MEMORY VERSE: 1 Samuel 13:14 "But now thy kingdom shall not continue..."
BOOK TO REMEMBER: Review the books of the Bible. Does everyone know that there are 39 books of the Old Testament? Does everyone know that there are 27 books of the New Testament? Does everyone know that there are sixty-six books in the whole Bible?
PRAYER: While doing our best is always important when serving God, we must always make sure that we know what His will is.
SPECIAL SONG: The Book Of The Old Testament and The Books Of The New Testament (see March - Songs We Sing In Bible Class #3 on this blog).
VISUAL AID: Whiteboard or chalkboard drawing of picture above.
LESSON POINTS:
- After Saul had been selected by God to be king for a while, Saul made a big mistake. He had chosen 3,000 men of Israel to be soldiers. He took 2,000 of the men to Michmash and his son, Jonathan, took 1,000 men and traveled to Gilgal. Everyone else went home to their tents.
- Jonathan attacked the garrison of the Philistines in Geba and the Philistines heard all about it. Saul blew his trumpet throughout all the land and told the Hebrews or Israelites to hear. All of Israel heard that Jonathan had attacked the Philistines' garrison and the Philistines did not like it one bit! Saul called all the people to to Gilgal. They were waiting for Samuel.
- In the meantime, the Philistines were organizing their troops. They had 30,000 chariots, 6,000 horsemen, and there were so many Philistines that it looked like the sand on the seashore.
- The Israelites were very afraid when they saw how many Philistines there were that were going to fight them.The Israelites were so distressed that they hid in caves, in thickets, in rocks, in high places and in pits. In fact, some of the Israelites ran to the other side of the Jordan River. All the people who stayed and followed Saul were trembling with fear.
- King Saul waited for seven days, but for some reason, Samuel did not come. The people were becoming more and more nervous and began to scatter away from King Saul. Saul panicked! Samuel wasn't coming, the people were leaving him, so he decided to take it upon himself to offer a burnt offering and peace offerings to the LORD. King Saul had good intentions, but he should have waited for Samuel. Do we remember what tribe could offer offerings to the LORD? That's right! God only wanted the priests from the tribe of Levi to offer sacrifices. King Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin and should not have presumed that God would accept his offerings. What should have King Saul done? That's right! He should have waited for Samuel.
- As soon as King Saul finished offering the burnt offering, guess who came? Yes! Samuel came and King Saul went out to meet Samuel, hoping that Samuel would bless him, but Samuel did not. He only asked King Saul a question. He asked, "What have you done?" King Saul answered Samuel by saying that when he saw all of the Israelites leaving him, Samuel wasn't coming, and the Philistines were gathering together, he said that he realized that the Philistines would come down and fight him and he had not made supplication or asked God's blessing, so he forced his own self to do it.
- Samuel said that Saul had done foolishly and that he had not kept the LORD's commandments. Samuel said that Saul could have kept the kingdom in his family, but now that King Saul had sinned, the LORD wanted a man after God's own heart, not one that did his own will over the LORD's.
- So Samuel left King Saul, but the Philistines did not. They were were still camped and waiting. King Saul counted the Israelites again and found that only 600 men remained, but the Israelites had a bigger problem. There was no blacksmith in all the land of Israel because the Philistines were afraid that the Israelites would make swords and spears, so, on this day of battle, no one had a sword or spear except two men Saul and Jonathan, not counting the many, many Philistines!
- We have talked many times about how God wanted things done His way. When it came to offering sacrifices, God ONLY wanted the Levites to offer them. No one else. It was an issue that helped Saul lose his kingdom. It was a very serious matter.
Materials needed: A copy of the blackline below or a white 9" x 12" construction paper, 3" x 6" yellow piece of construction paper, crayons, marker, glue.
- Hand out copy of blackline above OR hand out white paper and draw a picture much like the one below.
- Color picture.
- Fold yellow paper in half.
- On outside of folded paper, write "What King Saul should have done..."
- On the inside of the folded paper, write "He should have trusted God and waited for Samuel."
