THE TWELVE SPIES - DAY 6 ELEMENTARY BIBLE LESSON ...
THE TWELVE SPIES - DAY 6 ELEMENTARY BIBLE LESSON LESSON TITLE: Twelve Spies LESSON OVERVIEW: Children will learn about how Moses sent spies into Canaan to scout out the promised land. They will learn how the spies brought back two totally different reports (faith vs. unbelief). God wants us to believe and trust in His power. BIBLE STORY: Twelve Spies (Numbers 13 & 14) MEMORY VERSE: “B ut now, I pray, let the power of the Lord be great, just as You have declared:” Numbers 14:17 TEACHING OBJECTIVE: T o teach children how they can choose to have faith that God will do what He says and trust Him in all things. SUPPLIES NEEDED FOR THE LESSON ● Part 1: The Gathering: Gospel wristbands for all kids ● Part 2: Bible Lesson Leader: Bible. 12 pieces of cardstock or paper. Yarn or string. ● Part 3: Memory Verse Activity: poster board or marker board ● Part 4: Game Leader: poster board or marker board with questions ● Part 5: Small Group Time: A copy of small group questions for each small group of 7 ‐ 10 kids
TWELVE SPIES
ELEMENTARY LESSON
PART 1: THE GATHERING (35 minutes) Welcome and Prayer (5 minutes) Worship (15 minutes) ‐ led by a reviveKIDS representative Introduction to Lesson: I Spy (10 minutes) SUPPLIES: No supplies needed for the introduction to the lesson. PREPARE: Plan to play a game of “I Spy”. INSTRUCTIONS : Pick one student to start the game of “I Spy”. The child picks out an object and for example, says, “I spy something green and round.” The child who guesses the right object then gets to pick the next I Spy. Play the game for about 5 minutes and then explain to the kids that tonight they will learn about 12 spies for God’s people. They had a very important job to scout or spy out the land that God was giving them. Listen carefully so that you can learn what they had to look for and the report that they brought back. We are here tonight at reviveKIDS to help you come to know Jesus and to teach you how you can share Jesus with others. If you don’t have a gospel wristband, raise your hand and we will make sure that you have one. Let’s go over those colors on the wristband once again. Leader may go through the Bible verses as well as the Lord leads. ● Yellow is Sin, remember that sin is anything that we say, think or do that breaks God’s heart. ● Black is Death, what we deserve for our sin is death (to be forever separated from God). ● Red is Love, God showed you and I His love by sending Jesus to pay the price for our sin and death. ● Blue is Faith, when we believe and trust in something or someone we can’t see. ● Green is Life , we have life forever with God when we believe and trust in Jesus. Let’s pray and ask God to help us understand and learn from all that we do tonight. 2
TWELVE SPIES
ELEMENTARY LESSON
PART 2: BIBLE LESSON (25 minutes) BIBLE LESSON TEXT: Numbers 13‐14 SUPPLIES: Signs with the names of the twelve spies (1 on each paper), one with the city name Canaan and one with Desert of Paran written on it. PREPARE: Study the lesson and be prepared to tell the story in your own words using kids to act out the role of the 12 spies. Write the twelve spy names and 2 city names on individually on paper or card stock. Pick 12 kids to wear the name of one of the spies around their neck (using yarn or string). Have one student hold a sign that says Canaan and one hold the Desert of Paran. INTRODUCTION TO LESSON: How many of you have seen the old movie Spy Kids? Or some other movie involving spies? Do you know what a spy is? It is a person who keeps close and secret watch on the actions and words of another or others. Today in our Bible lesson we are going to learn about some spies who went to check out a city God had promised them. Teaching Tip: Always have your Bible open so that children know that what you are teaching comes from the Bible, especially, if you are not reading the text word for word. BIBLE LESSON: God had promised Abraham that he would have many descendants (children and grandchildren and more children and more grandchildren) and he would be a great nation. Many years later after Abraham was named a great man of faith, the sons of Abraham were freed from 400 years of slavery and were now right on the edge of the Canaan, the promised land. The nation of Israel (also known as the Israelites) had been in wilderness and had complained and whined about so many things. They wanted water and God gave them water, they wanted food and God gave them food. God had shown His power and love to the nation of Israel over and over again. And now, here they were on the edge of the promised land. The Lord told Moses to send men to explore the land of Canaan (these men are the spies in our lesson today). Moses sent one man from every tribe. The men who were sent into Canaan were Shammua, Shaphat, Caleb, Igal, Joshua, Palt, Gaddiel, Gaddi, Ammiel, Sethur, Nahbi and Geuel ( have kids stand up and come to the front when you call their name ). These guys were sent to spy out the land of Canaan. Moses told them that they needed to see what the land was like, what the towns were like, look to see if they had walls around their city, check to see if the soil was good and bring back a sample of the fruit from the land. They had their assignment and now were on their way (have kids travel to Canaan and once they get there they need to pretend that they are looking out over the city and “checking” things out) . 3
TWELVE SPIES
ELEMENTARY LESSON
They walked all around the land of Canaan and watched the people, they checked out the soil and when they reached the valley of Eschol, they cut a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. They also got some pomegranates and figs. At the end of 40 days, they returned from exploring the land. And now it was time for them to give a report. They said, “we went into the land you told us and it does flow with milk and honey.” This simply meant that it was a very good place and would have everything that they needed BUT they said, “the people who live there are powerful and the cities are secure and very large. We even saw giants there! Then Caleb (have Caleb come forward) silenced the people and said “we should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” Joshua agreed with Caleb. It seems that there are two different reports. Ten of the spies say that the people there are too powerful, but, Joshua and Caleb believe that the Israelites should go into Canaan. The others told Moses that they felt like grasshoppers in the sight of the people there. Can you imagine? God had faithfully cared for these people and now there were so afraid! They were afraid of people, they were afraid of their circumstance and they were afraid to move forward to take what God had for them. Have you ever felt like that? Maybe there is or has been something in your life that made you afraid to do what God wanted you to do. We have all been there but as we can learn from Joshua and Caleb, we can believe and have faith in God. HE is greater! HE is bigger! HE is more powerful than anything or anyone. And now for the rest of the story, the 10 spies were struck with a plague and died and Joshua and Caleb were the only two who were able to enter into the promised land of Canaan. There are consequences for disbelief but the awesome thing is that there is blessing from having faith and believing God will do what He says. Boys and girls, it is our desire at reviveKIDS that you understand what it means to really trust in God. Joshua and Caleb believed God and knew that God would keep His word to the Israelites. They chose to have faith in God. You too, can make that choice to choose to believe in God and trust Jesus to pay the price for your sin. If you and I are going to do what God asked us to do, we must read the Bible and do what it says. We know that our sin separates us from God but you can trust Jesus to pay the price for your sin and place your faith (your belief) in Him so that you may know and live with God forever. If you want to choose to place your faith in God, we are here to talk with you. Teaching Tip: Lead this time as the Holy Spirit leads and based on insight that you have from working with the kids during the week. Continue to discuss the Bible lesson until it is time for kids to rotate to next activity.
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TWELVE SPIES
ELEMENTARY LESSON
PART 3: MEMORY VERSE ACTIVITY/GAME (25 minutes) ‐ “ But now, I pray, let the power of the Lord be great, just as You have declared:” Numbers 14:17 SUPPLIES: poster board PREPARATION: Write the entire memory verse on a posterboard. READ THE VERSE: Read the verse aloud several times and/or ask several children to read it out loud. EXPLAIN THE VERSE: In our Bible lesson tonight, you have learned about or will learn about how God has demonstrated His power over and over in the life of His people as they left Egypt and were in the wilderness. It was now time for them to enter into the land that was promised to them, however, some of the men who scouted out the land did not believe that they could conquer the people there. God wanted to demonstrate His power in their lives and He wants to demonstrate His power in ours. As we learn this verse, may it remind us that God IS powerful and we can have faith that He will do what He says. LEARN THE VERSE: Bible Verse Review Game – Show Me Have children get into teams of 5 ‐ 7 kids. Let the children read the Bible verse in unison. Then, instruct the kids to think of how God has demonstrated His power and let each group act out that out. Other children will guess what they are doing. The team guessing correctly then quotes the verse. Repeat until all have had a turn. Explain again that God wants us to have faith in Him and He wants to show us His power. EXTRA ACTIVITY: Share‐a‐Verse Have the children sit in a circle of 7 ‐ 10 kids. Whisper the first word of the verse to one child. He or she will then whisper that word to the next person and so on until the last person who will say the word aloud. Whisper each word to the first person as soon as he or she has passed the word to the next person. Can the last person say the entire verse aloud without mistake? Have the kids rotate who the last child in the circle is. 5
TWELVE SPIES
ELEMENTARY LESSON
PART 4: GAMES (25 minutes) ‐ FIND THE SPIES SUPPLIES: Poster board with questions written on it PREPARATION: Pick 10 kids to be the spies and 1 kid to be Joshua and 1 kid to be Caleb but instruct them not to tell the other kids that they are the spies. Let them know how to answer the questions below. Write the following questions on a posterboard or marker board: 1. Did you go scout the land of Canaan? ( Yes for the 12) 2. Did you feel like a grasshopper? (Yes for the 10, No for Joshua and Caleb) 3. Did you believe that God would give the Israelites the promised land? (No for the 10, Yes for Joshua and Caleb) INSTRUCTION for Find the Spies: Say, “our lesson today is about 12 spies who went into the promised land to scout out what it looked like. We have 12 spies in our room today and you are going to help us find the two (Joshua and Caleb) who trusted and had faith that God would help them conquer the land. Joshua and Caleb were the two that believed and had faith that God would do what He said and lead them into the land that He promised. The other 10 spies saw how big everything in the land was rather than looking at how big God is. God wants us to be like Joshua and Caleb and have faith in God. EXTRA ACTIVITY: O ld Testament Stacking Cups (Solo Cups with OT books written on them) Make a 2 sets of Old Testament stacking cups using solo cups. Have two kids come to the front to stack the cups in order. If you choose to break the group into two teams then the teams can help the upfront child put the cups in order.
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TWELVE SPIES
ELEMENTARY LESSON
PART 5: SMALL GROUP TIME 1. What city did the spies go to check out? (Canaan) 2. How many men did God send? (twelve) 3. How long were they there? (40 days) 4. What were they supposed to look at? (land, people, fruit, etc.) 5. What report did the 10 spies give? (the people were too big and we were like grasshoppers) 6. What did Joshua and Caleb say? (we can take the land) 7. What is something that is BIG in your life that might be causing fear in you? 8. What happen to the 10 unbelieving spies (they were struck with a plague and died) 9. What can we learn about God from this lesson? (He rewards faith and there are consequence for disbelief, God is great and powerful) 10. How can we pray for you and what you are facing? Spend time allowing the kids to pray for one another to know and trust God to be who He says He is.
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TWELVE SPIES
ELEMENTARY LESSON
PART 1: THE GATHERING (35 minutes) Welcome and Prayer (5 minutes) Worship (15 minutes) ‐ led by a reviveKIDS representative Introduction to Lesson: I Spy (10 minutes) SUPPLIES: No supplies needed for the introduction to the lesson. PREPARE: Plan to play a game of “I Spy”. INSTRUCTIONS : Pick one student to start the game of “I Spy”. The child picks out an object and for example, says, “I spy something green and round.” The child who guesses the right object then gets to pick the next I Spy. Play the game for about 5 minutes and then explain to the kids that tonight they will learn about 12 spies for God’s people. They had a very important job to scout or spy out the land that God was giving them. Listen carefully so that you can learn what they had to look for and the report that they brought back. We are here tonight at reviveKIDS to help you come to know Jesus and to teach you how you can share Jesus with others. If you don’t have a gospel wristband, raise your hand and we will make sure that you have one. Let’s go over those colors on the wristband once again. Leader may go through the Bible verses as well as the Lord leads. ● Yellow is Sin, remember that sin is anything that we say, think or do that breaks God’s heart. ● Black is Death, what we deserve for our sin is death (to be forever separated from God). ● Red is Love, God showed you and I His love by sending Jesus to pay the price for our sin and death. ● Blue is Faith, when we believe and trust in something or someone we can’t see. ● Green is Life , we have life forever with God when we believe and trust in Jesus. Let’s pray and ask God to help us understand and learn from all that we do tonight. 2
TWELVE SPIES
ELEMENTARY LESSON
PART 2: BIBLE LESSON (25 minutes) BIBLE LESSON TEXT: Numbers 13‐14 SUPPLIES: Signs with the names of the twelve spies (1 on each paper), one with the city name Canaan and one with Desert of Paran written on it. PREPARE: Study the lesson and be prepared to tell the story in your own words using kids to act out the role of the 12 spies. Write the twelve spy names and 2 city names on individually on paper or card stock. Pick 12 kids to wear the name of one of the spies around their neck (using yarn or string). Have one student hold a sign that says Canaan and one hold the Desert of Paran. INTRODUCTION TO LESSON: How many of you have seen the old movie Spy Kids? Or some other movie involving spies? Do you know what a spy is? It is a person who keeps close and secret watch on the actions and words of another or others. Today in our Bible lesson we are going to learn about some spies who went to check out a city God had promised them. Teaching Tip: Always have your Bible open so that children know that what you are teaching comes from the Bible, especially, if you are not reading the text word for word. BIBLE LESSON: God had promised Abraham that he would have many descendants (children and grandchildren and more children and more grandchildren) and he would be a great nation. Many years later after Abraham was named a great man of faith, the sons of Abraham were freed from 400 years of slavery and were now right on the edge of the Canaan, the promised land. The nation of Israel (also known as the Israelites) had been in wilderness and had complained and whined about so many things. They wanted water and God gave them water, they wanted food and God gave them food. God had shown His power and love to the nation of Israel over and over again. And now, here they were on the edge of the promised land. The Lord told Moses to send men to explore the land of Canaan (these men are the spies in our lesson today). Moses sent one man from every tribe. The men who were sent into Canaan were Shammua, Shaphat, Caleb, Igal, Joshua, Palt, Gaddiel, Gaddi, Ammiel, Sethur, Nahbi and Geuel ( have kids stand up and come to the front when you call their name ). These guys were sent to spy out the land of Canaan. Moses told them that they needed to see what the land was like, what the towns were like, look to see if they had walls around their city, check to see if the soil was good and bring back a sample of the fruit from the land. They had their assignment and now were on their way (have kids travel to Canaan and once they get there they need to pretend that they are looking out over the city and “checking” things out) . 3
TWELVE SPIES
ELEMENTARY LESSON
They walked all around the land of Canaan and watched the people, they checked out the soil and when they reached the valley of Eschol, they cut a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. They also got some pomegranates and figs. At the end of 40 days, they returned from exploring the land. And now it was time for them to give a report. They said, “we went into the land you told us and it does flow with milk and honey.” This simply meant that it was a very good place and would have everything that they needed BUT they said, “the people who live there are powerful and the cities are secure and very large. We even saw giants there! Then Caleb (have Caleb come forward) silenced the people and said “we should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” Joshua agreed with Caleb. It seems that there are two different reports. Ten of the spies say that the people there are too powerful, but, Joshua and Caleb believe that the Israelites should go into Canaan. The others told Moses that they felt like grasshoppers in the sight of the people there. Can you imagine? God had faithfully cared for these people and now there were so afraid! They were afraid of people, they were afraid of their circumstance and they were afraid to move forward to take what God had for them. Have you ever felt like that? Maybe there is or has been something in your life that made you afraid to do what God wanted you to do. We have all been there but as we can learn from Joshua and Caleb, we can believe and have faith in God. HE is greater! HE is bigger! HE is more powerful than anything or anyone. And now for the rest of the story, the 10 spies were struck with a plague and died and Joshua and Caleb were the only two who were able to enter into the promised land of Canaan. There are consequences for disbelief but the awesome thing is that there is blessing from having faith and believing God will do what He says. Boys and girls, it is our desire at reviveKIDS that you understand what it means to really trust in God. Joshua and Caleb believed God and knew that God would keep His word to the Israelites. They chose to have faith in God. You too, can make that choice to choose to believe in God and trust Jesus to pay the price for your sin. If you and I are going to do what God asked us to do, we must read the Bible and do what it says. We know that our sin separates us from God but you can trust Jesus to pay the price for your sin and place your faith (your belief) in Him so that you may know and live with God forever. If you want to choose to place your faith in God, we are here to talk with you. Teaching Tip: Lead this time as the Holy Spirit leads and based on insight that you have from working with the kids during the week. Continue to discuss the Bible lesson until it is time for kids to rotate to next activity.
4
TWELVE SPIES
ELEMENTARY LESSON
PART 3: MEMORY VERSE ACTIVITY/GAME (25 minutes) ‐ “ But now, I pray, let the power of the Lord be great, just as You have declared:” Numbers 14:17 SUPPLIES: poster board PREPARATION: Write the entire memory verse on a posterboard. READ THE VERSE: Read the verse aloud several times and/or ask several children to read it out loud. EXPLAIN THE VERSE: In our Bible lesson tonight, you have learned about or will learn about how God has demonstrated His power over and over in the life of His people as they left Egypt and were in the wilderness. It was now time for them to enter into the land that was promised to them, however, some of the men who scouted out the land did not believe that they could conquer the people there. God wanted to demonstrate His power in their lives and He wants to demonstrate His power in ours. As we learn this verse, may it remind us that God IS powerful and we can have faith that He will do what He says. LEARN THE VERSE: Bible Verse Review Game – Show Me Have children get into teams of 5 ‐ 7 kids. Let the children read the Bible verse in unison. Then, instruct the kids to think of how God has demonstrated His power and let each group act out that out. Other children will guess what they are doing. The team guessing correctly then quotes the verse. Repeat until all have had a turn. Explain again that God wants us to have faith in Him and He wants to show us His power. EXTRA ACTIVITY: Share‐a‐Verse Have the children sit in a circle of 7 ‐ 10 kids. Whisper the first word of the verse to one child. He or she will then whisper that word to the next person and so on until the last person who will say the word aloud. Whisper each word to the first person as soon as he or she has passed the word to the next person. Can the last person say the entire verse aloud without mistake? Have the kids rotate who the last child in the circle is. 5
TWELVE SPIES
ELEMENTARY LESSON
PART 4: GAMES (25 minutes) ‐ FIND THE SPIES SUPPLIES: Poster board with questions written on it PREPARATION: Pick 10 kids to be the spies and 1 kid to be Joshua and 1 kid to be Caleb but instruct them not to tell the other kids that they are the spies. Let them know how to answer the questions below. Write the following questions on a posterboard or marker board: 1. Did you go scout the land of Canaan? ( Yes for the 12) 2. Did you feel like a grasshopper? (Yes for the 10, No for Joshua and Caleb) 3. Did you believe that God would give the Israelites the promised land? (No for the 10, Yes for Joshua and Caleb) INSTRUCTION for Find the Spies: Say, “our lesson today is about 12 spies who went into the promised land to scout out what it looked like. We have 12 spies in our room today and you are going to help us find the two (Joshua and Caleb) who trusted and had faith that God would help them conquer the land. Joshua and Caleb were the two that believed and had faith that God would do what He said and lead them into the land that He promised. The other 10 spies saw how big everything in the land was rather than looking at how big God is. God wants us to be like Joshua and Caleb and have faith in God. EXTRA ACTIVITY: O ld Testament Stacking Cups (Solo Cups with OT books written on them) Make a 2 sets of Old Testament stacking cups using solo cups. Have two kids come to the front to stack the cups in order. If you choose to break the group into two teams then the teams can help the upfront child put the cups in order.
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TWELVE SPIES
ELEMENTARY LESSON
PART 5: SMALL GROUP TIME 1. What city did the spies go to check out? (Canaan) 2. How many men did God send? (twelve) 3. How long were they there? (40 days) 4. What were they supposed to look at? (land, people, fruit, etc.) 5. What report did the 10 spies give? (the people were too big and we were like grasshoppers) 6. What did Joshua and Caleb say? (we can take the land) 7. What is something that is BIG in your life that might be causing fear in you? 8. What happen to the 10 unbelieving spies (they were struck with a plague and died) 9. What can we learn about God from this lesson? (He rewards faith and there are consequence for disbelief, God is great and powerful) 10. How can we pray for you and what you are facing? Spend time allowing the kids to pray for one another to know and trust God to be who He says He is.
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