The Night of the Passover

Five-minute object lesson

Prop: a door drawn on paper and a red crayon

Hold up a door drawn on paper and a red crayon. In about five minutes, tell the class this: God shelters his people on Passover night, a story that points ahead to Jesus the Lamb. Show the prop and ask, “What does this have to do with The Night of the Passover?” Let two children answer. Then read John 1:29 together: “The next day, he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Close by asking one child to say the lesson back in their own words, using the prop.

Story script

God’s people had been slaves in Egypt for a long time. God sent Moses to say, “Let my people go.” Pharaoh kept saying no. God showed that he was stronger than Egypt’s gods, and still Pharaoh’s heart stayed hard.

Then God gave his people a special night. Each family took a lamb and marked the doorframe of their home. They ate a meal dressed and ready to travel. God said that when he passed through Egypt in judgment, he would pass over the houses marked by the lamb. Inside those homes, families waited, safe under a promise.

That night became Passover, a meal God’s people would remember every year. They were not saved because they were stronger than Pharaoh. They were saved because they trusted God’s way of shelter. Much later, Jesus would be called the Lamb of God. His life, given for us, is the shelter that Passover was pointing toward.

You do not have to be the strongest kid in the story. You need the Lamb. When you trust Jesus, you are inside a mercy that judgment passes over. That is a good thought to carry into sleep.

Open the bedtime version