1. STORY: Solomon's Temple (1 Kings 5-9)
- King David wanted to build a physical temple for God. But God said
his son, Solomon, would build it. So David could only make all the preparations
for it and set aside all the wood, gold, silver, stone and treasures for the
building.
- After four peaceful years of reign as king, Solomon decided to start
building the temple of God, as his father, David, had prepared him for. “You know
that because of the wars waged against my father David from all sides, he could
not build a temple for the Name of the Lord
his God until the Lord put his
enemies under his feet. But now the Lord
my God has given me rest on every side, and there is no adversary or disaster. 5 I
intend, therefore, to build a temple for the Name of the Lord my God, as the Lord told my father David, when he said,
‘Your son whom I will put on the throne in your place will build the temple for
my Name.’” (1 Kings 5:3-5)
- It took them seven years to complete the amazing temple. Solomon
listened to God and built it exactly like God wanted.
- Let's take a look at how the temple might have looked like: Virtual tour of temple.
1. STORY:
- HOOK: I wish I may, I wish I
might …
- Imagine one day you were walking on a beach. And you accidentally
kicked something hard. You looked down, and you see an old-fashioned gold lamp!
Wow!
- What would you do with it? Maybe we should rub it and see if anything
happens … 1, 2, 3 Rub!
- Whoosh! It’s a great big green genie! “Hello boys and girls! Thank you
for setting me free from the lamp! As a reward, I’ll give you one wish!
Whatever it is that you want … ask and I shall grant you your wish!”
- Wow! A wish! Whatever you want!
- What would you wish for children? What’s the one thing you want the
most? <get kids to give their
answers>
- Well, in real life, there’s no such thing as a genie in a bottle. But
in the Bible, there’s somebody who was asked by God about what his wish was.
That somebody was King Solomon. Let’s find out more.
- King David’s had a son, Solomon, who would be
Israel’s next king. God loved him very much. (2 Sam 12:24)
- Before he died, David instructed Solomon what he
should do as king. “And you my son
Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted
devotion and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and
understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be
found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.” (1
Chronicles 28:9)
- After King David died, his son Solomon became king over Israel. “Solomon showed his love for the LORD by
walking according to the statues of his father David…” (1Kings 3:3a)
- One night, Solomon offered 1,000 offerings to God at a place called
Gibeon. As he was sleeping, God came to Solomon and spoke to him in a
dream. “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”
- Wow! Solomon could ask
for ANYTHING he wanted. What would you ask for if God said, “Ask
for whatever you want me to give you.”
- If you were a king, wouldn’t you wish for great wealth? Long life?
Many palaces? Or territories? For all your enemies to be gone?
1. LESSON:
- HOOK: God keeps His promises
- Write out some Scriptures of God’s promises (see appendix) and hide
them around the room. (Can fold them into origami or in envelopes or behind
cards, e.g. flower shapes etc. Or can be played as “pass the parcel” with a
promise and a gift at each layer.)
- Kids have to go hunt for the “treasure”. Then get them to come
together and read out each of the promises one by one.
- Conclusion: God has given us many promises,
and He keeps all of them. Today we’re going to learn about a BIG promise God
made to King David. It’s a promise that you and I can enjoy too!
1. Story (based on 2 Sam 11-12)
- HOOK: Cover up
- Materials: Pile of dust/dirt, tissue paper/paper napkin, small
dustpan/brush
- Put a pile of dust/dirt in the middle of a table.
- Kids, look, there’s a mess here. It’s really dirty. What should we do?
- How about we try to cover it up? I know, let’s use this napkin. If we
put it over the dirt, no one will see it. <cover
the dirt with the napkin>
- There. Does that work? <no>
- Oh dear. What do you think we should do? I know. I’ll clean it up and
throw away the dirt. <get a kid to
help sweep away the dirt>
- See … clean and as good as new now!
- Sometimes in life, we will mess up and make mistakes. But covering the
mess will not work because the mess is still there. So the only way to get rid
of the mess is to clean it up nicely.
- Today, we’re going to learn about someone who messed up big time.
- We’ve been learning about a person called David.
- What have we learnt about him so far?
- David was a shepherd.
- David was anointed king.
- Saul was jealous of him.
- Saul wanted to kill him.
- David ran away, and God protected him from all harm.
- Then one day, Saul and Jonathan were both killed in battle. David was
then made king of Israel.
- David loved the Lord. He loved to sing and write songs of worship.
- One of the first things David did as king was to bring the Ark of the
Covenant back to Jerusalem.
1. Story:
- Who was the shepherd boy who was anointed king of Israel? David
- Who was the king at that time? Saul
- God was with David in all he did. And he had great successes. The
women of Israel used to welcomed him with singing and dancing. What did they
say? “Saul has slain his thousands, and
David his tens of thousands.”
- How did this make Saul feel? Very
jealous of David.
1. Story: (based on 1 Sam 16, 18)
- The past 2 months, we've been learning Psalm 23. Can you remember it?
- Who wrote Psalm 23? David
- Who was David?
- What was David's occupation? Shepherd
- Yes, that's right. David was a shepherd boy. He was the youngest son in his family. While his brothers went to war as big, strong soldiers, David stayed in the
fields to take care of the sheep. Quite unimportant in his family’s eyes.
- But God had a special purpose for David. He had chosen David to be king of Israel! David had a heart after God. So God sent His prophet, Samuel, to anoint David as king.
- There
was one problem, however. Israel already had a king. Anyone knows his name? King Saul
- That’s
right. King Saul was the first King of Israel, and he would rule Israel for 42
years.
