Teaching Job 42

Notes:

Everyone likes a happy ending, and this seems to be one. Job is given double what he began with and a new family. This is not justice and reward for Job's faithfulness but God's grace. It points to a day when, by grace, God will restore us to the full blessing of being with Him. In the mean time we keep trusting Him, looking to the day when we will be with Him.

Application: The Christian life is about looking forward to the time when God makes everything right, trusting that He has it in hand. 3-7s struggle with time, particularly long times of waiting so we need to help them look forward, possibly many years of trusting God through hard times.

3-5s

Theme: The day will come when God will make everything right

Aim: That they long for that day

Intro:

·        Have lots of toy animals or get them to colour/paint lots of animal pictures. Ask: What do you think these toys/pictures might be about?

Teaching:

Recap – see what they can remember from the term in a little quiz

[Have puppets out again] After God he spoke to Job’s friends and said that they had said things which weren’t right. They had to go and say sorry to Job and to God for what they had said. And Job prayed for them.

Then God gave Job twice as much as he had before. They gave him 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 cows and 1,000 donkeys. God also gave Job 7 sons and 3 daughters. [place out on the table.] Read Job 42:14-17.

God made everything right for Job and one-day God will make everything right in this world too. Read ‘Jesus is coming’ from the Beginners Bible. One day Jesus will come back and He will make everything right. All these horrible, yucky things that make us sad and upset, like sin and hurt and sickness, Jesus will get rid of them all. And all friends of Jesus will live with Him forever.

What do you think will be amazing about being with Jesus forever? [take suggestions]

There will be so many wonderful things it is hard to imagine it. So let’s keep being Jesus’ friend and look forward to being with Him forever.

[Could listen to ‘No more tears’ from a Very, Very Big God at this point]

Pray

Craft:

·        Paper plate world craft

·        Filter paper world craft

·        Memory verse jigsaw craft

Songs:

·        No more tears (from a Very, very Big God)

·        God never says Oops!, 10,9,8 God is Great (both Colin Buchanan)

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5-11s

Theme: The day will come when God will make everything right

Aim: That they long for that day

Intro:

·        Guess how long a minute is – all the children stand still and quiet. When they think a minute is up they sit down. The closest to 60 seconds wins.

·        Get the children to make a list of what is wrong with the world. Cut up the list and split the children in two, separated by a line of masking tape. They need to get the ‘bad things’ out of their area. End by explaining that only God can make everything better and He will.

[Read story with pictures]

Teaching:

[This talk was written by Chris Joyce]
[Keep the children waiting when the talk is announced…]

Sorry to keep you waiting. I wonder if like me you find it hard to wait for things.

I wonder whether… examples of waiting

Well, all term we’ve been exploring the Bible book of Job and maybe you’ve been waiting and waiting to see what happens at the end. Will there be a happy ending for Job?

Well, I’m happy to explore the last bit of Job with you and I have great news… there is! There is a happy ending!

1)     Job’s happy ending

Do you remember today’s story? Let me read some of it again: After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord (God) gave Job success again. Ooh, this does sound like a happy ending.

God gave Job so much success he owned twice the number of things he used to own before. He owned enough animals to fill a number of zoos much, much, much bigger than our town. There were 14,000 sheep, 6000 camels, 1000 donkeys and more!

Job was also given a new family, he had seven sons and three beautiful daughters. Job lived with his new family and got to spend time with his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren. [Graphic onscreen of family tree, clicked through as each is said]

Job also lived to a very, very old age, 140 years old, celebrating it all with his family. [Could parallel with the queen turning 90, perhaps best not to, adds confusion]

This is a very happy ending indeed!

[Could be asked in the form of a question, and perhaps better placed in section 2?] God has given Job everything he could ever want, and double what he used to have. God didn’t give Job lots of good things as a reward for Job being good. God didn’t give Job lots of good things because he had suffered.

God gave Job lots of good things because He is a good and loving God. The main reason God gives Job lots of good things is to remind us of something else. An even happier ending.

Hang on one second. A happier ending?

2)     Job’s happy ending, is still to come

Job receiving a new family and lots of good things from God is very happy but there’s an even happier ending – the real happy ending - to come.

In our memory verse we heard about our redeemer, a redeemer who in the end will stand on this earth, a redeemer who lives.

A few weeks ago we saw this redeemer is Jesus. We saw that we need Jesus as our redeemer because we sin and tell God to shove off.

We saw that Jesus defeated sin and death, and suffered because of us.

All of the good things Job received before he died are tiny compared to the good things God will give to those who trust in him.

The Bible tells us that those who trust that Jesus died for them can look forward to the best day and the happiest ending ever. The day when Jesus returns to stand on this earth.

When Jesus does return to stand on this Earth God will make everything right with his people. There will be a new heaven and a new earth, a place where God will live with his people. In this place God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. There will be no more sadness, and all the bad things in this world will go away.

Everything will be perfect. It sounds perfect doesn’t it? A place we can live with God, with no more tears or sadness. I would like to be there now, but we’ll have to wait for it.

Apply

Nobody knows which day Jesus will return on. It could happen tomorrow, or it may be a long time away, after we’ve lived all of our life.

So here’s my question for all of you: What are we supposed to do while we wait?

As life goes there may some hard things and some sad things that happen to us, they may have already. Life might get really yucky!

When life gets yucky, we need to be like Job and remember that God has everything under control, and to continue trusting in him. So while we wait, if life is good we need to continue trusting God, and if life is yucky and hard we still need to trust in God.

Remembering that there is a new heaven and a new earth to come. On earth our hard times may not be as hard as Job’s, but they’ll still be hard. And our good times may not be as good as Job’s but we need to continue trusting in God all the time, making Him the most important person in our lives.

Pray

Table Time:

Knowledge

·        What happens to Job at the end of the story?

Understanding

·        What should Job’s happy ending remind us of?

·        What will happen at our happy ending? Why is it so wonderful?

Application

·        How good are you at waiting?

·        What should we do while we wait?

·        What should we do if life is yucky while we wait?

·        What should we do if life is good while we wait?

Funsheets

Memory verse

Pray for persecuted church