MEMORY VERSE: 1 Samuel 15:22 "...Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice..."
BOOK TO REMEMBER: Review the 66 books of the Bible.
PRAYER: Pray for good ears. May we truly listen closely to God's Word and obey Him.
SPECIAL SONG: God Raised Up 15 Judges (see June - Songs We Sing In Bible Class #6 on this blog).
VISUAL AID: Draw a picture like one in the Activity (see below) on the whiteboard or chalkboard. OR use the TV Box (see February - Visual Aid #1 on this blog).
LESSON POINTS:
- Samuel told King Saul that God had a job for him to do, so Saul should listen closely to the words he was going to tell him. God said that He remembered what Amalek had done to Israel when Israel had come out of Egypt and how Amalek had laid in wait to fight Israel. Remember the battle when Israel would win the fight when Moses' hands stayed up in the air, but when his hands went down, Amalek would win? We studied that a long time ago, but God did not forget that He had said that Amalek would be destroyed. In this lesson, God tells King Saul to completely and utterly destroy the Amalekites, everyone and everything of the Amalekites was to be destroyed, even the sheep and cattle. God told King Saul not to spare anyone or anything.
- The first thing King Saul did was to count his soldiers. There were 200,000 footmen and 10,000 men of Judah. That was a lot of soldiers!! They went to a city where the Amalekites lived and told another group of people, the Kenites, to leave because they had been good to the Israelites when the Israelites had left Egypt, so the Kenites took off down the road and left the Amalekites there all by themselves. Then King Saul fought with the Amalekites until no one was left alive except the Amalekites' king, King Agag. King Saul did not kill King Agag and took the best of all the sheep and cattle and anything that was good. Uh-oh! Is that what God had told King Saul to do, to spare the King and the best of everything? NO! King Saul disobeyed the LORD!
- The LORD told Samuel that He was sorry that He had made Saul king over Israel because Saul did not obey the Lord's commands. When God said this to Samuel, Samuel was grieved and Samuel cried all night because of Saul's disobeying God.
- Early the next morning, Samuel went to meet with King Saul. God had told Samuel where Saul was, so Samuel went straight there. King Saul came out to meet Samuel and said, "Blessed be the LORD. I have performed the commandment of the LORD." But Samuel said, "What does this mean? I hear the bleating of sheep and the lowing of oxen." King Saul then told a lie. He said THE PEOPLE spared the best of everything, but we destroyed everything else. Bad news for King Saul.
- Samuel told King Saul to stay right there and he would tell him what the LORD had told him the night before. King Saul said told Samuel to, "Say on!" Samuel went on to say that obeying the LORD was always better than sacrificing to the LORD and rebellion (which was what Saul had done) was a sin. Because of King Saul's sin and rebellion, God didn't want Saul to be king over His people anymore. Saul had rejected God' Word and God had rejected Saul as king.
- Saul told Samuel that he had sinned. He said that he feared the people and obeyed the people's voice instead of God's. Saul asked Samuel to pardon his sin and to return with him, but Samuel said that he could not because God had rejected Saul as king over Israel. As Samuel turned to go away, King Saul reached out and took hold of Samuel's mantel which was a loose piece of clothing without sleeves that was worn over Samuel's other clothes. When Saul did this, Samuel's mantle tore! Samuel told Saul, "The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to another who is better than you!" Saul asked again if Samuel would go with him again so that he could worship the LORD, so Samuel turned back after Saul and Saul worshiped the LORD.
- Then Samuel said, "Bring me Agag, king of the Amalekites." So Samuel killed Agag the way that King Saul should have the first time. Samuel went back to his home and Saul went back to his home and Samuel never saw Saul again, yet the Bible says that Samuel mourned for Saul and the LORD was sorry He had made Saul king over Israel. How very, very sad, but God has a plan for another king to rule over Israel.
- God remembered how Amalek fought with Israel in Exodus 17:8-16 (see May - Lesson -Moses' Heavy Hands). God had promised back then that He would completely wipe out Amalek from everyone's memory (Exodus 17:14; Numbers 24:20), but God does it in His own time. He completes this task in 1 Samuel 15. We need to remember that God does not forgive or forget our sins unless we acknowledge our sins and ask him to forgive us. We need to have a prayerful attitude always.
Materials needed: 9" x 12" blue construction paper, 2" x 12" dark brown construction paper, 4" x 12" light brown construction paper, 2" x 4" white paper, 2" x 3" white paper, 1" x 2" thin any color fabric, glue, crayons, marker, scissors.
- Hand out blue paper.
- Glue light brown paper to bottom on blue paper.
- Glue dark brown paper to bottom on light brown paper.
- Hand out both pieces of white paper.
- On larger paper, draw and color King Saul, with his hand out. (see picture)
- On smaller white paper, draw and color Samuel.
- Cut both men out.
- Glue both men on top of dark brown paper.
- Cut out a triangle from the fabric.
- Cut a small piece of fabric from triangle.
- Glue larger piece of fabric on top of Samuel's clothing.
- Glue tiny piece of fabric in Saul's hand.
- Draw sheep and oxen and King Agag in one corner of paper (see picture).
- Write "King Saul Disobeys God" and "1 Samuel 15" at the top of the blue paper.
- Write "And as Samuel turned about to go away, he laid upon the skirt of his mantle, and it rent. v. 27"in the middle of the blue paper.
- Write "The LORD has rent (torn) the kingdom of Israel this day..."
- Write "Baa!" and "Lo!"