Week 337 · about 45 minutes
1 Kings 8
1 Kings 8 · Memory verse 1 Kings 8:17
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Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (1 Kings 8), the matching word search and answer key (1 Kings 8 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a folded cloth
Hold a folded cloth. Read 1 Kings 8 in about four minutes, stopping at 1 Kings 8:17: ““Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel.” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with 1 Kings 8?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
1 Kings 8 is a real chapter from the Old Testament. It starts, “Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, with all the heads of the tribes, the princes of the fathers’ households of the children of Israel, to king Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of Yahweh’s covenant out of David’s city, which is Zion.” 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 hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them again to the land which you gave to their fathers.” 1 Kings 8 opens with these words: “Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, with all the heads of the tribes, the princes of the fathers’ households of the children of…” The line to keep is 1 Kings 8:17: ““Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel.” Carry the word “heart” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is 1 Kings 8:17: ““Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel.” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.
What happens first in 1 Kings 8? Then try this: Read ““Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel.” 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 8. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from 1 Kings 8:17. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from 1 Kings 8 and write 1 Kings 8:17 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
1 Kings 8:17
““Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel.”
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for 1 Kings 8. Help us remember 1 Kings 8:17 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.