VERSES: 2 Samuel 19:9-24:11
MEMORY VERSE: 2 Samuel: 19:15 "So the king returned, and came to Jordan..."
BOOK TO REMEMBER: Review again the first ten books of the Old Testament until the students know the books very well. This is the foundation on which they will build the rest of the books of the Bible.
PRAYER: God knows what is best for us. We pray that His Will be done and not our own will.
SPECIAL SONG: Jesus Loves The Little Children (see February 2014 - Songs We Sing In Bible Class #2 on this blog)
VISUAL AID: Drawing Of Large Activity on Chalkboard or Whiteboard
LESSON POINTS:
- After Absalom had died trying to take the Kingdom of Israel away from King David, there was a lot of unrest or strife in the land of Israel. Remember the people had divided over making Absalom their king. Now they were fussing, fighting, and arguing about the king. They were saying, "In the past, King David fought for us and saved us from our enemies, even the Philistines, but now he has left this land because of Absalom. We anointed Absalom as our king, but now he is dead. Why don't we talk about bringing King David back again?" So after much discussion, King David came back to Jerusalem.
- On his way back from the wilderness, King David forgave many people who did bad things to him while Absalom was rebelling. A man named Shimei, who had said bad things about David and threw stones and dirt at him, was forgiven by the king and spared his life. Mephibosheth, Jonathan's son who could not walk, came to David with a long beard, dirty clothes, and dirty feet. When David asked him why he did not go with him to the wilderness, Mephibosheth said that Ziba, his servant, had lied to him and said, because Mephibosheth was lame and could not walk, that Ziba himself would saddle a donkey and follow David, but he did not. Ziba said untrue things about David. So, in the end, Mephibosheth and King David were friends again. King David was rebuilding his kingdom again, but his people were still arguing and complaining.
- David remembered his valiant and mighty soldiers and listed them by their names. He also numbered the people, which in God's eyes never mattered and should not have been done, but David did it anyway. God always wanted trust to be put in Him, not in how many soldiers a king had. David regretted that he had counted the people and knew this was something that did not please God, so he prayed and asked for forgiveness. This is what we should do when we learn that something we have done has displeased the LORD.
- Because David had numbered the people and displeased God, God gave him a choice of his consequence for his sin. David could have chosen that there would be seven years of famine (no food), or three months of running away from his enemies, or three days of pestilence in the land. David said he would rather fall into the hand of a merciful God than into the hand of his enemy, so he chose three days of pestilence which was a disease or a sickness. There were 70,000 men that died of the pestilence. Only after David offers burnt offerings and peace offerings does the LORD end the pestilence over Israel.
- Remember that in Old Testament times, the incoming king usually killed all of the outgoing king's family. Perhaps that was the reason that Mephibosheth was anxious about coming before King David. David had been kind to him after Saul died and Mephibosheth wanted to make certain that David knew that Ziba deceived him into thinking that Ziba was doing the best for Mephibosheth when he was not.
Materials needed: 9" x 12" whit construction paper, marker, crayons, one shiny sticker.
- Hand out white paper to students.
- Fold white paper in half, then in half again.
- Unfold paper.
- In the first section, write "David's Sin of Numbering The People...And Its Consequences" and "2 Samuel 24" and "CHOICES:".
- In second section, draw a large "7 years - No Food" with a place setting with hardly any food on plate.
- In third section, draw a large "3 months - Running from enemies" with a scene of David hiding from enemy.
- In fourth section, draw a large "3 days - pestilence" and dead face = 70,000.
- After discussion of which choice David made, place shiny sticker on David's choice.
