Week 166 · about 45 minutes
Numbers 7
Numbers 7 · Memory verse Numbers 7:2
Get the free weekly Sunday school and bedtime printable pack
For a parent or teacher. Children do not make accounts here. The pack is a week of printables, not a child profile.
Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (Numbers 7), the matching word search and answer key (Numbers 7 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a cup of water
Hold a cup of water. Read Numbers 7 in about four minutes, stopping at Numbers 7:2: “the princes of Israel, the heads of their fathers’ houses, offered. These were the princes of the tribes. These are they who were over those who were counted:” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with Numbers 7?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
Numbers 7 is a real chapter from the Old Testament. It starts, “On the day that Moses had finished setting up the tabernacle, and had anointed it and sanctified it, with all its furniture, and the altar with all its vessels, and had anointed and sanctified them;” 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, “one young bull, one ram, one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;” Numbers 7 opens with these words: “On the day that Moses had finished setting up the tabernacle, and had anointed it and sanctified it, with all its furniture, and the altar…” The line to keep is Numbers 7:2: “the princes of Israel, the heads of their fathers’ houses, offered. These were the princes of the tribes. These are they who were over those who were counted:” Carry the word “princes” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is Numbers 7:2: “the princes of Israel, the heads of their fathers’ houses, offered. These were the princes of the tribes. These are they who were over those who were counted:” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.
What happens first in Numbers 7? Then try this: Read “the princes of Israel, the heads of their fathers’ houses, offered. These were the princes of the tribes.…” 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 7. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from Numbers 7:2. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from Numbers 7 and write Numbers 7:2 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
Numbers 7:2
“the princes of Israel, the heads of their fathers’ houses, offered. These were the princes of the tribes. These are they who were over those who were counted:”
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for Numbers 7. Help us remember Numbers 7:2 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.