Week 284 · about 45 minutes
1 Samuel 8
1 Samuel 8 · Memory verse 1 Samuel 8:2
Get the free weekly Sunday school and bedtime printable pack
For a parent or teacher. Children do not make accounts here. The pack is a week of printables, not a child profile.
Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (1 Samuel 8), the matching word search and answer key (1 Samuel 8 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a smooth stone
Hold a smooth stone. Read 1 Samuel 8 in about four minutes, stopping at 1 Samuel 8:2: “Now the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abijah. They were judges in Beersheba.” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with 1 Samuel 8?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
1 Samuel 8 is a real chapter from the Old Testament. It starts, “When Samuel was old, he made his sons judges over 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, “He will appoint them to him for captains of thousands, and captains of fifties; and he will assign some to plow his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and the instruments of his chariots.” 1 Samuel 8 opens with these words: “When Samuel was old, he made his sons judges over Israel.” The line to keep is 1 Samuel 8:2: “Now the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abijah. They were judges in Beersheba.” Carry the word “name” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is 1 Samuel 8:2: “Now the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abijah. They were judges in Beersheba.” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.
What happens first in 1 Samuel 8? Then try this: Read “Now the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abijah. They were judges in Beersheba.” 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 1 Samuel 8. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from 1 Samuel 8:2. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from 1 Samuel 8 and write 1 Samuel 8:2 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
1 Samuel 8:2
“Now the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abijah. They were judges in Beersheba.”
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for 1 Samuel 8. Help us remember 1 Samuel 8:2 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.