victory

A victory for Abijah

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

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!

Gideon the warrior

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hello again! Today’s story is from Judges 6-8 in the Bible. Last year’s lesson can be found HERE.

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image from 
https://kelund.wordpress.com/2011/05/25/stolen-bibles-and-a-restored-marriage/

 
Today’s story is about a man named Gideon. Gideon was just a regular guy, one of the Israelites (God’s chosen people). He was living in the promised land with the other Israelites, taking care of his sheep. Now since they had moved in, the Israelites had a bad habit of following God and then forgetting and making bad choices. Then God would punish them, send them a new leader (a judge) and they would follow Him again. Over and over and over. (God is very very patient!)

After Deborah was gone, they once again started making bad choices and God let the Midianites be in charge of them for seven years. The people were scared and had to hide because the Midianites were so mean to them.

One day, an angel came and told the people to stop disobeying God! Make good choices!

Then the angel appeared to Gideon, and said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior!”

Gideon couldn’t believe the angel was talking to him. He wasn’t a mighty warrior?! “Who ME?!”

But the angel answered, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand.  I am sending you! I will be with you.” (God was with Gideon and would help him defeat the Midianites.)

Gideon asked God for THREE different signs before he believed that God had really chosen him. And God was patient enough that He did show Gideon over and over “YES! I want YOU to lead the army!”

Finally Gideon trusted! So he rounded up a big huge army and set out. But God said no. It was too many fighters. So everyone who was scared was allowed to go home. Then Gideon started off again, but God said no again. The army was still too big. He had Gideon send even more men home. God did this so that when the Israelites won, everyone would know it was GOD who had defeated the Midianites and not the army, or Gideon.

So Gideon led his tiny army to the place where the GIANT Midianite army was camped. They had over 135000 men in their army and Gideon was allowed to have 300 men. That’s like if Pluto was going to fight the sun!

So Gideon’s army split into three teams and quietly tiptoed around at night time and surrounded the Midianites. They brought breakable clay jars, trumpets, and torches (fire) with them. Then, when Gideon told them to, everyone blew their trumpets really loudly, smashed the jars and yelled. They waved the firy torches around. The noise and commotion scared the Midianites so much, that started killing each other?! Only a few of them got away but the Israelites got them and defeated every last one.

After Gideon and the men returned, the people wanted Gideon to be their king. But he said, “No. Let GOD be your king.”

 

Gideon was a good leader. Remember, God doesn’t always pick the most important people or the most popular to be the leader…God cares about what’s in your heart. Gideon was a good leader not because he was someone important, or because he was big or strong…he was a good leader because he pointed the people back to God! When you are being a leader for your friends, make sure you a good leader…who trusts and obeys God. We know God’s plan is the BEST plan and that we can always trust Him. A good leader follows God and helps other people trust Him too!

THIS VIDEO is from Teaching Kids About Jesus.

There is also a veggie tales about Gideon.

A cute snack for today’s lesson is to have bugels be the trumpets, cheese for the fire and maybe tortilla scoops to be the clay jars. The kids *could* smash them on the table if you’re really that brave :0)

Thanks again for joining us, love to you all!