MEMORY VERSE: 1 Samuel 17:50 "...but there was no sword in the hand of David."
BOOK TO REMEMBER: Take another week to review the 66 books of the Bible. Everyone should be learning them and memorizing them well by now. The students' confidence should be growing every week!
PRAYER: May we possess the kind of conviction and bravery that David had. May we believe in the LORD as strongly as David did.
SPECIAL SONGS: Read, Read Every Day (see February - Songs We Sing In Bible Class #1)
VISUAL AID: Remember it does not need to be a true work of ark, just a humble picture of a soldier that could resemble Goliath which can be drawn and tacked upon the wall--that is if your classroom wall is at least 9 feet, 9 inches tall!! (That's how tall Goliath was.) This picture can be chalked or drawn using an overhead projector which is found in March - Visual Aid #4 on this blog or it could be "pieced" together with butcher paper and construction paper like the picture here (see above). It is nice if David could be drawn as well, perhaps no more than 6 feet tall.
LESSON POINTS:
- Remember that King Saul was troubled all the days of his reign as king with the Philistines. On this particular occasion, there was a valley that was between two mountains. On the side of one mountain, the Philistine army was camped out and on the other side of the mountain, the Israelite army was camped out. There was a problem and that problem was 9 feet 9 inches tall! His name was Goliath and he was HUGE! 9 feet, 9 inches tall! He had a helmet of brass and he wore a coat of mail which was a flexible armor made of links. The armor was very heavy, in fact everything he was wearing was extremely heavy, so he must have been very strong to even wear his armor! He had a huge spear and a man went ahead him of wherever he went in battle, carrying his shield. The Bible calls Goliath of Gath a 'champion' of the Philistine army.
- Every day for forty days, Goliath came out on the Philistines' side of the mountain and cried out to the Israelite soldiers, "Choose a man from your army to come out and fight me! If he is able to kill me, then we will be your servants, but if I kill him, then you will be our servants!" Every day he did this, but not one soldier on Israel's side would go and fight him. When Saul and his army heard Goliath challenging them every day, they were dismayed and afraid.
- Now David, the son of Jesse, who lived in Bethlehem, had seven brothers, and three of the oldest brothers were in Saul's army. David had left Saul's house and was feeding his father's sheep in Bethlehem when David's father told him to take some corn, some cheese, and some bread to his brothers who were in the army. David got up early in the morning and took all the things his father told him to take to his brothers. When David arrived at the battleground and was talking to his brothers, Goliath came out on the mountain and challenged Israel again. When David heard Goliath's words, he saw the Israelites run away from Goliath because they were afraid. David was hearing and watching all of this go on and he asked the men that were standing close by him, "What will we do to this Philistine who defies God's army?" The soldiers and his oldest brother, Eliab, heard David talking and he was very angry with David. He said, "Why did you even come down here?" he suggested that David just came to peek at the battle and to see what was going on. But that did not stop David! David said to Eliab, " What have I done now? Is there not a cause?" and he kept asking every soldier what they should do with this Philistine, until even King Saul heard what David was saying and sent for him.
- David spoke bravely to King Saul and said they should not be afraid of a Philistine when they belonged to God's army! Saul told David that he could not go out to fight Goliath because he was too young. David said that he had already killed a lion and a bear who were stealing his sheep. David said that the LORD had delivered him out of the paw of the lion and the bear and that he was confident that God would deliver him out of the hand of the Philistine! Saul was convinced and told David to go and fight Goliath. He gave him an armor and a helmet and a sword, but David had not tried it out and told King Saul that he could not fight the giant with those things on, so he took them off.
- So, David took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a small bag. He had his sling in his hand when he got close to Goliath. As Goliath drew closer to David, and saw that David was so young and didn't even look like a soldier, Goliath made fun of David. He said, "Am I a dog that you come to fight me with sticks?" and he said bad things about David. Goliath said to David, "Come to me and I will fight you!" David replied, "You come to me with a sword, and a spear and a shield, but I come to you in the name of the LORD God of Israel whom you defied!"
- Then Goliath got up and came to meet David, and David, without any hesitation at all, ran to meet Goliath! He put his hand in his bag, pulled out a stone, put it in his sling and let it fly!! The stone landed right in the middle of Goliath's forehead, and Goliath came tumbling down to the ground. So, David killed Goliath, the 9 foot, 9 inch giant of Gath without even a sword in his hand!! When the other Philistine soldiers saw that their champion was dead, they all started to run away! By David acting bravely, it gave all the other soldiers of Israel confidence and energy and they chased and wounded many of the Philistines. David's bravery was contagious!
- After Goliath was killed by David, David took Goliath's own sword and took his head off, put Goliath's armor in his tent. This would be proof that Goliath was killed and that David was responsible.
- God uses young people to do great things!
Materials needed: 9" x 12" blue construction paper, 4 1/2" x 12" brown paper, scraps of leftover paper from other lessons, glue, scissors, marker, crayons.
- Hand out blue paper.
- Hand out brown paper.
- Cut a valley out of brown paper.
- Glue blue paper onto the bottom of the blue paper.
- Students can draw or cut scraps of paper to make David and Goliath. (Make sure Goliath is taller than David and David has a sling and Goliath has a spear.)
- Make two little signs.
- Write "Philistines' camp" and "Israel's camp" on signs.
- Glue signs.
- Write "David and Goliath" and "1 Samuel 17" at the top of blue paper.