Week 180 · about 45 minutes
Numbers 21
Numbers 21 · Memory verse Numbers 21:28
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Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (Numbers 21), the matching word search and answer key (Numbers 21 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a ribbon
Hold a ribbon. Read Numbers 21 in about four minutes, stopping at Numbers 21:28: “for a fire has gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon. It has devoured Ar of Moab, The lords of the high places of the Arnon.” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with Numbers 21?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
Numbers 21 is a real chapter from the Old Testament. It starts, “The Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the South, heard that Israel came by the way of Atharim. He fought against Israel, and took some of them captive.” 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, “the well, which the princes dug, which the nobles of the people dug, with the scepter, and with their poles.” From the wilderness they traveled to Mattanah;” Numbers 21 opens with these words: “The Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the South, heard that Israel came by the way of Atharim. He fought against Israel, and took…” The line to keep is Numbers 21:28: “for a fire has gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon. It has devoured Ar of Moab, The lords of the high places of the Arnon.” Carry the word “fire” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is Numbers 21:28: “for a fire has gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon. It has devoured Ar of Moab, The lords of the high places of the Arnon.” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.
What happens first in Numbers 21? Then try this: Read “for a fire has gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon. It has devoured Ar of Moab, The lords 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 21. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from Numbers 21:28. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from Numbers 21 and write Numbers 21:28 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
Numbers 21:28
“for a fire has gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon. It has devoured Ar of Moab, The lords of the high places of the Arnon.”
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for Numbers 21. Help us remember Numbers 21:28 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.