Teaching Daniel 1

Teaching Daniel 1

3-5s

Theme: God loves and cares for His people

Aim: That they know God's love and care

Intro:

Vegetable prints - big picture

Teaching:

Today we're going to listen to a true story from a long time ago about 4 friends called Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.

[Picture 1 - a sad face] - God's people were living at home in the land God had given them happily enough. Then a big army came from Babylon, with a nasty King called Nebuchadnezzar. He attacked God's people and beat them. It was a very sad day because it looked like God didn't care for them anymore.

[Picture/object 2 - a backpack] They then had to leave their home and travel far, far away and live in a place which they didn't know with lots of people they didn't know. It must have been very scary. [get them trudging and doing scared faces]. I wonder if they thought God had forgotten about them and didn't care about them anymore? Do you know, Daniel and His friends knew that God still loved and cared for them, even though life was sad and they were far from home?

[Picture/object 3 - a plate of food] Daniel and his friends had to live like the people in this foreign land. They were given new and strange names: Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They had to serve King Nebuchadnezzar. It was as if he was trying to make them forget their home and where they had come from and to forget the God who loves and cares for them. But Daniel and his friends didn't forget. And they refused to eat the food that the King would give them. They would only eat the vegetables, not the wine or meat. Some were worried that they'd become really skinny only eating the vegetables. But, do you know what? They became fatter! God was looking after them and caring for them because they trusted Him.

[Picture 4 - a cross] And God loves and cares for us just as He did for Daniel. We know that because He sent Jesus to die for us. So wherever we are, no matter how scared we are, we can still know that God loves and cares for us very much.

Craft:

Stick vegetables onto a paper plate

Backpacks - make out of card and fill with things they might want to take

Stick the four pictures from the story in order

Songs:

• Jesus loves me this I know
• Don't be afraid of the night (from J is for Jesus)

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5-11s

Theme: God rules even when it looks like He doesn't

Aim: That they are unafraid to make a stand for following Jesus

Church intro: Boxing match [have two dressed up]. Looks like God has been dealt a KO and has been defeated. Yet we're told that God gave King Jehoiakim of Judah into Nebuchadnezzar's hands. God isn't defeated at all, but it looks like He is!

Teaching:

Timeline - set up the timeline and orient them to where Daniel is in the Bible.

Then set up Jerusalem at one end and Babylon at the other. Explain the situation: King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has attacked and defeated Jerusalem. It looks as though God Himself has been defeated. God's people must have been incredibly sad.

Then Nebuchadnezzar chose the most able, the smartest and best looking and carried them away to Babylon, the enemy city.

Challenge time - who's the smartest/most able? Eg target practice or quick quiz. Set 4 up as Daniel and his friends.

Can you imagine what it must have been like to leave home and live in a foreign land?

They were there to be taught to be the King's wise men, learning how to tell the future. They were also given new Babylonian names [give them the new names] and were to eat the King's food [have out a pork pie, a glass of Ribena and a turnip]. The King was trying to make these men forget their Israelite past, forget that they were God's people, and to become Babylonians.

Now for Daniel and his friends this was too much. They refused to eat the meat and wine. Why the food? We don't know. It was as if they wanted chose one thing to make an issue of and said, 'We're not going to become Babylonians, we still trust in the great God of Israel so we're not going to do this one thing.' So it was as if they went to McDonald's and took the burger out of their bun and just ate the gherkins and salad!

Now the King's henchman was worried: [dress one as a henchman] and read v10.

Daniel's answer was: get a child to read v13-14.

What would happen if you just ate vegetables and water for 10 days? Do you think you might get thinner?

Well Daniel and his friends got fatter! Why? Because God was looking after them there. Read v17. Had God been KO'd? No! In fact God blessed them greatly because they trusted in Him. Read v18-20.

What do you think this story has to do with Jesus? [take suggestions]

Jesus is the great wise man, wiser than Daniel, who knew how to obey God perfectly. If we trust Him we are part of Jesus' kingdom. And there will be times when we have to say 'No' to people who are asking us to do things that Jesus wouldn't like. We will live differently from people around us who don't love and trust Him. Maybe its the words we use, maybe its the way we speak to people, maybe its saying 'No' when our friends want us to be naughty.

Table time: [younger ones - print out pictures and read passage. As they listen they point to the right picture]. Throw a dried pea in a bowl for every good answer.

Knowledge

• What did the King want Daniel and his friends to become?
• What did Daniel and His friends refuse to do?

Understanding

• Why did Daniel and his friends refuse to eat the meat and wine?
• Why didn't Daniel and his friends get thinner?
• Why didn't Daniel and his friends give in?
• How does this all point us to Jesus?

Application

• Do you friends know that you love Jesus?
• How has loving Jesus meant that you're different from your friends?
• Has anyone asked you to do something that Jesus wouldn't like? What did you say?

Pray for persecuted Christians

Memory verse:

‘For he is the living God
    and he endures for ever; (Daniel 6:26)

Write on vegetables and hide