Week 173 · about 45 minutes
Numbers 14
Numbers 14 · Memory verse Numbers 14:5
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Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (Numbers 14), the matching word search and answer key (Numbers 14 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a small lamp
Hold a small lamp. Read Numbers 14 in about four minutes, stopping at Numbers 14:5: “Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with Numbers 14?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
Numbers 14 is a real chapter from the Old Testament. It starts, “All the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.” 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, “surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any of those who despised me see it.” Numbers 14 opens with these words: “All the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.” The line to keep is Numbers 14:5: “Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.” Carry the word “moses” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is Numbers 14:5: “Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.
What happens first in Numbers 14? Then try this: Read “Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of…” 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 14. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from Numbers 14:5. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from Numbers 14 and write Numbers 14:5 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
Numbers 14:5
“Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.”
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for Numbers 14. Help us remember Numbers 14:5 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.