Week 321 · about 45 minutes
2 Samuel 15
2 Samuel 15 · Memory verse 2 Samuel 15:6
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 (2 Samuel 15), the matching word search and answer key (2 Samuel 15 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a wooden spoon
Hold a wooden spoon. Read 2 Samuel 15 in about four minutes, stopping at 2 Samuel 15:6: “Absalom did this sort of thing to all Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with 2 Samuel 15?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
2 Samuel 15 is a real chapter from the Old Testament. It starts, “After this, Absalom prepared a chariot and horses for himself, and fifty men to run before him.” 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 the king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why do you also go with us? Return, and stay with the king; for you are a foreigner, and also an exile. Return to your own place.” 2 Samuel 15 opens with these words: “After this, Absalom prepared a chariot and horses for himself, and fifty men to run before him.” The line to keep is 2 Samuel 15:6: “Absalom did this sort of thing to all Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.” Carry the word “absalom” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is 2 Samuel 15:6: “Absalom did this sort of thing to all Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.
What happens first in 2 Samuel 15? Then try this: Read “Absalom did this sort of thing to all Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts…” 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 2 Samuel 15. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from 2 Samuel 15:6. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from 2 Samuel 15 and write 2 Samuel 15:6 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
2 Samuel 15:6
“Absalom did this sort of thing to all Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.”
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for 2 Samuel 15. Help us remember 2 Samuel 15:6 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.