Week 259 · about 45 minutes
Judges 7
Judges 7 · Memory verse Judges 7:2
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Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (Judges 7), the matching word search and answer key (Judges 7 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a key
Hold a key. Read Judges 7 in about four minutes, stopping at Judges 7:2: “Yahweh said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel brag against me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with Judges 7?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
Judges 7 is a real chapter from the Old Testament. It starts, “Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people who were with him, rose up early, and encamped beside the spring of Harod. Midian’s camp was on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley.” 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, “When Gideon had come, behold, there was a man telling a dream to his fellow. He said, “Behold, I dreamed a dream; and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian, and came to the tent, and struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat.”” Judges 7 opens with these words: “Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people who were with him, rose up early, and encamped beside the spring of Harod. Midian’s camp…” The line to keep is Judges 7:2: “Yahweh said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel brag against me, saying, ‘My own…” Carry the word “gideon” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is Judges 7:2: “Yahweh said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel brag against me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.
What happens first in Judges 7? Then try this: Read “Yahweh said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their…” 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 Judges 7. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from Judges 7:2. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from Judges 7 and write Judges 7:2 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
Judges 7:2
“Yahweh said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel brag against me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’”
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for Judges 7. Help us remember Judges 7:2 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.