Week 191 · about 45 minutes
Numbers 32
Numbers 32 · Memory verse Numbers 32:7
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Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (Numbers 32), the matching word search and answer key (Numbers 32 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a wooden spoon
Hold a wooden spoon. Read Numbers 32 in about four minutes, stopping at Numbers 32:7: “Why do you discourage the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which Yahweh has given them?” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with Numbers 32?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
Numbers 32 is a real chapter from the Old Testament. It starts, “Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of livestock. When they saw the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead, that behold, the place was a place for livestock;” 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, “and the land is subdued before Yahweh; then afterward you shall return, and be guiltless towards Yahweh, and towards Israel; and this land shall be to you for a possession before Yahweh.” Numbers 32 opens with these words: “Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of livestock. When they saw the land of Jazer, and the land…” The line to keep is Numbers 32:7: “Why do you discourage the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which Yahweh has given them?” Carry the word “discourage” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is Numbers 32:7: “Why do you discourage the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which Yahweh has given them?” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.
What happens first in Numbers 32? Then try this: Read “Why do you discourage the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which Yahweh has…” 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 32. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from Numbers 32:7. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from Numbers 32 and write Numbers 32:7 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
Numbers 32:7
“Why do you discourage the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which Yahweh has given them?”
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for Numbers 32. Help us remember Numbers 32:7 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.