people to worship, and Rehoboam did too. God was not happy that the people were fighting and not listening to Him and soon they would have even more bad consequences.

Isn’t it crazy how the people could see all God had done for them and they still didn’t always obey Him? We do that sometimes too. We know God loves us and takes good care of us, and we don’t always obey Him. God promises to forgive us when we ask Him to, but there are still consequences for our choices.

Next time, we’ll see what else happens to Israel as a divided kingdom. Thanks for joining us today. Love to you all.

Solomon Part 2

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Hi all! For lack of a better title, today we’ll be learning about King Solomon, part 2.

This is taken from 1 Kings 4-11.

King Solomon as you remember asked God for one thing: wisdom. So he could understand things and make good choices and be a good leader for Israel (God’s people).

God was happy with Solomon’s choice and He gave him great wisdom. The people were so impressed with all the things Solomon knew that many many people came to visit him and they brought lots of money and presents to Solomon.

Solomon built a big fancy palace (like a castle) for himself. He also built a house for God (called a temple). God told them exactly how to build it and it took TWENTY years to finish. Just like the big tent (tabernacle) God’s spirit had lived in, in the desert; this temple had a front part and a special back part where God’s spirit lived. The ark of covenant (the special box with the 10 commandments) was placed in the back special part and only the leader priest could go there once a year. Everybody else worshipped God in the front part of the temple. (Later, when Jesus died, all of the temple would be opened to EVERYONE!)

Solomon asked God to listen to the people if they made a mistake. He asked God to forgive them and bless them. God said He would. Now when we pray, the Bible says Jesus sits with God and He talks to God and asks God to forgive us and bless us. Jesus is our helper and friend.

God told Solomon that as long as he obeyed God, that Israel would do well and that someone from Solomon’s family would always be king.

But Solomon, like all people, made mistakes sometimes. Solomon had a lot of wives. And a lot of his wives worshipped other “gods” like statues or pictures of other pretend gods. Solomon let them worship these pretend gods and he even built some statues and some small places for them to worship. God was not happy. God is the only REAL God and Solomon and the other people should ONLY worship Him.

God told Solomon because he had disobeyed that Israel was in trouble. A small part of the country and some of the people would be ok, but most of it was going to be taken away.

When Solomon died, his son Rehoboam became king and we will learn more about what happens next tomorrow.

Solomon did some great things. He built a very fancy and strong house for God. He was very wise and gave Israel a lot of money and built a big palace. But he also made some bad choices and disobeyed God. And there were some bad consequences because he disobeyed.

For our craft today, we drew the palace, the temple and the idols to help us remember Solomon’s story.

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Thanks for joining us today. Love to you all!

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King Solomon’s Wisdom

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Hi all! We took a break last week to move! Now we’re back.

Today’s story comes from 1 Kings 3. I did not do a craft today with the kids, but i did use some of our toys to tell this story (works better with some visuals i think).

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King David was getting old and almost ready to die. He told his son Solomon that he would be the next king. King David told Solomon to always obey God and do the right thing.

Some of Solomon’s brothers wanted to be king instead and even tried to fight him, but God made Solomon king.

Solomon tried to honor God and do the right thing. One night, while he was sleeping, God came to him in a dream and said, “If you could ask me for anything, what would you want?”

(If YOU could have ANYTHING what would YOU want?)

Do you know what Solomon said? He said he wanted wisdom. Wisdom is being able to understand things and make really good choices. A good king has to be wise to be a good leader for his people. He has to know how to help them and how to help them settle their fights when they are fussing.

God was so happy that Solomon had asked for wisdom and not something like money or a lot of toys. So God said, yes, Solomon WOULD be wise.

The people were so impressed with everything Solomon knew and how he could figure things out and help people.

One day, there were two mommies. They each had a new baby and they lived in the same house. When they went to bed, one of the babies died. That mommy went over to the other mommy and she switched the babies! So in the morning, the other mommy said, “oh no! my baby is dead! wait….this isn’t my baby? THAT one is my baby!”

But the first mommy said, “No! This is MY baby!”

They argued and argued and finally came to king Solomon who listened to their story. He had an idea. He called for a soldier with a sword to come. He told the soldier to cut the baby in half and give each mommy part of the baby. The real mommy could not, would not let them cut her baby into two pieces so she said, “NO! The other mommy can have him, just don’t hurt him!”

Solomon knew that THAT was the real mommy. A real mommy would never let anyone hurt her baby.

God was so pleased that Solomon wanted to do a good job and be a good king. The Bible tells us that when we ask God to help us make good choices, He will! He listens when we talk to Him and He wants us to help us do the right thing.

Thanks for joining us today! Love to you all!