Week 372 · about 45 minutes
2 Kings 23
2 Kings 23 · Memory verse 2 Kings 23:10
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Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (2 Kings 23), the matching word search and answer key (2 Kings 23 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a paper crown
Hold a paper crown. Read 2 Kings 23 in about four minutes, stopping at 2 Kings 23:10: “He defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with 2 Kings 23?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
2 Kings 23 is a real chapter from the Old Testament. It starts, “The king sent, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.” 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, “All the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke Yahweh to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel.” 2 Kings 23 opens with these words: “The king sent, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.” The line to keep is 2 Kings 23:10: “He defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.” Carry the word “defiled” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is 2 Kings 23:10: “He defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.
What happens first in 2 Kings 23? Then try this: Read “He defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his…” 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 Kings 23. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from 2 Kings 23:10. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from 2 Kings 23 and write 2 Kings 23:10 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
2 Kings 23:10
“He defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.”
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for 2 Kings 23. Help us remember 2 Kings 23:10 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.