VERSES: 2 Kings 20:1-11
MEMORY VERSE: 2 Kings 20:6 "And I will add unto thy days fifteen years..."
BOOK TO REMEMBER: Malachi. Write "Malachi" on small slips of paper and hand out the last book of the Old Testament to the students at the end of class.
PRAYER: May we be careful what we pray for and appreciate our answered prayers.
SPECIAL SONG: Read, Read Every Day (see February - Songs We Sing In Bible Class #1 on this blog )
VISUAL AID: Picture of a sundial and different clocks. Draw a picture of a boil in red, orange, and purple on the whiteboard or chalkboard. As you tell the story, cover the boil with black for the figs. When Hezekiah gets better, erase the board.
LESSON POINTS:
- After a while, Good King Hezekiah got very, very sick. The prophet, Isaiah came for a visit to tell him that the LORD said to get his house in order because he was going to die. When Hezekiah heard this news, he turned his face to the wall and prayed to God and pleaded with the LORD to remember all the good things he had done. Hezekiah asked God to remember how he had walked in God's ways with his whole heart. As Isaiah was leaving, he got to the middle court of the palace and the LORD spoke to Isaiah. The LORD told Isaiah to go back to Hezekiah and tell him that He had heard Hezekiah's prayer and would heal him. God told Hezekiah to go up to the house of the LORD after three days and He would add fifteen years to his life. God also said that He would save the city from the Assyrians and defend the city for his servant, David's, sake. Then Isaiah told Hezekiah to take a lump of figs and placed it on the boil. We don't know where the boil was located, but we do know that Hezekiah got better!
- Hezekiah had a question. He asked Isaiah how he would know that the LORD was going to heal him. Isaiah told good King Hezekiah that the Lord would do what He said, but then asked him if the shadow should go back or go forward ten degrees. Back in the Old Testament days, they did not have clocks and watches, they had dials or sundials. When the sun shone on the sundial, it would cast a shadow and everyone could tell what time it was. This was not hard for them to use this way to tell time. So, what Isaiah was asking Hezekiah was did he want the time to jump ahead or go back a certain amount of time. Hezekiah said that it was easy if time jumped ahead, but he thought it would be more difficult for time to go back, so that is what he chose...and it happened! God is in control of everything!
"Older Student" Tips:
- God can be persuaded, can't he? God listened to Abraham back in the time He was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah (see March - Lesson - Abraham Entreats God on this blog)and was persuaded to reduce the number of righteous people found in the city from fifty to ten good people. Here in this lesson, we can see that, because of Hezekiah's prayer, God is persuaded to let Hezekiah live a little longer. God definitely listens to our prayers.
- Life is uncertain. Only God knows when "our time is up!" Read Psalms 90:10 concerning the length of a man's life.
ACTIVITY: King Hezekiah's Boil Gets Better
Materials needed: 9"x 9" tan construction paper, 5" x 5" black construction paper, scissors, glue, crayons.
- Hand out tan paper.
- Draw a not-so-perfect red circle in the middle of the paper. This is the boil.
- Color the boil in red, orange, yellow, and purple.
- Write "Hezekiah's Boil Gets better..." at the top of the tan paper.
- Write "With A Lump Of Figs!" and "2 Kings 20" at the bottom of the tan paper.
- Write "Boil" with an arrow to the red boil.
- Cut around black paper to take off the corners, making sure the black paper is still large enough to cover the boil.
- With a white crayon, write "FIGS" in the middle of the black paper.
- With a black crayon, make squiggles all over the black paper.
- Fold down a 1/2" at the top of the figs.
- Glue small edge of black fold.
- Attach on top of red boil, so that black paper can come up and down, showing the boil.