MEMORY VERSE: Joshua 7:22 "So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran unto his tent: and, behold, it was hid in his tent, and the silver under it."
BOOK TO REMEMBER: 2 Thessalonians. Write '2 Thessalonians' on small slips of paper and hand out to the students at the end of class.
PRAYER: Pray that we might all stay close to God and strive to do what He says, knowing there is a great penalty for sin. Let us pray for and help each other.
SPECIAL SONG: Be Patient And Kind (see April - Lesson - Joseph Meets His Brothers Who Hated Him on this blog.)
VISUAL AID: Large Activity (see below)
LESSON POINTS:
- After the walls of Jericho fell down, something terrible happened! Someone stole some things from Jericho and it hurt all of the people of Israel. God was very angry!
- Joshua and his men of war went from Jericho to the city of Ai. Some of the men went up and took a look at the city of Ai. The men came back and told Joshua that he should send only 2,000 or 3,000 men to fight because Ai was a small city, so Joshua did as they suggested. They did not think that this was a very big battle and did not expect any of the Israelites to die, but they were wrong. 36 men died!
- Joshua knew instantly that something was wrong. He tore his clothes, fell with his face to the ground in front of the ark of the covenant until evening, then he and all the leaders or elders put dust on their heads. This was a sign of great sadness. Joshua prayed to God and asked why this had happened. God told Joshua to get up off the ground because someone had sinned by stealing and putting it in their own tent. God said that He would not be with Joshua anymore unless he destroyed what was stolen. God told Joshua to tell the people that the next morning they should sanctify themselves and divide up into tribes. Remember the twelves sons of Jacob? They were to divide up in families like Reuben, Simeon, Judah, Dan, Naphtali,Gad, Asher, and so on.
- The next morning all the people divided up into families and God showed Joshua that the tribe or family of Reuben had sin in their camp. Then Reuben's families was divided up into smaller families and God showed Joshua that the family of the Zarhites had sin in their camp. Then the Zarhites' families were divided up man by man, and God showed Joshua that Zabdi had sin in his family. Zabdi brought his family to Joshua man by man and Achan was taken as the lone man who had sinned.
- Joshua asked Achan to tell him what he had done and not to hide it from him. Achan said that he had sinned against the LORD God. Achan said that when he saw a beautiful piece of clothing from Babylon in the things that were to be destroyed in Jericho, he stole it. He also stole silver and a wedge of gold and he hid them under his tent.
- Joshua sent messengers and they ran to Achan's tent where they found all of the stolen goods. They took all of the stolen things to Joshua and all of the people and laid the stolen things out before the LORD. Then they took Achan, the silver, the gold, the piece of clothing, and everything Achan had and Joshua said, "Why have you troubled Israel this day? The LORD shall trouble you this day!" Achan and his family died that day all because of Achan's greed and disobedience.
- We should always obey God. We have learned that a lot in our Bible class, haven't we? When people disobey God, bad things happen to them, but when people obey God, God is always with them. We should always want God on our side and we should always be on His!
- Discuss greed, what it is, and what it can do to people. Everyone must have been very angry at Achan because his greed killed 36 soldiers.
- God has always had strict laws and when people disobeyed His laws, there have always been grave consequences.
- We may fool people, but we can't fool God! God knows our sins and our hearts.
Materials needed: 9" x 12" piece of any color construction paper, 5" x 7" triangle of fabric in a 'tent' color (I used an old dish cloth), foil, shiny gold paper (I used a snip of a gold gift bag), a tiny piece of brightly colored material or paper (I used old gift wrapping paper), a 1" x 2" piece of 'rug' fabric (I used a small piece of a cloth I use to dust the furniture--nothing is safe!), a 1/4" x 2" scrap of brown paper, 1 1/2" scrap of any color paper,scissors, glue, crayons or markers.
- Hand out 9" x 12" construction paper. This is the foundation.
- Hand out out triangular fabric. This is the tent.
- Cut up the middle of the fabric to make a tent door. Set aside.
- In the middle of the tent's door, glue the foil down first.
- On top of the foil, but a little to the side so you can still see the foil, glue the wedge of gold.
- On top of the gold, but a little to the side so you can still see the gold, glue a piece of brightly colored material or paper.
- Glue one edge of 'rug material' slightly to the side of the three stolen goods, so that when the rug it lifted up, the student can see the three items.
- Glue outside edge ONLY of tent material.
- Place in the middle bottom of the foundation.
- Glue brown scrap by tent (see picture) for a post.
- Write "Achan's tent" on scrap of any color paper.
- Glue "Achan's tent" sign to top of post.
- Write "Achan's Sin" and "Joshua 7" at the top of the foundation.
- Make sure the student can open the tent door, then the 'rug' to see the stolen items.
