Teaching Haggai

[This is the 9th and penultimate session on the Minor Prophets]

Haggai for 3-5s

Theme: Put God first as you wait for Jesus

Intro: What are your homes like? Have a picture of a house and get them to stick on doors and windows.

Do you remember last week we saw that God’s people were attacked by the Babylonian soldiers and they had to leave their homes? [show soldiers picture from last week]

Well this week we’re going to hear a story about how they come home again, back to the land God had give them. That must have been lovely.

This week we’re going to meet the prophet Haggai. He had a very important message for God’s people.

The people came home again and everything was in ruins! Oh, how sad for them. The houses they used to live in were just a pile of rubble with no roof, no windows and no doors. [show picture of ruined houses]

And the temple, God’s special house, had been destroyed, too! [show picture of ruined temple]. The Babylonian army had completely destroyed it. It would have to be rebuilt.

Well, they began to rebuild God’s temple. But then they stopped. And instead they got on with rebuilding their own houses. Their houses started looking lovely and being really comfy and nice. But God’s house was still in ruins. [put out some nice houses, made from cardboard or lego]

So Haggai came with a message. He said, ‘Hang on. Isn’t God the most important one? You should have put Him first. Instead you’ve made building your houses more important than God. Finish off God’s temple first then you can go back to your comfy houses.’

And do you know what? They did do that. They rebuilt God’s temple until it was properly finished this time. It was never as great as it was before. But one day Jesus would come as the great King and then it wouldn’t matter any more.

Well, we’re waiting for Jesus to come back as the great King. And as we do, we should make God the most important person in our lives. More important than our mummies and daddies. More important than our toys. More important than anything! The most important commandment is to ‘Love the Lord your God, with all your heart and with all your strength.’

Craft:

Build a temple (out of lego?)

Stick on pictures of important things but stick God at the top

Songs:

My God is a very, very big God

My God is so big
 

Haggai for 5-11s

Theme: Put God first as you wait for Jesus

·        Give them a list of important things in their lives (eg Mum, Dad, sweets) on separate pieces of card. They have to organise those things into order of importance. As they do it ask why. Then at the end bring out a card with ‘Jesus’ on. Ask them where this should come. Tell them that today they are going to hear about a time when God’s people weren’t putting Him first.

·     Give them a simple model of a house to stick together out of card (we used pictures cut up into jigsaws). Have a larger model of a temple (or similair simple large building) lying unfinished in the middle of the room. Do not mention this larger building or why it is there. They find a space and start making their building, but whenever you call ‘Jesus is coming!” they have to drop everything and run to you. Any of them who bring their house with them are out. Then point out the temple in the middle and say that this was God’s building in Israel and all of God’s people were busy with their own houses even though this building was unfinished and they knew Jesus was coming.

Bible Story:

[Have someone dressed as Haggai again.]

Have a large piece of green card. Get them to bring their little houses  and place them on the card and have the unfinished temple lying in the middle. Remind them that we saw last week that God’s people had been thrown out of God’s land. And they spent 50 years in exile, not allowed back into the land.

But finally they had been allowed back into the land (Label the green card ‘Israel’). But not everybody had returned and those that had returned had spent more time and money making sure their houses were lovely and comfy and they had forgotten about God.

Let’s listen to Haggai, (Haggai reads 1:4, 9-11). So you see God was not giving them all the good things he could have done because they were too busy looking after themselves, they hadn’t put God first.

So God raises up a King to do this work and this King was called Zerubbabel (have a small model of a king by the temple).

Now lets look at what they were to build. It was a temple. Originally God’s people had a temple built by Solomon and that temple was to show the people that God lived among them. But that temple had been destroyed when they had been kicked out of the land.

But Haggai had to warn the people as they built the temple, (Haggai reads 2:2-5). The temple won’t be as good however things will get better, (Haggai reads 2:6-9). God is promising his people a time when He will come and live among them in an amazing way, a way which is far better than the building that they are making now. God promises that He will come Himself. Let’s listen to what John wrote, ‘The Word (Jesus) became a human being. He made his home with us. We have seen his glory. It is the glory of the one and only Son.’ So the promise that God is making is that Jesus will come and live with us. The people at this time were waiting for Jesus to come. We are waiting for Jesus to come again. And when he comes he will ‘shake the heavens and the earth’ as Haggai told us.

[The following paragraph could be missed out]

But God makes one more promise, (Haggai reads 2:21-23). And this is to Zerubbabel the King who God raised up to do this work. He will be King forever, God promises.  And yet Zerubbabel died, so what did God mean? Well Zerubbabel’s great-great etc. grandson was a man called … Jesus! Jesus is this king who is going to come and rule forever.

So Haggai is speaking to us too. He is telling us that while we wait for Jesus to return we should put God first in all we do.

Table time:

Can do missions

Funsheets

Application / Response:

·        Bring out the list that they made at the beginning (or do that activity if you didn’t at the beginning) and give them some situations which might affect them talking to them about how they’d decide who to put first in their lives. Eg Friends don’t want you to read your bible. Are you going to put them first or God first?

·        Get them to draw themselves putting God first after talking about the list.

·        Get them to attach a label to the houses that they made at the beginning saying ‘God wants me to put Him first.’

Teaching Obadiah

[This is number 8 in our minor prophets series. For simplicities sake we've referred to Judah as Israel throughout.]

Obadiah for 3-5s

 

Theme: God cares for His people, so should we!

Watch video of Jacob and Esau story

Intro – Who is your brother or sister? Pictures and decorate of family and church family

            Explain – you care for your brothers and sisters and look after them. They look after you. Imagine if that wasn’t the case!

Well, it wasn’t the case many years ago. Long before Jesus there were 2 brothers, Jacob and Esau (show pictures). Jacob was the one God had chosen to be His and had blessed him. Esau hated him for this and chased him and attacked him. But if someone belongs to God then there is nothing you can do to them!

Two great countries came from these brothers; God’s people came from Jacob and Edom came from Esau [show two pictures of groups of people underneath pictures of Jacob and Esau].

Now Edom should have cared for Israel as they were both from the same family. But, do you know what? Edom didn’t care for God’s people at all. In fact, when Israel was attacked by another army Edom laughed! They didn’t help, they just stood by watching! How terrible. [Have picture of army]

And then when the army had destroyed God’s people Edom came in and stole from them. What a terrible thing to do to your brothers!

But God protects those who are His people. And God warned Edom that He was going to do terrible things to them for what they had done.

And God is the same today, if we belong to Him, like Jacob and God’s people, then Jesus is protecting and caring for you in the same way.

But we should also care for other Christians and look after them. So if we see another Christian who is poorly, what should we do?

If we see another Christian who is sad, what should we do?

If we see another Christian who has been hurt, what should we do?

Craft:

Folding paper-chain dollies with Romans 12:10 (NCV) to stick on

Songs:

Jesus loves me this I know

Jesus’ love is very wonderful

Obadiah for 5-11s

Theme: God protects His people, so should you

Watch video of Jacob and Esau

Intro:

Triangle tag – in threes they have to protect one selected member

Split group into two teams – one has to build a protective wall of Jenga blocks for a doll, the other team has to throw balls of paper to hit it

Introduce Obadiah; show where the book is in the bible and explain where it comes in history.

To understand this story we need to go further back in history to the time of Jacob and Esau. Jacob and Esau were brothers, twins and so they should have cared for each other and looked after each other. But they didn’t they hated each other. [dress one up as hairy Esau and the other as Jacob]

Jacob had been chosen to carry on God’s promises and Esau ended up hating him for this. But what it meant was that God’s blessing was on Jacob [put a hat with ‘God’s blessing’ on Jacob’s head]. And anything that Esau wanted to do to him he would be unable to. God was looking after Jacob in all he did.

From Jacob and Esau came 2 great nations or countries. From Jacob came God’s great nation, Israel. From Esau came God’s great nation Edom. Now, like Jacob and Easu, Israel and Edom should have loved each other and cared for each other. But they didn’t. They hated each other.

And when Israel was attacked by the Babylonians (remember because they had forgotten about God), [have a child attack with a foam sword]. Edom did nothing to help. Edom just sat there and laughed. They were happy that Israel had been attacked. Isn’t that terrible? In fact, after Israel had been attacked they went in and nicked anything that was left.

But remember, God’s people, even though they had disobeyed God, were still under God’s blessing. And so Obadiah promised that God would bring justice to Edom and that He would deal with them.

So, if you’re a Christian, then you too are under God’s blessing. And anyone who causes you trouble for being a Christian will have to deal with God when Jesus returns. Its like, ‘Mess with me, mess with my Dad!’

But we mustn’t be like Edom. Because Jesus has saved us, He’s brought us into the same family as lots of other people who love Him too. So we should care for them when they’re in trouble. We shouldn’t stand by and watch them being badly treated. [Could read Matthew 25:32ff]

Table Time:

·        Funsheet

·        Application pairs – examples of not being ashamed of Christians eg in school

·        Revise memory verses

·        Pray for Christians around the world

Teaching Habakkuk

[This is part 7 of the 10 minor prophets we're covering this term.]

Habakkuk for 5-11s

Theme: Trust that God is good even when times are bad

Intro:

·        Cut up the memory verse (3:17-19) and hide around the room. Split into teams, they need to find in their colour and put together.

Story:

[Need 2 actors, one to be ‘God’ and one to be Habakkuk]

Our next minor prophet is Habakkuk. He came a bit later than our other prophets. The northern Kingdom of Israel had been wiped out by the Assyrians, but the southern kingdom of Judah still hadn’t learnt their lesson [show map]. They are still doing terrible things and so Habakkuk complains to God:

Habakkuk:    ‘Lord, how long must I ask for help and you ignore me? I cry out to you about violence, but you do not save us! Why do you make me see wrong things and make me look at trouble? People are destroying things and hurting others in front of me; they are arguing and fighting.

God:               Look at the nations! Watch them and be amazed and shocked. I will do something in your lifetime that you won't believe even when you are told about it. I will use the Babylonians, those cruel and wild people who march across the earth and take lands that don't belong to them.

In reply to Habakkuk’s complaint about all the bad things going on around him, God says He will send the Babylonians to deal with it.

Habakkuk:    The Babylonians! The Babylonians! Are you kidding me? Are you not holy and good? And yet you’re going to use this horrible enemy to sort out your people? When? I will watch and wait.

God makes two replies. Here’s His first reply.

God:               It may seem like a long time, but be patient and wait for it,  because it will surely come;  it will not be delayed. The evil nation is very proud of itself; it is not living as it should. But those who are right with God will live by faith.

In other words, Be patient and trust me even though you might not understand what I am doing. Those who trust me will live and not die in this disaster. Then God give His second answer giving 5 judgements on Babylon after they have dealt with Judah.

God:               How terrible it will be for the greedy Babylonians!

                        How terrible it will be for the lazy Babylonians!

                        How terrible it will be for the boasting Babylonians!

                        How terrible it will be for the heartless Babylonians!

                        How terrible it will be for the idol worshipping Babylonians!

So even though God will use Babylon to punish His people He will also in turn punish Babylon for their sins. So Habakkuk turns and praises God that, even though he doesn’t understand His ways, He will trust Him.

Habakkuk:    Fig trees may not grow figs, and there may be no grapes on the vines. There may be no olives growing and no food growing in the fields. There may be no sheep in the pens and no cattle in the barns. But I will still be glad in the Lord; I will rejoice in God my Saviour. The Lord God is my strength.

Will you trust God even when you can’t see what He’s doing in your life? Will you still trust that He is good, even when life isn’t very nice for you? That’s what He longs for you to do!

Table Time:

·        Funsheets

·        Learn Memory verse (3:17-19)

[Sorry, but this week we’re wimping out of teaching the preschoolers Habakkuk. My feeling is it’s just too hard for the 3-5s conceptually. So we’ll do a week on God speaking and revealing Himself.]

3-5s

Theme: God speaks to His people

Intro: Chinese whispers? Some sort of speaking game

            Tell me about yourself. All about me sheet.

Do you remember some of the people we’ve been looking at this term?

There was Hosea, and Micah, and Zephaniah, and Jonah, and Joel. [Show pictures]

Can anybody remember their job? They were prophets. They came to bring God’s message to His people.

God loves to speak; He loves to tell us what He’s like and what He wants us to do. [Have speech bubble]

He tells us that He’s big and mighty and strong! [Get them to show their muscles and put on speech bubble]

He tells us that He’s loving and kind! [Get them to fold their arms across their chests and put on speech bubble]

He tells us that He’s forgiving when we say sorry! [Get them to put their hands together in prayer and put on speech bubble]

We wouldn’t know any of these things if God didn’t tell us. Which is why the prophets are so good.

But there’s an even more wonderful way that God has told us who He is; in the Lord Jesus. When we hear about what Jesus did, we hear about what God is like!

When we hear that Jesus died for us, we hear that God loves us in an amazing way. Isn’t it great that God tells us what He’s like?

Songs:

·        My God is so Big

·        Our God is a great big God

Activities:

·        Craft mouth – folded paper plate with tongue and bobbly eyes

·        Sticking pictures of all the prophets we’ve looked at onto large A3 sheet