Week 207 · about 45 minutes
Deuteronomy 12
Deuteronomy 12 · Memory verse Deuteronomy 12:2
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Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (Deuteronomy 12), the matching word search and answer key (Deuteronomy 12 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a folded cloth
Hold a folded cloth. Read Deuteronomy 12 in about four minutes, stopping at Deuteronomy 12:2: “You shall surely destroy all the places in which the nations that you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree.” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with Deuteronomy 12?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
Deuteronomy 12 is a real chapter from the Old Testament. It starts, “These are the statutes and the ordinances which you shall observe to do in the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess it, all the days that you live on the earth.” 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, “You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain, or of your new wine, or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, nor any of your vows which you vow, nor your freewill offerings, nor the wave offering of your hand;” Deuteronomy 12 opens with these words: “These are the statutes and the ordinances which you shall observe to do in the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has given you…” The line to keep is Deuteronomy 12:2: “You shall surely destroy all the places in which the nations that you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under…” Carry the word “surely” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is Deuteronomy 12:2: “You shall surely destroy all the places in which the nations that you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree.” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.
What happens first in Deuteronomy 12? Then try this: Read “You shall surely destroy all the places in which the nations that you shall dispossess served their gods, on…” 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 Deuteronomy 12. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from Deuteronomy 12:2. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from Deuteronomy 12 and write Deuteronomy 12:2 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
Deuteronomy 12:2
“You shall surely destroy all the places in which the nations that you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree.”
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for Deuteronomy 12. Help us remember Deuteronomy 12:2 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.