Week 331 · about 45 minutes
1 Kings 1
1 Kings 1 · Memory verse 1 Kings 1:17
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 Kings 1), the matching word search and answer key (1 Kings 1 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a wooden spoon
Hold a wooden spoon. Read 1 Kings 1 in about four minutes, stopping at 1 Kings 1:17: “She said to him, “My lord, you swore by Yahweh your God to your servant, ‘Assuredly Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne.’” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with 1 Kings 1?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
1 Kings 1 is a real chapter from the Old Testament. It starts, “Now king David was old and advanced in years; and they covered him with clothes, but he couldn’t keep warm.” 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, “Was this thing done by my lord the king, and you haven’t shown to your servants who should sit on the throne of my lord the king after him?”” 1 Kings 1 opens with these words: “Now king David was old and advanced in years; and they covered him with clothes, but he couldn’t keep warm.” The line to keep is 1 Kings 1:17: “She said to him, “My lord, you swore by Yahweh your God to your servant, ‘Assuredly Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne.’” Carry the word “swore” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is 1 Kings 1:17: “She said to him, “My lord, you swore by Yahweh your God to your servant, ‘Assuredly Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne.’” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.
What happens first in 1 Kings 1? Then try this: Read “She said to him, “My lord, you swore by Yahweh your God to your servant, ‘Assuredly Solomon your son shall…” 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 Kings 1. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from 1 Kings 1:17. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from 1 Kings 1 and write 1 Kings 1:17 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
1 Kings 1:17
“She said to him, “My lord, you swore by Yahweh your God to your servant, ‘Assuredly Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne.’”
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for 1 Kings 1. Help us remember 1 Kings 1:17 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.