Teaching 2 Kings 17

[This is the first of two introductory sessions to Jeremiah, giving historical background to Jeremiah's ministry]

3-5s

Theme: Don’t worship made up gods, love the Lord your God with all your heart.

Intro: [have some statues] Are any of these God? Why not? What if I had some playdough, and I started making it into God like this [mould playdough]? Is this God now? No, of course not. But way back before Jesus we’ll find out that the people prayed to them and worshipped them as if they were.

Bible Teaching:

[Have a big piece of paper] Here is the land that God gave His people, hundreds of years ago in the OT. This is where King David was King. And then after him, King Solomon. [decorate with trees and flowers and rivers, etc]

But after King Solomon God tore the kingdom in two. At the top there was Israel. [get them to say it]

At the bottom was Judah [again they say it]

The top had a whole load of different kings and they were all awful! They set up these statues [stick on statues from above] and said they were gods. So when they didn’t have any rain for the plants to grow they would go and ask a god called Baal. But could Baal make the rain fall? Uh-uh! No way. They were just silly statues.

And more, this made God really angry. He demands that His people worship Him alone. So he warned them and warned them and warned them through His messengers, the prophets.

Then eventually God sent their next door neighbours in to attack. Assyria! [Bring out plastic soldiers to attack] Israel called out to their made up gods, but they were just silly statues and couldn’t protect them.

And Israel was no more. They were carried away to Assyria and we hear no more of them. [Remove ‘Israel’ paper]

Judah had some good kings. They had a king called Hezekiah who loved the Lord with all His heart. He didn’t worship silly statues. He didn’t pray to them. He didn’t pretend that they were God. And so when Assyria came to attack Judah [bring out the plastic soldiers] they were safe. God protected them.

Sadly Heziekiah had a son called Manasseh. And Manasseh was evil, really horrible. He starts worshipping these silly statues and God is angry.

Boys and girls, we don’t worship silly statues, but there are times when we make other things more important than God Himself. And that makes God angry and sad. He can’t be friends with people who make other things more important than Him. We need Jesus to forgive us.

What might we make more important than God?

·        Activity – stick on a big piece of paper

Pray and say sorry to Jesus

Songs

·        God sits in the Highest Place (from God Rock)

·        My God is a very, very Big God and King David (from Very, very Big God)

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5-11s

Theme: Don’t worship made up gods, love the Lord your God with all your heart.

Intro:

Idol making – have a big box. The children need to stick pictures from Argos catalogue etc. Explain – none of these things are God and yet we often think about them more than God and make them more important than Him. The people in the OT did the same, except they had statues, called idols, which they pretended were god.

Bible Teaching:

[Have out the Bible Overview posters and get them to tell the story, briefly, from Abraham through to King David.]

[Put out a circle of masking tape in the room as the land]

After King David, his son King Solomon became King. Then after King Solomon died God split the land into 2 under 2 different Kings. [put a masking tape line across the land and label ‘Israel’ and ‘Judah’]

The north had some terrible kings (in fact it had no good kings). They worshipped silly statues and pretended they would be able to help them, and completely ignored the God who had rescued them and put them there.

So when there was no rain, they prayed to Baal [do it mockingly]. But could Baal send rain? Of course not.

They would take a block of wood and chip away until it looked like something alive and then say this was their god. This is one of the big things God had told them not to do. It made Him sad and angry! He warned them time and again through His messengers, the Prophets, to turn away from their sin.

It made Him so sad and angry that He sent an enemy nation, the Assyrians, to come and attack them. [bring in some of the children with swords, etc to attack and carry off the ‘Israelites’] That was the end of Israel, they were no more.

Judah had a good king called Hezekiah, King David’s great, great grandson. He loved the Lord God with all his heart. And he refused to worship statues. So when Assyria came to attack, God protected His people in Judah.

But after Hezekiah had died, his son, Manasseh became king. And he was hopeless. He set up idols, silly statues all across the land. I wonder what will happen to God’s people in Judah?

Boys and girls, we may not bow down and pray to statues, but when we think about something more than God, when we love anything more than God, when we make anyone more important than God, then He is sad and angry with us and we need to say sorry to Jesus and ask for His forgiveness.

Let’s do that now.

Table time:

Older ones – have a big piece of flipchart paper. Make into Israel/Judah – mark on kings and what they were like.

Younger ones – same but have printed out crowns with names on

Ask – how do we make sure God is no.1 in our lives?

            What do we make more important than Him?