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