Week 345 · about 45 minutes
1 Kings 16
1 Kings 16 · Memory verse 1 Kings 16:33
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Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (1 Kings 16), the matching word search and answer key (1 Kings 16 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a piece of bread
Hold a piece of bread. Read 1 Kings 16 in about four minutes, stopping at 1 Kings 16:33: “Ahab made the Asherah; and Ahab did more yet to provoke Yahweh, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with 1 Kings 16?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
1 Kings 16 is a real chapter from the Old Testament. It starts, “Yahweh’s word came to Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha, saying,” 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 Zimri saw that the city was taken, he went into the fortified part of the king’s house, and burned the king’s house over him with fire, and died,” 1 Kings 16 opens with these words: “Yahweh’s word came to Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha, saying,” The line to keep is 1 Kings 16:33: “Ahab made the Asherah; and Ahab did more yet to provoke Yahweh, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.” Carry the word “ahab” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is 1 Kings 16:33: “Ahab made the Asherah; and Ahab did more yet to provoke Yahweh, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.
What happens first in 1 Kings 16? Then try this: Read “Ahab made the Asherah; and Ahab did more yet to provoke Yahweh, the God of Israel, to anger than all the…” 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 16. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from 1 Kings 16:33. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from 1 Kings 16 and write 1 Kings 16:33 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
1 Kings 16:33
“Ahab made the Asherah; and Ahab did more yet to provoke Yahweh, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.”
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for 1 Kings 16. Help us remember 1 Kings 16:33 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.