Week 160 · about 45 minutes
Numbers 1
Numbers 1 · Memory verse Numbers 1:2
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Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (Numbers 1), the matching word search and answer key (Numbers 1 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a ribbon
Hold a ribbon. Read Numbers 1 in about four minutes, stopping at Numbers 1:2: ““Take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of the names, every male, one by one;” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with Numbers 1?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
Numbers 1 is a real chapter from the Old Testament. It starts, “Yahweh spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying,” That is not a motto invented for a poster. It is the first sentence a family hears when this page is opened at night.
Keep going a little further. The chapter also says, “Of the children of Issachar, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go out to war;” Numbers 1 opens with these words: “Yahweh spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after…” The line to keep is Numbers 1:2: ““Take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of the names, every…” Carry the word “take” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is Numbers 1:2: ““Take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of the names, every male, one by one;” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.
What happens first in Numbers 1? Then try this: Read ““Take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by their fathers’…” once more. What does it show you about God? You do not have to finish every verse. You can close the book after the memory verse and still have read the Bible together.
Group game
Walk the room as if you are moving through Numbers 1. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from Numbers 1:2. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from Numbers 1 and write Numbers 1:2 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
Numbers 1:2
““Take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of the names, every male, one by one;”
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for Numbers 1. Help us remember Numbers 1:2 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.