Kings: Review & Kings of Israel

1. LESSON: Review & Kings of Israel (1 Kings 15: 25-16:28)

 

• In the past few weeks, we’ve been looking at the kings of Judah who ruled over the Southern Kingdom (2 tribes): (use actions to reinforce and review)
• Rehoboam: Not a servant king
  (actions: an “X” sign with hands then open palms for “serving”)
  Proud and refused to serve the people. As a result, his father’s kingdom was split into 2 — Judah (2 tribes) and Israel (10 tribes).
  Jesus is our servant King who came to give us rest.

• Abijah: Relied on God for victory
  (actions: do V for victory sign with fingers)
  God gave him victory over Jeroboam (who tried to ambush Abijah with double the number of troops) because of His covenant with David.
  Because of His New Covenant with Jesus, God fights our battles for us and gives us victory!

• Asa: Trust in God or trust in self?
  (actions: stand on 1 foot and lean to one side; ie who are you leaning on?)
  When Asa trusted in God, God gave him victory over the Egyptian king and his mighty army. But when threatened by King Baasha, Asa decided to rely on himself and formed his own alliances, instead of trusting God.
  Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

• Today, we will look at 5 more kings of Israel (Northern Kingdom; 10 tribes) and see how they fared. 
• Generally, all the kings of Israel didn’t follow God. They did evil and led the people to worship idols. It was a vicious cycle with each new king. And there were always wars and unrest as a result.

Kings: Asa of Judah

1. HOOK: Whom do you seek? Or related icebreaker

• Create two cubes/lists:
• possible decisions that kids have to make (e.g. school work, recreation, choosing friends etc)
• possible people or things they seek help from (e.g. parents, friends, doctors, teachers etc)  

• Have kids roll the two dice together and discuss the way people might seek the help for the decision. 
• God puts wise people in our midst, and we should get help from these people, especially our parents. But our parents are also human. They don’t have all the answers or know what’s going to happen. The One person who knows everything and whom we can depend on is Jesus. So whenever we have issues or problems or have to make big decisions, talk to Jesus first, and He will show us the way. 

2. LESSON: King Asa of Judah (1 Kings 15, 2 Chronicles 14-16)

•  King Asa 
• Today we meet King Asa. He was the son of King Abijah and ruled over Judah for 41 years.
• Unlike his father Abijah and grandfather Rehoboam, the Bible records for us that “Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God” (2 Chron 14:2) and that he had a whole heart like David (“Asa’s heart was fully committed to the Lord all his life.” 2 Chron 15:17)
•  What did Asa do? He:
• Stopped worship to the false gods: Removed the foreign altars and high places; smashed the sacred stones; and cut down the Asherah poles (He even removed his grandmother Maakah from her position as queen mother because she made an idol for the worship of the false goddess Asherah)
• Commanded Judah to seek God and obey Him
• Built up and prospered the cities of Judah in times of rest/peace

Kings: Abijah of Judah

1. HOOK:

• Prepare a plastic chair. Get a volunteer to come forward and put a hand on the chair. Get the volunteer to lift up the outside leg and lean towards the chair. The chair would move (control it a bit for younger kids), and the kid would lose balance.
• Then get another volunteer to come forward. Get this volunteer to put a hand on the wall and lean towards the wall. The wall doesn’t move, and the kid doesn’t lose balance. 
• Today we’re going to learn about somebody who put His trust in the Lord. He didn’t put his trust in other things (like numbers or his own strength and power), because those are like the plastic chair. If you lean on it, it may fail and you may fall. But if we trust the Lord, he is firm, like the wall.

 2. LESSON: King Abijah of Judah (1 Kings 15, 2 Chronicles 13)

• REVIEW: KINGS OF ISRAEL

• So far, we have learnt: 
• Rehoboam: Solomon’s son. Did not want to serve the people. People rebelled, and the kingdom was split into 2 — Israel and Judah. Rehoboam ruled over Judah.

• After Rehoboam died, his son Abijah succeeded him as king of Judah. He ruled Judah for 3 years.  
• What else do we know about Abijah? 
• The Bible records for us 2 main things in 1 Kings 15:
• Abijah did not have a WHOLE HEART like King David. He only had HALF HEART. He committed the sins of his father and grandfather of worshipping other gods etc.
• There was war between Abijah and Jeroboam (King of Israel) throughout Abijah’s lifetime.