Week 195 · about 45 minutes
Numbers 36
Numbers 36 · Memory verse Numbers 36:5
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Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (Numbers 36), the matching word search and answer key (Numbers 36 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a piece of bread
Hold a piece of bread. Read Numbers 36 in about four minutes, stopping at Numbers 36:5: “Moses commanded the children of Israel according to Yahweh’s word, saying, “The tribe of the sons of Joseph speaks right.” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with Numbers 36?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
Numbers 36 is a real chapter from the Old Testament. It starts, “The heads of the fathers’ households of the family of the children of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of the sons of Joseph, came near, and spoke before Moses, and before the princes, the heads of the fathers’ households of the children of Israel.” 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, “So shall no inheritance of the children of Israel move from tribe to tribe; for the children of Israel shall all keep the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.” Numbers 36 opens with these words: “The heads of the fathers’ households of the family of the children of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of…” The line to keep is Numbers 36:5: “Moses commanded the children of Israel according to Yahweh’s word, saying, “The tribe of the sons of Joseph speaks right.” Carry the word “moses” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is Numbers 36:5: “Moses commanded the children of Israel according to Yahweh’s word, saying, “The tribe of the sons of Joseph speaks right.” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.
What happens first in Numbers 36? Then try this: Read “Moses commanded the children of Israel according to Yahweh’s word, saying, “The tribe of the sons of Joseph…” 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 36. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from Numbers 36:5. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from Numbers 36 and write Numbers 36:5 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
Numbers 36:5
“Moses commanded the children of Israel according to Yahweh’s word, saying, “The tribe of the sons of Joseph speaks right.”
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for Numbers 36. Help us remember Numbers 36:5 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.