Week 238 · about 45 minutes
Joshua 10
Joshua 10 · Memory verse Joshua 10:4
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Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (Joshua 10), the matching word search and answer key (Joshua 10 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a seed
Hold a seed. Read Joshua 10 in about four minutes, stopping at Joshua 10:4: ““Come up to me and help me. Let us strike Gibeon; for they have made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel.”” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with Joshua 10?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
Joshua 10 is a real chapter from the Old Testament. It starts, “Now when Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem heard how Joshua had taken Ai, and had utterly destroyed it; as he had done to Jericho and her king, so he had done to Ai and her king; and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel, and were among them,” 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, “Then Joshua said, “Open the cave entrance, and bring those five kings out of the cave to me.”” Joshua 10 opens with these words: “Now when Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem heard how Joshua had taken Ai, and had utterly destroyed it; as he had done to Jericho and her…” The line to keep is Joshua 10:4: ““Come up to me and help me. Let us strike Gibeon; for they have made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel.”” Carry the word “help” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is Joshua 10:4: ““Come up to me and help me. Let us strike Gibeon; for they have made peace with Joshua and with 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 Joshua 10? Then try this: Read ““Come up to me and help me. Let us strike Gibeon; for they have made peace with Joshua and with the children…” 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 Joshua 10. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from Joshua 10:4. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from Joshua 10 and write Joshua 10:4 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
Joshua 10:4
““Come up to me and help me. Let us strike Gibeon; for they have made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel.””
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for Joshua 10. Help us remember Joshua 10:4 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.