Teaching Daniel 2

3-5s

Theme: God is in charge of everything and knows everything

Aim: That they trust God with all their lives

Intro:

Make a statue out of boxes and begin to cover with tinfoil and yellow paper.

Teaching:

Have you ever had a scary dream?

Put your head on the table and shut your eyes and pretend its really dark. Sometimes we all have scary dreams. We dream of something not very nice and it makes us really unhappy. We wake up with a start. [Get them all to wake up suddenly].

Do you remember our king from last week? His name was Nebuchadnezzar [show picture from last week - could use flannelgraph or powerpoint] He was asleep one night and had a horrible dream. But when he woke up he couldn't remember it. This made him even more worried.

He called all his clever men together. And said to them, 'What was my dream? [sternly]

'What?' they all said. 'How do we know what your dream was?'

'Tell me my dream or I'm going to do horrible things to you!' [more sternly!]

'But we don't know!'

'TELL ME MY DREAM!'

But only God knows everything and King Neb didn't know God, he thought he was in charge of everything.

The clever men were in trouble!

Do you remember Daniel and his friends? Well, they found out about this. And they got together and prayed. Do you know why they prayed? Because God knows everything! So they asked God what the dream was and what it meant. And God told them. [You may want to add in a little about Daniel's prayer here]

So what was the dream? Daniel told King Neb what God had told him; that he'd dreamed of a huge statue, like this one. The head was made of gold, the chest of silver, the underpants of bronze, the legs of iron and the feet of iron and clay. What a strange thing to dream about. God was telling Neb that He, God, was in charge of everything and that only God knew what was going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, next year and forever. God knows a lot and has a lot of power. King Neb didn't realise this.

And do you know what? In this dream God was also promising to send King Jesus who would be King forever. Isn't that amazing?

God is in charge of everything and He knows everything. He knows how many hairs on your head, He knows your name and He knows what you do and what you say and even what you think. And He's in charge of everything; everywhere you go and what happens.

Pray [they repeat after you]

Thank you God

That you know everything

That you're in charge of everything

Amen

Craft:

Dream statue

Self portraits - stick on hair and lips, etc. Stick on caption 'God knows everything'

Songs:

God Knows (from J is for Jesus)

God never says Oops

He's got the whole world in His hands

Jesus loves/knows the little children

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5-11s

Theme: The true God is in charge of all countries and knows all things

Aim: That they would look to Jesus' Kingdom as the only thing which lasts forever

Intro:

What am I thinking of? - 20 questions: link to King Neb having his wise men guess his dreams

Or - Dress one leader up as The Great Stupido who can read their minds (make it silly)

Recap - Timeline and reminder of last week

Teaching:

Have you ever had a bad dream? [share a few]

Scene 1:

King Nebuchadnezzar (Neb) of Babylon had a very bad dream. [Dress one leader or older child as King Neb and have them asleep in a chair].

When he awoke he was very scared. But he couldn't remember anything about the dream. [Neb scratches his head]

So he called his wise men and said to them, [Neb to the children] 'Tell me my dream!'

But the wise men didn't know. How could they? So they asked the king to tell him the dream and they would tell him what it meant. But this made the king very cross:

'Tell me my dream!'

But still they couldn't answer him, so they asked him again to tell them the dream and they would tell him what it meant. This made the king very, very cross!

'TELL ME MY DREAM!'

This made the wise men really, really scared so they told the king that only their gods know the dream, and their gods don't speak to them! But King Neb in his anger arranged to have all the wise men put to death!

This included Daniel and his friends.

Stop: What do you think? What had King Neb got wrong?

Scene 2:

Daniel found out about this. So, very politely, he said to the captain of the King's guard,

[have a child dressed as Daniel] 'My God can tell him the dream. Give me some time, please.'

Daniel and his friends then went and prayed, asking God to show them the dream and its meaning. God did show Daniel what the dream meant. And Daniel sung a song to God,

'Praise God forever and ever,

He has wisdom and power.

He gives power to kings and takes it away.

He makes known secrets that are deep and hidden.'

How different was Daniel's God to the gods of the wise men?

Scene 3: Daniel before the King

So Daniel went to see the King and tell him the dream. Daniel told King Neb that only God could know the dream and that this God is showing what will happen in the days to come.

Here is the dream:

There was a statue [draw round a child on wall paper]

The head was of gold [quickly stick on yellow paper]

The body was of silver [stick on tinfoil]

The underpants were of bronze [stick on light brown paper]

The legs were iron [grey paper]

And the feet were iron and clay [mix brown and grey paper]

Then a rock would come and smash the whole statue and fill the earth.

What does this dream mean? Well, Daniel told them.

The gold head was King Neb and his Kingdom [label the head]

Then after King Neb would come 4 other great kingdoms.

But then God would set up a kingdom which would take over the world and last forever?

Who do you think is the King of that Kingdom? [Jesus]

At this King Neb bowed before Daniel and said,

'Your God knows everything!'

Notice what he didn't say. Neb didn't say Daniel's God was in charge of everything, just that He knows everything.

Apply:

[Hold up pictures of David Cameron and other world leaders]

Does God know what's going to happen to these leaders?

Does God know what's going to happen to the refugees who are fleeing Syria?

Does God know what's going to happen to our country?

Does God know what's going to happen to you?

He doesn't just know, He is in charge of it all!

Is Britain going to last forever? Is the USA going to last forever? Is the mess in this world going to last forever?

What's the only thing which will last forever? Jesus' Kingdom

Table time:

[Every good answer they get to put on a piece of the statue]

Understanding

• How did King Neb find out that he wasn't in control?
• How did God show King Neb that He was in control?
• Who is the only one who knows what's going to happen in the future?
• What's the difference between the kingdoms of the world and Jesus' Kingdom?
• How did Daniel live in a Kingdom which said 'Shove off God'?

Application

• Are you in Jesus' Kingdom that lasts forever? How do other people see that?
• How does the fact that God knows the future make you feel?
• Why do you think God hasn't shown you your future? What future has He shown you?

Memory verse:

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

[Write on statue and cut in bits]

Pray for persecuted church