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.

A Walk-through Solomon's Temple

Lesson: A Walk-through Solomon's Temple (1 Kings 7, 2 Chron 4)

• Set up room according to the following layout

• Prepare kids outside the room:
• Today, we’re going to take a special tour of the temple of God that King Solomon built.
• Let’s walk slowly and very quietly so we can see all the different things inside.
• Note: Depending on crowd control, you may choose to have all the kids sit down in the “outer court area” while you talk about different parts of the temple, or have them follow you

The Temple’s Furnishings

1.         Lesson: The Temple’s Furnishings (1 Kings 7, 2 Chron 4)

• Last week, we learnt about how Solomon built a temple to God. It was built:
• with the best materials and by the best craftsmen
• as God’s house where God’s people could come to pray and receive forgiveness of their sins 
• We also learned that the temple was temporary … a picture of who us today — we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and that God lives in us forever!

• The layout and furnishing of the temple is similar to the tabernacle that the Israelites used to worship God in since they came out of Egypt. (Exodus 25-27). The temple was about double the size of the tabernacle, and some of the furnishing were multiplied (10x).
• Everything about the temple — layout and furnishings — are made according to perfect specifications because it serves as “a copy and shadow of what is in heaven”. (Heb 8:5)
• Today we will looks at some of the furnishings in the temple and see how they are a picture of Jesus and His finished work on the cross.